Final Post

after finishing this course i have learned that just about everything influences me besides just my parents, the biggest influences in my life are the people i surround my self with because they shape how i act and what i do. Media is also a major influence because we are always surrounded by it telling us what the norms are in the world and what you have to have/do to be average. i think most people are blind to these major entities that effect almost every action we do. sociology has also helped me see myself in a different light, i knew that i was well of in the world just because of the family i was born into, but through community service and other things we have seen in our class, i am extremely well off and that even the average American makes about 11x less then my parents (and the wealthiest people making 50x+ than the average American), this really surprised me and with the community service project i was really able to see that the average American is really no where close to me in terms of wealth. Through sociology i have become more aware of the things that shape my life and the world, and knowing these things i can try to change the world around me to create the kind of life i want to live. Sociology is a great class that really makes you take a long hard look at the world around you.

week 17

i know racism is still present today no matter how hard we try to say racism is a thing of the past. i know personally that racism is still alive because of the jokes people tell each other, some jokes involve demeaning people just by their race. i have take then Harvard test thing before for AP psychology it told me that i have a slight tendency toward white people , i had to do 2 other tests that i forgot the results of. i personally don't see myself as a racist person but i guess i have been taught by society to judge people of other races even if i don't know them. though racism is still apparent in the world today i think it is a lot less then earl yer years. we have all heard the story of Emmit Till who was brutally killed and his body dumped in a river all because of racial tensions, today you don't hear of such extreme cases of racism yet it still has an effect on our society that few realize.

week 16

playing monopoly this week was a really good way to get across the point that people really don't move up in social classes, while sometimes they can move down. i was the upper upper class, and the game was boring for me i started with about 4000 and all the railroads and last 2 places i more than doubled my total wealth by the end of the game, for the upper class i think the game was more average they made some wealth but not enough to make it to my position, middle class ended up making about the same amount of wealth that they came into the game with, lower middle class went on welfare b/c he kept landing on my spots, and working poor was in jail for 3/4 of the game. i think the main part of monopoly that showed the class diference was the jail, i was able to use a get out of jail free card while other people like the working poor never where able to leave b/c it was nearly impossibul to get out. i really seams like playing through this game people kept their positions they started out with and the rich got richer, much like the world we live in.

week 15

i don't think different social classes interact much at all, while people tend to think that at sporting events work place or other major activity's the classes are more mixed, but they really are not. At sport events upper class people have sky boxes or front row seats, while most average Joe people sit in the "nose bleed" section or don't get tickets at all. As one guy said int he movie i thought if i work hard i could accomplish anything, he didn't realize that most wealthy people don't work very hard and still make more money because they where raised that way, wealthy people in a business often own the company or are ceo's or other management positions, and the majority of workers are working at minimum wage or slightly higher. while Americans try to say that we don't have a class system in our nation, they are partly right because people can move up (or down) but for the most part a social class system does exist, the rich make up a small % of our nation and most working people who make very little money are the majority of our country. while people can try to belong to a social class that they are not in, they will eventually be discovered that they don't belong for instance the woman in the movie will most likely not find a husband because he would eventually realize she is of a lower class and break up with her. Social classes do exist in America and they affect our lives more they we think they do.

week 14

Learning about our prison system has been really eye opening, i never knew that prison was so overcrowded and how many people are repeat offenders or mentally handicapped and sent to prison for random things. the video about 30 days in prison had a lot of cool statistics and helped to show me how different prison is. in the video a lot of the people who where in jail had been in there previously, some had drug addictions, and some had mental handicaps that should have been in a mental institution. all these facts really surprised me that prison really isn't helping to stop crime as much as it should. if our society helped inmates to become a better member of society and actually turn their life's around lots of peoples lives could be better off. while not all people will be reformed it may help reduce the overall crowding and other problems with our prison system.

week 13

i thought the possitive deviance story was very interesting how a person was able to take a dangerous scenerio and make the attacker see the error of his ways without any conflict and probably better the attackers life. it is much like the ikido fighting style that you dont want to hurt people you just want them to stop their negative ways without huring you so you take a nonviolent approach to others violence. I also think that everyone performs many random acts of kindness every day and dont realize it, like paying for a friends meal if they dont have money on them at that time.

week 12

many men in America are constantly pummeled with thing like aggression violence and brutality are normal for men and those men who fail to fall into this average man persona are usually left behind. this is very similar with women in society. at a young age many young male boys watch wrestling and it only progresses from their throughout life, to violent movies,etc. Violence effects all those in a society so we need to alter our views of masculinity to hopefully prevent future violence, I'm not really sure how this can be accomplished because our views of masculinity have been around for a long time.