Week 7 Blog Post Response

What's in a Race?: Standardized Culture

Growing up in the Silicon Valley, I found that I was the only African-American student, or one of few others, in most of my classes and grades since elementary school.

But this simple realization didn't come until I was slightly older, in about third grade when I noticed a difference between myself and my fellow classmates. However, being the youngest in the family surrounded by adults, I did have the wisdom, of knowledge in hearing about "race" and identifying as African-American or black (of Hispanic origin), at a young age.

Identifying myself with a multi-ethnic background became a an increasingly difficult concept to grasp for some and to explain (especially as a third grader), as my parents both migrated from Latin America, and spoke Spanish fluently as their first language. This came as a shock to many, having not seen or often heard of African-Americans of Latin decent or origin speaking Spanish in other regions of the world.

Nonetheless, this had always been a norm to me, to which I realized was not common knowledge and regarded somewhat as an anomaly to some, one day while taking the S.T.A.R. test in my 3rd grade class. We had to fill in the bubble for the section of "ethnic background" indicating our race, when I found that the bubble next to "Black (not of Hispanic origin)" had already been bubbled in for me. So, being the young advocate for cultural representation, I decided to fill in the "Latino" bubble as well.

The next day, I found it had been erased, and when I attempted to fill it in again, my teacher spotted me stating "You can only fill in the one bubble that pertains to you".

To which I retorted "But I am Latino too, my parents talk Spanish".

The whole class listening in, had heard this statement as well, to which one of my peers shouted out "Your Mexican?!"

"No Panamanian."I corrected. My teacher with a surprised expression resolved "Lets just leave it as is shall we, it's simpler."

This was one of the first experiences I remember becoming explicitly conscious of race. The duality of other cultures and origins denied because of a "Primary Status" of being an African-American. It is simply easier to lump everyone together (like a melting pot) under one label regardless of other origins, disregarding cultural heritage. [This is the equivalent to Arizona banning all ethnic indication bubbles and adding one labeled "American Citizen".] My origins were being questioned as well as assumed to be that of another close by country, but not quite, solidifying the ideal at a young age than only those of Mexican heritage speak Spanish, forsaking other regions and cultural variations around the world. Also, standardization assumes that one cannot be Black or White or any racial background and of Hispanic descent as well, adding the limiting after thought and confusion in parenthesis of "not of Hispanic origin" for those that are. So this system of classification initially encourages one to choose their primary status, based on appearances (or different cultural factors in the case of others), forsaking other ethic backgrounds as "secondary", limiting identification and acknowledgement to simplistic acceptable choices.

So what does this say for those children of Hispanic origin or who are multi-racial, who must then choose a primary cultural identification as a means of conforming to societal classes for simplicity? That functionality serves a higher importance than identifying one's individuality and embracing a unique multi-cultural heritage, in a nation promoting the equality of those from all backgrounds of race,color, or creed.

Honors Community Volunteer Project: Day 1

**Back in the Day: Tales of the 5th Grade Nothing**

On my first day of volunteering for the Honors Volunteer Project as a classroom volunteer at a local elementary school in my neighborhood, I had arrived in time to find that the kindergarten class I was to volunteer for was out on a field trip. Therefore, I waited for about 2o minutes for the office make as schedule to fit the time I was to help out with that day and check in to receive my visitor's pass.

My first destination was the class of my former kindergarten teacher, who now teaches 5th grade. The time I spent in this class for the first day was mostly observation, due to the fact the students were working in groups filling out a work sheet on a reading about "How Electricity Works", practicing reading comprehension and study skills. Two students had greeted me with "Hi stranger", as I walked in the classroom towards the teacher. I introduced my self as a sociology student working on a project for class, pausing for the comments and gasps about how old I am and what grade I am in. Not surprised at their curiosity, I answered their questions about whether I had my work permit, my favorite subject (sociology of course!) and if I was a "good student".

I observed a class of about 35 students, more boys than girls as they articulated answers in their groups. The girls seemed more engaged in communicating answers and participating with their group members than the boys, while the boys preferred to looking the textbooks for their answers.

The second class I visited was the 3rd grade class of another teacher who's class I had not been, in but was acquainted with. They were working on an art project for Mother's Day in which they had to write a short "poem" about there moms, and place their hands in paint to press upon paper hearts to decorate them with. I went around to each table to keep the kids on task and assist with spelling and various inquires while the teacher called up each child one-by-one to do their hand prints.

