This is a very controversial issue in many ways. One is the argument that the US uses immigrants as cheap laborers stealing jobs away from actual citizens. Another is the derogatory term “anchor babies” and the argument on how illegal immigrants have used the 14th amendment to their advantage on gaining legal status.
There has been countless laws passed and repealed that constantly shift what illegal immigrants are allowed to do and not to do in America. I personally feel that illegal immigrants do take jobs away from Americans, not just because no one wants to take them (I believe that is false Americans are tough) but because they are the cheaper labor force. Currently I see no benefits given to these cheap laborer’s and I think that if we gave them some benefits renewed visa’s and slowly started to make these jobs more “appealing” more Americans would take these jobs, although that does create some economic issues like raising the cost of living which sparks up a whole new debate like raising the minimum wage and so forth.
Also, about these children born from illegal immigrants, I think that the issue of using them almost as a "shield" or object of manipulation in order to obtain citizenship is ridiculous. The reason why almost all immigrants come to America is because of a lot of what the political cartoon above is depicting. Unemployment benefits, healthcare, free education, and numerous programs that make this country a really great country to live in. Basically the overall quality of life and opportunities. That is most immigrants though, I'm sure a conspiracy theory or two hold true but for the most part WAY BETTER LIFESTYLE. Think about getting fired back in another country and being totally screwed. Yeah, I think you catch my drift, but again these "anchor babies" shouldn't warrant a change in the constitution. Yes illegal's are breaking the law, and yes laws giving them opportunities to get an education and jobs are continuing to solicit an illegal behavior, but I believe (speaking from a humanistic point of view) we should all be given a chance. I mean there is a root cause for a lot of what's happening and although there is no one way clear cut solution to the increasing number of illegal's, we have to deal with the cards we've been handed and take baby steps. Like renewing the old fashioned and outdated laws on the legal immigration process.
I do want to focus on the positives about teaching basic moral principles and teaching positive humanistic behavior, because it is in everyone’s interest to behave this way. If we all tried to achieve these positive and caring values, than the world would be a much better place to live in.
Although I do not want to focus on the negative I have to say that this week especially has made me reflect more and more about ethics and morals. This Friday, the same Friday that this blog assignment was posted, I got into a car accident with a friend of mine whom I was driving to work. I was hit mid merge onto Georgia Avenue after entering the exit from the beltway and was shocked, hurt, angry, and panicky because I had to keep moving my car onto the road to avoid being hit from oncoming traffic. I instinctively looked into my rearview before quickly merging onto the road where there was a red light. I was shaking as I signaled to the nearest side road looking back to see if the car who hit me followed, but they did not. I was fooled and hurt and checked the damage as soon as I dropped my friend off to find that my brake light had been smashed and my bumper deeply cracked.
It made me reflect on what we have been discussing in class because it was more than the damage she had done to my car that made me angry, it was the fact that she did not have the human decency to pull over and check to see if we were okay. I ended up with a sore neck and my tiny friend had to leave work do to pains as well. It hurt more than just the physical, it hurt emotionally because we felt that we weren’t worth taking a look at to see if we were alright at least. It is the principle of the matter and not the money owed. A perfect example of where people’s morals have gone.
Although trying to keep on the positive side when you teach someone morals and values you dig deep into their soul and touch their human being by sharing the principles of how we should all treat and act towards one another. My driving school instructor was a good example of this. He taught us not only how to act behind the wheel, but human compassion for other people. He was an ex police officer and had a lot of neat police officer stories he told, but the one I will never forget is when he asked us what we would do if we saw a car flipped over and no one was around the area with a victim inside. He told us not to drive away or merely call 911, thinking that they would be helped sooner or later, but to talk to the person and how to prevent people from going into shock and told us stories about how numerous people walk by someone who is dying from a gunshot wound or ignoring cries of help. These stories touched me and I spread these values and principles to my friends in hope that someday morals like these would motivate people to do more good.
