Final Blog

After taking and finishing the sociology course, there are a few things that I would change about the way I view everything in my life as previous blogged in my first blog in January. I had said that family had shaped almost everything in my life from what sports I had played to the attitude I had when appraoching different situations. Though my family had a huge impact on the person I have become, they did not have as big of an impact as I had previously thought. One example of this was I had played soccer as a child and had continued at club levels through my sophmore year in high school. I thought I had gotten involved in this sport due to my parents and family's invlovement in it. Then as I learn more through my sociology class I had learned that I had been shaped into a soccer player due to the community I live in: the suburbs. Most suburban children play this sport. It's where the term "soccer mom" was developed.
Sociology has made me think differently about myself, my life, and those around me. I had learned that I am not as individual as I thought. And the reason why I had previously thought I was was because of the American value that we are all independent and individualistic. Everyone in our community is similar to each other. This is all because of the way our society has shaped us. From the television shows we watch to the activities we all partake in in our free time.

Crash on Racism

Not all forms of racism are stuck just to the isue of black and white. In the movie Crash, the white woman who's care is stolen by two black men changes the locks on the door after the fact. When she sees that the man who changes the locks is Mexican, she gets into an arguement with her husband over changing the locks again the next morning becuase she thinks he's going to sell a key to his "homeboys" so that they can rob their house. She had no other reason to think this way other than the fact that he was Mexican. If racism was simply a black and white issue, this woman would not have expressed her implicit racism towards this young man for his Hispanic background.
Society's tendency to single racism to a black and white issue creates confusion over race issues in America. The minorities feel that when white citizens act differently in a negative way towards them that it is racism. But when confronted with the issue, most white citizens view racism only against African Americans. Therefore the differing views of racism cause much confusion over the subject.

Explicit Racism vs. Implicit Racism

When one thinks about racism in general, one normally thinks about explicit racism such as the KKK, but it can come in many forms other than just blantantly. The only place I have seen explicit racism is in movies. This is probably due to the fact that I live in a mostly sheltered community. I have, however, experienced implicit racism. After 9/11 there was much hype about Arabic people in the United States. My best friend was Arab and looking back on it, her family ere the only Arabs I had trusted. Maybe media had played a rold in developing these certain views about people. All had seen in the news was hrrible events almost all in which Arabs were to blame. Guarenteed, I was too young to watch the news frequently. However, my parents did; and seeing thee negative views of people being flashed before my eyes was enough to scare me into holding implicit racism within myself.
Both forms of racism can prove to be dangerous, but which one seems to prove to be more detrimental to society as well as individual people?

Chances of Moving Up in the World

According to observations, moving up in society in social class is near impossible. It seems almost as if the saying "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" proves true. My mom grew up more so in working class I would say. Although, my grandmother also did not work, my grandfather worked two jobs, one during the day and one at night, in order to provide well for a family of twelve. My dad also came from a working class in Ireland. He had lived on a farm with his parents and his eight siblings. He helped his parents with his older brother in order to make money for his family.

After learning about social class in sociology and how hard it is to change your social and economic status even in America where the American Dream is a high value. I think that my parents did move up slightly in class by working hard in order to give my brother and I better than what they had. However, I do also agree that I will not change my class. It affected where I chose to go to college and also which career I will choose to pursue. These choice will ultimately affect how much money I will make in the future which in turn my class status will completely depend upon.

Justice is Served?

Prisons today are overcrowded with "criminals". Where do these people come from and why are they here? Well, most are from lower/working classes of the American system. They are busted simply on the grounds that they do not have the money nor the power to influence what happens to them. Instead, the unfair justice system holds their fates in its hands. Those who have money for a good lawyer get off easy, but those who cannot afford a lawyer are left to fend for themselves.

A whopping 50% of these prisoners are imprisoned for drug related crimes. Addiction to drugs used to be something seen as a problem for which one must receive medical attention and guidance. Instead, the justice systems are scooping them up to place them in jail before they are even given a chance to rehabilitate. To make matters worse, instead of giving these people proper treatment so that they can recover and be more responsible upon their release, they are locked away and force to face withdrawl without guidance and assistance. Why is this? In society today people look down upon criminals not only for their actions, but for using their tax dollars. We think "Why should we pay more money to help them? What did they do to help society?". But it is just like Morgan says on the show 30 Days, that helping these people will ultimately create a ripple effect even from just that even 1% of criminals who do recover. It eventually creates a ripple effect so big that it would seem worth it to pay to help these people out.

As a whole the justice system needs to be changed itself. It acts as a revolving door: most who are imprisoned, come back soon after their release. Why? Because as Americans we like to think we are perfect. We make mistakes, but we don't acknowledge them. So most Americans say "once a criminal, always a criminal". This most likely causes criminals to go back to jail. They are rejected by society so they regress back to the last place they felt more accepted by their peers even if it is behind steel bars.

