I think that Hollywood completely destroys the image of women. It is terrible to think that there are so many miserable women in the world who look through magazines and watch movies and TV and strive to look like the women that they see. The fact is that these images are not realistic. Magazines use airbrushing techniques to make the women in these pictures look flawless. There are so many young girls who see these images and think that they are supposed to look a certain way. This causes everything from poor self-esteem to eating disorders. Young girls should be taught that they are perfect as they are and that everyone looks different. Women are all different shapes and sizes and there is nothing that should change that.
We are forced as a society to watch famous female celebrities getting cosmetic surgery all the time. This shows the women of today that it is okay to be unhappy with what you look like because you can always change it. I don’t feel that you should just change the way you look. If we all start doing this then we are all eventually going to start to look exactly the same and that would eliminate a lot of our identities. If women aren’t confident in themselves it makes it okay for men to look down on them for physical appearance as well. I think that this is a major part as to why women are still not where men are in the workplace.
Women’s bodies are structured to carry and bear children. The population would never sustain if it weren’t for the pain that women go through for nine months. This is something beautiful and special that pertains solely to women. Men cannot say that they did such a thing. I think that if women felt this way about their bodies then they would be less concerned with what size they wore and simply focus on the more important things in life.
I think that women have been given the idea that they should look a certain way so that they appear presentable to others. This is predominant in other countries where women do not have as many rights. Some countries require women to cover themselves, others require them to look perfect and put together so that they fit in with their surroundings. In earlier years when women were typically homemakers they had to look nice for their husbands when they came home from work. I think that women should be dressing for themselves. I think that they should do whatever is going to allow them to feel confident. It is sad that the confidence often comes from looking like these Hollywood stars, but until women can accept the fact they aren’t born into those figures, I don’t think that things will change.

I ate the second piece of chocolate after watching the video. I picked up on the point of the chocolate early on. I knew that he was going to show us a video on slavery and then tell us to eat the second piece of chocolate. Thinking about it while watching the video I was thinking that I would not eat the second piece of chocolate. When the video was over, I thought about it. Then, Sam made a comment; something to the effect of don’t not eat the second piece of chocolate unless you are going to vow never to eat chocolate again. This is the statement that really got me thinking and made me eat the second piece of chocolate.
The video was terrible and it was very scary to watch the men in that video working as slaves. The video made me very upset that the world is the way it is. It is terrible that human beings are able to force others to work for them without any pity or regard for how they feel. I could not physically force another human being to do that, but I guess I am helping by purchasing these products.
The problem here is that there are so many products that this impacts. There is no way that I could have sat in that classroom and vowed to never eat chocolate again. In fact, I ate chocolate later that night and honestly, it did not even occur to me that I had just watched a video about slavery just a few hours before that very moment. I know that slavery was used to make my clothing and my cell phone and a million other things that I use in my everyday life. What can I do? Stop putting on clothes in the morning? Start being extra extra selective about my food intake? Stop making phone calls? I cannot even begin to imagine what my life would be like without all of these things.
I think that the first step in the process of getting rid of slavery is awareness which is certainly being attacked with classes like this and videos such as the one that we watched. I think that the next step in this process is to go after the major corporations who use these products to their advantages. I know that if I were the CEO of a major company and I found out that my products were being made by slaves I would immediately cut off all ties with that particular supplier. I think that this is where the major problems lie. Companies are concerned with lowest costs and greatest revenue as opposed to the well being of the world. These companies are very influential on our society and I think that they need to be aware and become responsible for what they produce and sell. They need to be responsible for the well being of the human race and the rest of the world.

I did not register for this class with the expectation that my mind would be changed. I took it because I thought that I might learn something about why different races are at different points and levels in society. There are the obvious reasons such as slavery throughout the world among other things, but I wanted to learn about why racism is still so prevalent and theories as to why the world is still like this. Penn State is not as diverse as other parts of the country so I also thought that it would be interesting learning about race relations in an environment that is predominantly white. I honestly did not think that this class would be as enlightening as it has been.
I do not think that Sam has changed my opinion about anything. I do; however, feel that he has opened my eyes to an entirely new set of ideas. I never considered the experiences of young children of different races or how people begin their lives at different starting points. I have always been grateful for the opportunities that I have been given, but I never thought about how much easier I have had it compared to other individuals around me. Hearing the stories of other people has been the most influential part of this class for me. Listening in group discussions to the different experiences of students here and talking in class about how people are statistically different from one another has been informative.
I have learned a great deal about other races and ethnicities simply from listening to the stories and struggles of others. This class has made me even more grateful to be where I am. I am extremely fortunate to have been born into the family that I am a part of. I realize that as a result of this class. I knew that things were bad elsewhere but I do not think that I was aware of all of the extremities. You of course hear stories and watch TV to learn about these things but it is different sitting in a classroom and having these things told to you in person by someone who has lived in and experienced many different parts of the world.
Many things in this class have made a difference to me. I appreciate more now what people of other races and from different socioeconomic backgrounds go through to be successful. It makes a difference to me because I know how fortunate I am to be where I am right now. It makes a difference to me that know more about the history of these ethnicities and what each has gone through and where their setbacks came into play. Overall, I think that this class has better informed me about the rest of our society and the world which is something very important. If we could not discuss these things the world would go on in ignorance and improved race relations would never even be a possibility.

