Crash

This week in sociology, we watched the movie Crash. The movie showed different races that ran into all types of problems, all involving each other. It was so interesting to see how racist still lies within our society whether we want to ignore it or not. During the movie, a white couple was walking to their car and the wife had seen two black men on the street. Automatically, her instinct was to hold onto her husband closer because she had feelings of paranoia. The two black men that were dressed like every other person on the sidewalk seemed like they weren't about dealing with trouble. But, having that stereo-type about black people, they ended up hijacking the white couple's car and getting away with it. We can't stop racism even if we tried, because everywhere we go it lies somewhere underneath it all. It's unavoidable which is the worst part. Maybe we can't stop racism, but we can always try taking smaller steps toward positive expectations of one another. We should erase all stereo-types of all races and start being mindful of all races. The person you see down the street, may be more than one race than they appear and you can't categorize them just because of what they look like; that's not fair.

Community Service

Before I went to serve my hours, I was very anxious because I wasn't sure what to expect and what the people were going to be like. I expected the experience to be boring because it dealt with historic events. I wasn't as willing to do my hours because I found out our work was going to deal with historic filing. To be honest, I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to finish all the tasks. I went to the Historical Commission in Algonquin. It was my first time serving hours there and the building was overwhelming. I came in contact with two older individuals. When my two other friends and I came in to meet the people in charge of the commission, they were friendlier than they appeared. The one older woman had told us she had been working for 10 years now. The man named Don had asked us several questions about history and  was curious to know if we knew of their commission. Don had us sit down and record the names of people on the notecards that passed away. It wasn't boring at all, the actual job surprised me because the information on the notecards were intriguing. It was interesting to see how several of the people died in tragic ways rather than peacefully in their sleep. As I was on my way home, I was thinking how helpful this whole commission was towards the families that were trying to track their family history. The name of the organization I volunteered at was the Historical Commission on 7th and Main St. on Saturday December 10th, 2011. I was there from 8am to 3pm and the driving had took one hour each way. The supervisor in charge was Don and his phone number: 847-458-6768.

Different Races

This week in sociology, we learned the true meaning of race. When you first meet someone, your first instinct is to figure out what type of race they are and we assume we're accurate 90% of the time. In class, we were instructed to categorize different people on the internet to whichever race we thought came to mind. When our class was finished, we actually got to click on each individual to see if we guessed correctly. As a class, we got possibly one right out of all the different categories. Whatever face appeared on the screen had the opposite background or something completely different than what we put the individual under. All we assume when we see someone is the color of their their skin such as: black, white, asian, or hispanic. This truly made me realize, you can't judge a book by its cover. People come from different parts of the world and our society has created categories that has divided everyone apart. We're humans and essentially all alike. But to have such thing as race really separates many of us that creates diversity but racial issues at the same time.

Once your at the top you stay there..

This week in sociology, we continued learning about social classes. We watched a movie in class that basically talked about how the rich stay at the top while the poor continue to be poor. We played a game in class that determined the different social classes. It was an altered version of monopoly that made us realize how divided each social class is. The poor were digging themselves in a bigger hole during the game because there just wasn't enough money to pay for anything while the rich and mediocoure civilians were in decent positions. I personally am thankful for the things I have and seeing the different struggles people less fortunate than I have to go through everyday is upsetting. It may not be fair that the rich get by because of the amount of money they have but that's life and not everyone is going to be well off. You should appreciate the little things because that's what makes up some of the bigger things in our lives.

Social Classes

This week in sociology, we watched a video about social class. There's a low, middle, and high class. We got to see how different people were judged for the way they lived. Those that ate in nice restaurants, dressed in high quality clothing, and drove expensive cars were the wealthier civilians. Then, those who lived in average sized houses, had a decent amount of money, and were able to afford a few nice things were considered middle class. As for the lower class, they were frowned upon. They were the type of people who didn't work, or were simply too lazy to achieve success. In the movie, someone had gone around to different groups of people along the street and asked what they thought of the person in the picture they were given. It's odd, that we live in a place that's considered a 'free' nation because everything you do defines the person you are. People judge you by the food you eat and the clothes on your back. The more simple things in life shouldn't have to define who you are and where you come from, because in the end it proves that not everyone is equal.

Bad decisions, good intentions.

This week in sociology, we did an activity regarding drugs. We were given a list of different descriptions of effects that could potentially harm an individual. We were then assigned to rate the drugs from 1-4. 1 being over the counter drugs and 4 that was considered a felony. As we marked up the results as a class, it was clear that even the most common things in our society such as: aspirin, caffeine, and nicotine are considered deadly to our body. Many people in our class however, predicted that Heroine was a prescription drug when it's illegal to have. It's sickening to see the side effects of many common drugs that are commonly distributed within our community. Many of the over the counter drugs have terrible side effects that could kill one who abuses the substance. Americans have the freedom to do as they please and although the rate for smoking cigarettes have gone down by a big percentage, it's still promoted in commercials, magazines, newspapers and all types of ads. So why would American promote the one thing that could kill you over time?

