Reflective Essay

Debunking in Sociology

This course, Sociology 1125, has been a very knowledgeable course. It has helped to broaden my perspective of the world and the society we live in. In this reflective essay I will be using one of the core concepts we learned at the beginning of the semester. That concept being debunking: which looks at the obvious and less obvious, as well as the surface level and deeper levels for our social behaviours.

By using debunking I was able to look at different problems with different perspectives. For example, looking at the variety of cultures. Looking at the surface level of what the culture comes across as, and what there obvious outlooks of the culture are. As well as looking, how they came about, and what culture is. Then looking deeper into the meaning of different peoples cultures, there rules, norms and beliefs.  As well as the reasons why that culture is the way it is, their perspectives, and the different variations.

We also looked at race and ethnicity in many different ways, as well as debunked it. In race and ethnicity we looked at the definition of race being categorised by physical traits, and ethnicity being categorised by cultural traits. We looked at how they connected to each other, as well as how they are very apart. That sometimes they can both go together, and other times their biology does not match the stereotype of culture.  Most people are now “racially” mixed. There are no pure races. That skin colour and the way a person looks should not define them into categories.

I have learned so much this semester just on being able to look at things in such a different perspective. In society being able to look at how and why we live a certain way. Why others act the way they do. That it may seem weird at first, but look and educate yourself about the person and be able to understand them a bit better. Why a person may stand to close for comfort, yet the other person feels at ease like its normal. It comes from different norms and rules. Why a person would gesture something, but mean something else, that also comes from different cultures and different social construct. We also looked at the reasons for race and racism in particular, how it came about and why. That racism still goes on today although we are all mixed anyways. We also looked at stereotypes and how they come about, like the video we watched in class about the “the danger of a single story.” How stereotypes are formed, many have race and ethnicity in it, as well as people’s cultures, rules and norms.

This course has broadened my mind and given me a new perspective of society. It is a great course; the structure was interesting, and engaging.

video

Social Construction

By Dr. Gwen Sharp & Dr. Lisa Wade

Dialectic Reading

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
Why is “Social construction” one of the key concepts in sociology?	It is one of the ways people create meaning through social interactions with others	I believe it is. People make up their own beliefs and society thrives on different things all the time. Different places have different beliefs and or constructs. For example the way people dress is different all around the world.
What are the six social constructions talked about in the video?	Language:  putting sounds and figures into a meaning. Symbols: ex. A flag Colours: colours associated to certain things Food: What types of food we eat at certain times, cooked in a certain way, with certain foods. Gestures: socially constructed, with different meanings depending on where you are People: socially constructed into catagories.
Why does social construction matter?	There are different beliefs for different societies. They can change, and people generally try to change them.	It gives societies something different. It is a way of life. Without it there wouldn’t be a society. Without language or culture or different people or gestures, there would not be a society at all.

Video

What Have My Coco Beans Got To Do With Canada

By Charles Quist Adade

Paraphrastic

This video starts off by talking about Quist-Adade’s childhood. How he grew up in Ghana and worked on a coco farm. On this farm he planed many coco beans, and did this for 10 years. This is important in the video because it demonstrates how one person can affect so many. That those coco beans have supplied coco for many of the chocolates we eat here in Canada. They also provide employment for people in Canada in the chocolate factories. This also gave Quist-Adade scholarships to go to school and become a teacher. He now teaches in Canada and tries to help by educating others. In many ways the individual can affect people in different regions, even if you never cross paths.

Quote from video:

“The present with the past, having the global sociological imagination enables us to develop a keen awareness of the fact that our actions, seemingly inconsequential, have ramifications rippling far beyond our immediate environment and our shores.”

I think this quote is the most important of the video because it describes how past or present our actions have consequences. Whether they are good or bad; just like the coco beans. What we do in our society can affect others even in far places. Its important to know that our lives impact others as well as our own.

Video

The Danger of a Single Story

By Chimamanda Adichie

Affective Reading

This video is by a woman who grew up in Eastern Nigeria on a university campus there. She grew up to love literature and became a writer for her career. She starts off the video talking about how when she grew up the first things she read were British books and with those books she created a visual on how British people were. But also on how their lives were different due to living in different parts of the world. Then she started reading African literature and that made her realise the difference between both. She also realised how impressionable people are for a story. That one story can make a person believe that it’s true. It creates a stereotype.  A quote from the video that shows exactly what she means by the dangers of a single story is, “show a person over and over again as one thing and that’s what they become.” It creates false knowledge on people as well as a stereotype.

How do I feel about this video?

I feel that it’s horrible that people are judged by only select things that are in the media or in books. I do feel that it happens all the time because there isn’t enough out there at arm’s reach for most so that it doesn’t happen.  I feel that it sucks that people are stereotyped due to the lack of knowledge of different places in the world.

What do I think about the video?

I think that there should be more on the news then just the bad things, and that there should be more knowledge of places in the world so there aren’t so many stereotypes. That maybe there will be less discrimination as well. I think this video was very educational of the subject.