I helped one student spell "Sunnyvale" in a line of their poem about where their mom lived, and another think of a title for their poem. Curious glances followed me (I seemed to towered over the small desks) as I went around I complemented their work and commented on neat handwriting and cute sentiments in their poems. Meanwhile, one girl who was a primarily Spanish speaker asked me how to spell a word in Spanish. Having taken Spanish two, I had some ideal of how the phonetics of spelling worked and helped her to spell the word.

When this class went off to lunch, I decided to observe the playground and cafeteria for interactions of kids outside of the classroom. I was greeted by the jury duty as I watched, and noticed the older kids participating in more organized games (in gender separated groups) while the younger ones engaged in simple freeplay.

I approached the cafeteria and sat down for a time, taking in the familiar smell of formerly frozen chicken patties and government mac & cheese. Meanwhile, most kids simply carried on eating (mostly less interested in food and lunchables in general) , talking, or socializing while a few pretended to gasp and point at me playfully saying "stranger" (a learned appropriate response) then would giggle and turn away. I presume playfully do to my non-threatning stature as a 5 ft 1" female. There were a few stragglers and some early birds who rushed out to play eating 1/4 of their lunches (which was me back in the day).

Overall, the first day went pretty well and was a nostalgic experience being reintroduced into the simple world that is childhood, a nice break from the fast pace stress of a high school senior.

Week 6 Blog Post Response

**The Social Shopper**

In my visit to the shopping center this weekend, I chose to primarily observe the inhabitants of Target, a store that is common place in which many visit or shop at one time of another, for various needs from cleaners, to clothes, to food goods and electronics, better known as the conventional super store. Less limiting than the department store, yet less personal than the specialty mom-and pop-shop, and its high end-neighbor: Macy's.

Both of these stores represent two ends of a spectrum according to consumers: Target regarded as mid-price range depending of the variety of items offered as sold, considered more high end than its competitors Wal-Mart and K-Mart. One the other end Macy's of course represents the more luxury of the two, more expensive than Kohl's but less illusive than Nordstrom.

The environment of the Target varies considerably from the boutique style setting of Macy's as expected. Shoppers who may feel more independent, feel confident in strolling the isles with red shopping carts prowling through shelves of frozen food and and canned goods to office supplies, all organized by high hanging signs indicating isle placement of products punctuated by price checkers, between side displays of bulk sale items with bid red SALE letters and prices, visible to all for up to a mile away (saves the hassle). Designed to "target" (pun semi-intended) sensible shoppers ready and willing to navigate for bargains and shrewd weekly sales.

In another realm, Macy's offers a more costumer service-oriented atmosphere, a offering to the consumer a possible attempt to justify price with quality service and products. The glistening cosmetic counters with wafting fragrances lined with black clad employees waiting, ready and willing to help with your needs from a 5 minute makeover to the perfect fragrance or matte concealer. These shoppers enjoy being waited upon, pampered, and catered to, expecting to receive quality service and goods for their money's worth, designed to target those for "high end tastes for style". Price tags either hidden or need a magnifying glass, suggesting it may not be the first thing on the consumers mind.

The Target I visited was pretty crowded in with Saturday afternoon shoppers, which was expected, with plenty to observe and take note of. Most shoppers were dressed pretty casually and going about their business. The three "representatives" I chose were two females and a male, two of whom, (1 male/female) dressed moderately casually, the male more casual than the female, while the third representative shopper (2nd female) was dressed less casually almost semi business or suburban like. The male shopper sporting sneakers and a baseball cap blue tooth in his ear with a relatively unkempt appearance appeared to be lower-middle class according to his attire carrying items in his hand toothpaste toiletries etc, after later making the wise decision of picking up a hand basket(which may or may not be an accurate index due to the fact that is was a Saturday and most males dress more casually than women in general). The first more casually dressed female appeared to be middle class with a shopping cart with bulk sized toilet paper, wearing sneakers and a knit sweater over a t-shirt. The third more formally dressed female entered the store with large sunglasses, was wearing flats, leggings and a large hobo bag, and animal print blouse. An index of a fashonista who didn't bother to push around a cart, or look up from her cell phone in hand texting away almost running into the price check-out stand, probably looking for a bargain on hair care of facial products, to go with some new shoes purchased at the Macy's next door.

