"PEOPLE LIKE US"

After watching the documentary on PBS called “People Like Us”, I have learned that we are all divided into groups and these groups are classified in different ways. These ways makes us believe that we are all different based on the income we make and our class. After watching this video I have learned that we are all labeled in society.  This just made me think, why we have to be categorized in society based on our class?

This video reminds me of social stratification on how we rank people. We are ranked once we step into this world. We are ranked based on class, occupation, where we live, skin color, etc. Durkheim mentions on chapter 7 of the book that society served to create independence among society members so that everyone needed the activities of everyone else.

“People Like Us” shows me that we are ranked from the day that we are born, we are raised in a certain way that we view ourselves different from other groups. This makes us become distinct when we are really all the same. 

MEXICAN AMERICANS AND IMMIGRANTS INCORPORATION By Edward E. Telles

When i read this article "Mexican Americans and Immigrants Incorporation", by Edward E. Telles, i notice that there are some similar issues today with Mexican Americans that are still going on today. Like the article said, Mexican Americans end up living in big groups of family in one house hold because they don't often have education and cant afford their own homes. They also end up having a lot of children and living as a big family. They end up marrying someone that is from another group, race, nationality, or different religion because of the low education Mexican Americans have. What i learn from reading this article was that Mexican Americans have slow rates on learning a new language, religion, intermarriage, and residential integration. They have the lowest percent in graduating from high schools. Having no educations leads them to work for less money and work more harder.

This article talks about immigrants in general. How today's immigrants are mostly from Latin America and Asia. They have less opportunities because they have no background skills or educational. But this article is mostly based on Mexican American because of there higher numbers of immigrants in the U.S. Most immigrants have disadvantages coming to the United States because they dont know English, dont have identities and cant live on their own. I could relate this to some of the chapters i read from sociology class because Mexican Americans are stigmatized, meaning they are consider to be deviant without actually doing anything. And also with race, these are people living in poverty that are not neccessarily resigned to their situation, they have disadvantages that are impossible to over come like.
1. Poor education
2. Living with no health insurance
3. Lower income
4. No food or shelter and clothing

RACE MATTERS by Cornel West

My point of view for the article "RACE MATTERS" , by Cornel West, is that no one cares about equality and that everyone dont have equal lives. This article clearly explain that there's no type of changes for Black , Hispanic or poor race because we don't all have equal lives. We are letting the poor live there lives without no help from anyone because they dont have medical help for their health, and starving because they have no money for food or for there needs. My opinion to this is that i believe the wealthy people live longer than the people with nothing or LOW CLASS people, because wealthy people are spoiled and have money to cover anything up for them but on the other hand a poor person dont have that advantage so the longer they stay unhealthy the more their lives become threatening with death. The poor race dont have good education, good health, enough money, childcare, jobs, and food to survive on their own, they need help from the government to get those things but they have to go threw a lot of waiting and process to get those needs, so in other words the Poor class have to work harder to get the help they want.

Another issue about this article is that in order for people to get what they want they need a leader or a new government that is going to support them with what they want. They need someone that is going to make a change for the one's that need help and need support. Having a good leader will change everything for everyone and hope that everything goes good for all. So when it comes to what race you belong to, RACE does matter for all and hope that everyone has equal lives. We cant just let one race live happily and wealthy and watch the other people suffer and struggle with life because that just shows that we only care about a certain race when it comes to people that really needs help and dont have it.

POSITIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE UNDERSERVING POOR: USES OF THE UNDERCLASS IN AMERICA

 This reading is really interesting and has a lot of facts and example of inequality. Poor people don't have the same equal life a rich person have because poor people don't have the same help a rich person has and not everyone cares for a poor person because of the class their labeled in. I find this unfair to "Poor People" because that just shows that society does not treat everyone the same. If you are poor you have to go threw a lot of faces in life in order for your life to be a little bit more different (better) but still poor people are being treated as if they were not consider a normal human.

  Poor people or lower class people are consider to have a higher criminal activities then any other class or rich people because they either drop out of school or cant get a job to stay out of trouble. Also immigrants have no choices but to work for what ever they get offered which they would eventually would get paid a lower wage and this is a problem for an American who is looking for work or is illegible to work but cant get a job because illegal immigrants are taking all types of jobs they could get their hands on. Poor people are being used in movies or television as being victims (dead or alive) by being on the news every day or being in the hands of the police. Underclass areas have little protection from police so drug dealers and illegal activities are higher in those areas.

