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Socialization process
The role of religion in contemporary society
Socialization process
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Socialization is the process of learning in which an individual in trained to think and behave appropriately within society (Newman 2017). Socialization is an involuntary process; once an individual is born, they undergo the process of socialization and are taught how to be a male, female, or member of their ethnic group. Through socialization an individual is able to develop a sense of self, the unique set of traits, behaviors, and attitudes, that distinguish them from another person (Newman 2017). This author hopes to describe the socialization process through which the lens she did as a female African-American, belonging to the middle class of the United States of America. Growing up in Connecticut, one of the richest states in America, …show more content…
One of the biggest factors that are involved with being raised a an African-American person is the inclusion of church into one’s life. Ever since slavery where many African-Americans were coerced into the religion of Christianity (Weisenfeld 2015), many still belong to the faith. In fact, African-Americans, not including the younger generations of African-Americans, are the most devoutly religious group of people in the United States (Briggs 2015). So, at a young age, respect for religion was taught in the household. The church being a part of the lives of many African-Americans has caused the group to develop a patriarchal view of society (Lindsey 2011). Many African-Americans, and other ethnic minorities, are socialized on how to deal with their status as a minority in American society (Newman 2017). Thus, because there are major race cleavages in the United States, this author was socialized to be very cautious of the police, authority, or any Caucasian-American. There is a script that is taught in almost every African-American family on how to deal with the police, or any figure of authority, to avoid punishment and repercussions. Another lesson that is taught to young African-Americans is how to be prepared for the way you may be treated by Caucasian-Americans. One such lesson is on expect to be watched and followed in department stores, …show more content…
As being part of being socialized as a woman, this author was mostly taught the dangers of being at places alone, especially at night, and what to do in such a dangerous situation. There were also warnings given on what constituted as dangerous situations and how they came about. Some of the norms and behavior that are associated with being a female, alone, in an unfamiliar place are having the keys ready to be used to get in the house or car before reaching them to outpace a possible attacker, always being aware of one’s surroundings, and not dressing in provocative clothes because society believes wearing such clothes invite rapists and molesters to attack. A major part of the female socialization process revolves around the education of sexual assault and rape. About one out of every five women will be raped at some point in their lives (National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2015), and about 91% of the victims of rape and sexual assault are female (National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2015), so education in this area is paramount to anything else. Women are also socialized to believe that they must always put on a performance so that they look their best/be pretty, as determined mostly by the mass media (Wade et. al. 2015). Many women resort to make-up, cosmetic surgery, and eating disorders in order to conform to the body images and beauty
In today’s society, Sunday mornings have become one of the most segregated days all over the world. This common issue is due to racism. Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, and that racial differences produce an inherit superiority of a particular race. (Meriam…2014) One of the common places that racism is portrayed is in church. The most common racial issue is “the black church versus the white church.” Each group, whether they be black or white, tends to stay to their own racial group due to the lack of social acceptance based on the color of their skin.
Socialization is the development or way of learning one’s culture. It is originally modeled by family in the early concepts of values, roles, and overall sense of self. In an analogy, socialization creates the lens in which one sees and interprets the world. The lens that comes from family is like the actual eyeball. It is a part of the person, and cannot so easily be changed or removed to create a new perspective. From the time a White person was born they were shown that an African American was less than. They were seen working the dirty jobs, called derogatory names, beaten, and overall disrespected. On top of just seeing the behavior if a white child tried to test the norm of segregation by talking to an African American, they were punished; making the point of inequality even stronger. This was the process of socialization that was further solidified in their churches, education system, in the media, and in the
African-American is a politically correct term used to refer to blacks within the United States. The roots of many African-American rites can be traced back to African cultural rites. However, it is important to note that not all blacks in America identify with African cultural roots. Therefore, some of the rites found within what many in the United States call African-American culture stem from Caribbean and other cultural traditions. For this reason, when making end of life decisions or funeral arrangements the “cultural identification, spirituality and the social class” the individual identifies with must be taken into account. The black majority within the United States identifies with Afrocentric traditions and perspectives. For this reason the term African-American will be used within this paper to denote the black population found in America as comparisons are made regarding how end of life decisions are viewed and made by African-American culture verses the traditional western European beliefs of American culture (Barrett, 2002).
