For this blog, I have decided to write about acceptance. This is also related to the movie Lost Boys of Sudan. I feel like although Americans are compassionate in ways, we are not accepting. In the movie, people wanted to know the stories of the lost boys, but they did not want to know beyond hearing. In several incidences, the lost boys were subject to racial prejudice from the people trying to "help" them! The administrator who wouldnt let Peter take the ACT because he wasnt "ready." The woman who tried initially to help the Sudanese boys, but as soon as she learned that they had been threatened with guns, backed off. And the most noticeable was the girl who interviewed Peter. Although she seemed to care, she really only wanted a story. She didnt really care that he had been threatened at gun point, or that he had been shot at.

Acceptance, in the US, is something that doesnt come easily. People are too quick to stereotype and judge. I think the only way for Americans to progress in the world is to realize that most immigrants have amazing survival stories and they have fought hand and tooth for the "American Dream."

Blog 3

So for this weeks blog I wanted to talk about the Ethnography study we did. In attempting to learn about a new culture, we were given the task of going out and observing the things that certain groups did. For instance, we could have gone and observed the different cliques at school. Our group, however, decided to go and observe the foreign language teachers. Unfortunately, only the German teacher was available, but we did get a nice lesson from her. Interestingly, the German teacher is Filipino. The lesson was on shopping. Now you might think, how can one learn about a culture through a lesson. Well, in Germany people, for instance, bring their own bags when they shop. This is because they do not want to use plastic bags that are not recyclable. Therefore, to American's, it might seem really weird if someone was putting food into a backpack that they brought. In America, we would classify that as stealing. But in Germany, it is simply being concerned for the environment. That is one of the many differences that make each culture unique. Because, essentially, that's what sociology is all about. Being unique and accepting of other, different things.

Sociology Blog Post 2

This week we didn't really have a topic to blog about. It was up to us. So I decided to blog about the boat activity that we did in class. I was always curious about certain incidents like that. What would people do or what causes people to do what they do. Why wouldn't the soldier be saved because of his life, or why wouldn't the crew be willing to give up their lives so that others could live. Why were the people so intent on saving the young couple but not the elderly couple? What prompted these actions? I believe it is because people are too easy to pushover. During the activity, when certain people took charge and started raising their voices, others either had two options. A) Follow the people who voiced their opinions the loudest or B) Be silent and hope that no one would notice you. In the end, it was observed that human nature is either to be dominate or be dominated. I have also noted that people are not very convincing and go by impulse rather than trying to figure out something else. We value young life, but we do not consider anything outside of the picture. And that is something that should be valued equally.