en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2420274 Comments by Bazinga1 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment144893008 My opinion on illegal immigration has changed after this past sociology class. The most important aspect of illegal immigration that I was unaware of was how widespread it is. It directly affected at least 10 people in sociology class seeing as they have actually crossed the border or illegally entered the United States in some way or another. This is eye-opening to me because I had no idea just how many people are here illegally. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that they are illegal, but it is just surprising to me. I never thought about the way that we all affected by illegal immigration regardless of whether or not we actually are illegal immigrants ourselves. I personally am not an illegal immigrant. But I know quite a few people who have come to the United States illegally. Illegal immigration is not always as violent and eventful as we imagine. We may imagine a family running across a sandy desert, dodging bullets and struggling to keep everyone safe. Some simply find loopholes in immigration laws and weasel their way into the country. This is pretty smart, but at the same time it is illegal. Unfortunately, we do not have he means necessary to control illegal immigration and put it at a level that we can oversee or simply eliminate it altogether. We could expand our legal immigration system to accommodate for illegal immigration, but this only encourages more people to enter the country – something we can’t handle with our available resources. We need to come up with a whole new mechanism for controlling immigration in the United States of America. I think the most important thing about immigration is that we are unable to stop it. We can’t see where it’s happening so we have yet to take major action on illegal immigration that has been effective. Even the wall between Mexico and the United States was not extremely efficient, cost efficient, or effective. No doubt it was extremely expensive – but was it worth it? Did we effectively control illegal immigration with the erection of a fence on the imaginary border between the United States and Mexico? No. “Wetbacks” still make their way to this nation in thousands every year and we should take a definite stance on the occurrence. Some people argue that immigrants take their jobs. Others argue that they are people too and deserve to be here as much as we do. Who’s right? I see both sides of the issue but I have to agree that immigrants deserve to live on this land. After all, we’re all illegal immigrants living on land that we do not own. What gives us the right to stay here and not other “illegal” immigrants? Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:35:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment144893008 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment143249439 If forced to think about a situation such that I would be choosing between getting what I deserved and nepotism, I would probably reconsider just choosing the easy option and taking what is handed to me. It is never fair to benefit from nepotism because it is unfair by nature. We are never entitled to something by birth. This was not fair when it came to the monarchy and ruling an empire. Therefore, it is not fair now. We are in no position to gain rights or opportunities that we didn’t work for. There are always people out there that worked harder to earn their spot and you should not be allowed to be on their level, occupying a position that you did not work nearly as hard to obtain. Obviously, not everyone works the same amount to get results in life. Some are smarter or more efficient and dedicate less time and energy towards a goal and still get the same result as people that work longer and harder. This is unfortunate, but at least it is legitimate. Nepotism is a whole new story. We don’t consider nepotism an immediate threat because you don’t even notice that it’s happening. This is weird because to me, it’s almost the most blatant thing occurring in this world. Most people are unaware but I am aware. This is bad. We need to stop it now. It needs to be handled appropriately if we want to make this world a better place. The world is a gorgeous state in the nation. We need to play a serious game of life and decide if we want nepotism or affirmative action or neither of the above in this world. Nepotism shows up in a variety of real world situations. For example, if I wanted a job in a research lab, I would just contact one of my uncles or my parents’ friends and ask for a hook-up. This is probably one of the most unfair practices in America today. As immigrants, we come to this country to work and earn our spots in the world. We shouldn’t be around to take other people’s spots because of our connections. In a way, it seems fair when you do it because you justify it with the fact that you made the connections in the first place. That is important because it is probably the reason why nepotism is so widespread in this country. Affirmative action is kind of like nepotism because they both are giving people benefits that they did not earn. Affirmative action is more accepted in society because it is regulated by the government. This is probably another reason why nepotism is justified by so many people in this country. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:33:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment143249439 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/after-this-class-do-you-still-blame-terrorism-119-blog/#IDComment141137294 I cannot say that I feel any positive way about terrorism in general. The word itself comes with so many negative connotations, that, to me, it would seem absolutely ridiculous to even regard the word as “positive” in any way. Lives have been lost, families shattered, and hopes crushed for this word. Terrorism. I personally don’t feel like Sam’s lecture was about terrorism though. Or at least it was not the main focus. He wanted to convey the idea that the United States was at war with Iraq over oil – not terrorism. A lot of people are under the misconception that we are fighting over weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons. Perhaps even the September 11th attacks are a common rationale behind the