Third Set of Padlets. by Jaisika Singh

(O) Chapter 9: Social Stratification in the United States.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-16 05:27:02 UTC

Social Stratification in the U.S. is a power structure covered as meritocracy. Stratification is about one's class, status, wealth, and power. Close systems are slavery, estate, and caste system, which is something that people can't control. Wealth, money is something that gives us access to education, healthcare, and anything else that could make us "look better". Americans believe that by working hard we have upward mobility but in fact there's a lot of inequality. If someone's poor, it's their fault, they didn't work hard enough. They blame the person, not the system. The way people act, eat, work, commute, where they study, what car or house they have, decides a person's class.

Caste is different social groups based on status that rely on wealth, education, income etc. I, myself, am from Punjab. Everyone in Punjab belongs to a caste. There are high and low classes. I come from the Jatt caste. There are lower castes than that and people in India actually do believe in caste system. Me growing up in Greece, I never had to worry about castes, who to make friends or talk to.

From all of this reading, and the different views on how stratification is, I don't really agree. Why do people have to look at someone thinking about their class? Shouldn't everyone be equal? Even in today's generation, people keep being old-minded.

(H) The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All, Herbert J. Gans.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-16 05:50:55 UTC

Gans explains what the poor have been dealing with. I actually can imagine how hard would it be in today's world to have a society where nobody is identified by a class and is equal. Because jobs and managers know that the poor need those jobs to live. Only if someone that actually cares about their work, would change it to have a better experience working, and if that is the case, there can also be made tough decisions regarding their business/work. Most of us are working for money. May as well be like the poor.

The poor are doing "dirty jobs" that a middle class or higher-class person wouldn't like to do. So, the jobs should go to lower-class people. Eventually, someone has to do them. That is the mentality of today's society and unfortunately the reality of the most of us.

(H) Moving Up from the Working Class, Morris & Grimes.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-17 03:35:58 UTC

This chapter written by Joan M. Morris and Michael D. Grimes relates to me personally because I also used to listen to my parents say that I need to be well-educated or do better in order to be successful. In the household I was raised this was the point that I was being reminded over and over again how I should be successful and I need to attend college. Parents from the working class teach their kids about values, norms, and hard work. Now, I am an adult, and I still listen to my parents. Sometimes even others. For example, when I tell some old typo aunties what I want to do, some may like it, some may not. That's because of the mentality and how themselves were raised. There's a stereotype in Indian families where only a doctor is considered a high profession. Although some parents try their best to teach their kids good things, when those kids grow and go in the actual world, they learn about things that nobody never told them. Smoking or drugs, for example, when kids start high school, they think that it's a trend, so they'll just give it a try. But they end up getting addicted and choosing the wrong path.

Working class families are all about hard work and I think there's nothing wrong from teaching and wanting the best for your child. My father used to work at least 14 hours a day. He's always wanted me to be successful and not have the need to do jobs he did in the past. I am now studying what I want with my family's support to make them proud and assure them that their hard work paid off. And I'm more than happy to do it, although I have my moments.

The reality is that the system is not going to change. Immigrants come with the hope of a better future, but they put years of hard work, only to go from working class and reach close the middle class.

(H) The U.S Upper Class, Stephen Higley.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-17 03:59:37 UTC

In this article of Higley, we are forced to think about how would have life been if we were born in a rich family? Upper class people teach their kids how to continue their traditions and legacy. Rich people think they are equal, but in fact, there's a lot of pressure between them, jealousy all around I'd say. Although upper class comes with its advantages, like everyone is provided with goods, there's a lot of social pressure, especially from the families to the kids. For example, a kid has to attend a specific expensive school, or continue their parent's business, meet with specific people etc. There are a lot of limitations. Kids born in these families have no choice, it's something that can't be changed. These people tend to stay within their social classes and refuse to interact with lower classes. What would happen if a girl from a very rich family is in love with a lower-class boy and wants to marry him? The family simply wouldn't accept it because he's not their ''level".

