Blog Post #10 - Tale of Two Families

Tale of Two Families was very interesting to read.  From the very start you can see that Max's family is already in a much more comfortable situation than Byron's.  As the story goes by, we can see many examples of how racial segregation can change people's lives, even if they have the same interests and same capacities.  Byron was just as intelligent as Max, however he had to work twice as hard in order to get where is is.  He needed to have trust on himself and focus on his studies, and because of his effort, he got a scholarship.  Max was also talented and bright, but he had a lot more money and could get his education worry free.  As this story concludes we see that even today, when our society has gotten a lot better in terms of racial segregation, both Max's and Byron's communities still are segregated.  Byron's family sold their houses for very little money, while Max's family got 14 times what they paid for.  But that is not their fault.  Both families are honest, hard working, and have talented children.  Our society is what causes this inequality.  It is very heart warming to see that both Max and Byron grew up to be very successful men and work together.  This shows that with effort and strength, we can overcome even those obstacles that were already here even before we were born.  Of course social and economic background help a lot, but being honest, hard workers and putting effort into what we do, we can get very far, and be very successful.

Blog Post #9 - Gender Inequality

What I've learned about gender inequality and social construction of gender this week has been somewhat surprising. It has been said that our society does not exactly take gender inequality seriously.  I agree in some aspects.  Here in the U.S., gender inequality isn't so much of a problem, since women and men have pretty much the same rights.  Of course, there is still some inequality (such as different salaries, or gender specific jobs) but in my opinion, none of these inequalities actually invade's either genders' rights.  

Unfortunately that is not the case in other societies.  In my Gender Inequality   Assignment, I interviewed two women from different cultures:  Brazil and Pakistan.  My findings from these interviews weren't exactly surprising, since I expected there to be greater inequality (for religious reasons in Pakistan and for economic reasons in Brazil), however hearing about those things from someone who lived gender discrimination  and had basic rights actually stripped away from them...  was, for lack of better word, shocking.  Many sociologists agree that gender inequality is still a serious problem today, but that it is disappearing.  I agree i parts.  I think that gender discrimination is disappearing in more developed societies, and it may be getting better in less developed ones (Brazil has its first female president), however I don't think that less fortunate classes of these less developed countries can see a difference.  In my opinion, that happens because gender inequality never comes alone.  There isn't a society who discriminates just for the sake of doing such.  Gender discrimination comes with other problems, such as social and economic background, cultural background, and (more evidently) religious background.  Less developed societies are weaker social and economically, and therefore depend on labor intensive work.  For that reason, women may be considered less useful.  That is how a larger difference between men and women appeared in the first place.  When humans were hunters and gatherers, both men and women had similar roles, and therefore similar importance within society.  Once we started settling down, owning land, and becoming an agricultural society, labor intensive jobs (that could only be performed by men) became more important, and women's roles were reduced.  One can see that difference in indigenous hunter-gatherers societies.  

I agree with sociologists when they say that gender inequality is not a big problem in developed societies anymore.  In the U.S. both men and women have the same rights.  In may developed Europeans societies, both men and women have similar rights.  But if we stop and think, The U.S. and most European societies are economically stable, and although mostly christian, such societies do not censor free, critical thinking.  Less developed societies, such as Latin American, African and many Muslim societies, are not as fortunate.  These societies have history of being economically handicapped, and most of these societies rely on religion for social, cultural and political purposes.  For that reason, critical thinking is censored, and it becomes much easier to follow gender discrimination.  As previously stated there is a development being seen in these societies from outside, however, a poor percentage of such societies cannot tell the difference.  As I said before, gender inequality is becoming less of a problem in well developed societies, however in less developed ones the issue is moving forward slowly, mainly because, as previously mentioned, gender inequality never comes alone.  Rather, it comes with deeper underlying issues, such as religion, culture, social and economic background.     

Blog Post #8 - Does Global Inequality Affect America?

