Emerging Issues

                I think an emerging issue in sociology today is the amount of single people in the United States. As the textbook states back in 1970, about 16% of the population was single and today, 25% of the population is single. The amount of single people could become a major concern. As far as filing for taxes goes, married people that file jointly can receive a bit of a tax break than those who file independently or those who are married and file separately (Bank Rate, 2011). This could be of a major concern because if the amount of single people in the United States continues to grow at a steady rate then in another 41 years there will be 34% of the population that is single, another 41 years after that we’re looking at 43% of the population being single. This may seem a little absurd, but I’m sure in 1970 some people would have never thought that by 2011 one in every four people would be single. Our hypothetical 43% single person rate by the year 2092 could wreak major havoc on the tax system. With so many more single people filing taxes, in theory we would think that the government would have a lot more tax money. We have to think about whether or not society would like this though. Would we see more tax breaks put in place for single people if the rates continue like this (9% every 41 years)? I would think that the structure of society as a whole could be shifted. We would probably see a lot more “singles bars” and things aimed at single people. Although I don’t think that we will ever see that high a rate for single people, especially nowadays with all the pressures on getting married and having kids, etc., it is still an issue that we may have to address sometime in the not-so-distant future.

                Another emerging issue that is affecting society today is the discrimination against Muslims that happens. A lot of people associate Muslims with terrorism or al-Qaeda. Today, in a post 9-11 world, Muslims are still affected by discrimination in the workplace (The New York Times, 2010) and anti-Muslim discrimination is at an all-time high (The New Republic, 2010). Of the 3,386 religious discrimination complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), an independent federal law agency that enforces laws to avoid workplace discrimination, about one-quarter were people of the Muslim religion (The New Republic, 2010). This is an amazing statistic as we see that only 2% of the United States population is Muslim (The New Republic, 2010). Discrimination against Muslims is going to continue to increase unless there are actions taken to stop it. I think the way Muslims have been portrayed on television have led Americans to think that most Muslims act with terrorist ideals or that they are just not the same as Americans or Christians. The good news though, is that it seems, to me anyway, that Muslims are being portrayed as regular people in television now. This is a good step toward helping to stop discrimination against Muslims. Hopefully children will grow up seeing Muslims on television not portrayed as racists, but rather portrayed as just normal people with a certain religious belief that does not entail terrorism. I think the schools need to do a good job of teaching students the difference between “extremist Muslims” the ones that do commit terrorist acts and “Muslims” the ones who practice the Islam faith and do not necessarily partake in the negative parts of jihad, or “struggle”. In the coming years I hope to see actions taken to help stop discrimination of not only Muslims, but all peoples in general. A small portion of people that do a certain thing should not be allowed to put stereotypes on other people of the same kind (religion, sexual preference, race, etc.). Unfortunately we have seen this too much in history and hopefully we can now take actions to make it stop.

References

Bank Rate. 2011 tax bracket rates. Retrieved from http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/2011-tax-bracket-rates.aspx

Big Bang image retrieved from http://ssscott.tripod.com/bang.jpg

Buzzle. (2011). Racial Stereotypes. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/racial-stereotypes.html

Civil Rights Movement Overview. (2008, March 29). [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX_S7y_iiMg

CNN. (2006). Most Americans see lingering racism – in others. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2006-12-12/us/racism.poll_1_whites-blacks-racism?_s=PM:US

Cupich, Blase. (2008, October 27).  America Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11161

Defining Deviance. (2008). Defining Deviance. Retrieved from http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/defdev.html

Divorce Statistics. (n.d.). Divorce Statistics in America. Retrieved from http://www.divorcestatistics.org/

FBI. (n.d.). Organized Crime. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime

Flying Spaghetti Monster image retrieved from http://s3-2.kiva.org/img/w800/196261.jpg

Hemingway, Ernest (n.d.). [Quotation]. Retrieved from  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/crime.html

Huxley, Thomas Henry (n.d.). [Quotation]. Retrieved from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Huxley

King Jr., Martin Luther (1963, August 28). [Quotation]. Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkquotes1.html

Little Rock Nine image retrieved from http://access.teachersdomain.org/resources/iml04/soc/ush/civil/lr9/assets/iml04_img_lr9/iml04_img_lr9_l.jpg

