Crash

This week in class we saw the renowned movie, Crash.
This was my second time watching this movie, but I was able to learn a lot.
When I first watched this movie with my family, I wasn't focusing on race (and of course I didn't take sociology yet). All I realized was mistreatment and the thrill of the characters' intertwined lives.

While watching this movie for the second time, I was really able to focus on race. The stereotypes jumped out at me more. Also, since I knew what was going to happen, I was able to detect more clues.

I loved this movie because everyone's racial experiences seems so extreme, but it does happen. and sometimes it's even worse. Today we watched an Opera show with the cast sharing their own experiences. Their lives have all been touched because of racism at one point. They stressed that race is a problem we must divide and conquer. That it'll take a while to really eliminate it (if it ever can be eliminated),  but it must start with our own mindful actions.

In class we discussed if the ending was appropriate or not. I thought it was very appropriate. The fact that racism is a continuing cycle. That although we realize our mistakes, we may repeat it. Or sometimes it doesn't end up happy;it can result in a death or a murder. I loved how they had a physical crash at the very end of the movie. But they went a step further by showing that people who have been a victim of racism, still become racist. even though they know how it feels to be discriminated or stereotyped. I think that point is very much real. That when someone is getting stereotyped they are hurt and aghast. But, they don't notice it (or don't care) when they do the same to others.

This had me thinking of how mindful I must be. That I shouldn't perpetuate certain stereotypes (even if it's against my own race).

Actually, I have my own "crash"-like moment. Although it's not as severe, it proves how implicit racism is very present. Last year, I went in for grammar help to my english teacher. Now, english has always been my favorite subject and I know I'm good at it. Math has always been my weakest. I was in sophomore accelerated which proved my skill. However, despite me being in a higher level class, my teacher asked me "So when did you come here?" I was born here.
Implicit Racism. It hurt a lot.

It starts with ourselves. We can't expect to change racism when we ourselves aren't mindful and are spreading racism. Be mindful and extra careful.

Racism

This week in class we learned about race.
Race is not biological, but indeed a creation by society to label people.
People's race can be forever changing based on how they act.

But despite how race is not biological, many people believe it is. They think that race cannot change and if you're Asian, you're Asian. African then African.

I think Dave Chappelle portrays this ridiculous concept of race perfectly in a "racial draft". In this episode, he took several races "drafting" people to their race. Tiger Woods now "100% black" and many more. Race isn't a defined line. It's very flexible because the concept of "biological race" doesn't exist. It's all a perception.

We also saw how our society creates stereotypes for races. That asian are smart and slow while African Americans are loud. However although people may think that they aren't a racist, that shows that they arent an explicit racist. There's also an implicit racism. It's a type of racism we're not aware of. Its instilled in our brain that it's acceptable now.

This instilled racism is much more common than an explicit racism. But, if everyone begins to watch what they say, it's possible that in time this racism will not be around. It seems impossible, but we have gotten so far from the 1800s when people thought that African Americans aren't even human. If we all work together to try, we can do it.

Minimum

This week in class we continued learning about social class and the difficulty of moving into different classes.
And the difficulty did not lie just in the wealth, but also in the social culture.

But this week in class we focused on how unequal our wealth is in this world,
and people who are in low classes, stay in lower class; it's very hard to move up.

We played an unique type of monopoly to better understand this concept.
We had a high class, a upper middle, a lower middle and a low class.
The high class student started out with great wealth, and received more many when passing go.
The low class started out with very vey little and received minimum amount while passing go.
In the end of the game, no one changed classes. Te poor stayed poor while the rich became richer.
We realized how our system makes it almost impossible for a lower class to move up the ladder.

To study this idea even further, we watched an episode of "30 days" where we observed
a man living on minimum wage. We saw that he and his fiance were working multiple jobs just to pay their rent and eat rice and beans every day. They were only able to get furnitue and clothes thanks to the charities around that area.

The people around them were working in the same conditions as them, but many had much more families to support. Watching the couple struggle, but realizing much more families have it harder, made me angry and humble.

Our system obviously doesn't work. Minimum wage isn't helping the poor support themselves. It's not enough. And especially if an emegency occurs and they have to go to the hospital, they can't pay the fees. They don't have money for insurance. They are completly out of luck.

The social class system kind of crushes my hope. Although I am in the middle class, it'll be almost impossible to move up that ladder. It also made me angry that the rich are inherently rich. That although I may work my butt off the rich have an advantage--and that doesn't seem like an equal opportunity. But then again, the poor are at a greater disadvantage than I.

Society is complicated and there's no simple solution to our wealth distribution or social class.