I think this situation would be a lot less of a big deal if people understood that shows like South Park, Family Guy and the Simpsons do this kind of thing all the time. The fact is, they make fun of EVERYTHING. Family Guy in particular makes fun of every religion, political party, and famous celebrity. In particular, Family Guy has had whole episodes making fun of both Judaism and Christianity. If people keep that in the back of their minds when watching episodes like the Muhammad one on South Park, there would not be this hysteria. Personally I can be a sensitive person, but I love Family Guy (I haven't watched much South Park) and appreciate 98% of their jokes.

I think our health care plan as it is right now should be offered to all Americans who pay taxes and who are legally in this country. Illegal immigrants should not benefit from the hard work of Congressmen and Senators who worked for years to bring a plan like this to America. I understand that a lot of illegal immigrants work extremely hard and live their daily lives "the right way", but not paying all the taxes that naturalized American citizens do really cheapen this health care plan. The Americans who struggle to pay all their taxes and cannot afford privatized health care should be rewarded.

I think that hard work should always be rewarded in generally, and especially when it comes to immigrants. However, we discussed in class that in the early 1900s and late 1800s, when immigrants were coming to this country in droves (and coming in legally), they had literally nothing in terms of money or clothes or other possessions. Now, when money is worth more and is more available, immigrants should be doing things the same way as long ago. I may be a cynic, but I doubt people will be entering this country illegally just because they do not have the money. More likely they do so because it is convenient and much more simple than doing it the "right way." If people are willing to work hard, they should also be willing to put in the extra time to come into the country legally. The only people who get punished by this not happening are the legitimate American citizens. I would like to believe that hard work is all people need to succeed and be happy, but that is just not the case in today's world.

This whole argument about illegal immigrants taking jobs that Americans don't want versus illegal immigrants taking jobs away from "hardworking Americans" is a little tiresome for me to have to listen to. I don't necessarily believe that either side is true all the time. Lots of times I think the former is true, that immigrants take jobs that most Americans don't want, (or, as Sam talked about Tuesday in class, that they aren't legally allowed to take) but also there are those extremely destitute Americans who can only take jobs where they scramble to make ends meet. In most cases, these people, just like the immigrants in the video we saw, can't make ends meet.

The belief that we as Americans are brought up with is that we can do anything we set our minds to, and with hard work, we can achieve anything. Unfortunately I think that is much more true for us as naturalized citizens than it is for immigrants, illegal or legal. This basically says that despite how a immigrant enters the country, the "right way" or the "wrong way", it won't matter because Americans have the upper-hand. While I would prefer immigrants to enter the country in a legal way, as long they are prepared to work honestly and hard, they should be given all the chances of naturalized citizens here. The way our immigration issues are progressing, I think incentives will be increased to legal immigrants who enter the country the proper way, and this will also increase the number of hardworking immigrants in this country. While I disagree with the use of incentives or "hooks" to get people to do things (rather than having motivation to do things because they are right), I understand why incentives are used

This is rather unsettling and upsetting to hear, given that my father is a professor of Education here at Penn State, and he greatly cares about and is passionate about both his students and his teaching methods. He definitely is not a sheep and encourages people not to be robots. I should also point out that his classes are not lecture-based or "boring"; he is more a hands-on kind of teacher who likes to see his students in action.
I've heard Chomsky's thoughts before and I understand where he's coming from, but growing up in the environment I have, I was taught to open my mind and be open to thinking in different ways. In this sense I don't think I completely fall into the trap of thinking like a sheep.

First of all, I love your premise about it not having anything to do with anything. That said, I believe that you are correct in that you feel better equipped to change the world than someone in a third-world country. However, I think the reason is not in your control (your skin color and place of birth), so for someone to take that thought to assume that they are better than other people would be ridiculous. Unfortunately, I understand that there are idiots out there who believe in their racial superiority, or believe that since they live in a country such as the United States, that they are entitled to walk around with a chip on their shoulder.