What do I believe about the video?

I believe it to be true. That due to one story it is easy to be impressionable. It is easy to become trapped in the stereotype and also to expect only what we see. If we only see a certain thing there is a big tendency to think that’s what it is; although there are many stories than just one.

What do I know about the video?

I know that it does happen sometimes. Stereotypes can be true, but around that one stereotype there are still many different people and different stories than just that one stereotype. I know that through education and more stories that fewer stereotypes will be formed.

Social Structures and Processes

The Phantom of the Race: The Myth of Race and the Reality of Racism

By Charles Quist-Adade, PhD,

Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, BC, Canada

Dialectic Reading

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
What is “race” and what is “racism”?	The text defines it as a grouping of people that are defined in groups by their physical characteristics. That it is not “genetically pre determined or divinely created” (98).  Racism is denying people the same rights as other due to skin colour or their ethnicity.	I believe that this is a spot on definition of “race.” People place people in categories and still do and it is by looks. Also that because of being categorised, people are being given different rights because of it.
How did “race” and racism happen?	The term came about from describing other nations and then went into making categories and subcategories of different people.	I believe this is true.  I believe it slowly built over time as people started going to other continents and discovering the world, people then were categorised because they weren’t what they were used to.
Why are we all mongrels?	We are all mongrels because there is no ‘pure’ race as said in the text. That people have been mixing race throughout the ages.	I believe that to be true, because even now, people are still mixing. I am an example of that because I am one of those who would be considered blended.

Social Sturctures and Processes

Who Will Liberate Liberia?

By Charles Quist-Adade, (Sankofa News December, 2003)

Paraphrastic Reading

First thing in the article, Quist-Adade talks about how much money is being spend on the war in Iraq by the American Government. With that topic, he goes on to discuss how the world is twisted and that we live in a “Global Jungle, a world where immorality means morality.” This is because there are so many starving children in the world, who don’t have medical care but so much money is spent on war. That the money spent on this war, should go to these children, that it could help at least “half of the world s population.” This article also talks about how the American government is only set on one thing and that is to destroy Iraq, even though there are many other countries that have the same “tyrants and autocrats who dot the global landscape.” Finally at the end of the article, he debates that America was after Iraq’s oil and natural resources.

“A world where immorality means morality, where might is right, and where the most adored phrase is “Each for himself and the devil for hindmost.” In our global jungle where might is right and compassion is doled out at the whims and caprices of the most powerful, it makes perfect sense for billions of dollars to be thrown at the “axis of evil” while millions of children perish every day around the world for lack of food and medicine. If makes perfect sense because in the world according to George Bush, if we want peace we must prepare for war, no matter the cost.”

I chose this quote because I feel it was a very important quote of this article. I also agree with the statement. I believe that the money going towards this war should go to children who need it. Not towards killing off innocent human being and not for taking others recourses for their own benefit.  It isn’t right for this war to have begun. Two wrong do not make a right. It is for personal gain. Although, not a lot has been gained by this war, no peace has been made. But there are still hungry children with not medicine and health care dying, because they don’t have the money for those resources.

Social Structures and Processes

September 11: Forgiveness Is No Part Of The Lessons Learned

By Charles Quist-Adade

Paraphrastic Reading

In this article Charles Quist-Adade talks about how the US does not use forgiveness, but looks for revenge instead on the countries that cause them problems. He talks about 9/11 and how right after the incident, the president of the US, George W. Bush, looked at this terrorist attack and wanted revenge for it

“Bush claims he is seeking justice. From his words and deeds, few believe that it is justice he seeks. The radical truth is, it is revenge he craves. Retribution: a body for a body. Now we see how high the moral standards of Bush and his acolytes really are. The haste with which he is going after Iraq for no plausible reason other than to finish off the unfinished task of his father exposes his dubious standards.”

I chose this quote, because I believed it was the best summary of the article. It tells the main points. That Bush was not in it for the reasons the people thought and that he was not in it for the right reasons at all. That Bush had no reasons other than self gain, going into Iraq. He also didn’t think about the innocent people involved but that he could make money off of this. He could change the ways of other people, and also hurt his own people.

Social Structures and Processes

Negotiation, Not Retribution

By Charles Quist-Adade

Affective Reading

In this news article, Charles Quist-Adade talks about the greed of the industrialized nations of the world. He also talks about the US-led West who have intervened directly and indirectly to many deaths because of their interventions.  Quist-Adade then discusses how the west should be looking into their own nations and their own problems, instead of others first. Then in paragraph 4, he talks about how Osama bin Laden had been courted and trained by the US to “kill Russian soldiers and Afghans,” but now he is known as the devil. Finally Quist-Adade talk about how people have learned nothing from history, that retribution does not solve anything; it only causes problems.

When I read this article I felt that negotiations would be better it would solve a lot more problems that way. Even if people don’t necessarily get their own way it does find a middle ground.  I also feel that countries should take care of themselves before going into other nations to “help” them. Though help is good, but war is not. I also felt that the US training a man to kill others was very wrong, and should have never happened.