war. It is, however, primarily about oil. Terrorism is only good for its ability to make people feel so strongly that they are willing to make generalizations about entire populations based on the actions of a few. This is unrealistic and just plain dumbfounding. Educated citizens around the world should be astounded at how much the public will buy certain things the government tells us. For example, the entirety of the American population is kind of okay with the war in Iraq because they think it is about weapons of mass destruction. We all know in the end that that is not the case. But with a word like terrorism being thrown around, not many people are willing to think past the dark cloud and come to a realization that we are not fighting over terrorism. If we were, we should have stopped a long time ago because the whole nation of Iraq is not filled with terrorists. Obviously we have placed a very harmful stereotype in our minds and used it to rationalize something as heartbreaking as a war that has killed millions of civilians and will continue to take its toll on our people until we come to a common realization and end this war. It is pathetic that some people will argue that terrorism is a good thing because it teaches a country to band together and form a more cohesive force against dangers presented to them. Some may proclaim, all for one and one for all. This is unnecessary in a situation where terrorism does not exist and is simply unreasonable now. If we didn’t have to deal with terrorism, then we wouldn’t be so concerned about banding together to make a cohesive whole in the first place. In fact, the common threat we were all worried about disappears too. We really are left with less evils in this world and that’s how it should be. We aren’t in this to make a more cohesive fighting force for the United States. We are being counter-productive and hurting our nation by fighting this war. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 01:39:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/after-this-class-do-you-still-blame-terrorism-119-blog/#IDComment141137294 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment139167919 I often feel incredibly uncomfortable when I am around people who speak a different language. It’s not about which language they happen to be speaking, but instead the fact that they consciously decided to speak a language that they knew I would not recognize around me. Personally, I would regard that as just rude. It’s one thing to not include me on your private conversation, but it’s a whole different thing to purposely exclude me and make me feel like an outsider by discussing things in a different language. In particular, I have seen people of different races switch between English and their mother-tongue when they are talking about people around them that they assume do not understand them. For example, I once went to a nail salon and the women who worked there all happened to be Vietnamese. They obviously knew English because they addressed me in English and worked the counter. However, once I sat down, the woman giving me a manicure immediately switched to what I would assume is Japanese and started conversing with the women working around her. All I could interpret from the conversation was the tone they used, and it wasn’t pleasant. I could almost sense that they were talking about me or another customer in their salon. This is inappropriate for the proprietor of a business and should not be tolerated even if it is in a different language. People tend to not realize that just from tones and giggles, we can generally understand what you’re saying without even knowing the meanings of the words you use. Now I’m not saying that every time that this occurs, it is negative. I’m sure people have perfectly normal conversations in different languages just because they are more comfortable doing it. It is frustrating for outsiders, but I suppose it isn’t offensive. It’s also important to figure out whether or not the people you are watching normally talk in English. It becomes an issue as to whether or not the person happens to be well-versed in the “universal language” of America. We should not find it offensive to have a different language spoken in our presence because America does not have a universal language. We need to be more accepting of other cultures and customs and appreciate them for their differences. After all, they are what makes us the melting of America. This is the idealistic view of how we want to see the world today and tomorrow. This is the idea behind America and is why we have such a huge multicultural population. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 18:28:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment139167919 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-do-you-think-about-interracial-relationships-119-blog/#IDComment137585349 Why are interracial relationships a cause for concern? Ideally, they shouldn’t be any more offensive than any other relationships. In the real world, however, relationships between people of different races aren’t accepted as much as we would like. For some reason, people are extremely prejudiced against two people of different races that have decided to date or even get married. The idea of people of different races dating is probably relatively new to our elders because it only really skyrocketed in our generation. Our older relatives that often pass judgment on our choices tend to be more upset about interracial marriages. Many may argue that it is because they are more close-minded and less ready to give up traditional values than our generation. However, if you think about it, aren’t we a little close-minded about the older generation and their customs and beliefs? It’s important that we take the time to evaluate whether or not interracial relationships are actually worth our concern. In fact, it is absolutely unnecessary to zero in on this particular type of relationship and treat it any differently than other relationships. On the other hand, most of us were raised in a family of predominantly one race. My parents, for example, along with their parents, and practically everyone in the generations above them married within their own race. I am probably expected to marry within our race as well, but I won’t let this consciously affect my decision. I possess and actively