I grew up in a very diverse town unlike the state of Pennsylvania and Penn State. I have always been in classrooms with people of different races, backgrounds, and ethnicities. My two best friends growing up were both multiracial. I guess I feel like I was thrown into the revisioning stage faster than others. Coming up here, I definitely took notice that the campus was mostly white; in fact, it was one of the first things that I noticed. I was extremely surprised because Penn State advertises itself as being very diverse and the lack of diversity was very evident upon my arrival here.
I am from central New Jersey and in school I was in class with many different types of races as well. Besides whites, my town consists mostly of families from Asian countries. I was exposed to many different types of cultures as a result of this. I have actually spoken about this with a number of my friends up at school and it was obvious that we had very different experiences. Many of them are from different parts of Pennsylvania. They told me that this school seemed very diverse to them and that they had gone to school with mostly white people.
I think that I am fortunate to have had such an experience because I feel that I am much more accepting and understanding of other cultures. I have an appreciation for it that I don’t think you can get just by reading and learning about how people of different backgrounds do things. One of the major differences that I found was in my friends’ parents. It was so exciting to grow up with friends whose parents were immigrants and being able to experience first-hand how they were different from my parents.
I think that it would be great if everyone could have an experience like this growing up because it certainly has a different effect when you are younger. I think that being younger, you are less likely to notice the obvious differences in people and you can actually get a feel for how different cultures and ethnicities behave. I feel that when you are older and come from a place where everyone looks the same you are more likely to look at people of different races from a different perspective. You are probably more likely to assume the stereotypes and act in a less open manner. I am not saying that everyone is like this but I do find that talking to people who have never lived in a diverse area act in such a way. I think that classes like this along with discussion groups and the race relations project are great ways to go about eliminating this. It is great to be able to talk about it in a safe atmosphere and learn about the experiences of others and how they are different from our own.

I personally feel that they concept of white guilt is changing. I think that it is obvious from class that most of the white people there do not feel guilty. It should not be about carrying around guilt with you and individuals of other races should not be making white people feel that guilt because of what their ancestors did generations ago. I think that it should be more about recognition and understand of the past as opposed to trying to make up for it now. I did not physically or emotionally harm anyone, so there is no reason for me to carry around guilt.
As far as the textbook comment goes, I agree that history books in this country are manipulated to portray a strong country that it is always in the right and makes the right decisions; however, I learned about slavery at a very young age and knew what had happened. I didn’t feel guilty again because I did not do anything myself. I remember feeling bad that that took place in history, but no more than I feel bad that people are made slaves all over the world today (which is not always by white people).
As I said, I did learn about slavery and the terrible torture that went on; however, I do not remember learning about how the Native Americans suffered and still do today. If there is a group to feel guilty about it is most certainly the Native Americans. Our textbooks tell us when we’re little kids that the Europeans and Native Americans got along well. I seem to remember quite a bit of reinforcement on the fact that diseases like small pox are what killed most of them. I was definitely unaware of the fact that they were tortured by the European settlers.
I think that textbooks actually do eliminate the guilt because they avoid it. They don’t tell you exactly what happened because most white people try not to think about it anyway. I don’t think that you can teach little kids that their ancestors tortured other humans. I would assume that would be something emotionally and psychologically draining. It is okay to talk about it at an older age. I specifically remember doing a project in seventh grade called the Columbus Trial. We researched what had happened when Columbus came to America and put on a mock trial to decide whether or not he was innocent or did in fact torture the Native Americans. The thing about that project that I thought was appropriate was that our teachers let us do the research and let us come to the conclusions on our own about what happened. It eliminated a lot of the ignorance and showed us that we needed to do our research and decide what we thought about our history books.