This article made me think that the world needs to change their thinking. War will not help end things but cause a circle of war. It also made me think about all problems that are hidden from the population that happens around the world. I was not aware that Osama Bin Laden was trained by US.

From this article I believe that something needs to be done in the world to change it. I also believe that negotiations would be better and involve less death amongst countries.

I know that it is hard to change the ways of peoples thinking and that everyone is entitled to their own opinion on how things should be run. But, to make better relationships with other countries, negotiations are the better route to go.  Those other countries should look after their own problems in their country, of the split between rich and poor. If they can help other countries then they should do so.

Issues In Social Justice

Chapter : Public Space and Criminal Justice

Tridico, Jacob Armstrong and Joseph M. Pellerito

Paraphrastic Reading

In chapter 6 in, Issues in Social Justice by Frank Tridico, Jacob Armstrong and Joseph M. Pellerito, they talk about how the public is viewed and what laws we must follow in public spaces. As it is described public space is areas were social and class differences can be put aside where there is freedom, and also freedom of democracy. They go into detail about how public space is defined, but many citizen it is a place for everyone and anyone, but for others a space becomes a place when things are put in it, a place could be a home, campsite, city, etcetera. They then go on to about how space must be regulated, and how space has been battled over throughout history. This leads into the discussion about law and homelessness. Many people have tried to determine who is and isn’t allowed in certain locations and have made many laws to try to keep the homeless out. Many anti-homeless laws have been passed, but change throughout the nation. The main law is the issue of sleeping in public. That people are not allowed to sleep in public or urban camping spots. Though, many shelters have closed down so the numbers of homeless people have increased. Therefore, changes in the laws had to be changed, but it wasn’t for the better. In Orlando, to decrease the amount of homeless people in the park they regulated the amount of food they gave out at the shelters, some were not allowed to give any food out at all.  Though, Orlando was almost sewed for the ban of food. Though that was not the most bitter act of the justice system, police did sweeps of public spaces for homeless encampments. This chapter shows that public spaces really are not open to all citizens, and that homeless are not treated well.

Pharaphrastic

Conflict over public space will probably exist in any diverse society, and it may be revisionist history to view the golden ages and golden sites such as the Greek agora and the New England town square as open and welcoming to all citizens and somehow different from the challenges faced today in the spaces of our modern cities. Laws, codes, and force have been used through history to determine which groups were allowed to take part in public discourse in the golden sites. Today no group challenges the boundaries of public space like the homeless, and it is the modern criminal justice system that is often used to accomplish the goal of restricting their presence in the public sphere. (pg.157)

I chose this quote because I believe it describes the chapter very well. It shows how the civilians see public space. But also in how through evolution it has been the same, constantly fighting for space. Though today it is different in the sense that our laws are much different we still have the homeless. The homeless are the people who don’t have anywhere else to go but the public space. Which invades the criminal justices boundaries. If only we could fix homelessness and then there would be no problems and the public would be free of fear of the homeless and there would be no homeless people to put a food bans on or put in entrapment camps.

Issues in Social Justice

Chapter 4: Driving Discontinuance

Frank Tridico, Jacob Armstrong and Joseph M. Pellerito

Dialectic Reading

What questions did the text raise?	How did the text answer this?	How does this answer my own ideas and experiences?
What are the problems of having elderly people driving?	That not all adults are safe to continue driving due to ageing-related health conditions and other problems.	I think that, as an adult get older and if they develop a problem that could also risk other lives if they were behind the wheel, then they should retire from driving.
Is it a bad thing to take away their licences?	No, because it will benefit by keeping the roads safe.	I don’t think it’s a bad thing to take away their licence if it keeps them safe as well as others safe on the road.
When people age and retire from driving, are the links weaken or broken between the individual and the community?	They will be unable to get to essential things on a 24 hr basis. As well as they are unable to be as socially interactive as they once were with a car. Plus, they would be unable to travel when and where ever they please giving them less freedom.	I think that it definitely makes them lonelier, especially if they are living alone. Having a car definitely helps make people feel more social and a part of the community in comparison to a walk around the block and sitting inside. The links are definitely weakened when they must give up their licence.
Did their habits change before driving retirement?	Half of the male participants changed their driving habits, and two-thirds of women changed theirs.  They stayed away from the highway, had selective places to go and avoided night driving.	Well there habits would change, they would start to realise what is and what isn’t safe anymore. That or the people around them would. Most people realise there boundaries.
Participants who retired from driving, did they voluntarily do it or compulsory, and did they receive help in there decision making?	Many of the people gave up there keys, women more than men. The people also knew their boundaries of driving.	I thinks sometimes it is hard to give up the keys to a car, since there is so much attachment to them. The individual has been in control of that since they were in there teens or maybe early adult hood. The individual also can realise when things start to get difficult, and most times when they feel they are personally in danger, like my own grandfather not being able to see, will give their keys in.