New Years Crash Blog

Question 4: I think that stereotypes come from peoples judgment and the media. People develop stereotypes out of fear or inferiority towards a group of people so they have to put them down to make themselves feel better. Families definitely play a major role in developing stereotypes for their children. There are many external sources that contribute to the development of stereotypes.

Question 5: I dont think that being racist is in our genes. Its something that you pick up as you go along life. It would be hard to say that once a baby is born that it is a racist. I think that its environment and their parents greatly influence who they are going to be as adults.

Question 6: I dont think that race can be learned. I think it comes naturally within ones surroundings and family ties. Family plays a big role as kids observe their families and interpret what they're supposed to be like.

Question 7: I dont think it is possible to end racism because there are always those people that will carry that tradition of hatred towards another race. There are gangs out there that demonstrate very well their hatred toward another race or gang. Racism will unfortunately live on forever in people across the world because of stereotypes and other people always looking down on the minority.

what privileges does Wealth give someone in the US? Cite 3 examples, and explain them. How did something we learned from class demonstrate/prove these privileges? Do you think anything could or should be done to adjust the societal "rules" that set up these privileges? If so what?

Wealth in the US gives people a major advantage in life. The wealthy dont have to worry about where there next meal is coming from. The wealthy have more privileges than anyone else in the world. They can afford to go to the better schools, they can be able to afford expensive cars and live in big houses. They have the privilege of being the top hand in society where they have a lot of power and influence over what happens in the world.

One thing that opened my eyes to how privileged the wealthy were was the monopoly game we played in class. The wealthy person started out with much more property than anyone else. This was a huge advantage because from the start, they could build houses and hotels because they could afford to waste some money on it. They also received more money each time they passed go which helped them afford even more properties and hotels. The lower class cant live on just 36 dollars every time they pass go. The amount of money made by each class made the game very lopsided and unfair. Another advantage that the wealthy had in the game as well as real life was the ability to get out of jail without really staying there for a while. In the world today, the wealthy can make bail so much easier than the poorer people of society.

The only thing that I could think of to change the rules in society is to make the poorer people have the same advantages in life as the wealthy or make the wealthy simply less wealthy. To make an equal society, there needs to be limits on certain aspects of peoples lives to make things more fair throughout the different social classes.

Social Classes

"What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what
we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances. The characteristics that
ruin a man in one class made him eminent in another."

what is your interpretation of this quote? What does Shaw mean? Cite an example of behavior that is considered a virtue in one class and a vice in another.

I think that this quote by Shaw means that while a man is known by his character, there are different situations that can show it better than others. While people of higher class demonstrate certain behaviors, lower and middle class members showing the same act would be looked at differently or as an outcast of that social class. One simple behavior that the lower class does is that they sometimes like to get physical and use very mild physical abuse as playfulness and roughhousing; however, the upper and most of the middle class see that as nonsense and those people are outliers of their class.