Sociology is studies the interaction of humans in society (Macionis, 2017). A society is people who reside in a particular territory that have similar ways to life. Society is investigated by sociologists who utilize a sociological perspective. The sociological perspective is used to identify patterns of behaviors within a society. There are many problems that plague our society and require the advice and input of a sociologist to assess and devise solutions to the problems. Sociologists are responsible for understanding ideas, concepts, and theories, and apply it to the modern social problems in society. In the current American society, there are people that are organized to fight social injustices on the premise of research and implications of sociologists. Throughout the sociology course, there were many themes discussed and there were intersectionality among the themes. This summation of a modern social problem will dissect an article and compare it to themes related to race and class, groups and organizations, and social change.

The Huffington Post published an article named Black Lives Matter Meditation can Help People Cope with the Tiring Cycle of Oppression (2017) that outlines different methodology for African Americans to cope with feelings of frustration, despair, anger, and hopelessness with the numerous instances of devastating news encounters with law enforcement. Dr. Candace Crowell is a professor at the University of Kentucky and is responsible for the creation of the Black Lives Matter Meditation for Healing Racial Trauma to help African Americans attend to their spiritual health in response to the influx of unarmed African Americans being killed by law enforcement. The meditation guide was established in 2016 and is a 17 minute audio guide that includes positive affirmations to contradict feelings of unworthiness felt in the African American community. The meditation guide has been administered to colleges such as Emory University, University of Iowa, UCLA, and private practices. Dr. Cowell believes that the Black Lives Matter movement is empowering and a useful catalyst of activism and world-changing. The audio meditation have been useful for individuals who have experienced it, and Dr. Crowell intends on creating more meditation audio dedicated to African American counterparts to initiate more alliances and sensitivity toward African Americans.

The Black Lives Matter movement is a national organization that strives for the Validity of Black Life and to rebuild the Black liberation movement (Black Lives Matter, 2017). The organization was established in 2012 after the murder trial of Trayvon Martin when the suspect was acquitted of the crime. The goal of the organization is to initiate action and respond to the anti-Black racism that is viable in our society. Race is a construct used to categorize people who have significantly similar biological traits, which is socially motivated (Macionis, 2017). Race can be classified with characteristics including skin color, facial features, hair texture, and body shape. The concept of race is variable because it is a socially constructed concept, and varies with societies. An interesting study was conducted by Osagie Obasogie, who interviewed blind people and concluded that they share the attitudes of sighted people about race. Ethnicity is people who share a cultural heritage such as language, religion, common ancestry, that provides a idiosyncratic. A derivative consequence of the socially constructed themes of race and ethnicity can produce prejudice, which unfair generalizations of people, and sterotypes which is a basic description of people in a particular category. The Black Lives Matter movement seeks to reduce the racism of African Americans, and there are also other important organizations that attempt to combat the negativity associated with race and ethnicity.

Social groups and formal organizations are important to help understand the expansion of social life and its significance for individuals. Social groups are two or more individuals who interact and identify with the other (Macionis, 2017). A group consists of people with shared experiences, interests, and loyalties. Examples of a social group include churches, businesses, families, neighborhoods, large organizations, etc. Formal organizations are a larger secondary group that is systematized to efficiently achieve goals. There are three types of formal organizations: normative organizations, utilitarian organizations, and coercive organizations. Social groups and formal organizations relates to the article because the meditation guide was generated for a particular group and organization to provide a coping mechanism for indiviudals who have endured strife due to violent unarmed killings of the African American race.

Social change attempts to transform culture and social institutions that have been socially constructed (Macionis, 2017). Social change incorporate four major characteristics: social change occurs all the time, social change is unplanned but intentional, it is controversial, and some change is more important than other change. Modernity is a fundamental concept when examining social change as it started during the Industrial Revolution, which links present times with the past. Modernization is the process used for modernity to induce social change. Postmodernity seeks to allieviate thought processes of modernity to be more accepting of the transformed society. The meditation guide in the article can be indicative of social change to redirect thinking of African Americans from the thought of being less than and reduce frustrations of stereotypes to initiate social change.