Gender Role

The man in the mirror

Biologically race does not exist. Race is a socially constructed system that has been created by societies to classify people into different categories based on physical traits; especially skin color. A Different Mirror by Ronald T. Takaki and the first episode of Race: The power of Illusion show examples of how race has been created throughout the years of our existence and how this shapes our views in society. Our society makes us believe that race exists and that this is the way people should be separated into groups to simply justify inequality among us. Historically, I feel that race was created to just keep the white population in power. The white European and later on white American colonized places in the world where indigenoius people lived. In the case of the Native Americans who once were the ligitimate habitants of this country; their land and rights were stripped away from them with the justification of the Manifest Destiny. The new settlers had no mercy and did not respect the natives' way of living. They came to this land claiming new territory as theirs by the most atrocious means, yet the settlers had the audacity to call the natives "savages".This idea of racism has been going on for hundreds of years and it is sad that racism it is still induced in us today. I remember one I read something about Morgan Freeman and something that he said still intreagues me today. He said something like:" racism still exists today because we believe it exists". I also think of this term "race" as an actual race between people of different backgrounds and status in society based on skin color. We are constantly competing to be the best and in reality no "race" is better than any other. If our DNAs are so similar to that of a person in Africa it means something. This means that scientifically we all come from the same background and for people to want to discard this fact it is just absurd. Black people in most parts of the world are seen as "bad" and I never really understood why. Why is society always trying to put down one group that we all have ancestry to? African slaves were brought to different regions of the world unwillingly in the worst conditions for white European supremacy to make a profit and expand globaly. Like it was mentioned in the reading, they were brought to other places as indenture servants, but we don't exactly know when the employers decided to make them slaves. Either way, blacks were never in best conditions. Refering back to the video, I believe that it is true that scientists are influenced by the time and place they live in. For example the naturalist Carolus Linnaeus laid the foundation to categorize four different types of homo sepiens (Eurpeanus, Americanus, Asiaticus and Africanus). This idea was constructed in the seventeen hundreds which served as a model for the classification of races during the ages of emperialism and colonialism always placing the African people as a minority.I sometimes feel like people from different backgrounds are labeled as something that they are not, therefor stereotypes and prejudice develops against a certain group, which leads to second deviance. I believe that most people are capable of doing what they envision for themselves, but because of the way that society is constructed, it prevents people from doing so. Like I mentioned before, there are obstacles that the race in power creates so that they can keep their power and others never climb the ladder to be in their level. 

House of Lies

Media Magic : Making Class Invisible

   One thing that truly saddens me is how truthful the reading Media Magic: Making Class Invisible is. This reading by Gregory Mantsios talks about how the media influences the way in which we view the poor. The media is a fixed agent of society owned by only a couple of corporations, therefor the information we get is managed by them. I can agree with Mantsios on the statement that (us) minorities are portrayed to others as a danger to society, especially the poor. The news only show the negative aspects instead of positive qualities a minority may posses. One thing that this reading made me think of is the fact that organizations advertise "save a child from starvation in Africa", meanwhile there are kids in our country starving as well. I think that in the case of Africa, people would argue that people have no choice there, but what about the kids here in the U.S. who have no choice either? That is not their fault. I took a road trip down to Florida for the first time in the summer and although I was only going to Florida, I was able to see that in some areas close enough to home, people are less fortunate.  The poor are invisible to us in many instances, but when they are noticeable is only for the worst. they are only visible to the naked eye when they commit a crime or when the media tries to show how much the starving population is weighing the whole country down. All this brings me back to Weber's life chances, which is s person's likelihood to be able to obtain valued economic and cultural resources. A poor person is basically powerless in many situations because they do not have enough resources to influence their social status and move up the social ladder. Poor people are often exposed to suffer classism as we can see from the reading. They are seen as bacteria that other social classes cannot prevent, meanwhile poor people are the victims of rich corporations in many cases due to social inequality. Another thing that happens to people living in poor areas of the country is that distribution of resources is unequally giving to them. For instance, I have experienced the difference between observing kids from extremely wealthy suburbs and the ones from just more average income. I live in Port Washington which is located on the North Shore area of Long Island. Most of the towns on the North Shore area are pretty wealthy, but you can still find the difference of unequal distribution within many school districts. When I started school at BMCC I could not comprehend why some of the students were even sitting in a college classroom; not because they did not deserve an education, but because it seemed to me that they did not have the level of education to be in college yet.

