After reading this letter, all I can really say is wow. It gave me a lot of insight to something that has honestly never really crossed my mind. I never really thought about what really happens to people and the way they act once they’re in jail. The closest I’ve ever been to seeing what really goes on was a special on the most high security jails, where the prisoners were extremely dangerous, cold headed people that didn’t really care about anyone but themselves. I can honestly say that I didn’t really care either, before reading this I definitely had the idea that they were just getting what they deserved. Post reading, I still feel the same way, but I have a deeper understanding of how exactly they feel. I love the compassion that this particular person had in writing this letter, and I can easily see why Sam would want to be friends with someone so thoughtful and sincere. At first I was thinking he was crazy for wanting to keep in contact with people spending their lives in jail as a result of committing horrible crimes. Something I will take away is that people can change and there is good in everyone, but I think the part that spoke to me the most was the enemies in the jail yard embracing one another after the death of the other’s son. I know people that probably wouldn’t even say sorry if one of their enemies’ close friends or family members passed. The understanding and compassion that was described in this letter was surprisingly touching to me. I wish that everyone could have the opportunity to read this letter and reflect on their own lives. As I was reading this I did, especially in taking little things for granted. The story mentioned before about the inmate whose son passed in a car accident will probably stick with me for the rest of my life. I could not imagine loosing someone that close to me and not being able to talk to my family and for that matter even attending the funeral. It’s amazing to me that these people are able to look past their differences and help one another—and become better people overall. The other smaller things mentioned in the story also got me thinking, like the guy that was able to speak to his daughter on her birthday and only because someone else gave up their phone time for him. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be to live a life like that, especially knowing that there was no freedom ever again. For these men to be able to look past that and move on with their lives says a lot about their character.

I do feel that men too think of their bodies in the same way that women do, they may not make a big deal about it and openly say that there are certain things that they are uncomfortable with or wish they could change, but I think the same feelings still exist. Men and women both see images of perfectly sculpted bodies in magazines targeted towards their gender and it really shouldn’t be a surprise that men obsess over being as close to perfect as possible like their female counterparts. I have seen guys who obsess over exercise and caloric intake, in hopes of putting on muscle mass. The thing is that guys are a lot more private and keep body image matters more personal, in many cases at least. I remember watching true life: I want the perfect body or something like that where this guy submersed himself with images of perfection as his goal image. What really surprised me was for him it wasn’t just about muscle, it was everything from making sure he had zero body hair (which was a little weird) to the clothes he put on his back and even the way he smelled. This guy is obviously an extreme case, but even still there are a good amount of men out there that feel they have to live up to the media’s standard of masculine. Even in reality t.v. men are always portrayed as the macho guy who is an asshole that gets all the girls, which in reality does happen too and I do feel that it is a result of these shows. Male body image and overall appearance, like females does not stop at acceptance from the opposite sex. As mentioned in class, looking around penn state one can easily observe that everyone is pretty much wearing the same thing in one way or another and it is especially the case for males. Appearance and acceptance go hand in hand across genders from relationships to friendships. The comparison between male and female points to many more similarities than one would think. I can see why this question was asked. There are tons of statistics out there about female body image and the negativity faced in a world laced with advertisements. Information is there, but nothing is really said about the effects to a male and his body image. The same messages are there, but when turning to males the issues are often overlooked. The problem in both cases is, these images are always airbrushed and photo shopped. Everyone knows this, weather male or female, but we still make the decision to want so badly what, in many cases is beauty (and an image) that is clearly unattainable.

I can definitely relate to this. My mother is black and my father is half white and half Indian. I grew up with both parents and both sets of families, but I feel that I am closer to my cousins on my dad’s side of the family. I consider each part of my family as equal in shaping my racial identity, so I say that I’m multiracial. In class when Sam asks race specific questions for the black and brown team verses the white team I just don’t answer. My outward appearance is black, so I can obviously relate more to the black and brown team, not to mention a lot of people just assume that I’m black anyway. When people ask me what I am, like what my race is I have a little complex too. For multiracial people I feel that they are often forced to choose between the races that make up who they are—and I don’t really think that it’s so much a personal choice to go one way or another, its more society and the mindset of people around them. For example, growing up I knew a couple of mulattos that either hung out with all black people or all white people just because they felt that they had to make the choice. I do remember when I was really young I knew a biracial girl who had a black mother and a white father that hung out with all black people and then one day decided to hang out a couple white girls at lunch. I remember her black friends were mad and they said something like, “oh so you’re going to go hang out with the white people now.” I know she ended up choosing her white friends in the end. I can only imagine how she felt, but I think this serves as a good example as to why people of the mixed race people identify one way or another and many times don’t identify with both parts of their racial makeup. Something that is interesting to me is a lot of the multiracial and biracial people that I have come across in my life usually feel that they can relate more to part of them that’s black or brown and I don’t really know why that is.
but getting back to the original question, I feel that you have already made the choice for yourself because when Sam asked you a question about being white you said, no I’m Hispanic. I wish one day there could be a class or even a question directed at all of the multiracial and biracial people in the class since apparently a lot of us don’t want to be forced to choose.

