Crash

I first want to say I have been on vacation, and I apologize for having this turned in late.

1. The cop's racism is a lot like the racism of Sandra Bullock's character in the movie. He stereotypes like with the African American worker when he tries to get medicine for his father and he states how there could've been a better white worker to take her place. Sandra Bullock's character stereotypes the Hispanic locksmith at her house when she says he will give the extra key to his homies. The cop also has to save the woman that he sexually assaulted, so he is working against his racist ways to help someone, and Sandra Bullock's character tells her housekeeper that she is the closest friend she has even though she was being racist before in the movie. The cop has it harder than Sandra Bullock's character because he makes less money and says that being on the police force has made him racist. On the other hand, Sandra Bullock's character has money but just isn't a nice person. My opinion on their racism is just that they are trying to take their frustrations in life out on race because they don't have any other outlet.

2. When the Persian's shop was broken into and vandalized, the vandalizers wrote something about Arabs on the wall, when they weren't even Arabs in the first place. The wife of the owner felt sad, while the owner was angry and thought the locksmith was the reason for the brake in, and then he went to shoot the locksmith to try to get vengeance. The was also the part in the beginning where Ludacris' character and his friend were walking down the side walk approaching Sandra Bullock's character and Ben Frasier's character when Sandra Bullock's character grabbed Ben Frasier's character's arm. Ludacris' character was outraged because she was afraid of them because they were black, yet he then hijacked their car right after.

3. I don't think that 90% of people in America are racist, but there are many that stereotype or judge people by physical features. Many people probably generalize about what people eat, or what jobs people of certain races have. In the movie, the housekeeper along with the locksmith are Hispanic. Sandra Bullock's character thinks that the locksmith is also in a gang because he is Hispanic and has a shaved head. It will probably stop eventually because there are many interracial couples and the number will grow, so there will be many mixes of people, so less generalizations can be made.

4. Stereotypes come from what a race has some history of, so people look at what a lot of people in one race do, and a stereotype is made. For instance, when Sandra Bullock thought the black guys looked dangerous, and they turned out to steal her car. She from then on probably thought every black guy was going to steal her car. There is another stereotype that African Americans like chicken, and the stereotype was probably created just to have something to make fun of what some African Americans do even though lots of people of any race like to eat chicken.

5. It isn't natural to be racist because people aren't born to hate someone of another color or ethnicity. If you look at children, they aren't racist, and if people become racist, it is from their nurture. Friends and family will decide whether or not someone becomes racist. People can only grow up to be racist.

6. Race is learned by the upbringing of someone. The things people see, the views of parents, and the views of friends will help someone learn what race is. Family members may say to keep away from certain types of people, and the media shows crime being done, and people get racial messages because they see what race of people are doing the crimes.

7. It is possible to end racism in the future when there will be many trans-racial people where there can't be generalizations made. Another way is to not have parents say anything about race when raising their children, but that probably won't happen because the racism will stay in the family if people keep being racist. So just time will end racism, where there are many mixes of people and not much to be racist about.

Wealth in the USA

The wealthy are given so many extra privileges in life. They can buy whatever they want without even thinking about the price. Their stress levels are reduced because there are less worries over money and paying bills. When we played monopoly in class, the wealthy had such a large advantage over everybody else because they owned more properties and money, and they received the most total money from passing go and from rent. Wealth can also give someone more connections in the world to get things done easier and know somebody for whatever needs to be done. Also, the wealthy can have security financially and physically just in case things get bad, so they don't have many worries in the world that most other people worry about everyday. In the movie we watched in class, there was a family who lived in a trailer home, and the mom's car didn't work and she walked miles to work. Wealthy people don't have to walk miles to work, and they may not even have to work much. Lower class people don't always have money either and may have to take out loans that they will pay back the rest of their lives if their income doesn't change, so people usually stay within their own class throughout life. One thing that could be done to make things more fair is to give more federal help to lower class people, but if everything becomes equal, then we would turn into a socialistic society, so there isn't much that can be done besides just to tax the wealthy some more.

Class

This quote is saying that people will view someone by their actions and traits. If someone has bad manners people will view him or her as lower class. Some people will view race as an issue of class too. Also in the quote when he says the characteristics that ruin a man in one class makes him eminent in other, he means that someone who has the traits of a certain class can only stay in that class because he or she wouldn't fit in with any other class. Say someone has the best manners and speaks with the best grammar; this person wouldn't fit in with people who live in the projects or in a trailer park because it just doesn't work that way in society. He is basically saying that there are certain things that each class has and does to make them different so you can look eminent to many people in one class and then shunned by everyone in other classes. An example of behavior that's a virtue in one class and a vice in another is if there is the best construction worker and can construct anything. He may be looked up to in one class in society and then people in a higher class will just see him as a laborer and think better of people who are business executives.

