Race

Through out our past history, racism has existed and I believe it still exists. Not as severe as before but there still are racist acts committed everyday or acts that make people conscious of their race. I am a young Latino man, half Mexican and half Honduran. I do not face constant acts that makes me conscious of my race everyday but there are times where I do not feel confident of myself due to my race. I attended Evergreen Valley High School my senior year where I took a Calculus class. My math classes have always been diverse since middle school, however the higher my math classes were, the less peers I would see that were my same race. I was the only Latino in my Calculus class senior year. Everyone else in my class was either White or Asian. My teacher was even Asian so I was really the only Latino in class. I definitely stood out in class but not in the right way.

Everyone seemed to have some connection with each other except me, however I was not looking for making friends in that class, I was there to learn and pass the class. I had a lot of ambition and determination to pass my class no matter what obstacles I was going to face. An obstacle I had to overcome in that class was racial issues. I am a very active student that seeks for help when needed. Whenever I was struggling with something in class I would always ask for help, however my teacher would always tend to focus more on other students and take his time on helping them then me. I used to have to wait almost full class periods to get his attention to help me and when I did get his attention it would be rushed and not explained right. Even though I would go to his office hours or after school, there would still be other students there asking for his help and the same routine would play again. I was a struggle to get my teacher to understand I was serious about my grade in my class and that I was different. I believe the reason why he wouldn’t take me serious was primarily because of the stereotypes my race holds. My race is not known for the qualities that I was trying to portray in class.

Therefore the teacher probably assumed I was like everyone else in my race. I still do not understand why he didn’t see me different since I was always looking and asking for help. A lot had to do with my race. This obviously made me conscious of my race because I was seeing my race was the dominant impression of me and not for the qualities I had. I started to think that my grade in class was going to be based on assumptions about my race. That was the obstacle I faced in class, being conscious of my race. However I turned that into motivation to strive as hard as I can to pass the class. I looked and found help outside of class because I gave up on the teacher and passed the class with a B+ 86%. I hope I left an impression on the teacher and made him think differently of my race. Since the experienced I had in that class has made me stronger and proud of my race because I feel like I should be part of making a difference in my race.

Deviant behavior out of hand

"Charlottesville Police have charged 22-year-old University of Virginia student George Huguely with first-degree murder in the death of another UVA lacrosse student, 22-year-old Yeardley Love." -CBS News

Last monday a young lady was found dead and whose body showed signs of physical trauma. The young college lacrosse student was physically abused and later killed by her ex-boyfriend, George Huguely. I am not sure what lead to her death but I know that the murderer was her ex-boyfriend. Her murderer was her ex-boyfriend so that demonstrates what happened was due to a fault that the ex-couple had in the past. The young man probably did not know how to resolve the problem but to use violence and kill his ex-girlfriend. This is obviously a kind of risky and deviant behavior because now the young man is going to prison and serve a lot of time for killing a human being.

This is obviously not the first murder case society has heard or seen about because situations like these have been occurring our whole lives. There are many ways that people deal with their problems. Some release their problems by doing things to avoid thinking about their problems, others like to face and deal with the problem and solve it, and others just get too frustrated and like to completely eliminate the problem. An example of that is using violence. Due to the media and news, we can see that many in society use violence as a problem solver.

My interpretation of why people use violence is because they feel and believe that there is no other solution but to kill those who are causing the problem. There are many reasons for why those individuals murder others. It can be due to jealously, envy, etc. Murderers think they earn respect from killing, however it does completely the opposite. Those who kill other human beings are the cowards in society because they were not strong and brave enough to face the problem with the other individual to resolve the problem. A murderer's perspective is completely different from the average human being. Those who kill do not get the point that destiny is what takes the life away from others, not them. Violent crimes can also come from the past that individuals live. Some live miserable loveless lives and have been suffering through-out their whole life that leads them to kill. The frustration and confusion of their past is what makes them feel like they have nothing to lose.

Society does not accept deviant behavior like these because there are major consequences if one commits a crime, it can even cost their own life.

Group Settings

After reading Schwalbe, I started to recognize how "Group Think" influences many people to make decisions based on the type of group they are surrounded with or trying to be a part of. I interviewed three people who chose to remain anonymous about a time when they regretted a decision or behavior that they engaged in as part of a certain group.

The first individual I interviewed was my mom. My mother got pregnant with my brother at the age of 18, the summer after her graduation. She had the ambition to attend college and receive a degree to have a career and have better opportunities for her future. However she did not have the best kind of friends to influence her. The "road" to go after high school for her friends was not to go to college, instead to get pregnant. All her friends will tell her to get pregnant after high school to have the easy way out in life. They used to tell her that if she gets pregnant, she will have a baby's father that will be forced to support her and the child, basically just be a housewife. Many of her friends already had children so they used to tell her about all the benefits of being a mom and they would rather be a mother then having to still be a student after high school. My mother says she always wanted kids but wished she could of waited until after college to be able to raise a child with a career. It was a risky decision for her to make to have a child at a young age because she was not aware of the hardships of raising a child and having to support the child without the father's support. She later realized that those "friends" she had in high school suddenly disappeared and just wanted to make her life complicated since their life's were complicated and hard already. My brother became my mom's focus in life and I learned from her that "friends" do not always give the best advice. One must be very careful with how "friends" are trying to influence you, it is not always for the good.

The second individual I interviewed was my cousin. She also used to hang out with the wrong kind of group in high school that influenced her to make risky and dangerous decisions. Her friends used to ditch school in the mornings to go smoke at a house. One day she as well decided to follow her friends to do what they were doing. Her friends will tell her how fun it is and how it is better than being bored at school. My cousin was risking a lot but was convinced since a lot of her friends were doing the same and they never got in trouble by anyone. She was risking getting caught by the school and/or her mother. Not only risking of getting caught but putting her health at risk too. It was her first time smoking weed so she was not aware of all the health consequences that go along with smoking. That was not going through her mind though at the time since she was well convinced by her friends.

The third individual I interviewed was my friend. He comes from a rough family background. His family are all gang members and influence him to do decisions that most of the time he does not want to do. He did not really have the choice if he wanted to be a gang member or not since his family influenced him at such a young age. He grew up thinking it was right but as he started to mature and grow up, he started to realize what his family had made him do. He realized the negative influence his family was to him and how it was affecting his life. Being a gang member runs a risky life. All day, everyday day they are being faced with a threat from the opposite gang so therefore the are at risk of a dangerous,deadly consequence. My friend has been trying to get out of the gang but has been really hard for him since his whole family is involved and it will be seen as betraying his entire family.

Everyone gets influenced by a certain group everyday, however it is up to the individual to decide what type of group he/she want to get influenced by. I strongly believe that one should not try to fit into a certain group to get advice and be influenced, instead one should stand OUT!