I think for me the answer to the question is that I cannot help and affect every terrible thing that occurs across the planet. Like what was said in class, there is an earthquake and it is on the front page and everyone is sending aid and money. But then the next week there is a different disaster and the earthquake is forgotten. How are we supposed to stop our lives and mourn for a day or a week or a year every time a disaster and deaths occur? We would never lift our heads up from morning. I think this particular situation in Haiti is different just because the immense amount of destruction and death. So it would be plausible to stop and mourn and help or at least take time out of your day to think of the families in need and ones who lost loved ones. But overall maybe just pick a few causes to stop your days for and help.

This is a really tough question because after seeing the videos comparing the pilgrims to immigrants today it seems like the immediate answer should be all hard-working people who have nothing in their countries should be able to pack up and move to America where they can start new and better lives for them and their families. Sam was saying in class that the story of these people coming with nothing in a crowded ship for a journey that lasts months is such an amazing story. However how are we as a country able to support such an increase in people? We cannot.

Wow this is very interesting and amazing to me. Both times Sam brought up his interactions with the lifers I was so interested in the subject just because I never really thought much about the people in jail for life. When I did think about them, all I believed was that they belonged there. The incredible wrong that they committed in order to end up in the place where they were, I believed was what defined them for the rest of their lives and although some may feel bad for what they did, I took no pity on them, and thought nothing more about them. That is why this letter from a lifer himself is so eye-opening. It proves that the incredible amounts of assumptions we make are just that, assumptions. Sometimes these assumptions are based in fact, however that does not mean that they are always true. We, or most of us, I know I do, go around and judge people wherever we go. Based on looks, actions, labels, etc. and the judgments we make are so often wrong. This one subject that is not even really taught represents so much what this sociology class is about. Putting yourself in the shoes of others and think outside of what you are used to or what society has told us to believe. Although it may be difficult to put yourself in the shoes of a lifer, as you can not imagine committing a crime such as they did, the inmate who wrote the letter relates the world in prison to the world outside of prison, the world in which we live in. Therefore he is doing the job for us. These barbaric inmates who murdered and did things we find unimaginable show the same compassion that people on the outside do. Wow. If they show such compassion then why did they do what they did? Why are they in jail? It brings up a lot of questions that I think are hard to answer.
I also find this letter interesting on a different level which concerns the last sentence Sam wrote in the introduction to this post, that this inmate never graduated high school. So much of our education, math, English, asks us to follow rules and think a certain way to find the correct answer and to earn an A in the class. The way this “uneducated” man is thinking is so high-level. His ideas and thoughts seem so profound, and it is because he is actually thinking. He has no rules to follow in order to get the right answer, he is in jail for life, which of course is an experience that I think would be difficult not to think about.

I think you have to open up your mind a little bit and try to see where Sam is coming from. He is tolerant of Christians like he said at the beginning of class he was born and raised Christian and his family and many of his friends are Christian. You understood that if you lived in Iraq you would think differently, you would fight to defend your family and not agree with the entire war going on. But what would you think about Christianity? Don’t you see the connection…if you are living in Iraq and you see many of our governmental figures such as Sarah Palin calling this war “a task that is from God” and George Bush saying it is a crusade, you would associate this war that is taking your oil and killing your friends and family with Christian values and originating from Christian beliefs. Then as even more proof, Christian missionaries come over and try to convert you and churches begin to pop up. I feel I would definitely connect the war with such a religion. You say that you think faith is a very personal thing and you do not push it on others. I agree with you. However many many Christians do attempt to convert people. I see it all the time on campus. So even though you are not trying to convert you have to know that many others are which is contributing to the problem.
As for my own thoughts about the class, I thought it was very provocative and I was interested the entire class. From the start, when Sam asked if he gave you the microphone how long could you talk about Arab and Muslim culture, I knew I had to pay attention because I could talk for about thirty seconds. Maybe. And those thirty seconds would probably be filled with more opinions then fact. The way he switched everything around made it much easier to “get it”, to understand what is going on in this war that I never understood. From the Chinese example to thinking like a Muslim college student, by the end of the class I was one of the people who probably thought they would be involved in the violence because what is happening there seems so unfair. I also however find it hard to believe that the sole reason we are in the Middle East is to get oil. I do not understand how all of our brave men could continue to risk their lives day in and day out when they saw that the only reason they were there was to get oil for the United States. They must be witnessing something that keeps them there.

I have a hard time reading this comment. God does not put us through things we can not control? Why them and not us? Do you think they deserve it? Or you just think you or I could not handle it? These people being beaten, being forced to work under harsh conditions, forced into prostitution, all 27 million people suffering in slavery do not have an inner peace I desire. It is not just physical abuse they suffer, I would say it is mostly an inner hurt they feel. A hurt of being owned and controlled by someone. Of being afraid at all times and wanting to be back with their families and at their homes. If you think it is in God’s plan to have all these people suffer, did you feel nothing when you ate the chocolate or saw the video because it was just God’s plan for the boy to be beaten and other people to be beaten and left for dead? I do not understand how someone could not feel in their heart what is being done is wrong.

