Project Assignment

Answer

Project Assignment

Question 7

When I joined my first Sociology class, I had a very vague idea of what I was about to learn. I always had a small still voice inside of me, telling me that this was a wrong choice of career; I could have done better as a teacher, maybe an environmentalist or even a doctor! Conversely, a deep profound urge for new adventure dispelled my still voice, and opened my anticipatory zeal for a new, exciting, and probably unorthodox desire to learn sociology. I always took myself to be a ‘people-person’ and any career that directly dealt with people was acceptable to me. Nevertheless, the study of sociology has enlightened me a great deal on the social institutions that I so much wanted to be involved in. In addition, sociology has helped me understand the interdependence of the various social institutions, answering many of my questions as regards the behavior and state of various people I interact with daily. Following a volunteer exercise at a nursing home, and an interview with a Japanese immigrant, I earned a couple of notable experiences and lessons that I am going to share.

Culture, ethnicity and race are three closely intertwined concepts that often emerge in sociological debates. In particular, during my volunteer exercise at a nursing home, one of the residents I spoke to expressed perceptions of racism. According to the elderly lady of Asian origin, her diabetic condition might have been salvaged if her primary care provider was keen enough to offer her comprehensive guidance on diabetes management. While she does not report direct negligence of her primary care provider due to her race or ethnicity, the resident argues that she hardly understood her doctor during the initial stages of her diagnosis since the doctor always spoke to fast for her to hear. The lady believes that her poor English proficiency then, was the reason behind her constant deterioration of health and poor diabetes management care plan. This fact highlights the need to understand each other in our social interactions. Interaction with this lady inspired me to think of how, in America, the presence of a multicultural and consequently, multilingual society, might pose a challenge in critical public service delivery. True to the lady’s words, research shows that during doctor visits in 2001, only 49% of Asians felt that the doctor listened to them as compared to 68% of whites. In the same time, only 48% of Asians understood what the doctor said as compared to 69% of whites (Mead et al. 2008). This data notwithstanding, cultural and linguistic shortcomings amongst medical practitioners may more often than not lead to patient stereotyping and consequently misdiagnosis. One study christened Asian American patients as compliant and “problem free” (Jenkins and Marjorie 1994) while another study found that Asians and Latinos elderly cancer patients in pain were 1.4 times less likely than whites to receive pain medication despite evidence of chronic pain (Bernabei et al. 1998). This data poses a challenge to the government at large to try and tailor-make public services and improve their quality to all, regardless of their race, language, ethnicity or culture (NESRI, 2014).

One of my interviewees at the nursing home strayed out of topic, during our conversation, and mentioned the current trending health bill commonly known as Obamacare. Asked on his thoughts towards the bill, the nursing home resident expressed gratitude to the government for passing into law an act of such nature. Apparently, he (the interviewee) thought the bill to be the best thing the Obama government has done so far, in that, the bill takes care of all social strata regardless of influence or economic ability. The interviewee was however keen to note that America as a nation had taken long to initialize a universal healthcare system. Unlike Canada where he had lived before, the interviewee was quick to say that America’s culture and spirit of individual competition and self-achievement had left many law-makers oblivious of the fact that the people of a lower socio-economic status had suffered for too long. In Canada, he mentioned, the culture there is not individualistic but collective, and believes that the government should take care of its citizens. This cultural norm explains the existence of a universal healthcare system in Canada. However, in America, access to quality healthcare was primarily based on one’s economic ability. These sentiments demonstrate a difference in the collective culture of the Canadians and the competitive individualistic culture of the Americans. Nevertheless, I decided to take the sentiments of the interviewee to another level of understanding. Firstly, based on the social-conflict approach to sociological theory, people of higher social and economic status struggle to protect their wealth and privileges while those at the bottom of the ladder strive to gain more for themselves (Macionis, 2012). Why would Obama, the first African American president think of such a healthcare system? Why was he so passionate to address the needs of the poor? Had there been another president, probably white and Republican, would we be having such a system? Is it because Obama associates with the poor and disadvantaged that he decided to come up with the Affordable Care Act?

Questions 8

For my interview with an immigrant, I managed to talk to a doctor from Kenya named Joanne (not her real name). Through her responses, I learned a lot about a part of the world that I never knew existed. Joanne’s desire to alleviate poverty in her community and to empower more girls was the reason behind her immigration into the United States. Right from the beginning of our interview, Joanne pointed out that her native culture had a history of gender biases towards women. This, she expressed, was as a result of her community’s long-living traditions that viewed women as ‘lesser beings’. She narrated to me how she had to defy their culture’s norms of female genital mutilation and forced marriage and escaped to a nearby girl’s rescue center, which sponsored her high school education. She worked hard, passed, and applied for a scholarship to study medicine in the United States and succeeded. To that point, Joanne’s story left a series of thoughts in my mind; what if I was in her shoes, what would I have done? I cannot imagine the pain that young ladies of her tribe undergo, especially when having a FGM. To think of a forced date, leave alone a forced marriage, is an abomination to humankind of our 21^st century. How does one’s father plan who they are going to marry or be married?

Since her community’s main economic activity was pastoralism, I learned that Maasai women are tasked with most of the household chores. Right from childhood, young girls are taught to be responsible and submissive wives, who have a responsibility to take care of the family. Being nomadic pastoralists with little or no extra economic activities to rely on, her community ranked among the top poverty-stricken communities in her country. To her, life on the move was the order of the day, with the community looking up to the women to build new houses (called Manyattas) whenever the men moved their livestock to greener pastures. As such Joanne’s community saw no value in educating their girls since after all, they would be married off later on. By so doing, Joanne’s community exhibits evidence of gender socialization which affects the girls’ education while the young boys and men are free to grab opportunities in life (Macionis, 2012).

Leaving her country was an up-hill task for her. Many of her community’s elders already viewed her as an outcast after avoiding her cultural norms of FGM and the idea of Joanne flying to US to further her education, was not well received. On arriving in the US, Joanne admits that culture clash hit her hard. She was not used to the busy hustle and bustle of the city, where people were always in a hurry to go somewhere. Contrary to this behavior, Joanne’s culture requires that you greet your elders by slightly bowing your head and allowing them to touch your forehead. Food and drinks were also different and strange to her when she arrived in the US. In spite of her challenges, Joanne still wears large beaded necklaces on her neck, which are home-made, and continues to make traditional sour milk for her supper. Also, she wears clothes cut out from a special fabric in her community called a Maasai shuka. While she acknowledges hospitality in the U.S, Joanne complains that natives are individualistic in nature and care less about their neighbors. As such, despite her resentment towards some of her culture’s practices like gender inequality, Joanne confesses that she is tied to her people and believes that she should return home soon to accomplish her mission.

In conclusion, study of sociology is of benefit to everyone in the society. Sociology helps us to be critical observers of the behaviors of various stakeholders in our respective social institutions. Through the sociological theory, we learn how to translate observations of such behaviors into understandable facts. On the other hand, not only does sociology study the root causes of socio-political problems and inequities, but also helps brainstorm viable solutions to such problems. In the same breath, it is impossible to learn how to work amicably with a multicultural group of people without application of sociological sentiments. Needless to say, any productive interaction with a significant other demands that one respects and acknowledges the myriads of differences that exist amongst different people with diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. As such, it is clear that social institutions depend greatly on sociology. Similarly, the worth of sociology in workplace environments and its effect in the global prosperity of business entities cannot pass unnoticed. I strongly believe that, through the application of the various concepts learned in my sociology class, I am and will be a better citizen, able to adapt to various social settings that I might encounter in my life.