exercise my right to date people of whatever race I please and eventually, I have the biggest say in who I marry. I’m not really blaming my parents for raising me the way they did, but I can empathize with people that don’t have the strength to stand up to the elders in their families to defend their choices. There are plenty of people that hold a more conservative view on the topic and will always choose the more traditional route. I have the utmost respect for these people and their priorities, I would just like to respectfully disagree with them. It is probably really tough to just be in an interracial relationship in public. I’m sure these couples constantly feel the need to justify themselves and their actions to ignorant people, but the truth is, we shouldn’t have to defend who we want to date or marry. It’s nobody else’s business except perhaps your family’s, but that is a unique problem for each person and only they know how to handle in properly and with the least damaged caused as possible. We shouldn’t feel the need to justify our actions in this world as long as they don’t affect the lives of people not involved. We shouldn’t feel accountable to the world for our perfectly natural feelings towards one another, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, etc. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:40:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-do-you-think-about-interracial-relationships-119-blog/#IDComment137585349 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742341 PART 4 In a way, it’s sad that more of us feel no guilt about being of a certain race. What did we do to deserve being in the position we are in right now? We could have been born into a different family with little or no money and a history of disease. There’s no way to control what we feel guilty about, but it’s unfortunate that we don’t feel guilt about this topic. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:39:44 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742341 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742313 PART 3 When we were talking about this in our discussion group, we came to the conclusion that there is a definite distinction between feeling guilty about something and feeling empathy for a group of people. We may not necessarily feel guilty about the Native American situation, but certainly there is the opportunity to empathize with them about their plight. I don’t know if I would necessarily take any action on the matter, but I would say that I empathize with the Native Americans and I think they have a legitimate reason to be upset at the people that removed them from their lands and placed them on their reservations. I would go so far as to say that they have every right to come knocking on our doors some day with a paper saying they have the rights to this land and asking us to explain ourselves. We took their land and that was wrong. For some reason, though, I don’t feel guilty about it. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:39:32 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742313 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742253 PART 2 I can see why one could argue that this generation is making a conscious choice to live on Native American soil and therefore prone to feel the same guilt. However, I feel like we are in a position in which we can’t realistically pick up and move to a different location just to make a statement about Native American rights to the land. We tend to feel less guilty about living on the land because we didn’t directly take it from the Native Americans. The truth is, though, that we are responsible for keeping it from them right now. If it weren’t for us living on this soil, the Native Americans would have what is rightfully theirs and there would be no issue in the first place. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:39:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742253 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742215 PART 1 I have to admit, it would make sense to feel guilty for being of a certain race (especially white). However, I don’t think I have ever felt significantly guilty about being Indian. If I were white (or any other race), I still don’t think I would feel guilty about the color of my skin or the actions of my ancestors. Everybody has a choice to commit actions that they can feel guilty or proud of. When the first people that came to America displaced the Native Americans already living here unfairly, they made a choice that I would assume they felt a little guilty about. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:38:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135742215 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134032283 As our population grows at an astronomical rate, we often don’t take the time to think about the implications of our actions. At what point do the “contributions” we make to this world outweigh the resources they take up? By this I mean where do we cross the line from actually benefitting the world with progeny to carry on our legacy and delve into overpopulating the planet with people who abuse the resources available to us and contribute little or nothing to benefit the population. This is a serious question that we need to start thinking about if we want to maintain any control we might have over our futures. If we let this situation get out of control, then ultimately we suffer and the world is left in the hands of our wasteful progeny. Of course, there are certainly members of the generations below us that will contribute more than enough to earn their place in the world. The issue arises when taking into account that for every productive person in the world, there are at least twenty people using more than their share of resources and not paying for it. We need to fix this problem now before it escalates out of control. The Chinese, some may argue, may actually have the best plan in terms of controlling overpopulation. They limit the number of children allotted to each family to one – and you’d better hope it’s a son. The Chinese have been known to smother their first-born daughters to death with hopes of having another child and it being a son. The sons carry on the legacy of the family and keep the family name. They are very valuable, especially to families with