I may sound like an idiot, but I think that this is completely ridiculous. Now like a comment before mine, I can see how people in Muslim culture may be offended, but I mean, look at the show and what it’s made for. It was created solely to make fun of things. I mean it’s a story that surrounds fourth graders and it seems to me like they make it to show that these things they make fun of can be understood by fourth graders better than older people. Like, it’s a joke. These feelings are supposed to arise. Like I said, sensitivity is ridiculous when dealing with South Park. Sit back and laugh and realize that making fun of people isn’t all that bad, especially when it’s a blatant joke.

First off, I have to say congratulations to Sam for an outstanding lecture. I don’t care if it pissed anyone off at all, I thought it was excellent. It was so true and so realistic. The way that we look at it is that “Oh yay America! Let’s save the world from bad guys!” But then if you look at it from their perspective, we are the fucking bad guys. See, I don’t blame them at all. I was one of those people that raised my hand when he asked if we would join the insurgency. Who wouldn’t protect themselves from invaders? Boy does that raise an interesting point!
Ok, so when the class initially started, I thought that it was going to be about the U.S., but a little further back. Ok, so think of the American Revolution. Were they really patriots? Honestly, say right now Puerto Rico wanted complete independence from the U.S. What would we do? We would probably call them rebels and try to kill them. Look what happened in the Civil War. The south wanted to break away, so what did we do? Called them rebels and killed them. But see, when we rose up against the intrusive and wrong doing British, we were patriots. We did what we had to for the common good because the British we “terrible people”. Now look to the side of the insurgency. They want to kill us because we are “terrible people”. We invaded their land, killed their people, took their oil, and now what? Are they going to simply sit back and let that happen? Fuck no! I sure wouldn’t.
Now here is my question. Why did people support the war in the first place? I’m sorry, but we are a really, really dumb country: First, for electing George W. , second for believing the lies that he and the other idiots fed us. Now see, I couldn’t vote in that election, so I couldn’t really do much, nor did I know much, but what about the people that saw the first Iraq War? Sure we helped out Kuwait when Iraq invaded, but we should also know that little Bush was upset because Sadaam threatened his father so wah wah wah. See, I wasn’t even alive for that but I’m not stupid enough to not know that.
My last point which I stated on a previous post is that it really kills me that we Americans have such an anti-Muslim view. Like, holy shit people, how fucking dumb are you? I think the entire Republican party should be booted. They are nuts. Now I am a Democrat, and not to say that there aren’t Dems that should be thrown out too, but come on. Sarah Palin, John McCain, Michelle Bachman (the absolute worst politician in American history), Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, and though he isn’t a politician, Glen Beck is fucking crazy. Listen to what these people say as they hastily generalize and create hatred for Muslims. Is it just me or is that indescribably wrong?

This is an excellent point that was brought up. But I think it’s very easy to answer: We, as Americans (and as humans), are self-interested, thus with Israel being pretty much our sole ally in the Middle East, we aren’t going to speak out against them even if it is the right thing to do. See, I guess you can say that it wouldn’t be very “strategic” to do that. I think it’s bull shit, but who am I to tell the government what to do. All I can say is that it’s sad but it’s true that we are actually a pretty corrupt society.

I think that what this girl said is a very good thing. It pains me to see when people constantly generalize Arab looking people and immediately call them out and think that they are radical and are going to blow themselves up. You know, my uncle was once called a “terrorist piece of shit” out in Michigan shortly following 9/11. My family isn’t even Arab, we’re Italian so naturally darker complected with darker features. That’s when you know things have gone wrong. I’m also happy that in class we saw the slides and watched the videos of that church in the Dakotas. That right there shows a lot about Americans and our never dying hypocrisy.

Ok all you sensitive people out there listen up. Just because there is a game like this on the market doesn’t mean that you have to buy it or even play it. I mean, in a free world, you can make games like this. Yeah, people can be offended all they want to. But come on, does that mean you have to partake in this game? Do people force you to play it or watch it? No! So why does anyone care? Ok, I’m gonna compare this to gay rights. Say you support gay rights, but it grosses you out to watch gay people in action. Is anyone forcing you to watch it? Is anyone making you do it? No! What, this is corrupting the youth? Then parents do your fucking job and don’t let your kids play this game. Like, why is it that the government has to come in and say, “Now game developers, we are taking this off the shelves because kids are gonna rape each other.” Don’t let parents off the hook. Quit running to the government. As along with many other issues affecting kids, the first person in line to discipline them is the parents. If they can’t do that, then they shouldn’t have kids. If this game was out when I was younger, my mom would NEVER have let me play this, and she would’ve kicked my ass if I did. Come on, get real. And Sam, your response to this isn’t “conservative” like you claim to be. Contradiction maybe?

Very good question my man. In my opinion, I think it really depends on who you are as a person. If you came into this class having no opinions whatsoever on race, then yeah, I think Sam will definitely influence your opinion. Me personally, I think that he hasn’t influenced my opinion because I have already agreed with a lot of what he said, but I think he has done a very good job of reinforcing my opinion. Because of this class, I will be much more open minded than I already was. I think he has done a good job of really getting into things with people that a lot of people would avoid. He brings the issues into the open and allows the student to either form an opinion from it, or to keep their own opinion.