I used these indexes specifically to describe the representatives I observed because I felt it cover the spectrum or shopper in this particular center as predominantly middle-class females from ages 20-35 shopping for families or for fashion, and personal items and/or necessities. These indexes reveal consumer preferences and possible shopping habits as well as choices or items and social class statuses, but can be misleading as in the case with the male shopper, (who could be a scruffy casually dressed businessman coming from a workout or who just likes to be comfortable shopping on weekends.) Also, as I have learned from personal experiences and advise of others, in shopping at a high-end store like Macy's, "dressing the part" may ensure a slightly more friendly demeanor in costumer service as opposed to the baseball cap clad shopper wearing baggy sweatpants at a cosmetics counter.

After observing the center as a whole, I would say their are predominantly mixed class shopping center with working to lower and upper middle class shoppers, mostly female from the ages 20-45.

Honors Community Volunteer Project: Introduction

**Back to Basics**

For my volunteer community project for the honors section of this course, I volunteered at a local elementary school, and my alma mater ;) instead of the T.O.U.C.ch project in Watsonville due to scheduling conflicts.

For the past two weeks, I volunteered to help out and observe several classrooms of elementary students in three sessions. I participated and interacted with children from kindergarten as well as 5th and 3rd grades.

I really enjoy working with kids, I as have for the past four years both volunteering and working for summer camps and various programs, so I very excited and looked forward to returning to my elementary school to work with kids. I my pleasant surprise, when I first visited for approval to volunteer, I had passed by the classroom of my kindergarten teacher, who was now teaching 5th grade. So I decided to stop by and say hello, and mentioned I was looking for volunteer work for my project to help out in the classroom, and she eagerly agreed to have me. I am now taller than her, and the school itself was much smaller than I remembered, particularly the low ceilings which gave me a sentimental sense of nostalgia as a high school senior graduating next month, returning back to where it all started for one of my final projects.

The following day, I visited the office to workout a schedule with the principal of when and where I could come for the available times. She was not in the office but as I walked out, I saw one of the other teachers whose classrooms seemed familiar was there as well, and sure enough the principal had walk right out of the same classroom She greeted me warmly as she remembered me from my days as a student there and we had set schedule of the times and days I would come. And so for the next post of my project I will describe my observations and experiences. Hope you enjoy!

Week 5 Blog Post Response

**Trickle-Down Sociology: Immigration Tension and Reform**

Recently, one of my family members brought to my attention a newspaper article in the San Jose Mercury News, about a letter a reader wrote in response to a derogatory article fueled by the recent controversy over immigration policies and reform.

Many of you may have noticed and responded to the rising tensions caused by the AB-1070 Arizona state bill that was recently passed along with lesser known provisions, legalizing racial profiling. The effects are all around us, on the news, in our schools, our families and classrooms, tainting the Cinco de Mayo celebration, even the result of one class discussion recently brought one of my instructors to tears as they addressed to students their own connections to immigration issues and discrimination.

What are we proving as a nation in regards to punishing those who wish to succeed in a country built upon immigrants? That being "illegal" is a form of social deviance although the factor may be out of one's control? Even punishable by law? This brings me to what my instructor had mentioned in our class discussion of immigration policy, as those who were undocumented were once granted amnesty if they had been in the country for at least 10 years, had not committed any crimes, and/or had children or relatives that were citizens, which sounds like a reasonable law to me. Unfortunately, this has not been in effect since the Regan era, with at least 2 decades since amnesty was granted to anyone.

How and why was it possible for this change to be made as a result of changing societal and economic structures? And how do governent policies shape our perception of societal deviance?

This in part may be due to the changing demographic and perceptions of immigrants, slowly shifting to more negative ideals, and interactions based upon stereotypes and commonalities.

The fact is within the last 20 years, generally resources have become more scarce such as education and employment particularly in the last 5 years in part by both inflation and population growth. In the most economically prosperous eras such as most of the 80's and late to mid 90's, immigration was hardly noticed or even considered an issue. Entering the 00's with 9/11, the wars, and gradual falling economy, the topic of immigration became and increasingly prominent issue. Now many are forced to compete for resources such as jobs, education and healthcare, leading to cultural identity and classification to be considered more crucial to ensure the distribution of resources. This leads to tension and hostility as some believe immigrants "take our jobs" use "our schools" and "our healthcare".

