In Society i am a young Latino male going to college, but society might view me as another person who’s going to end up going to jail, or working for low income jobs and raising a family in a bad neighborhood. I was born in the Bronx, in one of the worse neighborhoods in it at the time, i was raised around a lot of drug trafficking, gang violence and fear. There were nights where we would wake up to the sounds of gunshots and police sirens, we would have to get under our beds until the gunshots ended. I ended up moving to a area in Queens called Jackson heights, which was filled with all kinds of Hispanics and Latinos, my parents believed it would be a better area to live in, but it was the opposite. We faced the same issues, lived in a one bedroom apartment and had to deal with local Dominican Gangs. At the age of 12 we finally moved to Flushing, a much better area. And even through all this, my experiences didn’t turn me to the streets, it made my will even stronger, I want to be better than what society want’s me to be, I didn’t let my experiences turn me into someone it wanted me to be.
My role in society is to uplift our communities through action, although i don’t have my life figured out yet, i want to prove that you can make it to the top no matter the situation your in, the youth believe that dropping out of school means you have to turn to the streets, and look for different means to make outcome. But i believe that theirs other ways, education is important, but if school isn’t the thing for you, then theirs other ways to become successful. From societies point of view, my role in society is to be part of the working class, and make rich people richer, my purpose in society would be to work non stop to barely maintain me and my family.
When I imagine how people see me, I think they may see me as a follower, or Culture Vulture in a way. I grew up in Black communities and I never saw having black friends as a problem, but I have been told that I hangout with the people I hangout with because I want to be like them. I have had all kinds of friends in my life, 2 of my Best friends are Black and Latino, but people judge based on what they see, not what they know. On the other hand, I see myself as another rose that grew from the concrete, I want to become somebody one day, I want to find something i love and become great at it and make enough money so that money is never a problem for me and my family ever again. I see myself as just another young adult trying to figure out who they are in this world.
In conclusion, in this class we’ve discussed all kinds of aspects of Sociology, but the one that interested me the most was the discussion on C. Wright Mills, I believe society can influence an individual and the individual wouldn’t even know it, well put the blame on ourselves. Just because you were born in a certain neighborhood, or raised by bad parents, or went to bad schools, doesn’t mean you have to be the person society want’s you to be, you can become more than that. Its our job to rise out of our situations so that we can uplift our communities, and give the youth something else to believe in.
