Racism

This week in sociology we discussed different kinds of racism in detail. We learned that no matter where you go in the world, there will be some form of racism (it's kind of unpreventable). In different parts of the world, there are many different races that we learned about, that I have never heard of. I realized race is something society makes up. For example, people arn't born "black" or "white", they are born human beings. In different countries people arn't "catergorized" the same way, as if you live in America. For instance, in Japan there are different races based on the texture of your earwax.... gross!

Upper Middle Class.

Living in an upper middle class suburb, I am constantly surrounded by people who are in the same economic situation as my family, or people who are more well off than myself. This week in sociology, we have been discussing how different social classes don't get enough needed interactions with one another. These interactions would be helpful to give people different perspectives on life. Just like the video we watched in sociology today about social classes, people get really worked up about the situation that the classes are SO much different (economic wise, etc.). In the video an organic super market, which had higher prices, was built in a town. The lower middle class citizens felt hurt that their wasn't some kind of vote to build the more expensive market over a regular, cheaper, shopping place. They felt as if they were invisible and their thoughts didn't matter. It was interesting to me to see people get so worked up about such a seemingly small thing; but, then I tried to put myself in their shoes and somewhat saw their side of the argument. I think it was good for me to see the video and learn how other people live, who may be less fortunate than myself.

The saints and the roughnecks.

In Soc, we read a story about a community that named different "groups" at the school. The white, upper-middle class boys were named the "saints", and the lower class "problem kids" were named the "roughnecks". I thought it was interesting that although it sounds as if the "saints" would be perfect teen rolemodels, the story talks about how they are just as bad, if not worse than the "roughnecks". It is not hidden in this world that teens sometimes get involved with illegal things, but it is hidden to certain communities that boys like the saints would get involved. While reading the story I was constantly relating the school to the highschool I attend. There are differnent groups in parrallel situations as the saints and roughnecks. I however have a hard time predicting the future of the kids caught up in these groups because I am acquantances with both and they just seem to be at the wrong places at the wrong times. These groups are good kids, they are simply just being teenagers.

Teens

In sociology this week we have read an article by the name of "Teen Mystique" and have basically been discussing how teenagers are being percieved. Teenagers are deffinitely NOT as bad as society makes us sound... Everybody makes mistakes or gets in trouble from time to time, but that doesnt make everybody bad people... now does it? Sure, there are some teens who are incredibly inmature and dangerous people, but most of us are just normal human beings going through life trying to mature into adults and mold ourselves in to good people. It upsets me how society is begenning to generalize teens as "drug abusing, violent, inmature people". I am a teen and am surely not any of those things.

Masculinity = Violence

This week in sociology class we have been learning about violence in school. We read an article and watched a documentary about different reasons that could trigger this violence. The word that was brought up the most in both sources was "masculinity". All of the school shootings were done by white suburban males. When soem of the boys were asked just why they did what they did, their answer would some how be related to masculinity. They commited their violent act to prove themselves to others that they were strong and masculine. Learning this was interesting because I never knew what was running in the minds of these kids.

People are too self conscious

During this unit in sociology I had a friend in my mind who I was connecting everything to. There are some people in this world who are overly self conscious because they are looking at these women on magazine covers and comparing themselves. I think it is absolutely rediculous when women do this because we all know these women are "fake" and photoshopped. My friend used to complain about her self image on a daily basis (that is before she got help). People need to be carefull and look out for their friends before they do something dangerous (like hurt themselves). Women need to learn to love themselves the way they were born and brought into this world. Like is an amazing thing and I believe everybody should be thankful for what they have.

Nature V. Nurture

Yes, nature and nurture are both two essential ideas that help a person become "human" but my view is that nurture overpowers and has a stronger effect then nature does. Like we have been learning in class everyday, people need interactions with their own kind to become fully "normal". For example, we have learned about neglected children who have lived with almost no nurture for a portion of their lives. This has effected them in many ways and they can't function like a normal human being would. It is not enough that they were born human, because they weren't cared for and nurtured by their surroundings and parents. For instance, some of them didn't know how to talk or had extremely abnormal behaviors. I believe that each child grows up to be somewhat like their parents (no matter what), that is if they were cared for properly. For me, I always repeat that i will not be like my mom over and over again in my head... but the truth is, I am already becoming slightly like her in small ways. There is nothing we can do about it nurture over powers nature.

Life Without $$$

Acouple days ago in Sociology we learned about an educated man who gave up all of his money and everything along with it and is now happily living in a cave in the desert. He relies on nature for food and anything else he needs and he uses the public library for their computers. After hearing this story I couldn't even imagine myself with no money what-so-ever. Living in America, we become dependent on money and materialistic items, and most of us think that it would be impossible to live without those things. But, this man has proved us all wrong and has showed us that money doesn't automatically provide happiness. This is because he is just fine and content living with nothing. Even though this man has gone to extremes, his story gave me a different prospective on life.

Fear of Dependency

I think because of the fact that America is all about Democracy which provides Freedom and Independence, people who live in America are afraid of being even a little dependent. In many cases, people in America who truly need help, don't ask for it and then something un-needed occurs. For example if a father loses his job, he might feel that he has too much pride to ask his best friend or brother for some money or support; since he feels he needs to be stubburn and independent it might lead his family into a rut they didn't have to be in, in the first place. In my case, I find myself dependent on my parents for many things. This does in fact make me very uncomfortable because 1) I'm going to college next year and need to learn how to do things on my own and 2) I feel I have to act a certain way and do certain things just to recieve their help without feeling bad about it.

