Rich vs Poor

One of the first videos we watched on this issue was where the wealthy man known as a "wasp" gave standards for how to be of his social class and what it means not to be. It seemed to me that to be of his high social class, you have to act a certain way and it is not enough just to be wealthy. What really frustrated me was when I learned of people that wanted to learn how to be a "wasp" in order to be accepted by those people. I don't understand how someone would want to act a different way out of their personality in order to be accepted by a group of people that won't accept them for who they are.

Another video we watched was a complete turn around. It was about a woman and her kids living in poverty. They lived in a trailer house in Ohio and it was interesting to see the effects this had on the kids and the mom. One kid in his teens was totally embarrassed by his situation and in reaction, tried to act and dress the total opposite of his social class. Although his poor situation seemed to fuel him to want a better life, it seemed to rid him of his roots and who he really was at heart. His mom on the other hand, was not embarrassed of her situation but still tried to make a better living for herself and her kids by walking 10 plus miles to work everyday to Burger King and having aspirations to one day go to college and provide a better life for her and her kids. The difference between her and her teenage son was attitude. Tammy was not proud of who she was, but didn't want to pretend to be someone that she knew she wasn't. Although i can respect both Tammy and her son, her son still has a lot to learn about loyalty and confidence before he can have success in the real world.

The last video we watched in class was thirty days with a guy named morgan. Him and his wife agreed to do a project where they were to live off minimum wage jobs and see the real struggles of the working poor. Through their experiences they learned how to work hard manual labor, live in uncomfortable conditions 24/7 and how to problem solve. Through their experiences, they seemed thankful for their position in life and more tolerant of others who had to actually live through these struggles every day, not just 30 days.

From these videos, I saw that being poor isn't as easy as living in home or an apartment and working minimum wage jobs and there was a lot more behind it than that. Social classes have a lot of effect on how people act and who they want to be like if they are not of the higher class. I thought it was sad that they wanted to be accepted so badly by people with more money than them and the reason to get out of poverty should be to live a better life. The biggest thing I learned though is, the best way you can help out the poor is don't be one.

Positive deviance

Doing an act of positive deviance means to go out of your way to do a good deed that has a positive influence on somebody else. For my act of positive deviance, I didn't really think about it as that til ten minutes after I did it. Tuesday morning on May 2, I was walking to my first hour class on the 8000's hallway and this kids locker was open and he had a real nice basketball inside probably worth atleast fifty bucks and other things worth money. My friend in my first hour class was trying to close it but couldn't and he asked me to try so I did. After about two tries, I kind of decided the situation was hopeless and wanted to leave but I knew I just couldn't leave it like that.  I didn't have a clue of whose locker it was, I was just thinking of how lazy and irresponsible this kid was for leaving it open for somebody to steal his ball. While I was trying to close the locker, which was nearly impossible, I was thinking about just leaving it open because this kid obviously needed to learn a lesson on responsibility but I knew that everybody gets a second chance and it would be the wrong thing to do if I left it open like that. Well, I finally got the locker closed by putting the ball in an odd spot then quickly slamming the locker door after a few minutes of trying and was late to class because of it. But after the fact, I knew I did the right thing and if more people made more acts of positive deviance without thinking about it,  society would benefit alot more as a whole by working together.