Deviance

  Deviance is defined as behavior that defies basic cultural norms and expectations. In our daily lives we encounter deviant acts constantly without even realizing it. To some of us this non-conforming behavior  may be part of who we are and in today's world certain behavior is more acceptable, but who has the power to say what is acceptable and what is not? Over the weekend, I tried to pay attention to things that people would describe as deviant and thought of why they are unacceptable. I observed a whole lot, but I'll just give you six.
1. Tomboys: My friend has a "boy" haircut and is in the coast guard. To me she is just a girl who likes to  wear jeans and hoodies a lot, to my parents and other members of my family she is a dyke. There is actually not an inch of lesbian about my friend, because she LOVES guys a lot and she even has a fiance. It is just sad and irritating how my parents (especially my dad) assume that my friend is a lesbian and so they don't even want her to come over basically. She's also Colombian, so my aunt even assumed that she does drugs- How pathetic of her. Then again she thinks everyone does drugs. In this case, the agent of social control is my family. For many generations they have been influenced by the culture where women are supposed to be feminine and play the role of a woman. I think that in the hispanic culture a lot of people if not most (especially in Latin American countries) are homophobic, so when they see women like my friend, they are quick to judge her as lesbian. I also believe that is also easy for my parents and others to label people as gay or lesbian, because of what they see going on today.
2. Teen Sex: This is seen as a problem for many parents and in different cultures. Parents, schools, culture and other other institutions want to prevent it, but reality is that sex is everywhere today. It is hard to keep children away from it because it is advertised even in the ways you wouldn't expect. When young girls(especially) are known to be sexually active, they are seen as whores and all the bad names that someone can be called. I don't think it is their fault when they are that young, because they have been influenced by the behavior of others too often.

3. In today's American society I would say thaty obesity seen as deviant. I think that this image that we have what is beautiful and what is not can stigmatize a person. Stigma is the shame connected to a behavior or status that is regarded as unacceptable or discrediting. Usually people who are stigmatized suffer inequalities which lead to isolation or discrimination in a society. If a person suffers from obesity they can be excluded from many things that can affect their social and economic position. A person's weight can prevent them from getting certain jobs even though the person may actually highly capable of performing the requisites of a job. I think that most people would discriminate obese or even a person who is just over-weight, especially in a place where "beauty" is required.
4. Tattoos: Although tattoos are popular and have been a trend for plenty years, they are still seen as deviant for many people. In my family, tattoos are seen as shameful and usually connected to gangs. I think that for many hispanics and other cultures, tattoos go against religious morals. El Salvador has a history of gangs and one of the features that gang members show is that they are covered in tattoos, which leads to the labeling of others as gang members. When I first got my tattoos I had to hide them from my parents, because I know that they would say:"only gang members have tattoos". Obviously I am not a gang member, but my parents are always so worried about what other people are going to think and say. This is not only my parents, I know other people who would look at people differently because of their tattoos even if their tattoos have absolutely nothing to do with gangs.
5. Smoking: Is another behavior that is seen as deviant although a good percentage of the nation and the world smokes. Once again, I will put my family as an example. For my family (as I am sure for others), once a kid smokes cigarettes, they are "doing drugs". Nicotine is a drug, but most people don't want to see it that way. For some parents if their kid is hanging out with someone who smokes, then that kid is bad and they think that this person is doing other drugs or smoking pot and they are also afraid that their child will do the same. cigarette becomes a joint. Edwin Sutherland would call this Differential association theory, which explains deviance as a learned behavior. I had this problem, because some of my friends started smoking and so my parents didn't want me hanging out with them, even though I didn't smoke cigarettes. My aunt rapidly assumed that my friend is a druggie because she smokes cigarettes. She started calling her a pot-head and a bad kid, meanwhile she never took the time to get to know the girl. I think that many parents do this. I understand why parents become alarmed, but it also isn't fair that some spread rumors about other people. This leads to the problem of the labeling theory. This theory describes deviance as being the result of the interpretation of a certain behavior by a group of people (usually a majority) and how the individuals who are labeled as deviant usually incorporate this judgment as part of their identity (Experience Sociology, p. 192). Although smoking is nothing to be proud of and it may lead to other drugs, I do not think people have the right to just falsely accuse others of being drug addicts because they smoke cigarettes. My grandmother has smoked cigarettes for most of her life and she was never an illicit drug user.
6. Gangs: This is an example of deviant subculture, because to be part of a gang each person has to become a member through a series of non-conformist acts which are deviant to society. In order for them to keep their membership (to not be killed because once you are in, YOU ARE IN), they must be committed to the gang and their norms.