T.V. Party Tonight!

Race, does it even matter? The answer is yes, very much so. Sadly most Americans judge people on their race and have created stereotypes for almost all of the races that exists here in the U.S. In class this week we talked about how we have convinced ourselves that race is biological and cannot be changed, but is that really true? Sure, we can't change our roots but when we go to different places of the world we are each considered something different to that country. So in a sense our race can change and I never thought about it like that. I'm not sure if I'm totally convinced if that's true or not, but it makes sense.
What's funny is how we just look at people and we "know" their race automatically. We did a similar activity in class were we looked at someone and categorized them into different races. Our end results were not so great, we got only three right. So lesson learned; you can judge a book by it's cover.

Money, Money, Money!

Today in class we split up into groups of 4/5 and played monopoly, but it wasn't your average board game rules. In my group the 5 of us each rolled the dice for a social class and decided fairly. I got the lower middle class status. We each started out with an amount of money and i started out with about $675 in my pocket. At first it seemed as a pretty decent amount of money to have and as the game started playing out I found myself in difficult situations, deciding to buy something, in order to gain more money, or deciding to pass on it. I decided to be a good spender and not buy everything i landed on that was up for grabs, except the electric company, which ended up being a mistake. I mean I stayed at a good amount I just lost about 5 or 6 bucks, but still I could of made more. And now looking back if that was my real life I would have to obviously spend more for food, clothing, housing, etc. With having about $600 in your pocket a month for all your daily needs I have a feeling that wouldn't last me a month. Especially with my life style being raised as an upper middle class, $600 is certainly not enough for the other 3 people in my family including myself. Although I have been raised as an upper middle class, my parents and grandparents were not. They had all came from Poland with barely anything in their pockets with just the minimum clothes, some food, and money. With the lack of money they had to find a living place for my grandparents and my mom and aunt and save enough for my mom and aunt to have a decent education. As for my dad he was born and raised in Poland in a poor community with a house that they had to share with another family living upstairs, so basically an apartment. Leaving Poland and coming to America was a pretty good choice for them. My parents and grandparents had to build their way up from the lower class to, what we are now, the upper middle class. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Don't Be So Stuck Up, Please?

With most of Stevenson being upper middle class, when do you have time to associate with the ones who aren't? Hmmm....let me think, not a whole lot. And just by saying most of Stevenson is upper middle class I just separated the different classes there are in the world. So, I believe that separating people of different classes is just what people do naturally. It's what most of us have lived with and been grown up with. Sure, it's a horrible thing to put people in categories when it is known that "all men are created equally", but it IS what we do even if we like it or not.
With all the talk about the insanely rich movie stars there's never enough time to talk about those of the lower class. They sometimes feel they are "invisible" in today's society because no one really cares or wants to talk about someone that is of a lower class than they are. I don't blame them. That's why volunteering is a great way to see things in a whole new perspective. Plus it gives you time to communicate and associate with the different classes of people.