Okay let’s uh all right let’s grab a seat are we ready hey all right so a couple couple things um can we can we go through a few um announcements first off uh good news I think it’s good news um I don’t know I I think if I were you
All I’d probably see it as good news um but we have due to some changes that have taken place uh uh in the schedule wait hang on hang on yo you gota listen yo this is really important everyone pay attention because if I hear a question
That’s like this is going to answer it I’m gonna be upset later I’m GNA be in trouble okay so listen due to some changes at worlding conversation um they’ve had to adjust the schedule and that means that you were going to do three dialogues this semester you’re required to do three and
Now you’re only required to do two um and we’re going to adjust the the the syllabus and the grading scale accordingly okay so they’re going all the remaining dialogues after this week are going going to be Global dialogues and again syllabus will be adjusted everything will be good okay
Got it next slide this is the most important thing so we’ve we’ve divided the class into two groups based on the first letter of your first name if you’re in the first group and your name your first name starts with either a a to K you’ll do your dialogues in the coming weeks
Coming three weeks okay if you’re in the second group L to Z you’ll do it starting in the beginning of November what that means is that if you’re in the second group you’re not going to get an email saying sign up for dialogues you’re not going to get that
Email until right before we start your group okay so don’t don’t freak out so you you’re and if the groups fill yo hang on this is really important damn dude we don’t put all the groups up at one time because if we did that you would be scheduling groups out like
Three weeks from now and you don’t know what your schedule is so we only put a small number of groups up so that you know what your more immediate schedule is you can sign up for a group and you’re good to go so if you get on the
Website and there are no groups available because they’re all filled don’t don’t worry about it just check back in a few days would be good okay um and don’t miss groups increas what we’re finding is that many of you are missing some of the global groups in particular and this is a problem
Because when we’re working with people around the world like a lot of them like for example in Afghanistan they take especially women who join our groups they take a lot of risks to come and have conversations with us and there are people who travel a long distance to have conversations with
Us and if you don’t show up for a group if we have to cancel groups or so on or we only have two people because we’re supposed to have six and only two people show up that just what’s what’s that say you know that that’s not cool so also
We’re going to be starting groups earlier because we’re doing groups in Yemen and then we’re going to be doing um some other groups in um in irq and Afghanistan sometimes they’re going to start at 8 in the morning or 8:30 good all right next slide uh I’m
Doing we’re going to do a class in a couple weeks on Europeans and I know there are I know I I have someone who there’s someone who volunteered from Greece and somebody from Turkey but I know there are a few other Europeans in here if you could just talk to me right after
Class I’ll tell you what we’re going to do I I think it’s going to be really interesting so uh and then I’m still I’m looking for someone who’s East Asian living outside the US so if you’re watching online if you’re East Asian but you live outside the US like you’ve
Grown up in I don’t know Italy or somewhere wherever Brazil reach out okay I’m good you guys ready to introduce yourselves okay hang on okay hello um my name is Elijah uh I’m a freshman here and um I’m from Philly oh man I’m Jess I’m a sophomore
And I’m also from outside of Philly whoa all right whoa I can’t believe you’re a freshman and a sophomore like oh my God okay so what you’re doing today is uh it’s cool it’s what you’re going to do today is cool um it’s an exploration but it’s just an exploration okay don’t
Don’t feel the pressure that you should be feeling but it’s cool um so here’s what’s going to happen I’m going to do like a mini a little mini lecture CL like I’m going to talk about some things and you can use your phones to take some notes if something just pops
In your mind that you feel is really important do that um and then what you’re going to do is you’re going to have to explain what I just did okay and the reason I’m going to we’re going to do this is because I have the idea that in
Order to understand sociology you have have to understand what I’m about to talk about today okay like you have to and it is one of the most pivotal points of argumentation between people who have a sociological perspective and other people and and it’s deeply troubling to
Me when I hear people Mis represent a sociological perspective which would include pretty much everybody in this room because any because you’re going to take some of these ideas that I’m that we’re going to talk about today and you’re going to talk with other people about them well unless you’re brain dead
And you don’t care about anything then you won’t talk to anybody but if you’re not brain dead you’re going to talk with other people about these ideas and you’re going to misrepresent because you’re not going to fully understand and as a result of that what’s going to happen is you’re going
To come to argumentations with people because they’re not going to understand you’re not going to say it correctly and they’re not going to understand and then then they’re going to fight with you and you’re going to feel like oh my God Sam made it so clear or I didn’t maybe I
Made it so unclear I don’t know but Sam made it so clear but it makes sense if you just were there you would understand it but it’s not how it works right now the thing is I’ve been thinking about this stuff for 40 years and you’re going
To get 10 or 15 minutes and that’s it so the this the the bar is really low all I expect you to do is just kind of step over it and give it your best shot okay to be able to reproduce what it is that I’m saying wait
Okay we good now I’m GNA also say the following I think what I’m what I’m going to say today I think for those of us who like to think about human behavior how and why people do think and say the things that they do and think
Can say I think what I’m going to say today is the single most important thing that you could hear to begin to build your foundation of understanding okay there are a lot of fields of study that are really really important but in the world of Sociology what I’m going to say
Is the foundational idea and that if you get this if you really understand it you will understand a lot about human beings and human behavior okay so um some of it we’ve already talked about and now we’re we’re going to we’re going to uh come back so can you go let’s go to
