Abena Darko

Intro to Sociology

Final Exam

Question 1

QA - A consequence associated with privilege is certain behaviors being recognized as innate

based on an individuals color. Privilege is defined as the right for an individual to have access to
opportunities due to a particular group membership. When examining privilege through a
sociologically point of view it often has to do with either race, gender, class or sexuality. The
video demonstrates privilege in the sense that Kaitlyn was able to use her race to make right of a
situation that was deemed wrong. The sister in law was able to avoid of all the changes that the
her sister had to go through because of her skin color, even though they both identified as the
same ethnicity. Kaitlyn was aware that she walked through the world differently than her sister
in law did. Her walking through this world differently allowed her to use her privilege, also
known as her skin tone, to make right of the discrimination against her sister in law. She was
aware of the unequal treatment by the worker, and because of that she pointed it out. Kaitlyn let
the worker know that she knew this was racial discrimination because she noticed the worker
only bothered to ask her sister in law for two forms of I.D. This then educated and also made
everyone else in the same environment aware of what was going on. However, if it had been the
other way around where Kaitlyn's sister in law stated that she felt racially discriminated, the
situation would of been viewed differently because they would of categorized it as just an angry
black woman.

Question 2

QA - Ta-Nehisi uses an institutionalized lens and a sociological imagination in order to

understand the stigma between police and society. Their job is to protect people, but instead the
police are faced with dealing with societys social issues. Instead of allowing the police to do
what they are trained to do we put them in situations that people of a different profession should
be dealing with. This raises the question of should certain issues involve the police? One of the
issues he mentions is police brutality. Society prefers to consider the actions of these so-called
bad individuals instead of focusing on the intentions and the functions of the system. In other
words we make the criminal justice system deal with societys issues instead of the men and
woman who specialize in dealing with those problems. African Americans have lived under this
criminal justice system for majority of their lives which makes police power a necessity. This
then takes police brutality to a whole different level because American Americans now feel as
though in the presence of police their objective is to avoid being killed, instead of them worrying
about not making any sudden movements around police, because it is the respectful thing to do.
This leads to society creating this stigma about police being viewed as a lethal force. We leave it
as the cops responsibility to deal with the societys social issues.