Race

Although racism has significantly improved throughout the years, it still exists. A demonstration of how race is something that has been socially constructed is the global census we viewed in class. Race can’t be defined considering each location identifies individuals differently. It's difficult, nearly impossible to label a person based on their appearance, but people do it all the time. A similar analogy we used in class was the categorization of the different types of balls. Just like the balls had different shapes, sizes, colors etc. so do people. Despite the circumstances, as humans, we've learned to distinguish differences by categorizing. How do we know where to draw that line when we categorize? Whites are more privileged considering they are the majority group, therefore, although more Americans are on welfare, we do not focus on them due to the fact that they are not a minority. Unfortunately, this also applies to jobs as well. In the video we watched, a white with a felony got hired over a black that had a clean record. This is just one example of explicit racism is being prejudice or discriminating one due to their race. One of my friends experienced racism because they had been Hispanic, but that doesn't make them any less of a person. On the other hand, there’s also implicit racism. This is the subconscious mind associating good thoughts more quickly to specific groups over others. All in all, both are racism and both are degrading. If we could look past these classifications, we could create a peaceful, composed society.

Deviance & Social Class

Deviance and social status go hand and hand. Depending on where and when you live determine the way you perceive certain actions as deviant, or otherwise known as going against the 'social norms.' Reflecting on the positive deviance experience, I bought meals for strangers because they were hungry and didn't have money. They looked at me as if I was crazy, but they considered me to be the most genuine person they ever met. Although I felt a little out of place because I just met these individuals that same day and would never see them again, it felt rewarding knowing I spent money on other people rather than myself.

Next, The purpose of the coin flipping metaphor is to demonstrate that it's a mirror of real life and social class. The odds are quite unfair due to the fact that not everyone starts off with the same amount of money and there's a wide spectrum of the rich and poor. Very few are in the "middle class." Also while playing monopoly, it showed a social mobility for very few. For instance, the rich became more rich, the poor either gained a raise in the social class or lost more, and the middle class took a fork in the road, meaning they either gained more money or lost; they didn't continue to stay in the social class they first started off in. 

Money can buy you out of punishment. The reading Saints and Roughnecks is a great example of that statement and that's just one of the many cases which occurs everyday. Unfortunately, we also saw this in Courtroom 302, a male lost the privilege to go into the army because he found marijuana for a mark and was forced to face the consequence. Due to where he lived, the consequences were more severe resulting in him having to go to community college instead. Similar to the situation regarding narcotics, the student body of 2012 in our school had been lucky to have less severe consequences due to where they lived. Not only that, but also because of their academic success, previous behavior, such as good or bad deviance, or simply their economical upbringing took them out of several consequences. It just amazes me how similar situations differ in consequences depending on your upbringing and location.