Who Am I 2nd Time

It is the end of the school year and our assignment was to go back and read our Who Am I blog. It was funny to read my first blog ever. I am still the same person, I still have the same goals and I still have the same values. My goal on the first blog was to graduate and since I am, i'm going to make a new goal. My new goal is to graduate from college without changing my career plans to many times. I still like to make people smile and change their days around if they are having a bad day. Sociology has taught me who I am and what my values and goals are.

"Losers"

The title of this column was very decieving, I had no idea what the columnist meant by the term loser. I thought this article was very interesting. The way he defined losers and winners were by their jobs and what they do for a living. The "winners" have the highest paying jobs and have ideal jobs, while the "losers" have the lowest paying jobs that nobody would ever want to do for a living.
I think society does depend on the loser jobs, no one wants to do the dirty work so if no one did the low paying jobs i agree the world would not function the way it does now without the low paying jobs. I think it is sad that the rich people judge the people that make less than them. It is really sad because the people they are judging they wouldn't do their jobs and if they did those people would probably not judge them anymore. The only reason we have places to eat out, gamble, or really anything out in public is because of the loser jobs that people work at. How could we enjoy ourselves without people working the loser 10 dollars or less pay?
This article also mentions crime rate without people doing crimes we wouldn't have law enforcement, or people that work in prisons or jails. There would be no such things then as your high paid lawyers or courthouse workers.So we need the losers to be apart of our society otherwise the winners would be nonexistent.
The only thong I really didn't agree on is some of the winner jobs our society wouldn't be able to function without them like our nation's doctors without them we wouldnt have q very healthy society. So I think that was a little exaggerated on that quote. Otherwise I completely agree that without some of the loser jobs we wouldn't have our winner jobs.

Boyz in the Hood

In sociology class we watched the movie in Boyz in the Hood. The movie is set in the time period of the 80's and 90's for the African American culture. Life back then was very hard for the African American culture. There culture, family, etc. life is all very different from how we live.The culture of the African American people back then and sometimes now that live on the streets deal with drugs, alcohol, and shootings. Some don't live that way they live in a normal setting.


The movie I thought gave us a look into their family lives pretty well. Yee the main character goes to live with his dad because he keeps causing trouble in school. While living with his dad he gains new friends. The movie shows his friend's family situations too. The one family they show the mom loves one of her sons more than the other because he is more talented than his other brother. Tre's dad shows him how to become a more responsible and respectable young man. You can see throughout the movie that he isn't quite like his other friends, but he is still respected by his peers, even though he might not be doing what they are doing. This movie shows that family life in these types of situations are not easy and bring new challenges everyday.

Drugs and shooting are in the movie. The movie shows that drugs and shooting were just a daily thing that went on and still does. That would be the scariest thing that I think people have to go through is wondering if you would be shot or not. Usually if you get shot it is to get back at you for something they did. We see in the movie that one of Tre's best friends get shot by a group of boys that think he was running his mouth about them. It was really sad because he was gonna go and play football for a college and he had a kid. Right after the killing his brother goes to find that group of guys, he finds them and kills them. The movie then tells us that two weeks later that he was killed. The movie didn't show a lot of drug use but it showed drinking. In these types of august stings and drug use are a huge deal that usually lead to all the shooting that happens.

The relationships between these people are different than what most people are used too. It is a tough love situation where there are never real emotions that are ever showed towards each other. Tre's father shows that he is going to make his son be responsible so is tough on him but Tre does turn out to be alright so that type of tough love worked out. The mom across the street doesn't like her one son as well as the other son she has. There are all type of situations out there, but in this type of situation they usually don't show a whole lot of affection towards each other.

This movie really was a great movie to show that life is not easy for those that live in those situations. It shows that family life can be difficult to deal with. It shows that drugs and alcohol is a daily thing that happens. Also shootings happen all the time that is really hard to understand because around here it isn't a norm. The movie is a great example that we should not take the life we live for granted and to be thankful for what we have. People that live in the streets I can not imagine that they live in the streets and our surrounded around the drugs, shootings, and family struggles that go on. This movie really opened my eyes to see that life is so easy for me compared to what the people living in those types of situations live in. I'm so thankful that I don't live in that type of situation where you have to survive pretty much for yourself. I thought the movie was really good and showed great examples of how life really is for people living in those types of conditions.

