How Social Forces Impacted My Life

Another example was the first time stepping on Haskell’s campus. My youngest had went off to college himself. I was well received by professors, staff and the students. An occasional snicker here and there because of my age. I assumed that I would get a few of those. But, was so excited that I was here and part of it all. Over lunch in Curtis one afternoon I listened to students talking about the prejudice they had experienced at Haskell because of their native color. They were being told they were not part of the In-group. How could that be? I was really surprised until I had experienced it myself. I had a teacher that would use all of my work as examples but then would not give me any credit. Not that I required attention, but, felt I should had some recognition. Our little group would meet for lunch a few times a week and on this particular day my little world opened up to the In-Group Out-Group world. After lunch was over my friend, who shall remain nameless as everyone will know who he is, were walking to our next class when out of frustration I had mentioned my teacher’s attitude towards me. Being a true friend and not thinking before he spoke he said “Well, if you didn’t look so white maybe she would act differently towards you”. So, there I was, in the Out-group when I thought I was in the

Sociology is the study of how social forces influence individuals living within a society. Any society is made of norms, values and beliefs that have the effect of constraining individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. Through understanding and sociological imagination, individuals can remove or at least lessen the social forces’ impacts that are causing the constraints.

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

Growing up as a young African American girl in Philadelphia was not always easy, however, having a strong family structure, old fashion southern culture, and beliefs have molded me into the strong women that I am today. Now that I am a mother, following my family’s culture and beliefs are not always the easiest thing to do. Times has changed and I feel like I am forced to conform to the everyday social norms of America, which makes me feel impuissance. Yes, growing up was not easy, but my family and youth kept me in the dark when it came to how society treats individuals of darker complexion, what to expect once I left the confines of my family and neighborhood, and how to befriend or interact with individuals of other racial groups. All of the things that I listed were things that I had to learn through trial and error, which makes life a little harder than it already is.

I have always thought and been taught that racism was a form of ignorance; people used stereotypes are the easy route, instead of looking at the individual outside of the whole. But Kelley’s thoughts on the topic rang very true to me—“Racism is knowledge…is learned behavior…” (7). When we are babies, we don’t notice or care if someone is of a different race, socioeconomic standing, sexuality; we just see them as people. It’s through repeated actions that we learn what separates us from the “other”. As a young child, my neighbor was my best friend. We played every day until I moved, but our families still kept in touch. It was until probably the 3rd or 4th grade that I realized he wasn’t like me, he had Down syndrome. Of course, that didn’t make a difference to me then or now, but I find it to be a striking example in my own life that as a young person, I was unable to see anything different about us, to me we were the same, we were

Some people say that you cannot change what you refuse to confront. Growing up in Compton it was hard because every action you did had a great consequence. My parents were one of the authorities that set down a path without violence and away from drugs. One of the greatest successes that I experienced in my past was having carried over my community service from where I lived to where I am now. Carrying over my community service experience has made it better for me to be around those who I can connect with and have fun helping others. The greatest failure that I’ve experienced was the choice of friends that I had. With the majority of my “friends” that I had, almost all were under bad influences. That made it harder for me to fit in with kids who I resemble that make me

While my mom’s negative experienced scarred her from joining another homeschool group until eight years later, she never used that negative experience to mold our perceptions about white people. While she definitely taught me that not everyone will accept me due to the color of my skin, she also taught me that I was never allowed to judge someone else by the same quota. Everyone should be judged by character and character alone, and that is a proverb that I will forever live by. While her cupcakes were left untouched, she used the experience to blaze a fire in my heart; a fire full of love, forgiveness and

