| Friday, October 17, 2008 |
| The Other Side Of Portland |
I hopped on the shuttle at 1:49 and headed down to Pioneer Square for the kind of exploration and discovery that doesn't make me loathe Lewis & Clark. Upon my arrival, I started walking north to check out Chinatown. I made sure to wear my headphones at all times to try to deter the young hustlers on the corners trying desperately to get people to give a shit about some cause by signing something or donating money. That didn't stop them of course, and when walking by them I would pause my music to see what kind of slick game they would try to spit. "You look familiar, don't I know you from somewhere." Really? Lame game. I shake my head with a look of disappointment and walk on by.
I keep walking north until I hit those nice gates welcoming me to Chinatown. I'm hoping to walk through and check out some stores and cheap restaurants. But right when I pass under those gates I catch a different vibes. Everything is grittier. I see almost no white people, and not even many Chinese. Everything either smells like a concoction of piss, vomit, and rain water, or piss, vomit, rain water, and street soap desperately trying to mask a permanent stench. I see no smiles and hear no laughs. As I pass by a white lady on the sidewalk covered in stains and trash she clutches her purse like a runningback protecting the ball. I turn around and frown at her. Was it my appearance and age that made her think I was going to snatch her purse, or the neighborhood we were in? Either way, I've seen enough of Chinatown. I always trust my vibes and Chinatown gave me bad vibes. I turn around and head back south, passing a strip club that smells of stenches I don't even want to guess. As I'm heading back I see an old couple who look lost and are looking at their maps trying to decide which way to go. I wonder whether I should intervene or not, and whether they would even accept my help. I give it about twenty seconds and they still seem lost, so I take off my headphones and ask if they're lost and need help. "No, we're fine, thank you." Oh well.
The farther south I walk the nicer everything is. The sidewalks get progressively cleaner and the people get progressively richer. I decide to go west and towards Pearl District. It sure is a lot different than Chinatown. The streets are so clean that you could eat off them and the people are simply yuppies. Is there a relation between class and sidewalk cleanliness? Do poor people show disregard for their environment? If so, why? Or maybe richer districts just have more money to pour into public workers and the like. If so then that's some bullshit. No one should have to step in piss, no matter how much money they have.
After being equally disgusted with the Pearl District and Chinatown I head back towards Pioneer Square. I got the munchies, so I decide to check out this crepe food stand I saw earlier. Snow White Crepe Cart. Honestly, I was expecting a french man or woman, but instead there is a Chinese woman from the province of Hubei (she told me later). I order a strawberry & nutella crepe. First she prepares another guys crepe, and I stand there with my headphones off, eavesdropping. They engage in an interesting conversation about how she manages all the food in her stand. I take my headphones off to eavesdrop more efficiently, and probably more obviously. After about ten minutes of them talking, ending in the vendor asking the man how his wife is, he goes to sit down (he seemed anxious to eat, she seemed anxious to keep talking) and she starts preparing my crepe. Now we start talking. We talk about Lewis & Clark, and I vent to her how our school milks us dry of all our money. She is surprised that beside our huge tuition they charge us for everything from laundry to snacks to classes. I explain to her how they're doing it because they know they can. We're stuck in a trap because we're looking for a liberal arts education that is looked for generally by people with money. We talk about the meal plan a lot, and she convinces me I should buy my own food next year and not have a meal plan. Good idea, but I'm not sure if I have the energy to do that. I realize I've been talking to her for around thirty minutes, and I still haven't eaten my crepe. I tell her I need to catch my shuttle (a good excuse) and bid her farewell.
As I'm leaving I marvel at her stand. Besides her $5-8 crepes she had at least 40 bags of chips and candy and around 15 different kinds of soda. It's amazing to me how somebody can come into this country with virtually nothing and make a living. It's all about work ethic, and frankly people from other countries tend to have harder work ethic than Americans nowadays. Anyways, I hop on the shuttle back to Lewis & Clark, and am sitting near three office type adults. I already discussed how much I love to eavesdrop, and this was a good conversation to eavesdrop on. They start off talking about how one of their coworkers got caught doing porn. Then they take turns trying to impress each other with their identical takes on politics. I'm glad to hear the busdriver chime in and express his conservative beliefs. "I think he's a republican" one lady whispers to her friend. I crack up at how silenced and agitated they are at his views. Closemindedness plagues people from all backgrounds. Whether your sidewalk smells like fresh Oregon air or fresh crackhead piss, we're all equally discriminitory.
