Crash

I really loved the movie Crash. It gave extreme examples of racism, but these examples are in our daily lives. The movie helped us realize our biasts towards certain races. The movie really helped me think about what I would do in certain situations. It also really helped me think about what type of implicit racism I have, because I try not to be racist, but sometimes it just comes out. For example, the policeman was trying really hard not to be racist, and even left his partner because he was too racist, but in the end his racism came out when he assumed the man he picked up had a gun in his hand. We can try really hard to not be racist, but sometimes it still comes out. It is really hard to not be racist at all, but we have to try in order to accept everyone the way they are.

Race

Learning about how race is a social construct this week wasn't the first time I had heard it. We also had a couple days in my US history class learning about this, although it was a bit different. In sociology we just sort of took the information and accepted it. But in my USH class, a lot of people argued over it and had trouble believing it wasn't actually real. The way we learned about race in sociology really helped clear it out for me because before this week I was confused about it. The races we put people in don't have a constant list of do's and dont's, but as Americans we have a need to categorize. Talking about hate groups today really made me realize that racism is no where near gone in America. When I heard Obama gets 30 death threats a day my mouth almost dropped. I thought that America was close to shutting out racism. We have come a long way, but we still have quite some time to go.

Monopoly

When we played monopoly in class the other day, we played it using different social classes. It was very unfair because the richest person started the game already owning multiple spots on the game board. This put them at a very large advantage, and almost guaranteed a win for them. Another advantage that they had was every time they passed go they got a lot of money. Me, being the poorest, only got around 70 bucks each time I passed go. It was very frustrating not being able to buy anything because I didn't want to go into debt, but if I didn't buy anything I wouldn't make any investments. I know it was just a game, but it really did mirror real social classes. People who are "old" rich start off with so much, that they don't have to work as hard, but will still succeed in life. The people who are the poorest, like I was in the game, have to be very careful with what they spend their money on. I really like this lesson

The Panel

I really enjoyed Nick and Cj coming in to our class this week. For me, I knew a lot of that stuff because I am friends with Nick and other people that have different sexual preferences than being straight. But for people that don't know much a lot about it, which is actually a large majority of our school, it was a great learning experience. Probably more than fifty percent of our school throws around the word faggot more than once a day. I hear it all the time just walking through the halls. I thought it was semi-widely known why people call gay people faggots, how Nick explained during the panel, but I guess it was a great realization to some people. My friend from another sociology class actually came up to me after and told me that the panel really changed his view on people with sexual preferences and that he had no idea where the word faggot came from before Nick explained. I think that example right there is what Nick and Cj, and the rest of the panel, wanted to get out of it. They wanted us to know that just because your gay doesn't mean you aren't a person with feelings. Also, that all people in the LGBT, and the other letters I forget, should not be stereotyped because everyone is different.

30 days in jail

Before watching this video I didn't really know much about jail. I didn't know the top reasons most people go to jail for or how many return, or much at all. Watching this video, I found out some statistics that really scare me. I think it said that a fourth of our population is in jail, and that 60 percent or something return. To me, that just says something is wrong with the jail system. The video also said that more people that have mental issues are in prisons than in mental state institutions. That fact really bothers me. I believe that those people that have mental issues should be cared about enough to recieve help. Sitting in a jail cell is not going to fix anything. Also I think it said 50 percent of people in jail are in for drug related reasons. To me, selling or doing drugs really isn't a threat to bystanders like a rapist or murderer is. People that are selling drugs and doing drugs do not need to be in jail, they need to go to rehab and get help, because once again sitting in jail isn't helping them at all. Finding out all of these things really scared me and made me feel very hopeless for the people in jail that need real help. It is awesome that some jails do have therapy sessions for people, but in the jail Morgan went to, there was nothing like that. If they are going to place mental and addicted people into jails, they atleast need to provide them with help.

Special Olympics (Community Service)

I volunteered at the Special Olympics for Bocce Ball on April 22nd from 8:30am-3:00pm. Before going to this event I was excited because I have worked with people with special needs quite a bit and I am very good at it. My expectations were that it was going to be a long day, that might get a tad boring, but in reality it was a long day, but not boring. I had a lot of fun interacting with the different people that came to play Bocce Ball at my court. There was a elderly woman named Laura at my court that needed a lot of attention, but I really liked her. She wasn't very talkative, but just something about her I enjoyed. I also liked her friend Jane, that was also at my court. She was so happy. What I did while I was there was keep score and talk with the players. I really enjoyed talking with everyone that was there. When I am around people with special needs I appreciate everything that I have. It also reminds me that I should be happy because of everything I have. Jane really helped me realize this because she was so happy all the time, and she has so many daily struggles. I really enjoyed going to this event and look forward to doing more things like it in the future.

Saints and Roughnecks

We read an article called Saints and Roughnecks that really showed how much one judges on appearance. These two groups of high school boys commited similar crimes, but one group was punished a lot more often. The group that got away with it was better dressed, involved in school and recieved good grades. The group that didn't get away with it just didn't "look as good." In my middle school we all basically put in the same amount of work, of course there were exceptions. Teachers looked down on kids a lot more who wore their jeans to their knees and had slicked back hair, but the kids that dressed nice were treated a lot better. Appearance doesn't say everything about someone, but in todays society, people make it that way.