Who am I...... x2

At the beginning of the semester we were supposed to define who we are. I re-read my blog and realized I said a lot of generic things like I wanted to go to college. I said what I wanted to do in the future, but I didn't really talk about how I am the way I am. Taking Sociology made me realize that I'm influenced so much by my surroundings: my family, friends, classmates, teachers...etc. Our lives are all intertwined, and we affect one another even if we don't realize it. I realize now that I'm following the norm that my family has set for me (a norm that not everyone has since we're all different): going to college. I know now that maybe if I grew up somewhere else, I wouldn't have the opportunity to go to college. I always thought my family influenced my life just because I live with them, but now I realize that they really, really influence me. How I was raised, what my goals are for the future, all of those factors depended on the people I surround myself with. I learned the importance of being sociologically mindful and how doing little things for others really does go a long way. Taking Sociology &doing community service made me realize that it's really rewarding to go outside my social norm. I learned how rewarding it is to keep an open mind with everything I encounter. I took sociology because some of my friends recommended it, but I'm really glad I did because it was one of my favorite classes!

CRASH

We spent the week before winter break in class watching the movie Crash. Personally, I was kind of uncomfortable watching this movie because seeing how racist and judgmental made me wonder if that's how it was in real life. We learned about the difference between explicit and implicit racism before watching this movie, which was helpful because Crash demonstrates both of those.

Sandra Bullock's character showed both explicit and implicit racism. An example of implicit racism is when she was walking down the street on a nice night with her husband. They live in a nice area in California, but when she sees two black men who could have been dressed like they were college students, she grabs her husbands arm and holds onto him as they walk by. She didn't even make eye contact with the men. That's an example of implicit racism because she's not openly sharing her thoughts, but her silent reaction to seeing the men shows her being racist. When Sandra's character and husband have their locks changed after having their car stolen, she demands that they have the locks changed again because the guy changing their locks was Mexican. She was sceraming at her husband saying that the locksmith was going to sell their house key to his 'gang banger' friends because she assumed he was in a gang because he's mexican. He heard her talking, and it was clear that what she was saying hurt him, but he didn't say anything back.

Community service post #3

I finished my 10 community service hours on Monday 12-12-11. My older cousin Jessi is a special ed teacher for kindergartners/first-graders at a small school an hour from my house. I left school pretty early yesterday (1230ish) and drove to her school. My cousin always says she has volunteers helping her/observing her classroom because she built this program that helps special needs children from all areas and all types of special needs, and most of the students commute to her school because they aren't even in her district. I was really excited to help her out and volunteer in her classroom because I want to be a teacher one day, and I love working with kids and helping them learn.

When I got to her class, I immediately jumped into their routine. Some kids left class and I went with them, and we made up dances and songs and played for a little. It was really nice working with these kids because I could tell they loved goofing off and I had a lot of fun just playing around with them. When we got back to the classroom my cousin asked if I could help the kids as they went into stations with writing, drawing, reading and then the last one was math. I helped the kids in reading, and read them stories and then their favorite (Where's Waldo books). It felt so nice to spend the rest of the school day with these kids. Jessi also has the after school program for kids that have working parents and since they commute far to go to her class, they stay later and they do all these activities. We took the kids to the gym in the elementary school and played freeze tag and simon says and all these other games with kids. I really liked helping her out at her school, and can't wait to go back next semester and visit those kids again for a day! It was a blast.

Community service #2

This weekend, I continued to finish up my 10 hours of community service. I asked my mom and sister to give me all the clothes they never wear anymore, and I also went through my closet and grabbed some old shirts and shorts, and decided I'd donate it to Plato's closet. I went on friday with Lauren A. and Taylor N.  from sociology class, and even though the drive was far and we got lost we ended up staying at the store for a while! I watched as they sorted all the clothes we brought to them and felt really good about getting rid of clothes and knowing that other people can have them. We ended up going twice, once on friday and once on saturday. Since we knew what kind of clothes the store was looking for, we went around to our friends' houses and dug through our closets again to bring more clothes to Plato's closet. It felt really nice that I was able to bring clothes to a store where people could buy the clothes at a cheaper price that they can afford.

