My Own Twist on Race

Yesterday as I was watching South Park, I saw an episode that really related to what we are doing in class. In this episode, Cartman hurt Token who is black. Because Token is black it was labeled as a hate crime. Therefore, instead of only being reprimanded for his actions, he was sent to juvie. Then as the episode continued the Stan, Kyle, and Token went to the mayor and petitioned for Cartman's release because they said that by creating hate crimes they were actually discriminating against the minority group by saying it is because they are different that they were hurt. I feel this is very true because in some cases people are driven to hurt others because of a disagreement but then others will say it is because the other person was a minority. In the end they ended up convincing the mayor that all people were really quite the same and that there are always disagreements. I also saw an episode of the Chappelle Show. In this episode, Dave was acting as a member of the KKK, and he took off his mask. When everyone stared at him and told him that he was black he was furious and said that he always thought he was white. I felt that this was similar to our class discussion because in reality your race is not really what you look like but instead your daily cultural actions and how you see yourself. For example, I personally see myself as an Eastern European, but as Sal said in  class, I am also technically Asian because of my Russian roots. However, in the end of my episode of the Chappelle Show, Dave divorced his wife for being a black sympathizer.

Monopoly

In class we did a monopoly project in which everyone started in a social class and they played to see if any one moved up in social class. As the Lower Upper Class (New Money), I found it to be quite easy to maintain my social class, but I could not move anywhere near the wealth of the Old Money because they owned so many spaces on the monopoly boared to the 4 or 5 that I owned. However, I did find that in the end of the game I nearly doubled my money so I did earn a slightly better life style. However, I also noticed that the people in the lower classes had a lot of difficulty earning money because they had to constantly pay money for landing on spaces that were already owned by others. Therefore, our person in the Lower class ended up having a negative amount of money. After their first or second trip around the board and they ended up with more money in the negatives than the amount of money they began with in the positives. I personally found it to be quite amazing of how difficult it is to change social classes and think that it is also kind of sweet that I was lucky enough to be stuck in a social class that will provide me with a happy future since I go to such a highly ranked school.

Classes of America

In class, we have been talking even more about how society is effected by social classes. One point that I found to be very interesting was that many minorities feel a pressure to remain in lower classes. As an upper middle class white American, I have always been taught to strive for bigger and better things. I could not imagine how it would feel to be mocked by my peers in a effort to better my life. Therefore, when the video was talking about the upper middle class African American family, I thought it was awful how other African Americans were saying that they sold out and they said that the family 'acted white.' In my life I have noticed how prevalent this is because at our school which consists mainly of upper middle class children, I notice that there is not a large presence of minorities. I think that this could be largely a part of the pressure that minorities put on each other to stick together and stay in the same lower classes of America.

Jail system

In class we have been focusing on the crooked jail system in the U.S. I personally feel that it is very sad that the people in the jail have to live in such a poor living condition for most of their life. I also feel that there is a flaw because of the large amount of convicts who get sent back to jail after they are released. One large issue I feel is that while some jails like the one in the 30 days video work on teaching people in jail how to get over drug addiction issues, they do not work toward making the convicts in to functional members of society. One key example of this is the convict George in the video. George was very anxious to be released from prison and had high hopes for his future. However, he was still sent back to prison when the movie was finished. I personally found this part to be very sad but it just goes to show that actions speak louder than words, and it teaches us how difficult it is to put a stop to a life of crime. In addition, I think it is awful that our jail system favors the more wealthy people. This is mainly because we see the payment of money as a way to relieve a person of their wrong doings. However this is unfair because it gives people with money an advantage in the court system. This can be seen if the Good Charlotte song, Life Styles of the Rich and Famous, when they say:

"well did you know when your famous you could kill your wife
and there's no such thing as 25 to life
as long as you got the cash to pay for Cochran
and did you know if you were caught and you were smokin crack
and McDonald's wouldn't even wanna take you back
you could always just run for mayor of D.C."

This tells of how the people who are wealthy have a huge advantage in courts and their punishments are not nearly as bad as those of the poor. Therefore, the jail system to day is greatly flawed against felons, and it gives wealthy a huge advantage.

saints stuff

In class we have been talking a lot about the saints in society. When we watched the episode of freaks and geeks about this topic, I thought it was quite obvious that Lindsy was one of the saints. In out school, I realize that there are many saints. This is mostly because we live in an area that is upper middle class. It is because of this money situation that these kids are seen as acceptable members of society and they therefore, are able to live an easier life. In addition, since nearly everyone on our school goes to college, if any one at our school is caught for any illegal activities they will be judged much less harshly. This is much contrary to the rough necks who in freaks and geeks were represented through the druggies. It was because these kids were seen as failures in society that they got judged very harshly when they were caught with drugs, and they, unlike the saints do not have the ability to 'play the game' with society.