Herbert J. Gans described 13 of the most important functions of the undeserving poor. If poverty was to get worse we would have more crime going on in society. Unskilled workers are needed in jobs because poor people are willing to work for minimum wages. This world could become a little better if we could get rid of poverty and help out poor people or people that need help to change the world a little. We are all humans and we all deserve equal lives. Does not matter if your rich or poor or what ever class you're in or where you came from, we should help each other and make life a little easier for each other rather then let someone suffer or die.

 

" YOU SHALL SURELY OPEN YOUR HANDS TO YOUR BROTHER, TO YOUR NEEDY, AND TO YOU POOR, IN YOUR LAND"

DEVIANCE

Deviance is breaking a social rule (norm), or refusing to follow one. Braking a social rule or not following one could get you in trouble or something worst like going to prison depending on how a human is acting.  Some are legal but still pay the consequences because we don't know our limits sometimes and some rules are illegal but we still do it because we choose to not follow the rules depending on our behavior and therefore we pay the consequences. When Deviant is consider a bad act then it becomes a crime. A crime is an act that lawmakers consider bad enough to warrant formal sanctions. They are also activities that are illegal and we are not aware of them and therefore the chances of getting a penalty are high. Some people today break rules and some follow them. The ones who follow rules are the ones that want to fit in with the other people that follow rules and the ones that dont follow them know the consequences.

GENDER SOCIOLIZATION

                                                Chapter 5 – Gender Socialization

1.        KILLING US SOFTLY:

                When I was watching the video “Killing me softly” it open my mind more in how I see women now after listening some important things we should know about women. Killing me softly explain that women bodies are being used to make advertisements to sell more products. This been going on for a long time. We should be taking advertisements more seriously because we don’t really know what it stands out for and what they are really trying to show us when a women body is being used to make advertisements. Advertisements tell us who we are. For example, a women sees an advertisement of another female model on a billboard, magazine, or newspaper they would feel like if they need to try harder and improve their body language more because they are looking up to these advertisements all around us. Most women in these advertisements are thin or skinny you could say. Which makes other women realize that they need to lose weight or make improvements so they could be just like that to catch men attention. They believed that the reason why women are not beautiful is because they are not trying hard enough to look beautiful.

                The reason why there is so much violence on women is because women body are being used to being turned into objects like a perfume bottle, beer bottles and the images that is being advertise.  Women bodies are being advertise so they could sell more products. The focus is being focused on the women breast. Breast implants and plastic surgery started increasing more because women want a body that could make them be in an advertisement. Killing me softly said that women loose sensation after doing breast implants. “Women go from a subject to being an object”. Also a female body is more criticize than males. Four out of Five women have eating disorders because they want to be thin like the advertisement women. Women are said to be a “sex object”, because everything has to do with sex. Women are also known to be happy when they have a man.

2.  TONY PORTER: A CALL TO MEN:

                What I learn from listening to “A call to men” is that men are supposed to be the ones who are in charge and not the women. Men are stronger and women are weak. Men are more superior and women are inferior. Also that woman has less value and men have more value. Women are property of men and are sexual objects. The reason why there is so much violence against women is because women - have less value + they are property + and are an objectification.

                But men are supposed to be raised strong and not showing emotions. A “Man Box” is what makes a male, a man. Which is not showing emotions or crying, do not show weakness or fear, demonstrate power and control especially over women, show aggression, being a protector, heterosexual, do not be like gay men, be tough, athletic, having strength and courage, makes decision on his own without no help, and to view women as property or objects. If you don’t have what it takes to do these you are not consider being a man. A man box is important to most men. But also everything depends on how people raise their son and teach them how to be men.

3. EXPLAIN HOW BOTH VIDEO RELATES TO CHAPTER 5 – SOCIALIZATION.

                Both video “Killing us softly” and “A call to men” relate to chapter 5 because we could compare them to Nurture. The way males and females were raised by their parents, the environment they live in, and the encounter with other people. Raising a daughter or a son you have to teach them what they are supposed to learn and do as they grow up. Teaching a female how to take care of self and her body, and not being sexually abuse from a male. Teach her what is right and what is bad or wrong. Also teaching a male how to be a man as he is growing up. Most men would take things too far. Becoming aware of ourselves as part of a group and learning how to communicate with other people in a group makes us be human beings.

Society

 Sociology change my point of view of seeing the world differently and the way we live.There are things we need to change and things we need to fix. Not everyone has the same view for society. There are a lot of problems we still facing now in this world and we have to help each other to make our world a better place. People need to take norms seriously and stop breaking the laws and making it harder for other people. I also learn that society shares our values and it not a place that exist in our mind.