- Status -
And so the Sociology class have made me into thinking, once again...
Today we were discussing about roles and status in society. Or, it was not discussion, more of a teacher telling the student "this is how it is and there are no other ways of observing this matter", with a lot of nodding heads in the classroom accepting everything the teacher said.
Status is defined as a "possition of a individual related to another, or others". There are two types of status - ascribed and acuried. And it was the ascribed status that admired me the most.
Ascribed status deals with certain factors that a person gets by birth. Factors that, you as a person, cannot decide such as sex, race, kinship, cast and physical characteristics.
And so, when it comes to status, it is known in society, and by that also decides by society and the people in it, what is concidered to be high status vs. low status. And so I wonder, do we still believe in "status" and way of categorizing people?! And does it serve any purpose more than putting value on a person?!
History tells us about unequal treatment of black and white populations, dominant male roles and higher vs. lower cast and heredity of well known family name from 1500-century. But that was then, and now is now. It's a fact that history shapes us to what we are today. But does it mean that we still have the same point of view when it comes to values of people? I would say no to that question.
I have found my self in numbers of situations where people have treated me in ways where I ought to be the ultimate creature on this earth, which I am not. And so it fascinates me how people still value people based on their fair skin tone and their western culture thinking that that person be given a higher status than a Indian Sikh.
The more we acknowledge the fact that eg. race and sex Did have a matter in the past, the more I believe the idea of this will continue, and we will continue to put people into different status levels that is for no, what so ever, use in society. The only thing it does is to put people on a pedestal, and put other peoples head into the ground. There should not be any difference between us as we are all human beings. How does it help me and society if you are black or white, male or female, from a lower or higher cast or if your surname is von Trapp?!
We live in the 21th century for heavens sake!