Milestones

In class, we talked about all of the different milestones in our lives as Americans. One thing that I found very interesting was that we saw the mile stones as more of a process that comes with age. Instead of thinking of these ideas as important improvements in our life such as learning how to talk or walk, we saw it as events that come with age such as getting a licence. This tells a lot about our lives because I feel that events that we see as important are the events in which we gain privileges. This can really be seen as far as ideas such as getting a licence at 16, being a legal adult at age 18, and being able to see R movies at 17. However, we do not have any physical gain in being able to walk so we do not see it as an important milestone. Overall I see the milestone project as a reference to when we talked about the importance of materialism in our society.

how we should be

In class we have been watching videos telling us of how the media influences how men and women should act and how they should look. I personally feel that as far as women go they definitely feel the pressure from the media. I always notice that girls have to wake up much earlier before they go to school just so that they can make themselves look better with makeup. Not only is this a waste of time, but it is also unhealthy because they are depriving themselves of sleep. However, I found the ideas about men to be quite contradictory to how I want to be. I personally aspire to be like the people in my favorite bands. Many of these people however are not super jacked like the movie said men want to be, and many of them do not use a lot of violence as the movie talked about. I personally aspire to have a sort of out of shape yet thin body like the people in pop punk bands. Also, I do not want to be a violent authoritative person, but instead a person that is very care free and joking. Therefore, I feel that the pressure on women is much heavier than the pressure on men.

Beauty Commercial

In class we have been talking a lot about what makes people attractive. One thing that really stuck out in my mind was the commercial by Dove about the girl Amy. I thought it was really interesting that she saw so many flaws in herself while the boy saw none. I believe that this commercial really spoke out about how critical people are on themselves. It makes us realize why girls always feel that they need to wear so much make-up. I feel that girls have a lot of pressure from society to always be looking their best while boys have basically no pressure. Also, I think our society has put such a emphasis on girls to look good and it has lead to many awful stories such as girls with eating problems, and teen suicides. I personally thought that Amy in the commercial had killed herself because she thought that she was ugly but then the people around me looked at me like an idiot when I said that. This is also similar to our school life. I notice that many girls want to wear fashionable clothes and they like to wear exotic shirts with many different patterns. However, boys like me wear jeans and a t-shit basically everyday. Its funny that people would feel that they have to look fashionable when they are just going to sit at a desk the entire day and listen to a teacher.

Wild children stuff

In class we have been talking a lot about how people are heavily influenced by their surroundings and those that help them to grow up. However we have also talked about how some children are raised in the wild and completely neglected. This makes them grow up to actually behave like the animals in the wild that have raised them. I personally feel that my parents have raised me to behave much like they do and I cannot imagine growing up any other way. However, I realize that if I grew up with monkeys or dogs I would behave like a monkey or dog. I also feel that it is awful that some people grow up in these strange ways because they are never able to take advantage of what it means to be a human. In addition, I think that it must be very difficult for these people to adapt to human culture since many of them are past six years old once they are discovered. Therefore, they have done most of their learning and adapting to the social norms of society will be near impossible.

Tuesdays with Morrie

One key point made in Tuesdays with Morrie was "Once you learn how to die you learn how to live." I personally found this quote to be very relative to people's lives today. In our Nothing assigenment I personally found this to be very true. For example,  as I looked around while I was doing nothing I saw everyone running around in my gym class. I realized that they really were ignorant to the world around us and that they had know idea of how to live the perfect life and I did not either. In addition, this quote can relate to everyone's life because people never can tell the success of their life when they are living. However, I feel that as they die their life flashes before their eyes and they notice all of the important moments in their life and they learn if their life was a success of a failure and what they did that was right or wrong. Therefore, the quote "Once you learn how to die you learn how to live," is very important to everyone's life.

