The Big Bang

This week we watched crash. This movie utimitatly shows how people are affected when we act ethnocentric and are not sociological mindful.  We CRASH! When the movie finished its hard to remember that this only happened in  a time span of 2 days in only one city. Yet this movie can be applied to almost any setting and time. Because unfortunately "the crash" is still happening. At the youth group event i went to this weekend the theme was bullying. We talked about how to prevent it and stop it. Like our soc class everyone could recall when they were the bystander, the bully, and the victim.  One thing that they stressed is if we go home and share this knowledge about bullying that it would have a ripple effect and ulitmalty help to end bullying. However i disagree with this. I think as we talked about before that we are trained to assume things about people and stereotype. We get these ideas from the media, text books, family members and friends.  At Onward House i saw how a  6th graders science homework displays that. That it only showed white male scientist getting credit for the theories. When however there were others all over the world discovering the same things.  Also when we watched the video with the experiment of the dolls we saw how badly the media affects the self confidence of young boys and girls of color. When the girl was asked to tell which doll was the "bad doll" she pointed to the black doll. When asked then to say which doll looked most like her she struggled.  She knew she didn't look like the white doll but didn't want to be considered bad.  The stereotypes we create affect these children to adults who are watched while shopping just because they are of color.  So can we really end bullying? because to me it looks like society and the media bully. They train our minds to think these things.  So will one weekend at a youth group retreat end bullying? no. We have seen "the crash" from the time of the Romans where if you were not roman you were seen inferior. Now it is based on pigmentation of skin and religion. In thirty from now it might be based off something different but these stereotypes and discrimination which plays hand in hand with bullying. So maybe one youth group event can't end bullying across the world but hopefully it helped us "as jewish teens" to become more sociological mindful and less ethnocentric.

"Different Classes But All The Same Students: Humans"

This week we talked a lot about social class and got to see video’s and clips of people living (or trying to live) in different social classes.  There are 5 things when we focus on when we talk about social class. Those are power. Wealth. Income. Prestige. Education. Each social class different levels of each.  We took a look at the 30 days episode where Morgan and Alex left “ THEIR ordinary life” and walked a mile in someone else’s shoes.  They found out very quickly that these shoes cause “blisters” stress and can tear the “feet” relationships apart. It was a very eye opening experience for them and the viewers. However I still feel that they didn’t accomplish the real goal. Yes they lived the physical life of being on minimum wage. But did they really experience it emotionally? How about psychologically? Can you feel the thoughts and feelings of someone in a different life style by walking in their shoes for 30 days? I don’t think so. I mean this is just my opinion but I don’t think it is possible to do that transformation. We have to remember they only walked a mile. Not a 1000 miles. It was more like a mile marathon. Because they knew in the back of their head once 30 days are over they can go back to “THEIR” normal lifestyle.  They could use credit cards and go out to dinner without worrying about the money.  Once they crossed the finish line they were free to live the lifestyle they want. They had that motivation in the back of their heads when they faced the cold the bugs and the work.  However this is not true for a personal living a minimum wage lifestyle. There is no finish line in sight. They live paycheck to paycheck every single day till if they are fortunate enough to make more money and live a different life style. However them accomplishing that is unfortunately very very slim.

Nickel and Dimed was another similar scenario.  It was very interesting seeing others who she interacted with and learning parts of their stories. Like the other maids there. It was shocking that most of them couldn’t afford a lunch to replenish the calories they lost doing strenuous acts.  Also unlike her they all had families to support.  They couldn’t even put together enough money to make 2 dollars. I find this shocking. We take these people for granted.  Those who do so strenuous tasks for such little. It made me extremely mad when the women who owned the house didn’t leave them water or was very rude. This made me think back to trips with my grandparents. Whenever we were at a hotel my grandpa would tape 5 dollars to the  bathroom mirror with a note saying “thank you! I hope you have a good day!”. I never thought till now how much those people probably appreciated something that I think of as so simple as 5 dollars.

Another thing I found intriguing was the idea of a “culture of poverty” and a “culture of wealth”.  When our teacher gave us the example of how in a school in New York a group of students got frustrated with a books ending and acted out because of it.  The teacher talked to one of the students about this behavior was not ok if he wanted to go back to the mainstream schools. And he responded with something like “so I have to sit and do nothing in order to go back school”? and when thinking about this he is right. The “culture of wealth” teaches us that in school we need to do just that.  Even if we are passionate about something like a book. We still need to be this “proper” way.   Yet when teachers get mad at us for not being enthusiastic about books or class maybe it’s not our fault? but the it’s because of this “culture of wealth” and different social classes that gives us these ideas. Who knows?

No matter how we look at the different social classes and how they are formed we have to keep one thing in mind. No matter how much or how little separates these classes we are all humans. So the next time you see some one that may not live exactly how you do it doesn’t mean you should respond/act differently towards them. You need to treat them like a human.  Also we need to remember that even if social classes exist in this world that not everyone who “fits in” a social class means they represent everyone in that class. Not everyone in the working poor are the same. Just like not everyone in the upper class are the same.  We need to focus on the individual person.