Reflective Essay

I have learned about many concepts in this class that have helped me understand Sociology and what it is about. In the beginning of the semester, our professor had asked us to write the definition of Sociology and told us that once the course is over, we will see society through a sociological perspective. I must say, he was absolutely correct.

One of the concepts that I have understood very well in this course is debunking. It can be applied to almost every aspect of society. Before taking this course I had not even heard of this word before, but now I understand it and can apply it things in society. Debunking is looking past the obvious or surface level in order to discover the less obvious and deeper meaning of something. For example we may see pictures of homeless people, and think that they should go look for a job instead of begging for money. What we don’t see is the deeper and less obvious. Each homeless person has their own story, and for them its not as easy as it seems to look for a job. Many of them are addicts, who are struggling to get out of this kind of life style.

Debunking can also be applied to race and racism. In fact I had many misconceptions about race, like the fact that it is a human creation. I thought that race was how people looked and the culture/religion they belong to. I even thought racism was a thing of the past and that we live in multicultural society, but it’s quite obvious that I didn’t take time to look past the obvious and surface level realities. Now I realize that racism still does exist although we may not see it. It exists in many forms and shapes. For example, many of the politicians that rule this country are “white,” and always have been.

Debunking is a concept that has been a reoccurring theme in this course and ties into concepts like ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is when a particular culture believes that they are the best, and above everyone else. Ethnocentrism can also be applied to race because, race is not biological, but a human creation. Obviously different “races” as it were will think that they are the best among all. I see this all the time, whether it be in the form of “white pride” or “brown pride” we all tend to think that our culture is the best. We fail to debunk this idea, as there really is no such thing as “race” in the first place. We are not genetically born into a particular race. How can we even say that for example that white people are the best. If we debunk this idea, we discover that genetically speaking we are all very similar with minimal differences. Its not whats on the outside that counts, but whats on the inside that matters.

I can certainly view society from a sociological perspective now that I have concepts such as debunking, and ethnocentrism mastered, which enable me to look beyond the obvious. Like they say, you cant judge a book by its cover, its whats on the inside that counts. Well you can’t judge society by the obvious and surface level realities. You have to debunk society and then you will begin to see the deeper meaning.

Oral Participation #5

In today’s class we discussed about the video “Race:The Power of an Illusion.” In groups we chose a question and answered it. My group chose the question “Did the film deny the fact that race is real?” We said that the film didn’t exactly deny it. Race is not biological, and we humans have created it, so yes it is real but its not biological.

Race:The Power of an Illusion (Dialectic)

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match our own ideas and experiences?
The video “Race: The Power of an Illusion,” shown in class raised many questions about race and the physical characteristics associated with it. One question that was raised was “Is race genetically inherited?” In other words, Is race biological?	I think the video did a nice job of explaining that race in fact is not biological. Race is a human an invention, but many people perceive it to be biological even though its not. The division of people based on their skin color such as white, black, red, yellow, brown has become such a common notion that most people believe that these races are completely different and have nothing in common genetically speaking. This video proved that this is a false interpretation of the races. In fact races such as the white race and black race have more in common than otherwise believed. This video proved that despite the fact that we all have different physical traits such as hair texture, skin color, eye color, genetically speaking; there is no major difference among the human race. In fact the video also pondered upon some of the stereotypes that exist for particular races. For example, the video proved that the stereotype that black people are natural athletes is not true. If that were the case, then every black person would not need to practice, because they would naturally excel at any sport. A Chinese basket ball player would not come first, like he has.  Black people didn’t have many opportunities, and when one came up they embraced it. That’s the only reason why there are so many black basket ball players.	Race has been used as a common way of describing people according to their physical characteristics. Most people believe that race is biological but as the video showed, it is not. We commonly believe that a black person is genetically very different from a white person or vice versa. The truth is that we all have a common ancestory and are so genetically similar.

