Sociological Theories: The House I Live In - Assignment Example

 Sociological Theories: The House I Live In The balance within the societies and social behaviors have since been defined and regulated by numerous sociological theories. The applications of certain acceptable sociological behaviors have contributed tremendously to the understanding of human social behaviors relative to their respective societies (Ritzer, 2014). Therefore, engaging numerous and different understanding of different theories, humanity is in a better position to understand its sociological present, past, and the future. Thus, this essay aims at using three sociological theories including conformity, deviance, and conflict theories to understand the societal setting as depicted in the film “the House I Live In.” The conformity, deviance, and conflict theories perfectly explain certain social, economic, and political behaviors of the society. Deviance is considered as the departure from the social norms of a given society. In most cases, behaviors that are considered deviance are those that constitute to severe departure from these societal norms warranting disapproval from the rest or majority of the society. The deviance may be of criminal or non-criminal nature. On the other side, conformity is a social influence that makes an individual to behave as the rest of the group or society. Most people conform to certain cultural behaviors due to pressure or influence. On the other hand, the conflict theory brings emphasis on the role of power or coercion in bringing social order in the society. In contributing to the principles of conflict theory, Karl Marx noted that the society is fragmented into groups that are mainly defined by social economic resources (Ritzer, 2014). Notably, the film “The House I Live In” has portrayed how these theories impacted negatively in the American society, at one point in her history. The film, “The House I Live In” revolved around the above three sociological theories with the main theme concentrating on deviance theory. The mainly addresses the war on drugs in the United States and it is apparent that those who use drugs in this society deviates from the social norm; hence, they were compelled to stay away from the rest of the society (Ritzer, 2014). In other words, being bad influence to the society; hence, eliminated through imprisonment. Other than the issue of the drugs, racism seemed to another major problem in this society that the use of drugs escalated. In a standard society, people are expected to embrace one another; however, in the “The House I Live In” society, the dominant race seemed to discriminate on other small races. According to the Jerecki (African – American race) “While his white, Jewish family moved up the economic ladder, Nannie lost a son to drugs and had to migrate north to find work (Bershen, 2012).” This showed differences in economic status of different races in this society and the problems that defined the discriminated race (Ritzer, 2014). The ethics of this societal problem is well defined by the conflict theory where certain members of the society are in higher economic ladder than others thereby leading to discrimination in the society along different classes. Drug use also generated another form of conflict in this society thereby called for need of social order. This led to the drafting drug policies that were (as was expected by the society) to reduce and completely eliminate the drug use in this society (Ritzer, 2014). However, to the surprise of the society, the initiated drug policies only targeted to oppress the minority populations with its target being blacks. For instance, according to the film “…through the criminalization of opium to purge the Chinese in California, or cocaine and hemp to vilify blacks and Mexicans (Bershen, 2012).” Therefore, instead of the policies inducing order, more conflict emerged with “chain of destruction” to humanity. Additionally, instead of making courts and jails corrective facilities, they turned to be business centers that provided economic support to individuals and institutions. For instance, Police officers who were expected to address the drug culture, gained from the policies; there were given incentives to populate prisons with drug users. According to Jarecki, "Drug abuse is ultimately a matter of public health that has instead been treated as an opportunity for law enforcement and an expanding criminal justice system, (Bershen, 2012)" to make wealth. He further noted that, "I saw how this misguided approach has helped make America the world's largest jailer, imprisoning her citizens at a higher rate per capita than any other nation on earth (Bershen, 2012)." Since those in political and economic power as well as the judiciary were parties to this game, the society was bound to conform to the nature of the legal systems. The police department heavily awarded the police officers who made multiple arrest on drug users compared to police officers who dealt with fraud or homicide. This shows how the security department of the society conformed in oppressing the citizens they were mandated to protect Further conflict and conformity as well as deviance theories are depicted in the judiciary where the US District Court Judge Mark Bennett used the law wrongly to help in eliminating the minority from the society. He combined these theories in his service delivery (Ritzer, 2014). He conforms to the demands of the society by applying extreme sentencing laws to drug culprits from the minority races. From the view of the current society, this judge deviated from the norm by doing what the society does not expect of him and his office of service. He was to provide justice without favor or any other form of prejudice; however, he passed extreme sentencing to defendants who never deserved or warranted such judgments. Unite States is known to respect human rights and serves her citizens with high degree of justice and equality across the races. However, from the film “The House I Live In”, it is apparent that this country sinks in highest degree of racism with the main race using war on drug policies to eliminate certain races in their midst. In other words, this society is using failed policies in fighting the drug within the society as machineries of conducting inhuman acts (Ritzer, 2014). It is only in the same society that citizens are happy and feel safe being in prisons and jails than rooming the streets freely; according to the, the outside world is unsafe for them. For instance, in the film, an inmate (Larry) admits that prison is the best place he will ever want to be (Bershen, 2012). According to him, it frees drug users from the underlying consequences of drug. He further notes that some political leaders maintain their political power by pretending to fight drug use in the society yet they benefit from such drugs. Despite all these noted concerns and challenges, it is vital that this society rise against its all odds to its expectation where leaders should be care takers and givers of the citizens other than using their (citizens’) misfortune to cling to power. References Bershen, W. (2012). War without End: 'The House I Live In' Deconstructs America's Failed Drug Policies. Retrieved December 14, 2014, from http://www.documentary.org/feature/war-without-end-house-i-live-deconstructs-americas-failed-drug-policies Ritzer, G. (2014). Sociological theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Read More