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.

"How can you spare someone's feelings by denying them?"

In the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie," Mitch starts to feel uncomfortable when Morrie starts to tear up. Mitch attempts to look away or check his cell phone. Morrie all of a sudden confronts Mitch about this, he states "You feel uncomfortable right now, don't you." Mitch timidly admits his anxiety. His immediately stammers he didn't know quite what to do, he says he guess he was sparing Morrie's feelings. In our American culture today, certain behaviors such as sadness, anger, and embarrassment are seen as types of behaviors that should be spared. Sometimes this is true, but not the way most of our culture handles it. Denying someones feelings, because it makes you uncomfortable, is not the same as sparing them to make the other person feel better. Morrie teaches Mitch a lot about breaking certain taboo barriers in order to create bonding relationships. Societies create taboos, because they decide that a certain type of behavior makes their society uncomfortable. But taboos such as someone of old age "having to get their ass wiped for them" come into play, these are issues in which people have no control over. This isn't fair for someone's feelings to be denied or ignored just because something is happening to them, that is out of their control. I learned a lot more about respect when I heard this quote.

"Yoo bro...one sec dude, my moms callin'........Witam matki, jem teraz."

While entering Jr. High, among the many new friends I made, I met one kid who eventually came to be one of my very good friends entering High school. When I first met this kid I thought he had the coolest nickname, in fact I didn't know his real first name for while even after I was friends with him. I found out that the name everyone called him by was really his last name. I found this so interesting because I had never heard of a last name like that. When I first went to his house I figured out why it sounded so alien to me. He was Polish. Not like the people who say their half Polish and half Russian just because their great-great grandparents immigrated to America from foreign lands, but like his direct parents came here from Poland. When I first went into his house I witnessed a kid that spoke perfect English, talked just like me, speak in a completely foreign tongue, in perfect fluent Polish, to his parents. I almost found it humorous, this kid that was not a nerd, joked with the same immature humor as me and my friends, was bi-lingual. I was so fascinated by it. The first couple times my friends and I went to his house though, we felt a little uncomfortable. We were always taught that saying please and thank you were polite, but whenever we thanked his mom for something or said please she would give us a weird look. My friend would always laugh and tell me that his mom has no problem cooking or having us over so why would we add please or thank you, It wasn't like she was doing us a favor. It took getting used to, it was so different from how I was raised. What I went through is commonly known as "Culture Shock" in which, someone experiences a culture that is extremely different from there own. People have numerous different reactions to Culture Shock. Some may feel very awkward or uncomfortable, some may feel scared or anxious, and some may be fascinated in the uniqueness of the culture. It is important to incorporate Sociological Mindfulness into Culture Shock, to accept that your norm isn't the universal norm. A lot of the reason there is discrimination and racism, is because people are scared to accept this.

"Sunny was right...the working man IS a sucker"

In sociology class, we recently saw the movie "A Bronx Tale." In the movie, Coliginal, or "C", is a kid who grows up in the Bronx of New York. Growing up he has two role models in his life: His father, a city bus driver with good morals and working ethics, and Sunny, a widely feared gangster with golden street-smarts. He grows up listening to the two constant, contradicting life-teachings given to him between Sunny and His Father. He has equal love for both of them, but as he grows up, he listens more to Sunny's life-advice, and becomes closer to him.  A famous question that is asked in the movie is "Is it better to be loved or feared?" Sunny answers this question saying feared, because it lasts longer than love, and people sometimes take advantage of loved ones. Sunny turns out to be wrong, because as great as it seems to have respect from everyone out of fear,  when Sunny passes away,  no one still fears him, but C still loves him. All C's father had was a low-paying, mediocre job, and a clear conscience when he went to bed every night. But to C, Sunny had it all, the money, the "respect", the street-wisdom. As do most human beings,C wants all of this, but even Sunny didn't want C to have the same life as him. Most things aren't always as great as they seem to be. In life, people tend to reach for this idea of  power and respect. It ends up being a matter of patience; whether you want to get it right away, or your willing to wait and work for it. In my life, my dad always tells me that "You cannot build a house of bricks in one day." This meaning that if you want something or need to do something, there are plenty of ways of getting it done right away, but if you are willing to put for the extra time and effort, no matter how irritating or how time consuming, you will be able to have a clear conscience knowing that you will have a "strong, long lasting, and safe house built."

About Me

          The fact that this was the first topic that we were assigned to blog about in our sociology class and I'm just doing it now, 6 weeks into the class, would make me appear to most as the typical second-semester senior, who couldn't care less about the rest of his academic life in High School. This stereotype couldn't further contradict my true personality. Though I am 17 years old and a college-accepted, second-semester senior in High School, my attitude towards school is still that "What could a few more months of lessons in academics and life, before I go into the outside world, hurt?" Some traits that I have always had pride in portraying have been creativity, determination, tolerance & respect for others, and trustworthiness. My family consists of my mom Donna, my dad Evan, my older brother Jason, and my older sister Alexandra. I am Jewish, but like most other Jewish families in my town, I'm really not that religious.  My parents are divorced, which isn't a big part of my life, but it makes things interesting. I feel that I've experienced a lot of situations in my life so far, that have really led me to accept & understand all sorts of people, their lifestyles and their hardships. I like to snowboard, play football, wake-board, draw, play volleyball, listen to music, workout, chill and do fun stuff with my friends, and spend time with family. I had 3 dogs, my family recently had to send "mika" ( An American Staffshire Terrior, commonly known as a pitbull) back to the shelter earlier this year. So even though this is a delayed post from a second-semester senior, don't let it fool you, I've acquired an fine interest in sociology while being in this class, and plan on showing my true understanding of the cool stuff we learn in class with more "on-time" posts.

