Week Five Discussion Board soc 1 001

The chapters on social class, race, ethnicity, and gender taught us Sociological definitions of key terms and general research findings. Each chapter also discussed inequality based on class, race, ethnicity, gender, and age. Please share an observation of inequality or discrimination based on any one of these. The observation does not have to be your personal experience; it can be based on what you’ve seen in the news. You are free to share a personal experience if you wish. Structure you discussion board into sections as follows:

1. Identify whether your post is about class, race, ethnicity, gender, or age.

2. Share your example of inequality or discrimination (note the sociological definition). If you use a current event, please include the link.

3. Share your reaction to your observation.

4. Provide one suggestion for how we can reduce discrimination in our society.

Each post should be a minimum of two paragraphs. Your post is due on Thursday; responses to two students are due by Sunday.

Please let me know if you have questions.

First reply:

My post is about race. I’ve followed a Korean-American YouTuber named Sophia Chang ever since I was in middle school. This is mainly because it was so nice to see people who I could connect with culturally, even if she wasn’t a big celebrity at the time. She’s now what you would call an influencer, and has a relatively large following. Back in September of this year, I remember going on Instagram and watching her stories where she sat down to talk about an experience at a restaurant down in Newport Beach. She described how her and her sister were seated in this restaurant when a Caucasian male passed by them and told them to “Go back to Wuhan.” They were shocked, and when the man passed by their table again they asked him why he said that. He responded, “I don’t speak Chinese” before going to his table. The waitress was there, and eventually the restaurant manager asked him to leave. This story actually blew up and caught the attention of many people to the point that it even aired on multiple South Korean national broadcasting stations. My first reaction was shock and then anger at the complicit ignorance of people like this man. I wanted justice for her and for anyone else who has directly experienced something like this. He worked for Prudential, and many were relieved when Prudential made a statement to fire him. There has been some uncertainty on what pretense they let him go since his LinkedIn suggests that he was laid off due to COVID, but for now at least there’s been some accountability. Growing up on an island that is truly a mixed pot and where no one is really a minority group, I had the privilege of never truly worrying about something like this happening to me or anyone else.

Second reply:

My post is about gender. Something I’ve noticed over the years is the discrimination and sexualization of women. Since childhood, we have been taught through school dress codes to cover our bodies at the convenience of men so they don’t get “distracted”. Our bodies are so sexualized that even the sight of a young girl’s shoulder is a “distraction” in school settings. And now as adults, we are still criticized and sexualized for what we wear. If a woman wears a crop top and a mini skirt, people assume she’s looking for sex in some way. Crop tops were originally created for men because they wanted to get around gyms’ dress codes about not wearing a shirt. Nobody said anything when men wore it but now that women wear it, it calls for harassment and judgement.

My reaction to this is anger, disturbed and vexed. It makes me angry that women are put down for doing same things men do, or even just normal things. Men are praised for sleeping with many women but if a woman sleeps with many men she’s called a “hoe” and a “slut”. What angers me most is when people respond to rape with “what was she wearing”. It shouldn’t matter! What a woman wears is not an invitation to her body! It’s also quite disturbing to think that I could possibly be raped because a man thinks what I’m wearing is a cry for sex. It’s almost as if we aren’t recognized as people.

We can reduce this discrimination by taking away the focus on gender and instead just treat everybody the same. We should stop labelling things like toys or clothes as “girls/boys clothes” and “girls/boys toys” because that suggests that boys and girls can’t like the things assigned for the other gender to like. We should also abolish school dress codes. Children should be taught from a young age to respect the sight people’s bodies and clothing choices. And if the seeing a girl’s body distracts a boy so much to wear he feels the need to act upon it, he has a problem and that should be discussed before he grows up to be a rapist.