The next slide all right so listen I’m gonna kind of turn my back to you I’m G to talk to them now all right um like in you know in the in the world of race and ethnic relations and Global relations we and cultural relations you
Know what we’re trying to do is figure out how and why people do the things they do why why are different cultures why are some why do some cultures do one thing and not another um why why do some C why do some people act certain ways um you know what’s
Happening what’s going on this is what we’re trying to do all the time okay and this class in many ways is trying to assess the differences between in the behavior and thinking of people of different racial and ethnic groups or ancestry groups right what is it about Africans right what is it
About uh people from the GCC countries right Arab Muslims as we talked about last class right what is it about white people European people compared to American white people like what’s going on we talk about Latinos a lot we talk about Jews we talk about Gentiles we talk about Muslims we talk about
Buddhists Chinese Etc and we make these generalizable statements and we make these claims and we try to have an understanding or we say whatever we want to say but but in in in essence all the time what we’re doing is we’re trying to get at causality we want to know what
Causes certain groups of people to be one way and other groups of people to be another way and in the world you know we’re we’re we’re doing our best to try to figure it out okay we’re doing our best to try to figure it out without being like I don’t know
Judgmental right without saying that one group is better than another I mean not all of us are doing that but people like me are right I’m really trying to assess different things about people without saying that one is better than another really just trying to understand okay
So that’s what this class is about and everything that we’ve talked about thus far is trying to understand causality and if you notice when I bring students to the front and I’m asking them questions and I’m you know whatever it is that we are doing my thing what I’m trying to do is
Understand causality dude so in understanding causality there’s two two factors that are absolutely important one is the things that we decide to do ourselves the motivation that comes from within this like kind of sense that I Sam and am this entity inside of this body and I have agency meaning the
Agency meaning I have the power to think for myself or I I have the power to act according to my thoughts I have the power inside of me to make things happen like it’s really about me it is this kind of sense of agency personal agency that my brain
Controls my body and my brain can make any number of things happen Okay on the other side are all of these things that I come up against in the world I come up against where I’ve grown up I I come up against the the time in which I’ve grown up in this classroom
You know I teach in a certain way because it’s so big and I teach in a certain way because I you know I have technology or because I’m white or because I’m a man or because I’m an American or because I grew up in the working class or because whatever reason
All the things that got me to college that got me into graduate school that led me to be here all of this complex influence of external factors and in the world of Sociology what we’re always doing is we’re trying to understand this complex influence of external factors the personal choice
Matters for us right personal choice matters but as so sociologists we’re interested in The Matrix of influential factors and forces that’s what we study that’s what we do so I’m really not that the you know when the the last class the Arab Muslim Students who were up here
Talking I’m really not that interested in them as individuals I’m really not interested in what they think is individuals even though I’m asking them questions I’m like yeah but I’m not interested how you perceive it what I want to know is what about all the other people who are walking in your shoes
Like that’s what I do as a sociologist I study culture I study groups so I’m if you go back to that class you’re going to notice me asking them questions that really pertain to all of the people in their lives the people around them the people who identify in similar ways as they
Do okay got it so so what we do as sociologists is we try to identify causality in groups in the Moment We Begin identifying causality in groups meaning that I’m going to make a statement about go to last class Arab Muslims the moment I start making a statement about all Arab
Muslims what it sounds like what it appears is that oh I’m saying that they don’t have agency that they act the way they do they think the way they think their culture is the way it is because they’re Arab Muslims not because they make any choices so sociologists seem like we’re taking
Power away from agency okay got it so like because I’m not just like you all right if you like those of you who are in fraternities and sororities I’m not interested in you I’m interested in fraternities and sororities I want to know what the group of people who are in fraternities and
Sororities on average do and on average think that’s where I enter in that’s the fascinating thing for me but the the moment I start making claims about oh well you know what well here’s what it seems to be that on average people in in fraternities do X whatever it is they do
X but maybe you don’t do X but it doesn’t matter I’m looking at averages I’m making these generalizations I’m making these statements about people and fraternities which is not true of every single person but that’s not what sociology is and once I make that step man it’s
Like it’s like a black hole right I step into this like quicksand of like oh here’s what happens when you join a fraternity it sounds like what I’m saying this is important okay it sounds like what I’m saying is that people who join fraternities that Sam is now
Talking about they give up their agency they’re not they’re no no longer making decisions they’re just acting as part of fraternities that’s not what I’m saying I’m just interested in the parts of people that are motivated by the same things that other people in their groups
Are motivated by got it I’m it’s like I’m just interested in this group what happens and there’s not a lot you can say because the group is made up of individuals it’s made up of individuals and each individual has their own mind but at the same time when you put that
Group together you go like man you know what there’s something about young men at Penn State who live in fraternities that’s different than young men at Penn State who don’t live in fraternities the way they act the way they think the way they do this the way
