Quincy Buickerood

Socialization and Identity project

What does Socialization do

Socialization makes us human. Sure there are other factors that make us human but
socialization plays a major role in what we believe. We learn these things from agents, people,
media, peers and teachers that affect the way we interact within society. There are also agents
and targets of identity groups like race, class, gender, ability/disability, sexual orientation, age
and religion. The agent is the group that in society's eye is the superior and targets are seen as
less superior. When we see an example of someone not being socialized, it can be shocking. A
wild child is what the media calls a kid that has not been socialized. In the case of Genie, a Wild
child who had been caged in a room alone for more than 10 years in Los Angeles. When Genie
was found she was 13 years old, but by the way she acted she seemed more like an infant. She
was barely able to walk, not able to talk and acted similar to an animal. Genie teaches us how
key, socialization is in the early parts of life and that if not socialized then the the effects are
irreversible. From my peers, my family and media, I have been socialized, I have seen my race
be terrible to other races, and seen how my economic class is (tries to be) superior to the rest.
In our country, so much is determined by the amount of money you have, and from that
we change how we see our self. Some people live from paycheck to paycheck just to get by, and
then on the other end people go through loop holes so they pay less in taxes. In The daily show
with Jon Stewart World of Class Warfare they state that United States of America ranks 64th of
income equality (different from the richest and the poorest) With such difference between the
rich and the poor we must realize that there is a difference in how they were socialized. We
assume that the rich kids were taught that if they break something or lose it to not worry you
could always buy a new one. Then on the other end of the scale, the less fortunate people were
probably taught that what they had is what they got, and if they broke it that was that. In a video
from Moyers & Company What the 1% Dont Want Us to Know they state that 60% of
America's national income is made by the richest top 1% But in looking at this, I wonder how I
was socialized: I know that my family is not below the poverty line but I also know that I am not
necessarily rich. So when I remembered how I was socialized I remember that up until the age of
around 10 if I asked for something it was bought for me as Christmas/birthday present. With that
I learned that if I broke or lost it I would not get another one. When looking at how we were
socialized one factor that plays a role is if you were rich or poor or somewhere inbetween.
Media and many people portray people of color as lesser, this has made some people of
color even think of their race as lesser. In the short film A Girl Like Me Jennifer said, Since I
was younger I considered being lighter as a form of beauty, so I used to think of myself as being
ugly because I was dark skinned. This really exhibits how society has trained us to believe that
it is an advantage to have white (or lighter)skin. I think the first thing that you look at when you
see a person is their skin color. Is that the right thing to do? Probably not but it just is. I am from
a place that is mainly white and was never raised to see people of other skin colors as different
because it never came up. In a study that A Girl Like Me they talked about young black kids
were asked to to pick between a white doll and a black doll. In 15 out of the 21 times the kid said
the they liked the white doll more that the black doll. They even went as far as saying that the
black doll was bad and the white doll was good. Just because I have been socialization to see

people of color as equal does not mean every one has. In the short documentary A Girl Like
Me it portrays the idea that even some people of their color are raised to see people of their
color as lesser. People that are oppressed are taught to see them self as the lesser so much that
they even believe it themselves, so much so, that they even teach it to their kids.
Socialization is a key part to how society works and it makes us who we are, from what
we believe to how we act towards other people. When people are not socialized they tend to not
at normal like we discussed before with Genie. Genie was a very rare example of someone that
had not been socialized, when she was first studied she proved that it is essential to be socialized.
Socialization is an ever changing process that is different for everyone. If we are an agent or
target on identity categories we are seen and socialized different from someone else. If we do not
change socialization for the better it will change it self possibly for the worst. To create a less
harmful socialization of cycle in the future we must learn not to believe stereotypes and should
not pass them on to friends, peers, younger kids, and family members. I can help to stop the
cycle by judging someone on what's inside not by what is on the outside.

Mask Paragraph
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder-Oliver Platt. My mask is made to resemble the pig
faced people for The Twilight Zone episode Eye of the Beholder. In the episode Eye of the
Beholder There is a character that has her face covered with bandages in a hospital. We come to
learn from the characters talking that she is ugly in societies eye. We also learn that she is
getting injections to try to correct her ugliness. None of the nurses or doctors faces are shown.
One her bandages are removed we see that she looks totally normal but then the nurses and
doctor look at the camera and we can see they look like pigs. From this we can learn that
whatever the normal is, is what we believe to be beautiful.