Also if you have read the news recently you will surely hear about the story (and video) of how a transgendered woman was beaten numerously until she had a seizure, with little to no help from anyone working or standing by. Only one elderly woman tried to intervene. I’ll provide these links below.
Not to try and say I’m the best at helping others, but it is important to say that if you help someone and other people intervene follow your gut, and do what your heart tells you is the right thing to do. I’m saying this from experience. In downtown silver spring in front of Austin Grill, a 15yr old was vomiting after drinking too much at a party with her 20 something year old “friends.” Me and some other teenagers tried getting her a bag, water and pulled her hair back, but being the oldest and after an hour or so I felt it was best that we called an ambulance. At the time it was 9 o’clock and other adults came over to help talking about how much they did stupid things like she did and it was best if we got her home. Problem was she lived in DC and worse was that no one actually knew her. Her “friends” dipped and she was left alone. The older people told me how much it would suck if that when they were younger that an ambulance was called to get them that they would be in so much trouble and they wanted to avoid the same fate for her. They ended up driving her home, but it still bothers me to this day that I didn’t stand my ground and actually called an ambulance so that I could have gone with her to hospital and made sure she was okay. These morals are more than just giving to the homeless man you drive by on the street it is much deeper.
So if you are reading this please don’t be the person who just walks by, help your fellow man and show compassion for others in need. These basic human principles are not taught nor learned by many people and so it is very important to teach these values while people are young and in our public schools. I do not see any downside to this and if anything it motivates people to improve themselves.
Family can mean different things to many people, the overall perception of what it is believed to be is the "traditional" two parents and siblings 1950s scenario. I personally feel that a family are those around you that teach you basic human manners and principles. They are the people that support you and worry over you and have deep emotional attachment to. In my opinion I don't believe that people can have a good relationship without some arguing. If you take someone with all the good and have never taken or seen the bad, then I believe you will never have a true bond.People might be raised in cold environments where people have never paid them any attention and so they might later be approached by people who later do create lasting bonds with them, whether it be toxic or healthy.
Whether people are raised in positive, loving, and caring environments, or hostile, cold, abusive, ones, I agree with the definition that family is the most basic micro-level structure that can have a direct impact on society. Whether this is detrimental or beneficial to society.
So this past Saturday was the annual Sakura Matsuri Festival in DC. I went with a lot of my friends and their siblings to enjoy the food, events, and dead cherry blossoms. The weather was bad, but regardless there was a good turn out. So as we sat down to eat I was knew this was the perfect setting and time to drop the comment. Going to all the previous festivals I knew there would be a rainbow of people going.
Early on we pointed a lot of people out to critique their fashion choices like the many women wearing yukata and gebi sandals. So, since we did this earlier I thought it was a good plan to point someone else out for my blog assignment, and they wouldn't find it out of the ordinary. The reason I chose the comment was because I knew that my own friends have been bullied by this comment as well so I wanted to see how he would react more than the others. I decided to go with someone they could pinpoint easily. As my friends began eating next to me I acted very surprised to see this individual to which they asked who? I pointed them out and once they recognized that person I dropped my comment.
At first they chuckled awkwardly and told me that they could see why I would say that, but they said they did not believe my comment was correct. One of them even asked me why I thought of this individual in this way. I explained to them briefly why I saw them in this manner and they didn't agree. They then argued that even though I thought in this way that there was no reason to drop this assumption.
They then gave me their point of view on this type of person and were very mature and calm about the whole thing. I was very impressed because I was proud to have seventeen and fifteen year old boys handle other opinions and comments so maturely.
-On a Very Interesting Side Note- After we got off the bus, three Hispanic men came up to us first asking in English if we knew Spanish and then continuing to ask if we knew which bus to take to get them to Connecticut Ave. We were taken back a bit because for starters they came up randomly, secondly they wanted an answer quick and kept yelling at all of us. This was perplexing indeed I looked at the stop next to me and looked at the guys who were yelling. I was about to tell them that I thought the stop next to us would take them there, but all we got out was Connecticut avenue? (in English) before they quickly walked away yelling in Spanish that we knew Spanish looking very angry. I don't know if this was some sort of social experiment they had going on, but A it was rude, and B it got me upset. I think they obviously were playing with us and mad at the world's "Hispanic-American" teenagers for speaking English to them when their English skills were still rough and using this method to somehow take it out on us. o.O Weird and frustrating.