They do that sometimes that’s not the case but when you find that thing you say like oh okay wow that’s kind of interesting it doesn’t mean that they don’t have individual ideas or agencies but it just means that’s the thing we’re focusing on okay so it sounds like what sociologists are
Doing is we’re withdrawing agency from people we’re saying like yeah you know poor people people who are poor uh are less likely to go to college and uh because for a wide range of reasons but you might say no listen everybody can go to college or people
Who are poor are more likely to drop out of high school than people who are not poor and you might say well dropping out of high school is an agency decision that’s something that somebody has to decide like one day you decide I’m dropping out of high school there’s nothing about being poor
Doesn’t matter if you’re poor stay in high school stay in school do whatever you have to do but the sociology says n now there’s something that happens there’s something that happens and really sure what it is well we can throw some hypotheses out about the causes of the specific causes of
That but there’s something that goes on that people yeah are more likely to drop out and what people who listen to sociologists say it’s like ah but wait but you’re saying they’re not respons responsible for dropping out because you’re saying that it’s their poverty that leads them to drop out and the so
Dude this is really important but the sociologist says no no no listen the poverty is among that influence of external factors that shapes human behavior and that we think that we’re in control we think we’re free we think we’re acting in all the ways that we imagine that we are and we’re
Not like for example I don’t know I saw a group of white sorority women Gathering um few weeks ago and they all had the same uniform on I mean it was jeans and a white shirt and they all had the same hair and I’m like yo man how the like they
Didn’t get together and say like to be part of our sorority you got to all wear this same thing nobody said that but they did and if I ask any single one of them they would say no no no I choose I chose this like this is what I’m
Choosing I’m like you’re not choosing that if you were choosing that you wouldn’t all look Al like it’s it’s not random this is like as random this would be as random as winning the Powerball lottery like that you would just all randomly choose to wear the same thing
Like no and that’s all of us I woke up today and I didn’t wear a dress I wore jeans and a shirt it’s not chance that I didn’t wear a dress I didn’t wear a dress because I’ve been socialized in a world that says hey dude don’t wear a dress and if
You wear a dress it’s going to be kind of awkward but unless it’s Halloween you could wear a dress us but yeah don’t really do that and then I just have learned to not do that just like many of you have learned that there’s not a chance in
Hell that you are going to drop out of high school you are never going to drop out of high school that is not even an option for the vast all but maybe five or 10 of you it’s not even an option for you he’s like well but I could drop off
Theoretically speaking no you couldn’t you couldn’t you can’t even Envision it it’s not even possible and the fact that it’s not even possible for you to truly Envision it and walk you could okay you can Envision it but you would never in a million years do it and the reason and it’s just
As impossible as it would be for the person who drops out who grows up in a certain neighborhood with a certain group of people in a certain area it’s just as possible for them to not imagine dropping out for them to imagine going to college at Penn State
University you think you of course I go to college at Penn State University like of course I would go to college but can you imagine that there are people who like there’s not there’s almost zero chance that they could Envision themselves as going to Penn State University you are just just as
Unfree as they are the vast majority of the choices you make are not even choices you don’t even know you have no idea how unfree you are because you’re being shaped by this life around you just like me not wearing a dress okay so in the world of Sociology we’re really fascinated by
Causality by causality and we have to always put this question of responsibility on the table because it sounds all the time like sociologists are telling people they’re not responsible for their behavior because I’m looking at you all and I’m like yeah you weren’t going to drop out of college you’re never going
To drop out and you’re not responsible for that you were conditioned and socialized and brought along in this world world that that was not even going to be a possibility for you and you’re not responsible for that it’s beyond your control except that you could drop out
So all right so you have a little bit of possible responsibility but honestly hey I don’t know and the kid that drops out and then we look at and we’re like well that kid dropped out he should have stayed in school he made that decision now he
Really effed his life up screwed his life up like he really should have stayed in school and done whatever and and you got me as a sociologist saying like yeah but that kid’s about as free as you are to make that decision and so this is the thinking of a
Sociologist and it’s really fascinating to live in this world and when we’re always dealing with the fact that people are saying like hey you’re telling people they’re not responsible it’s like no really in a way I’m telling people that they are their decisions are being made by
Things outside of them okay got it and in the end yeah you got to say you’re responsible yeah kind of yeah I don’t know I don’t know it’s interesting it’s really interesting got it this is what we wrestle with all the time because for me personally every decision I make I mean
I take responsibility for it even like the worst ones that I’m like ah why did I do that that was like the dumbest thing I ever did and I take responsibility for it even though I understand often times where it came from like I know the things that I do
That are related to my working class roots that I’m just like yeah if I wasn’t working class man I wouldn’t there’s no way I would do all these things I’d be so different but like yeah but I don’t it’s not I don’t blame it on
My working class but I you I bet that helps me to understand okay all right m’am so now are you ready who wants to go first you want him to go first oh my God okay can you Leah can you take uh wait Jessica can you have
Jessica go out in the hallway take a chair out there you can take your phone but don’t listen to class you can study your notes dude do you want to do you want to sit there or you want to sit up here what’s going to be most comfortable I
