Final Reflective Essay.

“The root of the word is “ignore”, thus suggesting that one not pay attention to or not aware of or simply not knowing”. For me to not know how ignorant I’ve been my whole life not knowing or paying attention to everything that has been going on in our society comes to amaze me on how much I really didn’t know. Things like the debunking, the obvious, bracketing, and critical and critique thinking all used to just be things I knew but didn’t pay attention to in detail until the first day I walked into Sociology 1125, with Charles. As the weeks went by I became more aware of things like the sociological imagination which is the ability that allows an individual to understand an connect his life with everything that impacts it. I’ve learned to take certain situations and to analyze it differently. To NOT be ignorant towards other religions as their rituals and practices are similar to my religion. How what we’ve done in our lives how much it impacted our societies. How terms like race and racism became so absurdly used, and how it just doesn’t affect a society but a whole world. Leading up to people dying of violence because of a term a society made up. All this conjures together to become our world today. We have to become more aware of what it’s guiding our world towards, if we continue to keep going with this “racism”, our world will always be filled with violence and war. We’re obligated to make people aware of what it could lead us too. We have to provide fairness to the diverse people in our communities and Social Justice is the best way to do so. This class as a whole has helped me gain knowledge about topics I have never even thought about. It’s been a fun experience making learning things like Social Injustice fun to learn. Everything I’ve learned will help me not only on the final, but it would help me on everyday life. You have to implement what you learned outside, and realize what everything is really about. It can’t just be something that’s in your head, you have to try everything, like thinking outside of the box, being less ignorant, and being less ethnocentric , become less bias, and be open to everyone’s religion and their cultural practices. You never know but it might be similar to what you practice, and your religion’s rituals. In conclusion this class helped me incorporate my ideas and my knowledge in everyday life and in our world.   I’m glad I had the opportunity to have Charles Quist-Adade  because he helped me become more open, and less ethnocentric. He also helped to step out of my comfort zone and speak in front of people, seeing as I was trying to get stronger in that. He showed me that everything and anything is doable. The only way it’s going to happen is if you become more open, and apply yourself to the best of your ability.

Entry 6 – The Myth of Race and Reality of Racism

 

Entry 6 - The Myth of Race and Reality of Racism

Affective Reading

Social Structures and Processes

• This article talks about the issue of racism and race, absurdly they are different things. Race doesn’t really exist, it’s nor biological but it is a socially constructed reality. We as the people are the one are who constructed it and made it bigger than what it really is. Charles also talked about how, “what constitutes race is like beauty, in the eye of the beholder”. If you choose to look at race bigger than what it really is then it will be, if you don’t then it won’t.
• I feel that race was made bigger than what it is, there is physical differences such as different colors, an that’s where racism comes into play. But it’s just the physical differences brought up because of the geographic and climate adaptation. I feel that people should talk about  race more in an educational stand point, because then they would realize it isn’t as big as it seems.
• I think that if people were more educated on this, it wouldn’t be as big as it is today. People wouldn’t be as racist towards other ethnicities and would just feel that we are all human, and are all one.
• I know that it is a hard thing to do, because of the ignorant people in the world that don’t care if we’re the same inside; they feel that they have to be with the people who look most like them. I also know that people are all for their religion and their cultures, but if we look at it from a history stand point, we all started the same. We evolved into different physical features, different colors because of our geographical adaptations. If we didn’t all spread throughout the world then we would all be the same today.
• I believe that being more aware of this and help spreading this issue, people would be more aware, and wouldn’t be as ignorant towards each other and realize that we’re all the same. We’ve all came from the same place, it’s just the people that moved farther from the equator toward the north pole was lighter, and the people that stayed close near the equator was darker. But inside we’re all the same. I just want people to realize that, and hopefully one day they will.

Entry 5 – Who Will Liberate Liberia?

Entry 5 – Who Will Liberate Liberia?

Affective Reading

Social Structures and Processes

 

“It does not matter if the cost of war is higher than the price of peace”, this article is about how by any means necessary they to be the most powerful nation in the world. The United States says that “thus Bush and his war apparatus can see Iraq’s imaginary weapons of mass destruction, but they cannot see real ones in Israel, Iran, India, Korea, and Pakistan”, but they would do anything necessary to eliminate any threats that they may face. In this situation they are trying to eliminate Saddam Hussein, putting up $50 million dollars for his head, just all for peace in Iraq. The reality is verbalized by the tunnel of vision logic and eyes see only what eyes want to see. I feel that it isn’t fair that they just kill Iraqis just for the price of their freedom, even when they don’t have any relation to Saddam. I feel that they’re just doing so just to show other nations in the world that they’re superior to everyone else. To show people not to try anything that would harm them, because the repercussions would be a lot worse. I think that the US isn’t being fair, and Bush is just trying to show his nation that if they believe in him that they will be safe, showing them that he can do whatever he wants, so he can get reelected. I believe that spending 200 billion dollars on one man and one natural resource is some what respectable, only because that one main resource is oil. A natural resource that could help out an economy a lot, but the cost of one man shouldn’t be that much. But I now know that the price of democracy will always outweigh the cost of war.

