What is race?

Many people identify race as basically what skin color you are, how small your eyes are, or the color of your hair even.  What people really don't realize is that race is practically everything.  The social class, religion, language, and almost everything else.  Race is a section that we are placed in by others judgements.

The 99%

Why desire for economic security is not being met- She is working a job that doesn't require her PhD and she is underpaid.

More fair situation- Jobs for the people that have worked for it, equal pay, more opportunity.  For example, those that have a diploma should be able to work the job they have studied and paid for years.

Relate to social class- This person use to have high hopes that once she received her hard earned PhD, that she would be able to get the job of her dreams, but now reality has hit her and she barely has a job.  She studied for a upper class job but is working a lower class job.

Chose this image- It surprised me to see that even those who worked hard to get a a degree, can barely support themselves, and as well the fact that nowadays education is becoming less important towards your future job.

Why desire for economic security not being met-  The government is preventing him from succeeding a future he desires.

More fair situation-  Group for those who are less fortunate that can still have a future no matter what situation.

Relate to social class-  This person use to have hopes of having a future and going to college, but due to lack of money, he feels useless because he can't get a simple loan, so to him his future is tasteless.

Chose this image-  It is a very big issue today in America because due to lack of money, people loose much of their chance, just like Alvin, to have a future, and it is just not fair.

Why desire for economic security not being met- This girl has tried almost all possibilities she can think of; her parents, her friends, even her own  home, yet she cannot find the future she desires because she has no money.

More fair situation-  It should not be so hard for someone who has nothing to not get a loan.  If one person can get one, then all can.

Relate to social class-  She has tried almost everything she could think of to get a penny out of someone she cared about, knowing that she would be eternally great full, yet in the end all she found was heartbreak and destruction.

Chose this image- Today, it is either extremely easy to get money (not always clean money) or it is extremely hard to get money, and this is a VERY big issue in America today.

Your welcome :)

I was at school, Stevenson, my freshman year and I committed a random act of positive deviance by opening the door open for a teacher that had her hands full of papers.  I don't know her name nor have I ever seen her before, but was by the sports center upstairs by the chorus rooms and I saw a teacher coming through the hallway with many things in her hands and the person before me had shut the door as a joke because I guess it's funny to be immature, but I held the door open for her and she was so thankful, more than a person should be for having a door open for them, but I guess in society today, doing a positive deviance is rare.  By me opening the door for a stranger, I'd see this as a cliche because I thought that's something your always suppose to do for a person.  When I saw the students in front of me just throw the door shut trying to be funny, I was kind of confused because I guess I didn't really expect someone to be so rude.  It shocked me even more that I was thanked more than I needed to be.  I felt good and as if I did someone extremely rewarding by the look of that persons face, but after all, it's always nice to put a smile on someones face, especially if they are strangers.

Staring at a blank screen.

When I stared at the TV for about 15 minutes, I didn't think it would be that easy.  In fact, when I was staring, my mind didn't go straight to how boring this was or waiting for the time to pass by, my mind went into a focus of details. I noticed the small things about the TV that I knew were there, but I never really paid attention to it.  Then I started thinking about the things on my mind, like what I have planned for the future, what I'm going to be eating for dinner, reflect on the things in my life.  It really wasn't as boring as people make it seem. It was pretty relaxing.  The only thing though was that my show was starting in a few minutes and I really didn't want to miss it, which i will admit is a pretty bad habit of mine, wanting to always be on time with my TV.

Family Socialization interview

Q: What expectations did your parents have for you before you were born?
A: mom: That you are a boy!!!---> she of course said she was just kidding after :)
     dad: To be a healthy baby :)
Q: What lessons, values, or ideas have they tried hardest to impart to you?
A:  dad: honesty, good Muslim, respectful!
      mom: humorous, charming, bright personality
Q: What tradition is more important to them that you carry on?
A:  mom and dad: arab culture, religious
Q: Did your parents struggle with figuring out how to discipline you?
A: Both: Noooo!! Not one bit----> :)
Q:What habits or parts of your personality do you have that your parents recognize as their own?
A: mom: humor, sensibility, kindness
     dad: good looks ;) and brains
* I think they were just trying to be nice on the brains part

American Culture

Throughout this whole unit on culture, there were many things I discovered about the American culture that I never seemed to have opened my eyes wide enough to realize so.  For example, us as Americans, we value time to the extreme.  I always thought that it was just me that always cared about time, but it seems that the rest of this country is the same way.  Time is everything, time is money.  I think Americans feel like being on time is so necessary because it shows our professional side, and how much we do value what we need to do and get done.  Some big symbolic examples would be McDonald's or Starbucks.  Those two places are so much a part of our culture, that we don't even find the need to put the words McDonald's or Starbucks on the food or the cups. They both relate to the time value in the sense that McDonald's= something quick to eat so we can be on our way asap, and Starbucks= stress relief or wake up call because we've been running around so much lately to be on time.  A material example of the American culture that I never realized how important it was until now is technology. In order for us as Americans to survive through education and career, it's most absolutely important that we have our technology to get easy answers, fast access, and to accomplish tasks. I especially took the time to realize the norms we live by.  For example, it's a folkway to burp loudly at someone else house during dinner or it's a mores to go to the mosque, church, or temple naked, showing the utmost disrespect, or it's a taboos in the American culture to kill someone.  Taboos usually interact with the law, and I never realized so until we began out culture unit and my eyes were open to the sociological imagination.