Catfish

We recently watched the movie Catfish in sociology class. It is about a guy that was basically getting told lies over the internet. So he went to go searching for who he thought he was talking to and found out that it was not who he thought it would be. A catfish on the internet terms is a person who creates fake accounts and fake pictures to get someone interested in them and start relationships. So the question is if everyone has a catfish, I think personally not everyone has there own catfish. I think you can if you put your self in that type of situation. If people would stay away from randomly adding people you only know on facebook and other sites this problem would eliminate. I don't have a catfish and I don't know of anyone that does either. Some people do need there catfish in order to want to keep going in life. They probably do because they feel like they are the only people that care about them or have an interest in them, but really they more than likely will get hurt if they don't know the person beforehand.

Articles

The first article was about a basketball team that won and no one thought they would win. The person that wrote the article was very racist towards the players and had some very rude comments in the article. The writer of the article couldn't believe that the leading scorer was Korean. I can't believe any paper would publish that but it goes to show that there are a lot of stereotypes that people have about different races.


The Second article was very interesting. It was about how Jewish people used to dominate the sport of basketball. It talked about how they used basketball for a way out of the inner cities. I found it very interesting that at the time it was an advantage to be short in basketball. Jewish people dominated because most of them were short and were very fast.


Both articles point out how people can stereotype a race in sports. Sports is not the only place though people stereotype, it is everywhere. No matter how many people think they are not racist they have probably stereotyped a race of people before.

Alien Commuters 200 words

This article talked about how people from Mexico travel hours to go and work in the U.S. at farms. These people that go across the border to work are usually working in fields. They only get a few hours of sleep five to six days a week. These people only work though for so many months though at a time. The people that were interviewed in the article said that the work was hard but what they dreaded the most was the morning trip to go to work. People line up at 4:30 in the morning that is considered the morning rush.  Fights break out often because so many people line up and push and shove to get on the bus first. There is no security though to control the fights that breakout. Ounce you are in the line to get on that bus you better stay in the line or you will not have your spot if you leave. There are vendors there to sell you food and drink. There are also no bathrooms so the tunnel smells horrible. The wait just to get into the bus is about a three hour wait. There minimum wage is about 5.07 a day.

Animal Farm Quiz Blog

Conflict theory is a big part of the story, there is conflict throughout the story. The bourgeoisie in the story is Napoleon the pig and the proletariats are the rest of the animals that follow under his ruling. Napoleon takes over right after Old Major dies and makes up the seven commandments. The animals follow the commandments, but then the pigs think that they are the smartest animals and they change the commandments to only benefit themselves. The other animals go along with it but deep down they know that what the pigs are doing are not right. The other animals never say anything because there is a possibility that they could be killed by the dogs that Napoleon trained to be killers. In the end of the book who ends up winning the power struggle? At the end of the book the animals look through the window in the house and they see the pigs playing cards with the farmers. The animals say they couldn't see the difference between the pigs and the farmers. So to me who ended up winning would be the pigs because they are inside playing cards and having a good time and the rest of the animals have to stay outside and work just so they won't get killed. The functionalist theory is  roles people play. For example whatever job you may have the harder the job the more pay you will get. At the beginning of the book Old Major takes matters into his hands because the Farmer Jones is not taking care of the animals properly so he sets up the seven commandments. Ounce Old Major dies the Napoleon takes over and tells all the animals that pigs are smarter and that they will make sure every animal behind them are doing their jobs properly. In my opinion the animals that worked the hardest deserved higher rewards but that was not the case. The animals society by the end of the book did not reach a healthy balance because the pigs were still in control and the rest of the animals that had been working the most were still being treated poorly.


In the story Animal Farm you could put the animals into social class based on power. The pigs would be at the top, dogs, horses, donkey, ect.. The pigs would have the top rank because they are in control of all the animals. The animals at the bottom are the ones that work for the pigs and get nothing in return for their work. The animals in the book are based off of people for example Napoleon is Joseph Stalin, Old Major is Karl Marx, Trotsky is Snowball,  Famer Jones is Hitler. The book shows communism through animals. The farmers show deviance, it is a farmers job to take care of the animals and feed them. In the story though Farmer Jones in particular would rather sleep and drink then take care of his livestock. Another type of deviance is that the Napoleon changes the commandments to benefit only himself.

