Racism

Race is a social construct. There is no physical thing as race, people of different colors have nothing that makes them physically different besides the color of their skin, yet racism has run rampant throughout the history of society. In the old days we kept black people as slaves, and although the days where this is allowed are long gone, racism is not.

Society at whole tends to view racism as a non-issue these days. It has long stopped being socially acceptable to be racist, so most people view that as the end of the problem and move on. However, just because people can't use racial slurs and descriminate legally, that does not mean that racism is a thing of the past.

While racism may no longer be explicit, implicit racism still runs rampant. Beauty for example is still seen as something to be almost exclusively white. Models, idols, people society deems as attractive almost always are white, or at least have light skin. This implicitly sends a message to minority children that they are not as good as their white counterparts solely because of the color of their skin.

Everyone is a little bit racist, even you and me. Its a product of the society we are born into. My favorite example is something I frequently chide my parents for, but something that I, and probably many other people do, nonetheless. When in a unfamiliar city, you always want to find out if you are in a safe neighborhood to be in or not. And how do most people go about doing this? They look at the other people in the area and judge the ratio of white people to minorities. If there's more minorities, most people would leave. Is this racist? Absolutely. But it is a product of the society we are built into. People are tought from a young age that white people are safe and minorities are dangerous. Thus you can hardly blame them for being racist when that is what they are tought. In order to eliminate racism, we must stop teaching children these implicit values of racism.

The Class

In American society, it appears that people are grouped by their race, their religion, their gender, and their sexual identity. Countless times a year do we all fill out the first three on standardized test forms! After all these are the most discussed descriptors, and have the most influential reform and equality movements. However, there is one descriptor that isn't discussed as often on a scholarly and informed level, and one for which there is no lobbying movement. That is Class.

People are grouped by their class more than by anything else. Upper class people stick together, as do lower class people. You'd never see someone from The Hamptons hanging with someone from Harlem! However, what this does is creates a sense of inclusion and exclusion. As a member of a certain social class, each person is expected to act a certain way and perform a certain role. This limits the aspirations of young people, as they are told what they "have" to do, instead of being able to live their own lives. Conversely, the exclusion from other social classes causes people to be unfamiliar with those different to them. The result is a rising level of resentment that the rich have for the poor and visa versa.

The saddest part is, theres no forseeable way to fix this. In my other blogs I've tried to end with a suggestion; and idea for reform if you will. However, here I see no solution. Social Class is inherent in life. People are born into it and live their entire lives surrounded by it. Barring some complete social overhaul that would be highly unlikely to occur, this will never change. Its a sad prospect to leave you with, but its the truth.

The Rich List

Again, pardon my politics. Few issues upset me more than class disparity. It is one of America's most glaring problems, and it is also the one we seem to care the least about - at least in terms of actually doing something about. All the time on the news you hear people complain about class inequality in other words. You always he about the "average American" who is "strapped for cash" and "just barely making ends meet" you are supposed to feel sorry for these people, and to want to change the world to be more fair to them. But then you see TV, where almost everyone is rich, drives fancy cars, and live in mansions. The high visibility of rich people on television creates the false connotation that the middle-class is a suburbanite who lives in a 2 story house. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. These people likely make up the top 20% of our Nation's incomes

The cash-strapped American as portrayed on television is actually the "middle-class" American. We never see the real poor people in America on television, atleast not portrayed in any way other than criminal scum. Why? Probably because the poorest Americans tend to be minorities, and television doesn't like to portray minorities in a positive light.  George Gerbner's "Mean World" theory shows us that as the media increasingly portrays violence, typically in news broadcasts depicting minorities in poor neighborhoods committting crimes, society as a whole becomes more and more afraid that the world is a violent place. And because this violence is attributed to minorities in the media, we come to blame the minorities. Thus society as a whole tends to shy away from helping out the poorest of the poor. We are raised to believe that these people are "criminal", "unhelpable" or worse that they "deserve what they have". It is easier for people to ignore the problem, and continue incarcerating more and more people than to confront the problem that is facing them. Class disparity can easily be lessened through social and fiscal programs that benefit the poor instead of making the rich richer, but we all know what happened the last time I mentioned socialism, so I wont go into that!

Justice (Make-Up Blog)

Allow me to get political for a moment. Those of you who know me, know that next year I am heading out to American University in Washington DC to study political science. Whenever I tell someone that for the first time, their response is always something along the lines of "future president, huh?". I always tell them no, I could never run for office because I am unelectable. This is the reason that I am unelectable, because I have the nerves to stand up and make the unpopular (but true) claim that our criminal "justice" system is not just whatsoever. This is an issue that will never get fixed, looking "soft on crime" is career suicide for a politician. As a result, millions of prisoners are left to suffer unjustly in a debilitating environment, victims of the system.