This chair you want the chair all right M so now Elijah so Elijah is now gonna take what I just said and he’s gonna explain something okay can you go can you go to the next slide all right remember these guys the carjackers so you’re talking to your
Friends remember the uh the folks in the streets of streets of kington okay now you got to take what I just talked about and you got to explain start with the car jackers those guys and you want to explain how a sociologist would who you want to discuss how a
Sociologist would explain their behavior okay um okay so a person who carjacks or does something similar for example the people in the picture I guess like a sociologist would like explain that by saying like regardless if a community looks at them like it is 100% their choice to steal that car or
Do what they did dude hold it like that hold it like this yeah oh that’s better okay um yeah so regardless if like Society sees them and it’s like oh that’s your choice you did that um I guess a sociologist would say like they were influenced by exteral factors
Where they grew up or the types of people they hang out with and growing up and seeing things like that or having people in their immediate circle that have done things like that or similar and have either prevailed or failed um subconsciously they’re influenced to do it regardless if they made that decision
Or not and then I mean obviously they’re still held responsible but I guess like a sociologist wouldn’t necessarily be like oh it’s 100% their fault because they saw it they’ve experienced it it might have happened to them um and just seeing them do something that they’re surrounded by isn’t their
Choice yeah okay um now dude wait are you you’re a freshman yeah you mean you just started up here a few weeks ago a few weeks ago yeah that’s amazing okay first off if you’re if you’re watching the video if you’re one of these know-it-all snarky 50y olds that was amazing for an
18-year-old all right so don’t be a dick all right uh okay so listen um now go now do it again and or keep going and be more subtle in it like because how you ended that was kind of it’s It’s not the choice like so go go back to
That go back to like where’s Choice come in because and you want me to still talk about the carjackers yeah do the carjackers keep going okay look at look at just look at them right like what the main choices and you where you’re from Philly
Yeah okay yeah yeah where in Philly uh I grew up in South but uh I currently reside in West okay so but you you know so think put yourself in the shoes of of these kids right okay as best you can yeah um I mean I could understand
Like if they grew up okay like for example North Philly I know that it’s a pretty bad neighborhood um I used to go to school there I went to Central um so if a person who grew up there sees that a lot and like they know a lot of
People who have done it um more often than not I feel like they would be influenced to do it regardless if it’s their choice or not or they’re or they’re more likely to be influenced to do it than let’s say I don’t know this this dude right here right than him okay
What what what what help people to understand what is that what is influence yeah what do you see what do you understand that other people don’t know because other people are going to look at these kids and they’re going to be like what’s what’s the problem just
Don’t do that stuff like what is it that opens that doorway that someone could say yeah okay I could see that as a reasonable option for my life that I’m going to go carjack people I think you got to look at it it like um on the more like if you take a
Positive example for example let’s say a kid was born into a family where everyone in the family grew up went through high school and made it at least to college yeah went to Penn State went to Penn State sure let’s say they grew up in that family so therefore they also
Went through High School grew up and went to Penn State now or or aspired to go to Penn State y aspired to go to Penn State whether or not they made it and then they ended up going into Ohio State whatever yeah yeah something like that
Right regardless if they had a lot of choices of colleges of high schools whether or not to drop out or not now you look at that you look at the kid you’re like oh that’s normal you know he had a family who went there of course
You would want to go there now look at it in the side of a carjacker let’s say that person grew up in a community full of other carjackers or people who or people who aspired to carjack or or just were up to nefarious various activities yeah that and and and
Didn’t see a a long-term future right they saw fast money okay um that was acquired from doing nefarious activities um if they grew up seeing that then they would be more likely to be influenced by those people and conduct the same activities which are typically nefarious so just like
Influenced by other men wearing pants and shirts and not skirts and dresses and dresses so like okay but people don’t understand that because what people think and this is what you have to respond to people think but these kids could make a different decisions other kids make a different decision so
Why can’t they make the same decision you you went to school in North Philly but you didn’t fall into that crowd of people yeah this is in DC by the way but nonetheless okay um I mean yeah at the end of the day they did have a decision um they could
Have chosen not to hijack the car but it’s more of a subconscious uh it’s like a subconscious thought of oh in your head is telling you let me you should you should do this other people have done it they’ve made money why wouldn’t you do it so so the
Pressure the pressure it’s like an internal pressure inl from external factors so okay dude nice okay it’s like the white women and the sororities that have the same uniform on yeah like nobody told them that they had to do that but they’re doing it they’re dressing in the same way right but
Somebody would say yeah but they’re not breaking the law but these kids are breaking the law right to which you this aspiring sociologist would say what um it’s it’s the same thing it’s influence it’s the same thing it’s the influence thing we’re all being influenced by these things look the
Sociologist I don’t want people to commit crimes right like I I don’t want people to break the law I don’t want people to carjack I certainly don’t want to get my car carjacked right but what I want to do as a sociologist is understand what are the factors and forces that lead these
Kids to to lead a certain number of kids it it’s year after year after year to make a similar kind of decision like what what’s going on in the environment like what’s happening that these the kids are making this decision and the sociologist says if I don’t understand
This is important if I don’t understand what’s leading them to make that kind of decision if I don’t understand that then I can’t stop it if I just keep saying like hey other kids did it why don’t you do it just stop it’s like I’m missing it I’m not understanding what’s driving
