When I think about my view on class from when I first started college to now, I have many different views and there are many things I realize now that I didn’t realize when I first began college. In Soc 333, we learned about housing inequality in America. Some things I was able to take away are how much more difficult it is for minorities to get loans, how much less likely landlords are to rent to them compared to somebody who is white and red lining. We can see that number 1 and 3 relate her, since redlining is refusing loans to minorities because they live in an area deemed to be a “financial risk”. When I first began here at Longwood, I did not realize these issues were present and I just assumed people who lived in lower income areas were just poor.
When I reflect on my ideas on race between when I first started taking these classes and today, I can honestly say I feel like I have learned a lot. When I first started taking Sociology classes, I knew racism was an issue in society but I did not think it was as prominent as it actually is. Learning about policies that existed or even some that still exist today that discriminate toward blacks are policies I was not familiar with. Another thing I have learned are there are several types of racism and inequality. When thinking about racism, it doesn’t just mean acting a certain way, it’s just somebody’s views in general towards minorities. Some examples of these can be color blind racism, structural racism and institutional racism.
When I think about things I have learned about gender, SOC 241 was the class that best helped me understand the gender gap here in America. In this class, we discussed topics such as how women are paid less, how they do more house chores and how they are not looked at as the head of the household. Before I came to Longwood, I was not aware of this large gender gap and I was not aware of women taking the majority of responsibilities around the house. Overall, we learned that although we are seeing the gender gap start to decrease as women are becoming more independent, it’s something that is still prominent in America.
When I first began studying Sociology here at Longwood, I honestly didn’t not understand the difference between sex and gender. I did not know gender is how you identify yourself while sex is what your body essentially is. I would say this is the biggest concept I learned and I see this applying to my everyday life. Another concept I learned about sex is sexuality. This concept describes how masculine and feminine you are.
When thinking about the concept of disability, this isn’t something I learned about very much in any of my classes. One thing I could note is how I learned being mentally insane gets you off of death row but besides that, there’s nothing to say.
As far as my career goes, I have absolutely no idea as to whether anything I’ve learned will make an impact or not. It all depends on the job I get, where I live, and the people I am around.