The fear of that violence limits most women in ways they’ve gotten so used to that they hardly notice and hardly address. The author points out, that there’s no good reason colleges spend more time telling woman how to survive predators than telling the other half of their students not to be predators. This is embedded into our political and legal system, which before feminism didn’t recognize most domestic violence, or sexual harassment and stalking, or date rape, or acquaintance rape, or marital rape, and in cases of rape still often tries the victim instead of the rapist as though only perfect lady could be assaulted or believed. When a woman says something about male misconduct, she is almost always portrayed as delusional, a malicious conspirator, a pathological liar, a whiner who doesn’t recognize it’s all in fun. They are asked questions on their choice of dress or maybe they did something to provoke or encourage this behavior. Solnit used a personal experience where she “objected to the behavior of a man, only to be told that the incidents had not happened at all as she said, that she was being subjective, delusional, overwrought, dishonest and in a nutshell, female” and therefore not a reliable witness for her own life. The truth is not their property now or ever. The implications that women as a
The idea of being accepted in the coloured society at the time was to be to adhere to the customs and culture pertaining to the native. If singing a tribal song was a proud part of some African cultures, the second and third generation slave children who were hybrids did not find their old customs appealing which created a void in an already fragmented African society. The notion that a black child and a white child had the same level of thinking and understanding between them because they followed the same set of rules and aspirations made it a grave task for the other to stay true to his/her culture as the fight between which culture to adopt, adapt and discard created discord between a few sections within the other. While on one hand hoary values and traditions made sense, convincingly the new world theories were far more appealing in nature. If the blackness of the black was on decline, was it as we observed earlier due to the gluttony shared by the lust of progressiveness shared by the self? If this never ending mayhem of progressiveness intertwined with the most material aspect of human behaviour came out at the age of the new found discovery as the Industrial Revolution started, man, be it the self or other was doomed right from the time he sought to address the notion that religion for so long couldn’t. In simple language, man was fed up with the artificial values of progression, dictated by religious scriptures and set out a path for himself to fulfill the desire religion for so long denied him. If the Bible set out the seven deadly sins and other important concepts that religious scriptures often explain, man had set out his seven pointer to do list where the first point was power, second being money, third being able to...
There are many examples of which European religious music have been borrowed by black Americans, the key characteristics of their African-heritage were never forgotten such as improvisation, vocal slides and shouts, call-and-response style singing can all be found even in modern day gospel. Many of the lyrics and texts are performed in a half sung, half spoken manner which became a signature vocal technique. Vowel sounds like “ah”, “oh”, “yeah” etc. are mixed within the melodies as prolongations and or ornamentations to the music. Some words could form an entire melody with such elongations on its own. (Roach 24) Musicians can often alter the melodies and improvised vocal riffs in addition to the main melody which is an extension of the purpose
“At a time when people are seeking to become more culturally aware it is important to note distinctions which make cultures different and unique from one another” (Giger, 2013, p. 163). “Culture involves much more than race, ethnic background, and language” (Smith, 2013, p. 32). Culture is a combination of learned behaviors, beliefs, and values that are reinforced through exposure to social interactions within one’s immediate social group or surrounding society. A personal interview was conducted with Andrea Sinkler, is an African-American female, whose culture influence is mainly attributed from her association with family and social interactions.
“When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
Socialisation is known to be the process which children’s beliefs, goals and behaviours are shaped to in order for them to conform to their social groups, so they can become part of the particular groups (Parke & Buriel, (1998)cited in (Parke & Buriel, 1998). It was found that this process happens to be more complex for African American parents as they have to initially try and socialize their children to adapt to two social groups which are mainstream white society and the black community; which they belong to. Boykin & Toms, 1985; Hale-Benson,(1986), states that, previous research conducted on parents of young people who were middle-class African American; suggested that parents’ socialisation beliefs and goals for children appeared to be distinctive from individuals of other U.S. ethnic groups. This difference is believed to be caused by the cultural model of racial socialization; this is something that is mainly done by African American parents in who are prepare their children with discrimination that they believe they will encounter (McAdoo, 2002b).