the big house

In society today, many people who enter our penitentiary system go right back to it. This shows how much the system doesn't work very well and there really aren't other alternatives. As sociologists we can look at our penitentiary system as a place where people are around their own kind and not many things change with the criminals. Punishable deviance is part of our society that won't go away because there will always be some people who are willing to deviate in a bad way, but also in a good way. I believe we should regulate punishable deviance by reaching criminals early on and helping them by either having them do community service or setting a guideline for their goals, so they won't have to do criminal acts in the future. When looking at our court and jail systems, it is apparent that people are easily sent to jail in many cases whether the person is a minor or even a small drug charge. The issue some have with our jail system is that it is a big part of our economy, and if there weren't many inmates, then the economy would fall. We need criminals in our society to keep things flowing, and that seems pretty unfair to people who have small acts of punishable deviance. Once the people are in jail, they just wait and are confined to a single area for years usually. This isn't much help because they aren't being taught how to better themselves, just to think, which is why so many people are going back after being let free.

1. Today I wore some jeans and a pretty snazzy t-shirt with the white and black nikes. The clothes I wear are mostly determined by nurture because I will dress like most of my other peers. The thing is, if I look at the clothes I was dressed in when I was little, they were pretty bad, so there isn't a real balance of nature and nurture with the clothes I wear. In the future I want to be a big salesman or marketing exec. I think my ambitions are the result of nature because my mom and dad both have professions dealing with business, so I have always wanted to have a job dealing with business or selling. There isn't much of a balance because my friends and I don't discuss jobs that we want to have, and I haven't been around people who keep talking about future professions. The sport I enjoy is gymnastics because it's what I grew up doing. My mom was on poms in college so there may be a hint of nature driving my gymnastics, but I've been doing it since I was 7, and I'm not competitive with it. I'd say I'm a recreational gymnast because it's fun for me and the nurture aspect doesn't really affect it because a lot of other gymnast are pretty annoying and not fun to be around. None of my friends do gymnastics so the nurture apsect is pretty low.
2. Adolescent social status power is very important because it is basically is the only power adolescents can have, so they need to have the most of it to be the best. If someone is very popular with high social status power, then more people will like them, which gives that person more confidence and an easier adolescence. Then if someone has low social status power, people may look down on them or even shun them from activities. Adolescents are consumed with social status power because it is the main aspect of their lives at the time being.
3. In previous generations, there were more children who were independent and had to work for everything. This gave them an easier time to be independent later in life to help them become more successful. There were less children with things just handed to them, and people weren't so concerned with babying their children. Now, many children are spoon fed and may not survive in the real world or even college. Children may also learn socialization through the television and may think things on TV are how things work in the real world. The concerns for children today are pretty valid, and we should let kids be more independent and socialize through school and sports in order for them to lead good lives.
4. Each gender today is viewed to have different traits. The traditional traits for women are viewed to be shy or passive, and men are stereotyped to be aggressive and "manly." I feel like boys growing up try to be the most manly they can, and they usually end up being fake or just looking like huge tools. I can't say I've seen anything about the impact of what females socialization has been, but when each gender talks to each other, they have different conversations than when talking to the same gender. Guys can talk about sports together, girls can talk about gossip girl, but when they talk to each other, they have to find something that they both have in common, so it is just interesting to think about.

Fight the Power

In teen culture it is necessary to fight for status power everyday. For instance, most teens are trying to have the best style and the coolest clothes. Just like those sweet uggs boots, most teenage girls have them to keep up their status power. Materials are big deciders in someone's status, like if someone has torn up clothes, they are looked down upon, but if someone is looking pretty cool or glamorous, people may look up to him or her. It also depends on what cliques you belong to like the football players are popular and have a high status power, while nerdy kids and punk kids may have low status power in the eyes of teenagers. This affects the development of teens to adults by making it that when when the teens turn into adults they may keep all these concepts of status power and fight for it throughout adulthood. It doesn't have to be this way, but it would be hard to change the way things work in the adolescent world. There isn't really anything else teens can do to obtain power in their lives, so it looks like things are going to stay the way they are.

Nature & Nurture

So I guess I'm like my family because I have the same sense of humor as my dad, and I keep my things in order just like my mom, but not all the time. I also pretty much listen to the same genres of music as my brother. I'm like my long-time friends mostly by having the same sense of humor as them and having the same interests like music and things to do for fun. I asked my mom about when she thought I had a unique personality, and she explained how I was entertaining and noticed around the age of 2. The thing that I don't want to have that my mom does is when she needs everything to be exact and clean everyday, but I don't think there is anything that my dad does that I don't want to do. If someone were to work against nature and nurture, there is no doubt that he or she would be different because those are what define people and if someone has neither, then he or she will be different. I believe the most influential group to my attitudes and behaviors in life is my peer group. When you are with your friends after awhile, you start to have the same types of jokes and senses of humor. Peer groups also tend to have the same areas of interest too, so I have been shaped a lot by my peer group. The music I listen to which is a pretty wide variety is somewhat shaped by my peer group, but mostly just the hip hop genre. This just goes to show how much nurture can shape a person along with nature in the beginning.