American Culture

when you talk about Americas culture it is always in interesting topic. its always hard to answer this question because Americas culture is made up of the multi cultural society that we are a part of. can you cal our tossed salad of a country really a culture? or do we have no culture and are defined by the cultured of our immigrants. i think that the answer is both actually. while Americas culture is greatly influenced by the many different sub cultures, it all comes together in the big culture to create a unique culture that you can only find in America. one example of this is our food here, while yes you can always argue that we have hamburgers and pizza as Americas food, i think the best example is when we "Americanize" other cultures foods. when i ask an American when they think of when they think of Asian food, they will almost always say "fortune cookies". however if you bring that same fortune cookie over to china, Japan, or even Korea and they will look completely baffled. this is because they simply don't have those in their native lands. its an American food that the media has associated with Asian food.

Culture Shock

culture is a lot like accents. everyone thinks that everyone else in the world speaks funny. When in reality there all just different ways of speaking, none better then any other. every ones culture is different in the world, because you are influenced by everything around you. like when we learned in class about the Japanese toilets and how you never make contact with them was different from our American styled ones. i thought it was really interesting how something as stranded as a toilet could be influenced by culture. it makes me think about what else is common to me, but totality alien to somewhere else.

Micro Macro

this concept of micro and macro sociology is really interesting to me. my dad has always told me that individuals are smart but crowds are stupid. meaning that if you talk to someone one on one they are intelligent and can form their own ideas. While if you try confronting a crowd, you'll most likely be responded to by repetitive chants and illogical arguments. i see this kind of mentality a lot in the movie we are watching in class, a Bronx tale. in the movie the main character falls in love with a black girl. and in the 1960 this isn't the most common thing. and while when he is with his friend he has to act as if he hates all black people. this is very obvious this his father. when he asks his dad what he thinks about black people he responses that he doesn't have a problem with them. but when he asks what would happen if he dated one then it got to personal for him. and he started having issues. this is the case for me as well. not with race though, but with religion. my parents have no problem with other religions, however, if i don't marry Jewish they'll disown me. this is just one example of how things can change when they are taken out of perspective, and in perspective.

Racism

whether or not everyone believes so, we all are a little racist when it comes down to it. however, this does not make everyone a racist. thinking about racism made me think of where these crazy stereotypes come from. and i have decided that people are racist because of several different factors. one large problem i am holding accountable for racism in today's age is the media. through television shows, billboards, radio, and even the Internet, the media has a huge say in today's life style. while it may not be as blatant today as it has been in the past, the ideas hold strong today. another medium we can blame for these social stereotypes leading to racism is statistics. it is a fact that more women stay home and cook then men do. it is a fact that crime rates are higher for black people then for white. this does not give anyone the excuse to judge a person based on such silly implications. i have a friend whose father is 100% convinced that all black people are lazy, and i had a very long discussion about how it is simply ignorance to say such an absurd thing. and after a long debate with him i got him to "see the light", so to speak. so being a racist is not simply thinking these things in your head, but also acting on them and judging based on ignorant and silly implications.

Social Construction

social construction is a very interesting concept. the fact that your environment that you grow up in can change the fundamentals of your brain function. it was really cool when we had that demonstration in class with the spitting into a spoon. and how we all have saliva in our mouths an when we spit it out it changes forms into a vile substance. this relates to me because  in my own life an environment that i have grown in has changed how i live my day to day life differently from other kids even in this class. like my in family i grew up always eating dinner with my family. it is just natural to me. there are lots of customs very specific to me while others may have others.