WEEK 7 RACE

The first time I was semi conscious of my own race was at a ridiculous young age. The first day of Kindergarten during lunch I remembered so vividly a conversation brought up by a young black boy. He started declaring how he believed in God and continued to ask everyone else if they believed in God as well. For my bewildered self at the age of 6 this was the first time I even heard the term God. I had no idea who are what God was, and later the night asked my older brother to explain to me what the boy in my class was talking about. My brother explained because explained that our family believed in someone else named Buddha and that I shouldn't worry about it. And that was when I finally grew conscious of my race. I realized the next time I went to my family temple, all the children there had the same olive yellow skin tone as mine, and the same black hair as mine. And I also realized in my Kindergarten class there was only one other boy that shared the same physical traits as me. Two years the later the same boy that I finally recognized as a fellow asian, started calling me a "twinkie" and a "banana".

I took this as an endearing term and continued the rest of elementary school days chasing him around the playground. It wasn't until middle school I realized the term was used because I was "yellow on the outside and white on inside". This revelation grew alongside me the rest of years of education. I realized I grew up in a predominately white area, and attended a school that had cumulatively only five Asian students per grade. I recognized my role as the token Asian friend, to my white friends and learned to embrace the term of being a "twinkie" because what was wrong with being white?. I disliked being held against typical the Asian stereotypes such as bad driving and having high intelligence in computer programing or mathmatics.
But now I am proud to say my perspective towards my own race has changed. The fact that I had been brought up so suppressed by the dominant ideology by fellow friends have made me more curious about my own culture and race.

WEEK 6 SOCIAL CLASS

For this assignment I chose the retail shopping center mall that I am usually at four days out of the week because of my job. Valley Fair is a Westfield owned shopping center located right on the border between Santa Clara and San Jose and is known to have high volume retail stores such as Nordstroms, Macys, Tiffany's, and Louis Vuitton. Valley Fair has a wide arrange of stores that offer an even more wider arrange of prices.

The store I work at is Bath & Body Works and is relatively always providing in store promotions that offer low price ranges for customers. In contrast to my store there is Nordstrom's, a higher end department store that carries high designer brands such as Christian Loubuiton, whose shoes for example are often priced around $800. Yes $200 dollars short of a grand for a pair of heels. The clientele that come into my store are usually lower middle class and demographically Asian, Pacific Islander, and South East Asian. Our store usually has large bright marketing and many promotions that that consist of numerical statements such as 3 for $10 to target mainly "bargain hunters" and those who like to buy surplus. Our music contains no profanity and are usually covers of classic songs from the 80's and 70's which indicate our target towards middle aged woman as well. In contrast Nordstrom's department on the first floor has an actual pianist in front of a grand piano playing classical pieces targeting those of more wealth perhaps, while clothing stores such as Metro Park that target younger and "hipper" audiences provide an actual DJ and turntables in the stores to give a modern club vibe.

In Bath & Body Works a middle aged woman around her early thirties caught my eye as the usual BBW shopper. She is Vietnamese and walks around with an empty Westfield rented stroller, ignorant of her two children running a muck around the store. She is dressed in simple clothing with a simple handbag and her only jewelry is her wedding band. As I rang her up for thirty items of soap, lotion, and candles, she asked if she could do three separate transactions for the three coupons she brought along. This is usually the normal behavior of our customers, they pertain to be lower middle class, and try go get as much bargains as possible out of their purchase, saving as much money as they can. Another customer walks in to the store carrying designer printed purse large enough to carry her puppy, designer sunglasses on her face in doors and walking around 5 inch heels. She is Caucasian and chooses only a few of our higher prices spa items that usually never go on sale. I can discern she of upper middle class, because of her interest in the spa items and the way she was dressed. Her interest in carrying her puppy around was also a social class index that alongside treating her self well, she also had the money to treat her domestic pet well. The third person I chose to observe were the usual teenage "boppers" that come into the store. A Hispanic girl around the age of fifteen came in still wearing her backpack, and probably took the bus to the mall straight from school. She pauses to examine a few items and try on lipgloss with her friends before eventually walking out without a purchase.
I assume she is of lower class by her public school uniform and harsh drawn makeup. Coming from a low income area public school myself I remembered the "ghetto" trends of rubber banding the pant legs and wearing bra strap headbands with excessive amounts of hair gel.