One day back in middle school, a teacher asked me to show a new ESOL student around the school since she was still new to the country. Of course the teacher would ask me because A, I’m a girl, and B I know how to speak Spanish. So naturally after class I walked her to her next class and explained to her how things work. I talked to her about how much time we had in between classes, how the room numbers descended, the lockers, and much more when I suddenly got interrupted by a teacher.
She told me to stop speaking in Spanish and switch to English. I didn’t get mad and calmly told the teacher that she was new to the country and could only speak Spanish. The teacher then told me that that this was not true that she had been here for a while and that she had fine English skills. I instantly got annoyed and asked her how long she had been here. She told me she has only been here for a couple of weeks. This further pissed off the teacher who then said, “Hey! I said no Spanish you guys can speak in English this is America.”
I was getting really mad and told the teacher that she had only been here a couple of weeks and that I was selected to show her around the school. The teacher then told me that she didn’t care and that in order for her to learn English I had to speak to her in English. I then asked her how could she possibly understand me of she still didn’t know the language. And she said she can do it. I got so infuriated at her ignorance of the situation that I just grabbed the new student’s hand and marched off.
I was so angry at the teacher and after I explained it to the new transfer student she couldn’t believe how mean she was. I don’t see how I could have changed my behavior since I acted as calm and collected as any 14 year old could in that situation. I think I did quite well considering my position and age. Maybe I would have tried to understand why my teacher felt that way (logically thinking). Looking back on it I want to sock that teacher in the face as alleviation for all the other times people have told to stop speaking Spanish. As if my skills were that great any ways. >.>
I still do not honestly know why people get so annoyed with other people speaking other languages that you do not understand. You don’t see me yelling at a group of French people to stop speaking French at the grocery line just because I do not understand what they are saying. I believe that if people think they can take advantage of a situation in order soothe some weird personal vendetta against something they will.
People get so paranoid and assume that if you’re speaking in other language in front of them that you are speaking about them. Talk about narcissistic.
When I am doing my job and helping efficiency by speaking to MY coworkers in Spanish, customers get annoyed and think that we should all just speak English to further soothe THEM while shopping. Puh leeze. It’s like going to McDonalds and wanting everyone there to speak English while working no matter what. Why should it matter if they yell out dos hamburguesas, ニハンバーガー、or zwei hamburgers? Nothing has changed and you get your end product.
The U.S. likes to aid many countries and spend a lot of our budget on military and foreign affairs. As for addressing violations of human rights, I believe that the U.S. should not be active in addressing these issues and instead address the problems within its own country. I think we should only interfere if a country asks us to but not before weighing the options economically and politically. We should also give other countries a say when we meddle in their administrations. I feel that we do not have the right to decide how a country runs itself whether it breaks our beliefs of human rights or not because each country has its own traditions, customs, and culture that we must not meddle with. Also I feel we are too intrusive when it comes to our foreign affairs because I believe each society should decide how they want to run themselves. Who are we to say they are wrong?
The minute the U.S. military gets involved in controlling anything like people or resources, is the minute that we fail to respect norms, values, and customs of people because we are forcibly stripping a country of their rights. Military presence disrupts the flow of everyday life and stirs conflict in a society, even if we do not mean any harm. Constant military interference escalates to either stripping economic resources or a dependence on U.S. support for survival.
Constantly stripping the world of its resources due to high supply and demand from highly developed countries cause there to be poorly developed countries. Because of this, a lot of the world’s HDCs are ethnocentric because with all of the money and power they possess there should not be any starving deprived people in the world.
Conflict Theory- Only the powerful decide what deviant behavior is in order to keep them on top.
Labeling Theory- Deviance is only deviance when it is labeled as such.