Rich kids attend private schools, universities, clubs, and therefore connections keep building up. That's a way of securing a safe adult life. They know where they're going to study, where they're going to work and how much income will they be getting.

Required entry: Watch the YouTube video "Wealth Inequality in the United States".

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-17 04:15:53 UTC

It is really devastating that the reality is not what we actually think it is. To be honest the data that was ideal, I thought that would be the truth. I really don't understand how rich people are getting wealthier when everyone is doing the same hard work. What's more shocking is that this video is from 12 years ago. I can't imagine what it would be like today. Basically, in the data, poor don't even exist, and then middle-class people are like poor. It's all about social class. Upper classes will hire upper classes for higher positions and lower-class people for lower positions even if having excellent qualifications.

(O) Chapter 11: Race and Ethnicity

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-24 23:01:05 UTC

Race is based on skin color and skin tone. Ethnicity means culture. This chapter makes us how race and ethnicity are socially constructed and how they can actually affect our daily lives. It is so weird that years ago some of the races were not even written in documents. Races are not even biological. It's something we create to judge people. Ethnicity is very complicated; we may have a different ethnicity and be categorized racially different. I hate how we see different friend groups, for example, minority and dominant groups. How high-level status people stay together and low-status people can't fit in. Some races are majorly judged and treated unequally and mostly face struggles.

Racism, nowadays, is a huge problem in today's society. Thinking that one race is inferior to others, is just so wrong. Some societies privilege white people more than other colored people. Although we think that times have changed, racism continues in many forms. Immigrants face racism. Why? Just because they have a different color or they came hoping for a better future.

(H) Page, Showing My Color

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-29 00:11:30 UTC

In this reading of Page, he expresses how life was for him growing up in America as an African American man. He got to know about race and the differences he had with other people. It is so disappointing going to places and getting denied entrance only based on skin color. How are others allowed in and I'm not? I have not experienced this, though, when I was in primary school, I would only be the one not getting invited to parties, and that's because of my color. People think race inequality and racism has finished, but the truth is that the people that think this way, will not change, and therefore they will teach their kids the same and how there's nothing wrong with it.

(H) Ezekiel, The Racist Mind

tzaisikasingh — 2025-10-29 00:24:40 UTC

In this reading, it is explained how racism or prejudice is not taught from knowledge, but we learn it through social interactions. Prejudice is not bult in us, it is developed with the society. For example, immigrants or black people finding jobs, meanwhile a white cannot. They're told that the reason for their problems are those others. I agree that many people tend to hate on others because they have a feeling of being insecure. So, hating is a way to feel powerful or that they are ahead of them.

Required entry: Tell me at least one way you socialized in your gender.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-11-06 19:01:47 UTC

Talking about gender socialization, for me to socialize in my gender, the main way was my parents. I think gender socialization begins in early childhood. My parents used to dress me in pink clothes, used to buy me "girl toys" like barbie dolls or pretend kitchen set ups. Even when I started school, everything was pink, my school bag, my notebooks etc. Getting influenced, I started feeling like other girls too, I wanted to dress like them. Although in middle school, I went through a tomboy phase. But again, in high school when we all grew up, I saw all my friends doing makeup, wearing dresses, heels etc. To fit in with them, I started dressing like them. Although I can act like boys sometimes. Honestly, these are just stereotypes, boys wearing blue and girls wearing pink or acting differently. It's just different behaviors.

(O) Chapter 12: Gender, Sex and Sexuality

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-02 02:48:23 UTC

Sex is what we're biologically born with, which a lot of people confuse with gender. Gender is actually what a person represents. I agree that society creates and has expectation for how a man or a woman should behave, accordingly to their sex. For example, the majority of construction workers are men, we'll rarely see a woman working in this field. Usually there's also a wage gap between females and males. We express our gender by behaving, dressing, talking a certain way. I learned to be a girl from school, watching girlish shows, and how my parents brought me up. Sexuality is how we sexually feel about someone. Most of the time people get judged for having a certain sexuality.