Them to make a decision like that in which case case like what good is that that’s why we sound like liberals we sound like we’re saying they’re not responsible you know what we’re saying yeah there’s a way in which if we don’t stop seeing them as fully responsible then we’ll never understand
What’s going on but as individuals they’re responsible you know what I mean we’re not going to be like oh you’re not responsible so you don’t have to go to jail now like no no no understand just like I want to understand why the white sorority women are wearing their uniforms I want to
Understand why kids that you went to high school with like when you went to Central right why a a larger number of those kids are more likely to end up here than doing this kind of stuff than something else uhhuh do you can you reframe this the
Responsibility thing so like look at the picture on the bottom with the people on on drugs you sure that’s Kensington yeah that’s Kensington I’ve been there a couple times yeah yeah I’ve seen that it’s crazy right so can you explain why they are and are how they are and are
Not responsible to the home viewing audience yeah um it’s it’s kind of the same thing as the other ones how it’s like an influence but ACC like obviously you still have free choice it’s just like whether or not you were pushed to do it by your own
Subconscious um so what the steps that they took to get there they still made so therefore they’re still responsible uhhuh um and what happens to them after they do it is still like it it falls on them so it falls on the person and that’s like the definition of responsibility so and yet
And yet how are they not respond like everyone in this classroom has shoes on right no you’re it’s like you’re not even responsible for wearing shoes you just wear shoes and if you don’t understand this you don’t understand sociology right so I guess that on the other hand they wouldn’t be held
Responsible because of the influence of seeing like so many other people doing it and like getting hooked one time um and not being able to fall out of that hole that they’ve like created for themselves by doing the drugs that they did or or and the whole
That got created in the envir in something in their lives right maybe like things in their families or things in their Community or things with their friends or like any number of things you know what I mean that they’re also things that are happening around us all
The time and if we’re not careful then we end up in a in a deep struggle dude all right that I’d say that was pretty good would you say dude he gets a thumbs up from you bro dude all right man nice man you can you can have a seat
Nice job man for an 18-year-old dude that’s impressive all right Jessica no hold the mic just like this so your job he did a terrible job by the way yeah so you you’ll it’ll be really easy for you to outperform him uh see remember this photo yeah okay so you got
To explain that photo to the class like you got to used what I talked about the sociological method the sociological way of thinking about causality and you got to use that to explain those start with the kids on the left the kids that were that’s a f they
Were from DC and they were they carjacked somebody like I want you to explain as best you can a sociological perspective and by the way anything you say will be awesome okay so there’s no pressure um I would assume that sociologists would see it as like they
Needed they did they take anything when they carjacked the car yeah the car oh yeah yeah yeah yeah well I guess they could have SE or sociologists might think of it as like they needed a way of transportation listen which is what a lot of kids say when they carjack yeah
They don’t have a car so they’re gonna go steal one okay right um they also could have used it as like a place to live okay all right so they’re gonna okay so go to causality to start with hey okay nice good start go with start with freedom remember like we’re looking at
Freedom we’re looking at these external factors so like what someone could have told them to like do it like how like walk walk through that um like who who are they where do they live what’s the what’s around them in all likelihood wait I don’t am I supposed to assume
Yeah just make the Assumption yeah they’re they’re from a pretty poor I assume they’re from a pretty tough area of DC okay um they could have like been told by someone like with more Authority I mean I’m not saying they’re like in a gang or anything but like if they were like the
Leader or something could have like told them to do that mhm um okay so like they didn’t really have a choice necessarily even though they think that they do okay or we think that they do not that they didn’t have a choice say that differently because they always have a
Choice but say some say it differently about their choices this is really listen listen to this by the way this is really really really important they we’re like looking at the risks and the like benefits of okay doing this and like I guess the benefits outweigh the
Risks okay yep so let me absolutely cool no no no that’s good that’s actually really cool um think about the sorority women in their that I mentioned in their uniforms they all look alike do they have a choice yeah how much of a choice um I mean it really depends if
Like they could have been like fin or something if they didn’t necessarily wear what they were going to wear okay or like they I mean I don’t really know what they were like doing but they could have like if they were like they could have not been allowed to do whatever
They were going to do okay and they want to fit in right they want to fit into people around them they want to be part of the group and they want to make sure they want to give their lives meaning in some way right because they’re just doing what
They see around them what everybody else is doing and so like all right I will do this so now go to the kids use that same logic to understand these kids I mean I’m going back to the gang thing but I don’t know if that’s true yeah assume
They’re not in a gang assume they’re just kids okay um people around them could have also been partaking in like activities like this so they just wanted to like fit in with the people around them and like they might think that it’s like cool to like take a car sot they
Did that okay and just like the sorority women think it’s cool to dress the way they’re dressing and do what they’re doing by the way sorority women I’m not I’m just using you as don’t don’t take it personally it’s all good right we good are you in
Authority yeah okay be good it’s all good I’m not I’m not making it fun all right okay so we’re products of our sociological reality so these kids are going to be products of their sociological reality okay so therefore just like I’m not wearing a dress like they’re just doing what they