Functionalist Perspective- Deviance is a normal part of a functioning society and shows people what proper and improper behavior is.
I personally find the conflict theory on deviance more persuasive than that of the labeling theororists or functionalists’.
The government and overall authority of a society ultimately have the say on what deviant behavior is. The top two percent in power use this to their advantage. The prohibition era is an example. Alcohol was banned and many people went to underground bars where people could drink alcohol and this started organized crime in which people went through big lengths to smuggle alcohol. Whether it was in eggs or milk cartons people found a way. Eventually, the depression hit and the country was losing tax revenue so the government decided it was best to make alcohol legal again only for their more important motive which was to start taxing it $$. Drinking alcohol which was once considered deviant was later changed in order for the government to make profit from the rest of society.
Another one is marijuana, which is also illegal and tobacco is not, because it makes a lot of revenue for the big corporations that distribute and sell it.
Overall, functionalists’ do not explain the motives behind deviance which weakened their perspective, and Labeling theory takes deviance on a more individual level of society, where as conflict theory can be applied to the past as well as the present.
All this and all the Rage against the Machine I listen to fill me up with so much angst against the government. Conflict theory just appealed to me more overall. It goes too well with what we’ve been learning in class just listen to their lyrics.
(Totally related I swear, plus all these power chords and beats make get you pumped!) ^^
The lyrics basically mean that we are all just puppets of the government (they say jump and you say how high) and that we are controlled by the media (packed a 9 fired at the prime time).
Argument 2- The media gets to decide and what is trendy and “in”.
Although some media do promote fashion and music in the way that they see it, we should remember that it is only some. We still have the internet which is unregulated, and although some use it to support their own ideals, keep in mind that there are still people who use it to advocate change, and with blogging and reviews of many trends, not only here but anywhere around the world, you are left with a lot to wonder. For example, whenever I see an advertisement on T.V. promoting their products, it reminds me of how socializing and the internet really helped me out when making my decision on the quality of the Tama Iron Cobra Junior. The deal was I wanted to get a double bass drum pedal for a friend of mine for around $250. For a little more I could get way better quality ones, but it’s a start and for the price, experience reviews, cool drum dude at the store, and my tiny little friend’s build, it was great.
So, overall the internet, and socializing really help you get many views on countless topics and news and it is also wise to remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and that not everything needs to be choosing one side or another like many politicians want us to believe.
Argument 3-The media is a business that reports the news in the way they want to, in order to shape our views to theirs.
Even though many media outlets are biased in their news reporting, it is up to us to be educated on how we should be affected by the news we see and do not see. Take “16 & Pregnant.” Like many of MTV’s shows, it is all about the drama, but what the show did not anticipate was not just the high ratings, but how the show helped lower the teen birthrate. The show shows the harsh realities of being a teen mom and is getting teens aware of the results from unprotected sex and giving birth. I do not justify using the show as an educational tool for parents,but it is making people do something about sex education. Unlike MCPS, most public schools across the nation do not teach their students about practicing safe sex, but instead preach abstinence.
Overall, even if there are many biased media outlets they are at least reporting on news that we would otherwise may have not known of, and if you view all the other similar news reporting’s, you can compare them and decide for yourself what you get out of it. There are also outlets out there that are not biased and we just need to go out there and find them.
“Culture relativism…places a priority on understanding other cultures rather than dismissing them as ‘strange’ or ‘exotic’.”(Schaefer 2008, p.71) Schaefer also mentions that this does not mean we must accept every cultural variation. This topic personally resonated with me because it reminded me of how I took the role of a “Japanophile.” In High School, like everyone else, I was trying to find myself and a place to belong to. As my friends and I broadened our music tastes we discovered what was called visual kei. This is a type of fashion movement that Japanese rock musicians wear. It is as important to them as the music they make. It can be related to that of the Glam rock of the 1980s.