Additionally, I want to mention how feminism was created to have gender equality but nowadays people have defined feminism as something else. For me feminism is having equal rights as men have and not higher. Girls think wearing certain clothes or not cooking is feminism.

(H) On Becoming Male: Reflections of a Sociologist on Childhood and Early Socialization.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-02 02:58:49 UTC

In this chapter. James M. Henslin express how men and women are expressed differently. Basically, childhood plays a big role in gender socializing. Boys were blue and girls wear pink. Boys would get toys such as cars, puzzles, or even weapons. Girl toys are considered barbie dolls, little pretend kitchen set ups, playing as a teacher. These toys show the expectations from each gender. Throughout the years, when puberty hits, boys are expected be tough and athletic and girls are expected to be nice, kind, respectful etc. Reality is that all of these things have nothing to do with our genes. Ever since we're born, we're taught how to behave, talk, act according to our gender.

(H) On Becoming Female: Lessons Learned in School

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-02 17:30:31 UTC

Donna Eder expresses what girls have to go through in their daily lives, even in school. She mentions a cheerleading set where girls are competing to get a spot. Shocking thing is that the ones choosing the girls are looking for good looks and weight which is very unfair. Boys also judge girls. The way they look at women says a lot. Myself, growing up I was overweight during middle school and high school and I could feel being judged. Women get judged everyday based on their appearance. As a woman, this just makes us even mor insecure. We feel unsafe.

(H) Thorne & Luria, Sexuality and Gender in Children’s Daily Worlds

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 00:59:50 UTC

This chapter talks about children plays/games. I remember when I was a kid, we had selected different spots for girls and boys to play at my school. I mostly used to play with the same gender as me. For example, we used to play princesses in a castle, as far as I can remember. Even at home, I used to get my little brother be my patient and I'd be the doctor. I enjoyed it but my brother didn't really. He was more the type of going out and playing soccer with his friends. We did have games that were mutual, but it would still end up as boys vs girls. That still happens at my family get togethers, when we play little silly fun games.

(H) Tannen, But What Do You Mean?

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 01:10:47 UTC

Tannen writes about miscommunication between women and men. Tannen says biggest miscommunication occur during apologies, thank-yous, criticism, fighting, praise, jokes, and complains. Both genders have different ways of expressing themselves. I 100% agree with this. And now by reading this, I can realize why me and my older brother easily get into arguments. We say in a way that we think is appropriate, but we never know how the other person will take it. Maybe they'll think I'm rude, offensive or who knows? But this is clearly not my intention. There actually is no right way to talk.

(H) Katz, The importance of being Beautiful

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 01:19:01 UTC

In this reading, it's highlighted that how people with beauty are advantaged in this country. They're favored in jobs, schools, and anywhere else. They could also get a higher salary. This is something very sad in today's society. Instead of attractiveness and good looks, we should focus on knowledge, hard work, and talent. To be honest, people that know that are pretty, also use it intentionally for their own good. They manage to get away with anything and easily influence the other person.

(H) Miller, Women in the Military

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 01:34:36 UTC

As we all know, in the old times, women were not allowed in the military but not long ago women started joining the army. Miller talks about how men reacted on these women coming to the military. Society pressurizes women not to do certain things, for example, sports and gym, since they're male concentrated. Men were scared that women would start taking their place since they have better educational qualifications. Some accused that women had easier training standards or if someone's pregnant, it would be an excuse to do less work. Gender harassment is actually true and many military women go through it. I believe that women and men are equal, and women are 100% capable of doing anything that a man also does.

Required entry: Go to the toy section at Target or Walmart. Are there different sections for boys and girls?