These sentiments "trickle-down" (in the words of the "great Ronald Regan"), influencing many particularly the youth in social institutions, cultural expressions and celebrations, and most importantly how we interact and perceive others.

For instance, many of you may have heard or the conflict at one bay area high school over Cinco de Mayo celebration, where some students, not of Hispanic decent, chose to wear American Flag T-shirts, to which the students of Mexican decent took offence and protested by walking out of class due to the fact that no one wearing American flag shirts was punished, but were simply sent home. Parents of the students who wore Am. flag shirts were upset at the principle for sending their children home, while parents of the other student were upset expecting further action to be taken if this "act of defiance".

This is proof of how deviance can be viewed from many different perspectives. One group of parents viewed the actions of the principle as deviant, while the other vied the students as deviant. This shows that the concept of deviance is relative based upon the context of the culture and/or environment.

As another example, their have been instances at colleges were particular groups students participated in "Boarder" or "Cookout" parties in which they dressed in accordance to the societal perception or stereotype of Hispanics and African-Americans, and took part in various activities. Many were outraged as they believed this was an apparent display of deviant behavior, while the students who participated merely stated they were exercising their "right to free speech".

These students may have participated in such behavior because the felt or view it as socially acceptable possibly due to the current social climate or cultural tension (or simply because of "group think"!) as our perceptions of other cultures, are often shaped by the environment around us, including media, government policies and even the economy, causing a change or shift in the definition of deviance.

Week 4 Blog Post Response

**Just Followin' the Crowd: Out of the Loop**

I think in my freshman year of high school is when the whole myspace trend began which evolved from Xanga (in 6th grade) then into facebook then twitter when the whole "blog your soul, and what you ate for breakfast" trend started.

I mean I'm not saying there is anything wrong with blogging about you life and what you ate for breakfast, but just to blog with heed or caution, taking note of being "sociologically mindful" when cetain things are T.M.I. For example, the primary reason most of my friends have blogs, myspace, twitter, and what have you, is because everyone else had one, and to stay in the loop or "connected". If you didn't have one it was an absence within the little world of digital communication, and you were "out of the loop".

Personally, I have received many a request with "so and so has invited you to facebook!" message, and the ever increasing "Follow us on twitter!" temptations, even from those you least expect from religious communities to local government.

So just how did this tech communication blogging trend evolve you ask? Well one of my interviewees in response to this retorted and I quote: "Myspace is dead or mostly for old people", which to no surprise the majority of my peers seemed to agree. But how exactly did this particular "group think" take shape? Simply because when something newer, better, and more advance comes along it automatically renders the previous form of communication (in other cases arguably face to face and phone conversations for texting) obsolete? So if I asked if there was anything to regret about keeping in tune with the ever-changing complex world that is online blogging/communication what what said was this:

1. "Yes, because my others can see my relationship status as "single" including my boyfriend."
2. "Yes, because my friend posted those embarrassing pictures of me from when my hair was longer."
3. "Yes, because my mom can see it somehow even though I blocked my page."
4. "My other friends post under my blog without my permission."
5. "No, because I have a lot to friends."
6. "Yes, because I have seen hurtful things posted about me and others."
7. "Yes, because my friend posted those embarrassing pictures of me when my hair was longer at that one party."

When asked if any of the interviewed did any of these things such as post on other people's blog without permission or embarrassing pictures, most said yes, but only because their other friends had convinced them to do so thinking "it would be fun, as a joke". But later on many regretted it due to hurt feelings, strained relationships, lost friendships, and in some cases school punishment.

The last instance of school punishment reminded me of a recent court case where a student had posted a hurtful blog about a faculty member, and many fellow student bloggers joined in on the site to rant as well. Another example, of influenced group behavior. Soon afterward the creator of the site was sued by the faculty member, tried in court for libel, and suspended. I think its safe to assume there was regret on the part of the student/students involved.

In conclusion, the moral of the story: be careful what you blog and communicate online to others, especially in it is influenced by the opinion of others upon what you blog, even if it is what you ate for breakfast. In the meantime I will just be checking my email (apart from occasionally posting here of course ; ] ).