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House I Live In Sociology

Decent Essays

Race is a social construct. A social construct is a social category used to group people by certain traits: class, race, gender, sexuality, etc. In The House I Live In, a documentary on the War on Drugs, race determines whether or not a person ends up in jail. In Fruitvale Station, race determines whether or not a person gets to live. In The Freedom Writers, race determines a person’s educational opportunities. Race was created as a means of separating and segregating. Race is a weapon. The House I Live In, a documentary focused on the War on Drugs, describes how race is used to determine who goes to prison and who doesn’t. In the interview with historian, Richard L. Miller, he described what he calls the “chain of destruction”: identification, …show more content…

Oscar Grant, a boyfriend and a father, was brutally murdered on January 1st, 2009. He was spending New Year’s Eve with his girlfriend and eight friends. When the train is stopped at Fruitvale Station, a fight begins between Oscar and an old rival, forcing the transit driver to call the police. When the police arrive, only a couple of the friends and Oscar’s girlfriend manage to make it back down onto the street before the police arrive. When the police do arrive, Oscar is already off the train. In an effort to avoid being arrested, he runs back onto the train and tries to blend in. One officer notices him on the train and decides that he has to be part of the problem. The officer pulls Oscar off the transit and handcuffs him, forcing him onto the ground along with the remaining few of his …show more content…

Throughout most of the movie, one teacher struggles against a schools administrators and teachers in order to teach her own students the power of education. While the administration has no faith in her students (all considered minorities) or her, she is determined to break the racial barrier the school has so willing put up. With life changing ideas and great motivation, she begins to change the lives of each and every one of her students. However, before she succeeded, she often failed. Administration denied the students more difficult reading material in order to ensure that they wouldn’t progress past a fifth grade reading level; deprived of educational opportunities because of race, deprived of a basic human right because of

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