When I signed up to take Soc 119, I decided to take the class because I wanted to open my mind and be more accepting to other cultures and races. Coming from the Bay Area in California, I came from a mostly Asian dominated community. Being Indian, it was very easy to be ignorant of many other cultures. My high school had a total of 3 African American students while I was in school. Thus, my favorite part about taking this class was realizing the inherent biases I have because of society towards other cultures simply because I am ignorant. For example, we always went over topics that I had thought about, but it was great seeing Sam play devil’s advocate in order to truly examine the issues at hand. The one lecture that stands out to me most from this semester is the one with the guest lecturer who asked us to consider the hypothetical situation of having to save either your mother, spouse, or child. While this is a situation that really is impractical to consider, for some reason that was when I realized that this class was truly changing the way I was seeing myself in society. Also, when we discussed how girls may be dressing for the attention of others rather than to make themselves feel good, I truly took a step back and re-evaluated my decisions and tried to examine how greatly I am influenced by societal expectations. Additionally, I found the recitations to be my favorite part of this class. I really wish they could have been longer. It was great to get the perspective of fifteen other students who were strangers and from completely different backgrounds and to develop a bond of mutual respect for each other. It was a unique experience that I will sincerely miss, but it has given me the incentive to challenge myself in my conversations even with my close friends. I feel like the thing I can take most with me from this class is a the new-found perspective that I have developed. Now, instead of using society’s judgments and biased opinions, I try and take the time to get to know someone’s background and culture because I am genuinely interested in learning about what makes another individual different than me. Everyone’s culture and religion shapes their beliefs and ideologies and thus it is important to truly develop an understanding of these cultures in order to get to know the people around us. I am really glad I took this class because it not only supplemented my academics, but my philosophies and ideologies. I would especially like to thank my T.A.s for recitation as well for being so open-minded and challenging us to think and question our beliefs.

Everytime I go shopping, my goal is to find new clothes that will compliment me and make me feel and look attractive. I understand that part of “feeling and looking attractive” is to be attractive to the opposite sex. However, my primary concern is making myself feel happy and comfortable in what I am wearing. Thus, I dress in order to look nice for myself and be comfortable at the same time. Of course for nice occasions, I will put in the extra effort and dress based upon the situation. This also extends to cosmetics for me. I have several girl friends who devote at least thirty minutes to an hour every day to put on make-up. I feel like this is more to impress guys. I do not see anything wrong with that, however I have always been brought up to admire natural beauty. Anyone can look nice with makeup and in our society, any girl can attract numerous guys by wearing the right type of clothing. However, I do not see the point in sacrificing comfort in order to dress for men, as many women are expected and pressured into doing in our American society. I do agree with the girl in the video that it is always more important to get to know the personality of an individual in order to be truly attracted to them. At the same time, the first impression, in which physical appearance dominates, is sort of like the foot in the door. It is what gets someone intrigued into starting a conversation with someone, and then once two people spend more and more time together, the personality is what nurtures the relationship and cultivates it. Thus, it is important to look nice and put in an effort, but again not to the point of sacrificing comfort to fit a male’s desired stereotype. Another point that comes to mind is that usually when I buy new clothes, it is my girl friends who notice and compliment my new attire over my male friends, and I love that. This is because I know that I have accomplished my goal of looking nice, not just attractive enough for a male to hit on me. This is why I respect women who wear a hijab, if they are wearing it for the reason of simplicity. It is very important to me as a woman that a man be attracted to my personality. However, at the same time it makes me feel beautiful when a man can also acknowledge that he finds me physically attractive. Therefore, in an actual relationship, I would want someone to primarily be with me because of my personality, with my physical attractiveness an added bonus. This almost seems completely opposite to the mentality many college kids have today, and that is why it is great to see the example of the hijab exemplify my views so well.