Entry 4 – Negotiation, Not Retribution.

Entry 4 – Negotiation, Not Retribution.

Dialectic Response.

Social Structures and Processes

 

 

 

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
The text asks if we could realize what’s going on in the world, the global terrorism. The vicious attacks against stable nations and unstable nations. If we could end this and help them and feel for struggling countries.	The text answered the question by raising the awareness of global terrorism, and how “tens of thousands of innocent children, women, and peasants in developing countries” that are suffering from terrorist attacks. If we just stopped and pondered how they live, how greedy industrialized nations of the world need to put aside their differences and help them out.  Also the “chasm’ between the rich and the poor nations, if we choose to sacrifice for those in need, everyone would come together and help the struggling countries to become a unity and make our nations stronger.	It matches to my own experiences because of the issues relating towards Somali immigrants that migrate here from Somali. It was our jobs to help them get settled, to help them out and get used to our cultures and way of life. To show them the norms and tell them what’s not accepted in our society. If we set aside our differences between the rich and the poor, we would see that we’re all human, and need help at some points in life. If we leave people struggling then it not only would be morally wrong, but it would look back on us as a society in whole.

 

 

Entry 3 – The Myth of Race and the Reality of Racism

 

Issues in Social Justice:

 “The Myth of Race and the Reality of Racism” by Charles Quist-Adade

Affective Response – Entry 3

Charles Quist-Adade addressed these issues behind myths and racism of race. Race has a lot of meaning behind it, but it is obvious that race does not exist. It is something that we made up, something the society has strung together to determine people. As a society we are opening up to racism because of the ignorance to not stop the discrimination based on color, gender, and physical features. I feel that if we ignore what’s on the outside, and focus only on who the person is inside would help the cause, but not everyone has the same opinions. I think that we created race, but at the same time we put it in our minds that race is something that has to be there. I feel that it isn’t fair to be racially profiled but people do so because of their own situations sometimes come in the way. Out of my own experiences being African I get racially profiled because of my background, when really they don’t know who I am. That isn’t right; I believe that if everyone believes that race doesn’t exist. It would stop a lot of problems in the world. It is unlucky that our society is ignorant to the fact that racial discrimination separates a lot of communities and everyone comes to their difference and see’s that we’re all the same inside, then our society’s would come together as one.

Entry 2 – Sexuality and Identity

Issues in Social Justice:

Affective Reading – Entry 2

Chapter 2: “Sexuality and Identity” by Carrie Buist and Andrew Verheek.

 

• This reading is about lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender in our society. It talks about how they are discriminated in our community, and how people perceive them in the workplace, schools, and just out in public. It talks about how males and females who are gay or lesbian have lower chances of getting jobs, or just not getting the job at all because of how they are, sexually. I didn’t know that they don’t get the same benefits as heterosexuals get such as income wise.
• I feel like issues like this should make people more aware that this isn’t right. People shouldn’t be treated differently because of their sexuality. I didn’t even think twice about the issues in our community, suicide rates for gays or lesbians are a lot higher than heterosexuals, people should be more aware of that.
• I think that this reading makes me more aware of this topic. It makes me a bit angry at the fact that I’ve been so ignorant to something as big as this. But at the same time it could be the same as racism; people discriminate based on gender, color, religion, culture, their society they are withheld in, all similar. But at the same time it should make people more aware I feel.
• I know that because of the way we act towards gays and lesbians, is the reasons why they feel like it’s something they should hide. It’s the reasons why they feel ashamed and if we treated them as individuals instead of outcasts they wouldn’t act the way they do now. I put the blame on us as a society to not be more open to this, to not feel like it’s absolutely normal. Everyone is different in their own ways, but we are all human and feel the exact same.
• I believe that if we now judge the person on their behaviours and how they act, that should determine how a person is viewed in society. Not on their sexuality, as I stated we are all human and deserve a fair chance.

Entry 1 – Religion and Homosexuality

Issues in Social Justice:

Dialectic Response  

Entry 1 - Religion and Homosexuality by Frank Tridico, Jacob Armstrong, David Barry.

 

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
This chapter talks about whether it is possible to give homosexuals their equal rights, and how they fought for equality. Also how homosexuals faced a lot of adversity within their society.	It answered it by showing us that it is possible. If we gave homosexuals their equal rights, that would then create some issues with the state and the Church If this were to happen, the State would not be influenced by the values of the church and wouldn’t have such a great impact on same-sex marriages.	The answer matches my own experiences because it is what I thought it should be. I feel that you have to be fair to anyone and everyone. If someone wants to be married together whether it be same sex or not, it should be allowed. We’re all human, and all feel different things. Also, why it is only related to Christianity, when a lot of other religions don’t believe in same sex marriages like Muslims. Also I don’t feel like it’s fair to rob someone of their rights just because what they feel is different. I don’t find that fair.