Final Blog

Upon reviewing my beginning of the semester blog about who i am, i realized some critical flaws regarding my definiton of myself. First of all, i started defining myself with the fact that i am an athlete; i presented that information as the most important compontent of who i am. Althought it is a very important part of who i am, it is by no means the most important. I realize now through sociology how much more of an impact my family and friends have made on my life, and that i wouldnt even be in sports if it wasnt for them. I also realize i didnt even mention academics in my first blog, and that is what my whole future is based upon. Let me repost the definition of myself with my newfound knowledge of sociology.

I'm Matt and this is my first blog ever. I physically do many things that contribute to the person i am today, but nothing defines me better than my family. Ill start with my dad, who is the biggest influence in my life. My dads dad died when he was 13 years old of an illness, and my father remembers feeling helpless. From then on, he dedicated his life to medicine and is now a very successful surgeon. In addition to that, he stays in brillinat shape and eats healthy. My dad is my biggest role model because of his tireless work ethic and his continuous hunger for knowledge. He has inspired me to be the best i can, to excel in both academics and sports. Getting into U of I engineering was the pinnicle of my academic life, and he coulndt have been more proud. He leads the life i want to live, and has been the most important person in my development. I also have two siblings, a sister and a brother, who are both athletic. Without them, i wonder if i develop into the athlete i am today. Their involvement in sports only encouraged my involvement in sports, and today i am a starting catcher on the varsity baseball team, a position i have worked my whole life for. Sports in general have contributed to my character because of the constant exposure to failure. No weak man can make a living playing sports, and it has taught me many lessons about failure and success as well. My family- not my class, my race, my status or my religion- has shaped me into the person i am today. Of course, there are several other minor factors that have built me, but nothing more important.

Mixed Blood

The mixed blood article was a unique account of race in the world. The author contended that race itself does not exist, its just something people create to organize us all into groups. As Americans, it seems obvious that race is a concrete thing, skin color, and how can something that clear not exist? Race is more about the perceptions of people based on their skin color than their actual skin color. And because it is all perception, the actual thing does not exist. For example, someone who may look white can very well be black, if a parent was. According to our society, the offspring of any couple where one of the parents is black is automatically black. Even if the dark skin was recessive and the baby appears white, the baby is still technically black. However, society will not treat this child as a black person, because it does not appear so. If race was truly only skin color, perceptions would not matter. 

Race is different all across the globe. In Brazil there are many different categorizations of people based on much more than skin tone. Brazillians take into account eye color, hair color, body stature as well as skin tone. So, its possible to leave America one race and arrive in Brazil a different one. Race is fabricated to make it easy for Americans to distinguish people, but really it tears us apart.

Crash

This week was the first time i had ever seen the movie crash, and it really laid an impression on me. Its all about different accounts of everday racism, profiling and discrimination. Its amazing how much horrible action goes on everyday, but the ironic part is some of the worst crimes are committed by people who dont claim to be racist. The best example of this from the movie is when the off duty cop picks up the black guy as a hitch hiker, which is something a racist would never do. However, his implicit feelings take over and he cant avoid having hostile and cynical feelings about this man. He ends up shooting him dead because the cop thought the man was reaching for a gun out of his pocket, when in reality he was reaching for his st christopher amulet to relate to the white man. In lincolnshire we are not really exposed to this kind of overt racism, but we know it exists. The movie provided us with a visual, an alarming one at that. overall i liked the movie, even tho i missed day 1.