The cliché quote is “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before judging them.” We have come to define empathy as putting ourselves in someone else’s position before making a judgment in order to try and fully understand the situation. This is the essence behind our discussion of empathizing with Arab Muslims, as Americans living in the United States. However, in general, empathy will always have some inherent flaws. For example, I learned a lot that I did not know about the situation several Arab Muslims are in today. I felt sympathy and truly felt empathy to the extent I can when we watched all the videos about their lives. The catch is I only was putting myself in the Arab Muslim’s shoes for that 1 hour and 15 minute lecture. While I was putting myself in their shoes, I was sitting comfortably in 100 Thomas. For that one lecture period, because I was supposedly feeling empathy, I tried to assess the situation from their eyes, even though I never will fully be able to understand the circumstances. This is the inherent problem. Even though I was truly moved by the lecture, between the lecture and today when I needed to do my soc blog post, I did not really spend too much time actively thinking about what was discussed in class. I still learned a lot in class and was extremely enlightened, but unlike the Arab Muslims, I do not have to live the circumstances they are in. Most importantly, the point of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is to put aside your biases and predispositions towards people and give them a clean slate or free chance to make an impression on you. However, this is impossible because the way we think and act all depends on our belief system. These are belief systems that we have continuously cultivated throughout our lives, which will impact us regardless of how hard one tries not to let biased opinions get in the way. This is why I feel like even though we have actually tried to understand the Arab Muslim situation, we have not fully understood it and cannot fully understand it until we immerse ourselves in their situation. This reminds me of the first unit of our class when we watched the video about the four boys who went to visit Haiti and lived the dollar lifestyle. That to me is the real meaning of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Thought alone cannot count as much as actions. Again, as cliché as it sounds, actions speak much louder than words. We can all say that we have a better understanding, and it is a good thing that we do, but at the same time, there is so much of the journey left for us to travel ahead that we cannot become complacent in just “putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes” for a few minutes.

I feel like there are many opinions about this topic. Immigration is a very controversial subject for people in America. However, I feel like people are almost blinded by their views that makes them very close-minded. For example, one of the biggest arguments people have against immigration is that the immigrants are stealing our jobs when a significant portion of our population is unemployed. However, this is not actually as big of a problem as it is made out to be. Like Sam Richards said in class, most of these unemployed American citizens are not willing to do the same jobs these immigrants are willing to do for the prices they are paid. These immigrants are willing to take the farming jobs for less than 10 dollars an hour. So until the people against immigration saying that immigrants are stealing their jobs are willing to take such jobs, they cannot legitimately complain. Additionally, I think immigrants are a good thing for our nation. America is known as the melting pot simply because we are all immigrants. Every race and nation is ideally welcome in our country and should be, because it adds to the culture and diversity of our society. In my opinion, no one group has a right over the other to say the land of our country is theirs. In fact, it has always baffled my mind as to how immigrants who apply for citizenship end up knowing more about our country than citizens who are granted citizenship through birth rights. For example, my grandma, an immigrant to this country, applied for citizenship and had to study American history and take a test on it. I was in elementary school, learning somewhat parallel information. However, to this day, I probably know more about American history because of what I learned alongside my grandma than what I learned from school. So what really is patriotism for most of our nation’s citizens? I feel like a solution to immigration and to this problem can be giving children of immigrants green cards when they graduate high school if they have attended school. That way, they are given the chance to be working members of society and build a life for themselves. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity and equality. Therefore every person who wishes to have a chance at living out their dream in this country, should be able to. Meanwhile, while I support immigration for the above reasons, I do think that there should be a cap on immigration. While everyone should be welcome to our country, we cannot have the borders open to everyone. People have to be willing to work and somehow contribute to society in my opinion.

When Sam brought up the point about abortion and rape in class, I was actually surprised at how I had never considered that perspective before. I have always had the opinion that the right to choose whether or not to abort a child remains with the mother. The controversy around abortion stems from the determination of when an individual’s life begins and at what point the fetus is determined an individual with the right to live. Especially with the presidential election coming up, the topic of abortion is one that is heavily debated. Most liberals believe that the life of an individual begins the moment they are born, promoting the “pro-choice” argument, and arguing that it is the choice of the mother to determine whether or not she would like to abort her pregnancy. On the other hand, most conservatives believe that the life of an individual begins when they are conceived, as a fetus, thus supporting the “pro-life” argument. I pride myself as being politically independent, and review each issue to examine both sides before determining which side of the controversial topic I support. I have examined the topic of abortion, and have come to realize that I strongly support the “pro-choice” side of this issue. Primarily, a child is conceived due to the parent’s actions. When a child is born, it is necessarily dependent on an adult figure to nurture him and ensure that he will live a healthy life. The mother definitely has the right to not choose to carry her rapist’s child. It would be an impossible life to lead knowing that the child is a constant reminder of an atrocity that she had no control over. Yes, some may argue that these children may also be put up for adoption, but there is always the chance that the adoptive family will not treat the child with the same potential care and love that an ideal mother, ready to bring a child into the world, would. This would pretty much be a lose-lose situation. Therefore, while many “pro-life” advocates would argue that “any type of life is better than no life,” I strongly disagree. If a child cannot live a healthy life that allows him to be as successful and happy as possible, then the choice of abortion still remains with the mother. It is better for a mother to choose to abort a fetus than to be an unfit mother, destroying her child’s potential. This is what I thought before the class. Now with Sam’s added viewpoint that we should try empathy, gives me another layer to think that if someone like my mother, my sister, or even myself were to be raped, I would absolutely want the option of choosing to abort my child.