immense wealth or power that need someone in the next generation to take over the family assets. This becomes a concern when a daughter is the only child of a wealthy Chinese family because she may be viewed as weak or unfit to wield power in the public’s eye. Alas, I digress, the Chinese control their overpopulation with limits on how many children families may have. If you think about it, over time, the overall population of China will have cut in half because every mother and father may only have one child. Perhaps a similar system would be helpful in America. At first glance, one may dismiss the idea of controlling how many children each family is allowed to have as communist. However, there is some value to be sought from the Chinese in terms of their overpopulation control policies. We need to adopt something to save the resources we have left and prevention of overpopulation is, in my opinion, the first step. Recycling and reducing the use of disposables will play a significant role in our near future in we want to be able to sustain life on this Earth. Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:26:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134032283 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/do-you-think-his-lighter-skin-gets-him-ahead-in-society-119-blog/#IDComment130395284 Lighter skin, I regret to admit, probably does make a significant difference in the opportunities offered to this man. He will probably get further in society than he would have if he were darker skinned. Of course, an idealist would claim that his race or skin color wouldn’t make a difference in the opportunities offered to him. A realist, however, would claim that every single thing that sets you apart probably plays a role in your success in society. In a sense, every decision you make has the potential to make or break your future. Sure, plenty of decisions you make everyday probably won’t have long-lasting effects on you, but you never know when you eat that one piece of undercooked meat that gives you food poisoning for the next week and may lead to further health complications. The difference between making decisions that change your life and this situation is that this man didn’t consciously decide to be a light-skinned African American. He didn’t have the power to control what his skin would look like and, to be honest, he probably had a period in his life during which he had to come to terms that he doesn’t really fit in perfectly with his race. It’s possible that both the African American community and the white community both reject him or don’t allow him to fit in completely because of his innate differences. Hopefully, however, he has found people that he feels comfortable with and didn’t base the decision on what color their skin was or which ethnicity they identified with. The bigger issue is the fact that a simple difference in this man’s appearance can have such a significant impact on his identity and his future. People looking to hire reliable workers for a high-status job will probably hire him before an equally qualified black man because they see “cleanliness” or “professionalism.” On the other hand, if the boss were presented with the opportunity to choose between this man and a white man, the white man would probably still be hired over this man because he is African American when it comes down to it. Racism exists and appearances, in this situation, play a major role in the amount of respect given and the opportunities offered to us. Is there a chance that skin color wouldn’t make a difference and this man would be equally likely to be hired regardless of his race and the shade of his skin tone? Absolutely. There are many instances in which race doesn’t matter and hiring and ultimately success are based solely on qualifications and maybe a stroke of luck. However, when interviewers are faced with a huge influx of applicants that are all qualified for the job offered and decisions still need to be made, irrational methods of decision-making tend to come into play. Some may refer to this as latent racism. Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:22:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/do-you-think-his-lighter-skin-gets-him-ahead-in-society-119-blog/#IDComment130395284 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/what-did-you-get-out-of-king-of-the-mountain-119-blog/#IDComment128633199 King of the Mountain is a demonstration that Sam presented in class. He asked ten to fifteen people to join him at the front of the classroom and walk around a table. After he had walked around the table a couple times, he suddenly climbed up to the top of the table and told everyone to stop walking. He was now King of the Mountain. Whoever was on top of the table held the power to call the shots and control everyone on the floor. He began shunning the non-whites and elevating the status of certain white people by bringing them halfway up the “mountain” to help him. This exercise revealed a very interesting way to look at racial dominance and how arbitrary the decision process is to see who ends up on top. The way Sam presented it put forth the idea that you don’t need special talents or genes to be King of the Mountain. You can end up at the top with just a stroke of luck or some forethought. I think this is a more realistic way of presenting how some countries or governments end up in positions of power. It is naïve to think that everyone earns their spot at the top of the mountain with hard work to gain respect from their constituents. Instead, the process isn’t fair and it certainly isn’t predictable. At the same time, King of the Mountain seemed to be too oversimplified. Obviously rising to the top isn’t nearly as easy as Sam made it seem. You can’t just walk up and expect everybody below you to listen and obey you. The power that a king holds comes from the power that his constituents are willing to give him. If people chose to not regard the king as an authority figure, he would be stripped of his power and would be the same as everyone else. This means that the king (in order to be an effective king) must convince everyone below him that he is the king. Kings can’t rise overnight and expect to hold the same authority as someone who has earned their place at the throne through his ideas and past actions. The demonstration got me thinking about how power is actually transferred in the real world. Obviously it’s not as simple, but it could potentially happen as abruptly as was shown in class. I understand why kings tend to pass power down through their families. People associate the success of a person as a leader with their progeny. The son of a particularly renown king has already won the favor of his people based on their experiences with his father. They naturally assume that their new ruler will follow the ways of his father and lead the populace to success. Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:27:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/what-did-you-get-out-of-king-of-the-mountain-119-blog/#IDComment128633199 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127220066 Determinism and free will are two very different concepts that can work hand-in-hand in an individual’s life. Personally, I believe that you can’t live life without experiencing both. Determinism is the idea that the outcome of anything is determined by destiny. It is pre-determined and we are all programmed to make certain decisions to bring about these outcomes. There is an opposing idea that involves people making their own decisions. The outcome of each decision makes a difference in our lives and affects what opportunities present themselves to us and eventually the path we end up taking in life. Determinism is very spiritualistic and is sometimes regarded as unrealistic. My personal choices in life are controlled, I believe, by both theories. I know that I was born into a very specific lifestyle that my family set up and brought me up in. This already limited and opened a number of doors to me and implanted the idea that I could be whatever I wanted to be. This is important because my mindset definitely influenced my decision to go to college and apply to medical school and work towards becoming a doctor. I certainly don’t think that I made that decision completely on my own without any help from determinism. The reason I decided to go into medicine is because I am good at it (and of course I’m interested in it). Innate talent is very closely related to determinism. Maybe it was my destiny to be good at biology. If I never recognized the talent, however, I wouldn’t have made the decision to be pre-med at Penn State. On the other hand, if I had any undiscovered talents, such as cooking for example, I would be ignoring them to pursue my dream of being a doctor. Aside from actively making a choice to try everything under the sun to find out what I’m good at, there isn’t much that I can do to figure out all of my talents. I have to work with what I know about myself. What I know about myself is a conglomeration of what I happened to find out about myself – a product of destiny or fate. Consider environmental factors, for instance. The decisions our parents make to determine where they want to raise their children play an important role in the child’s attitude towards success later in life. If I were brought up in a different neighborhood, exposed to drugs and violence, maybe I wouldn’t be where I am today. This is a product of my parents’ choices but, in a sense, it is determinism acting on my life. It wasn’t a choice that I was able to contribute to – it was made for me. Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:48:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127220066 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/01/if-you-could-how-would-you-rename-and-re-classify-people-119-blog/#IDComment126037733 If given the opportunity to change the way society classifies and sees human beings, I would have a significant amount of work to do. I don’t think it is possible to attack the problem of discrimination in society because it is so deep-rooted. It would be extremely difficult to change peoples’ minds because they aren’t even all conscious of the fact that they are racist or discriminate against a group of people. It comes naturally. The process of reclassification calls for society as a whole to detach from their perceptions of people and remove any trace of racism. The next step is to look for different criteria to classify people with. The problem with classifying people in the first place is that it acts as a positive feedback and has the potential to spiral out of control. Even racism may have seemed harmless at first. Looking at a person and recognizing that their skin was a certain color probably seemed like a very easy way to classify people. After all, you didn’t need to know anything about someone to decide what color they were. It would be much more difficult to sort people based on their income or their preferences. Over time, however, people began connecting skin color to rights and privileges. This developed into violence and hatred. Somewhere along the line, people started putting more value into a simple classification process and contributed to the rise of racism in America. I can say with confidence that any classification system we choose to use would lead to turmoil. So, in response to the prompt, I wouldn’t decide to classify people at all. It leads to nothing but trouble because people will find a way to take a harmless system of classification and contort it into a basis for hatred. This is already occurring with wealth today. People with less money today are, by nature, offered worse opportunities than wealthy people. They can’t afford $300 SAT tutoring or to live in nice communities with high quality school districts. We have already begun to attach privileges to various traits that people demonstrate. Classification is the root cause of racism and is the reason we are in this situation in the first place. We shouldn’t have begun looking at people and focusing on our differences in the first place because that only makes them more evident. If we looked at people based on the size of their noses, suddenly, we would begin forming stereotypes and opinions about each other based on the sizes of their noses. This is completely absurd. If we focused on how we are all similar instead, it would work to bring us together as the human race. When it comes down to it, we are all 99.99% the same and it’s about time we start recognizing our similarities before we are blinded by hate. Sat, 5 Feb 2011 00:50:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/01/if-you-could-how-would-you-rename-and-re-classify-people-119-blog/#IDComment126037733 