Crash -

In the movie Crash, the characters come from all different backgrounds. Some are Hispanic, others Asian, Middle eastern, Black and White. Their lives all crash together in different ways and each character has to deal with the racism that he or she might have. One example is when Sandra Bullock's character clings closer to her husband when she sees two African American men walking down the street. The two men mug her and her husband. She mentions later though that she was scared and she didn't do anything because if she had said something or done something, she would have been called a racist. I think that this is very true in everyday life. We see things that happen to others and so we form opinions about what a certain group of people are like. We seem to have this idea that all people from the Middle East are terrorists, that all Asians are smart and math geniuses, and that all Hispanic people are in gangs or sell drugs. These ideas of race are gathered from our society and from what the media shares. We are constantly influence by what we see. The biases that the world has, become our own.

Racism -

Over the past week, the class has talked about racism. We talked about obvious racism and the kind that sometimes just slips into a conversation. We also discussed the idea that racism is a social construction of reality that we've made up. Its totally fake! We've made it up. It started when English people began to travel the world and discovered slaves. We've now integrated race into almost everything we do. Colleges want to know your race. Your country wants to know your race. Even your friends might ask. Its not something that can be put into a box though. Because if we try to put people into categories, than we come across problems. Is race what you feel? How you look? Or just where you came from. The questions become too difficult and can and have caused much controversy. Does it really matter? But more importantly, is it worth it?

Salt of the Earth -

In continuation with our topic of social class, our class discussed and watched a video on the different perceptions that people have about the working class. America as a whole seems to put the working class man on a display. We see the effort and the hard work that they put into living and call it the "American Dream". But to some extent, we might be patronizing them. We look down on them with this look of superiority, while at the same time, trying to be like one of them. We see them as the people who could really move up in the world. However, according to the movie that we watched, a lot of people (especially the middle/working class) seem to cherish the idea of staying in the same social class that you were in. Its almost looked down upon to leave your town. They see it as  the person abandoning their home and their family. Social mobility for them, is a sign of superiority. For example, in the movie we watched, a girl moved out of her rural Kentucky home, and went into the city. Although she saw it as a sign of her moving on, her family saw it as betrayal.

Social Class -

Rarely do we own up to our true social class. We see it as something that was "per-revolution" and therefore think that it is outdated. But whether we want to admit it or not, we are the product of social class. We walk the way we do, eat the things we eat, and talk to the people that we do, because of the way we were raised, and because of the social class that we were born into. Now, we can change that social class, but we will never be able to fully integrate ourselves into that world. That's the difference between old money and new money, in the upper classes. Its why some people are called "rich" and others "wealthy". Its all about they way we are perceived. We may be able to dress the way another group does. We might even be able to talk like them. But you can never be one of them. Its like taking a Paris Hilton, and trying to make her fit into the projects of Chicago. It would never work. No matter how much you trained her to change her voice or her dress or the way she walked, she could never be like lower class people. I also think its interesting, that no two lower class groups are the same. If you look at the lower class of South Carolina, and than look at the lower class of California, you would see drastic differences in the way they dress, the way they treat each other, and the things they find important.

Jail Bird -

Over the past few days in class, we read, watched, and discussed the criminal justice system. Cracks in the system become obvious as the film, that we watched, progressed. It seemed that most of the people in jail were minorities and were poor. Most of them had been in jail on several occasions. One inmate, who was in his 50s, said he had been in the system since he was 14 years old. He has become so dependent on the the environment that he has in jail, that he doesn't know how to live anywhere else. The system that we've created, doesn't allow for the inmates to ever get out. If we could come up with a way or an organization that would allow for the inmates to recover from any sort of addiction or to help them with mental or emotional disabilities, than I think that the number of inmates that the United States has, would dramatically decrease.

Freaks and Geeks

During class we watched the TV show Freaks and Geeks in order to relate it what we've been learning about deviance in class. In the show, you can see how Lyndsey is seen as deviant in the eyes of both her old and new friends. The old friends that she has see her as becoming an out of control party girl. However, the new friends that shes with think that she is a goody two shoes. Both friend groups see her as being deviant.This deviance sometimes isolates her from everyone. Its the same way in the real world. When people see someone that does something that is really good or really bad, we label them as deviant. Those random acts of kindness that we had to do for our project, really seemed to impact people. Something as simple as buying dinner for someone, could have changed their day. But people don't always accept the gift. A lot of times they think you want something from them, because you did something nice for them.They label you as out of the ordinary.

Deviance

Every society has its norms and its expectations of the way you should act. They are followed by the people who have grown up in the society, but can be a stumbling block for the people who do not. Foreigners can violate these norms, and be accused of being deviant. Whether it be something serious or something the society considers unnatural, it can lead to misunderstanding. In class we mentioned the example of someone picking their nose. We think it is something that is disgusting and isn't appropriate for a grown person to do. Anyone who does do the habit is labeled as deviant. This label can lead to a shunning from the society, or other casting out. The rules of norms, set boundaries for what is deviant and what is not. However, one form of deviance may not carry over from one society to the next. Each society has something different that is considered deviant.