It's crazy to think how different we view other countries and their cultures. In other countries, people are greeted differently, there's a different meaning to what it's like to have a get together, there's a different meaning of having fun in general.  We as Americans with a different mentality and culture of greeting people with a handshake or even just saying 'sup' are our greetings, and having a get together is usually a party of only one certain age group and very mixed type of people involved, and having fun in general is facebook and being with friends so, when we go to these other countries, yes we are blessed and thankful to be in such a country but yet we are all so quick to judge their culture.  If we see two men giving kiss on the cheeks while shaking hands as a greeting, we automatically think whoa did that really just happened? How are men comfortable like that?  We don't realize that there is no country that has a perfect culture where nothing weird will ever happen.  We assume that America has the best culture and everything we do is 'perfect' and 'not weird'.  Just imagine how these other countries think as well.  We are outsiders no matter where we go.  We are always going to be exposed to different types of cultures.  I think most people will agree that we are one of the most diverse country since we have so many different ethnic groups surrounding us, but that's what makes America America.  Others probably won't see what we see normal, as being normal.

2012

I don't know about anyone else, but for me as a person, I sure never expected that our society would become like this today.  Today all you see are headlines about celebrities dying, yet they are celebrities that we have stopped caring about, and then all of a sudden once you hear that they have passed away it seems to be the end of the world for everyone and it's all you see on news headlines for weeks and weeks.  We start to loose the sense of what's really important, like having American soldiers being sent day after day to the middle east to fight in wars that shouldn't have started in the first place, or children and families dying in Africa from hunger, or the fact that Global Warming is getting worse and worse and all we tend to care about is when the new iphone will come out or what next hollywood scandal is going to happen.  I won't lie, I'm one of those people who have become obsessed with the gossip and the Hollywood news rather than what is going on everywhere in the world, and it breaks my heart that I could be so careless and find things out today that have been really going on for months and months.  People are starting to loose jobs, and more crime is rising, but yet all we care about is who has the most friends on Facebook or who has the nicest stuff in town.  Technology has taken over more than we know. To the extent that I have to go online to make notecards on a website rather than just write a notecard by hand and the notecards are so unnecessary because they are suppose to be for a Junior English research paper.  What ever happened to just writing a simple research paper? No notecards, no online bibliography and etc.  There is not much we really can do now because it is too late, our expectations have been risen so high and so much more pressure is being put on people and due to that, you start to see more laziness, suicide, and people just taking the easy way out by taking pills or drugs to calm their nerves down.  But hey, this is 2012, all we can do is "live it up" and "hope for the best" because as long as we forget the rest, we'll make is somehow, even if it's not what we had expected as little kids.

organized vs unorganized

What does it say if you are an organized/unorganized person? Being organized means many things including, but not limited to, a career plan, organized closet, punctuality, etc. The benefits of being organized is simple. Organized people succeed on time. They have more clarity in the daily obstacles they tackle. However, an unorganized person might not know what career he/she wants to achieve, may lose a shoe or two in his/her closet, might be late a few times too many, etc. Unorganized people may lose sight of what they really want because of "cluttered-mind syndrome." Many thoughts and what-if's run through their minds. The similarity between organized people and unorganized people is that being either way might "work" for their lifestyles.

For my "Doing Nothing" experiment, I went into the new building learning center.  Since 7th period is one of the common study hall periods for the learning center, me walking in there was nothing unusual.  No one looked at me weird thinking who's that girl and what is she doing here?  I sat down at one of the computers but didn't log in.  I heard students talking, gossiping, laughing, or being completely quiet.  No one came up to me and asked me what I doing.  The outcome of this experiment was exactly how I expected it.  It definitely matters what room you are in and what students your being surrounded by, and I'm sure that if I was in an actual classroom and walked in without saying a word, I probably would have gotten judged harshly or would be thought weird.  Once they would find out why I was in the classroom, they would probably laugh and move on with their lives.

I believe in Allah and Allah only.  Me as a Lebanese-Palestinian Muslim girl, I believe that there is 1 God and 1 God only, and goes by the name of Allah. I believe that sending a peaceful message to others around me is more important than being aggressive, as well as the idea that my religion is an extremely peaceful religion that people don't take the time to realize.  I want to accomplish a very big thing in the world which is to send out a message to everyone, that my religion really isn't what all people see it as as it is publicized on television.  I am a very strong person and I will do anything to make that happen yet, doing this a little bit more difficult than you would think because I come from a very opinionated and strict culture so it needs to be taken down with a spoon full of sugar. I try my best to open the eyes of others and defeat stereotypes all around our society and community. I like to promote humanity and peace and do the best I can trying to spread a positive message. Islam is the most important thing to me and I hold it dear, my religion is my reasons for my morals and my responsibility, and my parents have always taught me to follow what I believe and trust in.  The person that influenced me to be like this was my father.  He is the one person that I believer every single thing that comes out of his mouth about religion because my dad has read all of the holy books, went to the mosque for Friday prayers, prays 5 times a day, fasts during Ramadan no matter what.  He is a true inspiration to me and many others, when it comes to religion.  He tends to open your eyes and realize what you need to do in life and what you can do to achieve it.  There really is no group that I "fit" into, all my life I've been taught that not every single one of your friends in high school are going to be with you until the end, so there really is no need to pick and choose who your friends are.  My parents and my religion both taught me that being independent and open minded is the best I can be for myself, and I should never change myself to fit in with the others.  Allah has a big impact on my life and I couldn't be prouder of myself to believe in something so strong.  Allah is what I believe in.