Sociology is Life

As I go through everyday life, I now realize how sociology is really tied to my life. Anywhere from my social class, to my family and relationships, I relate sociology to everything I do.

As C.W. Mills once said, "We're blaming society, yet we are society. So to make it a better place, we must change ourselves first."

After my sociology class, I am now taking the things I learned and putting them towards society to make myself a better member.

College in Reality

As college and picking out the perfect school comes around, I am learning so many new things. When I was younger, I had thought that you could go to school anywhere in the country and there were no set backs keeping you from this. As I am coming to realize, your educational future solely depends on your social class.

 Freshman year it had finally come to me that someone who is relying on welfare and is an average student, will not have the opportunity to go to a big name university because of the cost. It is unfair because not everyone has the same opportunities. Yet, on the other hand, someone who was born into a upper class family, will have all the opportunities to go to any college of their choice just because, well, they can definitely afford it.

Education should not be based on how much money you have, but how successful and determined you are going to be in the future. Just because I am in the middle class in society, I do not have as many opportunities to receive the best education after my final high school days are over.

 Do do feel as if your post high school education is solely based on money?  

Positive Acts of Deviance

As many people think, deviance is a negative term. Yet in some cases, there is actually the concept of positive deviance. The concept of positive deviance is an approach to behavioral and social change based on the observation in communities where peoples unsuccessful behaviors enable them to find better solutions. When people get mugged, they usually get something taken from them and run. But in Julio's case. he reacted positively instead of negatively. As Julio says, "I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world." You treat people the way you want to be treated and in the end it leaves a positive remark.

 I work at a small ice cream parlor called White Cottage. All the time do I see costumers voluntarily paying for other customer's food. After the multiple times I have seen it happen, I realized it was my turn. As my coworker got to work, she was complaining about how hungry she was. My coworker goes to school full time and plays softball in the college level as well. I decided since she works so hard, I can do her a small favor. I bought her a cheeseburger and an order of French fries. My positive deviance was a random act of kindness, and I did it without being forced too. 

After I had done this gesture for my coworker, I did not think much of it. My manager including my coworker said how nice that was of me. I had realized one small gesture can make someone's whole day. Also after doing this act of kindness, it made me feel like a positive person in society. It makes me feel great knowing I have the ability to make someone really happy. This experience has showed me that our society and culture is not kind at all. If just once a day someone would partake in a small act of kindness, people in this society would be much happier. Also, these acts of kindness would not be as surprising if people did them on a daily basis.  

Are We All Criminals?

When we were in elementary school, we referred to the criminals as "bad guys". As I was watching the nightly local news a week ago, I saw a familiar face. From that moment on I had realized we are deviants, even the not so innocent people I used to go to school with. My former book buddy in the first grade, is now a convict in the local prison. The high crime rate in society has influenced my peers to become deviants. My former friend and now convict, had no self control and felt the need to obstruct a police officer. The lack of self control in our society is the start of the deviant acts being tolerated and performed in society today.

Outside The Classroom

As I was reading through the daily stories on my "News" app, I happened to come across an interesting story that has touched the headlines. As many people know, teachers will go to many extremes for students to learn the material throughly and effectively.

In Michigan, a professor is using desocialization and is assigning his sociology students to stay in the St. Louis Correctional Facility every Tuesday night to learn racism, social change, and even psychology. The professor believes this is first hand experience to teach the students how difficult desocialization can be. This project is to insure that we are keeping up with the education system in prisons. As with the students, they are having a new setting to learn desocialization and prison. I feel as if this is a great way to introduce a new learning environment besides just the average classroom setting. If almost every major or class could have an experience like this, the students would be more motivated and want to learn the material.

The Real Mexico

When many families go on vacation, they visit for the all inclusive offers and the time to relax. During the summer of 2010 when my family and I visited Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, we wanted to adventure out and take in more than just the beautiful beaches. 

On a sunny day in the big city, we took a taxi to experience the real side of Puerto Vallarta (besides just where the tourorists go).  While walking down the streets, we were forced to socialize with the native Latinos and Mexicans to get around the streets. Since my family was from a different country, we learned many skills to socialize with the natives. 

Later on in the afternoon as my family and I sat down at an authentic outdoor Mexican restaurant, we could hear the sirens of the police patrolling the dangerous streets. As it was time to order, it was hard to socialize between the different cultures. The waitress was speaking fluent Spanish and we tried to order our food with as little English as possible. Before taking my trip to Mexico, I did not realize how different all the cultures around us socialize differently. Our hello is very much different than a native Mexican's hello. As I was learning the different Mexican culture from sitting at the small restaurant, I enjoyed authentic street tacos. Here is a great street taco recipe for you to try and have a chance to sample the real Mexican culture! 

Cooking Mexican Recipes

More Than Just a Secret Agent

When watching the Super Bowl 50, many people saw the performance as a positive message towards love and being yourself. In reality, it was just a way for Beyonce to promote a negative message. 

