Who am I?
When first posed with this question, this was my response:
Hi guys, I'm Peyton. I'm 16 and I'm a senior. Technically, I should be a junior, but I'm not, so it is what it is. I like to think I am a little funny, but I'm probably wrong. Oh, well. Also, I am a giant nerd. I love school, I love learning, I love science, math, and history. I'm probably the biggest dork about school you'll ever meet. My favorite classes I've ever taken are APUSH and AP Physics, and I want to be a physics major in college, so if that doesn't indicate to you what a nerd I am, I don't know what will. Aside from being a giant loser, here are some other things I enjoy:
- The color purple.
- Reading basically any book
- Watching movies, except action/super-hero/alien/etc. movies. I don't like those.
- Food. Except cheese. Cheese is gross.
- T.V. I love How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, American Horror Story, and I'll admit to keeping up with the Kardashians
- I like to get stuff. I don't like to shop, I just like receiving the items. Online shopping is my savior.
- Being alone. I'm the ultimate introvert.
- Sweaters. I wear think wool sweaters year round, which is a big problem in the summer. But I like to be cozy.
- A mixture of alternative and pop music, because I'm one big contradiction.
- That's all I can think of.
I consider my self to be incredibly stubborn and completely set in my ways. Any attempt to get me to try something I haven't decided to do myself will probably fail. I like to think I'm a nice person, and that I'm willing to help anyone or give anyone a chance.
The biggest influences in my life have to be my family, I almost always take their advice and rely on their support in anything I do. I also try to make sure that I myself am one of the biggest influences in my decision making, because I don't like to do things just because other people tell me to.
My goals in life are to major in science, specifically physics, in college, and get a Bachelor of Science degree. After college, I want to pursue a PhD in whatever science I end up liking the best, and work as a research scientist.
So, that's basically it about me, or at least all I can think of right now.
This is my response now:
I am a product of my surroundings. At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to answer the same question. I gave a generic overview of myself-what I like to watch on TV and eat. But, after a semester of sociology, I now see myself in a different light. I see myself as the offspring of the society I was raised in. I can now see the effects of my culture, race, nurture in how I behave and how I view the worlds. I can see the way the media and the rest of society has influenced the way I am, why I like the things that I listed in my first post. I no longer define myself by what I like and dislike, but by what has shaped my existence. I know now that I like what I like because I am a white, upper-middle class, teenage, American, suburban girl. Before, when I was asked who I am, I knew what I was. Now, because of sociology, I know why I am.
Race does not exist. From a biological standpoint, that is. Sociologically, race is all to real, and the implications of race dictate the way society works. I think that this was one of the most shocking things we learned from our discussion of race in class. We all tend to overlook the fact that race is just a social construct. There are no biological, physical, or psychological characteristics that can divide people into races, it all depends on how someone identifies themselves based on their society's categorization of race. In class, we did a simulation where we were given pictures of people, just head shots, and were given the task of placing them into the race that they designated themselves in the latest census. What we found was that it is nearly impossible to actually do this. There are people who identify themselves as "Hispanic" that have darker hair and skin than people who called themselves "black." There were people who were "Asian" and had lighter skin and larger eyes than someone who was "white." The simulation really served to show us how it is actually impossible to group people based on physical traits because there is no clear place to draw the line. What shade of skin is the dividing line between white and Hispanic or Hispanic and black? How wide can your nose be until you are no longer white, where you cross the border into being black? There is no clear place where we can distinguish people, so the idea that our entire society functions on the idea of categorizing people is preposterous. This idea of racial categorization seems even more ridiculous when you consider that race changes from place to place. You can be Hispanic in America, then travel to Europe where being "Hispanic" isn't even a thing, and then go to Brazil, where there are so many different races, you have to pick an even more specific categorization for yourself, like being specifically "caramel colored."
Even though race biologically does not exist, the social implications and consequences of race rule the happenings of everyday life for many people in society. Since I am white, I really cannot speak on behalf of the minority races in American society, and cannot begin to describe what it is like to grow up belonging to one. But, I can talk about something that most white people in Western society don't realize exists, and that is the idea of White Privilege. This is an idea that is unnoticed, or even denied, by most white people. White Privilege is not the idea that all white people have it easy and that we all are given handouts in life that make it easy for all of us to succeed, because that is not true. White people obviously still have struggles, but our race is not one of them. We never have to consider our race. We often forget that we belong to a race because we are not forced to constantly remember we are white, and do not have to live under constraints that are placed unto us by our race. Everything in society is structured in a way that make being white the norm. Things that are the same color as white skin, like clothing, shoes, makeup, etc., are called "normal" or "nude/flesh colored." Is black skin no longer "flesh"? Apparently, it is inherently abnormal to have darker skin. But being white is "normal," and we again are allowed to forget our race because we are not the different ones, they are. This idea of White Privilege goes much deeper than just what is normal and what is not. In society, when white people need to receive help from the government, they are viewed by society and the media as "struggling" and "trying to get back on their feet." But, when black people need to use the same benefits in the same way, they are "abusing the system" and are "freeloaders." Historically, white people have been allowed to benefit from certain programs that began during the Great Depression, and have had generations to form economic stability for their families. Minority groups, however, were almost always excluded from receiving the same benefits as white people, and instead of having decades to gain this stability, they have just begun their time to reach this level of success for their own families. White people tend to forget this historical leniency towards our own race, and just think about the way things are now, and wonder why the minority groups haven't been able to reach the same level of success as us even though they now have, legally at least, equal footing as the rest of us.
