The Blind Side Sociological Analysis

Intersectionality is explored in the film through Sammy's various identities as white and Jewish, and how these different identities play a role in his perception of his identity and privilege. Following his move from Arizona to California, Sammy’s religion is instantly evident to his Christian classmates and they quickly begin to harass him. For example, the Christian bullies refer to him as “Bagelman,” rather than Fabelman, force him to “apologize for killing Christ,” and beat him openly on school grounds because of their animosity towards Jewish people. Because of the numerous instances of discrimination Sammy faces, he realizes that he is not privileged in the same way that his Christian classmates are, and his sense of intersectionality is put into perspective. According to Crosley-Corcoran, intersectionality “recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and definitely not privileged in others” and that there are various kinds of privileges, besides skin color, that affect the discrimination you may face (Crosley-Corcoran 2).

The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.

When discussing race, we must discuss racism which, as viewed by Revise Sociology, is “discriminatory treatment and inequitable opportunities, based on race” (RS 1). In order to fully understand what that last sentence means, we have to understand what discrimination is. Discrimination is the denial of rights, opportunities and privileges to members of certain racial and ethnic groups (UMN 2). The final two terms we need to understand before evaluating the film The Essential Blue Eyed, is prejudice and stereotyping. Prejudice is the set of negative attitudes, and beliefs towards certain categories of people or certain individuals within certain categories.

In sociology, there are three theoretical perspectives; symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory. The major point of symbolic interactionism is to use symbols to help understand how we as a society view the world, and how we communicate with one another. In functional analysis, the major point is to look at society as a whole, constructed of various parts, or groups, that all have their own function. Lastly, conflict theory is the opposite of functional analysis. In this perspective, society is viewed as different groups, each competing for power, or dominance.

The documentary called The Hunting Grounds, had multiple concepts that relate to sociology. Using a sociological perspective, it was very prevalent to see the ways college campuses use patriarchy and gender stratification to keep women who have been sexually assaulted on campus from disclosing information or even getting help about these issues. Through the discrimination against women at these gender institutions the women formed a Feminist movement to bring awareness and help to the victims on campuses all around the world and to stop the assaults from reoccurring. The Hunting Grounds is a documentary that reveals the untold stories of women on college campuses and how these women have fought to have their voice heard about sexual assault on campuses. Sexual assault and rape on campuses has always been a major problem for colleges all over the world yet very little has been done to protect the students.

The “Outsiders” made me think about the rules that groups give us are strongly founded on what they see as defiance. It made me think that some rules are given within a group are not remotely necessary and that we as a society are to blame for what is deemed as “socially acceptable”. Deviants may not even be actually deviants but that’s what they are labeled by society because they think, what the deviant did was wrong, which could be made up by what society thinks is okay behavior. The relation to this reading and the sociology course shows how society controls us and how they consider we should act. It reminded me of how society tells us as women that showing off our body parts is deemed as trashy and not lady like, but men can do so without

Discrimination, according to the textbook, is the unequal treatment of various categories of people. (Macionis pg.86) In the movie, when the younger generation and some of the older generation start to turn to color from black and white, the townspeople get angry and can’t accept the change. As a result, they start to hang up signs in the stores saying

The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden. How race and stereotypes made

According to Webster’s dictionary, there are several definitions of the word “prejudice.” The prejudices we form are usually out of ignorance and fear. The book, Same Kind of Different As Me adheres to the following definition: preconceived judgment or opinion. Both Denver Moore and Ron Hall epitomized the definition of having a preconceived judgement or opinion of each other. Ron Halls’s prejudice or opinion of Denver Moore is one of a homeless person coming to the mission for another handout.

Society is fooled into believing in the applied connection among people. Benedict Anderson’s idea of imagined communities emphasizes that, “… the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (5). Members of neighborhoods, cities, states, or countries feel a sense of unity with other members for living in the same place or maybe having the same basic values, but true unity comes from understanding the similarities among each other, considering the impact a person can have on another, and caring about lives. Recognizing the importance of lives being socially intertwined is necessary to sustain a considerate society.

Many social issues are portrayed in television shows because they are common in every society so it makes it easy to relate to the audience. One show in particular that has many social issues that are demonstrated perfectly to the audience is a Netflix original show called “Shameless.” This is a show that focuses on a single family in which the father, Frank, is a deadbeat drunk who is never reliable. The mother, Monica, abandoned the family a year or so after she had the last child, she is mentally bipolar. She shows up occasionally throughout the series, but for the most part is in some unknown place to the audience.

In the Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane dates a “White” teenage guy who later becomes physically and verbally aggressive towards her when he discovers she’s Black. I believe this scene was intended to dehumanize Sarah’s racial identity. While reinforcing the stereotype, Black women are “Inferior”.

Michael’s foster parents had been approached by many adults that had told them that Michael was bad for them and their family. People had believed he would steal, hurt, or do something to cause major issues to the family. Since he was of a different race, he wasn’t the “same” as everyone else. Michael’s appearance was what the people recognized him as, not the reality from the inside. He went through every single day being looked at as if he were trash.

Firstly, discrimination a significant part of social psychology is the biased view and/or treatment of a particular group of people or things. In the film, an example of discrimination is when a black waitress at a restaurant does not serve two black guys. She instead chooses to serve only the white people in the restaurant. This is a form of discrimination

Throughout history social scientists have been trying to examine the different parameters of race in terms of phenotypic characteristics, and cultural behaviors regarding the different groups that society construct’s. legally judges have had different rulings regarding the categorization of different ethnicities and groups within the United States. Many philosophers such as Kwame Appiah, and Scientists such as Dr. James Watson have had opposing arguments on the topic of race and whether it exists or not. In order to do so we need to examine the different definitions of race, and analyze them in order to see how race is a social construct, where people’s notions of race and their interactions with different races determine the way they perceive