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Its a status that is neither chosen nor earned but assigned. , like every other person, sought to achieve something beyond what has been assigned to us. This is the basis of an achieved status. My parents brought me home from the hospital, and from there I was exposed to their way of life, their culture. Since I was labeled as a male, the way they raised me to be different than the way they raised my sister. They knew that society, people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture, had strict rules on the way that boys and girls were to act.
In the American culture boys are suppose to like the color blue, playing sports, and eating muddy; while girls we’re suppose to like the color pink, play with dolls, and stay prim and proper. L, however do not find interest in most sports, and my sisters and I always played outside together. As grew up I observed many forms of discrimination, the unequal treatment of various categories of people. My mother was born in Mexico, while my father was born in the United States. I was born into a different race then some, a socially contracted category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of society consider important.
I’m proud of y heritage, but in the United States being Mexican-American means that I’m considered a minority, any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates. Being a tan skinned minority has work both for me and against me. There have been times where people attach me to common Mexican stereotypes, a simplified description applied to every person in some category. There have been times when I’ve had to disprove common prejudice against Hispanic people, a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people.
But nothing has hurt me more then when I moved Alabama, and I was called a wet-back. I was either 1 1 or 12, and had walked into a gas station. My father had just been stationed to Fort Rocker, and we were driving there from California. The guy at the counter took one look at me and made a comment about how Mexican people we’re taking their jobs. He then insinuated that I was stealing something and called me a “dirty wet-back”. My father jumped to my defense, and told me to go get into the car. I don’t know what he said to the man, but we never talked about the situation again.
Racism, the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another, has been attached to utter disgust since this instance. Fort Rocker was the worse duty station that my father ever got stationed too. I never thought that a mere sentence could carry such an impact. I was only in the fourth grade the first time heard the insult “you’re gay. ” The first time I heard it I didn’t even know what it meant. Never really did anything major to make myself what some would consider a target. Around the early 20005, these colored bracelets had become a new popular trend.
When you gave omen a bracelet, if they broke it they had submit to some form of act because they were a symbol for different meanings, anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture. All I did was tell a girl I didn’t want to have sex with her because broke a black bracelet she gave me. This incident would end up being one of many to follow. I remember going home and having my mother explain to me what it meant. My mother had to explain to me the concept of homosexuality, sexual attraction to the same sex.
After that she explained to me how the accepted norm, rules and expectations but which a society guides the behaviors of its members, is heterosexuality. Heterosexuality is having a sexual attraction to someone Of the opposite sex. I never did anything to make myself a target. Instead just had a higher pitched voice, and was easier to pick on because never really stood up for myself. Returned to school the next day, not really prepared for what was to come. The thing with being an adolescent is that rumors tend to travel fast through the school.
Another thing is that children tend to grouping, the tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issues. My peers made the decision amongst themselves to isolate me from everyone else. At this point I was faced with alienation, the experience of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness, I was alone. Learned that when you’re isolated my your peers, most people don’t want to be your friend. The bullying went on for several months, and for the most part I accepted it as is, and didn’t tell a soul.
I honestly don’t remember what happened to make me tell my parents, but when I did, they were furious at the school. My father called the school and I knew at that point would have my retribution, n act of moral vengeance by which society makes the offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime. Sat down with a guidance counselor and we discussed all the issues at hand and how to solve peer to peer conflict. She had the power, the ability to achieve desired ends despite resistance from others, to end the bullying.
The school called a general assembly where we formed secondary groups, a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity. The purpose of these groups were to help everyone realize that bullying hurts. I moved shortly after the meeting. But I’d like to believe that through those meetings the values of the bullies changed, culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.
As transitioned to a new city the concept, a mental construct that represents some aspects of the world in a simplified term, of war started to set in, organized, armed conflict among the people of two or more nations, directed by their government. The terrorism, acts of violence or the threat of violence used as a political strategy by an individual or group, that destroyed The World Trade Center and The Twin Towers really stuck out to my father. After 9/1 1 happened my father felt it was necessary to pursue a unit that would deploy. According to him, he viewed it as an opportunity to better himself as a leader.
