Blog 7

Inequality in Education
This week in class we talked about inequality in institutions, with a touch on educational inequality.  the first thing I thought of was this clip.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/05/28/tsr-intv-9-year-old-takes-on-chicago-mayor.cnn.html
The kid basically says it all.  The mayor wants to close numerous schools because they are not producing the scores that other schools are.  I see a whole other solution for this problem.  Like Asean says in the clip, we need to invest in our schools.  However when it comes to schools filled with racial and ethnic minorities people seem to give up and say forget it when performance is sub-par.  The test scores are low and graduation numbers are low because there are no resources.  There are no supplies, no good teachers, and no motivation to learn.  If a child is given a new book, new school supplies, a classroom, and a excited, qualified teacher, that student will learn and be eager to do so.  However, these schools like Asean's are filled with minorities, and that limits the funding the school receives.  America is going to have to start funding equally, if not more so,  the schools in which the student body is predominantly minorities, because in fifty years, whites may be the minority.  There needs to be racial and ethnic equality in the education system.  Eventually it would become too big of a problem and few schools would be receiving funding, and our nations educational system would be in the bottom ranks on the worldly scale.

Blog 6

Romanticism of the job
This last week we watched the video about minimum wage and the janitorial employees at several prestigious universities.  I thought the video was great.  It gave insight into the jobs that people "get stuck in".  I thought it was interesting how people think that they are stuck in these positions as janitors when really they are doing something that they love.  Sure no one or very few grow up with aspirations of becoming a janitor but once they become one they love it.  Several of my friends I went to high school with now run their family farms.  Sure its not a glorious job, but its what they love.  It doesn't pay great and comes with no vacations, yet they love it.  One of my good friends graduated with a degree in accounting from UW-Whitewater and he is working at a produce farm.  He loves it.  He could be making  close to six figures a year at some big company but he chooses to do something he loves.  I do think that the video we watched did romanticize the job a little bit, but i do believe they and many more people that are "stuck" at a job may indeed actually enjoy them.

 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38168029/ns/business-careers/t/lowest-paying-jobs-america/#.Uy-vQ_ldUuc

These jobs may be low paying, but many people find them very rewarding.

Blog 5

So this week in class we talked about racism.  I don't advocate racism, approve of it or agree with it in any way, however if people want to be treated equally then they need to accept the pros and cons.  What I mean by this is I had a buddy in high school and he was a good guy and very good friend of mine, he was also a mexican who liked to get into trouble. Whenever he got caught he liked to pull out his go to move that went something like "Why am I in trouble, is it because I am a mexican?"  He did intend it to be a joke but it did help keep him from being punished more than once.  If people want to be treated equally then they need to trust that they will be and not blame racism for something that they truly screwed up on so they aren't punished like my buddy.

Blog 4

I am lucky in that I have never been oppressed or had to deal with it in any manner.  I can however think of several times that I have been privileged.  Not necessarily privileged because of my personal class or status but because of who I was with, rather who I was working for at the time.  My boss at the time was a very wealthy farmer.  Not the kind of farmer that you think of normally.  He only dealt with cash crops and made a great living doing so. Anyways, he was pretty well off and a lot of people know it.  He was a friendly guy and never really showed off his money.  One instance I can remember specifically was when he took me out to the local bar and we had lunch.  When we were done he asked what we owed the bar owner said nothing it was on the house. He had gotten his lunch for free even though he could have bought lunch for everyone in the place.  Another time I had to take my bosses truck to go get a part for something and I went to Weaver and got the part and I went to the checkout and the cashier said don't worry about it.  It wasn't a very expensive part but still.
 My boss was very well respected in the area and was very privileged.  He had money but seemed to get a lot of things for free.  I have been in that bar many times for lunch or on the weekends and I too personally know the bartender as he is my good buddies dad.  Even that has never gotten me free lunch or even a drink.  I have also been in the Weaver store and have never seen him pick up someone else's tab.  I don't think either of the incidents would have happened if i had not been with my boss.  Not really a big deal, but maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch.        

Blog 3

So this week in class we talked about religion and religiosity.  These words can be confusing and ambiguous when it comes to putting a set definition to them.  If twenty people are asked to explain the meanings you will have twenty different answers. You can see this when you examine different religions.  Being from a small and very religious community I have seen religious discrimination, i guess is the best way to describe it?  Many of the people in my town are super religious and set in their ways.  Attending church Sunday mornings and Sunday nights along with Wednesday nights which is all good and well, except these people also have questioned friendships and stopped talking to others because other people they know do not attend church as often as they do, or have conflicting views on the hot topics such as gay marriage, but still claim to be religious. Everyone has a different take on religion and what it means to be religious whether you pray once a day or ten times it doesn't matter.  Religion is an uncomfortable subject for many including myself because I don't know a ton about it and how others view it or the controversial topics.  It can be very easy to step on toes when the topic is brought up so I personally tend to avoid talking about it with others.
 

Sum Blog 1

This week in class we examined social stratification.  We broke it down into several parts including race, class, and ethnicity. Race being the way someone is categorized in this stratification by biological traits, or physical characteristics.  Class is stratification system based on achievement. Some people are born into it others work hard to earn their class and status.  The final being the way we allocate people in this system of stratification based on their ancestry or culture.  I think that social Stratification is a very essential part of society.  We can see stratification present everywhere there are people as well as animals.  Although social stratification is necessary there are downfalls, such as someone being deemed low class and poor just because they were born into a not as well off family as others.  It can be very hard of sometimes impossible to move out of a class once there.  Then there are the total opposites of that.  People that are born into a high class family and can abuse their status using it to treat others like they don't matter and also not move out of their high ranking class, that is where social stratification becomes a problem.

  http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/bieber-face-charges-alleged-fight-neighbor-article-1.1338250
Justin Bieber is a good representation of this. He can kind of be a turd sometimes and never really seems to be in trouble because of his high class.