Who I am?

Well I just made an excellent blog and after 30 minutes of writing I pressed publish post but for some odd reason it deleted and didn't save. Now I am going to try to sum up what I wrote. My name is Carlie Dobkin. I am a teen, a gymnast, a Dobkin, caucasian, upper middle class, a girl, and American. All these different groups that I am apart of influence my life. First, I am a teenager who has no role in society besides school. Thus, we try to focus on school so much that it starts to control us. We live our lives by grades because those are the only recognitions of hard work. If I wasn't a gymnast, I would be a completely different person. As a gymnast, I have learned time management and I have developed skills such as focus, determination, diligence, and mental strength. I am also a Dobkin. My family has really influenced the way I live my life. The whole nature vs. nurture debate is pointless. We are born with traits and then our family helps us develop them. We need both of them to become fully human. I am also white. I have never been in a minority and I view the white race as supreme. I don't believe I am racist but we live in a society where white is the superior race. It all began with Kipling's poem "White Man's Burden." He only saw the obvious. To him, whites were more advanced and thus better than all the other people of color. Yet, to the people of color, white people may have seemed backwards. In many countries, white is the superior race. Yet, if I lived somewhere in Africa, I would be totally different. My life would be changed because I would be a minority. Maybe I would have special privelages or a better chance of getting into universities. Who knows? I am also a part of the upper middle class. I am so lucky to have a home, more than one car, a bed, clothes, food, the ability to travel, etc. We take that all for granted because we only live around other upper middle class people. Thus, we compare ourselves to the richer. In all actuality, I am in the top percent of the world. There are billions of people that struggle to put food on the table. It may be obvious by my name, but I am a girl. My gender has influenced my life tremendously. As a girl, there is this model that I have to fit into. Many times, I act a certain way unconsciously because I am girl. I also thought that the clothes I wear are my style. However, I am actually copying the style of girls I see on TV. Headbands woudn't be in style again if it wasn't for Gossip Girl. The media plays a huge role on self image these days. Finally I am American. As Americans, we value independence, success, efficiency, and money. I never realized that I actually base my life around these values. I work hard so I can succeed. I live by a schedule: wake up, school (controlled by time), gymnastics, homework, sleep, repeat. I have my own room so I can be by myself. I love money and I love getting cash for gifts because money = power and freedom. Sociology has definitely changed the way I define myself. Who I am isn't just a biography with a few fun facts. Who I am is the different groups I belong to and how they influence my everyday life. Thanks for a great class that truly opened my eyes to the meaning of life, Mr. Sal :)

What is Race?

Race is just a social definition that we have grown so accustomed to that we believe it is biological. It is hard to believe but race wasn't originally based on skin color and in many places, it still isn't based on skin color. Race used to be based on where you came from. Your race was French, German, African... Now we call that your nationality because a lot of those people are considered "white" these days. In the late 1800s the Irish people were considered non-white. They were painted as drunken black people. However, today we look at an Irish person and we would call them white. I wonder if black people will ever be considered white? I really don't think so because we base everything off of skin color. You are only white if your skin is white. If you are black, Arab, Indian, or Asian you will probably never earn your whiteness. In America we define race with skin color. However in other places (like Japan) they define race by earwax. I remember this story of a black person talking about their identity. He just wanted to be called black, not colored and not African American. We created the word African American for black people but a lot of the time these black people are not from Africa. The boy said "I don't know why they call me African American, I'm not from Africa."

PS...Mr. Sal --> can you do your best to watch the episode about masculinity I gave to you or just give it back asap because the semester is ending!

From Rags to Riches, I think not.

This week we continued to discuss social class especially the immobility of the top rich and bottom poor. Throughout the middle class (upper, middle, and lower) there are a lot of opportunities and a chance for a lower class person to move up and for an upper class person to lose their job and move down. However, for the very rich and the very poor, it is different. In America, we tend to believe in equal opportunity. Our capitalist system gives people the chance to make it big. Anyone can go from rags to riches. Although everyone technically can go from rags to riches, there are many things working against these people. In class, we spent a whole day arguing about this rags to riches kind of scenario. People were saying how anyone can move up. That women living in a trailer in Ohio could make her life easier. She could move closer to Burger King, have her kids work, work two jobs, and my favorite of the suggestions: close her legs and stop getting pregnant! However, it isn't that easy. How is this women going to move. She doesn't have the money. Her kids can't work because they are in school. And of course, many pregnancies aren't planned. What is she going to do? She can't really do anything. She will be stuck in Waverly, Ohio for her whole life (most likely). Another example was the people in Appalachia. People were saying how they have no pity for the mom of the family. They were wondering why she chose to become a drug addict. When there is nothing for you in the world, you resort to drugs and then you become addicted. That's it. However, Mr. Sal didn't show the movies for people to feel bad for these poor people. He simply showed the video so we can understand. Understand what it is like to live in poverty. Although there are many stories of people rising from rags to riches (I'm not saying it isn't possible for that to be done), it is very hard. A lot of times you find yourself asking "What else can I do?" You might be a child with all these dreams to go to college and be successful. Yet, by the age of 18, you have been so physically and emotionally drained that you are hopeless. So, you resort to drugs and you get pregnant. The cycle then repeats with your own children. This is why the bottom poor most likely stay that poor.