See around themselves and but somebody would say but they could choose otherwise and what would you say um but they don’t have to do that they could they could live very differently what would you say um I mean this is how like they grew up they might
Not necessarily know any better or or they actually or might not know any worse for them like it’s awesome right I mean look yeah exactly so this is the hard thing right this is what sociology this is where we go this is where we we go off the cliff with people we say
Look people are products of their sociological environment they can always act other than the way they’ve been largely kind of like not not programmed but like socialized to act and we always imagine that we would act differently right but I wouldn’t do that and yet we’re all doing things that we can’t
That other people can’t imagine that we would ever do we’re all doing that and so they how are they different from us I mean they are but they aren’t um I mean the majority of people aren’t going to go carjack someone’s car yeah but they’re also just
Humans and it could have just been a mistake or you got all sorts a lot of parents of people in this room because you know a lot of you are in the middle upper middle class a lot of your parents commit all sorts of white collar
Crime but you know they don’t come home and tell you about it they don’t even know they’re committing white collar crime they’re sewing deep up to their necks in criminal activity at some fundamental level and they don’t even know it and they wouldn’t even talk
About it and the reason they do it is because in their industry and whatever it is they’re doing everybody does that and so it’s just like well that’s just what it is is but they don’t get caught these kids get caught and they do the per walk which that’s not what that is
But they shows up but you know your parents or your uncle or your grandparents or you at some point you’ll never get caught you’ll just Commit This criminal activity and the rest of us won’t even Define it as criminal activity which means you really win because it’s criminal but we don’t
Define it that way so it’s like oh awesome so it’s very similar and that sense what about responsibility are they responsible or to what degree are they responsible I mean I think it depends on the situation but for the most part they are responsible they took the initiative to take the car
So they have respon that type of responsibility to to what degree are they not re um remember here going to was it an option for you to not go to college no are are you responsible for the fact that you could have said no to going to college and you you
Didn’t you could have said no right I mean really but you didn’t say no because not going wasn’t an option so are you responsible therefore I guess not in a way you’re not even responsible you’re just like I was going to I was going to go down this
Path you Jessica were going to walk down this path of going to college didn’t matter nothing else mattered all the way all the the while you’re thinking I’m making a decision about going to college and then you get to this Sociology class with this sociology knucklehead saying
Like yeah that you didn’t even make that decision that decision got made for you so how are you any different than these kids I mean I didn’t do anything illegal okay but besides that I mean I guess there’s not really that big of a difference they could have seen it as
They didn’t have like the responsibility like they might have had to take the car or something like that okay where they didn’t have any other option Y and you could have taken been responsible to say you know what Mom and Dad or whoever it is I’m not going to college I’m not
Doing that I’m GNA go bake corant in Paris cro first you have to say it like that and once you say it like that then you’re allowed to bake them but this is okay so this is sociology right this is where we’re we’re trying to hold responsibility
We’re trying to hold this stuff in a space whereby we say like okay it’s true it’s all happening and yet it’s not it’s true you these kids are responsible for sure like they’re going to go to jail cuz that’s the nature of it and I like personally
I’m like yeah I don’t I don’t want until something so someone gets gets in your head to stop carjacking I’d like you to be in jail or somewhere where they can convince you to stop doing that because I don’t want you carjacking anybody else but at the same time it’s
Like if we don’t understand the sociological forces in play then we can’t ever have important valuable conversations about this stuff all right man dude you were good that was good thanks yeah not it’s quite good can we have a round of applause for [Applause] Jessica you rock thank you
Man God I’m telling you uh yeah yeah nice job it’s hard right a lot of pressure all right ma’am bro you you want to just sit on the table all right dude take a mic can you do we have any questions from the stream we have to have
Questions from the stream I would imagine people think I’m a radical liberal commi uh okay so listen so last class yeah we talked wait oh yeah all right last class well you weren’t up here last class right uh I wasn’t the last class I was one of the
Volunteers but but you didn’t make it up okay so here’s the thing remember we were we were talking about Haram yes and I and I said hey is cheating Haram yes and then I gave the story of my student that said like yeah dude I asked her how
Many Arabs are cheating in my class and she said she’s Arab she’s like every single one of them now I shouldn’t have said that because not every single one is cheating but but I make jokes and sometimes you know you know it’s a joke right okay but I do make jokes I
Actually used to when I was in college I was a standup comedian and now here I I mean I wasn’t I did I went on stage and did stand-up comedy but uh but now every time I launch into anything that’s reasonably standup like I always get in
Trouble so I just don’t allow myself to to uh let that part of my personality out okay so anyway but here’s the thing the truth is here’s here’s the truth that you and your fellow khi country or region men and women from the Gulf are infinitely more likely to cheat than your
Grandparents in your culture like for your grandparents in your culture you a handshake dude this right here a handshake we could exchange a million dollars on the basis of that handshake and that handshake is it there’s no legal stuff there’s nothing written down you don’t have to write it
Down your culture is a culture built on honesty yeah that’s true fundamentally honesty right so like you’re if your grandparents if the grandparents of all of you who are Arab were in this class they would never ever think about cheating kind of true it’s quite true yeah but go