(by the way, could you count this for like four entries cause it's so long?) tight.
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posted by MaSh @ 1:07 AM  |
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| Tuesday, October 14, 2008 |
| There Should Be A Riot Going On |
Americans have always been willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for what they believe in. Whether fighting for independence, dying for unity, or ignoring tear gas for equality, Americans have always rose to the challenge. Except now.
There has been plenty of uproar and protest in response of the Bush administration. Him and his buddies have done everything from murdering innocent Iraqis to violating the privacy of innocent American citizens. There have been countless protests, but frankly they haven't done shit. If Americans really wanted to send a point to the government we would be rioting in the streets and not backing down to the man like they did in the sixties. The problem is we're all fake. We've been brainwashed and controlled by the government to the point where we think it's impenetrable. Beloved presidents have been assassinated by one nutjob for no reason, but when our country's president is a tyrant hated by millions he is left untouched. We're scared to revolt.
Personally though, I could care less. But if I did care, I'd do more than join a meaningless protest.
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| posted by MaSh @ 8:35 PM |
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| Monday, October 6, 2008 |
| A Day In Portland (Part 1) |
Portland is like a sociologist's playground. I have no classes on Thursday, so I try to go explore Portland every Thursday. The places I go are often irrelevant, and I'm usually more intrigued by the people I encounter. I think that me posting some random observations I made while going through Portland every week will make this blog more interesting to read and write.
Part 1 takes place on October 2nd. I took the Pioneer Express to Pioneer Square and then walked to Jackpot Records, Carl Jr's (farther south) to get some food, Upper Playground clothing store (north again, near Jackpot), and then back to Pioneer Square. The trip was from around 1-4. Here are the things I encountered and the observations I made:
- I saw a (supposed) homeless man screaming obscenities at a really nice parked car. He was cursing at the car for being so expensive and talking about how he barely had money to eat. It made me think of the financial gap in our society. Some people can spend a whole lot of money on flashy cars while others starve on the streets. Neither of them seem to hold each other in such high regard.
- Some people are scared to make eye contact. I saw one man just looking far ahead in front of him not taking in any surroundings. Maybe he was bored with life, or not interested in the world.
- I walked by a (supposed) homeless man and he asked me for a cigarette. I didn't have one. The thing is I saw like four other people walking by him and he didn't ask them. I guess theres something about my appearance or age that would suggest I smoke cigarettes.
- The only people who really interacted with me while I was walking down the street were acknowledging the Barack Obama shirt I had on. One lady gave me a thumbs up and mouthed hope, and another lady told me nice shirt (she was wearing an Obama shirt too). The ladies were much older than me, and I'm sure if I wasn't wearing that shirt we never would have interacted. I suppose that's part of Obama's draw, he brings people from different walks of life together.
- When I went to Carl Jr's there was a (supposed) homeless man filling out a job application. He asked me what the minimum wage was. I was saddened that he didn't know.
- The people at Carl Jr's gave me my meal and said in the most monotone voice, "thank you, have a great day." That type of forced conversation just makes everyone uncomfortable. Why do companies force employees to feign emotions and sincerity?
- A young lady, probably a college student, was taking photographs at Pioneer Square. There was a man leaning on a statue and talking to him that she wanted to take a picture of. She tried to be slick about it and aim her camera somewhere else when he was looking in her direction. As soon as he looked away she quickly took a picture of him. It was pretty funny to watch. Would he have gotten mad if he saw her?
