The Role Of Viewing The World With A Bigger Lens Rather...

It is easy to be blind to how different peoples lives are from each other. We are so fixed in our habits that we forget to think about how every one of our actions is influential to other individuals. As I have practiced thinking like a sociologist over the course of four months, I have practiced looking at the world with a bigger lens rather than my narrow-minded viewpoint. C. Wright Mills coined the term â€Å"the sociological imagination,† which is the importance of viewing the world as a whole and how everyone plays a part in it. We can not just rely on ourselves and our own experiences to know what the world is all about. Being the second youngest of eleven children certainly doesn’t seem normal, but the area I grew up in, my household†¦show more content†¦Wright Mills). Public issues, or things that have a much broader impact on society, such as the whole nation being in debt (C. Wright Mills), have never affected me personally because of my status withi n society, so I haven’t cared to look at those issues. Considering that St. Cloud is predominately white Catholics, one of these public issues in my hometown is the racism towards Somalians. In the past 10 years, the Somali population has grown significantly which has made racism more apparent in St. Cloud. As soon as the Somali population started to show more active roles in the community, the people of St. Cloud started to discriminate and insinuate that they were ruining the city. Once it was announced that the Muslim population would be building a new mosque, City Hall flooded with comments about how it would jam residential roads and foster terrorism (Du). My family is in the middle class, along with an estimated 33.9% of the population of St. Cloud (US Census Bureau). My social class has altered over the years as the situation in my household, such as children moving out and parents switching jobs, has changed. Eleven children in one household has played a significant role in whether my parents’ income was actually substantial. The average household in America has 2.63 people living in it (US Census Bureau).