Secret Agent: Family

Family is a huge influence on one's life. Family plays a huge role in shaping a person. Their views, beliefs, even habits all originate from their family members. Some even pursue the same career as their parents or gaurdians. In my own family, before my family had moved back to the United States, we had lived in Ireland where my father was a high school teacher. Next year I am planning to go to Miami University to study to become a special education teach and the high school level. So i guess one could say I followed in the footsteps of my father. Even our personalities are unlike. Not only do I look a lot like my father, we act alike too. Our sense of sarcastic humor, active lifestyle, and temper are all the same. When you think about this, is it really that weird? I mean maybe it's a little weird that I have all these qualities similar to my father and almost none to my mother. Maybe that was becuase at a young age I observed my father's actions more than my mothers or for some other reason. Family provides the basis for your morals and your quirks. It's unusual to realize that even one's quirks that one may think makes them different from others is not really that different becuase they were taught to you by others when you were younger and still using observations as your main way to learn.

Human Nurture

The experiences in our lives shape us as human beings. We have seen this through the cases of Genie and Danielle. If you think about it to yourself though, wouldn't one agree without the evidence of these cases? A baby is not racist at birth, he learns to discriminate through the actions of his parents. Or even examples of how to chew. This week Sal told us of how even at table during lunch, his daughter would mock him chewing his sandwich by making the same movement in eating her own mashed up food. Thinking back to stories of my own life, that's how I know i learned to speak. Would anyone of us had uttered the words of "mama" and "daddy" had they not been said over and over to us as a child. How about our own name? We have heard it in our direction since it was given to us, thus we know our own name. After learning about these cases and reflecting them upon my own life, it is hard to imagine what life would be life had I never learned these things. One never stops to think at how something so small can provide the basis of who you become for the rest of your life.

Tuesdays With Morrie - Love

I think that as Americans we have been taught to be self-reliant and to not have to lean on anyone else for it shows weakness. This is why we are afraid to fall in love. It has been beaten into our heads since birth that while going through life we learn to become more and more independent. Even as teenagers we all remember feeling independent once we attained the plastic card telling us we could finally drive all on our own! Even in history we refer the Revolutionary War, we say we were asserting our independence as a country. We overcome this fear for the soul reason that there is social pressure to marry and find someone to spend your life with. This is what Morrie refers to "romantic love". It is still love, but once the spark is gone, its gone. And at that point people are together becuase thats all they know. Morrie then talks about "true love". The difference in these being is that "true love" doesn't need that spark, and its never ending. It cannot be terminated by separation physically or death. It is there no matter what.

The Subculture of the Sheltered

At SHS, students don't need to worry about much. We don't have to worry about drive-bys on the way to or from school and we definitely don't need to worry about violence breaking out in our school. Could this be how our our surroundings shape us? Most students at SHS can say they have never witnessed a murder or violence broken out over the territory of gangs. Maybe this is because of the way we live and our surroundings. Most in the suburbs are so sheltered that hearing of murders in their own state among teens is just enough to give them a heart attack at such an early age. For others, its normal. As a teen who grew up in the suburbs, we can not even begin to imagine how different life would be for us if we lived in one of those "bad neighborhoods" that have become infamous due to their violence and crime. We can not begin to fathom how we would feel if we had been put in that same situation. To others who are accostumed to these actions, they feel as if it was just another day. At the end of the day, we are all just people who's thoughts and actions have been shaped by our community.

Cultural Shock

In class, we had played a card game in groups of five and Sal sneakily changed the rules of the game for each table and didn't allow us to talk, only use gestures and grunts, which caused much confusion among the tables as to why select people in the groups did not play with the same set of rules as everyone else sitting at the table. He began to explain to us how this applies to real life situations when people are not used to the culture of others. So when it hits them when they go to an unfamiliar country, they get what is called culture shock. It is because of culture shock that people in Manhattan were so appalled when a Danish mother left her child outside of a restaurant. If more people had been culturally aware, I think people kwould have been more understanding when this woman had left your child in a stoller outside the restaurant. They would have understood that in her culture, it is appropriate to do so and then more people would have been forgiving to the fact. The only culture shock experience that i can rememebr is wehn i went to visit Ireland last December. Given I used to live there and I have family back there not everything about the culture was that surprising since I also experience most of it everyday at hoe from my father. This time, since I was a little bit older, I was able to go out on my own more with my cousins who are around my age. I was out to dinner with my cousin Aoife when we saw a little boy (he looked about the age of 14) holding a beer and eating dinner with his parents! Not only did i find this funny at the time, but completely bizarre! Back at home of course people underage drink in college all the time, but 14 year old boys don't seem to and especially not in a public place. My cousin explained to me how a lot of Europe was like this: they had laws for drinking ages, but they weren't enforced often. It was not a big deal to anyone else that the adolescent boy was having a beer with dinner. I guess you could say that was a bit of a "culture shock" to me since I was raised in a culture were they was not only not acceptable, but illegal until a certain age, and even then, was to be used with caution passed a certain point.

