Steps 4 & 5: Portfolio 3 Inequality

Step 4:

Before becoming a sociology major I was not aware of the magnitude of inequality in the world today. In these two particular courses I learned so much valuable lessons that I will use in my life for now now on, that will be taught to my family someday. In regards to race I always knew people where different in “color” but I never knew the ends and out to why races act differently in the world we live in but in SOCL-233 I learned many different concepts such the five causes of inequality, race as a social construct, etc. In my life being a man of color I always had stigma behind my name every where I went or every encounter I had with a person who was different from me, this where the five causes of inequality comes into play. Starting points and early life opportunities determine a lot for when you grow up and the particular reason for this circumstance is the things you grow through at young age makes you into the older person you grow up to be. We wrote a paper in this class about neighborhood profiling, where we discussed the different things that make up families, race and the different schools/jobs in the area. To sum up everything that has been stated, I have learned to be respectful to all races and to treat everybody how I would want to be treated.

When discussing class you have the poor, middle and upper class with people being above or below someone. I had somewhat knowledge of what the different classes was but never knew how it goes into inequality but now I know how important it is to find what class you fall into and how it can affect your life. In Dr. Grether class we learned a lot of information regarding this particular topic and it was so valuable to me to learn what it means to fall into middle, upper and poor class and how that can hinder your life from where you start and to where you want to go. This goes back to the five causes of inequality and I say it for this particular reason you can have terrible early life opportunities where it can lead you down the wrong path and make you in up homeless with nowhere to turn in life. A child being born into a wealthy family is able to receive the financial support and open all kinds of door for great opportunities in life. Also on the other hand being born into a family with less wealth can keep you at a disadvantage for your whole life causing you to fall victim to the system and end up homeless. This class was a valuable lesson for me because I will be able to start my children lives right by making sure I am set up perfectly for them so they can be successful in life and have all the opportunities at there feet.

I always knew what gender was, either you are a male or a female but I did not know how gender in the sociology world was perceived. I learned the valuable lesson on how women and men should be treated in the sociology world and how one can be affected by the other. The world can make one feel like is above the other and particularly in the work place and this where gender discrimination comes into play. In SOCL-233 there was a reading “Gender Play” where it talked about how boys girls are together but mostly apart and the is due to how the world have put stigma of difference between the two. In my eyes it changed the way I think because we all should be treated equally, especially in the work place because everybody has different talents and bring different ideas to the table.

After taking the course SOCL-284 I was able to learn so much moral understand behind the word “disability”. I knew what the meaning was but I did not know how it could make a child or grown up with a disorder feel left out from the world/society at times. I was able to learn about many different disabilities in this class rather it was hearing impairment, visual and or mental and how it could maybe make the families feel as if the child is being treated differently. In this course I also had to write a paper on the different disabilities and chose one to write about and I chose to write about the hearing impairment because I know how it effects my younger cousin. My favorite part about this course was being able to learn about person first language and learning about the models of disabilities, it empowers a person of a disability to feel as their full self first. We are all human and should be treated the same rather you have a disability or not because in this world it is so many negative people that can be hateful and learning this information I can now assist in helping someone with a disability being treated unfairly. I was also able to take a course with Dr. Lucas where I was able to interact with kids from all over Virginia and play different sports with kids just being able to share special moments. I loved every second of these moments just seeing them smile being able to feel loved and empowered, it was so special for me being and athlete to just be there and make there day.

My view on sexuality has changed tremendously and the particular reason for the assumption is I had no idea what heterosexuality and the social construct of sexuality in a reading we had. After this particular reading and class activities for that week of class, I learned about the barriers and how it could be them being scared of what people have to say about them or how their family will view them. Its all about being happy in what you want to do but it is probably scary for some folks to do it just based off how the world have perceived “coming-out” to be. I used to hear a lot about homosexuality but I never fully understood what it was but we learned about it during war and post war era. Now I know during that particular time and age the relationship between people Homosexuality was known to be abnormal but this era was known for liberalism meaning that it’s an era for change. Heterosexuality is known as normal sex. Also in class we read an article that helped me to understand it in a religion point of view and within the article I saw numerous inconsistencies in the way that Christianity and the idea of atoning sins through procreation are used to build up and educate sex and sexuality. Overall you construct your own sexual belief based on your personal experiences. I now know how to treat people because we are all human and no one should be treated differently in their own sexuality.

Step 5:

I see my views changing about the issues to inequality particularly not affecting my career field. I will be going to play pro basketball for a couple years and I just know what type of person and teammate I am, so regardless of anybodies race, class, disability or sexuality will not make me treat them any differently. After basketball I will be going into real estate so I can see somethings being affected such as class because many people come from different backgrounds of life and I do not want someone feel as if they are being treated differently because they can’t afford a certain a house they wish to have. Overall, I really do not see any of these being a problem in my future work field because of my character and me wanting to treat people the way I would want to be treated.