Does global inequality affect America?  If so, how?  And why should we care?  First of all, global inequality does affect America.  As one of the most powerful countries today, American has a lot of responsibility on helping minimize global inequality.  Many of the wars we have been fighting recently have been described as been “wars for freedom” or “wars for democracy.”  That is one of the ways America takes responsibility on helping other countries fight against inequality.  But how does that affect us?  Well, a simple answer would be:  it affects our pockets.  Every war fought by this country is paid by us tax payers.  That is direct affect of global inequality in each individual.  It also affects us socially.  One of the reasons America has such a great reputation and the land of the free is because our government and political system promotes equality.  Many people may say that America is not equal (and in many points it isn’t) but compared to many other countries (many of which have fought America in some war) we have a great system of equality.  

It also affects us economically, but in other ways.  The money that we spend helping other countries with their inequality problems could well be spent to feed out poor, shelter our homeless and educate our children.  I am not by any means saying that helping other nations is wrong.  As I pointed out in the beginning, as one of the most popular and successful nations today, we are also a symbol of freedom and we should take responsibility into helping our fellow nations.  I am however, stating that many countries may be satisfied with their situation, and sometimes America may come across as getting into unnecessary problems.

Global inequality also affects us politically.  The reason why many people choose to come to this country illegally is because they know that the opportunities in their countries are not equal to the opportunities here.  That affects us, because it giver politicians excuses to explain their ignorance.  For example, immigrants take jobs that many Americans are not qualified to do, or just don’t want to do.  Many politicians take advantage of that and say that immigrants “steal” jobs, when there is no such thing.

With the popularity of internet and social networking, global inequality affects us in personal level.  As humans, we have empathy towards one another, and seeing other country’s peoples suffer with inequality hurts us.  Global inequality does affect America, not only in an economic level, but also in a personal level.  

Copyright Disclaimer:  The pictures posted do not belong to me.  

Blog Post #7 - Does Social Class Matter?

Unfortunately (when a sentence starts with that, you know it ain't gonna be good) social class matters way too much in the U.S. today.  As a matter of fact, it is one of the things that matter the most in America today.  As we all know, unfortunately (again) our culture is controlled by our youngsters.  Yes, our easily influence, shallow youngsters, who dress whatever the Kardashians tell them to wear, and watch whatever their school cheerleaders tell them to watch.  I am not saying all young people are like that!  By no means!  However, the American culture is described by others as the behavior of those youngsters who want it all, and yet know nothing about anything.  One of the things that they learn in their religious relationship with the media is to value social class.  I don’t believe they think of it that way, but when the price of your clothing or the name imprinted on your bag (probably by some underpaid Chinese child) is more important to others than your values, beliefs and intellectual capacity…  that says that social class is in fact considered important. 

                I have experienced the importance of social class.  The most evident examples of such importance were witnessed by me in the glorified place (which has become more of a social event than a center for education) we call High School.  In high school, social class is pretty much everything.  The girls who wear the most expensive clothing, or have the most expensive cars, or go to the most expensive restaurants (none of which are actually paid with their own hard work, but rather that of her parents) are considered the most popular.  The same applies to boys.  There is this misconception that money equals worthiness.  It is shameful.  And by the way, it is the parents’ fault.  Dear American parents, lets start educating your children instead of buying their fake respect with video games and expensive crap they don’t need.  Video games will make them stop slamming doors right now, but a good education and values will save them from having doors slammed at them later.   

When we think of the importance of social status, we most likely imagine the scenarios I just presented.  But those aren't the only ones.  Social status is important in the U.S. for deeper reasons.  In American, if you don’t have money, you pretty much don’t have anything.  There are many good public schools, but if you can’t afford supplies, books, tutors, and the many other expenses that come with education, you’re pretty much in trouble.  You need money to have education, to go to the doctor, to live.  Does social class matter in the U.S.?  Yes.  Unfortunately yes.