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/how-do-you-classify-yourself-119-blog/#IDComment124165551 I agree that there is an issue with how society classifies us as individuals. First impressions are increasingly important and more and more people care about how others perceive them. There is a greater importance placed on the image one projects rather than who the person is on the inside. Classification is a dangerous concept because it robs us of our unique traits and places us in cookie-cutter categories that may not even be accurate. To be honest, if one were to realistically classify modern society, each individual should be in his or her own category. Our unique traits define us and shape us into the people we are. We think and feel the way we do because of our unique make-up. Now, putting aside the way things should be, let’s address the way things are. Regardless of the way things should be, we have all already been classified into categories and labeled beyond belief. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do to change the way others classify us. The girl sitting next to me might classify me as an Asian girl who likes being prompt for class and arriving twenty minutes early. I’m not necessarily saying that this isn’t accurate, but it certainly doesn’t reveal the whole picture. I was born here but am from India. My parents made sure that I was still exposed to Indian culture growing up and now I can speak a few more languages and celebrate some different holidays. I also picked up some of my culture from living all over the East coast. My accent as well as my likes and dislikes probably stem from my experiences growing up with the unique mix of cultural cues that I was exposed to. I strongly believe that no one has the same exact background as me. So how can we be put in the same category? What gives the girl next to me the right to judge me and place labels on me based on what she can only assume? There are a variety of reasons why people use classification in heir everyday lives. For one, it’s easy. It’s probably one of the easiest ways you can judge someone because you have the ability to project whatever stereotypes or characteristics you assume someone has onto that person without talking to them or knowing anything about them. On the other hand, it’s absolutely unfair. While you may be correct about someone just by looking at their appearance, you’re not giving them the chance to introduce themselves to you. You could be incorrect and lose the chance to meet someone new and take time to develop a genuine opinion about them. It’s unfortunate that we lose this chance around a hundred times a day on campus. Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:23:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/how-do-you-classify-yourself-119-blog/#IDComment124165551 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/19/how-am-i-not-a-racist/#IDComment122917058 To me, it seems that society’s impression of racism is a little cautious. We are taking too many precautions to ensure that we don’t offend anyone with any mildly risky remarks or behaviors. Of course, to an extent, this is necessary because of our past experiences with racism. Many Americans find the need to overcompensate by acting too nice or too considerate towards people of other races out of guilt. Slavery and other forms of aggressive discrimination have influenced Americans with a moral ground to make up for their ancestors’ mistakes. While this is a beneficial idea for the advancement of society, the logical reasoning behind the considerate attitude is fundamentally flawed. Although this generalization does not apply to all Americans, there is no way of quantifying the number of people that make the extra effort to deviate from their normal personalities to not make racist comments out of guilt or fear of law enforcement. People should naturally have the habit of not being racist and should not have to make a conscious effort to publicize their views. They should instinctually see people as equal individuals regardless of their skin color. One must also consider the distinct difference between racism and the simple recognition of different opportunities available to the public. Although it is unfortunate that people living in underdeveloped nations in general are given less than adequate opportunities, we cannot necessarily correlate this with their race. Racism applies solely to discrimination based on the color of one’s skin. While people may feel that African Americans, for example, are offered worse opportunities for work or prestige in comparison to white people, this isn’t a generalization that holds across the board. Because it does not apply most of the time, there is no reason that one would assume that the opportunities you are offered depend on your race or ethnicity. While this may seem to be a rather naïve point of view, it is also the most basic reason why racism is overused and has expanded in its definition over the years. We tend to view racism as a touchy topic that we would rather avoid completely than discuss and narrow down to a specific definition. This is the reason why many people have pent up negative emotions towards people of other races due to what they view as unfair advantages. For example, many whites harbor resentment towards African Americans because of affirmative action throughout the nation. Another example lies in outsourcing, there Americans feel like they are being cheated out of their jobs while workers from India or China sweep in to do their jobs for half the pay. In summary, racism is a broad concept that needs to be more well-defined so that we no longer have the sneaking suspicion that we are being racist when, in fact, we are clearly just expressing our views about opportunities or talents around the world in a non-supercilious manner. Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:31:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/19/how-am-i-not-a-racist/#IDComment122917058 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9ch%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121549850 Soc 119 Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:11:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9ch%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121549850