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 01:45:04 UTC

I went to a Walmart, and I noticed there are different sections for girls and boys. The whole girl's section was pink, and the boy's section was blue. Girl toys included pink dolls, kitchen sets, little animal toys. Meanwhile, the boy's section had cars, construction related objects, legos, or cartoon characters like spiderman. I saw a pink magnetic set play that had 2 girls on it and said "dress-up dream team". It's very obvious that a boy would not like that toy, but a girl would get so excited.

Required entry: Look at magazines or websites devoted to beauty and examine the first 50 images you find.

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 01:55:44 UTC

I went through different websites, and I did not see a single man. Every site advertised a woman. I did see different races, but what I noticed was that all models were young and good looking. There were no old ladies or women that are overweight. This actually connects with Katz's article for the importance of being beautiful. This can affect society in a bad weight. I am overweight and looking at magazines or websites with only skinny girls, make me insecure and I lose my self-confidence.

Required entry: develop a Padlet post on race considering the additional following questions: What is race? What does it mean to say that race is socially constructed?

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 02:01:12 UTC

I asked different people and myself, and I've come to realize that race is not a real thing. It's something created by the society. Almost everyone has the same answer as me. I'm considered Punjabi. Why though? That's how I grew up, hearing my parents and everyone else say we're Punjabi. My parents come from Punjab. We define someone's race mostly from their skin color and where they're from.

(O) Chapter 7: Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 02:16:21 UTC

This chapter explains the deviance is not always bad. We as a society, decide what's bad. We consider something wrong, which might be right or normal for someone else. We think criminals are the ones doing the crime but in fact it's who actually gets caught. There are many innocent people, that are held in prison, because the real criminal got away and somehow they got stuck. This chapter also shows that labeling matters. Once you're called a criminal, that's it. Tou will have to carry the weight of it your entire life. It can affect personal relationships, career, or job prospects.

Another thing I completely agree with this chapter is that there's so much inequality in the justice system. If you have power and money, you can easily get away with your crime. And if not, you will be punished even more. I believe that's absolutely unfair.

Henslin, Eating Your Friends is the Hardest

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 02:41:13 UTC

Reading this chapter kind of disgusted me, I'm not going to lie. Basically, Henslin writes about cannibalism and how it adjusted the definition of deviance for many. He mentions a plane crash from 1972 in which people were waiting to get rescued. In the start they mainly survived from things they found in the plane wreck. But later on, since there was no rescue coming anytime soon, a medical student there said they could eat human flesh from the dead passengers. Some were disgusted in the beginning and considered it unethical. But the fact is that it was a life or death situation. They would die from starving. Everyone ended up eating it. It was meat without a soul.

Trith is that under certain circumstances, when we do not have a choice, we need to unethical things. The only thing that matters is survival and not norms or morals.

(H)Zimbardo, The pathology of Imprisonment

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 03:17:49 UTC

This chapter talks about how prisoners are treated so inhumanely by prisons. They all get the same treatment, either it's someone who's being punished for a robbery or someone who did a murder. Guards play a big role. They forget how to be a human. They have this strong feeling of being powerful, so they treat the prisoners as they like. Zimbardo's experiment revealed that prisons are promoting more violence and they are being brutal to the prisoners. It's better to die than being treated less than a human. Criminals are to prison for a reason. They need to get punished and come out being a better person. But, being treated inhumanely makes them feel low esteem. Or the complete opposite could happen. I feel like going through this violence, it will make prisoners more frustrated, that when they come out, they'll be worse than ever.

(H)Rosenhan, On Being Sane in Insane Places

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 03:31:12 UTC

This study of Rosenhan sending pseudopatients to psychiatric hospital turned out to be very unpredictable. They all went with one fake symptom. Shocking thing is that they got diagnosed as mentally ill. Once that happened, their normal behavior, which they have been behaving normal since day one, started being sign of their disorder. According to them, it was not normal. To sum up, it shows how unreliable these diagnoses can be and how labeling a patient, for example, as mentally ill, can affect treatment.