- The most interesting thing I saw today was a (supposed) homeless man and his dog sitting down. The man had his hands out in the air and was definitely trying to grab at something above him that I couldn't see. Then three other (supposed) homeless people came up to him. One was a lady wheeling a cart of coffee sweetener, filters, cups, etc. The other man had a huge mug full of coffee. They offered the coffee to the man with the dog and then proceeded to go around Pioneer Square offering other (supposed) homeless people coffee. I came to the conclusion that a lot of these people were homeless by choice. I also recognized the unique sense of community that comes with being homeless. The only thing these people had in common was that they were homeless, yet they were still looking out for each other and helping each other. How come people with homes don't go around giving other people with homes coffee?
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| posted by MaSh @ 1:13 AM |
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| Friday, October 3, 2008 |
| Institutions |
In creating this bubble map I tried thinking of who controls what and what is related. I came to the conclusion that truly everything is related, and all of these institutions are codependent on each other.
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| posted by MaSh @ 10:22 AM |
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| Monday, September 29, 2008 |
| Community Vs. Society In The Education System |
Our discussion of the school system this week left we with some interesting questions. We came to the conclusion that some communities would benefit more from schools teaching subjects designed for the community than from schools teaching subjects to benefit society. In my opinion, communities are more important than societies, and better communities would lead to a better society.
A lot of communities struggle with real life issues like single parent households, drugs, police brutality, gangs, etc. Instead of addressing these issues and having students think critically about how to approach them, teachers are wasting kids time addressing math problems that will not bring about any change in their lives.
I find the education system sickening because the reason schools don't have practical education is because the people in control of it only want to see their way of life maintained and improved. They want to see their businesses built up and their sense of society improved. The "common" idea of society unfairly takes priority over the more relevant idea of a community, and it holds a lot of people back. |
| posted by MaSh @ 12:19 AM |
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| Friday, September 26, 2008 |
| What's The Point Of Sociology? |
I often wonder what is the point of sociology. The way I see it, society should be studied so that we can improve it. However, from the most of the books we've read and discussions we've had, society seems to be studied only so that we can understand it. It seems to me like there's little action and a lot of apathy in sociology. I don't see how these studies are truly beneficial.
I also feel weird studying society sometimes. It's like we're a bunch of scientists studying lab rats and how they work and why...but we're not. Sociologists are studying real people with real issues. The way they go about it bugs me sometimes too. They focus on one people, learn their story, and then once they've gathered enough information to make their point, leave those people and try to attribute what they've learned about certain individuals to our entire society.
I'm glad that Julie Bettie acknowledged some of this in her first chapter. She writes about how she's such an outsider coming in and studying people different from her, and how uncomfortable that makes her sometimes. She rationalizes this by saying she's trying to learn about these people, "well enough to serve them in a struggle against those relations.", but I'm having trouble seeing how sociology helps people in their struggles. So far, I only see how it makes outsiders (and the question of what types of people are sociologists is a whole nother entry) understand society better. What I really want to know is how can sociologists apply what they've learned to improve society. |
| posted by MaSh @ 1:22 AM |
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| Sunday, September 21, 2008 |
| Stare & Stare |
 In my opinion, the best place to observe society is on a bus or train. It's one of the few times where people from all walks of life come together. People ride the bus for different reasons. Some are coming home after a long day of work, some are going out on the town, some have nothing better to do. I love to ride the bus because it always makes me feel like a part of society.
I love eavesdropping on conversations. It's so much fun to listen in to somebody's personal life knowing you'll never see them again. I often find the temptation to interject overwhelming, but I usually stay quiet. But why don't we talk to each other on the bus? Why can't we be friendly? Is it because we are just too damn tired or is considered taboo to talk and connect with a stranger.
If it is the latter, then why? And wouldn't society function much better if we changed that? I guess all of my entries so far have focused on accepted norms of society and how they should be changed, yet I still haven't figured out how to change these norms. I hate just sitting in my seat and not talking to somebody I think I could have an interesting conversation with, yet I still do it. Maybe if everybody got the courage to be more outgoing and interact with each other, bus rides would reflect a much better society. |
| posted by MaSh @ 7:41 PM |
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