For our last class today we discussed how we play many different roles in society. The concept of society being as a sort of stage and the people within it being the actors was quite fascinating to me. It reminded me of how I play many roles in society, as a student, a son, an employee. In each enviroment or stage Im at I play a different role and act differently. It really makes you think of who you really are; a person made up with a number of different roles or characters.
In class today we had our final presentations as well as our last class before exams. We discussed both the roles we play in society and abusive relationships. It is quite curious of all the roles we play in society. We are forced to play different roles in different enviroments, as if we are in some kind of play. As for the abusive relationship, some of the numbers the presenters presented was quite amazing. It really makes you think of all the abuse out there that just isn’t all that well known.
In class we discussed the idea of the “One Drop Rule” which states that the smallest bit of non-white blood someone has essentially makes them not white. The terms Quadroom and Octoroon means that someone is either 1/4 or 1/8 black. I found this interesting because even if someone is only 1/4 or 1/8 black they can still be considered black and not white. In the case of Obama, everyone sees him as the “black president” however, he is just as much white as he is black. His mother is white while his father is black. Since he has black skin however, he is view as only black and not white. In some places in the world being 1/4 black makes you black, while others it’s 1/8. So technically in some places in the world you can be black and others you aren’t.
Last class had groups 6 and 7 present in front of the class. Both did chapters from Tridico – chapters 6 and 7. In class we discussed some key points in their presentations such as how to fix the homeless issue around the world and within out own city. Interesting points were brought up such as that we need to focus more on the homeless issue and to bring awareness to it in order to try and get rid of it.
The few weeks ago in class we discussed the topic of ethnocentrism. The basic idea behind this is that we view things other cultures do, and interpret them based on our own culture. This gives and sense of personal pride, while at the same time it could form tunnel vision barriers. An example of this in today society, although not so extreme, is in the case of sports teams. Everyone who is into a sport has favorable professional sports teams, usually based on the geography of where you live. In Vancouver, in the port of hockey we have the Canucks. Although there are many teams competing in the NHL, we usually favor just one or two and hold them with higher standards against other teams. In the case of the riots in Vancouver after the loss of game 7, it shows how ethnocentrism has an impact on peoples behaviors. Since we favored our team so much more, when we lost we had a case of a riot caused by some unjust citizens. However had we won we would have erupted into a great celebration.
A number of days ago in class we discussed whether race is social or biological. In this discussion we looked at the topic of “white flight”. Essentially the concept illustrates that as minorities come in, white people go out. Examples of this are all around us in Vancouver, to the states and virtually all parts of the world. In particular I related this to Richmond in Vancouver Canada. Richmond is know for its particularly high density of Asian population as compared to whites. Whether this is just coincidence or just a strong Asian community has always been established there, it could possibly be viewed as white flight, as the Asian population grew, the white population moved out.
The other day my partner and I presented in class our group project on Frank Tridico Chapter 5. The presentation went really well as we had our power point ready and we both knew the points we were to discuss. The presentation went over how the automobile influenced cultures around the world and later went into how Human Rights, particularly movement rights, makes a huge impact on societies all around the world.