(H) Hunt, Police Accounts of Normal Force

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 03:44:22 UTC

This chapter talks about the role of police. They are supposed to make us feel safe and do their job correctly based on what they're taught by their education and the law. Cops usually are aggressive and tend to torture people sometimes with no reason, and I feel like they use their power as an advantage. Hunts mentions a cop wanting to shoot someone intentionally. This is very frustrating, when this is not what they're taught. I also agree with men cops being more respected than women. I feel they're equal and they're taught/trained to do the same thing. I do believe that there a police officers that do not do the job correctly. They are supposed to be a safe place for us.

(O) Chapter 14: Relationships, Marriage, and Family

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 03:57:34 UTC

This chapter explains how families and relationships work according to society, culture, and norms. To me, family are my loved ones, For example, my blood related family, but also my friends. We are so close that we consider each other family. For some a family is people living in a home, parents and kids. Marriage creates a family. Adopting a kid, makes it a family. Although, throughout the generations, everything keeps changing. Nothing is traditional anymore. Divorce numbers are increasing day by day, gender roles are being reversed.

(H) Coontz, The American Family

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 04:05:21 UTC

This reading explains how worse American families used to be back in the 1890s. There were issues but nobody made a big deal of it. Today's families are much better. Some people think that marriages in the old times was the ideal family, where a family was led by a man and not a woman. When there used to be families with a man, a woman, and kids, and not two men or two women. My parents see today's marriages as worse, just because of the higher divorce rates. But honestly, I just feel like everyone should be free to take their own decisions without having the society judge.

Required entry: Think about a TV show that you have watched that focuses on a family .

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-03 04:19:38 UTC

I have watched a TV show called Young Sheldon. It's a middle working class family and they have 3 kids. One of their kids, Sheldon, is incredibly intelligent. While the other two are okay. This household goes through a lot of challenges, emotional and financial. Plus, putting extra effort giving attention to Sheldon. Many events happen in the family, and there was a lot of tension in the house. Personally, watching this show made me realize is that no matter how hard things get, the most important thing in a family is to support each other, have patience, stay loyal at all times and be each other's peace.

(O) Chapter 16: Education

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-04 04:32:42 UTC

This chapter explains how education is a social institution, and how it connects people to the society. Every school or every country has its own educational system, and there can be some inequalities, which I absolutely agree with. Education can also be power or limit you in certain areas based on where you are studying. Using a personal example, I come from Greece, and the universities there are fully public. However, you need to pass certain exams in 12th grade and IF you get a good grade, the government will decide where and what you will be studying. And if you don't pass, there are private colleges, but after graduation, the degree has no value in Greece, because the higher institutes are the Greek universities. Even if you want a government job, you need to be graduated from a Greek university. So, I think this is unfair and pretty messed up. We need to do better.

(H) Gracey, Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-04 04:42:41 UTC

Gracey shows how schools basically make our future, starting from kindergarten. We are taught to follow rules and regulations from a very young age. That has led as to now, where we actually follow social rules, just because they're "rules". We don't discuss them or give an opinion. At my last job, I was told to work like a robot, but I did because it was my workplace. Didn't I do the same when I was in school? So yes, I agree with Gracey overall, school does play a big role on our socialization.

Required entry: For the next week take note of whenever you find yourself thinking or feeling someone else is “weird” or “crazy.”

tzaisikasingh — 2025-12-04 04:52:28 UTC

Okay, so, I was driving to school in the morning on Monday, I think it was 9 o'clock and I was in traffic at red lights that are before target and Canes. On the right side there's a plaza where I saw a lady alone, talking to herself and doing weird movements with her hands and body. I immediately said, "she's crazy". Afterwards she got into her car and left like this was normal. For me, it was a psychiatric behavior. Maybe not, but I've seen movies with mental people, and it seemed crazy to me. Talking about norms, I don't really know, maybe not behaving appropriate in public. Whenever I used to do these weird movements when I was a little kid, my parents would stop me saying it's not nice, that's not how you should behave.