What I Learned (Essay)

This semester, Fall 2012, I took the class, Introduction to Sociology 100, and I learned a lot about the world that I live in. I never paid attention to society as much as I did this semester because of the things that stood out to me from what I learned. Professor Applewhite not only was an amazing help, but someone who I know, understood what he was talking about in every chapter that we focused on in the text. He also is someone who is passionate about what he teaches and that made the class more interesting. I was a bit hesitant to take this class because I was told that it’s a lot of reading, which it was. Though, it was much reading and studying, it was beneficial. For a person who is as young as me, heading out in this cold crucial world very soon, the things that I learned from this class, I will forever take with me and apply it to every journey that I embark.

To start off with things that I learned from this class, the first was to understand how people can transition themselves into a whole different person when they are given a job/role that requires him/her to have power. This information I got was from the video that we watched, “The Standford Prison Study – Experiment Video”. It surprised me to see how the security guards and those who aren’t inmates act when they are given jobs, knowing that they don’t behave like that outside of their uniforms. Another topic was learning about culture. I was always open to other people cultures because I know everyone isn’t raised by the same family, not raised in the same environment, and not even raised in the same country. What I didn’t realize was what was part of one’s culture is the fact that everything such as what we eat, drink, how we dress, how we behave in different settings, language, how we speak, and how we think is also a part of one’s culture and everyone has their own.

What I was taught about social structure was that it constrains social behavior by putting limits on it, but, it enables social behavior by providing the context in which people can interact. What makes up a social structure is recurring patterns of behavior. Also, what links people to one another and to patterns that constitutes social structure are status and roles. Statuses are a position in the social system that can be occupied by an individual, and roles are the sets of expected behaviors associated with particular statuses. For example, I’m a daughter and a student which are some of my statuses and my expected behavior is to listen and to obey my parent and give respect to my mother. Some roles a student would be, to come to school on time, study, participate in class, and to complete my assignments. That I knew about, but I didn’t know that I had a status. I thought that you had a status after you completed your years of school and made something out of yourself such as becoming a doctor, lawyer, nurse, or a teacher.

Something that was a piece of great information was the qualities that differentiate us humans from animals. Though an animal may, eat, sleep, communicate with other animals in their own ways, have emotions, and give birth, while humans do the same thing, what differentiate us is that we are social and cultural in nature. Being social, he/she survives by depending on others, learning how to survive from others, and developing individual and human qualities through socialization. Being cultural is basically one who interprets the world according to what they've learned in society.

The last chapter we covered was about class and this chapter is one that I would continue to read multiple times because it is very important. There is the Capitalist, Middle Class, Working Class, and Under Class. These classes are segregated, treated differently, and have different experiences. Some are put into classes based on wealth, race, or even gender. Members in the upper class, (capitalist), often generate income through their wealth, rather than through employment. So some of these people do not really have to work or if they do work they do not have an actual 9-5 job.  People in the middle class contribute to specialized knowledge and expertise to the economy. Had I not learned about this I would’ve considered myself as middle class, but I realized that there is such thing as upper middle class and lower middle class. The working class require some skill and knowledge, basically people in this class live pay check to pay check and struggle with persistent debt while the underclass do not have an ongoing relationship to the mainstream economy. It’s sad but its reality and we just can’t escape it. We are labeled, and judged and often looked down on based on our resources, what we look like, our skin color, how we talk and even where we live. Sociology really opened my eyes a lot more to what goes on around me and to others. Hopefully certain things will change in the future, but the way how things are going in today’s world, I’m not too confident about that. But if we as a people come together to help make a change, most likely something can be done. Sociology is a beneficial course and I would recommend anyone to take it. I had an interesting semester and with this course I would be able to think above, outside and beyond.

Beyond Black and White: Remaking Race in America by Jennifer Lee, and Frank D. Bean

Since the 2000 census, Americans were able to label themselves and their children as multiracial. Before then,  parents had to fill out government documents as their child being either black or white. Now they have the oppotunity to be able to say that their child is black and white or asian and white. The new opportunity to mark more than one race is important because it indicates that people can recognize the mixing of racial backgrounds. Even while this is present, diversity does not mean race is irrelevant. It just means that new kinds of color lines may be emerging. Increase in immigration changed America from being a black-and-white country into one of numerous racial and ethnic groups. Immigration, intermarriage and willingness for Americans to call thmeselves multiracial changed how America measured race. Before all of this, the "one drop rule"  of hypodescent was present. This meant that any persons with any trace of black were labeled racially black.  Later on Americans had the oopportunity to claim themselves as either, Black, White, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, Asian Pacific, or other. The multiracial movement didn't favor everyone, especially for black civil rights groups. They feared that those who would otherwise be counted as black or Hispanic, would now choose to identify as multiracial, and, depending on how such persons were counted, diminish their official counts. Census Bureau's decision to "mark one are more races" gives recognition to individuals who see themselves or their kids as multiracial and speaks volumes about how far the country has come since the days of the one drop rule which enjoyed legal legitimacy. The tendency of black Americans not to report multiracial identifications undoubtedly owes in part both the legal and de facto invocation of the one drop rule. Based on immigration, intermarriage, and multi racial identification, it appears that Latinos and Asians are closer to whites than to blacks, and consequently ,may be particpants in a new color line that continues to disadvantage blacks.