American culture

In class we have done a lot of discussion on what truely is american culture. I personally view it asthe same as many other people in our class in that it is a culture of materialism. In the small class discussion everyone seemed to have this same agreement. This can be seen in everyday life through our admiration for people with large houses and the nicest cars. In addition, as a teen in an upper middle class area, I notice many aspects of materialism. Not only do I notice that my peers have very stylish items, but they also have very expensive items. For example, in our school near every girl has some type of Coach Purse. I personally see these as a huge waste of money but everyone wants to be instyle with these luxury items. One thing that I found very funny was that when my sister went into the Coach store that sells these purses she was wearing a nock off of one of their purses. The people that worked at the store were even asking her where she got it. However, my sister still wanted to buy an actual Coach purse because of the materialistic society that she has been raised in. Also, sorry sal for the late post, I forgot about it since we had a sub thursday.

toilet stuffi

In class we looked at a bunch of toilets from other countries. I found it very interesting thatthe japanese toilet had a spot for u to wash your hands in. As an american, I would never use these toilet sinks because I have been brought up to think that toilet water is unsanitary but in japan people have been taught that it is clean so they do not see this as a big deal. this can relate to my life as far as foods. In tennesee aligator gumbo is a very popular food, and as a suburban chicago boy I personally find this gross. However, when I went there someone bought it for my family so I figured that I had to at least try it. So I did and it was actually really good. However, after this experience, I think that I will consider using different toilets around the world because I will not be as afraid to try something new.

Movie

In the movie in class I found one interesting feature of the movie to be the fight in which all of the Italian boys start to beat up all of the black boys on the bicycles. This was an awful event but I found it interesting that the main character did not want to hurt the black boys despite his friends violent actions. I personally believe that the reason for this is because he is so close with the Mafia leader. In the movie, I feel that the Mafia leader is actually a good person and understands right and wrong. He realizes that his business is wrong and tries to keep the main character from making the same mistakes. Therefore, the mob leader is affecting the main characters sociological mind set into thinking that all people are equal and he is teaching him right from wrong. I think that it is very interesting that a man who acts in completely uncivilized ways can have such a positive effect on the main character. I think that this can relate to our world because everyone has adults, who they look up to, who look back on their life and realize that they made many awful mistakes, so they teach us not to make those mistakes and then we can live a happier and more successful life.

Boat thing

In this project, I had the role of the boat officer. As the officer I had no doubt that I would be safe throughout the entire project. Therefore, I was able sit back and watch as everyone else was voted off. One ineresting thing was that the quarter master was not voted off. I noticed that because he had a high rank on the boat, everyone forgot that he had no hands. Therefore, I have realized that in life we respect usefulness in a situation. For example, on the boat the millionaire had no usefulness in the water so he was thrown into the water. Also, in school, students who are intelligent are very well respected because we can use them to help out on homework. However, if you are not intelligent you will not be respected as much by your peers.

Spitting Thing

Yesterday in class, we had a spitting demonstration in which my classmate Allison had to get up in front of the class and spit into a cup. Many people found this to be gross. Then once she had spit into the cup, Sal asked her if she wanted to drink it back up and she said no because it is gross. Then he asked the rest of us if we wanted to drink it since saliva is so essential for our body. However none of us would do it because we thought it was disgusting. Personally, I feel that we have been raised in a society where we have been taught that spit is gross, and that it is very infected with viruses. Therefore, we have become afraid of touching it. However, when we cannot see it in drinks, we are fine with sharing our spit. Thus, our minds have been shaped to think that something is only has dangerous germs if we can see it. In my life, I personally do not see a big problem with drinking my own spit. In fact, many times when I laugh and have juice in my mouth I spit it into my cup and then continue to drink it. Thus, I personally feel that I have not been as influenced about spitting by the society around me.

Silence

During the silence in class, as a class we experienced a very awkward moment. It was not that we had never been in a silent situation i class before, but we had never started class without the teacher telling us what to do so we felt uncomfortable. Therefore, being high school students molded by years of classes, we were in utter confusion. Thus, we did not know how to react to a new style of teaching. This can teach us the life lesson of always being open to new ideas. Many students I felt were looking at each other with expressions that were thinking along the lines of 'this is stupid.' However, if they were in another area these looks could have been thought of as very rude. For example, as a Jew, I am not used to the way that a church is run. Therefore, when I was required to go into a church for a Hebrew School field trip, I did not know how to react. When the people knelt down to pray, I was looking up and smiling at friends (with that 'this is stupid' look) in the awkward silence, and many people thought that I was being quite rude. Therefore, during the times of awkward silence we need to think of why this is going on and not be afraid of the situation. Also, it is only awkward if you make it awkward.

Sup

Dear People Reading This,

I'm Joey. Im pretty relaxed and only like wearing compfortable clothes. Also, I like to play guitar and sports. I am also in a band called On The Fly, with Connor F., Carson L. and Steve S. U should buy a shirt they are only $15 (It will be the greatest investment of your life). In my life my biggest influences are the people in my favorite bands (Blink 182, FTSK, GNR, Metallica, and Pearl Jam). My goal in life is to be lead guitarist in a famous band. Also, I hope to go to college for business and music but I don't really know what school I want to go to. Maybe OSU, IU, or Santa Clara. Thats about it. I hope u liked it.

From,
Joey