I think the second step would have to do with your individual consumption. There were slides at the beginning of class when students were still coming in with maps of the world. I remember one map represented toy consumption and it was clear the United States imported tons more toys then any other nation. Sam was also talking about the earpiece he bought, poking fun at how he spent a large amount of money even though it was not really necessary. We are so driven as Americans to consume. We always want more tangible objects. If the culture of America were to become less obsessed with things, there would be less need to produce so much in other countries, which could reduce the need for such an amount of slaves. Everyone can do that in an individual manner by just asking before you buy something if you really need it. I think the amount we all buy and consume could be drastically drastically reduced.

I do not really understand how you could blame people in the class for eating the second piece of chocolate after watching the videos when Sam perfectly described why it would be ridiculous to not eat the second piece. I did not want to eat the second chocolate morsel, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. Unless you are going to stop eating chocolate besides the fair trade chocolate, you had no choice to but to swallow the chocolate. I did not eat it at first, I thought yes of course I will not eat any chocolate but stuff made by the fair trade companies, because I did feel some sort of way about the slavery. It was overwhelming and scary and it stressed me out to think about all the suffering out there across the world that we are for the most part unaware of and could not even begin to imagine in our consumer driven American society. I thought I could buy different chocolate then the Hershey bars or m&m’s from good2go. I could give away my Easter chocolate and tell me parents not to send any more in care packages. But then at the commons that would mean I would have to eat no more chocolate cake, or chocolate chip cookies, or chocolate ice cream, or the chocolate milk we have in the fridge back in my dorm. I thought of how unrealistic it would be to believe I could eat nothing but the chocolate that was not touched by the suffering hands of slaves. So I had to eat the piece of chocolate and feel the feelings attached with eating such a food now fully knowing what I did and seeing the faces of the ones being beaten and held captive under horrible working conditions. Making myself eat it was probably harder then not eating it, living again in a world of denial, just throwing it away in order to make myself feel better. I think Sam did a good job in explaining why the blame falls on all stages of production and we as individual consumers can only feel and think about the other people and the products we eat or wear in order to complete the first step of connecting with the slaves and becoming more alive. I think the young woman in this video is putting a lot of blame on the kids that ate the second piece of chocolate, but this issue is so large, from shrimp to cotton to beef to chocolate to all the items on that last slide, you cannot blame others for eating chocolate unless you stop consuming all these numerous items that involve slave labor.

I agree very much with this post. The only difference of these terms is time periods. Before jumping to conclusions about changing things or just standing up for something, such as getting upset over a word on the census, you should make sure you know all the information. I think the government is not attempting to offend people and would take the term off if there were no reason at all to keep it on the document. Also the fact that negro is not the only term on the census, black and African American are also used, makes the argument slightly harder for me to identify with. People are probably just uninformed of the fact that some people would not be counted if the word negro was not on the ballet.

I agree with both of you on this subject. I think it is an important point and one that Sam keeps reiterating by sitting back in his chair at the race table, when imitating a white person. Especially in this situation when he was not putting down Jesse Jackson’s work, he was just saying that there is a stage above him where race would not matter at all. That of course is an unnatural stage, because people naturally want to help the ones they can relate to, and so it is natural for Jackson to want to help other colored people. This does not mean he is any worse of a person for it.

In my English class today we were actually talking about the fact that white people are going to be the minority in the upcoming years and that 48 percent of pregnant women are not white. This subject came up because my professor was saying the underlying cause of such violent protests coming from the tea party groups might not be caused solely because of the health care reform, but because of the underlying fears of white republicans that they will soon be of the minority and out of the group of power. I think this is a very interesting thought and it seems to me like it may be correct. So while many of the white people in this sociology class do not see a problem in becoming the minority, I think it is a large fear for many people. I think a considerable part of this fear is coming from the fact that they do not know what could happen once America is not a white male’s country any longer.
I however still disagree with this panic. I agree with some of the other posts that say even in 2050 when there are more colored people then white people, white people will still be the majority. Together Indian people and black people and Asian people and Mexican people, etc will be the mass. But white people as a single ethnic group will still control everything. More and more positions of power in government and business will be given to people of color. That is a definite upcoming change we are experiencing now and will continue to see in the future, which makes sense of course and is a very positive thing so that growing groups will be heard. Still though, after non-white people now fill more positions, I think it will be very far past 2050 until white power truly declines and people of color get to see and feel and truly be considered on the same equal playing field as whites. It is clear that ideas about race are so firmly hammered into American society and individuals’ brains as was made clear by the video about the colored and white dolls.
While some white people are panicking, I am really quite excited to see what is going to happen and if some of my predictions will prove to be correct. It is hard to imagine what a United States will be like when it is not dominated by white people, white power, and white beliefs. Equality will have to become more prominent. There will be no other choice. I also feel proportions of colored people will rise at an even steeper rate as the years go on because interracial marriages will increase.