My Sociological Autobiography Essay

different lessons. Language barrier among other prevalent issues made me experience the most challenging tasks. My poor command in English hindered my communication with both the teachers and students whom I interacted with. Making new friends was a little bit difficult that I had to take lunch all by myself. The kind of food that was being offered at the cafeteria was another challenge to my education life. I didn’t know anything about the variety of food that was being offered there, and I had to stick to my Islamic religion which defined both legal and illegal food. With time, I coped up with the situation and assumed a normal life until I completed my course in that school.

Race

Despite the fact that race is a social construct and not based on genetics, racism is still existing and being practiced in many parts of the world today. According to Stein and Ferris (2014), race is different from ethnicity since it is a socially defined structure based on perceived or real biological differences that exist between several groups of people. There has always been the asocial phenomenon that the white race is superior, and it has affected everyone who is of that race or not, I being a victim.

Therefore, inequality in a race has often proved to be a prevalent social concept that offers people different ease and hardness in accessing resources and opportunities. I am a victim of this racial discrimination since my race is a mixture of Pakistani, English and Arab ancestry. In most schools that I attended, most students making up 90% of the whole student population were whites. It was in one of

the school events in my third grade that my parents came and made me realize that biological differences had an impact on my embodied identity. I was somehow white since I had brown hair and such characteristics but my parents were not even near that and they did not look “white” like I did.

Both my parents had deep brown eyes, dark hair, and a deeper skin tone. Initially, some students had asked me about my race and were shocked to hear that I was Asian since my looks were more of a white. After having a look at my parents, a rumor rented the vicinity of the school that I had just been adopted because I did not look like my parents. This made me feel isolated and out of place. I then realized that the way I looked impacted on how people looked at me and perceived me.

That experience fitted the typical point of view of the interactionist. This is on the grounds that the approach has a conviction that race is a piece of character that is shaped on small scale level associations. I had at first passed the racial sifter without expectation where my physical appearances made individuals think and trust that I was a "white." Be that as it may, the setting of human science in which we live is not by any means in light of both of these social elements however our life chances are of intersectionality where confounded and numerous social elements all influence our experience of life immediately.

Class

My social class has contributed the shaping of my sociological autobiography. According to Stein and Ferris’s (2014) U.S Social Class

Ladder, I grew up in a family that could be considered as being of the middle class and been up to now our family is still in that class that’s why I’m studying hard to bring a chance and raise the social class of our family. This gives support to the postmodernism perspective on social reproduction in accordance to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (Ferris and Stein, 2014) which explains that social class is primarily being handed down from one generation to another and remains relatively stable.

Sine, I am still in school, I am working very hard to surpass my educational achievements and to add value to my cultural capital that I have gained from both my parents. After obtaining a four-year degree at my college, I will look for a stable employment or even create one so that I may raise the social class of my family. I mean who does not wish to be of the top social class?

Gender

Following Ferris and Stein (2014), the socialization in gender role is the process by which a person becomes feminine or masculine. When we branch from the constructionist sees on sexual orientation, what individuals consider as manly or female are marks developed socially and are connected to practices that depend on the social setting where a man lives enveloping their general public, period and its way of life. At the point when a man has a sociological creative energy, he or she can comprehend that distinctions in sexual orientation are not so much characterized by characteristic manly or female practices or attributes. The mirror self-hypothesis of Chris Cooley propose that self-idea creates from "how we think others see

us and the affections for ourselves by saw judgments of other individuals" (Ferris and Stein, 2014.)
Guardians can act like an impression of their youngsters where their examinations can have a commitment to the feeling of placid by their tyke.

As a kid, my folks delighted in dressing me up in favor dresses with the vast majority of my closet being loaded with pink and chestnut clothing which in Arabic culture was generally related as a proper young ladies' shading. The positive responses of my folks strengthened to me that even as a grown-up, a few hues when dressed were more great than others and that others will see me as a pretty young lady. The speculations of interactionist contend that eye to eye connections fortify the standards of sexual orientation. From a youthful age, even in Qatar, I learned and disguised the gendered practices from my folks and religion through social learning. The general public in America supports the stereotyped practices of a sexual orientation of guys and females as acknowledged standards.

Back in Qatar, boys were not allowed to interact with girls easily as it is the opposite in America. My gender affected the type of games that I played with my friends as I grew up. The playing toys that I received while still, a young girl was gender stereotyped for girls like the products which were princess themed and the Barbie dolls. I was not allowed to play with boys outside our family in their “rough” game simply because I was a girl. Due to social learning, I have come to believe and understand that it is difficult to watch a son getting tackled

in football or a daughter participating in football, indicating that gender is pervasive in both my family and the American Society (Ferris and Stein, 2014.)

Theoretical perspectives used to guide my analysis

Symbolic interactionist perspective

This perspective utilizes symbols and face to face interactions. It guides sociologists to consider the images and points of interest of event in day by day life, the significance of these images, and cooperation of individuals with each other. In spite of the way that typical interactionism follows its inventiveness to the statement of Max Weber that people demonstration as indicated by their understanding of the importance they find in their reality, George H. Mead (1863–1931) who is an American rationalist acquainted this point of view with  American human science in the 1930s.

Functionalist perspective

It is based on the relationship between several parts of the society and shows that aspects of the society are functional. According to this perspective, each aspect of society contributes to society's functioning as a whole and are interdependent. The state, or government, provides education to children belonging to the families who pay taxes to the government so as to sustain its running and therefore the cycle of interdependence continues.

Conflict perspective/theory

Under this theory, there is a competition for scarce resources and how the elite controls the weak and poor. This is evident in my theme of the social class. This theory originated from the writings of Karl Marx on class struggles. It focuses on the conflicted, negative and ever?changing nature of society.

From the discussion above, it is easy to identify that there exist many sociological themes including class, gender, education and race among others that have played an important role

in shaping my life. I can appreciate that the sociological imagination in me has allowed me to have a connection to my behaviors, personal experiences, and attitudes to a broad social structure. Even though my sociology has reached an end, I will continuously add my experiences that are a contribution to shaping my sociological autobiography.