I think that this guy isn’t too bad at all. Now, I’m not saying I don’t have any problems with him, but he isn’t too out there. I agree with bringing the military home. We are still protecting South Korea from the North, we have bases in Germany and France, and we still have hundreds of thousands fighting in the Middle East. Instead of spending so much money to build a proposed fence, bring the troops home and use that money to build bases along the border. With the drug war that is raging on, we could sure use that. Also, it would save money in the long run because we wouldn’t have to spend nearly as much money keeping the troops equipped for war, plus we wouldn’t have to ship them overseas.
Now the thing that does trouble me is the fact that this guy is a third generation Italian-American, yet he (as posted by someone from Pittsburgh) says things like “If you can’t speak English, get out!” Dude, your grand dad didn’t speak English when he came here, what if they told him to get out? That is one highly irrational thing to say. My grandfather on my dad’s side came over from Italy as well as my Great Grandfather on my mom’s side. Their parents didn’t speak English when they brought them here, yet they assimilated into our culture. I agree with another person above me who said Sam is right, these people need time to get used to our culture. What, are we going to tell them “Okay, you have to immediately stop speaking your natural language and learn ours’, you have fifteen minutes. Go!” Like, get out of here.
Now there is one thing that I still can’t pick a side on, and that is when he talks about children being born here and becoming citizens instantly. Now I do feel that these children should be citizens, seeing that they are born on this soil. I am in dispute about the parents however. Alright, yes it is a ploy by the parents to get here and have their children here. But you can’t just kick the child out or force their parents to leave without them. You have to stop the problem where it starts, and that’s the fact that it probably isn’t too terribly hard for you to cross the border.
All in all, I wouldn’t say that this guy has racist views; I think he just needs to be a bit more educated on the topic, and he also needs to think about what he said about his grandfather coming here from Italy. I mean, your family was immigrants too, yes they were legal and they worked hard, but it was much easier for people to immigrate then as it is now.

Sam, I’m going to agree with you one hundred percent. You know, I’m one of those people who like to question everything. I like to find answers to things that a lot of people don’t care about. Social interaction captivates me and nothing else interests me more than trying to find out why people tick the way they do. It blew my mind that people got so offended by that comment. Like, why is it such a touchy subject? EVERY WOMAN DOES IT. Just like men like to brag about the size of the shits that they take. I agree a lot with what you said in class about how if women ruled the world it would be perfectly acceptable. They would be bragging about it instead of sheltering it. Like I’ve said repeatedly, people need to quit being so damn sensitive to dumb things. By the way, I would love to have your job. And be able to be as open about things.

I still don’t really know what to think of this video other than the fact that it’s sad. I really don’t like how this mentality even started. I think that we can put some blame on the media. They advertise that white is beautiful. Even when they feature black people in their ads, I still feel like they are made to look like the mainstream. That’s pretty much what it all stems from is the main stream. People want to have that popular look because they think it looks good. But what they fail to realize is that individuality is beautiful. People are made a certain way for a reason.

Well, where do I begin? Let’s start with this: QUIT BEING SO DAMN SENSITIVE. Alright, being sensitive is cool when you have a reason to be. It shows that you have a heart, something many people seem to hide. But come on, really? Taking negro offensively? I think it was hilarious how the one black dude in the video goes “Is it negro or negro? Wait, negro in English?” Dude, do you not realize that it doesn’t matter how you say it, it still means “black” in Spanish? It was a word that was adopted in the United States for some reason by somebody. But who really cares? Negro is not offensive; it’s an adjective meaning black. Now if the other “n” word was used, then you can complain and burn the Census Bureau’s office to the ground.
Here is another thing: Yeah, it is really easy for white people to just choose white. But do you want my explanation? I would say it’s because if you broke white people up into their cultural groups, you would have a census form that was HUGE. Back in the day, they used to try to separate people, but now there are so many racial groups that that would be too over-the-top, and now many of us have assimilated into one another. Imagine a census form that says Italian, German, Irish, Scottish, English, French, Russian, etc. I would go with Italian because I’m predominantly Italian, but it would still be super confusing, so white is easy.
Now as far as Hispanics go, I think they specify that because there are many unique groups of Hispanics in the United States. If you are Mexican, do you want to be considered Puerto Rican? Many of these people still hold true to the cultures they are from, so they are able to choose what they are. I think since Hispanic populations are just recently growing rapidly in the United States then that’s why it is specified. Maybe 50 years from now they will be either grouped in with white people or black people.
My bottom line to this whole thing is for people to quit getting so offended. I feel like now people get offended just to get offended. They bitch just to bitch. I agree with everyone else completely who has said that. You know, I like to bitch. Who doesn’t? But it gets old bitching about the same thing over and over again. Do you think the United States government intentionally seeks to piss people off? Because I think that’s the last thing they need. People always find a way to attack the government. Now though they can be corrupt (which I do believe), there is no reason to call them out about this. They want to give you people money, so shut up. I won’t complain if I get some money.