Lunchroom activity- Justin

     It seems as if I was one of the few people to go through Justin's scenarios. I've met many people throughout my adolescence that have traits similar to Justin so I felt I would have a good idea of how he would approach the scenarios presented, However, as I mentioned in class, I believe the activity fails to account for other contributing factors to social hierarchy in schools. The activity was very much focused on white, upper to middle-class high school dynamics. People like Justin exist in lower socioeconomic schools or maybe within these schools and I would argue that this, along with race, could dramatically impact a character like Justin's response. 

     I've been in all sorts of schools, schools that were divided by race when I was in the south and schools where violence could be a normal occurrence. In an inner-city New York school, throwing food at anybody would most likely result in some form of retaliation. I once was sitting in Spanish class and a random boy came into class, smashed a kid's face on his desk and then just left all within a few minutes. I've watched kids who bully other students suddenly get thrashed in the hallway. I myself got in quite a number of fights to, one in an underpass, one right outside the front door of the school. Reputations were built on the number of people you fought with and who emerged the victor.

     My southern school had a clear divide in the lunchroom. The blacks sat there, the whites sat here, and the Latinx sat over there. These dynamics and more contribute to varied responses as everyone vies for their territory within the school walls. These groups could be further sub-divided by band players, athletes, etc and tension could rise between these groups. I just don't believe that school culture can be divided into such binary categories as Jocks and Burnouts with definitive traits.