From Rags to *iches(haha it's riches not what you think :p)

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Tyler Perry
at the 82nd Academy Awards (March 7, 2010)

My blog topic is Tyler Perry (heller). Tyler Perry (born Emitt Perry Jr.), was born in New Orleans on September 13, 1969, his father was a carpenter, and according to Perry "his only answer to everything was to beat it out of you." Tyler Perry also claimed to have almost commited suicide so as to avoid his father's wrath. He changed his name from Emmit to Tyler when he was sixteen, as a way to distance himself from his father. As a child Perry was molest by one of his mother's friends, and by three men previous to this, he also later that found out that his father molested one of his (tyler) friends. He didnt finish high school, but earned a GED, according to Tyler what inspired him to write was watching an Oprah Winfrey talk show, he heard someone describe "the sometimes therapeutic effect that the act of writing can have, enabling the author to work out his or her own problems."  When Perry was 22 years of age he moved to Hotlata (Atlanta), and with his life savings (12,000$), he financed his first play. It was about Christian themes of forgiveness, dignity and self-worth, and also  addressed issues like child abuse and dysfunctional families. The play however was an abominable financial failure, and for a time Tyler Perry even found himself homeless. However he persisted, and 6 years later after rewriting the play many times, it became a succes at the House of Blues, and at the Fox Theater. Over the years Tyler Perry has amassed an avid following of supporters (me included), an average 35,000 people attend his shows every week; Perry produces 300 shows per year. In 2005, Forbes reported that he had sold "more than $100 million in tickets, $30 million in of his shows and an estimated $20 million in merchandise."  in that same year he was given $5.5 million to finance his first movie "The Diary of a Mad Black Woman", which did fairly well at the box office and was swiftly followed by Perry's three "Madea" movies, all of which enterd the box office at #1, and #2 respectively. Besides his Madea films, perry has ecquired success with films like "Why did I get Married Too", and "For Colored Girls". In 2011, Forbes named him the highest paid man in entertainment, earning $130 million between May 2010 and 2011. Isn't that just an inspirational story. I'd say he moved up the social ladder...how about you guys?

Stratification =-O.... :(... :)

<> <> <> <> <> <> <>      Stratification is defined as the division of society into hierarchy of unequal groups who have differential access to material goods and power. In today's society society is divided into three social classes: the upper class (bourgeois), the middle class (now referred to as the working class), and the lower class (the poor). In today's economy the poor have little to no opportunity at a better life. Their education is minimal, they have no access to resources, and are often left to committing petty crime/theft to stay alive. The middlemclass isn't what it used to be. Doctors and lawyers who were considered lower upper class, are now considered to be part of the middle class. In today's society the middle class is almost anyone who has a job. While this is sad/disheartening, I agree with the functionalist belief that inequality serves a purpose. More important roles in society should be afforded greater rewards, without the poor we couldn't have the rich. That's the American dream isn't it, to break barriers, to overcome the odds and become who you want to be.  Without inequality that drive to succeed wouldn't exist(in my opinion). Of course an argument to that way of thinking may be that it is near impossible to move up the social ladder, well like Jonathan Lockwood said "life isn't supposed to be fair."

Social Peer Pressure :)?:(?

Most of my colleagues talked about the negative sides of peer pressure, however peer pressure isn't all bad, like everything else it has it's positive aspects. If a kid is failing all of his classes and his friend/brother seems to be exiling he/she will feel pressured to improve academically to be on par with said friend/brother. If a kid is smoking weed all the time, and one of his friends tries to get him to stop that is peer pressure, but would you consider that a bad thing? I know many of my classmates wouldn't, Tim gave an example of how he tried to get his friends to stop smoking but they wouldn't listen so he met new friends that were more positive (for lack of a better word), that was unfortunate, however I went through the same thing recently with one of my close friends however the message did get through to him, and he did stop smoking. His grades improved, his relationship with his father improved, pus he skipped death. So is peer pressure bad? It doesn't always have to be, heck many of you (step up kids)are guilty of peer pressure in your blogs. The little messages about having to be yourself, being your own person, being a leader not a followers, you are telling someone how to behave, telling them how to live. But are your messages negative? Of course not

Peer pressure and Insecurities

Many kids Today feel like they have to fit in to be accepted. That being different or "weird" will cause them to be ostracized by their friends, so they reform themeselves and act in conformity with how they think their friends consider "cool." Peer pressure  refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. In young people, youth peer pressure is considered as one of the most frequently referred to forms of peer pressure. It is particularly common because most youth spend large amounts of time in schools. In addition to this, they may lack the maturity to handle pressure from 'friends'. Also, young people are more willing to behave negatively towards those who are not members of their own peer groups. However, youth peer pressure can also have positive effects. For example, if you're involved with a group of people that are ambitious/study hard in school,  you might feel like you have to follow suit to avoid feeling excluded from the group.