Illustration #5-Ethnocentrism

WALT, STEPHEN M.. “The Myth of American Exceptionalism – By Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy.” Foreign Policy – the global magazine of economics, politics, and ideas. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/11/the_myth_of_american_exceptionalism?page=full>

The coolest concept I chose is ethnocentrism. I found this to be the coolest concept because we see it everyday in our society, each culture thinks they are the best and superior to others. For example Americans think they are better than Canadians, and perceive Canada to be the “north pole”, when in fact it isn’t. Another typical stereotype is the fact that Canadian use the word “eh” at the end of each sentence, another misconception.

This article that I found talks about how prominent Americans have described the US as superior to other nations. They call America “the empire of liberty,” a “shining city on a hill,” and the “last best hope of Earth.” These are all ethnocentric claims that show America is the best, when in fact its not true.

The article further talks about how American values, including the American political system and its history are traits that are universally admired. Furthermore, Americans believe that the US behaves better than other nations, another myth.

This article shows how ethnocentrism is very much alive even in forms where one nation thinks its superior than the others.

Dialectic: The Phantom of the Race: The Myth of Race and the reality of Racism

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match our own ideas and experiences?
What is “race” and what is “racism”?	Race and Racism are paradoxically different things. In the scientific sense, race does not exist, but rather it is a phantom. Racism on the other hand, is a powerful reality, an invention that is absurd, illogical, irrational, and nonsensical. Race can be defined as a grouping of human population characterized by socially selected physical traits. Race is a social construct. Race is neither natural nor biological. Instead it is a concept that is created by human beings. What constitutes race is like beauty in the eye of the beholder. Race is a social, historical, and cultural construct. Racism is defined as a set of ideas and ideals that asserts or implies the superiority of one social group over another on the basis of biological or cultural characteristics, together with the institutionalized power to put these racialized beliefs into practice in a way that has the intent or effect of denying or excluding minority men and women.	The definitions of race and racism defined as per this text match somewhat with our own ideas and experiences. Racism is a term that portrays negativity because we usually believe it to be something that puts down a minority culture. This however is not the only definition of racism as the text explains. When we refer to the term race, we immediately think of the physical characteristics of a certain group, such as skin color, hair color etc. We also sometimes attach this term to the culture or religion of a particular group.

Illustration #4-Racism

The coolest concept I chose is racism. Racism is an ideology that maintains that one “race” is inherently superior to another. The recent murder of Trayvon Martin is an illustration of the negative impacts of racism. I found this concept to be the coolest because I never thought how big of a problem racism has become is society, until I read about Trayvon’s case. Clearly his murder was a hate crime.

The accused, George Zimmerman, was a neighborhood watch coordinator, who saw Trayvon with his hood on, walking down the street. He was unarmed, and was walking back home. His only crime was being black. It is sad to see how low people have steeped, and would go as low as killing an innocent child. In fact there was also a racist message that somehow got on an electronic construction board on a highway. The most disturbing fact is that Zimmerman was let off, without any charges. Therefore, this case is also a case about social justice. There are also many negative stereotypes that black men are violent, but that is not true. It is important to realize how racism is affecting people in many nations around the world, particularly in the US. In fact there have been many violent acts of racism against people of different races.

The Standford Prison Experiment-Video (Affective)

The documentary video “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” shown in class was about a 1971 psychological experiment conducted by psychologist Phillip Zimbardo who is also a professor. He wanted to investigate the impact of situational variables on human behavior. The question he asked was how participants would react when they are placed in a stimulated prison environment. A mock prison was set up in the basement of Standford University, where 24 undergraduate students had to play the role of prisoners and prison guards. The participants had agreed to participate in this experiment for a two week period, and received $15 a day for participating.

I feel that this experiment lacked a control group and a large sample size, because there were only 24 participants. Since this experiment was studying human behavior, it should have had a large sample size that would represent the population appropriately.

I think that the results of this experiment should have been compared to real prison situations, to show how much of a similarity there really is, and if rates of prison abuse are similar to what the experiment implemented.