Barcelona Fight Club

The video we watched in class was about young men that fight so they stay off the streets. Is it a temporary fix or permanent fix for these young men? It is a temporary thing that has a permanent effect in my opinion. The young men can only fight for so long but it will teach them that there are better things to work at then selling drugs. So what happens when they become older? Some of the them may still be fighting but I think if they aren't fighting they will be working and not getting into trouble with the law. Then there are some who may end back up on the street, only because they never had the desire to be better people. I think the opportunities that these young men have to fight will be able to get further in life. They will be able to get further in life because they are getting off the streets and staying out of trouble so the longer they stay out of trouble the greater chance they have at succeeding in life. Some may not fight for a long period of time but they most likely will not be back on the streets. I think it teaches them that in order to achieve in something they have to work hard for it.

Identify this game

On the game Chintz or Shag? I got middle class as my result. On the game Identify this I got thirteen wrong so that wasn't too good. Then on the name that class game I got middle class again.

Social Class

In sociology we watched this family that lives in poverty. The one son wants to be a lawyer or architect, the mom wants to be a teacher. I think the mom will not ever achieve the goal of going to college and become a teacher. The son if he tries hard in school he could achieve his goal of becoming a lawyer or architect. The factors that hold the mom back from achieving her goal of becoming a teacher is that she is already getting older and she still has to support her kids so she has no way of earning enough money for her and her kids. The son the only thing that could hold him back is that he could decide to drop out of school or not have enough money to go to college. The son portrays in the movie that he tries to make himself look decent and tries to clean up. I give him props for trying but he is only really kidding himself. The only way he will move up in a higher class if he goes to college and gets a decent job. We learn later on that that the son never even graduates from high school but he is living in a somewhat decent house. The mom is still working at Burger King, but does not have to walk very far anymore.


Social class in our school I don't think is that big of deal. In some bigger schools it may be a bigger deal. High school can set you up to get a better education and possibly help you get a better job. If someone was dating someone in a lower class or higher class than what that persons families income is it could cause some problems. The parents if they are a higher class may want their son or daughter to date someone in the same social class as them. I would be in the middle class if I was in that film.


Possessions that show my families social class is our vehicles, house, anything that a typical middle class family may have. Does the things people own describe what class we are in? Not necessarily there are some people that buy high priced stuff that they really can't afford but they buy it anyways to make themselves look better. My family shops at Kens, Walmart, Kesseler depends on where we are at. Are family eats white bread because that is the only kind that my father likes.

Karl Marx

1. What theory do you go with functionalist or conflict
2. Comment on Karl Marx - likes dislikes
3. Answer questions from Marx video in class.


I believe in the functionalist theory more than the conflict theory. I believe that the more skill a job takes that the people should be paid higher. I agree with Marx's oppressed or oppressor theory. I do believe in his social classes. I don't believe that the world will end up classless. The video said, "that a man creates his own luck." The more I thought about this I do believe that a man does create some of his own luck. I believe that if you do something good you will get something better in return. That is when I think some people's luck comes into play.

Movie

The movie we watched for sociology was very scary and really a wakeup call.  In the beginning I didn’t think that the boys’ mom would end up mixing pills. I thought she would try and stop her son and help him out, not where she couldn’t help herself anymore.  The only thing that made me think that the mom would help him was because she would let him take her TV and then she would go get it back.  

In the beginning the young adults were making a lot of money from the drug market.  My prediction was that they would blow it. I was right they did end up low on their drugs and out of money. Then they end up having to go do other illegal things just to make money to get the drugs they needed. It is really sad that people are so addicted that they would do anything just to make money to buy the drugs they need.  They had the chance to make even more money but that chance didn’t happen because the one guy was shot. Therefore the money was spent and then they had no way of getting their drugs. Also the drugs were becoming more hard to find.

With no money or drugs they began to get dope sick. I thought  they were all going to die from the lack of drugs and money. The mother was getting sick from the pills she was taking and was very sick looking by the end it was hard to even look at her. To try and get more drugs Harry had his friend went out to find more drugs. Harry had a really bad infection from shooting a needle in his arm, so he went  to a hospital. Harry went to jail and so did his friend. Harry did receive medical treatment but lost is arm due to the horrible infection. Then the girl was left at the house. She was so sick she ended up prostituting herself just to get money for her drugs. This movie was really just messed up and shows what the horrible effects of drugs can do to a person.