National Geographic (2011). Origins of the Universe. Retrieved from http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/origins-universe-article/

Organized Crime: Causes. (2009, October 16). [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do3iyKWfeMY

Princess Diana (n.d.). [Quotation]. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/family_3.html

The Big Bang. (2008, August 21). [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQzKTedGNE

The Godfather image retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2010-01/51434257.jpg

The Independent. (2010). The power of positive deviance. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/the-power-of-positive-deviance-2054213.html

The New Republic (2010). Anti-Muslim Discrimination at All-Time High. Retrieved from http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/77913/muslim-discrimination-all-time-high

The New York Times (2010). Muslims Report Rising Discrimination at Work. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/business/24muslim.html?hp

The Pew Forum (2010). Summary of Key Findings. Retrieved from http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

Deviance and Crime

            The last of the three chapters I chose was Chapter 7, titled “Deviance and Crime”. The chapter discusses many aspects of deviance and crime. A good portion of the chapter is devoted to outlining the many different theories of deviance. The functionalist, conflict and symbolic interaction theories of deviance are highlighted and the text goes on to discuss what each of the theories entails. Forms of deviance are also featured heavily in the chapter. As far as crime is concerned, different aspects of it are also discussed in the chapter. Organized crime, corporate crime, white-collar crime as well as others are discussed in the text. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/the-power-of-positive-deviance-2054213.html

The link I have provided here will take you to an article on positive deviance. The article is titled “The power of positive deviance” (The Independent, 2010) and the article defines positive deviance as “…an awkward, oxymoronic term…outliers who succeed against all odds.” I chose this article to represent a specific concept from the text, the specific concept being deviance. Deviance is an overarching theme throughout chapter 7. A good portion of the chapter is devoted to deviance and I thought providing an article on the subject would be a good idea.

            The photograph that I chose to utilize to symbolize a part of the chapter that particularly interested me was a still shot photograph from my favorite movie, The Godfather. The part of the chapter that interested me was the section on organized crime, in the textbook a still shot photograph from The Sopranos was used in this section. I chose to use a shot from The Godfather because it was the first movie I ever saw that really showed how a mafia and how an organized crime ring really runs and operates. The shot better symbolizes organized crime than many other photos because most people have seen The Godfather and can relate to its importance in the world of cinema and even the world of mobsters.

The video I have linked is a video on causes and potential cures of organized crime, the video is titled "Organized Crime: Causes" (2009). Organized crime is a concept discussed in the textbook (pg. 169). The video is about 3 minutes long and features a criminologist named Stephen Schneider who discusses different aspects of organized crime and what he thinks can be done to try to reduce the amount of organized crime that we see in the world today.

Link to two Internet sites that provide useful information:

1. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime

This link is to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) site on organized crime. There are a lot of good resources on the site such as an overview about organized crime, types of organized crime and people wanted by the FBI for partaking in organized crime. The site helps provide information on organized crime in more detail than the textbook does. For example the site goes into how to fight organized crime. "To combat the ongoing threat posed by these groups, we have a long-established---yet constantly evolving---organized crime program dedicated to eliminating the criminal enterprises that pose the greatest threat to America. (FBI, n.d.)

2. http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/intrdev.html

This link will take you to a site on an introduction to the sociology of deviance, as the site is titled “Introduction to the Sociology of Deviance” (Defining Deviance, 2008) . The site is a good reference source because it has scholarly articles on different aspects of deviance. An example of what is included is Howard Becker’s “Moral Entrepreneurs: The Creation and Enforcement of Deviant Categories” article. The site is not very long but is good because of the different articles provided. The site also links to other sites that also provide some good information such as a link to a “Defining Deviance” site that discusses deviance in general.

A quote that represents the feelings I had while reading:

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” -Ernest Hemingway (n.d.)

I chose this quote by Ernest Hemingway to represent the feelings I had while reading the chapter because while coming across the part of the text on crime I started to think about the different types of crime, and how war could be seen by many people as a crime. People could see war as a crime because many people are being killed but nobody has to serve jail time for it (excluding war crimes). So this Ernest Hemingway quote really struck a chord with me because of this interesting tidbit about war being a crime. 