Your breaking family traditions!

This week in sociology, we learned about the word Deviance. Deviance applies to someone who is breaking the social norms of society. Some of the examples we learned in class were, getting a tattoo, two men kissing, someone talking to themselves in public, and balancing things on your head. What makes this so unusual that when someone does one of the four, they're considered breaking the norm? We watched an episode of Seinfeld and when one of the characters was scratching his nose, the girl he was recently seeing had caught him in a act of picking his nose. She then, avoided him and didn't plan on seeing him again. This is a perfect example of deviance. Because it's not socially acceptable to pick your nose, she had put him under the category as unacceptable. One time, my brother had come home and oddly went straight to his room. It was in the summer and seeing someone with a sweatshirt on wasn't too strange but when it's 90 degrees it's pretty shady. When my mom and I went into his room to go say hi, he had his music blasting which hadn't made it clear that we were in the room. As he was taking his sweatshirt off, my mom and I had our jaws dropped. There he was, standing in front of us with a huge tattoo across his back. Although it had meaning to it, it was shocking to the both of us because we weren't expecting it. Nowadays, tattoos are considered common and many individuals get them for purposeful meaning or for enjoyment. But in our family, tattoos weren't something so common. As soon as we saw my brother's tattoo, my mom had realized that this was unacceptable and far from it. As years went by, she had to get over it even though she knew he was breaking the family norm. It was that she just had to come to terms of being tolerant of him and his decisions.

Are you thin enough?

Believe it or not, but our society today has portrayed females as beautiful or something close to perfection. What defines a girl to be pretty or skinny? Where's the limit on all of this? Our media has took regular looking models and have edited their photos to make them look anything but perfect. Half the models you see on billboards, commercials, and magazines don't exist. And because the media has such a big influence on teens, many girls that grow up seeing these campaigns believe that they have to copy these nonexistent models. As little as 4th grade boys have learned what the word 'pretty' means. Girls not only have to have great personalities but their appearance means more than how they act. This leads many females thinking their not good enough because of how our media has constructed our society. On top of it all, girls now are obsessed with their weight. Many disorders have formed because of the cravings to be thin. It doesn't help that our media advertises all types of different pills and diets for all overweight individuals or even those that are at a normal weight. It makes women/girls doubt their appearance and even more targets those who aren't confidence in their own skin. I don't agree with our media because it has an increasing affect on us and we may not even be aware of it. Girls shouldn't be judged by the way they look, because in the end it's not fair in any way, shape, or form.

Why are you judging?

This week we got to go on a field trip within the school to hear people speak about their sexuality. There were five speakers and they each got a chance to share their own stories/experiences. One girl had spoke about how it was so hard for her to come out to her friends and family because of the expectations they had of her. She was terrified of the outcome; the predicted comments and judgements by her peers made her sick to her stomach. The more she tried to deny her feelings, the more she felt the need to let her secret out. As I listened to her speak, I put myself in her position. How would you feel if there was a 50% chance that you would no longer be accepted in your own family? Or possibly losing friends over your final decision. If it was one great lesson I learned from the field trip, it'd be that gay people are just like you. There's no reason that you should treat them any differently than you treat someone that's straight. You can't force them to be something their not and the only thing you can do is accept it. And if you can't accept it then be mindful to those around you. The words we use such as: 'fag' and 'your gay' can offend anyone that's gay because to them those aren't just words, they're ignorant, hurtful words. The next time you think about making a ignorant comment, make sure you stop and think about what your saying. Is it necessary to say things that may hurt someone else that isn't straight? How would you feel if you were in that person's shoes? They're already going through enough as it is, the last thing they need is an ignorant comment made by someone that's inconsiderate.

Foreign Exchange Students

Starting on Wednesday of this week, we had four new German exchange students in our sociology class. At first, I was too tired to notice the new kids sitting in some of our desks around the room. After, we started to learn little things about how different their lives were compared to ours. For example, the drinking age in Germany is 16 years old while ours is the age of 21. Another was that their school schedule is more like College. Instead of having eight different periods for 50 minutes they have certain classes on different days at specific times. They claimed that everything in the U.S is bigger ranging from products like cereal boxes to other things. It was interesting to hear from teenagers that lived in another country. Although, our fashion may be different or our music may not be the same, it seemed to me that the teens seemed comfortable with us. There was no doubt that they were intrigued by how our class worked. I tried to picture myself and a few friends going to another country; then going to school there and experiencing it all like the German kids in our class. Although they didn't say anything was too out of ordinary when they toured Chicago, I'm positive they went through culture shock as they got the tour of our school and met a variety of students that were unique in their own ways. As much as they say our country is as similar as theirs, we're very different on many levels.

