Most people do not know that we do not live in a post racial south, some do. We can all tell that racism is still embedded in the south by the different aspects of it. The number one thing in the south is the different stereotypes. There are multiple stereotypes floating around towards different races. People hear stereotypes so much they began to believe it is true. These stereotypes are deeply embedded into people minds to the point where they think it is natural. On the other hand, it is just made to make a group of people look bad when it is really the group who is making the stereotypes up. Take a look at Latinos, the stereotypes associated with them is that they are all abusing drugs. According to Duke University, “Whites are more likely to abuse drugs and Latinos are almost at the bottom of the percentages right above the Asians.” Actually, they are really known for selling drugs not abusing them. Another racist concept that interests me is the public housing. According to the University Of Dayton School Of Law, “Most African-American public housing residents continue to live in extremely minority neighborhoods. These communities tend to be further differentiated by income.” Subprime loans are five times more likely in black neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods. The different school systems show a little racism as well. According to Jean Anyon, “In the working-class schools, work is following the steps of procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision make or choice. The teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned, how it might connect to other assignments, or what the idea is that lies behind the procedure. The children are usually told to copy the steps as notes.” I grew up in a high school like that. We never wrote papers, I wrote one paper during all of my high school years. It’s like we were taught something just to learn it for the test, after the test everything were forgotten. Something I do remember the most is how we were always taught to listen to higher authorities. I was always taught to never over step your boundaries; in other words, don’t think outside of the box. According to Jean Anyon, “In the affluent professional school, work is creative activity carried out independently. The students are continually asked to express and apply ideas and concepts. Work involves individual thought and expressiveness, expansion and illustration of ideas, and choice of appropriate method and material. I still think slavery exist as well, just modern day slavery. You may not see physical slavery but there is definitely a lot of institutional slavery going on.

The reason why I love Sociology so much because it is all about seeing the strange in the familiar. People wouldn’t realize the different inequalities we are dealing with here in The South if it slapped them in the face a couple of times. One concept i realized that is still deeply embedded in the south is the concept of the “Glass Ceiling”. What is the glass ceiling? According to Buzzle.com “Glass ceiling is the mindset of the traditional patriarchal society habituated to discriminate women from basic rights. The term is particularly used for women at workplace who are denied pay equal for the same work as the opposite gender.” The Glass ceiling is a form of discrimination, which is the simplest way I can put it. I see this concept applied to most women of any color and of course people of color as usual. If we go way back to history in The South, the structure of the south was built by mostly buy white men with money. Those who didn’t have money had little to no upward mobility, which leaves the rest of society to be set of for failure.  Back to the glass ceiling concept, women are mostly harassed by society and seen as inferior to men. Concepts such as the glass ceiling can cause psychological problems. This concept is always practiced in the stereotypical society today which can cause more stress in women lives. For example, if you take a woman and man in the work force side by side that are applying for the CEO position of that company, and they both meet the requirements but the woman have a little extra which make more well-rounded than that man. Who do you think will more than likely get the position?  Why? I say the man will more than likely get the position because women are not seen as leaders versus a man. I have also seen this concept applied to a black man or woman versus a white man or woman. Women are being brutally discriminated against and most don’t realize it. It is like you can see the top, but can’t quite reach it. I guess that is why it was named the ceiling.

Another concept will be the Glass elevator, because I explained the glass ceiling I am pretty sure you guess what this one means. The glass elevator is very similar to the glass ceiling in a way. Again, it is all about seeing the strange in the familiar. According to Jenna Goudreau on Forbes.com, “Men that enter female-dominated professions tend to be promoted at faster rates than women in those professions.” This is true in so many ways. A perfect example would be a male nurse, a man who becomes a nurse will be “pushed up” (glass elevator) to a higher position because men are seen as leaders and it would not be “right” if he had the same job as a woman. “Research shows that men in female-dominated jobs tend to fare better even than men in male-dominated jobs, and they typically earn higher salaries, receive more promotions, and achieve higher levels within organizations than their female counterparts.” (Forbes.com) This concept is very sad but true. Soon or later people will realize the strange in the familiar and start beating the odds.

What is race? Why do we as human beings have to be placed in certain categories even though we are all human? I all go back to money. Most people do not know that race is socially constructed. As we were growing up, we were taught that different races have a huge biological difference; which is not true. According to history, America’s structure was built on different racist acts. When you set a structure for something that is the way it is going to continue to be. Slavery is a perfect example. During slavery many African American lives were destroyed which made it hard for them to create wealth for their descendants. I feel like this is something everyone should know and understand. What people fail to realize is that everything that happened during slavery happens in today’s society, modern day slavery is what I like to call it. I always figured that we had modern day slavery but I did not know how closely related it is to the older days. Back then when slavery was legal, black women were forced to sleep with multiple men. Now in society we see black women sleeping with multiple men, I feel like that is all the black society knows. I also feel like blacks have been hearing stereotypes about themselves so much that they have started to believe it is true and act it out. As we all can see, blacks have not assimilated and I do not think we will ever assimilate. Today we mostly see institutional racism instead of individual racism, which is something most people don’t see. It’s all about seeing the strange in the familiar. People look to the media for everything. The different stereotypes have been proven wrong in many cases. This should teach a lot of people how to not believe everything they see on TV or what they hear because that feed more into stereotypes. People should start researching on their own. One of the biggest mistakes in the African American communities is that most do not learn from history. Growing up as a young black woman and having freedom to go to whatever college I want to go was not the way life use to be. I feel like if people knew their history more and learn from it, then the world would be a little better than it is today. So many people take things for granted that should be cherished.