A Brox Tale.

          This week in class Sal had us watch an amazing movie called " A Brox Tale." This movie is is about a kid named Calogero who lives in a town that is very heavily influenced by Italian culture. Calogeros father tries extremely hard to make an honest living and to instil this work ethic into his son. The attempts of his father are contridicted by what he see's in his community. When Calogero is very young he witnesses a murder and when the police question him about it he lie to keep his name clean in the neighborhood. Sonny , the neighborhood mob boss, feels like Calogero did him a favor and takes a liking to him. over the years Sonny and Calogero become very close and Lerenzo is not happy about that at all. Calogero kind of stuggle within himself to figure out who he is. He wants to be a good son to Lorenzo, a good friend to Sonny and a good friend to his peers. With all these influences C has to follow the rules. These rules aren't punishable by government but they are in the neighborhood. For example when Calogero tells the cops that Sonny didnt kill the man, he is following the rules. One of these imaginary rules is that you could be a "Rat" meaning you had to keep quite and you couldnt snitch. Another rule was if you were a white person you couldnt date a black person. This rule Calogero breaks in order to try to find "one of the great ones". I believe that todays society also has unwritten rules like how in the "gang leader for a day". I think this movie was kind of like Gang Leader because Sonny was a leader of a gang but he also helped people out in the community. Even though he did bad things it didnt make him a bad man, just like the Gand Leader in the Gang Leader for a day reading.

generalizations.

This week in class I've learned more about different groups and how they influence people. We did an experiment to see how people classed themselves and it was very interesting to watch and see how people saw their influences. in the reading we did in class i liked a point that was made that sometimes people generalize without even noticing that they are. Generalizations can be positive and negative depending on the situation. one example of a negative generalization is a stereotype, but a positive one could be a class average. stereotyping is bad because its making a generalization from no data from the people directly. a class average is good because it takes the information gathered from the people and makes a generalization bases off of first hand data.

sociological mindfulness

when you throw something away do you think of the influence it has on someone or something else? when you go for a walk and pass a person do you smile or look the other way? do you think of how it makes the person feel? if you answered yes you are sociologically mindful. to be sociological  means that you are conscious of your influence on others and of others influence on you. i like to think of myself as sociologically mindful because i believe keeping others happy and not being a burden on others is the least i can do.  i try my best to help someone if i see they are having a bad day whether it is a good friend or a random person on the street.