Sociological Concepts in a Specific Population

8/18/2019 Sociological Concepts in a Specific Population

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During the summer of 2012, I traveled to Memphis, Tennessee for a

mission trip with the goal of creating a “bible club” at a trailer par

nown as !eah"#s and a lot on $ernon %treet& Memphis is comprised of

mainl" two areas' povert" stricen areas that some refer to as the

“ghettos” and the more wealth" neighborhoods& %treet (each, the

organi)ation that was set*up to spread the +ord to those in the poor

neighborhoods, stressed the potential dangers that can arise in these

areas and eplained that man" of the children had certain sociological

concepts that a-ected behaviors and attitudes, and therefore might

behave in an unrul" fashion& +e were instructed to “.ust love /em&”

These attitudes and behaviors were reective of the communities and

population we were about to eperience& Three concepts that I

seemed to notice were the strongest to a-ect these two sites were

race and ethnicit", social class, and deviance and social control&

ne concept that seems to have a strong e-ect on the !eah"#s and

$ernon %treet population is race and ethnicit"& The large maorit" of

the $ernon %treet population is made up of 3frican 3mericans and

4ispanics, both of which are considered a minorit" in the 5nited %tates&

6ecause I am a part of the maorit", discrimination and racism do not

have a distinct impact on me& “3s a white person, I reali)ed I had been

taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage”

7McIntosh 20089& :or others, this preudice can come up on occasion,

and therefore su-er discrimination& Minorities are liel" to have


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stronger ethnic ties than the maorit" group& +hile woring with %treet

(each on the $ernon %treet site, one issue I found ver" evident was the

discrimination between the two maor racial groups& 3s we split o-

into di-erent stations, I noticed the various ethnic groups tending to

form small cli;ues& 3t


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underrepresentation in politics, and the language barrier inhibit

success for this ethnicit" 74olland 20129& ne child, >icolette, did not

even now how to spea ?nglish& %he is not able to learn until she is

old enough to go to school because her mother onl" speas %panish&

This is ust one eample of how culture can hurt an ethnic group&

3 second concept I found to have an e-ect on the two %treet (each

sites was social class& :rom m" observations of the communities, the

$ernon %treet site and !eah"#s site class structure to range from

woring class to underclass, including the woring poor& +ithin

Memphis, propert", power, and prestige are not evenl" distributed

among the cit"= this causes the poorer neighborhoods to su-er and

other aspects amongst these communities to fall below the average

level& %ince the vast maorit" of the two sites are compiled of 3frican

3mericans and 4ispanics, this data represents wh" the social classes I

observed fell at the lower tiers of the model& Two supporting factors of

social class are famil" life and education& :amil" life mimiced what

was learned in class= it is more common to see a higher divorce rate

and higher rate of single or unwed mothers because of


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hold some responsibilit" for obs being sparse, education is e" to the

“no obs” situation& Due to location, education opportunities are

limited& “3t a time when education matters more than ever, success in

school remains lined tightl" to class” 7%cott and !eonhardt 200A9&

(icardo, a 4ispanic child that lived near the $ernon %treet site, was in

summer school& 4e told me he had trouble with school, and his mother

could not help him with his homewor because she did not


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disrespectful and one of her friends, 3ngel, was acting the same wa"

because the" were together and were inuencing each other& 3nother

theor" that adds support to the concept of deviance is the labeling

theor"& ftentimes, an adult will label a child “good” or “bad” and

share these characteristics with other adults as a warning& 4owever,

this ma" have a negative e-ect on those children and then cause a

certain behavior to occur that ma" or ma" not be accurate& 3lso,

children labeled as “good” ma" not actuall" be true to their label& This

labeling idea is seen in “The %aints and the (oughnecs&” “The

(oughnecs were constantl" in trouble with police and communit"

even though their rate of delin;uenc" was about e;ual with that of the

%aints” 7@hambliss 1E19& 6ecause the %aints were labeled as “good”

ids, the trouble the" got into was overlooed= however, because the

(oughnecs were labeled as “bad,” their troublemaing activities were

alwa"s harshl" documented& During a brea at the $ernon %treet site,

some of the older women were taling and I heard them discussing the

incident that happened earlier in the da"& This was onl" the


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leaders had to use social control or discipline& In the 5nited %tates,

social control includes imprisonment, capital punishment, and

medicali)ation of deviance, but these eamples are more geared

toward those who brea laws& In the case of misbehavior committed

b" children, discipline such as suspension or time*out suFced as social

control&

+ith both %treet (each sites, three concepts such as race and

ethnicit", social class, and deviance and social control were observed&

Throughout the two communities, these concepts strongl" a-ect the

development of the people and the neighborhoods& (ace and

ethnicit", while allowing bonds between similar groups to develop, can

cause a wall to come between minorit" and maorit" groups& %ocial

class for these areas is geared at the lower end of the tiered model,

causing diFcult situations with famil" life and education& !astl",

deviance is sometimes epressed with people dealing with tougher

conditions and situations, maing it necessar" for social control&

3lthough eperiencing these di-erent populations tend to be tr"ing,

this allowed me to understand a “bigger picture” and to grow as a

person and student& ?ven with the sadness of seeing what these

children have to deal with on a dail" basis, I am thanful for the

opportunit" to see how life is not alwa"s as eas" as it ma" seem&

+ors @ited


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@hambliss, +illiam .& “The %aints and the (oughnecs&” The %pirit of

%ociolog"' 3 (eader& Erd ed& (on

Matson& 200A& GearsonH3ll"n 6acon& 6oston& 1E1*1JA& Grint&

4olland, .& 72012, :all9& (ace and ?thnicit"& %@ 201' @lemson

5niversit"&

McIntosh, Gegg"& “+hite Grivilege' 5npacing the Invisible napsac&”

Tri*@ount" Domestic %eual

$iolence Intervention >etwor 3nti*ppression Training for

Trainers& @arol @hene", .eannie

!a:rance, and Terrie Kuinteros& +ellesle" @ollege @enter for

(esearch on +omen& 2008& Grint&

%cott, .ann", and David !eonhardt& L%hadow" !ines That %till Divide&L

The New York

Times& The >ew or Times @ompan", 200A& +eb& 1A >ov& 2012&

Nhttp'HHwww&n"times&comH200AH0AH1AHnationalHclassH$?($I?+*

:I>3!&htmlBOrP0Q&

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Sociological Concepts in a Specific Population