Adapting to New Culture

This week, we read an article called 'Bemused in America' by Dtefan Schirmer. In this article, Schirmer talks about how different American culture is from European culture, specifically in Germany. For example, he watches Americans jog outside and doesn't quite understand the concept. He wonders why Americans feel the need to jog outside? That doing a sport should mean you want to be healthy, but jogging outside means your intaking the pollution which is terrible for you. Although he made a good point, what he didn't catch onto was how obsessed Americans are with their appearance. They'll exercise until they're satisfied with themselves or until they see a progressive change. This was considered culture shock to Schirmer because he wasn't used to how Americans exercised or better yet why they worked out alone. Our normal daily routines that we regularly perform may be impossible to follow for a foreigner. When I had a friend that visited from Atlanta, Georgia she found it odd that my friends and I were so involved with school. She claimed that nobody at her school was spirited and that they never found football games fun. As soon as I took her to one of our football games, she was surprised to see how many people were in the stands wearing our school colors and being supportive. Since Atlanta, Georgia isn't that far away, you'd assume that it wouldn't be so much of a culture shock. Especially knowing that we're the same age, just attending different high schools. You'd be surprised because their atmosphere is completely different from ours.

What makes you unique?

This week during class we talked about subculture, and how it's apart of a larger culture but it has certain unique aspects. What makes Chicago different from other cities is that we're very involved in sports. Most Americans are either true die hard fans of watching sports on T.V, do it out of enjoyment, or have been sticking to it consistently for many years. However, I fall under the third category. I've been doing Tae Kwon Do since I was three years old and haven't stopped. As you may or may not know, Tae Kwon Do is an Olympic sport that has become generally popular over the past few years. Some examples that make it more unique would be the language. Each kick has it's own terminology, so does each stance, and the positions you should be in. Whenever your sparring another individual, you have a coach on the sidelines that talks you through each fight and this language is only understood by anyone that's involved in Tae Kwon Do. Outsiders listening in on the different language would assume or  misinterpret the slang terminology. Another aspect that sets Tae Kwon Do apart from different sports would be the values. For school, some values would be going to college, getting good grades, or being competitive towards other schools. But a few examples for Tae Kwon Do values would be self discipline, respect, and setting specific goals for yourself. This taught me to be mindful because each large culture has little subcultures that are either harder to adapt to or something that varies from your own mindset. What may be strange to you, may be the norm for someone else.

Your not following our rules...

In class this week, we played a card game within our table. Before we started we had a specific set of rules regarding the game. After we read the rules we began playing and continued for 15 minutes. After a couple more minutes we began to play rounds of complete silenece. Couple more minutes went by and we started to rotate the winners of each table in a clockwise circle and one person that had the least amount of wins to rotate counter clockwise. The round consisting of new members made things interesting because after a few rounds we started to notice how upset each individual was getting including myself. We realized our rules were different because the first table you started with had a set of rules that only those members followed. So when our table members had two new others telling us what to do we started to bump heads. This is called culture shock, when we heard the different rules of the game we were surprised of how other members played. A similar situation had happened to me when my cousin from Ohio came and stayed with me for a month. She was 7 years older which already made a difference between us. She woke up early on a Saturday morning and began yard work outside. When I woke up, I rushed out to tell her she didn't need to do anything and that she was a guest so she should relax. She quickly told me that in Ohio her and many friends woke up early on weekends and always met up to do yard work! This made me realize how different our lives were just being 8 hours apart. It was a huge culture shock to know that my cousin and her friends did such a thing like yard work with enjoyment!

'Don't you trust anybody?'

In class this week, we watched a movie called A Bronx Tale. Based on a true story, this movie was exciting to watch and it kept me on my feet. The main character Calogero belonged to an Italian family that lived in a Italian neighborhood. Their neighborhood was socially constructed and each citizen who lived there had followed a set of unwritten rules. Although, many were 90% racist toward all African Americans,  they all followed each other whether it was name calling, harassing, and even physically abusing them. If one Italian was involved, the rest of the neighborhood would also get involved. It was their way of living, they seemed to believe that their neighbors and friends were considered family. Which lead to protecting your own kind and sticking up for your 'family.' Another unwritten rule was, being respectful towards Sonny and his crew. Nobody dared to mess with Sonny because of his reputation, they knew what Sonny was capable of. Some of the socially constructed ideas I believe in would be respecting your peers, being loyal to my family, and being trustworthy with my friends. There the basic ideas of my life and it's very common for others as well. Each individual has their own set of socially constructed ideas separate from others and that's why everyone is unique.

