Ethnocentrism

This week in class, we've mainly been focusing on ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism deals with how our perspective on things is changed by our culture. Based on this principle, someone coming from one country who goes into another country will usually experience a culture shock. For example, I went to Spain this past summer on a school trip and I now I can definitely relate to culture shock. When I went there, a lot of their ways of doing things were different from my own, since I'm from the United States. I thought this new way of living was interesting, but a lot of their methods didn't make sense to me and this was because of my ethnocentric way of thinking. I think everyone needs to eventually try to break past these ethnocentric barriers, so we can better understand each other. All of our ways of doing things might be different, but in the end- we're all human.

A Bronx Tale

This week during sociology we've been watching "A Bronx Tale," which is a movie about an italian boy growing up in the Bronx during the 50's. The main character, Calogero, is growing up in a neighborhood run by gangs and divided along racial lines. Back then, racial tensions were much more severe and this is clearly portrayed in the movie. "A Bronx Tale" really helped show how we are a product of our environment. Calogero and his friends were raised in a mainly racist neighborhood that respected the gangs that ruled the area. And so, Calogero grew up to believe the stereotypes he was taught his whole life and also respected gang members. In fact, Calogero was involved in the gang itself. I thought the movie was great and really interesting. I think everyone needs to realize that because we definitely are a product of our enviornments, we need to reassess the way we look at certain things to make sure we remain individuals. If Calogero had done this and broke the norm in his area, he could have set an example for future generations.

Stereotypes

In class this week we've been talking about the excerpt the class read from Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. It was a novel about an Indian sociologist reasearching a mostly black community in Chicago. To collect research for his project, Venkatesh went into the projects and talked to some of the people living there. He began by asking them ignorant questions like, "How does it feel to be black and poor?" Obviously, questions like these won't get a very good answer.

He finally decided to get to know the men by just hanging out with them. A lot of what the found was definitely interesting. But, he failed to acknowledge the bigger picture. He was trying to study how being poor and a minority in today's society affects an individual's future. I thought the way he was going about reasearching was very ignorant because his reasearch was too genearlized. I am black and although I don't live in the typical "poor" Chicago neighbrhood, I wouldn't say that if I did- my siblings and I would grow up to deal drugs and live in the projects. So, I didn't necesarilly agree with a lot of the things the author was saying in his book. His generalizations, to me, felt like stereotypes.

Social Construction of Reality

Yesterday in class, our lesson focused on our social construction of reality. To demonstrate, Mr.Salituro had a student spit into a spoon and then asked all of us why it would be so disgusting for him to drink it back up. He did have a point-- we're swallowing salivia all the time, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal to swallow it back up. But, all of us were really disgusted because throughout our lives, we've been conditioned to believe that salivia is okay because it's inside the body. No one can control the fact that they're constantly swallowing their salivia, so doing so is socially acceptable. But, we've been taught that swallowing spit is gross. There isn't really a definite answer for why it's gross (possibly because the whole putting body fluids back into you thing is seen as disturbing) besides that fact that that is what we've been taught to believe all our lives. After this lesson, we were all really able to understand what our teacher meant when he described this social construction of reality-- it is how society has conditioned and shaped our beliefs on what is acceptable and what isn't. After the lesson, I started thinking of other ways society has changed the way I look at things. For example, maybe if I wasn't born in the United States-- I wouldn't understand our extreme obsession with sports or something along those lines.

Sociological Mindfulness

This week in sociology we've mostly been discussing Michael Schwalbe's definition of sociological mindfulness and sociological imagination. Both terms deal with how people influence each other. Sociological mindfulness is the ability to acknowledge/ appreciate other people's unique qualities and recognizing how our influences are put out into the world. These influences are, of course, recieved by others --which in turn might affect us in the end. After discussing Schwalbe's definition of these terms, I started trying to think about ways I could be more mindful, in a sociological sense. Since I'm in high school, I couldn't help thinking how things would change if everyone became more mindful. Maybe more people would feel included in certain social groups and everyone could possibly get along better. People would stop using words like "gay" and learn to be a little more aware of the energy they put out there. I think not just high school, but the world would be a much better place if everyone would just think about how they're influencing the people around them.