Race

This week in class, we talked about Racism and about how it is an issue around the world. We took some time looking at a chart in class that showed people from all different races and what other people called them. It basically said that no matter where you are in the world, there is someone out there that does not like you. It is sad to think about, but for the most part it seems to be true.

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Also is class, we talked about where someone learns about different races. Racism is not something that you are born with, it is something that you inquire growing up in society. Different regions of the world experience different living conditions and that can relate to social interaction with other races. A limited social interaction will not give anyone an understanding of other races and can make people jump to conclusions.

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We did not watch this movie in class, however, the movie Crash does a great job showing how people jump to conclusions. I can go into detail, but it is one of those movies that you need to see because it is fantastic. It contains a great message that jumping to conclusions is an extremely bad thing to do and can hold serious consequences. I recommend watching it.

Monopoly

This week in class, we played Monopoly; however, this was not regular Monopoly, it was Monopoly based off of Sal's rules. The game started the same, everyone each rolled the dice to see who would go first, second, third, etc. However, when you rolled the dice, you also found out what social class you were going to be put into for that game. There were five different classes as high as the upper class all the way down to the lower class and there were three classes in between. There were different rules depending on what class you were in also.

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For that game, I was placed into the Blue-Collar Working Class. Each class started with a different amount of money and each class earned a different amount of money every time they passed GO; the two highest classes even started with properties that they already owned before even rolling the dice. As the working class, I was given $667.00 to start off with. From then on, it was all a game of luck. For me, luck was not on my side because I lost money, fast. I only ended up buying two properties before I lost all of my money due to landing on many properties that were owned by other classes, including the most expensive property of them all, Boardwalk. After losing all my money, I was forced to go on Monopoly Welfare where I was only given $30.00 every time that I passed go. The good thing about this was that I didn't have to pay rent for any property that I landed on no matter who owned it; the rules stated that a player remained on welfare until they had either passed GO five times, reached a certain amount of money, or bought a property. I remained on Monopoly Welfare until the end of the game. At the end of the game, we added up all of our money, including the buying price of our properties, to see who had changed classes. Everyone had stayed the same. Even though I was on Monopoly Welfare, I ended up with over $400.00 since I had already had two properties. The rich stayed the richest.

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This game is all about Sociology because it discusses Social Class. It brings out both the benefits and the difficulties that different Socials Classes go through. This game uses a very small scale example of what different parts of the world are like and how those people in those different parts live. It many cases, the rich get richer and the poop get poorer. A lot of what determines this is what family someone is born into. However, if someone is born into a poor family, it is still possible for them to advance to upper class, it will just take a little longer and may require more work.

Social Class

This week in class, we watched a film that talked about Social Class. This film really showed how people interact with one another based off of their social class. It showed how the lower class interact with one another and how the upper class interact with one another. It was sad seeing all of the differences between the two classes and that people within those classes do not associate themselves with the other class.

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Going to SHS, we are not really exposed to many different social classes. There are a few people who have less money and there are few people that have a lot of money, but the majority of the population at the school is upper-middle class. It is easy to spot different social classes, however, at sporting events. For example, at a baseball game, you can see different classes by just looking up. In the "nose-bleed" seats, you can see lower class and in the sky boxes, you can see upper class.

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Even the type of food that people eat is determined by social class. For example, upper class people tend to enjoy wheat bread over white bread and lower class is the opposite. If only people were not as worried about social class and money and were more worried about spending time with one another.