We ended up at Fort Bragg. Around this time technology, knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings, was on the rise. Cellophanes became huge basically overnight, there was a demand for at home desktops, and the videos on the news became something on the level of instant. My parents would constantly tell me how this rise in technology was so strange to them. I entered middle school the fall of 2004. It was a new school so I decided that I’d attempt to be friendly and click easier with new people, a fresh slate.
But I was wrong. The same form of bullying appeared again, and for the same reasons. It was never my personality, a person’s fairly consistent patterns of acting thinking, and feeling, but rather the pitch of my voice. Nowadays I think that the perception of homosexual people and talking feminine are what lead to my belittling. As had a harder time sticking in amongst my peer group, a social group whose members have interest, social position and age n common, I spent the free time I had from lack of friends focusing on my school work.
Education, the social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values, was always something my parents encouraged us to take seriously. My parents always wanted us to attend college and make it into a family tradition, values and beliefs passed from generation to generation. Luckily with age came some relief. I finally got past being bullied when everyone started developing their secondary sex characteristics, bodily development, apart from the genitals, hat distinguishes biology calla mature females and males.
As I got older my voice got deeper and I started to talk with charisma, extraordinary personal qualities that can infuse people with emotion and turn them into followers. Everyone was suddenly my cohort, a category of people with something in common, usually their age. I basically became popular overnight. As everyone started growing up they started to look past what they saw and started to accept me for who I was. Unfortunately though, disaster struck, an event, generally unexpected, that causes extensive harm to people and damage to property. A friend Of mine committed suicide my sophomore year Of high school.
It was the most unexpected event that turned my life around. For his funeral I attended his traditional catholic church, a religious organization that is well integrated into the larger society. I was faced with culture shock, personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life, when I entered this church for the first time. I truthfully pictured myself walking in and being offended because I know how some cultures and religions treat suicide. But nothing restored my faith, belief based on conviction rather than scientific evidence, more then entering that church that day.
I honestly don’t know why, but I to this day remember walking in and feeling this huge relief of pressure off my chest. My friend was mentally ill, and its my belief, specific idea that people hold true, that he’s in a much better place. After that event I tried my best to live a better life. Regardless of only being 16 at the time, I had a new found regard for this one life we live. It made my in-group, a social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty, a lot closer. I’d like to believe we all bonded while we mourned. Ceded to start working and give myself some purpose while was in school.
I thought it would be nice to have some income, earnings from work or investments, other then what my parents provided for me. Basically worked for the rest of high school and did what most teenagers did. Wouldn’t say that through trying to maintain my GAP that I had much of an out-group, a social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition, was always in the top 20% of my graduating class, but I never strives to be the best. From graduating high school I applied for college because its a common ore, norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance, for teenagers to attend college after graduating.
Many sociologist have different theories as to what affects our development, these are a couple theories put into use how interpret them, and apply them to my life. Jean Pigged developed a cognitive development theory for the stages that children go through as they are growing up. Most children go through these stages Of development as different actions appeal to their senses and different thoughts affect their choices. The first stage that experienced in my life was the seniority stage, which is when children rely only on their sense to learn the world around them, you come into the world with no knowledge.
The only things that I learned in the first couple years of my life were things that appealed to my senses. In this stage I started to learn the essentials to my survival. In this stage babies put their trust into their parents to keep them safe from things that can harm them. In this stage you learn that the temperature of something can cause harm, that what we put in our mouth can taste gross, and that sometimes if we look at things we might have to look away. The seniority stage is followed by the presentational stage. This is between ages 2-7.
It’s when we become verbal and start to use language, a System Of symbols and words that used to communicate with one another. During this stage we don’t really comprehend things we haven’t experienced for ourselves. In this stage we start to have attachment to things. We’re unable to distinguish between what is our perspective and that of another persons. In the third stage of development we begin to see connections to the world around us. This is called the concrete operation stage and it occurs between he ages of 7 and 1 1. In this stage we can identify object by their number, mass, and weight.
