Post of Week 1

My blog will focus on viewing the differences between individuals and groups of people in reflection of their location and social standings. During the course, Geog-151 City and Social Differences, I hope to learn what makes people to view one other as being different from each other. As a philosophy major, emphasis on ethics, I hope to understand what bridges we build around people depending on their race, class, religion, etc. This course will also help me gain better understanding, on how the upper and lower class individuals are in comparison in regards to their location, race, and religion. I hope to construct a new way of observing individuals, paying little attention to what arises from the naked eye, but observing more in depth at people's true personal characteristics.

In taking this course, I am interested in figuring out how our morality/ethics interplay with our social economic status. For instance, I have been personally treated poorly by many individuals due to the city I reside in, Pomona, because it is considered a “Ghetto” city, leading to be referred to stereotypes of being either a gang banger or uneducated. Also, for the fact of being of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, people presume that I am uneducated and unworthy of an American lifestyle. I want to change the way I am negatively judged from my outer characteristics, and force individuals to stop judging, take time to get to know people, find out who they truly are, what they've been through, and all their successes before labeling them.

Social differences is a topic that we could learn from and grow with. A large city, such as Los Angeles, allows us to attempt new and different things due to its diverse culture, which could improve people into becoming more open to diversity, and tolerating social and economical differences. Consequently, I plan to visit Compton due to its negative connotation, in the sense that USC is the only good thing about the city, and attempt to observe it for myself and create an opinion based on personal experience. I also plan to visit Claremont because it is a city distant away from UCLA and observe the environment around the Claremont colleges and compare the differences between the whole city and that of Compton. I have heard that from both of these schools, USC and Claremont colleges, students come from wealthier families, which in turn, is different in comparison of my personal hometown. In order to get personally integrated in both areas, I plan to ride the bus around USC, and take a train ride in Claremont to observe the cities as closely as possible from a resident point of view.