My Final Reflection

As I looked back on what I first posted- the main theme of that post was being through difficult times and to be strong throughout the tough times. Since learning about sociology, I have absorbed information about culture, social class, and race. I am now more aware of what is going around me. The way I have grown up I now know is because of the people that I have been surrounded by. I have also been more aware of how different genders view themselves. It is very important to know this because the media has shaped both boys and girls to become a certain way just because their role model looks like that. After watching the movie Crash. I have become also more aware of race. The implicit racism is held by everyone whether you know it or not. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the society I live in today. I have also explored other cultures. By having former students come in and talk about their adventures in the real world has made me interested in studying abroad. It is certainly something I will look into doing my junior or senior year of college.

Crash

I was really drawn in watching the movie Crash in class this past week. The way that everything tied together at the end was very genius. But, most of all the movie targeted how even the person you didn't expect to have prejudices, did. The scene that stood out to me the most was when the African American woman was stuck inside her car after being in an accident, and the only guy that could save her was the police man who had previously whisked her inappropriately earlier outside her car in front of her husband. In times like that, sometimes you just have to trust whoever it is that you have a prejudice towards and have faith that they will be able to do a favor for you in the long run. This instance also happens in another part of the movie, when the girl who works at the shop with her dad doesn't load the gun because she had known that he would do something with it. It is always important to be mindful on who you will deal with on a daily basis. Because, one wrong action can end badly. So always remember to be mindful of your surroundings.

Implicit Racism

Today in class, we saw a student take a quiz on if there's a predisposed preference between African Americans and European Americans. So, when I got home I took a similar test based on light and dark colored skin people. After taking the test it said I had no preference towards light/dark skinned people. Which I thought was surprising, because it is inevitable that everyone have racism. We even see it in magazines everyday. Also, today we watched a clip about an experiment being reconducted based on what color doll little girls and boys prefer to play with. The majority of them decided to play with the white doll. What was really sad to watch was that the experimenter asked a little African American girl who she considered the mean doll-- and the girl preceded to pick the black doll. But, then the experimenter asked what doll resembled the girl the most- and the little girl at first hesitated, then proceeded to pick the black doll, not wanting to be known as the mean person, but the nice one- which happened to be the white doll. Overall, I feel that racism will always be surrounding us.

Social Class

There was a woman in the movie we just watched in class stating that she believes that social class is all in the mind. In a way I see where she is coming from because someone may think that they have everything they need to satisfy their needs and wants, but can be in the lower class. There happened to be a quiz online where you decorate your house how you normally would and they would rank what class you would be in; they put me in the middle middle class. There are certain aspects in my house at least where I believe resembles a more of a higher class. (Which is where I am according to the social class ladder). It's all an aspect of whether your needs are satisfied and you are happy. Many people feel the need to buy a $600 pair of Louis Vuitton shoes to be happy- as discussed that Oprah has. But, you can clearly tell that certain people like Oprah and Donald Trump have the money. Oprah wasn't always wealthy though, she grew up with little money and worked her way up the social class ladder. It's those families like the Hilton's that are old money since their foundations have been established a long time ago.