Suicide: taking one's own life

The majority of people who die by committing suicide had a mental illness; depression. Although some people are genetically born with depression, this illness is now increasingly being found in teenagers ages 15-17. They may have went through a negative life experience that their decrepit mind could not handle. Most teens who commit suicide however, were probably sexually abused, abuse drugs or alcohol themselves, not feeling accepted by family members etc. Coincidentally most teenage suicides occur in developed ,countries, especially the United States. The substance abuse lowers their levels of tolerance, and that leads them to land on a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Most depressed teens don't/can't realize or understand that whatever problem they may be going through will get better.

That isn't to say that adults don't also commit suicide. As it turns out however gender plays an important role in adult suicide. While there are many female attempted suicides, there are more committed male suicides. That is to say that while females do attempt to commit suicide a lot, males are more successful at actually accomplishing it. Statistics show that most adult suicides are committed by Caucasian males between the ages of 30-55. These suicides aren't just committed by "poor" guys, but there is mow in this recession a growing number of suicides by relatively successful males. Some of these males are so used to success and never really go through the experience of failing, that they don't know how to handle it, or broke more easily than others when failure does come to pay them a visit. They feel powerless and unable to control their worlds, a world in which they were the kings. Because men are portrayed as the dominant gender in society, it is hard for them to admit/talk about their problems,Because of their pride, and because of that they face all their troubles alone and ultimately cannot handle it. I guess this is where women should consider themselves lucky and stop complaining about felling unequal to men (not trying to sound sexist or anything).

Teeanage pregnancy: its effects, and causes

     Teen pregnancy is currently one of the most common problems in our society. It is no longer frowned upon as it was in previous epochs, but sometimes it is even celebrated. teen pregnancy isn't be a thing worth celebrating, but is a thing worth crying for. Teenage mothers give up their liberties, they often times struggle through life, and lose many wonderful opportunities. if a female has a child in high school, then college seems almost impossible to think about, because their first priority will be their child. As a teenage mother you no longer have a life of your own, and seeing as how teenage mothers are too young to have experienced life, it's almost as if you have no life at all, as if you've never lived.

     There are certain life experiences that people go through, that helps them discover who they are, are what their purpose in life is. Teenage mothers often times don't have the opportunity to discover or go through these experiences. A big portion of their young adult life is lost, where one is free to see the world and sometimes make a difference. teenage mothers don't often have the chance to live life to the fullest, and seeing as taking care of a baby prevents them from attaining a better education, they often only have meagre resources, or means to provide for their child. now that is not to say that teenage fathers don't often fall on hard times as well, but most of the time the responsibility, and hardship of raising, and taking care of the baby falls on the female.

     The main causes of teen pregnancy in developed countries like the United States, are often poverty, child abuse, dug/alcohol abuse, and inadequate sex education. but i believe the main cause of teen pregnancy is society itself. In a majority of schools, sex education no longer preaches about abstinence, but give out condomns and talk about when to have sex. Most popular movies and tv shows, almost always have a sex scene, or a sexual oriented plot. the media, in order to sell more of their stuff often incorporate pornography or sex idols in their advertisements. What kind of message do they think they're sending our teenagers. As an older sibling, my parents have always told me that i should lead by example, well i now send the same message to our society, we must lead by example.

My Introductionn :-) haha (shreck)

Full name:Claude Olivier Crevecoeur. Hi I was born in Haiti and spent most of my childhood there. I officially emigrated to the U.S in fifth grade. I lived in new York for a while during my second and third grade years, but my mom didn't like the environment, felt it was too hood haha.To this day I don't understand why she felt it was unsafe, Haiti was Waugh more dangerous, yea (I've seen things). I'm not really an interesting person, but I always wanted to create a blog sooo thank you Mrs. Basi (insert smiley face here).I like this class most of the time, the convos are interesting. Plans for the future: I always felt like I wanted to be a criminal lawyer, because my grandfather was a pretty well known criminal lawyer, but I recently found out that corporate law is where the Money is so I'm beginning to have a change of heart.By the way my grandfather had 56 kids, yea not following his footsteps when it comes to that haha. Well I feel like I've said enough for an intro please comment (really could use the grade though)