Rich and Richer

This week we have been watching a movie about the lives of different classes. Currently, we are watching the part about the WASPs or the white Anglo-Saxon protestants aka the privileged rich snobs with old money. There is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. We looked at a chart and it compared the money people earned to different heights and the normal person stood 8 ft tall while the richest person would be as tall as Mount Everest. I never really knew that there was such a small number of very rich (income) and wealthy people out there. I mean, I watch plenty of TV shows that focus on the rich (Gossip Girl, 90210, Royal Pains) but I never knew that they actually made up such a small population of America. All of the actors and singers are only 1% of the population. However, we focus so much on them. As a society, we are interested in the rich because we value money. Thus, we like to watch television shows that focus on the elite. I remember reading an article in the summer about the TV show Royal Pains. Someone asked why it is getting so many viewers in these hard economic times. The response was that we Americans like to strive for money and we like to see rich people. Royal Pains was literally that 1%- these people lived in the Hamptons with these gigantic houses and very expensive cars. On Wednesday, Stevenson Gymnastics has a meet at Lake Forest. Wow, that school looks like 5 mansions put together. It is crazy big and extremely fancy on the outside. Lake Forest is Illinois' version of the WASPs featured in the video.

Drugs & Prison

I do not think it is fear that people involved with drugs are sent off to prison instead of rehab. These junkies get no help because once they are released, they have no support system to help them stay clean. They just go right back into their old habits. I'm thinking that the guy from 30 Days who was going through heroin withdrawal, will not lead a successful life after prison. He will probably just go back to doing heroin. It also doesn't make sense that people caught with marijuana can serve more years in prison than rapists and murderers. Drugs hurt oneself, rapists and murderers are hurting (killing) other people. Keeping the killers in prison is way more important than locking up the junkies. After reading the article, I know how inhumane the prison system is. The guards blame everything on drugs. When a person complains of feeling sick they say they are "dope-sick" or just going through withdrawal. Although this is the case sometimes, when that crippled man complained of an illness, they blamed it on the drugs. However, it wasn't drugs at all. And the man died because of that misjudgement. Prisons must reform and lock the right criminals up in jail. The prisons are already overcrowded, thus, they should just send the people involved with drugs off to rehab. The people in prison aren't getting much resocialization because all they do is eat and sleep. They don't do anything to reform themselves. That is why 2/3 of released inmates go back to prison.

When Do You Become An Adult?

Legally, you are considered to be an adult at age 18. The funny thing about age 18 is that it is so random. There are still so many restrictions. An 18 year old can go off to war but he can't have alcohol. So he is responsible enough to carry a gun but not responsible enough to drink? In addition, I think you become an adult when you are independent in all ways (financially, emotionally, ect). At 18, most of us are still living at home. Yes, we are most likely in college living in a dorm away from home but we don't consider that our home. We still have a bed waiting for us in Buffalo Grove. That home is the one we go back to on holidays, over the summer, or just to visit the family. Living away from home is when we no longer have a room in our parent's house. But, having your own place does not make you an adult. You also need to be financially independent. That means your parents aren't paying your bills and managing your home. The question is, how do we learn how to do all this. After college, we are expected to move out and be independent. Yet, it doesn't happen over night that we understand how to live on our own. We must ask our parents to help us. Maybe for the first couple months or so we still have our parents help us manage the house. Soon, we will be able to do it by ourselves. It is just like learning to cook or do the laundry. It is a gradual thing that your parents try to teach you before you go off to college. I am a little nervous to be on my own because I am very dependent on my parents. Possibly it is because I am the youngest child. My sister always mimicked my mom and took care of me as well. Because she could play "mom" she learned how to cook and do the laundry. My problem was that I had two moms doing these things for me. I got so used to it, I never bothered to ask my mom if she could teach me how to make real food (not just mac & cheese). Now that I am aware of this, I am going to do all that I can to watch my mom and ask her questions so I can someday be prepared to live on my own and become an adult.

Masculinity

In class we have been talking about the sociology behind school shootings. All of them are white boys who feel a need to re-establish their masculinity. Throughout the video and Kimmel's article I kept on thinking about the One Tree Hill school shooting episode. The writers got everything right. I watched the episode again and I really analyzed the sociology behind the episode. First of all, Jimmy (the school shooter) made a time capsule video about how much he hates school and all of social cliques. When the time capsule videos got released, everyone heard what Jimmy had to say. That night, he was beat up by a bunch of jocks. The next day, those same boys were messing up his locker and making fun of him. That's when it happened. Jimmy took out his gun and pulled the trigger. Jimmy quickly hid the gun and ran into lockdown rooms with the rest of the students. In his room, all of the people were discussing why somebody would bring a gun to school. Someone suggested that the person was crazy. Next, they suggested that they try to leave. Then, Jimmy took out his gun and proclaimed that nobody go anywhere. One guy tried to stand up to Jimmy and called him a fat-ass (hurting his masculinity). Jimmy asked a girl in the room if she even knew his name. She didn't. Jimmy said how he was practically invisible. Nobody knew he existed. His best day at school was when nobody said one word to him. That was depressing so he took some anti-depressants. For fun, he took 12 more. 2 weeks later when he returned to school, nobody knew he had been missing. Mouth (his former best friend) told him that things will get better and that he fix this. Jimmy got upset that Mouth was now trying to help because they haven't talked in years. Jimmy had no support system at school. He had no friends to turn to when things got rough. He thought that bringing the gun to school would make people notice him and maybe even respect him. I just think that this episode is a perfect explanation of why boys bring guns to school!