Race and Ethnicity

Chapter 15, titled “Race and Ethnicity” is a very interesting chapter. The chapter discusses many different topics including ethnicity, race, minority/dominant groups, racism, prejudice, discrimination, etc. I found this chapter very intriguing to me because living in North Idaho, I see a good amount of racism. The demographics show that the area is predominately Caucasian, so when someone of a minority group is around one could see them being treated differently. Also, the Aryan Nations group once had their headquarters in the Hayden area. I’m not saying everybody in the area is racist, but there are some people that will show that there is at least some racism in the area. Some racism is too much racism. This chapter showed me a lot different types of racism that I didn’t previously know about (such as aversive racism, laissez-faire racism, color-blinded racism, institutional racism and racial profiling)I had previously believed that there was just one type of racism, and that it was discriminating against somebody just simply based on the color of their skin. 

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11161

The article that I have linked you to is one from America Magazine (America, 2011). The article discusses how bishops within the Catholic Church (America Magazine is a Catholic magazine) declared racism a “sin” in 1979 and how they knew that racism was a plague that they thought needed to be dealt with. I used this article to represent the “race” concept that is discussed in the chapter 10. The article is laced with the topic of how Catholic leaders didn’t like racism. 

The photograph provided is a picture of a girl who was a part of the "Little Rock Nine". The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African-American students who enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The picture helps show the hatred of the time of people of separate races that existed only 54 years ago, and that still exists in part today.

 The video clip I provided is one that gives a brief overview on the civil rights movement. The video,  titled "Civil Rights Movement" (2008) helps explain a specific concept from the text. The specific concept being racism; the civil rights movement was completely based on the racism being held over African-American’s of the time. The video goes over the biggest events of the civil rights movement (Montgomery Bus Boycott, Little Rock Nine, etc.). The text also discusses the civil rights movement (pg. 256) as a concept itself.

Link to two Internet sites that provide useful information about concepts from the chapter:

1. http://articles.cnn.com/2006-12-12/us/racism.poll_1_whites-blacks-racism?_s=PM:US

This article is about how Americans still think they see racism today, not in themselves, but in others.  This article helps show the concept of racism that is discussed in the chapter. Only 13% of whites and 12% of blacks consider themselves racially biased, but 49% of blacks said racism is a “very serious problem” but only 18% of whites thought that racism was a “very serious problem”. This shows that people think of racism as a problem in others but not as much in themselves. (CNN, 2006)

2. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/racial-stereotypes.html

This site provides a list of common racial stereotypes. Stereotypes are a concept that is discussed in Chapter 10 of the text. The site lists 14 common racial stereotypes that are persistent today. Sometimes I have to wonder how some of these stereotypes even started. The site helps provide information on stereotypes, a concept discussed in the text. (Buzzle, 2011)

One quote that represents the feelings I had while reading the chapter:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”-Martin Luther King Jr. (1963, August 28)

While reading the chapter, the section on race really stuck out to me. While reading through the racism that is discussed I thought of Martin Luther King Jr. and his “I Have a Dream” speech from Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. The speech he gave completely changed the world and many people were touched by the speech. Every time I think or hear about Civil Rights or racism, my mind immediately jumps to Martin Luther King Jr. giving this great speech.

Family and Religion

Chapter 13, titled “Families and Religion” was chosen as one of the chapters I wanted to focus on because religion is the aspect of sociology that I am interested in the most. Chapter 13 discusses many aspects of both family and religion, including the different types of families (extended, nuclear), the definition of family, and sociological theories on family and much more. As for the religion part of the text, Chapter 13 delves into the six parts of the definition of religion, the different forms of religion and different sociological theories of religion.


http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/origins-universe-article/

The link you, the reader, will be going to here will take you to a scholarly journal on the Big Bang Theory. In Chapter 13 there is a part on the “Defining Religion” section of the text that says “The ordinary beliefs of daily life are secular beliefs and may be institutionalized but they are specifically not religious.” Secular beliefs is a concept that has very much intrigued me. So, for representing an example of a secular belief I used the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory is a good example of a secular belief, because it is not rooted in any religious concepts. I chose this article because it gives basic knowledge of the Big Bang that shouldn't confuse anyone. The article is also from National Geographic (National Geographic, 2011) so it qualifies as a scholarly article and it is a good article for giving a basic understanding of a secular concept. 

