Sociology majors, here’s what you can do with your degree

Being a sociology major, you probably hear people asking you what you’re going to do with your sociology degree a lot. I did too, so I get how it feels. So here are some encouraging words and a list of potential careers.

When I was studying sociology in university, I was often asked what I can do with my degree after I graduated. I wasn’t 100 percent sure at first. I knew I wanted to major in sociology because it was so interesting to me, but didn’t know what I wanted to work as or what type of career I wanted after I graduated from university (well, I had an idea, but wasn’t sure if I could do it).

After being asked this question multiple times by friends and family, I decided to do some research into the potential careers that I could have. Lucky for me, there is a thing called Google, and I was able to find a bunch of lists of potential careers for sociology majors very quickly. I picked one site and looked through it, and I saw myself having a career in ALL OF THE POTENTIAL JOBS!

Angela Davis on racism, prison, and the women’s suffrage

Angela Davis is a political activist, social commentator, and educator. During the 1960s, she was an important voice who advocated for the oppressed and the Civil Rights Movement.

Here are Davis’s three thoughts on society:

Malcolm X on race, society, and the media

Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister who fought for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. He often preached for race pride and social justice and encouraged visible minorities to fight against racism and oppression.

Here are Malcolm X’s three thoughts on society and my interpretations of them:

Book Review: Oxford Dictionary of Sociology

Buy the 'Oxford Dictionary of Sociology' from Amazon Here: https://amzn.to/2Ixl5z7

If you are a sociology major or just someone who wants to learn about society, this dictionary is a must-have!

(Just to be totally transparent with you, this review includes affiliate links. What this basically means is that if you decided to use the provided links to buy the product, I will get a small kickback from your purchase, at no extra cost to you.)

When I was in university, there were many times when I didn’t understand a concept that a professor taught or a sociological theory that I read in a text. So one day, I decided to ask one of my professors for extra help or for extra resources to help me understand the content I was learning better. He suggested that I get a sociological dictionary, especially if I wanted to continue my studies and get a post-graduate degree.

James Baldwin’s 3 thoughts on society

James Baldwin, born in 1924, was an author and social critic. He was a gay black man living during a time when racism and homophobia were still very strong. He had many thoughts and criticisms about this time. Here are three of them:

1) “People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.”

“What goes around, comes back around,” is pretty much what Baldwin is trying to say here. If you continuously treat people horribly and as less than equals, one day, the bullied will rally together and fight back. And sometimes, they’ll do more than protest –they may try to overthrow you to take back their power.

The oppressed are not going to just sit still in a corner, and let the oppressor beat and drag them down forever. They will eventually find the strength to stand up and fight back.

Sociology Tool: History of Black History Month

In 1915, Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and Minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). In 1926, this organization, which studied and promoted achievements by black Americans and people of African descent, started a campaign called the Negro History week that encouraged schools and communities in the U.S. to learn about and celebrate Black culture and history for one week.

It wasn’t until the late 1960’s when people (mainly college students) started to extend the event to one month. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month and urged the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Source:

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month

Sociology Tool: Martin Luther King Jr. on capitalism

If you didn’t know, Martin Luther King Jr. was a radical who often criticized America and its policies. He wasn’t always an obedient person who only talked about race relations and equality.

Here is an example. In 1967, King spoke to the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) about how they must work harder to “revolutionize” society, as well as for fair distribution of political and economic power:

“We have more from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights,, an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We have been in a reform movement… But after Selma and the voting rights bill, we moved into a new era, which must be the era of revolution. We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order.”

Here’s more on King’s thoughts on capitalism (from The Young Turks):

Sociology Tool: Africville

(Africville, Halifax in 1965 via Rabble.ca)

Africville was a small community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the population was entirely Black. In the first half of the 19th century, this small community was treated unfairly by the government. Though many of the residents worked (ran fishing businesses, farms, and small stores) and paid taxes, they didn’t get the same benefits and services as other working Nova Scotians.

Some of the services they didn’t receive were paved roads, running water or sewers, public transportation, garbage collection, and adequate police protection. Rather, the City of Halifax placed unwanted services in the community. Some the services were a railway extension (1854), the Rockhead Prison (1854), and the Infectious Diseases Hospital (the 1870s), to name a few. Many Africville residents back then believed that the government allowed for this unfair treatment because they were anti-Black.

Confusing Social Concepts: Feminism

(I originally posted this article on my other blog, The Bamboo Post, but I thought I should post it here too because it is a sociological topic.)

Admit or not, feminists have a bad rep. They tend to be seen as crazy women who want to kill masculinity and will scream and bark false facts at all those who oppose them or deny their equal rights. But this is simply not true. Not all feminists are loud, scary, and evil, and I’m willing to bet that there are more nice feminists than there are mean ones.

However, this post isn’t about the visuals of feminists. Rather, it is about what feminism is and what most feminists fight for because it gets misconstrued quite a bit by the media.

So let’s travel back into history and look at the 3 waves of feminism.

Confusing Social Concepts: White Privilege

(I originally posted this article on my other blog, The Bamboo Post, but I thought I should post it here too because it is a sociological topic.)

Society is such a complex thing. There are so many factors that go into social issues, and many times these factors are not discussed. Journalists and social commentators tend to throw terms (concepts) around to try to explain issues, but often times, viewers don’t know what the terms mean. As well, some of these same people don’t explore the terms deeply, while some misconstrue the terms so that it will fit their agenda.

So for today, I am going to discuss White Privilege, a term that (it would seem) not many people understand, and is misconstrued a lot.