I would not really be affected by this guy’s appearance one way or the other. Before taking Soc 119, I do admit that it would be second nature for me to use racial identifications while narrating a story. For example, if I randomly met this African American guy and were to relate a story about my encounter with him, for no reason at all, I would tell my friends “I met this black guy who…”. There is absolutely no reason to tell my friends what his race is, especially when it has nothing to do with the story, but that is the way I have been programmed by my interactions with society. After taking Soc 119, I became more aware that I am guilty of racial identification and racial stereotyping for no reason. I am more cautious in the way I assess situations regarding other people. Now when I would see this African American guy, I would be more interested in finding out more about what it means to him to African American, especially since through society I already characterize him as black. If I am going to identify him by his race, I might as well get to know how that affects him. There is no difference between me being Indian and him being black besides the physical trait of the colors of our skin. However, as we learn from Sam, there is a history that comes with race, and it is important to most people to know and be aware of their culture. I feel like before I took this class, I took advantage of the ignorance I lived in. Sure, I knew how to make an educated guess as to what ethnicity someone was by looking at their physical characteristics, but I did not take the time to go under the color of their skin to see what it is that makes them who they are. We are all individuals that are defined by the choices we make. There is no way to figure out someone’s life story just by looking at them, and it is crucial to acknowledge and respect that. Moreover, everyone has a story that they want to tell, and as human beings who are naturally inclined to civilize and find social interactions, it is important to create real relationships based on the thoughts and actions of individuals rather than just what they look like. This is why when I see this video blog and I see an African American, I would think nothing more of it than him being another classmate or peer. I would want to get to know him based on the fact that he smiles at the end and looks like he has an interesting personality.

The video was very intriguing but for some reason it did not surprise me-- I completely expected the events in the video. I feel like people have these racial stereotypes formulated in their minds. I have taken many psychology and sociology classes and this somewhat fits into what I’ve learned in those classes. It has been studied that people create social constructs and schemas, and once new information is processed, it merely fits into a present schema or if the information is substantially different, a new schema is created. This is what I thought about when I watched the video. When the general public at the park saw the white guy trying to steal a bike, because they do not usually associate white guys with sketchy and shady activities, most people thought nothing of it. At the same time, when a black man wearing the same exact outfit performed the same sketchy and shady actions, the majority of people thought more about him being a guilty thief. It attracted a huge crowd and created an enormous ruckus. More people questioned what he was doing and immediately called the cops. This is because it fit the stereotype that a black man is more likely to steal a bike than a white man. Both guys had the same lines, but people just paid more attention and felt it was more necessary to correct the black man’s actions rather than the white mans. It was actually hilarious to me and a bit ridiculous when the white girl tried to steal the bike. Not only did people not care, some people offered to help her steal the bike even when she said it was not her bike. She was a pretty attractive woman, making her seem like the damsel in distress. It was also interesting to note that it was a male that helped her. When we heard people’s reactions with the interview, when it was the white guy and no one stopped him, people mostly just said they thought nothing of the situation. Only about two people stopped over a very long period to actually question the guy. When people were interviewed after the interaction with the black guy, they claimed they would have stopped the person regardless of the color of their skin. We obviously cannot prove the validity of this claim, but based on the reactions by the majority of people it is highly unlikely that this would be true. I do not think people mean to be racist, but at the same time these ideas and stereotypes have been ingrained in our minds by society and I feel like they have been amplified by the media. In most of the funny movies we see, or even in the news, it always seem to have more emphasis when the stories fit our stereotypical ideas. A story is more likely to catch attention when it is a black male stealing rather than a white male stealing something. We tend to want to interpret everything we see so that it fits our already constructed ideas.

The biggest decision I have made to this date is probably in regards to how I want to plan out my academic life and career. I was originally at Penn State in an accelerated pre-medical medical program in which I would attend Penn State for two years, and immediately matriculate on to medical school at Jefferson Medical College. Applying to this program directly out of high school was a huge decision, in that I was committing to medical school at age sixteen. Our program requires us to score a certain score on a test in order to matriculate through the program. When I took the exam, I missed the score I needed by basically one question. To me, this was a huge deal as it seemed like on a test that was scored on a national curve, the difference for me being able to go to medical school as planned or not was all determined by social context rather than my free will. The difference of how I answered one question or how thousands of other students answered that one question was changing everything, and to me it didn’t really seem like it had much to do with free will. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that yes, while some things were not in my control, I could do my best to follow my free will and hope for the best. I realized it was such a big deal to me that I had to put off going to medical school for awhile, but it was mostly because my peers in the program were going on while I was not. These were the same peers that I took all my classes with, ones that I had taken tests with over and over again, scoring the same, if not better on them. I knew I was academically capable of going on to medical school, yet because of one moment in my life, it was making the difference for the path I would choose for the rest of my life. How was that free will? I realized that we focus too much on the semantics of things in our lives. It’s definitely hard to see things this way, but the point was not really about how I got to becoming a doctor, it was about following my ambitions so that one day I actually could become a doctor. I needed to control the things I had in free will and stop letting social context get to me so that it was affecting not only my decisions, but my state of mind. Whenever I make personal decisions, I ‘ve realized that as hard as it is, it is important to let go of the things you can’t control and keep your free will when you can.

