Sociology 1000 final exam Brekhus Mizzou

Lifestyler

Gay as a noun. 100% gay 100% of the time. Live in gay enclaves and identify gay as the most important aspect of their life.

Commuter

Travel to gay enclaves. Gay as a ver. has two social groups- their typically straight, suburb friends, and they gay typically city friends. Can't tell they're gay, unless they're in the enclave. 100% gay, 15% of the time.

Integrator

Gay as an adjective. It's part of who they are, but it doesn't define them. 15% gay 100% of the time. usually have nothing to do with gay enclaves.

Chambliss and success

QUALITATIVE. better technique is more important in achieving excellence than time spent practicing. Practicing the little things right and perfect them, developing new techniques, or practicing against people who are better than you.

Gladwell and success

QUANTITATIVE. 10,000 hour rule, practicing as much as possible and dedicating your life to something to achieve success.

What do Gladwell and Chambliss agree on?

Two things.

1) right place at the right time is significant- being born at the beginning of the year benefits hockey players because they have more time to develop and therefore be better than their younger peers. Bill Gates being in college during the technological breakthrough allowed him to gain an interest in computers when he had enough free time to play around with them.

2) being born with natural talent is insignificant.

Rampage School Shooting reading

School shooters typically characterized by:

1) they feel like their masculinity is being challenged, and as such respond with violence.

2) they feel humiliated by a certain part of society, and also feel they are superior than them.

3) they feel they are owed a certain amount of entitlement and privilege by society, and when combined with their feelings of pain from society, they respond with violence.

4) typically wealthier, white males, carrying highly destructive weapons, firing seemingly at random (there are some targets but many random victims).

5) almost always end in suicide.

Suicide and gender

Fatal suicide: men who successfully commit suicide are viewed more favorably than women who successfully commit suicide.

Non-fatal suicide: Women are often given support when they attempt suicide, while men are ostracized and considered feminine.

Women attempt suicide more, but have much higher rates of non-fatal suicide.

Men attempt suicide less but are much more successful.

Gender, Class and Terrorism reading

Terrorists are typically:

1) educated through high school, sometimes college

2) not poor, but middle class facing downward mobility and economic uncertainty.

3) sons of men who work in industries in decline that are usually passed down the generations, the terrorists then fear they can't work where they expected to work.

4) from general privilege, but they are losing it.

Terrorists are angry at their government due to their decline in privilege, and they typically take it out on "others"- women, gays, minorities, and immigrants, because these "others" compete with them for the jobs they feel entitled to.

By not having a job, and by basically being a disappointment, they feel emasculated and feminized. Terrorist organizations, or supremacy groups provide them with their sense of masculinity.

Science texts and the Egg and the Sperm

Science texts romanticize the insemination process by portraying the sperm personally and as a "rescuer" of the egg, and the egg as a "damsel in distress". In reality, the egg is the lock, and the sperm is the key, they are codependent. They also suggest female reproductive organs are wasteful, when, taking into consideration the rate of menstruation and pregnancy, women waste around 400 eggs in their lifetime, while men waste trillions of sperm. They also portray sperm as active and the egg as inactive, which perpetuates societal stereotypes of men and women on the cellular level. Note, sperm are dumb, they swim around crazily, as opposed to the steadfast description given by science texts.

Army and racial integration

Rank is so highly valued in the Army, that race is almost insignificant. One is promoted solely based on their skills, and this is reinforced by the idea that one's rank can oftentimes be a matter of life or death in battle based on who is in charge, racism is eliminated in rank and promotions out of fear that an inadequate white officer receiving a promotion based on race will endanger lives. The Army also pays for college education which ensures smart and capable people enlist, and also offers educational opportunities to minorities they may have never had before. Goal system, not quota. Basic training eliminates any advantages based on race, and focuses solely on how one performs, and as such it is oftentimes the first instance in which minorities can outshine their white peers.

Race and employment

Criminal record: out of 100 whites without a criminal record who receive a call back.. 50% of whites with a record, 41% of blacks without a record, and 9% of blacks with a record can also expect a call.

Names: identical resumes with a white sounding name are 50% more likely to get an interview than resumes with a black sounding name.

Environmental racism and functions of poverty

Environmental racism: the growing convergence of hazardous waste sites surrounding minority communities. NOTE: MINORITY communities, NOT poor, white communities.

This relates to the functions of poverty in the sense that though the minorities have no control over the filth they live in, they are seen as undeserving, and it is considered their fault the waste is there. Also, the poor minorities act as scapegoats for social problems that they have nothing to do with, so that rich white folk can blame them and wipe their hands clean of wrongdoing.

How do black and white views of racism differ?

Whites: likely to see any racist interaction as just a misunderstanding, they think blacks overreact and "pull the race card"

Blacks: are more likely to perceive something as racist because they are socially marked.