To me beauty is probably one of the most difficult words to define, and only because it takes on so many forms. It saddens me to see that the media, however, makes its definition of beauty so narrow. And why would we be surprised that these black children chose the white doll since the media blindsides us with subliminal messages of what should be socially acceptable? Google’s definition of “beauty” is collectively the same—a white woman. Flipping through channels one can instantly see that t.v. shows and movies are predominantly white.

Growing up, the Disney princesses were all white and the majority of the movies I watched had mostly white characters. I remember having all white Barbies, and that was by choice. There were black Barbies, but to me they weren’t pretty. Not to say that I didn’t feel worthy or pretty, but there was just something about the dolls that were off. If I had been in this study when I was younger I probably would’ve picked the white doll too, just simply based on looks. At 19, I would pick the black doll in a heartbeat, but if I was asked which doll looks better I would probably say the white one and that just because that’s just really how it is. A comment was made in class that the black Barbie was weird looking and the clothes they dress her in are weird. I do agree and I feel if they are going to market them, the black and the white doll should be equal. Maybe optional sets of clothes and accessories should be available, IF desired. I do think the media has a lot of influence on the way that these experiments panned out, but also I feel that the marketing and design do play a significant role as well.

A point on the skin bleaching segment—I have heard of the practice before. I remember watching an episode of Tyra where a woman would scrub herself with bleach in hopes of becoming lighter and would put creams on her two sons so they wouldn’t have to suffer the darkness. The most upsetting part was probably that, she felt she would be more beautiful and her life would be much easier if she was lighter. Another show talked about black women that refused to date black men because they didn’t want their kids to come out with “bad hair.” The issue of beauty in the black community is rooted deeply, and firmly for that matter—it is obvious where these ideas have manifested, but a change in scene from the media probably wouldn’t even surface the problem.

Beauty, should not be defined by one’s skin. “Beauty is only skin deep”—but skin is the problem. I wish that each of those girls could see that they are beautiful just the way they are (also that black isn’t bad), and for the women on Tyra I wish them the same. Every color is beautiful—beauty is only what you make it and in most cases the sources we turn to for insight to beauty is artificial beauty… so why believe it?

To be completely honest, I really couldn’t make the connection as to why Sam started talking about periods in class until I started thinking and realized that it has everything to do with the stages of racial identity, and the basis of SOC119 in general. Sam has been stressing in class that a white person would never know how it feels to be black since, obviously, they aren’t black and vice versa. Men don’t have a complete understanding about what women go through during their cycles, because of the obvious, but also the lack of knowledge they have about the subject matter. This wasn’t the case in my elementary school, but in other schools in my district they would break up health classes for boys and girls and explain what changes were going on, and in middle school the idea of periods was just glazed over, along the lines of, “if an egg isn’t fertilized, a woman has a period”, end of story—because, theoretically, “that’s all they needed to know”. Even in the media, a woman’s period is a false representation of what really happens. A recent tampon/pad commercial tries to highlight the way in which the media depicts periods. Images from different commercials are used, including; girls dancing, petting a cat (?), and the blue liquid they use to highlight what should be woman’s period. These images are meant to show the misinterpretation of what a woman’s cycle really consists of. The company’s (Kotex) mission statement is to “break the cycle” about the unhealthy attitudes about periods and eliminate all the falseness in period commercials. In fact, feminine care commercials use the words “down there” to describe a woman’s vagina, because national TV networks do not even allow advertisers to use veiled references about vaginas. Society as a whole, especially men are afraid of period talk and it’s no wonder since sex ed classes are broken up according to gender and period commercials, tell everything but the truth about periods. Sure, there are some men who are comfortable with talking about periods, but the majority of men aren’t, as are women (when talking to men about periods). In my opinion it really isn’t a man’s fault that he doesn’t understand what’s going on with us women, but I don’t think it gives them the right to be grossed out by a woman’s period. Obviously, men have no problem with vaginas—but something happens when the talk moves from vagina to period. Sam made a great point, how can we really understand each other if we don’t bother to understand? We can’t, and this was especially proven when people started leaving while he was trying to make his point.

