Crash

This week we watched the movie Crash in class, which doesn't have a "main character" except for race.  The movie began with two black men complaining about the racist white people around them who stereotype, and as you're nodding and agreeing "yes, everyone is judging them! They're so right-" they pull out guns and stole a car from the couple they were criticizing.

I started laughing at that point because it was the first of many shocking and thought provoking moments.  Almost everyone in the movie thinks in stereotypes, (except for the lock guy,) but we still end up sympathizing with the characters we started out disliking (like one of the black men from the beginning), and disliking the ones we thought were good (like the Asian man who was hit by a car, and ended up being an illegal person dealer.)  The movie was designed to mess with our heads in this way, and it did an amazing job of it.

No one wants to think of themselves as a racist person, but I'm curious where the line is drawn.  If someone thinks by stereotypes for some people and not others, are they racist?  If they actively try really hard not to be, but once in a while make a comment or two, does that make them racist? I know I try my best to avoid any stereotypes because I've been stereotyped myself and I know how much it sucks, but it can't be completely unavoidable.  It's all about looking at the bigger picture, like we're talked about all semester, and know not to judge ANYONE on first impressions. Only then can we get over racism.

On a lighter note, no blog post about race is complete without this:

Race

I feel like I already knew that what people consider to be "race" wasn't biological, but it was still really interesting to have the knowledge put to use.  We did a classification activity with like 10 sports balls, and I thought putting them by "type" instead of "color" was the less offensive way of doing it. However, many of the balls couldn't be used for playing the sport that they look like they belong too, so my categories were too constraining for what it should have been.  I realized after the activity, that even though I don't think about putting people into categories by the way they look, if I can't even figure out how to do it with balls, I may accidentally be doing it in real life too. So from now on, I'm going to try and actively not put people into categories by a first impression.  Race is another social construct that I'm going to try and break free from.

Another Poverty Post

The game of monopoly isn't really realistic, because in real life people don't actually start with the same amount of money, or get paid that much.  In class we played the game like it was real life, but in the end only the people who started with more were able to make money.  For anyone (like me) in middle class or lower, it was really hard just to make ends meet.

I'm very fortunate in real life, and can't imagine living dollar to dollar like so many people have to.  It's so hard for people to move up economically, which means that the rich will keep getting richer, and the poor will become poorer. How is that the American dream?

Don't Mess With Your Raisin

We watched a video in class where a woman was looked down upon for leaving her small town to go to college and get a job in the city.  In their society, it's thought of as negative to look or act higher class than they grew up, and it's offensive for them to bring that back to their society.  She and her dad had nothing in common to talk about.

I think that a mindset like this is a reason that most poor people stay poor. If they aren't encouraged to be better, then many won't.  This isn't to say that everyone should reject their childhood, or look down upon their parents or grandparents for not having everything. I'm not really sure where the happy medium should come in, because no way of life, upper or lower class, is perfect.

The negative outlook of moving "up" works the other way too.  I have a second cousin who my family says went "frum-" meaning, she became very religious, left her job as a teacher, had 5 kids and is now living with her husband in a poor city in Israel.  It's not that my family looks down on her, but most they can't understand why she'd give certain things and amenities up. So its interesting to me that no one is expected to move far away from their economical background.

Jails

The worst part about American prisons is that they teach the inmates how to be prisoners- not how to cope and live in real life.  Many inmates continually find themselves back in prison, because they don't have the skills to live outside of it.  Sure, some prisons have rehabilitation or occupational facilities, but most don't, and the inmates many times don't even need to complete the programs.

It says bad things about our society that people can't escape the spiral of prison, and that we don't do anything to help them.  There needs to be better programs for helping people, otherwise society as a whole cannot improve.

Deviance

In class we learned how breaking social norms can be deviant or not, depending on the situation.  An act must be perceived as deviant for it to actually be deviant. For example, in the Saints and Roughnecks article, the drinking and skipping class the Saints did wasn't seen as deviant because they were upper middle class white kids who got good grade. On the other hand, the Roughnecks weren't able to hide their deviance as well, and therefore were perceived this way.

I think there are defiantly Saints and Roughnecks at our school.  Because of the majority population, most of our school is Saints.  But there are people perceived as Roughnecks because they happened to be caught.  I think it's an unfair way of looking at people, because the people who make these judgements aren't stupid, but they conform their views to the stereotypical "good kid" and "bad kids."

The Wikipedia Rule Book for Teenage Life

I'm trying to picture American life if everyone was expected to always learn from, and take care of each other, but it's almost too hard of a reach. What if we learned to be independent before we needed to?  What if we could have jobs that taught skills besides answering phones or preparing meals?

It's confusing, as teenagers, to know what's expected of us, because every message we get is different. The government says one thing, but it varies by state, our parents say another, and the media says 100 different thing.  As soon as we hit puberty, life switches from "asexual" to "sexual," as long as it fits the social norms. There's more freedom at 15 and 16, but little time to explore it.  And in all aspects of life, we're supposed to be leaders, but also follow all the rules and not break out of the mold. Life is stressful without all of this- it's be nice if one of them could make up their minds.

Everyone tries to edit how we're supposed to act and accomplish, so little is understood and it's hard for teens to follow all the changes. So we break rules we don't understand, (and some we do) and get punished (inconsistently) for their mistakes. How is that fair?