Sociological Theory Essay

Throughout America History other cultures have been persuaded to change who they are to fit into America’s standards. In the past few years America has changed into a society fit for

Disuniting of America by Arthur Schlesinger argues in favor of enforcing western ideals like democracy, capitalism, and monotheism onto our students. Schlesinger believes that if we veer off the path, the United States will face ethnic tension present in Eastern Europe and Africa. Under this belief, the United States is heading towards chaos. Every year more people migrate to America and minorities are becoming majorities. For this country to succeed, Arthur Schlesinger believes that country needs to follow tradition and be similar to the rest of those in the United States.

One of the most strived for things in life is academic excellence however the path to it is never easy. Author Thompson Ford’s article “How To Understand Acting White” outlines Stuart Bucks arguments about the irony of desegregation in education. A separate essay written by, Alfred Lubrano, “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” has similar ironies about the average college student. If Ford was to read Lubrano’s essay, Ford would come to a more complex conclusion by incorporating arguments and concepts from Lubrano’s essay. Ford may utilize Lubrano’s essay to expand on certain concepts such as the proximity effect, socioeconomics, and the level of education in top tier schools to further explain the “acting white” phenomenon from his own article.

First, Gravlee explains the cultural perception of race in the United States and how

In 1940, America was dominated by the verge of World War II which dampened the American culture. Everyone was more focused on preparing for war versus focusing on each individual’s religion, clothing, language, music, race, etc. There was a slight expression of racism, where African American were not allowed to donate blood to save the lives of fellow servicemen (Tindall, George Brown., and David E. Shi, p. 897,2013). In today’s society, America is considered to be a “melting pot”. People from different cultural backgrounds have migrated from all over the world and have influenced American living through religion, music, education, food, arts, etc (Bargo Jr, Michael, 2016).

Solommon Yohannes October 5th, 2017 Sociology& 101 Mr. Woo Racial Inequality Viewed Through the Conflict Perspective Lens The racial inequality that we have in modern day blossomed from the historic oppression and comprehensive prejudice of minority groups. From the very beginning of “American” history, other groups of people who were not of European decent were discriminated against and treated inhumanely and without the smallest regard for their lives. Native American populations were decimated by diseases brought oversea by Europeans and forced from their ancestral lands by settlers to make room for their expanding populations.

The ability for people to look at a situation from a different perspective is vital in today’s globalized society. Diversity is the most important, core attribute we each share that gives us the ability to assess new situations through our diverse backgrounds and upbringings. Unlike Patrick J. Buchanan’s argument in his essay titled “Deconstructing America,” diversity is a necessity in America’s culture as opposed to the burden it is described as. Conversely, Fredrickson 's essay titled “Models of American Ethnic Relations: A Historical Perspective,” illustrated a more precise version of American history that disproves Buchanan’s ethnocentric ideologies. Buchanan speaks of diversity on a narrow, one-way street.

Liu uses this strategy to explain to us why Americans have a hard time pulling away from traditional culture and embracing multiculturalism. This stems from the fact that in the past, politics and media coverage during the beginning of the culture wars put the two in contention. He acknowledges in the article that “The assumption was that multiculturalism sits in polar opposition to a traditional common culture” (Liu 10), in contrast, Liu wants his readers to understand that this is not the case. He also negates the mentality people hold that non whites didn’t play a role in shaping America. He uses Ronald Takaki’s argument that says, “Since well before the formation of the United States, the United States has been shaped by non whites (Liu 11)”.

C. Wright Mills puts forth in Ch. 1 “The Promise” that the discipline of sociology is focused primarily on the ability to distinguish between an individuals “personal troubles” and the “public issues” of one’s social structure. In the context of a contemporary society, he argues that such issues can be applied by reappraising what are products of an individual’s milieu and what are caused by the fabric of a society. The importance of this in a contemporary society is that it establishes the dichotomy that exists between an individual’s milieu and the structure of their very society.

The sociological perspective encourages us to explore societies’ problems from a non-biased perspective. When investigating controversial issues it is quintessential to keep one’s opinion out of the equation. As C. Wright Mills stated in his 1959 essay “The Promise”, “Problems and their solutions don’t just involve individuals; they also have a great deal to do with the social structures in our society” (Leon-Guerrero, 2015). Eliminating personal experiences and self-perception creates an even playing field to determine fact from fiction.

It’s emergence become prompted by the methods of natural sciences, and within that perception, that society can only be studied through legal guidelines. Only then, sociological research is much coherent and the findings may be generalized unto certain extent. Hence, not all sociological finding is revolutionary. Many findings eventually seem to agree with common sense. In relation to this, one way that a sociologist can find out whether a belief is true or the other way round is by systematically test the common sense belief against facts.

One’s personal situation is linked to current history and the society they live in. The correlation between the two is called sociological imagination created by American sociologist C. Wright Mills in his essay, Sociological Imagination. In clarity, “neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both” (Mills 1). In order to develop such skills, you must be able to free yourself from one context and look at things in a different point of view. He argued that one of the main tasks of sociology was to transform personal problems into public and political issues or vice versa.

Nowadays, technology devices become plays an important role in our daily lives, especially in adolescents’ categories. While there is a very clear argument for how the technology is effected on us and causing social isolation as we know, but in another way is also the argument that these technologies are helping us to become more social in our society. This is very probably because we have a good and perfect ability to communicate with each other. Despite long distances. We all know that the goal of technology is to make our lives easier and more efficient.

In today’s modern society, everyone is largely affected by society. From multiple social institutions like the government and economy for instance or even the effects of education and mass media; these all play a huge role in an individual’s relationship, behavior, and actions in their society. For an individual to understand things like a “culture” or why every society has a ‘social class hierarchy,’ they will be directed to “Sociology”. Sociology is the systematic study of the structures of human society and social interaction. Sociology attempts to understand how things like society, social events, interactions, and patterns influence the way humans think, act, and feel.

Sociology is the scientific study of human social relationships and interactions. Sociology 's subject matter is diverse. Subject matter for sociology ranges from the micro level of an individual and interaction to the macro level of systems and the social structure. At the society level, sociology examines and explains matters like crime and law, poverty and wealth, prejudice and discrimination, schools and education, business firms, urban community, and social movements. We can see these subject matters crystal clear as sociology ranges from crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture and from social stability to radical change in whole societies.