A Bronx Tale

In the movie, A Bronx Tale, the social construction of the Italian neightborhood where "C" lives is extremely noticeable. They have unwritten rules such as everyone is "family" who is Italian and that if you are Italian then you go after Italian girls and no other, especially African Americans. They have a certain level of respect for one another, and above all they have respect for Sonny; or more like respect out of fear of him. Everyone acts different when he is around because thats how it was in that neighborhood. If Sonny asked you to do something, you did it, and disobeying him could have serious consequences. These rules and ways of behavior came about first off from being a tight-knit Italian community. You protected your nationality and you didn't let anyone take that away from you. They also came about from not wanting to mingle with other nationalities out of fear. Then the reason why everyone acted even more differently around Sonny was out of respect and fear resulting from actions staken by him and words spoken by him and other people around him.

Abondon Ship

In class this week we simulated a catastrophic event in an activity. We simulated the event of a cruise ship's survivors after hitting a mine left over from WWII. There wasn't enough room on the boat for everyone so people have to be kicked off. This simulation showed our core values as Americans and how they may differ in other cultures. After the simulation we discussed and decided that our values rest heavily upon usefulness and youth. We can to this conclusion after seeing years of data from Sal's previous classes and found that the similar people were kicked off every time. Usually the old people were the first to go seeing as they had already lived their life as those younger had not. This illistrated the idea that we value youth. We as Amercians look at youth as valuable and essential; where as other countries such as China value the elderly because of their wisdom. We discussed that other countries with different values may have chosen different people based upon the values of their culture. This simulation really opened my eyes to see that the world around us really does shape who we are and our values; and not just ourselves as individuals, but also culturally as a nation.

Community Service and its Learning Opprotunities

Many people my age would say that doing community service is boring punishment; only done for a school assignment or for court. But I was never forced to do community service and believe it or not I actually enjoy it. A few months ago, my cousin started working at a animal shelter. She would tell me of how much fun it was even though it was a lot of work and challenging at times. So, naturally, I checked it out to see what all the hype about it was. A few hours spent there and I was sold. I absolutely loved it. I wasn't sure what about it I liked so much; the friendly atmospere and how it was an exciting place to be? Maybe it was my love for animals and the fact I was able to help them in some small way? Regardless I felt completely alive while being there and even at the thought of returning. It completely changed my view of community service. Before this experience I was just like every other teenager dreding the day that I was going to have to participate in it and only doing it becuase I was forced by my teachers. But now I am an firm believer in the partipation in community service. When you find something that you like to do, it means so much more to you in the end. And when you find something you like to do where you are also helping out your community, the time not only flies, but you also enjoy doing it that much more.

Awkward Silences

Awkward silences: everyone has experienced them at some point; But what about the silence makes it awkwad for others around? The first day of sociology class instead of traditionally coming into the class and preaching the instructions, my teacher sat amongst his students silently. Over course since it was a situation none of us were accustomed to, we looked around and looked for the words to fill the silence, but found none. What could have even made this moment be awkward? The fact that due to our society we are used to routines even in different classes that we take in high school. These awkward silences seemt o almost be a direct effect from our society around us. Normally in school it is only silent during certain times like during tests or quizes or during independent work. Otherwise, we are used to a teacher standing up in front of the class lecturing us on our new topic of the day. I think thats whats makes us feel awkward in moments of silence. We are so used to either hearing someone talk or talking ourselves that when it is silent, we tend to have this view that it is awkward.

Who Am I?

Hi my name is Deirdre. I am a senior in high school and am anxiously counting down the days until I graduate and am off at college. I still have not completely decided where I am going to school next year yet, but i have narrowed my decision down to two schools: UCG in Ireland and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I hope to study to eventually become an elementary special education teacher. I have a huge family that I am very close with. They have shaped just about every aspect of my life from what sports and activities I am involved in to the attitudes i have for just about every situation. To give you an idea of just how huge i am talking about, both my parents grew up with 9 other children in their households. Just on my mother's side of the family i have 30 cousins and on my father's side i have 18 and counting! I have a lot of pride in my extremely Irish background and anyone who knows me well knows it shows. So i guess you could say the things that influence my life are my background and my family. I play and am still learning guitar and i can not physically go more than 2 days without a trip to the gym. As for my purpose in life, I can't really give a clear statement. I view myself who is still actively learning about the world around me and i still think i have much left to learn. I can think of a new goal each day, but I can't say they are exactly attainable since i view life as a big unpredictable journey.