But all these social class status markers could also be misleading. The Vietnamese mother may have been filthy rich but still grew up with bargain ideals and enjoyed simple clothing. The Caucasian woman may have been of lower class but dressed herself with fake designer sunglasses and cheap heels to change her social status in appearance. And the young girl may have been of middle class but chose to follow the trends of her friends, and had no interest in spending money in the store. All social status markers in society I believe are always subjective.
In terms of Valley Fair, my experience at other shopping centers, and this day of observance I can conclude the demographic of customers here are more so predominately of higher middle class and lower class. It contains higher middle class because of the location around the high end Santana Row, and rich Santa Clara neighborhood as well as its high end stores such as Nordstroms and Tiffany's. For the lower middle class, Valley Fair is also surrounded by the poorer older areas around San Carlos street and bargain priced stores such as Bath & Body Works and Forever 21.

WEEK 5 DEVIANCE

Deviance in a sociological context describes actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms such as an example of committing a crime as well as informal violations of social norms like staring at a stranger in public.
A recent article in the media that attracted my attention and a huge issue that has been brought up in America today is Arizona's new stringent and unconstitutional immigration law.
The New York Times recently reported on the recent legislation of Arizona's aim to to identify, prosecute, and deport illegal immigrants.
According to the an article by Fight Back News, amidst the controversial signature the signed the bill into place made by Arizona's governor Jan Brewer, many deviant actions were placed surround the state. Some 100 students from Tucson schools walked out in protest of SB1070. The school administration tried to prevent students from leaving, with all the gates, entrances and exits locked. A few days later thousands of students also walked out of several Phoenix based high schools in protest of the SB1070 as well. The admirable events were organized by the students alone and not by any other 'movement' organizations.
After reading this article I was reminded of the march against the budget cuts and realized that these acts of deviance was a positive one in hopes of drawing attention to a critical national issue. From a functional perspective these acts of deviance helped determine what America's social expectations and behaviors were in response to the bill. The media recognized the disapproval by the different institutions, groups, and public in general towards the law and confirmed the challenges Arizona already issued itself.

WEEK 4 GROUP THINK

After reading Schwalbes text I began to think of all the times I myself participated in risky behavior because of group think as well as my friends. Funny enough the majority the experiences was during our high school years when I believe group think is so predominate because you are surrounded by your classmates and peers most of the time. I interviewed three of my friends who all shared a story on how they participated in group think or mainly peer pressure regarding in risky behavior.

The first person I interviewed was my friend Carlos who grew up in the lower class area of Campbell. In that area he befriend many gang related members and almost became a gang member himself. In middle school, during seventh grade he relayed an incident or altercation that lead to him jumping into a fight with his friends. Because he saw his fellow friends initiate the fight and defend themselves he also jumped in without any hesitation or pause to think of the consequences. His friends aqcuried a sense of a family like atmosphere and therefore resulted in why he reacted so strongly in the fight because he was defending his "brothers". Ultimately this event led to his expulsion and move to another middle school and he finally reflected that wasn't the path he wanted his life to go towards.

The second person I interviewed was my friend Megan. All through middle school she was very adamant against participating in any illegals substances or underage drinking because of the way she was brought up under a religious household. But as she entered highschool and began to circulate within the higher end of the social hierarchy ladder such as the cheerleaders and jocks, she began to become less resilient in participating in these activities especially at parties. At house parties seeing others participate in these activities made her feel more comfortable in experimenting these activities as well since everyone else was doing it.

The third person I interviewed was my friend Aaron. Back in the first years of highschool, on Friday nights when their was nothing to do, his friends would drive around with toilet paper and eggs and essentially vandalize random stranger's house for mere entertainment. Aaron at first felt uncomfortable with "egging" and "t-p ing" houses because he knew it was against the law and also a burden for the homeowners. But he described the combination of the adrenaline rush and being with his friends took the guilt away from his mind and led him to continue doing it.

All the stories my friends relayed when they believe they participated in group think definitely led to risky behavior that could have eventually harmed themselves. But I believe group think could also be positive as well. This past March I participated in the march against the budget cuts alongside many students and faculty members in San Francisco. My initial reason to go was just a free day off of academic activities to a see I love. But once I was there and saw how many people attended and were passionate in their fight against the budget cuts made me overwhelmingly realize how much I cared about my education as well. In the end I spent the rest of the day running up and down alongside the march climbing on trashcans and fistpumping the air towards the chants of those surrounding me. Something I normally would have not down. In the end with the personal testimonies of my friends as well as myself I believe when it comes to group think sometimes two heads aren't better than one and sometimes it may be.