The day after the Super Bowl when I was on Youtube watching the headlining performance again, I noticed there was more of a message besides what just Coldplay was promoting. The lyrics of Beyonce's new song "Formation" is a black-power anthem, a fitting contribution to Black History Month and the movement called "Black Lives Matter." 

When Beyonce came out on stage, her and her back up dances were dressed and in position to what looked like a connection to the revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization, "The Black Panthers". For the Super Bowl being a game of American football, the negative remarks to "Black Lives Matter" was uncalled for. American families watch the Super Bowl for a great game of football, not to be insulted by a half time performance.   

Racism on the Hardwood

For the last one hundred years, racism has been affecting the every day live's of Americans tragically. Even though people do not walk around constantly having racism on their mind, it still happens all around, and some of us do not recognize it. 

Last week in my physical education class, I had noticed that racism is still an issue. In PE classes I have always looked forward to playing a fun game of basketball or volleyball. As all of my peers began to separate ourselves into teams, I had noticed I was the only "white" person playing. For the first five minutes everything was going smoothly. It was finally my turn to serve and after three serves I had missed one. Just because I had made one mistake in the game, I had been kicked off the team by my other teammates.  This situation has made me feel as if I was only being picked on for my skin color. It is very sad to me how all misunderstanding incidents are related to skin color.

Because of the color of my skin, I am not allowed to participate with my peers in a simple game of PE volleyball. Without having to think twice it is obvious that racism is still an issue today.

-Saraha
 

A Little Taste of France

As I sat with my aunt outside of a small french cafe in Paris, France, I started to realize where I actually was. When I visit a foreign country, I sometimes feel as if I am on a whole different planet. From the ways of transportation to the fashion sense, Paris is nothing like America. As my aunt and I sat down to eat, we were watching all the people go by on the narrow side walks. While observing the scurrying pedestrians, I made a comment that it is very easy to identify people's social location. Just by identifying what people wore or how they walked, it was very easy to determine if they were American, French, or even Muslim. Culture is a beautiful thing.

Before I had taken a look at the menu from the cafe, I had never heard of this escargot before. Some people may ask, what even is it? The escargot is a cooked land snail, yes, snail! Escargot is a typical starter dish served in France, Spain, and Portugal. So, for my chance to "step out of the box", I wanted to try escargot for the first time. If you want to experiment with escargot and have a little sample of the french culture, here is a simple recipe. Enjoy!

Escargot, in the Shell with Herb Butter

Ingredients:

• 1 pound escargot, in the shell
• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
•  1 shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Italian parsley, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper  

Directions:

• Rinse the escargot under warm water, pat shells dry with a paper towel, then set aside.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine the butter, shallots, garlic, parsley, and lemon juice. Mix all ingredients well with a small spoon. Lightly season butter with salt and pepper, until desired taste is achieved.
• When butter is at desired flavor, begin to scoop a small amount of herb butter in each shell of escargot. If there is extra butter left over after each shell has been filled, go back and continue the process, adding extra butter, until all the butter has been used.
• Put the stuffed shells into the fridge and allow to sit for about 20 minutes, giving the butter enough time to solidify in shells. While the shells are in the fridge, set the oven to 350 degrees F.
• When the butter is solid in the shells, remove from fridge and transfer shells into an oven-safe pan. If possible, avoid placing shells on a sheet tray, as we want the snails to cook in the butter as much as possible. Cook snails for 15 minutes, max.
• Serve snails, in shells, on top of toasted pieces of baguette, or in a fresh tomato-based sauce.

Who am I?

To many people, I am  just another ordinary girl in an ordinary society. I fall in the upper middle class, so I hold many of the same social factors as my classmates. In my opinion, if you do not "step outside of the box", you will not be heard. To be heard, I believe that traveling is a way to step from the original and sometimes boring people in my society. Every summer since the fifth grade, I have made it a goal of mine to travel far out of state, and to experience new adventures every summer. Since this promise I made to myself, I have visited Puerto Rico, Mexico, Jamaica, Washington, Arizona, Florida, London, and my favorite so far, Paris, France.

With the exciting experiences I have gathered from my travels, I have enjoyed tying them to food. Food is a way to be creative, and to express yourself in a very yummy way! Very often, I make new recipes tied to the places I have traveled too. When people try my recipes and dishes, it is a chance for them to learn about who I am, but in a unique way.

I am so grateful to have the opportunities to visit such exotic places, so my goals are too spread my experiences. I believe that many people forget about how beautiful and different our world is. Every culture comes together like the individual threads and patterns of a quilt. In a quilt, the different threads, patterns, and colors come together to hold the blanket together as one whole. Culture is just like a quilt, without all the pieces being tied together, it would not be able to stand and work together. "Sahara's Desserts" will be able to spread my experiences to food and how they are related to sociology.