How is racism fiction? Reality? Give evidence to the fact that it is socially constructed.

Fiction: race gradually changes, there is no distinctive break in one region to the region next to it. The physical characteristics that constitute our interpretation of "race" are actually biological traits to make one best suited to live in their region, and exist everywhere. European noses= heating the cold air before it reaches lungs. Yet we focus mostly on skin color. We are all biologically one race, sharing 99% of the same genomes.

Reality: there are very real negative consequences of race, E.G: discrimination.

Socially constructed: racial categories arise from our preference to group people neatly and isolate oneself from "others"

Irony of this is that race is an entirely social constructed institution, yet we have absolutely no control over the race we are apart of, it is our master, ascribed status.

Davis-Moore thesis

Income inequality is actually beneficial to society. The high salaries and social rewards (people like doctors more than electricians) ensure that there will always be talented people willing to perform these jobs that are important in society.

Criticism of the Davis-Moore thesis

Some suggest, rightfully so, that the salaries of occupations far outweigh their benefit to society. They also call to attention that many highly important, maybe even the most important occupations such as garbage collectors and teachers, are not adequately compensated for their contribution to society. finally, there's the notion that the gap in income leads to a discrepancy in wealth and power. This power then allows people to set their own salaries, for example, CEOs set their own salaries exceptionally high, but this doesn't mean they contribute much, if anything to society.

Educational system reinforces rather than reduces inequality..

The best, richest, predominantly white and highest achieving schools are consistently given financial support, when they really don't need it. These schools also attract the best teachers, have the newest books and technology, and offer the most difficult classes. Students in these schools are taught to be inquisitive and ambition, and their education raises them from their natural position of privilege to even more privilege.

The poorer schools, that need the most help never get it. Instead, authorities suggest they fire teachers and eliminate programs to save money. These larger, overcrowded schools lead to lower quality of education and less qualified teachers. The students at these schools today are minorities, and are taught to obey rules and preserve the status quo.

Educational inequality can be best observed though, through the gap between men's education and women's throughout history.

How does Stand and Deliver relate to Savage Inequalities? to Education as the Great Equalizer?

The poorer school in the poorest community had the least resources and aid. A teacher who wanted to adequately teach his students was required to accept lower pay, spend much of his own money and time working, and lobby for help, and he still never got the help he asked for. Education is not the great equalizer many assume it is because these students received a fair and quality education, but because they were Latino, they were denied resources and then recognition for their work. Most of these students didn't even think about going to college, even though they were being educated in high school, because their education was so far behind their richer peers.

What are the functions of poverty and who do they serve?

Poor people constitute cheap labor, they fill undesirable jobs, act as scapegoats for the rest of society, reaffirm morals and values within the rest of society, and consume goods that manufacturers would have had to throw out. They also create jobs for those above them who serve them or isolate them, welfare agents, social workers, public defenders, etc..

The More We Pay the More it is Worth reading

people associate higher price tags with higher quality. Wine experiment. How much we are willing to pay for something, however, does not correlate to it's value to society. E.G: we pay people who groom our dogs more than teachers.

Money is the Root of All Evil reading

Poverty is associated with many negative externalities:

shorter life expectancies, the likelihood of dying from trivial things like fires, drowning, or occupational hazards. lower levels of mental health, and less effective support groups for coping. lower quality of education.

Covert Color War reading

Blacks and other minorities are subject to everyday instances of racism, being mistaken for a valet, being pulled over frequently, people ask them how they can afford the things they have, or when shopping with them they steer them to cheaper goods.

"It doesn't matter what I do, I don't fit their definition of someone who can be equal to them"

Sociology of Christmas Cards reading

We like to think that the decisions we make are meaningful and personal but most of the time they aren't and can effectively be analyzed. When we send christmas cards, we send them to people who won't return them out of our desire to use their status above us and a connection with them to foster greater social mobility. When people send us cards that we don't return, it's because they want to use us. And when we send cards and receive cards from the same people, they are typically close family and friends.

America is the Land of Equal Opportunity reading

Whites most often think racism isn't an issue, compared to blacks who overwhelmingly recognize it as an issue.

Whites are less willing to live in a diverse neighborhood, and thus housing discrimination from all white exclusive neighborhoods occurs.

Housing discrimination also occurs because realtors won't show minorities particular houses, or will make them feel unwelcome.

Linguistic profiling- identifying and then judging someone's race based on the sound of their voice.

Minorities are hesitant to move to all white neighborhoods out of fear of being ostracized.

wealth gap from whites to minorities is even greater than income gap- this is a result of living in higher valued homes.

Children's books- most telling sign of racial inequality.

Commercials- whites are in commercials buying luxury items, while minorities, if they are in a commercial, is usually buying fast food, sports equipment, or weight loss aids.