Discrimination????

Read the following link about a boy in Pennsylvania and a teacher in Washington and then respond to the questions:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110504/tr_ac/8415563_pennsylvania_school_pans_students_patriotic_face_paint

Do you think what the boy did was a distraction to the learning process, how about the teacher who shaved his beard? Did the principals at the two schools act accordingly towards the boy, the teacher? Was the student discriminated against? Was the student being discriminatory, was the teacher?

Thoughts...

English as the Official Language?

As we discussed this week in class, by the year 2040 Sociologists and Cultural Anthropologist predict that the dominant language spoken in the United States will be SPANISH. Since you all know that we do not have an OFFICIAL language in our country right now, should we adopt one before 2040? Thoughts.....

Race & IAT...

Earlier this week you spent a day in the Computer Lab taking part in Harvard's Race/IAT Test - please address the following questions... 1) Do you think the initial information that IAT gave you about yourself is accurate? 2) In what ways could the test be improved?

Racial Profiling

Recent studies have shown the black people in America are far more likely to be pulled over and searched while driving their motor vehicles. Other statistics show that the highest rates of crime in the United States is perpetrated by black people. The interesting Sociological question here is are black people committing more crimes or are they caught more often because of racial profiling, thus skewing the statistics?

Victimless Crimes...

Are victimless crimes only hurting the person committing the crime or do you think that society as a whole suffers as well? Should some of these crimes/actions be decriminalized? Thoughts...

Would You Go To Prison????

After talking about the Barry Bonds perjury case and the refusal of his former trainer Greg Anderson to speak to Federal Prosecutors (for which he has spent over 1 year in prison) - I pose the following questions for you... Would you go to prison for someone who you knew to be guilty of the crime they swear they did not commit? Is it deviant to cover up for someone even if you will be repaid later on for your silence?

A box of questions...

One of the most famous quotes from Forrest Gump is, "Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you are gonna get." What does that actually mean? Can this quote grant you access to Forrest's sociological imagination? What does it say about Gump's imagination and maybe Mrs. Gump's imagination?