The Uses of Global Poverty: How Economic Inequality Benefits the West

   Sociologist Herbert Gans published an article entitled "The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All". In the article, Gans utilized a conservative theoratical perspective in sociology, functionalism, to inquire about the persistence of poverty in America. Priced good of reasonable quality enjoyed by Western consumers is underpinned by the low-waged work done in low income countries.Labor cost typically constitute a high percentage of a company's expenditures. By reducing labor costs, companies can both keep prices reasonable and raise profit margins. Poor states may sell raw goods at low prices to Western states, which can transform the resource into a more valuable finished poduct. The position of the poor states in the world economy makes it less likely that they can derive the full benefit of the resources they possess for the government and people.The poor provide a pool of guinea pigs for the testing of medicines developed for use primarily in the West. Poorer states like India have become intellectual feeders of well-educated and bright individuals whose skills cannot be fully rewarded in less developed states.
    Global poverty benefits inhabitants of wealthy countries, who can feel good about helping the global poor through charitable work and charitable giving. Those who inhabit the wealthy corners of the world feel good about themselves for sharing their good fortune.The overdevelpoment of the West may well be a big threat. While the West derive the benefits and bonuses of these econmic inequalities, it seems likely that our efforts to support, advise, and assist the less developed states will remain at levels that are financially and politically convinient and feasible, and will target survival rather than true prosperity for those outside our gated privileged, greedy Western neighborhood.

Class and Global Inequality Chapter 9

   Class is about both personal experience and the broad structures of social inequality. It is a group of people who share a roughly similar economic position and lifestyle.Karl Marx analysis of class on the idea that if people are to survive, they must meet their basic material needs for food, clothing, and shelter.Weber empasized the interaction of three dimensions of inequality; class, social status, and political power. He looked at class in terms of life chances, which is the likelihood a person has of obtaining valued economic and cultural resources. For Weber a class is a group of people who share a common market situation- they have a similar capacity to earn money. Capitalist, Middle Class, Working Class, and Under Class, are the major U.S social classes. Class can have an impact on health, educaton, work, politics, and lifestyles. Income levels are usually measured by household rather than individual, because counting the income from multiple wage earners who live in a single home more accurately reflects people's standard of living.
Class systems permit some class mobility which is the ability to move from one social class to another. There are two types of mobility; structural mobility and individual. There are also two types of poverty which are absolute poverty and relative poverty. As stated in the video "People Like Us",America is divided by class. Even though class is every where it is hard to see. Some people are in denial about their class because of the stigma that comes with it. U.S. is one of the wealthiest countired with lots of inequalities. The wealthy dominates the poor each and every single day and they arent taxed as much as those people in the middle class. To me, the country would never be balanced if it stays this way.

People Like Us Video

This video basically spoke about what determines someones class. Things such as how you look, popularity, how much money you have/make, or how big your house is, leads people to judge what kind of class your in. As we move through life we seperate ourselves often unconciously from people who don't fit in our social class. I actually experienced this in high school. I always seperated myself from those who I felt I didnt belong with. The kids with the latest clothing, the most expensive bags, the longest extensions, were  people who I felt were some how "better than me". So I surrounded myself around people who were the same as I am. Not that I couldnt afford certain thing as to why I didnt have them, it was that my parents were very serious about money  and didnt think that those material things are important than what I was to achieve from high school, which was a diploma. Those material things made other kids look as if they were wealthy. As if they had a job but come to find out they were just recieving money from their parents. To me, those material things wouldve been a major distraction if I had put my concentration on them. I'd rather be looked down as a person with less income because I didnt have what was "expected" and be a highschool graduate, than to have all those things and  not graduate from high school. I think having a diploma and having the opportunity to go to college determines ones class after all.
 The video also stated that America is divided by class. The neighborhood you live in, how far you've reached in school, the type of food you eat, or the way you wear your hair too. Class is everywhere but often hard to see. The choices you make reveal your class. Such as where you decide to spend leisure time, the kind of kitchen utensils you buy for your home, the brand of your furniture, or the brand of your car. These little things reveals class. I find it to be a little sad, because its like saying the material things that someone owns, makes them who they are. Its like saying if your wealthy then your happy.  Most wealthy people are the most miserable people on earth because they have so much money that they dont even know what to do with themselves. So i'm fine with the class that i'm in. I wouldnt mind how people would judge me based on my physical appearance or material things I own. People today are so stuck in this mind frame that they have to be this "American Family" which requires them to be extremely wealthy and have a huge family, going to the top notch colleges, high schools or private schools. I dont think anything is wrong with going to the most known colleges or working at one of the top businesses, but I dont think that these things should determine someones class. It makes those who didnt get the opportunity to do such things or have such things feels less of them selves.

Chapter 8: Deviance

This chapter focuses on deviance. Devicance is the bahvior that does not conform to basic cultural norms and expectations. What may be deviant in one country may not be deviant in another. So this explains that deviance varies. Labels often creates a stigma for an individual. For example labeling a child a trouble maker may lead he/she to adopt the role of a trouble maker. People start to internalize the stigma that is given to them. Deviance helps define group boundaries, creates social solidarity, and is a source of innovation. Deviance can be explained as immortality, and illness rational choice. Today, I believe that normalization occurs. Things such as plastic surgery and tatoos, which were onces scorned is now accepted. These activites were once deviant to people but now its common around the world. Power also has alot to do with deviance. Power is connected to our basic assumptions about what's normal and what's deviant. Also, it determnes whether and how authorities enforce norms and punish deviance, enables some privileged groups to engage in distinct forms of deviant behavior and allows some people to escape being branded or punished as deviant. There are also debates about punishment for people who are deviant. Reribution, Rehabilitation, Deterence, Protection, and Restoration are five of them.