Ahead since it’s kind of conc kind of related to religion and how the religious they are in general how is not committing a sin is actually kind of a motivate them to not cheat that’s the main reason other than that the morality code of each person is kind of and
How kind of they stick with their morals is kind of the only reason that they’re likely L to reason so the question as a okay so the question I have as a sociologist oh yeah okay so the question I have for you as a sociologist right what makes you different because this is
What I this is what I’m always asking as a sociologist right like I want to know why Abdullah here is much more likely to cheat in Social 19 than his Grand father one either of his two grandfathers or grandmothers would have been if that if
I had taught them 40 like what is going on and this is what I want to know as a sociologist right I’m always asking these questions like what is it and so I don’t think it’s about religion by the way I think it’s about culture so something is happening in the culture
That makes it somehow okay for for you all for you to make that decision that would not have been okay for them I agree some somewhat with your point but in general our culture is based on our religion and yeah we go by the teaching of Islam yeah and from my
Parents and grandparents generation they used to be more conservative conservative yeah and more religious than us right now you all are and than us which is kind of related to how how we interacted with other people in general yeah so the main reason for the high percentage of you think is in
General how related to our religion we are yeah okay the more more code that we follow how we St or that you don’t follow in this case that you don’t follow uh or you just follow selectiv yeah selective cuz you didn’t need ants cuz that’s Haram but you know cheating’s
All right uh not necessarily well it’s not but it is more so for you than for your grandparents it’s a sin it still is a sin but it’s a sin you turn away from yeah we try so basically we’re trying most of us we’re trying to get away from
Any sin and in general and follow them moral codes of Islam since Islam is not a just a religion it’s a way of life okay yeah okay okay listen dude okay I hear you I that’s very well stated in terms of cheating though it’s actually really simple just don’t cheat yeah my
Class yeah just don’t cheat all right I got you T can you do you want to come up and wait do you wanna you and you’re gonna be joined up here by a few so you can do you want to sit up here I can just stand you want to stand yeah
All right hey can can you introduce yourself yeah my name is Ary and I’m a senior I’m from Chicago from Chicago which your ancestry I’m Chinese and Korean Chinese and Korean yeah um so I’m Dena I’m a seconde PhD student and I’m from the capital city of Iran tan and
Dena you just showed up today to sit in on the class yeah and you asked me if you could sit in yeah cuz you did you used to watch the CL you watch the class online yes so I have have a lot of American friends and um there are lots
Of times that um political and sociological conversations come up and I’ve noticed that I have a lot of trouble understanding those perspective especially um like the first lecture that I um watched on your class was the one that you had like um black students here and um like with everything that’s
Going on in my experience I have a lot of trouble um meeting my uh Black American friends halfway because when they say they’re oppressed um to me it doesn’t make sense yeah as an Iranian woman as an Iranian woman it doesn’t make sense to me and so um after
Hearing the arguments in this class I think I can understand where they’re coming from cool and so that sort of um led me to watch the rest of your lectures and so you know and schedule the lines yeah okay so Ary we’re gonna come to you in a second so I asked you
So Iran’s Iran’s pretty pretty Muslim country you get how how how much do students cheat in Iran um so again think hang on I’m interrupting you so think about the groups think about this right think about me as a sociologist I’m trying to understand what’s behind this
Right yeah so it very much depends because um basically the idea is that from a very young age in Iran the idea is that if you want to be successful in life like if you want to achieve anything in life then you achieve that through having a good education and
Education is like good education is free even the best colleges in Iran are free um so the idea is that if you work hard and if you learn well then you get into those um like Elite schools and then you get into Elite colleges and you’ll have
A successful um career so um if you’re cheating then yes you’re getting true school but you’re not actually learning and especially when you get to the college entrance exam um you’re not able to to cheat so it’s not going to get you any further than that and so basically
The students who don’t particularly care about school or education and don’t really look forward to that sort of advertised future they are more likely to cheat than the people who are in the more Elite educational groups and make it to those institutions yeah so people like people who are more elevated they
Don’t cheat so cheating is rare yeah cheating amongst um like the circles of good students who have a high GPA regardless of their background is it’s not frequent at all even if they have the option like they have no supervision they will just not cheat compared to
Students who have like um they are from the circles of like schools and institutions where they don’t particularly care about like the education okay okay so now I have a question for you so bro Chinese students cheat a lot okay in fact uh we so Arabs you’re off the hook
Here right Chinese students uh there are a lot of grad a lot of programs in the US you’re American but I’m but because you know you’re connected to Korea and China I’m just and I’m going to ask you about your experience here there are a lot of programs that a
Lot of people I talk to here that we don’t even they don’t even admit Chinese graduate students right because they you can you can’t even admit anybody like they stopped at a certain point there were some programs that just kind of stopped because the people would score
Really high on these English on the TOEFL exam and they get over they couldn’t even put a sentence together all sorts of stuff they were all these just incredible ways in which Chinese students just were just cheating right it’s just rampant what do you know about what’s your experience as a Chinese Korean
American in cheating what have you learned what do you know what do you I know that a lot of um you know Chinese and Korean kids they do cheat and it’s because there’s a lot of pressure to be successful and success as long as it’s obtained that’s all that matters I think