"Walk the Plank"

We recently did an activity in sociology class, in which we acted out roles of different individuals during a ship wreck. This experiment was based off a real event where the passengers on the sinking ship had to vote people off because only so many could fit on the life raft. So we went through the experiment, mostly voting of the annoying kids playing the roles rather than the actual idea of the person they were roll-playing. It was a cool little fun experiment. But what we didn't know, was that our teacher had done this experiment over 50 times and he kept records of the experiment's outcomes. After we finished, our teacher wrote the accumulated data over the years on the board. Over the 10 year period, the many different classes, with different people, who have never talked to each other, had very, very similar outcomes. The Data of the experiments showed that most of the time, the people voted off the life raft consisted of those who were either old, injured, handicapped, or of no use to the survival of everyone in the situation. So these people who could have had families, fascinating backgrounds, done brilliant, wonderful things in their lifetime were judged by their current outer appearance, and forced to "Walk the Plank" so to speak. This activity had me thinking about so many people that are withheld of their true potential just because of how they are portrayed. Their are so many people that could be of  great use in our lives, that we just ignore because they, at first, appear to be no "use" for us. In my own life, I have had teachers that at first I would have never taken seriously in a million years based off their looks or personality, but have taught me crucial life lessons, have helped me overcome hardships, and have really prepared me for the world. This lesson really highlighted the idea of Sociological Mindfulness, ( a lesson I already thought I understood), for me, and really further explained the several different angles of the concept. I really enjoyed this activity and lesson in life.

Sociological Mindfulness... More than just paying attention to others

 

"Treat other people the way you want to be treated."

           After reading a recent article about "Sociological Mindfulness" by Michael Schwalbe, the simple phrase "Treat other people the way you want to be treated," that I've been hearing since as long as I can remember, suddenly suggests a lot more. In our world, scholars, elders, and parents constantly strive to think of new ways to teach children about respect. Usually, when taught to us in the past, respect has been portrayed with the idea that it is bad to be "not nice" to people, because we wouldn't want to be treated "not nice." While preventing this "not-niceness" is a seemingly quick, pleasant way to teach about respect, our parents and teachers failed to further explain that respect is much more than just paying attention to other peoples feelings. This is where sociological mindfulness sets in. As children we accept new things, new people, and new concepts naturally because we are so innocent and fascinated of the world around us. But, as adults, we become cognizant of the human's history and present. About the differences among cultures, races, and religions. With this acquired knowledge it is natural to, at first, be uncomfortable with lifestyles that our different from those of our own. We are told to be aware of people's differences and accept them, but that is not necessarily respect. Sociological mindfulness is where we can not only accept a person, thing, or concept, but appreciate its unique qualities. With this, all stereotypes and prejudices are disregarded. 

           So after reading this article, I realized how much of this I can relate to my own life. A lot of arguments or fights that occur in my life between friends and family appears to just be a failure of practicing sociological mindfulness. Some of my friends have family traditions or activities that they do and are sometimes teased about them a little, instead of being respected  for their own individuality. And from history I've noticed that failure of receiving sociological mindfulness has led to severe pain, suffering, devastation, losses of dignity, losses of self-worthiness, suicides, mass killings, and wars. I've also noticed that failure of using sociological mindfulness  has led to hate crimes, assassinations, humiliating and degrading stereotypes, generations of anti-Semites and racists, and in some extreme cases... genocides. So as simple and cliche as it may sound, "Treat people the way you want to be treated" and practice sociological mindfulness.

The Origin of Awkwardness

           Anytime that someone feels out of their comfort zone, feels alienated, or feels embarrassed, the situation is generally labeled as "awkward." In an "awkward" situation, people tend to be unsure on what to say or do, they become anxious because they desperately want to stray back into their own individual comfort zones, and this anxiety quickly spreads throughout all individuals in the situation. It is tacit among all in this scenario that the other individual or individuals are experiencing the same uneasiness as you.

          The first day of Sociology class, our teacher did not follow the cliche idea formed in our minds as students since we were very young of standing in front of the class and introducing himself. Instead, he proceeded to sit in a chair in the back of the class, almost acting as one of our peers. Not only did he sit in the back, but sat right behind me. He did not say one word. All the students including myself, began to find a sense of nervous humor in the situation, that sense eventually turned into a quite uncomfortable feeling. The silence continued for a good couple minutes and as people looked around confused on what to do, I figured that since this was out of the "social norm", he probably wanted one of us to say something to start off the class. So as an icebreaker, I looked directly at him, thought carefully, and decided a subtle "sup" was a suitable option. After I said that, a few people chuckled, including my teacher, but the silence still continued. A few more minutes past and finally a girl sitting in the front of the class introduced herself. Our teacher got up from the back seat in the classroom, walked to the front, and began class.