Drugs

Our sociology class just got done watching a video informing us on heroin. Heroin is a very dangerous drug, it is just plain horrible. Once people are addicted to heroin it takes control of their lives. Heroin is injected into a vein. People that are addicted have to inject so many times a day or else they get very sick, and could potentially kill a person.  The video also talked about how if you don’t use clean needles the people that use heroin could get an HIV and other diseases.  There are places set up that heroin users can go into and get clean needles and safely inject the heroin. At first I thought that wasn’t right, but the more I thought about it the more I thought it was ok. I thought it was ok because it is better to be safe then to have a bunch of different diseases spread and get everyone sick. The video also showed us on how the whole process of getting heroin. First it comes from a poppy plant in Afghanistan. It is how a lot of the middle eastern people make their money to support their families. Then it gets shipped to the U.S. and then goes through a whole other process. The video interviewed a lot of the different people that the process goes through. It is hard to catch the people supplying heroin.  

Trashed Tuesday Blog

 The article Trashed is about a young teenage boy who is found dead in an alley. A man found him there so he called the police, the man that found him said that the police took a long time to look over the scene. They finally announced that the young boys name was Michael York, he was 17 years old. The authorities said that he had died from a heroin overdose. Michael did not die though in the alley where he was found, he was dropped off there by his three friends. Michael was at a party where he was using the drug. St. Charles East where Michael was from, that school had mostly just marijuana and alcohol but no heroin. More and more kids from the school were becoming addicted to the drug. It was a norm for teenagers to use heroin. The school was known to be a good school that was safe. The community was known to be popular with tourist, so it was odd that one drug could be tearing the community apart. Drugs are something that needs to be taken more seriously it causes many deaths. Just like the many cases in the article Trashed, there was more than just Michael. Another thing is people stereotype people by using drugs, and most don’t think they are white, but the community that the article is talking about is a white community. People should not stereotype by just the color of their skin  because there are a lot of whites that use drugs.

Monday Blog

 

After reading the article, “Are the Xbox and unleaded gas helping keep you safe from violent crime?” I never really thought that playing video games, lead, and housing would lower the crime rate. In the Xbox explanation experts claim that criminals are too busy playing their violent video games that they don’t think about going out and doing violent crimes. Not just Xboxes have led to the decrease of crimes; gadgets and technology also have had an impact on the crime rate. Research claims that Street corners and drug dens are no longer as dangerous as they once were, because cellphones and the Internet have largely taken their place as marketplaces for illicit goods.

The housing effect shows that when you replace better housing in large cities the crime rate decreases.  After the housing project residents moved to other neighborhoods they brought crime with them, but the remaining effect for the city overall was still a lower crime rate.

One thing I found very interesting was the research on lead. Exposure to lead among children has been shown that their IQs are low. The impact that the lead has on the brain also has been connected to the sorts of aggressive behaviors that support violent crime. In the late 1970s, lead was removed from gasoline and paint, resulting in the lead levels in people. Ever since they took lead out of gas and paint there has been and decrease in violent behavior. Health Professor Jessica Wolpaw Reyes thinks that this will continue and violence will keep decreasing.

People think that crime goes down when the economy goes up, that is not the case. Police and social scientists were watching for an increase in violent crime during the Great Recession that began in 2008, but it never occurred. That’s somewhat because more people were staying home because they lacked work.

Podcast Breakfast Club

A character analysis and movie analysis podcast
Breakfast club podcast

Deviance

In class we learned about positive and negative deviance. Positive deviance is when a person does something that is positive towards society. Negative deviance is when a person breaks the rules society believes is right. Like the potato chip man he did a positive deviance that broke up a fight on a subway. That was an example of positive deviance. Like in the teen robber article the teen robber was given a coat by the man that he was going to steal from but then the man took the teen out to dinner and then the teen gave him back his wallet to pay for the dinner. In class we were suppose to do a positive deviance. My positive deviance was at the basketball game on Thursday. Instead of my mom paying for my families lunch I did. My mother was a little surprised but she thanked me.