After going to Plato's closet on friday, Lauren, Taylor and I used the money we got from selling our clothes to buy canned food and toys to bring to a charity event called "Stuff-A-Bus". We knew about this charity because my dad's hockey team the Chicago Steel does community service every weekend and had asked for volunteers for this event. We didn't really know what to expect when we got there because all we were told was to bring toys and canned food. We ended up spending 3 hours outside collecting food, toys, blankets and other necessities, literally stuffing the bus. I was so surprised by the amount of things random people brought in to donate--all these blankets, and toys. Things that I was always provided with, and never even thought about really. I learned a lot from helping at this charity event, like all the little things that not everyone has, and I certainly won't take any of it for granted anymore!

Race

We focused a lot on the topic of race last week in class and how the concept of it is socially constructed. There are some people out there who believe in "hydo-decent" which is if you are not completely 100% white, you are not white at all. Where does the line end from being black to being white? Who decides? Race is socially constructed because people feel the need to fit themselves in categories, or actually, fit everyone else who is different and not like themselves, in categories. Why can't people just be, and not have to be labeled black, or white, or asian, and all the other races out there?

We watched this video that girls documented "A Girl Like Me"which I thought to be really interesting. These girls, who were black, talked about the stereotypes that come along with their race, and the expectations that they exceed but people don't really give them enough credit for. It was heartbreaking to see them re-test the expirement that Kenneth and Maime Clark originally constructed (asked children a series of questions about a black doll and a white doll, and then asked them which doll looked like them). Kids are taught at a young age (brainwashed even) that black people are bad and mean and unkind, and white people are pretty and smart and nice. When these girls made their video talking about race, they reconstructed this experiment, and it's very sad to see that even in the 2000s, children still thought that white dolls were nicer and prettier and smarter than black dolls. What does that have to say about the idea of race today?

Community Service post #1

On Tuesday December 6, I had the opportunity to go with Ms. Breuer and 15 other kids to a soup kitchen. I honestly had no clue what it was going to be like helping out there, I just thought I'd help serve food food somehow. I expected there to be a lot of homeless people coming in at random times just kind of coming to get and take food, and then leave. But that's really not what happened when we got there. First, a man kind of told us what would be happening at the soup kitchen. Like how they were serving brotworsts and chili and potato pancakes with syrup. And there was also salad out on the tables. We were told that we were going to actually serve the people who came in...like we were their waiters at a restaraunt. He also told us that were was going to be 70-100 people coming in that night for food. I honestly didn't expect that many people coming in to the soup kitchen. At first, I was really nervous talking to some of the people that sat down at the table I was working because I didn't know what to say, but everyone was so polite. I guess that was one thing I didn't expect. A lot of the people who came in said hello, and asked how I was, and seemed really curious about me. I felt really good when I started serving the food. Everyone I spoke to that night was really appreciative of what I was doing for them. Going to a soup kitchen is something I would like to do again. It makes me realize that some things such as having dinner on the table at home is something I shouldn't take for granted, because not everybody has that luxury. I could tell that even talking to the people I met that night put them in a better mood, and for me that was the most rewarding part of the night.

Social Class

We continued to talk about social class this week. We watched this movie that showed people from all social classes. The people who were at the bottom, and just accepted they were at the bottom and didn't even care to get rich. Those people actually were really content with their lives, and loved it. They grew up being poor, and were comfortable with their lifestyles. What really shocked me was watching the story of a woman who lived in Ohio, who walked 10 miles to work at Burger King back and forth every day so she could clean the bathrooms. They were completely poor, and she had to support her kids, one of which strived to get out of his social class, and live a better life. His mother, however, didn't understand why he thought he was better than her, and didn't understand that he wanted more for his life. I thought when we watched the 'WASPS' talk, they didn't even seem deserving of all that they had. They were just born into wealth. They thought they were better than everyone else because they looked better, and talked better, and were better educated. It was actually really ridiculous. Outside of sociology class, I never really thought of social class because it's something most people don't like to discuss. But watching that video made me see that social class really does affect our everyday lives. How we go to school (or if we do), where we live and where we grew up, and all the belongings we have.