This was a huge culture shock to me. I couldn’t understand why straight men would wear these clothes,make up, kiss onstage and why it was so popular in general. This was my first encounter with Japanese culture. I later learned that the visual kei movement started in the 90s and was influenced by the glam rock of the 1980s and has since then evolved. The reasons for all the onstage kissing and girly lolita outfits were all a service for the fans. Japanese fangirls eat it up.
This is Malice Mizer they were one of the first pioneers in the movement. (Rocky Horror much huh?)
Since then the look has become more modernized and range from
a more sugary pop fashion. (make you want to fart rainbows yet?)
To a neutral, slightly darker, visual Kei.(they are singing in english btw)
And melancholy/gloomy Visual Kei.(Am I blowing your mind yet? ;))
Of course there is also normal Japanese Indie rock that is good to listen to as well.
(I think all songs are really good so you should give them a try)
I later became to love Japanese culture, fashion, media, and traditions. Opening myself to a whole different world also opened my mind to the rest of the world and taught me to look at things from that persons's/society's perspective. I decided that I wanted to become someone who was not ignorant and thought about how I could better myself and learn about our world in general. I still do not know what I want to do in my life since reality hits and as much as you would like to learn several languages and help impoverished nations, life does not work out that way. Or at least I can't find a way to learn japanese, french, korean, italian, vietnamese, and other cultures, and make a "proper" living out of it. I always say that I want to do it all and be a football, fighting, king in space. ;D With a mustache!
In all seriousness though I think it is good for all of us to expose ourselves to lots of cultures and people so we can learn to respect others values, norms, and traditions instead of being so ehtnocentric and barging into another country without brushing up on what the do's and don't's are. For example, Japanese people are very respectful of others and bowing is traditional when greeting as well and this level of respect for others show in their language as well. When referring to high level status people like doctors and teachers you call them sensei, when it is someone that is in a grade/level higher than you you refer to them as your senpai. San is also the title of respect added to the name of someone older. Kun is added to names when they are younger or the same age as you. Chan is added to children's names and sama is the highest level of respect. Just goes to show how much you should learn about a country if your ever on a business trips for example.
On a side note by listening to Japanese music I learned that music transcends language and we should all give music from other countries around the world an open mind by concentrating on melodies more than words.
Wife seclusion limits the movement of Muslim women. They cannot leave their homes without their husbands or their permission. They must be covered head to toe and cannot speak or meet men outside their family. Women who are divorced, widowed, or can no longer have children, do not have to follow these rules as strictly. This cultural/religious practice is said to violate women’s rights since the women must rely on the man in order to speak and stand for them. It is controversial because it is a woman’s choice to take part in this cultural and religious practice. Who are we to judge the way these women live when we, ourselves with all our freedoms end up cheating, divorcing, and end up in far worse scandals. I think this practice calls for men to be strong and financially adequate so that they can afford to have their women in seclusion. With limited interaction there is no deceit from the wife and creates a tighter knit family relation. Of course they have their own cons, but overall it is the norm and it is a way of life that these women have chosen to respect.
Mwilu, Lwanga. "Human Rights and Choice: Examining Cultural Practices That Disadvantage Women."Consultancy Africa Intelligence - Assist | Inform | Empower. 30 Apr. 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. .
Even though we only had one class in the first week of sociology, as many people have stated, I was very surprised and impressed with our professor, especially since all we knew of her name before then was Ms.TBA. When she came in I honestly did not notice her New York/ Jersey accent, which explains my surprise when she told us she had no idea where it came from since she came from California. Go figure *shrugs*. I thought, "Yes! A teacher who is young!, so she can fill me with energy!" and knowledge (coughs). Just kidding! She introduced us to the whole concept of what sociology is and what the semester will be like. I also really like that everything is online, even though it was a little tricky at first. After pointing out her awesome Doc Martens I found out that she was a vegan. That is so hardcore, I don't think I could do it y'know? No ice cream and pretty much, "eating dirt" according to my vegetarian pal ;). I mean it's pretty much no meat or anything that comes from an animal like milk and cheeses. Mad props! I suppose that's why everything is online since it saves paper. Overall I am looking forward to how the class will develop.