Social Stratification in the African American community has changed over the years. Social stratification is defined as a rigid subdivision of a society into a hierarchy of layers, differentiated on the basis of power, prestige, and wealth according to Webster’s dictionary. David Newman in Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life describes stratification as a ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society. From slavery to the present, the African American community has been seen to have lower status compared to white people. Today, the stratification or hierarchy difference between whites and black are not really noticeable, but it is still present. However, during slavery, the difference in social stratification was noticeable. Whites dominated over the blacks and mulattoes (offspring of a white and black parent). The mulattoes were seen to have a higher stratification than an offspring of black ancestry. Because the mulattoes were related to the whites, they were able to obtain higher education and better occupations than blacks. For example, most slaves of a lighter skin tone worked in the houses and darker slaves worked in the fields. As the people of light skin tone had children, they were able to have advantages too. The advantages have led into the society of today. In this paper I will discuss how stratification has been affected in the African American community over time by skin tone to make mulattoes more privileged than dark skin blacks.
Throughout SOCIO 211, Professor Sanderson has repeatedly stated that the things we do every day are not natural. Instead these things are constructed by society. He has repeatedly reminded us that we don’t “see” sociology or culture and that we need to “teach ourselves how to see again.” This has been the main take home point of this class for me. I’ve never realized how much I am shaped by my friends, family, teachers, and others around me. That being said, three sociological concepts have improved my understanding of my relationship with society: socialization, gender, and family. These three concepts have been the most important to me because they all are concepts I’ve related to my everyday life, that I am influenced by, and have been molded into. These concepts have made me realize that I cannot necessarily be whoever I want to be or do whatever I want to do. Because of these three main points, I understand my roles and expectations better in life. I have noticed that I act the way I do because I have been socially constructed to do so through socialization, expectations of gender and gender roles, and by how my family has influenced my view of society.
The mental health and societal issues that encompass the African American community have inspired me to pursue a Master’s degree in community psychology. When I was 11 years old, I became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). My encounters with this association opened my eyes to matters with which I am still enthralled by today. These matters include the social, educational, and political events that African-Americans face on a daily basis. During my youth, I would contemplate why there were constant instances of crime, violence, and disparity in Black communities. As I got older, I began to notice how these issues were affecting communities physically, mentally and emotionally. I became concerned
African-Americans make up approximately 13% of the United States population according to U.S. Census (2001). However, despite representing 13% of the population there is misrepresentation in mental health services for African-American people. We know that research has shown many different indications to explain the lack of representation. Poverty is one of the many explanations given, U.S. census data for the 13.1% of the U.S. population identifying themselves as African American, the poverty rate in 2012 was 27.2%. This poverty rate compares with a 9.7% poverty rate for non-Hispanic Whites (Snowden, 2014). Another study explain treatment differences between African-Americans and European American, according to Schwartz & Feisthamel (2009)
Fear in general drives human beings to be alert of the dangers surrounding us. A woman’s fear could easily be driven by a man just because he is simply a man. In our society we have painted the picture that as women we should be careful when we walk by ourselves at night and we should always be on alert with a weapon ready in hand. A recent study conducted in Canada proved that women were “three times more likely than men to be afraid when walking alone after dark.” (Women against Violence against Women, 2015). Though on one hand our mass media and culture have had an influence to stereotype men to play the “antagonist” when it comes to women walking home alone at night.
The process of socialization is required for the identification process of individuals and groups from the interactions of individuals and groups within a society. The identification process is a process of individuals constructing self-concept, self-esteem, and self-image through the influence of agents of socialization. Self-concept is an idea of the self constructed from the beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others. Self-esteem is the confidence on one’s own worth or abilities known as self respect. Self-image is the idea one has of one’s abilities, appearance, and personality. Agents of socialization assist with the development of attitudes, beliefs, values, skills, and behaviors based on social norms and values. The attitudes, beliefs, values, skills, and behavior help with