I believe that since the prisoners were merely acting as prisoner, they had more stress and anxiety because they were innocent and hadn’t done anything wrong. A real prisoner is someone who has broken a law, and is sent to prison for punishment and he/she knows why they are there.

 I know that the results of this experiment were used in court cases to show how prison guards can act as they wish if they do not have proper guidelines from higher authorities

Paraphrastic- Who Will Liberate Liberia?

This article points out that the US offered $50 million for the heads of Saddam Hussein and his sons and accepted $4 billion a month in order to win the “war and peace” in Iraq. In our Orwellian world immorality equals morality and might is right. It is perfectly normal to waste billions of dollars on the “axis of evil” while millions of children around the world need money in order to get food and medicine. This makes sense because according to George Bush, if we want peace, then we must go to war! The cost does not matter as we have a lot of dollars to waste instead of putting them towards useful things that would help out people around the world. In fact this article points out that just a tenth of the money spent on the war against Iraq is enough to feed half of the world’s starving children. In this Orwellian world justice is blind and selective. The tunnel vision logic dictates reality and “eyes see what eyes want to see.”

5 sentence segment

In a world driven by the “Bush doctrine,” it makes sense to spend $4 billion a month to defeat international terrorism, of which Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was said to be “potentially” part, when that amount ($4 billion) would be enough to provide basic health and nutrition for half of the world’s population.

I chose this segment because it highlights the fact that all this money is being wasted just to win, when it could be used to help those in need and perhaps even save thousands of people from dying to lack of food and medicine, not to mention the millions of lives of innocent people who are being killed in this war.

Paraphrastic Reading: September 11: Forgiveness is not part of the lessons learned

The central premise of this article is that “forgiveness is not part of the lessons learned” after the September 11 attacks. This article refers to the US, mainly president George Bush and his team. In fact after the attacks, the US went into another war against Iraq just to attack Suddam Hussain. If the lesson learned was to forgive, then Bush would not have ignored the fact that thousands of Iraqi citizens are being killed. In fact as this article claims, he only cares when his own people are being killed, not when others are. Furthermore, the westerners are always telling the non westerners to forgive and forget the past, but when it comes to them, the forgive and forget concept does not apply. This article highlights the fact that the history of non Europeans is not important, especially when it involves negative things about the westerners. In his fight against Iraq, Bush claims he is seeking justice, but we all know that it is revenge that he seeks. If it were justice he was seeking he would support the call for reparation.

5 sentence segment

If forgiveness was among the lessons learned, Bush and his team would not be seeking to go into another war-against Iraq in the shadows of the anniversary of 9/11. If forgiveness was among the lessons learned, the cries and moans of thousands of innocent Afghan men, women, children from their graves would temper Bush’s war -mongering rhetoric and intentions.

I chose this segment because it covers the main points presented in the article and highlights the key issues.

Iluustration #3-Debunking

Zytaruk, Tom, and Surrey NOW. “Surrey high school basketball team at centre of dramatic RCMP takedown in Kelowna.” Vancouver Sun | Latest Breaking News | Business | Sports | Canada Daily News. N.p., 3 Feb. 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2012. <http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Surrey+high+school+basketball+team+centre+dramatic+RCMP+takedown+Kelowna/6099772/story.html>.

The coolest concept I choose is debunking. This article illustrates the concept of debunking very clearly. Debunking is looking at both the obvious and surface-level and the less obvious and deeper explanations for social behavior.  Its aim is to challenge conventional truths and see the familiar in the unfamiliar.

This article is about a boys basketball team from Tmanawis Secondary who were at a subway in Kelowna, when one of the boys was seen with what appeared to be a gun. A dozen police cars with armed officers, including police dogs and a helicopter were called in to arrest the boy. The boys had to file out of the restaurant one by one, handcuffed.

In the end police found two toy cap guns that were bought at a dollar store. People perceived these guns to be real, and the police acted accordingly. It was only after, that the police found out that they were fake. In this article, the obvious fact was there was a gun, but the less obvious and deeper explanation was as it turned out, the guns were toy guns that can do no harm.