My friends and I had just bought our tickets at the movie theatre in downtown San Francisco. To get to our floor we needed to take the elevator, so I pressed the button. When the door opened a white lady, who was middle-aged, acted as if she were a deer in the headlights of a speeding car, as we entered the elevator. She snatched her son and clutched him close to her side and she did the same with her purse. She stood as far away from us as she could, even so much that she was cramped in the corner of the elevator. We were all dumbfounded, we weren’t dressed like thugs and we sure didn’t look like them, so what had we done wrong. I felt like no matter what we did or what aspirations we had, we were just seen as every other African-American male and this is the kind damage that stereotypes do everyday, in my life and most likely

My parents and my extended family has always made sure I knew my culture and that my race was different from other races such as Caucasian and Asian children I went to school with. I also always knew I related to a different race due to my family skin color versus the other people who were around whose skin color is different from mines. As a child when I was growing up I heard adults or older kids talk about issues such as different races and people they have interacted during the day. Another thing exposed to me as a kid was the different political issues especially George Bush administration and racism as general. Being exposed to many views on how the color of your skin will affect the way society sees you and places you in the social system put perspective on how I saw my future. Being black you often automatically deemed as you are not going to succeed in life or you are not going be educated enough to place in high

The pornification (or alternatively pornographication) of the social world has created lasting effects in the lives of people that they must deal with every day (Dines 1998, p. 164). Pornification is the process by which the social and cultural world is sexualised. This occurs through the expansion of media technology and the pornography industry, as well as changes in media regulations and restrictions which allow pornographic imagery to intrude into public spaces (Tyler 2011, p. 79). This essay will offer explanations for why the pornification of the social world is occurring, how the phenomenon differs from a freedom of expression issue and is instead considered a sociological issue, what consequences and harm arise from these explanations, and will offer social measures that can be adopted in order to deal with the issue. Pornification has occurred in almost every realm of the social world, including in its unaltered form on the Internet, social media, marketing, advertising, music, fashion, sport, and art. However, this expansion of easily accessible pornified content is a stark and confronting challenge for our social world.

In my short time as a college student I am surprised at how many times I’ve heard students discriminate against each other because of their race. I remember an incident in my history class when we were learning about segregation and how colored people used to be forced to sit in the back of the bus. And then two white individuals mentioned how stupid it was that society made such a big deal of something as harmless as being made to sit in the back of the bus. At this comment a few colored females in the back of the class angrily began cursing and stating how racist the two white individuals were. The teacher put a quick stop to this and continued on with lecture. This conflict made me think of how students of different ethnicities can have such profound differences in how they view the world and society. I couldn’t help but wonder that if the two white individuals had some knowledge of African culture in America, would they have blurred out such a comment? I really think not because they would have a more firm understanding of how for the colored people it was more than a simple request to sit in the back of the bus. It was about principle and what it meant to their race as whole to be publicly humiliated by something as harmless as being told where to sit, drink or even live. This is a perfect example of how

I, being an African-American, got the crucial grievance to be inspired by the relationship of the police and the Ferguson community on the tragedy to highlight the significance of the race. My sociological imagination started influencing me a lot. You are never sure of when and for what people get offended. What is right in my part of living today may be completely unacceptable in some other place. By shifting your social environment you are forced to rethink your path and doubt yourself. You cannot take things for granted.

An equally important situation I have reevaluated with a sociological imagination is bullying. In the fourth grade, my younger brother was severely bullied by a group of kids and this heavily impacted his life. He would fight with my mom every morning because he would refuse to go to school, and he was always very depressed and sad. My brother has a skin condition, called Vitiligo which causes depigmentation of the skin. Kids would pick on him because of this and because he was overweight at the time. He believed that he was bullied because of his appearance and he felt very alone because of it. Looking back on this, I am now able to see how the bullying had nothing to do with my brother personally. Approximately one out of every five students have been bullied, (pacer.org). Bullying was and still is a huge problem and when my brother experienced it, he wasn’t the only one.

even though it didn't occur overnight, i came to the understanding that instituationalization and public-reinforcement of race is very real in the United States. and that I didn't have to conform to one race because that is what society expects of me.

bar was not busy, as most of the staff was male except for a lone,