The 'In' Crowd

This week during class, our room was divided into people wearing black clothing and people wearing clothes with color. Then, one person from each group had to write down why we thought the opposite group was wearing color or wearing black. At the end, we got to see what each group had assumed about one another. This activity proved how judgemental both groups were towards each other. They say your group of friends are usually the people who have the biggest influence on you. When my friends and I used to be freshmen and we saw other people at school, we made judgements based off what they were wearing, who they hung out with, and even the things they said. But of course, things have changed much over time. Being the oldest at school has allowed me to meet new people that are from all different types of groups. I'm now friends with people that I used to form opinions about way before I met them. And even though it's hard to change an opinion, getting to know someone is a whole lot different than judging them. As you get older, you realize your allowed to have friends even outside your friend group and it's even more helpful to have other friends because then, you become more mindful to those who aren't anything like you. You get to learn new things by becoming friends with people that have opposite interests. Don't judge a book by its cover because you never know what that book is like until you give it a chance.

A new type of appetite

In the story of The Survivors of the F-227, there was a tragic plane crash that had only 27 people survive. They thought they'd get rescued quickly and spend a night or two. Few days later, only sixteen remained. The only sources of food that lasted them a couple of days were chocolate and wine but that didn't help much at all. The survivors however, realized that they had to find food soon or they'd have no chance of living. The small talk became an open discussion between all the survivors and they came to a conclusion that they had no choice but to eat the dead bodies. It's a disturbing fact to think your choices of food are limited to dead human bodies. But as a group, they socially constructed rules of eating. No one had to eat, no women were allowed to be eaten, and no one had to eat a friend or relative. However, when they were saved four days before Christmas, they were uncomfortable talking about what they'd done. As soon as the public found out about their story, the survivors became celebrities who were considered special people. As a outsider reading and viewing this whole story in my perspective, I wouldn't be able to eat another human being. Even if it was the last thing that could save me from dying, I wouldn't have the courage to consider another human being as food. It's not what they did that was so brave, it was that they pushed through the idea of eating other strangers in order to get back to their own families, reality back at home.

Sociological Mindfulness

In Schwalbe's Sociological Mindfulness he talks about how mindfulness is more than paying attention, it's to see and appreciate something for its unique qualities. It's the practice of tuning in and seeing how the social world works. On that note, reading this article made me question myself on how everything in life comes together. My parents started off by living in Chicago, and they knew how independent you become while living there because the environment is different. Chicago isn't a terrible area to live in but the kids growing up go through a variety of difficult obstacles that we've never been through living in Buffalo Grove. They wanted a better life for my brother and I so they decided to move to Buffalo Grove. They not only wanted a good education for us; but wanted us to experience positive events that we'd appreciate them later for. Down in Chicago, they say the crime percentage has and is been high. Therefore, my mom and dad were worried we'd be apart of bad influences too. My parents were being considerate for our individual futures and I'll make sure to keep that in mind when I have a family of my own some day.

Silence

Imagine in a room full of 25 students and one teacher, nobody is talking. Everyone is blankly staring at each other and the teacher is sitting in the back of the room, not saying one word. This was a simple exercise my teacher practiced on us the first day of school. How could silence not be awkward? Of course, out of the 25 students, majority knew at least one person in the room. But even then, there was giggling and a lot of confusion. The students in our class didn't know whether to talk or not because we were always trained to be quiet when the bell rang so the teacher could explain directions. Students in every class, talk because who wouldn't? But in a room full of silenced teenagers, you begin to observe each individual and what they may be thinking at that very moment; because if it's awkward for you, it's just as awkward for person next to you. You may be trained to think about how the teacher is not much more different than you, and could be feeling just as nervous as you are for the first day.

Who am I?

Independence, respect, and individuality, have molded me into the person I am today. My name is Michelle but I go by Mish. The biggest influence would have to be my older brother. He's been someone I've looked up to since day one. Being seven years apart, we've grown to be very close. He's 24 years old, and has come a long way after high school. He owns a Tae Kwon Do school and that's become a big part of my life. I've done Tae Kwon Do the day I turned three years old and it's been a sport that's ran in my family for generations. Next to my brother, Tae Kwon Do itself has been a huge influence. It's a sport that trains the mind and body. I get the best of both worlds, not only do I get to train but I learn the meaning of earning and giving respect. Being advanced in a sport, allows you to help others and make the people around you better in what they do. This summer, I had the opportunity to work with children, teenagers, and adults that joined Tae Kwon Do. I instructed the classes and decided that I loved teaching, but children especially. My goal after high school is to get into a good school for early childhood education and then get a job as a Pre-K teacher or own a Pre-school.