Week 12 ~ The Family and Intimate Relationships

Personally, I consider my immediate family to consist of my sister, mother, father and step-mother. I consider my extended family to not only include cousins, aunts/uncles, and grandparents, but also close family friends who my sister and I grew up with. I consider these people family because the relationships that I have with them are based on long established friendships and family ties. These are people who I will continue to love and depend on, no matter what happens. All of my immediate family, as well as most of my extended family share, if not the same, then very similar moral and ethical beliefs and values that I do.

It is clear that the family unit has a definite impact on the greater society. The roles of the family that we discussed in class such as socialization of the next generation are a clear example of how this impact occurs. However, I do not believe that families are either inherently detrimental or beneficial. Instead, I agree more with the conflict theorists in that there are aspects of the family that can negatively effect society, as well as those that can have a positive effect. Furthermore, I would argue that because individual family units are so incredibly different, that it would be impossible to make a significant change in the impact of families on society by making a change in the family unit.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBdkq02CZ58

Week 11 ~ Stratification by Gender and Age

I chose to make a derogatory comment regarding a person's sexual orientation. I chose this because it is something I never do, and I was curious to know what the reactions would be like. I made the comment around two good friends, in the middle of the conversation regarding a mutual acquaintance. I anticipated shock, anger and indignation from my friends. I was correct in expecting surprise and shock, but they were not angry or indignant, which surprised me a lot. Instead they were very puzzled, and seemed to eventually come to the decision that it was both confusing and hilarious that I would say something like that. Apparently, it did not occur to them that I was serious. I think that their reactions speak less to greater social norms, and instead demonstrate the norms of the smaller social group that the three of us are members of. I found it particularly interesting that it never occurred to them to consider that I would say something like that and mean it, and instead they found it so abnormal a comment to hear from me that they found the whole situation to be humorous.

Week 10 ~ Racial and Ethnic Inequality

I have been working as a server at a restaurant in the area, and many of my coworkers are of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. About four months ago, my coworker Maria had a table that told the manager they didn't want to be served by 'an illegal' and that they wanted 'a nice white person' to serve them, instead of Maria, who is Latina. I was unlucky enough to be the 'nice white person' who was assigned the table. It was very hard for me to be polite to the table throughout the meal, but I knew that refusing to serve them or being mean to them would not really change anything. So, I served them with a fake smile and could not have been happier to see them leave. In retrospect, I'm glad that I didn't treat them with disgust, because nothing productive would have come of it. However, I do wish that I had refused to serve them. I hated every minute that I had to smile at these people who could not look past my friend's race and ethnicity and I would not do it again if given the chance.