Crash

Last week we watched Crash, and it was a very entertaining movie. It was about how various lives of various people intertwined and all coincided with eachother. The movie had great acting and a great plot, but the best part was the way racism was talked about. Racism is a very tough subject to talk about because it leads to feelings being hurt sometimes, but this movie brought up racism in ways that people are too afraid of bringing up. This movie made a point that racism is everywhere, and that people are completely racist sometimes without even knowing that they're being racist. I hope it really opened some people's eyes if they have not known how society really is, because this movie really mimicked real society in a visceral way. In relation to Socioloy, I think this movie really related because it did not just show people and their racist opinions, but it showed how their opinions and feelings impacted other people. It showed that society will be impacted even if only a few people around you is a racist, because the effects of racism travel very far.

Living in the ghetto

We watched a video in class yesterday about different people who are growing up in poverty. For example it showed a young black boy who was homeless with his mom and siblings. This was hard to watch because it showed them living with their grandmother at one point, who said something along the lines of she would rather do crack instead of buy bread for her family. It is crazy how things are in different parts of the country. Another example was of a Mexican kid who had to live with a large family in a small building that had cockroaches crawling everywhere. The kid was a hard worker and came home from school to go directly to work everyday. I think that's good that he is helping his dad out but I couldn't help but notice something. They kept talking about how poor they were but I saw stuff in the background like stereos and electronic equipment and I wondered maybe they are staying poor because they spent some of their money on things that weren't essential. I hate to say that because I feel very bad for their situation but it was just an observation. This video really opened my eyes to the way that society is in parts of the country that I don't live in. I think that most people are very focused on their life and don't really see how others live their life. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and see how others are living their life, and maybe try to help them out.

30 Days on Minimum Wage

Last week we watched another installment of Morgan Spurlock's show 30 Days. This episode I don't think was as good as the last, but it was still very interesting to see how life is while living on minimum wage. Morgan Spurlock decides to live with his wife on minimum wage and various things happen to him that show how scary life really is on minimum wage. This was probably not a good idea because he ends up facing hardships that must have sucked to go through. The worse part I think is that he hurt his hand and since he had no insurance or money he had to go wait in a line at a hospital's emergency room and got denied. He ended up going later, but still it must have been very hard for him to deal with his problem. This really helped translate the issue of poverty in society to me because I have always known about poverty. I just have not gotten such an inside look into the life of someone who has to experience poverty firsthand. Society is made up of many people who are stricken with poverty, and it is important for more people to know how terrible life is for people who have no money.