We claim to be "the land of the free", and that our Democratic ideals make people much more "free" than the Communistic ideals of China, North Korea, and the former USSR....we even had a 40 year nuclear standoff to that point. Yet if that were true, why is it that American, the place to "live free" has 25% of the worlds prison population?

America doesn't want to think about prisoners. They view people who commit crimes as evil, not deserving of society. However, what they don't realize is that so many of these "criminals" who committed minor crimes like theft or certain things that shouldn't even be crimes, are not hardened souless killing machines. Nay, they are young impressionable people in need of molding. We could get them help, and mold them in the image of a model citizen. But that would require time and effort. Nay, we find it so much easier to lock them up and throw away the key. The problem is, by locking them in a prison environment, we are molding them to be a criminal. And thus the self-fulfilling prophecy of the American "Justice" system prevails.

Deviance

Deviance is such an interesting topic, mainly because of the frequency to which it is misinterpreted. When used in an everyday context, deviance has such a negative connotation. However, that isn't always true. Deviance merely means to deviate (or stray away) from societal norms. Thus, positive deviance can exist as well. I'd like to take a moment to examine each.

Negative deviance is the more commonly recognized form of deviance. Laziness, apathy towards work, and a prediliction towards drugs and alcohol are all things that society today considers to be deviant behavior. You aren't supposed to do these things, and so society frowns upon those who do. However, it isn't necessarily true (though not necessarily false either) that these things are inherently bad. It is just the fact that society views them as bad that makes them bad; but societies views change often. A century ago, premarital-sex was something only harlots participated in, and sex was such a taboo topic that no one dared talk about it. Nowadays, sex is so prevalent in society through our media, and premarital-sex is so commonplace that it has actually become deviant behavior to abstain from sex!

Equally as interesting as Negative deviance is Positive deviance. Positive deviance is doing something good for society that isn't often done. Thus it is still deviating from societal norms, but in a positive way. A good example of this is the fact that whenever my family is eating in a city and have leftovers, we always like to try to give them to homeless people, this way they receive a nice meal that they wouldn't get otherwise. While this is by no means a bad thing, it is not a frequent occurance either, and thus society views it as deviant. It is important to remember positive deviance when talking about deviance, so that one doesnt come to the misconception that all deviance is bad.

The Masculinity Epidemic

Modern American society has come leaps and bounds in terms of equality. Not only do women, African-Americans, Latinos, Irish, Italians, you-name-it, now have equal rights, but it is now considered socially unacceptable to be derogatory towards them. However, in this rush for equality and tolerance, America as a whole glossed over the one group that appeared to be fine, but in reality wasn't, The Man. It may seem a bit rediculous of an argument to make, I'll admit. Men may have equal rights, but when it comes to the social acceptability of derogatory statements, men receive more than their fair share of the abuse. And all of this stems to controversy over masculinity. For most men, nothing is more important than masculinity, their appearance that they are a "man". Thus, the emasculating begins, as people knock on each others masculinity to make themselves feel better.

Me, I don't care about masculinity. I'm fully aware that I am nowhere near the most masculine man, and I don't care. I don't see the need for us as a society to get so worked up on "what we should be". People are people, let them make their own decisions of who they are. I cross my legs when I sit, I have a rather high pitched voice, I don't play sports, and I'm in touch with my emotions. Many people would see these things as weaknesses, something to redicule me about. But I don't see how any of those things are bad. For me, I would much rather be myself and not be the ideal man, than change who I am to fit some label that society has assigned me. Who are you if not yourself?

Consumerization

In sociology this week we learned how the media creates a consumer culture. Ads are in influx everywhere: movies, billboards, video games, and TV, just to name a few. Thus it is not surprising that people grow up in a world where product placement is rampant. Just take for example the fact that we say Kleenex and Q-tip. Neither of those are the names of the product; they are the names of the brand. However, our society has become so accustomed and influenced by these products, that the brands have surpassed the actual product in terms of usage!

The scariest trend of consumer culture has to be in our children. From the day they are born, kids are bombarded with toys, clothes, and food advertising companies. They are too young to understand that they are being advertised to, so they suck them right up. By the time they begin to realize what advertising is, it is too late. They are already hooked on the brand. Odds are, they wont move away from the brand for a long time, if ever. For me, that got-to-have product as a child was Beanie Babies. I was obsessed with them. I collected soo many of them, I still have them all in a box in my closet! I remember waiting in line to buy the new ones, and eating repeatedly at McDonalds when Beanie Baby Minis were the Happy Meal Toys. I was too young to understand I was being advertised too, but I was hooked. And through smart product integration, McDonalds walked away with a hefty sum of my parents money as a result!