Shaping American Society Essay

In the poem “America” by Tony Hoagland, the author discussed the American lifestyle, and the culture presently in his own perspective and opinion. I agree with his opinion about the people in America, and the atrocious reality that we are living in today. This present reality that Hoagland addressed reflects my view and my perspective not just about the people who lives in America, but innumerable people that lives on Earth. Hoagland, not just criticized the lifestyle and the way Americans are living, but also the materialism that exists in most of the people.

Race, class, and gender are all things that made an impact on early society. If your race class and gender were all were right, you were bound to become a powerful person. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how class, race, and gender all come together to rule society. Mayella Ewell demonstrates power because of her race, but shows no power in other aspects.

Punishments for crime and bad behavior have been seen in different ways with some thinking we should be lenient and not give criminals hard times, while others thought that a more severe, brutal punishments to truly emphasis right from wrong. The articles “Time to Assert American Values” by an editor from The New York Times and “Rough Justice A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate About Crime and Punishments” by Alejandro Reyes both describe the trial of a teenage boy from the United States who was caught vandalizing in Singapore. Both authors of the articles examine in great detail, the punishments that the young boy should receive for his crime with both articles contradicting each other. After carefully analyzing

Income inequality is an ongoing issue in the world and race plays a major factor with this discrimination. The racial wage gap between black and white women has grown substantially since the 1980s (Pettit and Ewert 2009). Racial and ethnic wage gaps are significantly larger for men than for women. Based on the 1981 CPS date, black-white earnings are 0.67 for men vs. 0.97 for women, while Hispanic-white earnings are 0.72 for men and 0.90 for women (Bayard, Hellerstein, Neumark, and Troske 1999). I am going to explain two factors that contribute to income inequality, race and ethnicity, and gender.

Eugenics or “good breeding” is meant to improve the human race through the gene pool using various methods. Similar to designer babies, the process could be used for good, but like Colin Tudge points out, “…although guns and bombs can be used as agents of peace, [humans] should not be overly surprised when in practice they are used to make war” (Tudge 282). Eugenics can be performed simply by regulating who and who cannot mate. It can also be done by sterilization, a procedure that permanently blocks pregnancy in a woman, which was a reality for many. The most famous account was performed by Germany, specifically the Nazis, during WWII, when 400,000 women were sterilized (Tudge 284). The list of countries does not stop there, though, Canada, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, and Sweden all allowed for sterilization. Even the United States participated by sterilizing up to 100,000 people (Tudge 284). Its participation happened between 1911 and 1970, when six states passed laws that allowed the government to do such a horrible thing. “Horrible” can be used to describe the sterilization that occurred due to the countries’ reasoning behind it. The women were not given the choice, but rather the procedure was done to those that were deemed “feebleminded.” Germany took this a step further and based sterilization on race (Tudge 284). Through sterilization, the

What is America to you? Democracy is what first would come to mind, it is the core value of what America stands for. Being democratic has given the United States of America a title of a leader of change by its people. Recent survey information from local University of California, Santa Barbara students, the millennials feel as though the democratic system is up to our values with improvement of representation toleration in our nation.

Well, as many of you might already now, I am here today to give you all some basic information about the USA and the daily life in the states. You all just saw a video with typical American things to give you all a first impression about the daily life in America.

All nations at one point have experienced a few different types of challenges in their history. America suffered through plenty of challenges throughout its history that have been overcome. America has been through many obstacles, but they were only realized after the problem was solved or confronted. These challenges include slavery, women’s rights, tyrants, terrorists, and innumerable more. Though confronted with challenges throughout America’s history, the main three obstacles in America today is the divisions between the public, sensitivity of some individuals, and sense of entitlement among some of the youth.

When learning about some of the laws and policies enacted throughout history, it is important to understand the historical, social, and political context in which it was created. This does not mean that these contexts justify or alleviate blame from those who enacted these laws or policies, rather, examining the origin of these laws through an interdisciplinary approach can help to understand why these laws may have been created. Adam Cohen’s Imbeciles, discusses the United States eugenics movement and the sterilization of Carrie Buck. Using concepts from Kitty Calavita’s Invitation to Law and Society, Carrie Buck’s sterilization will be analyzed from the lens of law and society scholarship. The sterilization of Carrie Buck shows the impact

Throughout the ages racial inequality and social injustice have been prevalent. Equality and justice play a large part in defining our social and internal belonging, as it helps forge connections with those around us. However though the centuries racial equality and social; justice have been hard to achieve, even now in the modern era. However, both social justice and racial equality have made large steps in the right direction; change has occurred but racial inequality still exists. Social conventions and generational behaviour becomes one of the largest obstacles when facing any type of change; and racial equality is no different.

In 1917, a law was passed creating the Oregon State Board of Eugenics. Eugenics is the concept of promoting people with sought after physical and mental traits to reproduce in order to enhance society. The board was allowed to sterilize inmates and patients in prisons and mental institutions, and if they could not reproduce, the thought was it would improve society. However, in 1983 the law was abolished. Sterilizing people does not stop the following generation from having physical or mental abnormalities nor does it prevent crime, using genetics to predict the mental state of future generations is not logical, and the sterilizations were unfair and inhumane. Based on the evidence, it was the correct decision to terminate the Oregon State Board of Eugenics.

For countless years, there has been deliberate bigotry against people of color all around the world. However, today in America the social prejudice against the African American race has become almost entirely a thing of the past. Researchers argue that the discrimination people of color face has lessened over time and the barriers between whites and blacks have weakened.

The supreme court was approaching the subject by looking out for the population as a whole, rather than as individuals. The intentions of the movement were to eliminate the passing of specific traits that socially unfit person’s possessed and to isolate traits that were considered socially superior. The social incentives were based off of a utilitarian point of view, in that it may have hurt individuals, but it will ultimately better society. The values of this time period can be seen as continuing segregation, not just with race, but with disability and mental illnesses. The reasoning behind the eugenics movement, as stated by the supreme court, was “instead of waiting to execute degenerative offspring for crime… society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind”. The supreme court ruled in favor of the sterilization of Carrie Buck, for the evidence presented proved that she would not produce offspring that would be beneficial to society. By overlooking individual’s rights, the courts made decisions that were only favorable to the isolated groups, thus furthering the separation in the country. The social implications from the influence of immigration increased segregation through non-modifiable factors such as race and

Perspective is a chosen approach that can be used to study any subject in the field of sociology. These perspectives highlight the diverse methods an individual selects to analyze a theme and how they perceive the society in general. Three sociological perspectives include functionalist, conflict and interactionist perspectives (Thompson, Hickey, & Thompson, 2016, p. 2). Throughout this paper, I examine how we analyze the role of television from the functional, conflict, and interactionist approaches.

America’s identity is defined differently by every individual. Ideally it was to be a place of freedom and acceptance, identified by its message of liberty and hard-work, however the question arises whether America is a melting pot in which only one culture dominates or it a mosaic of many peoples’ histories. America’s potential and true identity lies within its ability to assimilate and create a natural individualism despite race, class, and immigration standing.