I personally did not respond to either question, but I do find the responses towards blacks to be more offensive in the past couple of weeks than those compared to comments geared towards whites. Comments about white people including; “the superior race”, “nigs ain’t shit”, and “the loud ass black girls in the computer lab” don’t really compare with, “white people can’t dance”, “white people are over privileged”, and “benchwarmers”. To me, most of the comments towards white people were more along the lines of stereotypes, since obviously not all white people are benchwarmers that can’t dance, nor are all white people over privileged. Sure, looking in a person of color has every right to assume these things, but assumptions aren’t always right, since it’s not viable to make such assumptions. As for the comments made about black people not being shit, and that whites are the superior race—that’s offensive, and it isn’t true. THAT’S WHY PEOPLE GOT MAD. Let’s be serious, these aren’t stereotypes, maybe the one about black people being loud, but otherwise… some white person, that doesn’t have much audacity (since all comments are anonymous) saying that nigs ain’t shit and you’re the superior race shows that you clearly don’t really have any respect or no insight to this whole race relations discussion and you obviously shouldn’t be in this class. I understand that maybe some white people got offended by some of the responses from the people of color, but a lot of the responses about white people, by white people were almost saying the same thing, “white people can’t jump”, “don’t tan”, “privileged” etc. To those who found it offensive, was it only because a person of another race was saying it? And that goes for both sides, i.e. the comment about black people being loud (since I have said myself that black people are loud, and I have heard it from other black people). Personally, I wasn’t offended when I saw the comment about the loud ass black girls in the computer lab, since I’m not one of those, “loud ass black girls in the computer lab”. If anything I was more taken back by the comment, and I feel as though maybe that comment got the response that it did because of the, “loud, ass” part, minus that if it said simply, “loud” or “black people are loud” I don’t think that it would have gotten the same reaction. I do think that the power of words is sometimes just not taken into consideration. I bet that if half of the people who responded just took a moment to think about what they were writing, half of the things said may have not been offensive. All in all, it was pretty painful and embarrassing to read some of the responses, seriously, everyone grow up.

Most of the themed parties at Penn State are directed towards other races than the black race. For the record, for a while the majority of theme parties had to do with the show, The Jersey Shore. People were dressing up and playing on every stereotype that was known on the show. Even toga parties, sure someone could label them as offensive, but people aren’t and no one is really thinking, “I’m going to get dressed up to offend someone tonight.” The only instance that I can really think of that would even come close to the comment in this video would probably be a BET vs. MTV themed party, but still I don’t find it very offensive. I consider it a way to have a good time, and break free of the usual go out, drink, talk to some people and have the night be over. It would be one thing if white people were going around painting their faces black, acting out stereotypes that black people are known for, but they’re not. And who’s to say that a white person can’t dress up like a gangster. In all seriousness, I am black, and I do not take any offense to parties like this. Personally, I find it hysterical to watch people dress up like that. I don’t really think that other black take offense to these parties either, unless there is something that I am missing that’s a bit more offensive, but in the same respect, I don’t think that it is anyone’s goal here to sit back and say let’s have a racist party tonight. We are the number one party school in the nation, people want to have fun and I don’t really see anything past that in terms of themed parties. If anything, I would expect Italians to get offended by the Jersey Shore parties, but in the instances that I know of, they’re not. In other cases sexism is a dominant theme, like all of the CEOs and office hoes parties. Sure, these parties could be labeled as sexist, but no one is really complaining about that. People dress up and have a good time. The funniest thing about it is someone would probably look in and say, that’s sexist, but the people that really get into it are females. Personally, I went to one, dressed up and I wasn’t sitting back thinking maybe I shouldn’t go to this party because this is offensive to me. I think the majority of themed parties would be labeled as sexist, but no one here really cares. There are other theme parties too, that have nothing to race or sex, like dressing as the first letter of your name, or anything but a cup, or highlighter parties so I really don’t think it’s fair or accurate to say that these parties are aimed towards black people.

