Who am I?

I am a sociologically mindful person now. I am a teenage girl trying to fit in with all of the social norms, who's life is controlled by stereotypes. My eyes have been opened to many parts of sociology that I otherwise would have just looked past, such as gender roles, race not actually existing, and the importance of money on people's views of your deviance. I am fortunate enough to be in a majority; others see me as an middle-upper class white heterosexual, so I have it about as good as it gets, to an outsider taking a brief look at my life.

Service Experience Hours

For a long time now, volunteering has been a big part of my life. The first place I really felt a personal connection to was Equestrian Conneciton, when I started volunteering in 2007. Equestrian Connection is a therapeutic stable where kids and adults can ride horses, with the help of therapists, leaders, and side walkers. Throughout this semester, I have gone there to volunteer for 2-3 hours each week leading horses, putting saddles and bridals on the horses, walking next to the riders, and helping with mounts and dismounts.
My mom is the directer of a PADS homeless shelter and I have volunteered there for the dinner shift (6:30-8:30) twice this semester. I thought it was a good experience to get to volunteer and talk to the guests and realize they are people like you and me, with their own stories, personalities, and food preferences.
For a few seasons now, I have volunteered as a buddy for Keshet's Buddy Baseball. It is from 1-2:30 on Sundays in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. At Buddy Baseball, each player is paired with one or two buddies, and they get to play a game of baseball. There are no outs, everyone gets a chance to hit each round and make it around the bases. I think this is a very special opportunity for the players to get to play on a team and hit the ball and make it around for a home run, with buddies helping them every step of the way.
In the begininning of the semester, I raised money and participated in the Polar Plunge to raise money for Special Olympics. I felt this was meaningful for me because I am a Gymnastics Coach for the Special Olympics, so I got to see who was being benifited from all the money that each of the teams raised. Although the water was FREEZING, I had a good time that day with my friends, especially because it was for such a good cause.

Me at Buddy Baseball

 

Polar Plunge!

What is Race

How do we define race? What component of our blood decides our race? Looking at our hair in a microscope, what is different between each race? What does my fingerprint show about my race? What about my skin color?
Race is not biological. You cannot tell what race a person is by looking at any of the above questions. Race is socially constructed. Your race may change depending on what country you are in and who you are with. Someone could be considered "white" in America, while they would be called "Amorenada" in Brazil (meaning tannish). In Brazil, there are well over a hundred different ways to classify someone by skin color. Race is constructed differently by each country and each culture.
When trying to classify people by race, you may use some of the questions previously asked, like skin color. This is not something that you can say this person is dark and that person is light; skin color is a spectrum. When three people are in a line, you can say who is the most dark or the most light, but once you add 10 people to that group, the person who was once considered "dark" may now be in the middle. Race is like a spectrum.

Crash

This week in class, we watched the movie Crash; it showed the racial tensions between people. The movie showed how people of different races are stereotyped in many situations. Some of this was very shocking for me as because I come from a mainly white upper class area where I don't see much of these racial issues first hand.
Some of the ways people in Crash were stereotyped is by the color of their skin, accents that they had, and where they appeared to have come from.
Something I found very interesting and surprising is that a young police officer was very against racial stereotyping and discrimination, so much that he put his job on the line so that he wouldn't have to ride in a patrol car with a racist partner. He was outwardly accepting of people, especially black people, but he ended up feeling threatened by a black man, he was giving a ride to, who was reaching in his pocket to pull something out, and the officer ended up shooting the man. It turns out the black man was pulling out St. Christopher to show he had the same one as the officer had in his car.
Officer Ryan, the young officer's partner in the beginning of the movie, was very racist. He pulled over a car, for no real reason, with a black couple in it. He molested the woman. Near the end of the movie, him and his new officer were the first on site of a crash, where the driver of the car flipped over was that woman he had previously molested. The car ended up catching on fire and after his partner pulled him out of the burning car, he risked his life to go back in and save the woman.
This movie is full of irony of people who's views on racism dramatically change throughout the movie. I really enjoyed watching the movie so I could see how much people's lives are filled with racism.

Why We Are Where We Are

Many people blame poor people for being poor. In class, we did a simulation of social class using the game, Monopoly, with a little twist. Each person was randomly (by rolling dice) assigned to a social class, which is what social class they are born into. The lower classes get less money to start with and get only a little money when passing GO, while the upper classes start with a lot of money, multiple properties, and receive a lot of money when passing GO. As the rounds went on, the upper class people got more and more money, while the lower class people kept paying money and didn't end up with very much. Nobody was able to change their social status because of the benifits the upper classes had and the limitations the lower classes had.
This simulation shows that people don't have a choice in the social class they are born into, and it is very difficult to move up even one social class throughout a lifetime.

The Inequalities of Social Class

In class recently we have been talking about the inequalities of social class. In America, everyone is supposed to have the same opportunities to be successful, but it is not the case. If you are born into a family with very little money, then you probably don't go to a very good school, and you won't have the money to go to a good (or even any) college, and you won't be able to get a very good job, and you won't be able to make a lot of money. On the other hand, if you are born into a wealthy family, you probably will attend a good high school, be expected to attend a good college to get a degree, so then you can get a good job, and make a lot of money. Although there are some exceptions to these two examples, this is how majority of Americans lives go.

Saints and Roughnecks

Having enough money can help teens cover up their deviance. I think the money plays a role for almost all students at my high school because we live in a wealthier area.
In the story we read, Saints and Roughnecks, money played a very big role in who got caught. The Saints had money for alcohol, and had cars, so they could get away to further parts of town, where they had less of a chance of getting caught by their parents or school officials. The roughnecks, though, had less money, so they were unable to escape being caught by people in their community.
Although both groups of kids were deviant, the Saints were able to hide it much easier, mainly because they were able to escape by car, because they had more money.
Moral of the story--if you're going to be deviant, it will be more successful if you have more money. :)