The high the more the higher the greater the amount of pressure the more likely one is to cheat yeah like my mom or my Grandma so I’m the one that said I was adopted but it’s um my grandma adopted me and she came here she’s a first generation immigrant and she didn’t
Speak English but she got into college and um she cheated her whole English class but I think her teacher knew cuz she would steal like excerpts from like magazines and stuff and put it all together but you know like in history and math she was a straight A student
And then she got a C in English yeah so you what did you learn about what did you learn like from her like you know from like this culture right I mean so I was born and raised here my mom is very Americanized now if you will I grew up having tutors and
Things like that so I didn’t really feel a need to cheat um in college I’m not going to lie like we all cheat if it’s online it’s online and it’s fair game I think if it’s a test but hang on is your grandma it’s my grandma your grandma
She’s still alive yeah I live with her she’s probably watching grandma she doesn’t cheat really okay no I don’t cheat she was just she’s just saying that so that other students feel better about about themselves I promise Mom you’re paying good money for my education yeah so okay A little bit of
Cheating all right maybe okay so bro so here’s a question then when I when I think about students other students from other cultures right when I think about you you have a lot of pressure on you honestly kind of yeah but you have a full scholarship yes you have to keep a
Certain GPA yes yes and if you don’t keep the GPA uh they’re giving me a warning and some kind of a procedure and then you go back home yes if you can’t cut it uh yes but I want to mention something you know most of scholarship and universities in
Saudi Arabia are kind of you’re getting it through standardized tests and we have wait wait wait hang on Yo rather than having uh College ESS or having U kind of ENT college entrance exams we have uh standardized test that kind of summarize your whole High School yeah to enter universities in public universities
Private universities uh and Landing any scholarship in the country in general got you there’s a lot of so there’s a lot of pressure so so the so what what I what I hear and and I think this is a little bit different for you I
Don’t I want you to weigh in on it but what we know in China and Korea is there’s so much pressure to compete and to be the very best at the very top that the the the the the opportunities to cheat just become much more available because it’s
Like look I have to do like the stress of of failing is so great great where it would never was for me cuz I didn’t it didn’t matter for me how is that not happening in Iran uh so as in the pressure to like succeed yeah um like why doesn’t that
Lead to more cheating well because again um we have the university entrance exam and it’s a standardized uh it’s a standardized exam so we do like we have four majors when you enter your high school level you choose a major yeah and then um there’s one day every single
Year that every students in the country at the same time sits down and take an exam and in that exam you cannot cheat okay but that’s true in China it’s true in Korea so what happens is that when after you’re done with that exam everyone will ask for your rank so you
Rank from let’s say there is 16 um hundred students competing in the major of human which was my major and um you get ranked from number one in the country country to 1,600,000 and if you’ve been cheating cheating then you’re going to rank maybe like 30,000 and you don’t want that to happen
Because if you’ve been an elite for your entire 12 years and then that happens in your entrance exam then it’s shame on your family and on your entire education history so you don’t want that to happen so you study so you study okay so here’s a question then for you right yeah
That’s in okay so here’s a question the reason by the way I brought up with your grandparents that’s not true in the United States right like cheating this we we have a different culture here the culture here cheating is just much more acceptable in the United States but what
I’m saying what I’m saying about like your culture is it has not been acceptable it has just never been okay until very recently whereas in the US with Americans it’s like yeah well cheating it’s not seen as it’s not seen as Haram honestly still is not okay in
Saudi Arabia no no no I know it’s not okay but still it happens it happens right and here I expect it to happen like you you like as an as an americ as being Americanized as you are I expect cheating it’s like yeah well Americans because we don’t we have a different
View a different way of seeing it whereas historically speaking you didn’t so my question for you is what do you think about that about what I just said like going back to your high school and stuff like what do you like the Americanized part of well in high school
Um I don’t know if maybe my Situation’s a little different I was a dancer so I was practicing you know a lot of hours a week so to get by I kind of had to so you know to like pass and stuff um which is the common generalist justification I
Guess it is a justification but I probably wouldn’t have passed like high school had I not I was in a dance studio like okay 40 to 50 hour a week right okay but then we’re going to go back to this other thing but then you didn’t
Have to come to Penn State you could have gone to some other school you could have just been like okay whatever it wouldn’t have mattered yeah I mean it mattered to me um as it matters to everybody yeah I I wanted to go to college you know my mom went to Cornell
So I went to Penn State okay all right this is the justification right bro that’s justification this is how Americans do it way we have a question yeah wait hang on wait you have a question dude this guy I don’t want to take your question man all right listen man
Uh hold on I so one of the things that happens here is that we we all come up with some reason right so what what I’m most fascinated by as a sociologist are the different ways in which people reason and rationalize the kinds of things we do and what you just said is
Very typical of an American right and you know you’re wrestling with this right and and you should wrestle because in your culture this is like this is really a very complex thing and it’s fascinating hearing from your persp perspective right about family shame hey yeah you’ll have to live with
That shame until the day you die because believe it or not people are still reminding me of my high school diploma GPA and it’s been eight years whoa seriously yes this is why I love Iranians man you guys hey thanks a lot you guys yeah thank you Hey listen remember
Europeans if there’s somebody from Europe couple people who are from Europe mean you just like like come see me for a hot
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