The video of the experiment really touched my heart, and it was extremely upsetting to me. I personally would have said something if it were me because I don’t think that anyone should be treated that way and I really couldn’t imagine the constant discrimination based on religion. The six people who saluted the actor for being discriminatory towards the young woman, I think, are the real— fake Americans. What stood out to me the most was the man who agreed with the actor and gave him thumbs up saying that the girl wasn’t an American. I don’t know how anyone could call them self an American and treat someone so harshly or consider that type of treatment towards someone as being just. And for the 22 that stood there and said nothing, I consider that solid and blatant ignorance. In this situation, I see it just as bad, if not worse than saying something. The student that said that it isn’t one’s place to interfere, is wrong, and was obviously raised the wrong way. I mean really, if you were in that situation, would you really just sit back and say, “oh well, that’s not my problem”? Maybe, if that were you, and you were in that woman’s shoes you would have a change of heart, but until then, consider this… Could you really imagine living your life in fear of violence and social disapproval just because of your faith and form of dress? I know that I have never been put in a situation close to this extreme, but if I were, I would want someone to have enough of a heart to stand up for me. I commend the few that did stand up for the woman and those that said they would never go back. This reminds me of the girl who was with her friend that was also Muslim and said, “Well I’m Muslim too, but you can serve me?” and when the man said, “Well yeah, you look like an American.” I really can’t imagine how the woman was feeling at that point. I think that was probably the saddest part of the video. I understand that it was only a dramatization, but just being in the audience, watching I was extremely upset by this social experiment and I think that anyone that sat there, unaffected just has no heart. And to think that there are people out there that have to go through this kind of discrimination daily, my heart goes out to you. Discrimination of any type is horrible, and the way that some of the people acted in this video kind of makes me lose a little bit of hope that one day, it will all be over.

This is probably one of the saddest things I’ve seen in a while. I had no idea that discrimination of same sex couples went this far. It upsets me to see that people could actually tear apart a family over idiotic beliefs such that a man and a man or a woman and a woman shouldn’t be together. Before seeing this video my standpoint was something to the tune that same sex couples should have the same rights as a marriage, but it just shouldn’t be called a marriage. Even after Tuesday’s class I really started to think—maybe, there should be no line; love is love… and two people of the same sex should be able to call their commitment to one another a marriage. Our country is based on the idea of equality, but what is equality when we can sit back and let something so upsetting happen. I mean really… if I was in the same situation, and someone tried to take me away from my significant other, all hell would break loose and I’m sure that is the case for many Americans, so why do that to someone else? It makes no sense why anyone should be treated so unfairly based on their sexual orientation and why so many people seem to be so insensitive to gay rights especially after the civil rights movement; shouldn’t everything just be equal for everyone? Corporate America seems to be headed in the right direction, so why can’t the government step up and take responsibility for what’s really right. What really gets me about this video is the fact that the children are pretty much just living life in fear that any day someone could just come take their mom away. This especially makes me upset; it’s so sad and I really can’t imagine life without my mother there when I needed her. They’re so young and the government is just stepping in and ripping apart their family. I really think this is crossing the line, I mean it’s one thing to not grant same sex marriages, but ripping apart a family seems a bit extreme. There are so many criminals out there running around, who should be deported, but the government is making a mission to tear apart innocent families and for what, a piece of mind? It is utterly disgusting what they are doing and I really don’t see how their only defense if that only a man and a woman should be married. All in all, I know that we are probably a ways from total equality across all races, gender, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation, but what lawmakers really need to consider is their complete and total hypocrisy. If this country is based on freedom and equality, it should be so and nothing less.

I feel that the word “negro” shouldn’t be used in the census. It stems from a highly derogatory word and I don’t really understand why any black person would want to be referred to as a “negro”. At this day and age just about every American knows where the word comes from and how offensive it is. It’s crazy that people would still want to identify and agree that they are a “negro”. The population of the United States is close to 305 million people, and of those, only 56,000 associate themselves with the word. I feel that most other black and African Americans would find use of the word offensive on the census and I don’t think that they should include it, especially for such a small percentage in terms of the US population. Being black, I would rather be called black, not a negro and if I myself saw the census with a box to check of negro, I personally would be offended. I think a more viable solution would be to leave the “other” choice available for those who feel they are a negro to say so if they please. Also, I feel that use of the word on the census would only make it ok for other races to refer to blacks as negros. I personally would not be in any way ok with a white person calling me a negro and I feel that if it was used in the census, most other races would look at it say, “oh, well the government is calling them negros—so why can’t I?” Point blank—I feel that calling any black person negro or even colored is derogatory. In the same respect, the word “cracker” isn’t being thrown around on the census. So why is negro being thrown around so loosely, regardless of whether or not people think that’s what they should be called. As, the article says, “Use of the word Negro to describe a black person has largely fallen out of polite conversation — except on the U.S. Census questionnaire.” If most people don’t agree with the word, why are we using it on a government document? In response to the rest of the article I think that it’s great that they are enabling the option of checking off more than one box and getting deeper as to what people really are. I think the most effective way to get an accurate census reading would be to let people actually explain what they think they are based on their national origin. I feel that also, they should include a more detailed census with more ethnic backgrounds, because this would also aid in getting the most accurate description of the racial makeup of our country.