This image is intended to represent a specific concept from Chapter 13.  The specific concept I am representing is "secular beliefs" from page 332 of the text. With this Big Bang Theory image I am trying to show a secular belief. The Big Bang Theory is not specifically religious or embedded in any religious nature and is therefore a secular concept.

The video clip I provided is a 3 minute 47 second video on the Big Bang. The video is apply titled "The Big Bang" (2008). I included this video because it helps show a secular belief that I have found very interesting.  As stated before, secular beliefs are a concept briefly discussed in Chapter 13 of the text. The Big Bang is a secular concept very interesting to me because it is one of the most popular secular beliefs out there today. The discovery of the Big Bang completely changed how we saw the origin of the universe.

Links to two Internet sites that provide information on concepts from the chapter:

                        1. http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

                 This link will take you to a site from “The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life” (Pew Forum, 2010) It will show statistics on Christian dominance in America. In Chapter 13 there is a paragraph about “The Dominance of Christianity”. The statistics provided on the linked website will help back-up what the textbook discusses. Statistics included are that among adults over 78% consider themselves "Christian" while 16% listed themselves as unaffiliated (Atheist, Agnostic, etc.), and almost 5% deemed themselves as "Others", these would include Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu peoples.

2. http://www.divorcestatistics.org/

                 This link will take you to a site on divorce statistics. (Divorce Statistics,  n.d.) Chapter 13 has a large section of the text devoted to divorce. The section of the text that is devoted to text discusses many statistics about divorce. For instance the text says that it is a misleading statistic that one in two marriages ends in divorce. The site I have provided also says that this is a misleading statistic.

One quote that represented the feelings I had while reading the chapter:

"Family is the most important thing in the world"-Princess Diana (n.d.)

I thought of this quote while reading the section of the chapter that discussed families. While reading about extended and nuclear families I thought "no matter what situation you are in your family is such an important aspect of your life and we should cherish the time we have with our family."

About Me and Sociology

Hi, my name is Brian Roper. There are a lot of things about me that are interesting and a lot of things that are not. I love sports, my favorite teams are the Kentucky Wildcats (from the University of Kentucky), the Seattle Seahawks (NFL), the Seattle Mariners (MLB), and the list goes on. The thing that I am most interested in now though is discovering my family history. I do a lot of genealogy and find all the stories and people interesting. I think it’s pretty important to discover who I am and where I come from.

Sociology is very interesting to me because I’ve always been interested in how the human brain works. My main interest in sociology is the religion aspect of it. It’s always interested me how many religions there are in the world and how many creation myths there are. There are so many different religions and everybody seems to think that there religion is the right one. I’ve always liked the sociology aspect of religion, because I want to learn what sociology says about this.

The image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) helps reflect my thinking about the power of sociology in terms of helping us understand the world and our own lives. The FSM shows us that sociology can help us discover why we think the way we do. By this I refer specifically to religion. The FSM can show us the power the sociology has in uncovering how and why humans have so many different religions. The interesting thing being that the FSM seems like a really ridiculous religion but is as legitimate as any other one out there. 

"The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence." - Thomas Henry Huxley

This quote by Thomas Henry Huxley helps reflect my thinking about the power of sociology because the quote references the human mind. The human mind plays a major factor in sociology. The 'evidence' quote helps to understand our world because it tells us that we can't just believe everything that we are told, we have to search for evidence and do investigating to help us understand not only the subject at hand, but also the world and who we are.

--Just a heads up, I don't want anybody to think that I'm out to bash religion, a lot of people think that I try to do that. I'm hoping you, the reader, understands that I'm just discussing religion as being a part of the beliefs and that there are many different religions and many different creation myths in the world. If I continue to discuss religion throughout the blog I will discuss religion as such. Thanks.

--Brian 

Flying Spaghetti Monster image: http://s3-2.kiva.org/img/w800/196261.jpg

Thomas Henry Huxley. "Thomas Henry Huxley Quotes" Retrieved from http://iperceptive.com/authors/thomas_henry_huxley_quotes.html