There could be multiple reasons why someone would remain silent or try to mask the fact that they are rich. Then again, it could be the definition of the term that they are considering. For example, many rich people like to define themselves as “well off.” I know from personal experience, both of my parents are pharmacists so I would definitely classify myself as well-off. Being Indian, extended family is a big deal for my family culturally. Therefore, even if my family is doing well, we share the wealth amongst our extended family to make sure all of our loved ones are happy. Usually when you think of the term “rich people” it brings to mind the image of someone accumulating wealth and having a surplus and more of a care-free attitude on how it is spent because there is a lot more where it came from. For my family, even though we could afford a luxurious life, we choose to live a comfortable one. Therefore, I feel like many people in class could identify with me on this topic. Also, in general, in class we talked about the difference between our lives and those of other people who actually go to bed starving at night. Having money in our pockets as loose change may not classify us as rich, but at the same time it tends to bring a sort of guilty feeling on the standards of life we live by while there are others out there for whom that loose change could do a world of difference. This guilt can most probably keep someone from raising their hand to acknowledge that they are rich. Also, for most of our generation, I feel like we are the second generation. At least amongst my friends, our parents were the immigrants with the classic “I came to America with twenty dollars in my pocket” story. They worked hard and dealt with the hardships of saving and paying off incredible debts, so that we could have a better future. Now, we are “well off” and have enjoyed the comforts of life that they had always wanted and thus made sure that we, as their kids, could have. Personally, I am so grateful for my parents and their work ethic which is also why I feel a responsibility and I am frugal in the way that I spend the money they give me. They have always financially supported me and never forced me to get a job to start working and earning money. Therefore, as it’s not my money, I can consider myself rich or well-off. I am living comfortably until I can make money and pay them back for everything they have done for me. It’s a very gray area to try and define the term rich, identify yourself as rich, and acknowledge to a public audience that you are rich, in my opinion.

Society has constructed the ideal stereotypical image of beauty. It is extremely easy for the majority of people in society to determine and agree upon what they classify as beautiful—thin versus thick, tall versus short, tan versus pale, etc. One of the images that go along with this for women is hair other than that on a girl’s head. I know several girls that go to tremendous efforts to get rid of hair. And usually, this is done in an effort to be attractive to society. For example, in winter time, it is very common for girls to go weeks with shaving their legs just because no one will see them. Ask a girl why she shaves her legs, for example, and the most common answer may be “because my legs feel really smooth when I shave them.” While this is true, it seems to me that it is merely a cover-up answer for people not willing to admit the extent we will go to conform to society’s norms. In order to have smooth legs every day, a girl has to spend at least a few extra minutes in the shower to shave her legs. Some people will choose to wax or get laser hair removal—a more expensive yet more convenient option. Why are people willing to spend so much money on such a useless tradition, one with no practical purpose whatsoever? It is because everyone wants to be accepted by society and society made the arbitrary distinction that a hairless body is more attractive for a girl. When I shave, I do somewhat feel cleaner, but at the same time, I shouldn’t. Hair is not dirty, it is just society dictating that it is. I truly respect and admire the Sikh girl we saw in class as an example. She does not care about society and its norms because her religious convictions take priority. She has a purpose not to follow arbitrary guidelines set by society. At the same time, her choice did illicit several negative responses from the general public of society who decided to judge her and call her an “it” just because she made the personal choice to stick to what she believes in. I wish the world were a better place, one that was less judgmental and more accepting. The reality comes down to the fact that society will set a tacit book of guidelines and the masses will follow. I am a girl, and will continue to shave just because I have grown to identify myself as looking prettier without hair, and because I want to continue having pleasant social interactions with people around me. I do think people would judge me if I stopped shaving, and while I don’t like that, I feel like society has ingrained its tacit rules into me to the point that I don’t feel like I would be happy if I stopped shaving as well.