I was very surprised while reading this article. I know that there are a ton of people and states in this country that are not open to the idea of same-sex couples, but I never would have imagined a school going to such extremities to repress it. Prom is supposed to be a time for you to celebrate your high school years with the people who meant the most to you. Do the teachers and the rest of the school really care about who each student brings as a date? Sure it may make students uncomfortable and they will probably be staring, but isn’t that enough for Constance McMillen to deal with? Now they are making it so that her sexuality is publicized. She is probably an outcast as it is because it seems that the school isn’t comfortable with this, so now everyone will not only remember her for that, but the girl who got the prom cancelled.
I do not understand it because Constance being a lesbian is not hurting anyone. Nothing different would have happened at the prom if she brought her girlfriend. I don’t get why people are so upset? Why do they care? It doesn’t affect anyone but Constance and her girlfriend.
The board referred to this situation as causing “distractions to the educational process.” Isn’t prom in general a distraction to the educational process? It is a social event, not an educational event. They aren’t standing around making out in front a class trying to do math problems.
I would understand this being an issue if this were a Catholic high school because it clearly states in the Bible that this is not accepted, but there is no evidence of this. It appears that this is a public school with no school uniforms; a place where teenagers should be allowed to express their individuality. Constance is doing just that. She is expressing herself at no one else’s expense and trying to do what she wants. The school is in no position to judge her for her sexuality. They are ruining what is supposed to be a very special time for all high school seniors over something that is so stupid. They do not even have a good excuse for doing it because of how they referred to it. It isn’t fair that other girls in the school get to bring the person that they are closest to with them to the prom while Constance has to stay home and miss it. She hasn’t done anything wrong to have her prom privileges taken away from her. She behaved just like everyone else and deserves to be able to be herself during the last few weeks of her high school life.

PART 3: By creating this league, “Moose” is essentially saying that white people can’t play with black people. It’s not like the NBA excludes white people. Black people just happen to be more talented more often when it comes to basketball. Should we create a black hockey league or a white baseball league? It just isn’t something that will move this country forward. It will increase the evidence of peoples’ physical difference and bring a ton of attention to it. If we are trying to move away from racism then this is absolutely not that way to go about doing it. We talked about the fact that white people who have committed crimes are more likely to be hired for jobs than black people who haven’t. We should all be competing equally and taking that out of sports is the first step away from that especially with so much controversy in other areas such as business.

PART 2: Even though I disagree with the reasons that “Moose” wants to promote this league, I know that he is probably right with regards to the feelings of many white people in this country. I just think that that’s very sad to say that white men need a place to retreat to when it comes to basketball. It almost sounds like a form of affirmative action for white men today. This just seems like a step in the wrong direction if this country is truly working towards equality. Why would you give advantages to a group that has always been given advantages? We would essentially have to do this for every sport because a different ethnic group dominates each one and that would just be ridiculous. If we are working towards equality in this country we should just let the people who are the best be the best. There is no need for subgroups everywhere that reinforce inequality.

PART 1: I get where Don “Moose” Lewis is coming from when looking at his views from a business perspective. I think that he is correct in saying that the stands will be filled with different types of fans; statistically speaking fans with more money because white people, on average, make more money than the minority groups. My issue is with the ethics behind the situation. I think that this country has come very far in its acceptance of other cultures; however, we still have quite a long way to go. We are nowhere near complete acceptance and this is one of the reasons why.
I have to say I am slightly offended that “Moose” feels that white people would more likely want to watch other white people playing basketball. I personally would prefer to see the best players. I think that sports come down to do talent and training, not the color of the player’s skin. Clearly, more black people play professional basketball than white people, but there is a reason for it. They are typically better and when you see a white guy playing, you know he has got to be pretty decent.

This class is beginning to change my way of thinking on a number of levels. When Sam first began lecturing about Native Americans and how they were tortured by white people I thought well those were my ancestors, I haven’t done anything. I found myself getting offended in the early lectures by what he was saying about how we need to accept blame. I do not by any means feel guilty about the past, because it’s true I wasn’t there and I did not personally attack anyone. My feelings in this respect remain unchanged. After more discussion; however, I began to realize that it isn’t about feeling guilt. It is about recognizing what was done in the past and how so many people were and still are affected by it.
It bothers me that we are never taught these things in school. History books and the media are so manipulated that it is scary to think of the number of things we are oblivious to. I remember learning about the Columbus trial in middle school and being shocked to discover that Columbus was not the hero we all thought that he was. We have an entire day dedicated to him after all. Even then, I was young and didn’t really understand how the Native Americans were truly treated.
The fact that Native Americans are still suffering so much today is an indication of how wrong things still are. I do not think that we as individuals have to feel guilty. I feel that it is instead about making it right now and allowing them the rights that our ancestors wrongfully took from them. Even now, we have them pushed aside onto reservations. There is no opportunity for them. I think that slavery is a topic that is studied more. White people brought black people over from Africa as slaves, but eventually we became the good guys by freeing them. I guess that’s why we learn about that because it makes it look like white people did the right thing. This also seems to be the main concern in race relations because it always comes back to white and black people. When it comes to the Native Americans though, everyone just ignores them. They have been pushed away and swept under the rug. At least other races in this country have been able to begin to work their way up a bit because of recognition; however, Native Americans have never even had that opportunity. There are people born into that particular culture today that have not gotten a say and may never get a say. Their land was taken from them and they never even received an apology. We are supposed to be the smarter, more enlightened generation that is trying to bring peace to the world. So it does become our responsibility to make sure that they are recognized and heard because they are human beings like the rest of us.