Is it Racist?

Racism has always been a problem since as long as man can remember, it is constantly trying to be avoided, but sometimes people just cannot help but be racist. In sociology, I learned that from the moment of birth, racism is brought into humans' lives. This is what makes it so hard to overcome, because it lies with in our unconscious minds. The best way to attempt to not be racist, is to practice social mindfulness. Regardless of what ethnicity, religion, sex orientation, or race we should always be accepting, racism is just one of the many forms of discrimination.

Jail House Rock

I've always heard that prisoners we're tried very poorly in jails, "as they should be". But after watching a video about a guy who went into jail and made a documentary about modern day American jail systems, my views have slightly changed about how some prisoners should be treated. The documentary was taken inside a drug-incident related jail. All prisoners were either caught drug trafficking or caught under the influence. These drug crimes ranged from marijuana to more extreme cases like heroin. None of these men were murders, rapists, bank robbers, or terrorists. None should have been treated like such, but they were. A lot of Prisoners didn't need jail, they needed rehab or psychological medications or therapy. According to the video, a huge part of  prisoners today have psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia or manic depression. They need help, not the abuse of the guards. These prisoners were not even allowed in daylight, if they were misbehaved they were sent to 72 hours in a small, windowless, boxed room that would make anyone crazy. And since these people are getting jail time instead of rehab, they are more likely, as soon as they finally get out of jail, to come back for the same crime. Society today thinks that if they just throw the "bad guys" away in a locked-up place, that everything will be fine. But it costs A LOT of the tax payers' money to feed and take care of prisoners. Murders and rapists have no excuse and should be jailed, but people who probably have mental issues and bad drug addictions, I think, should be helped and not treated as animals.

10 Hours at the Special Olympics

A couple weeks ago, I spent my Sunday volunteering at the Special Olympics for bacci ball. It was a very interesting experience and I learned a lot more than just how to play bacci ball. In fact just on my way getting there was an interesting experience. When I first got to school beforehand to meet at the buses taking us there, I realized I didn't have my volunteer card, which meant I couldn't take the organization's bus. But then someone offered to drive me, someone who I've went to school with since Jr. High, but I've never really talked to b/c we're in such different friend groups. It was really interesting how our perceptions have been of each other over the years in school with never talking to one another. But when we finally arrived at the Special Olympics, that was very interesting as well. We were put into groups of 4 to ref our own court. Through out the day, many different handicapped people played at our court. Some were good enough to play in regular competitions, some did amazing for their disabilities, and some just had a great time socializing and playing even if they didn't get a single point. Every participant was just so happy and friendly to one another. Most regular sport competitions these days, people are always extremely rude when they're competitive. As odd as it may seem to the world of competitive sports these days, we actually could learn a lot from these special Olympic athletes.

There's no need to worry, parents just don't understand!





Why does it seem like "back in your parents day" the older generation always has better ethics, worked harder, and was more mature? In a recently article I read, about studying the teen-parent conflicts in perspective, I discovered that there are many reasons why each older generation thinks themselves "high on a pedastal" over the younger generations. One idea is that the media is to blame. Through modern day media, America's youth is constantly being told that you have to grow up faster and faster. Well this happens physcologically and physically. In a study mentioned in the article "Putting Teen-Parent Conflicts in Perspective," The average age of puberty for girls was 16 in 1820, 14 in 1900, 13 in 1940, and today it's 12. Besides the fact that America's youth is physically growing up faster, media in America (through music, movies, internet, and television channels like MTV) encourages teenagers to have sex as soon as possible, drink and do drugs, and most of all... defy your parents. They do this, by making sneaking out, going to parties, passing out, fighting/talking back to your parents, and being high or drunk look really fun, and portray teenagers as young as 14 doing it. Another suggested cause is the economy. Older generations had hard working jobs like construction and working in factories instead of working at a Burger King or Hollister, and they could do it with less diplomas or degrees. Working at a construction site, the older workers would mess with the teenage older generations, the would teach them important life lessons, and good work-ethics. Now days most teenagers don't even have any jobs because of the economy and the fact that one will not get a good job with out a college diploma (unlike the only required high school diploma back then). These unemployed teens just hang with their friends, play video games, or do drugs to kill time. So as much as teenagers these days get ragged on about having sex or doing drugs and younger and younger ages, not being as responsible as the higher generations was, or being "lazy", we are not completely to blame.

Why did the woman cross the road? Wait, better question, why is she out of the kitchen!?

Jokes like these are used to affiliate women with the degrading stereotype that they have worked for so long and so hard to overcome through out history. But throughout more recent American history, women have fought to earn their right to vote and end a majority of feminine discrimination. They took baby steps to achieve this right to independence. In the business world today women such as Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart are known as some of the most influential and powerful women not only the media, but in the stock market, and worldwide help-organizations. Also many other female actresses such as Ellen De-generous have endorsed ending further discrimination and public issues; whether it's spreading awareness of starvation in Africa, standing up for gay rights, or trying to end cyber-harassment and bullying. Women today are still fighting for respect after all these years, some holding better and higher jobs than men. They are doing amazing things and deserve some credit. Jokes like the ones above can really be a kick-in-the-teeth to many. I know among my peers that a lot of kids say this stuff just to joke around, they do not stop to think for a second the effect it will have on anyone. People can always blame sources for this: the media, forms of parental raising, lack-of-feminine education in schools; But I know, especially after recently watching a video in sociology that disregarded female discrimination and degradation, that I will try to be more sociological mindful towards these jokes about women from now on.

The Growing Human Model

As infants we are all about the ground. We crawl, explore, and usually have our heads tilted towards the ground. We are all about instinct. It is nature for human beings to socialize with other human beings and other living things. So babies are fascinated with everyone and thing. But as we grow older, we use less instinct and more brain power. As we progress to adulthood, we our constantly looking forward, looking all around us to absorb as much as we can in our brains. This is called the "Growing Man" model, and we learned it in sociology class. This made me realize how much babies need attention, they actually need it for their brain to grow to its full potential. Especially in our society today, where we spend a lot of time isolated playing video games, watching tv, or being on the computer. People should start to make an effort to socialize more, it's what makes us human.

Doing "Nothing" is harder than it seems...

We had an assignment given a few weeks ago to find a public place and literally attempt to do absolutely nothing for 10 minutes. When most people think of "doing nothing" they don't take into consideration that even THINKING is doing something. So basically this was more of a 10 minute meditation, in which we tried to keep our minds clear of thought for 10 minutes. I performed this assignment in the middle of a mall. I picked this place because I like challenges, and what better of a challenge then to attempt to meditate in a place full of people socializing and moving, various types of different stores and shops, and different aromas filling the air. I stood still in the middle of an upstairs walkway, near the food court, and very close to one of those stands that sell certain products. To start off the meditation, I imagined hearing the constantly changing "buddah-bell" that is rung at the beginning of every sociology class. This helped me keep a clear mind even though people were zooming past me. This was until a sales associate from the stand nearby approached me probably to ask if I needed anything. But before he could ask me anything and fully break my meditation, I motioned my head away from him. This consumed about 1 minute of my assigned time. So in the end, I wasn't completely doing "nothing" for the 10 minutes. But this activity made me realize that no one is every really doing nothing, everything that is living is occurring. Things are constantly changed, very similar to the bell I imagined to help my meditation in the first place. This was a very interesting task and I will never think of the phrase "doing nothing" the same way ever again.