THE FINAL BLOG

I responded to the first blog with the attitude of look out for number one and do my own thing to get by. because of this class i am know starting to see that in most situations that type of thought process is wrong because it is selfish and insensitive to people just as important as me. i have learned not to follow the crap feed to me by the media and have become more aware of the harm it causes to everyone. also through the community service project i realized it is easy to help someone who needs it and have become more grateful of my social class and opportunity it brings. i can honestly say i have a brighter future because of the way the class has helped my thinking become more positive and considerate to others no matter the situation this class will be missed thanks mr. salituro 

Racism

After watching the video a "girl like me" i am completely shocked that people could feel so down on themselves just because of what other people think about them. And its not even what they do that people judge them for its something that they have absolutely no control over and its disturbing to hear that some of the people would sit in a bathtub with bleach to make their skin lighter! that is truly insane, but if racism is a social creation of man isn't it possible to start over and eliminate the racist class system? As unrealistic as this sounds it must be possible as long as small steps are taken to rewrite something as horrible as this that has gotten out of control and is clearly still an issue. Personally race makes no difference to me and im sure that's easy for anyone to say but i even took the harvard race test and i slightly favor black people so if anything im racist towards whites! 

Mobility in Class

When playing monopoly i was "born" into the lower- middle class and during the game i realized how hard it was to buy property, get myself out of jail, and save enough money to pay the rich when i landed on their property. I basically had no way to make enough money to move up in class but just enough to stay in the one i was assigned and keep off welfare. Reality is you are stuck in the class you are born into and it's not your fault whether you are poor or rich, and it's near impossible to change it even if you wanted to. My family is a good example of this because my dad's dad was a construction worker his whole life and his wife a waitress so the value of hard work is passed down to my dad and he becomes a roofer and now a mailman. The same thing with my mom's side, her mom was a single mother who raised 5 kids and worked cleaning houses. None of my parent's parents went to college and neither of my parents did either. There stuck in the social class of the blue-collar workers and they know this so there is no effort or reason to try and move up because realistically it's not possible. In my case the opportunity to move up in social class would be going to college but with the economy situation is that even a realistic choice considering the price of college loans and interest rates? I do though see my self moving up from what my parents have but to move up to an entirely new social class title seems a bit out of reach.

Social Class

To answer the question of do different social classes try and separate themselves from other social classes i think the answer is yes. People surround themselves with other people who they feel most comfortable with, unfortunately this usually means people just like themselves. So if your making more than a $100,00 a year and live in a mansion that you need a map for you, want to socialize with the people who you can talk to about what new stocks your investing in or the 3rd vacation you will be taking this year to an island you can't even spell. All this while taking a much needed steam in your country club. People like that think there too important to waste time with the working man because what could they possibly have in common with someone who has to work 40+ hours a week to put food on the table, nothing right? Of course this makes the lower class feel invisible. Rich people think their important because they actually are, people know their names. Who really knows your waiters name, or your mailman's or your garbage man's? You don't because you think you have nothing to gain from a conversation with someone "lower" than you. So when your always considered by other people to be inferior to everyone else, even though your right there with over 90% of the rest of the US, it gets to you. So of course people are trying to be taught to be able to act like someone in the upper class and who can blame them, but it's wrong. My parents never told me to stay away from people better off or worse off than us because the amount of money you make doesn't define you as a person and if it does your doing something wrong.

Jail

Reading the article about how many people we have in prison is shocking to me. The number is 2.3 million and the fact that the communist nation of china with a population that is 4 times greater than ours and almost a million people less behind bars should be a red flag to everyone. Our legal system focuses too much on punishing the people who commit the crimes and not enough on giving these people the help that they need. A drug addict will not miraculously become clean while in prison where it is still possible to get drugs. what they need is rehab and because they are not given this treatment a lot of the same people will end up back in jail because they have no money to get this help on their own. The average cost to keep one person in jail for one day is $90.28, with 2.3 million prisoners in America that is $207,644,000 spent A DAY on keeping the prisoners behind bars, most of them for drug charges. Would it really cost that much more to give them the help they require? This would ultimately cut down on second offenders which would be saving the tax payers money and more importantly, to some, saying these peoples lives.

Social Deviance

i never thought of deviance being abel to be a positive thing but i do like the fact that you can violate the "norms" of society in a way benefitting someone else and yourself in the long run. After reading that story i was taken back by the fact that someone could do that to someone holding a knife on them and in the middle or robbing them. unfortunately i can't think of a specific instant where i have preformed a random act of kindness and because of this im looking forward to doing this assignment and even attempting something like this after i finish the assignment. it could be pretty fun and self fulfilling as well. 

Independence

In class we talked about at what age does someone become independent and we talked about a lot of different ages and different things we accomplish during life to make us independent- going to college, moving out of the house, or getting married are a few. Truth is it's not possible to become independent no matter what you do. you are always going to be depending on someone. whether it be your parents, teachers, friends, significant other, or other family you always need someone. It's unhealthy to completely depend on yourself because you will never learn all the important and unimportant things that will change your life. so if you think your independant your just stubborn and missing out. i also don't think as teenagers or younger are taught to be irresponsible. From a young age you are taught to follow the rules, turn assignments in on time and to do pretty much everything you are told, and than punished if those things are not done correctly but those things should be to help you because you dont know any better when your that young. its discipline and one of the most important things to be taught to a kid and for being taught to be asexual theres just a certain age where they don't need to know or do the things that someone older does. But i do agree we are made to be submissive at a young age and i dont think this is a bad thing as long as something is being taught through the submission. it is not the only way to learn a lesson but it could be more helpful than figuring it out yourself in the long run. it is up to the person whether to stay submissive when they become older or to evolve into a person that becomes dominant because of that submissive teaching.