Their is more logic to our thought pattern and less abstract thinking to it. A big struggle with this stage is logic, most children from the ages of 7-11 have difficulty predicting the outcomes of specific events. The final stage of development is the formal operational stage, the point where abstract and critical thought take place. We start to use problem solving and deductive logic. In this stage we start to learn the affects of our actions and learn that some events could either mean positive or negative uniqueness to the world around us. Around this stage is when we start to ask question along the lines of “why is the sky blue? There are other stages of development that we go through that other sociologist have theorized as well. According to Erik H. Erikson, your development is attached to eight Stages, each stage has a purpose and is attached to challenges we face throughout the course of life. The first stage of your life it’s called infancy, infancy is between birth and 18 months. The purpose of the first stage is for the infant to gain a sense of trust in the world. In my life, my parents kept me safe and retorted me, provided me with a stable environment thus building trust in our relationship.
The second stage is called toddlers, toddlers is existent between 18 months and age three. During toddlers you learn to cope with the world in a confident way. Also in this stage we start to do things on our own it we we gain a sense of some independence. The way I look at this stage is when you see a child fall, do you embrace the child and acknowledge the injuries or do you allow the child to stand up on his own and continue playing? My parents stopped embracing me and let me fall and eventually I stopped raying from falling. In the third stage of development, we start to be more observant and copy what we see.
This stage is called preschool and it’s from ages three to five. This is the stage where children get over being shy, we learn to be more involved with people besides our family, a group that care for one another. We also become more vocal and start asking if our parents are mad at us when we do something wrong, there is a sense of guilt. I remember upsetting my mother, don’t know what I did. I just remember asking her if she was mad at me. Whenever I asked that her reply was always, “I’m not mad at you, I’m just upset with what you did. ” The fourth Stage of development is called preadolescence which occurs between ages six and 13.
In this stage, we start to pride ourselves on what we do, and start to have that fear of being accepted for who we are. As we become students, friends, and individuals we seek to please those who are in charge. When I was in my preadolescence, my parents signed me up for soccer. During soccer I was always taught to have pride when play. My parents taught me through practice and diligence would be a winner. My team worked really hard and remember how proud was that my team was undefeated our first few seasons. As preteens become teenagers, there is a transition from preadolescence to adolescence.
This is between ages 14-18. We start to attempt to establish our own identity. We seek to identify with others as well, while seeking to be individuals. Most teens try to be individuals through many different ways, whether it be through clothes, the people they attempt to identify with, the music they liker or their actions. When first transitioned to my teenage years had an easier time because I already had a primary group, a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships. School was bit rough for me, but easily identified with people who had similar interest.
Stage 6 is known as young adulthood, which takes places between 19-25. During young adulthood we seek to form intimate relationships with others. We seek to make close friends and to fall in love. This is the normal stage that most people get married in, a legal relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, sexual activity, and child bearing. In the American culture monogamy, marriage that unites two partners, is the common norm. Because the idea of only having one partner is common, we seek out the approval of our significant others, people, such as parents, who have special importance for colonization.
I’ve dated and made close friends but believe I’m borderline Stage 6 and Stage 7. Middle Adulthood is the seventh stage of development. This stage occurs from around ages 26-50. In this stage you seek to contribute to the lives of others. This is the Stage where most people have midlife crisis, on the basis that you’re not going to live forever. After reading more about middle adulthood I understand my parents actions so much more. My parents sacrifice everything for my siblings and myself, and I know that it makes them pappy.
Whenever ask my dad why he enjoys it, he always has to tell me that it makes him happy. Old Age, the last stage of development. During this stage we reflect back on our life. We think about past events and hope to have a feeling of accomplishment. This is the time I believe that older people become bitter if they haven’t accomplished what they wanted to in life. I’d like to believe that when I reflect back the status, a social position that a person holds, achieve will be important to me. I truthfully want to change the world and contribute to human rights.
This assignment has taught me a lot about myself, and a lot about sociology as a whole. I tried to write about different events in my life and apply sociology through it in terms and theories. Its taught me a lot about myself and the advantages and disadvantages I’ve had in life all on the basis of what people view as popular culture. Through taking this course I have a better understanding of people from all different background ends and how to treat events because of these new things know. Honestly believe that taking this course has taught me how to be a better person and how to respect a fellow human being.