Race and Prejudice
Racial discrimination is one of the problems that society is facing. Numerous attempts to reduce it have proven futile. Many theories explain why discrimination, racism, and prejudice exist. These theories include conflict theory, interaction theory, and functionalist theory. Functional theory suggests that for ethnic minorities to contribute to the stability of a community, they need to assimilate into the said community. Assimilation in this sense means that the minority groups have to adopt the patterns of the dominant society or culture. Prejudice is another problem. People from the minority groups are arrested sometimes without substantial proof of them being guilty. They are arrested because they look ‘suspicious.’ This was the case in the street as I was returning home from the hospital. The black guy was picking some essentials from the store when a white woman called the police on him because he looked suspicious.
Gender Roles
Gender roles describe how the society expects us to speak, groom, dress, conduct and act according to our specific genders (Newman,2018). Women are supposed to dress in a feminine way, be nurturing, accommodating and polite. Men, on the other hand, are supposed to be aggressive, bold and robust. Gender roles can vary from society to society. An example is in the USA where pink was considered a masculine color while blue was a feminine color.
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Gender stereotypes affect people in specific ways. A stereotype can be defined as a judgment against a particular group of people (Newman, 2018). Stereotypes are responsible for gender issues and are likely to case unfair and unequal treatment. Some of the gender stereotypes are; domestic behaviors which suggest that each gender has their specific roles. For women, it is that of cooking, cleaning homes and generally taking care of the family. Men, on the other hand, are expected to be breadwinners and work on the repairs at home.
Some people go as far as suggesting that different occupations fit different genders. An example is when they indicate that nursing and teaching are a woman’s job while engineering, piloting and being a doctor are a man’s job. Moreover, the physical attributes of a person are stereotyped. Men are supposed to muscular and tall while women are to be graceful and thin. Extreme stereotypes can be harmful because they hinder people from fully expressing their emotions and themselves as well.
Poverty and Inequality
Poverty is the extreme deprivation of resources required to meet the needs of an individual. Social inequality can be described as the situation where there are no equal rewards and opportunities for the different statuses of a society (Karpet al., 2016. One of the reasons people are poor is because they lack the skills and motivation to find work. There is a theory that asserts that poor people are to blame for being poor. This theory states that the only reason people are poor is because of lack of employment (Karpet al., 2016). According to the theory, society provides enough opportunities for everyone. Society is also blamed for poverty. There is not enough work to accommodate everyone. Once there are no jobs, poverty kicks in.
Social Control
Social control refers to how the social structures, rules, norms and the laws of society regulate our thoughts, appearance, and behavior (Gouldner,2017). Social power is necessary for social order. Social control is learned through socialization. Socialization teaches us how to behave and think in specific accepted ways. One of the two types of social control is the informal social control. It refers to how we conform to the values and norms of society, and how we adopt some beliefs learned from socialization (Gouldner,2017). Authority figures, peers and family impose informal social control. The other type of social control is the formal control. The government and its representatives enforce it. These representatives include federal agencies, military, and police. The presence of a law enforcer is enough to retain social control.
Social Deviance
Deviance is any unacceptable behavior or a behavior that is deemed to violate the social norms. It often warrants disapproval from society (Gouldner, 2017). It is either criminal or non-criminal. Some activities like failure to bathe, lying, sealing, going to the public while nude, alcoholism and excessive gambling as are considered deviant. Deviance can be complex to understand because some norms vary from place to place and culture to culture.
An example is the circumcision of girls. In some African tribes, it is not frowned upon. However, in the USA, it is a case of social deviance. The black guy stealing at the store can be considered as social deviance .
Reflection
Waking up and making breakfast for my family gave me a sense of satisfaction and happiness. Taking my son to school gave me some time to catch up on him and his life at school. I always want my son to be free to talk to me about anything. The mornings that we spend with him allows me to determine whether there is something wrong with or disturbing him. I could get this from looking at his body language.
Getting to interact with my friends is another thing that makes me vie the world from a different perspective. My group of friends is of mixed races, so it gives us hat diversity to learn from each other. I also got to talk to my lectures, one of whom is my mentor. Serving people at work is also another experience for me. I got to interact with different people, some who were rude and others who were polite. In the evening when I had to see my son in the hospital also gave me a different perspective on life. I empathized with the families and relatives who were waiting for their loved ones in the waiting room. I shared an experience with them.
References
Gouldner, A. W. (2017). Sociology and the everyday life.In The idea of social structure (pp. 417-432).Routledge.
Karp, D. A., Yoels, W. C., Vann, B. H., & Borer, M. I. (2016). Sociology in everyday life. Waveland Press.
Newman, D. M. (2018). Sociology: Exploring the architecture of everyday life. Sage Publications.
