Shock!

In class this week, we watched the movie "God Grew Tired of Us". The movie follows a group of African born men, into their new life in the U.S. It is clear from the moment they step foot in America, that they were out of their element. You can really see the effects of culture shock on them, as we watch their reactions to things like light switches, popular TV, Santa Claus, and escalators. The men have never had to deal with these types of things before. For weeks after, the men try to adjust to their new lives. Throughout the movie, I started to feel really bad for the lost boys. They viewed our culture as something that they seemed to think of, as materialistic, busy, unfriendly, and all around rude. I think that the men were being a little ethnocentric. They kept saying that everything that we did here was wrong. To a certain extent though, I agreed with them. What they said about our culture being too busy and not having a sense of community, really impacted me. It made me think twice about what I did everyday and the way I did things. My daily activities all seemed to be normal to me, but after watching the movie, its obvious that's not the case for the boys. For example, whenever I go to the supermarket, I don't think twice about it. It seems natural to me to go up and down the aisle and to find what I need or what I want to eat and leave. But for the boys, it was strange. They had probably never even been inside of a grocery store before, much less, having to choose from all the different kinds of fruit that we have.

CHAIN REACTION -

This week we watched the movie A Bronx Tale. Throughout the movie, we follow a young boy and his life in an Italian neighborhood. When the movie first opened, I thought the town was going to be a lot like the town of Roseto that we read about. A quiet town where everyone stays to themselves and for the most part everyone is happy. I think to some extent the towns were similar. They both stay within their own race and they try to keep their traditions and their culture alive. However, the towns seemed to be different because as you watch the movie, you see that not everyone is as happy as they appear. They all have their troubles. Most of the troubles have to do with race and gang violence. I think that its interesting that so many of the people who live in the town had a problem with the African American people that would go through the area. All of C's friends would get upset and angry when African American people would walk or ride by. However, C wouldn't. He would say things like, "they ain't botherin'  you!" and he would leave them alone. He even tried to help a black teenager who was getting beaten up by his friends. I think the reason that C and his friends acted so differently from one another was their upbringing. All of the kids lived in the same environment and had basically the same experiences. However, you can see a big difference in the way their parents thought about race. C's parents seem to be less racist than some of C's friend's parents. The boys are shaped by the people that they are around the most, and by the way that these people think. It makes me think twice about who I surround myself with. No matter how much you try, you are being affected by the people you are with. Whether you know it or not, their thoughts begin to become your own. Its a dangerous way to live if you ask me.

In class this week, we looked into the ideas of micro and macro sociology. We did this by doing our activity on the boat. We kicked people off who we saw as unfit or unimportant. However, we kept people on the boat who we thought would be useful. For example, we kicked of the old couple because we saw their age and decided that they weren't going to be able to do their share of the work.  On the other hand, we kept the pregnant cheerleader because we saw the value of the life that she had in her. We used this experiment to show what affects our decisions everyday. Some of the larger things like living in America, going to the school that we do, being the age that we are etc., have shaped the way that most teenagers in America see the world. We are taught to value health, youth, usefulness, and education. That is why year after year, the results for this project are relatively the same. However, smaller things, or micro sociology also have a way of shaping us. Things like what our families are like,the friends we hang out with, the clubs we're in, all shape us. For example, I can be associated with and shaped by the general groups that I'm apart of like living in the U.S. and being a high school student. But I might be different than kids in my own school because of the people that I'm friends with and the way that they have shaped my outlook on life.

In class this week, we discussed the concept of "social construction of reality". This is the idea that people, or society, comes up with unspoken rules about what is acceptable. We get many of our opinions about things based on what society has taught us is OK or not OK. In class, we used the example of saliva vs. spit. They are the same thing. But somehow, our society has decided that the fact that the saliva is outside of your mouth, that it is suddenly not OK. You can also see an example of this in the things that we eat. In our society, we eat hot dogs and ham and all kinds of meat that we see as acceptable. But in other countries, they eat meats like dog and they think that that is fine to do. However, in America, we are shocked because we see dogs as pets and not meat. That's what our society said is not an alright thing to do. Each Society is different as to what is what is socially acceptable and what is not. But every area has their ideas and expectations.