There really isnt just one way to describe America. For the past couple of days in sociology we have been trying to, but in my head it just isn't clicking. Yah, SOME of us only care about materialistic things, and SOME of us are all about time and money... but that is thing, we all get to choose what we want to be and what we think so it's not fair to generalize Americans and say for instance that "we all are lazy", because personally I know I'm not lazy. All and all, there really isn't any words that could describe ALL of America, because living in the U.S everyone gets the freedom to be different.

I hope one day I get to experience Japan!

Ok, so basically everyday my sociology teachers describes different aspects of Japan and how they are different from what we Americans are probably used to. This is extremely interesting to me because since I was born in America and all I really know is American customs, it excites me to learn about unfamiliar things. We have learned, for instance, that the toilet in Japan is a hole in the ground.... ya, it may sound weird to us but if you think about it, it is cleaner! Also, we have learned different social norms and gestures from different countries which is also interesting because I feel that as an American we never get the enjoyment of learning about different cultures etc, in this much detail.

"The Saddest Think In Life Is Wasted Talent"

For the past few days in class we have been watching a great movie called A Bronx Tale. I really enjoyed the story because it was true, interesting and not to mention I absolutely love New York accents (coming from a family who resides there). The movie was about a little Italian boy who witnessed a murder while sitting on his front stoop. The murder was committed by a man he admired, the head Italian mobster, "Sonny". Collogero, the little boy who grows up "too fast" throughout the movie was indeed in many different groups. First of all, he was in the group of Italians. The Italians were completely seperated from the African Americans that lived blocks down from them. Also, the boy was a part of his "rebel" friends, who were always up to no good. He was also apart of the Mobster group along with Sonny, earning the name of "C" instead of Collogero. I think that throughout the movie, Collegero realizes that he should drop the rebel friends (coming from Sonny's advice). At the end of the movie he stayed strong to his Italian roots and sort of started getting out of the mobster scene, after Sonny was murdered ofcourse.

Cookie Stealing

Okay, so today in class we read a poem "The Cookie thief" By Valerie Cox. This poem caught my attention and amused me because I can most deffinitely see my self in the woman's situation. You see, in the poem a woman bought a bag of cookies from an airport vender, the man who was sitting next to her happened to have bought the same bag of cookies (but she doesn't know this). So, when she sees the man eating the cookies she assumes that he was infact eating her cookies (while she was munching on them too). In her head she was accusing this man thinking he was a thief when really SHE was the cookie thief after all for munching on his snack. While our teacher read this poem aloud, I was smiling to myself the whole entire time. Because everybody makes this mistake ALL THE TIME, maybe they arn't in the SAME exact situation, but it happens to all of us and when we realize our mistake....lets just say it's incredibly embarrasing. I have parallel situations like this happen to me on a daily basis, I always jump to conclusions, I would say it's sort of a bad habbit. But who doesnt every once in a while?

What Would YOU Do?

I walked into sociology class the other day with tape on the floor symbolizing a boat. 16 people from the class were assigned roles and placed on the boat, we were told that people had to be kicked off the "boat" so that it wouldn't sink. Even though this was obviously not a real situation, most people in the class got really into it. Thinking about it to my self right now...if i were in that situation I have absolutely NO CLUE what I would do. I'm a very ethical person and would not even think of killing off anybody just for my survival, but nobody could no for sure how fast their minds could change in such a life threatening situation. In class, the people kicked off the boat first were un-healthy people who wouldnt have even a chance of surviving without the boat (cripples, old people, etc...). I personally wasn't given a role during this interesting activity, but if I was I think I would have chosen the same people to leave the boat first. All and all, this activity really made the whole class think and i enjoyed it. But really.... what would YOU do???

Community Service Project.

Freshman year of highschool I decided I wanted to be involved with the "300 club" at my school. This is where you do 300 hours worth of community service and you get recognized for it at graduation come senior year. I was real into doing community service, but sadly i lost touch with it and ran out of time to do it sophmore through junior year. Now in sociology class, I'm glad I'm being given the opportunity once again to help out the community and people less fortunate. Many people have been saying that 10 hours is alot, but I really disagree...it's the least we can do to help out. I've been going to a soup kitchen in gurnee from time to time (throughout the years) and I will deffinitely return to it, to help me with this project. I always get such a good feeling when I do nice things for others =]. I'm super glad we have to do this instead of the boring final (which has no meaningfulness what-so-ever!) !!!

Who am I?

My name is Mallory and I'm a Senior in highschool. Family and friends are the most important things in life, in my opinion; mine mean the world to me. I'm a very independent person, and don't rely on others for many things because I don't want to get let down. I run to relieve stress and am completely obsessed with music. Music always has a way to influence what mood I will be in. I love helping people and giving advice, it's probably comes as a close second for my favorite hobby. Next year I have my heart set on going to UIC for college to study psychology. I most deffinitely have senioritis already and want to go to college as soon as possible, but probably will regret this feeling later.