First blog entry:
I love sports and anything to do with fitness. I'm all about health from the inside out; acupuncture, healthy food, and all that. I love cars and have grown up going to Porsche races... the sound of those engines is just about my favorite thing. I'm really nervous about applying to college but at the same time it's way exciting. My family and I are really close and they are a really big influence on me. My goal is to be a psychologist, I want to help people! =)

In my old blog I would not change anything about my answers. Although,some of the answers I gave have new meaning to me. I said in my first blog that I wanted to help people, this still remains a dream of mine but in a different way. I intend to be a clinical psychologist focusing on teenagers but with what I learned in this class it is so much more multifaceted. What we learned in class I had never even contemplated before all the influences pulling at people (teenagers, in particular) at all times; the effect of media, gender, & social class. This class has greatly expanded my thinking and I will definitely carry my sociological thinking and perspective forward to help me. Additionally, for me because of both my family and the culture of the social class/area in which we live college wasn't a choice it was just the next step...when Devon (the teacher from an impoverished area) came into our classroom it was a very intresting and stunning insight that many people don't attend college and some don't even finish high school. This class has definitely expanded my perspectives, understanding, and views.

It is a commonly held belief that there is slight validity to all stereotypes, this is false. All stereotypes are incorrect because they are broad sweeping generalizations that can not possibly encompass even a majority of a certain group of people. For example, it seems to be a common stereotype that women are worse drivers than men. Not true! First of all what is a good driver someone who drives fast, someone who drives slow, someone who drives safe? For arguements sake, we'll say a bad driver depends on accidents and how bad the accident is...Men are more than twice as likely to die in a car crash than women, studies have shown as many as 73 percent of all people killed in car accidents are male. Some of the stereotypes in the movie Crash are, asians are bad drivers, black people are criminals, black people are poor and needed a helping hand up if they do have money, cops are pigs, mexicans are in gangs, all middle eastern people are arabs and terrorists, & that being white is generally better. Sandra Bullock's character in the movie held many stereotypes ...she seemed to hold the belief that all black people are criminals & mexicans are in gangs. In the movie Terrence Howard's character is black and even he seems to hold the belief that being white is better and his wife accuses him of trying to hide that he's black or act white...even when Ludacris tries to carjack the navigator he is stunned to find a black man in the driver's seat which supports the stereotype that black people are poor. None of these stereotypes were true because no stereotypes are valid you cannot take a huge group of people and generalize in any manner with any validity at all. I think I most definately stereotype all the time unconsciously or otherwise and I would find it hard to believe that I haven't been stereotyped before. Stevenson students are stereotyped all the time as "rich kids" but in reality there is a significant population at Stevenson that does not have any money at all. The fight against stereotypes and racism will have to be a gradual battle and the best strategy is knowledge...racism is really just deep seeded ignorance!