I definitely don't think people are saying "Oh, 300,000 people are dead. Oh no. How sad. OK, now where was I?" There is definite sadness out there in the world for people who are affected by tragic events such as Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the plane crash in Poland, and 9/11. My belief is if you don't feel some kind of sadness or other strong emotion, perhaps like anger at the world for causing disasters like this, then you are not truly human. Sam made a similar statement in class the other day, and it definitely resonated with me. So I htink that there is definitely sadness initially. This woman is correct however, that while initially we are sad and eager to donate money and time to help, gradually over time our amount of caring starts to wane and soon, as Sam talked about with the non-profit groups that just bring items rather than secure jobs for the Haitians, the people affected by the disaster may be worse off than before. This could definitely be true with Haiti, however it seems as though the relief efforts are still going strong, which is a welcome sight to see.

I can see the above poster's point that the proximity of the event to you, both geographically and in terms of friends or family involved, is an indication about how much you might continue to care about the effects of the disaster. With 9/11, the events sparked a war that is still going on today. Also, the kind of event it is also can impact the reaction of people. With 9/11, it was a man-made disaster, while with Hurricane Katrina, it was an earthly event. In that sense, people might have "done their part" for a while, but since they weren't as fired up emotionally about the initial damage or the aftermath, the concern began to dissipate. Events like 9/11 that are caused by our fellow humans tend to stir up more potent emotions for us, such as anger for the offenders, and of course, sadness and pity for those affected. This leads to more people willing to help with recovery efforts.

Also, I may pose a thought that it is possible that many people just gave money or offered to help with Haiti simply because it was the "trendy thing to do." I know that sounds rather cynical, but I feel as though that would cover the motivations of a few people. My hope is that it only covers a few people, and that most people, like myself, are motivated to help because they want to help their fellow man, and, as Sam mentioned in class, follow the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would want others to do to you.

I think the end goal of this particular class is just to get us to think more critically about the world and the inner workings of our particular society, so that we can come to terms with our personal biases and prejudices and work them out. As far as beyond this class, I think we should take what we have learned here and try and engage in intelligent, probing discussions with friends, and even strangers, about race relations and inequality. Otherwise, the discussions won't happen, and we can't have true equality, or have people treating each other with respect and dignity regardless of SES or other variable.

I feel as though I have an interesting perspective on this, having learned a smattering of both Mandarin and Cantonese for the role of "Ching Ho" in Thoroughly Modern Millie last summer. Neither of those are actually too difficult to get a handle on, provided you put in ample time to learn them and work with them. Chinese is definitely not one of the languages I think of when thinking about languages taught at a high school level, so I think teaching them in a high school is a terrific idea. I would definitely agree that Mandarin and Spanish will eventually be the most popular languages of the business world.

I think that most guys feel like they need to fit in, at least a little bit, however for the most part I don't think we feel quite the same pressure as women. This is rather unfortunate and makes me rather angry-not that I wish men like myself felt more pressure, but that women face an unbelievable amount of scrutiny in their daily lives.

I was discussing after class with a female friend of mine how angry it made me to hear the people in class talking about dressing for guys, and feeling like they have to look good for men (or whoever they want to look good for). I certainly don't dress like a slob every day, but I also don't spend 10 minutes picking out my outfit. It's the same way with makeup for women, If women really do wear makeup only because they think they really need it, then that is ridiculous. Women shouldn't feel like they have to cover up their natural selves to look "ideal" or what they feel like is pretty. This is something that I particularly feel passionate about. That said, some women I know wear makeup because its fun or because they like to, and not because they feel they have to-I have absolutely no problem with that.

The one thing I do feel pressure about as a man is having a six-pack and sometimes also the fact I wear glasses. If you've seen me, its pretty obvious I don't have anything close to chiseled abs. That is pretty much the only thing I feel insecure about, and the thing I feel like is emphasized most by the media or more powerful men in the public view as being essential for the ideal man. In general, guys are expected to be strong, into sports, and in control of their emotions without showing them too often.
For instance, I love sports a lot, but am also very involved in music here at Penn State, so I am sometimes seen as not an ideal man. I also enjoy musical theatre, which is seen as more of a feminine trait. The picture of an ideal man in society doesn't allow for a man who loves sports, music, and musical theatre, so I am not exactly overly desired.

Watching the videos and reading the stories you hear about women doing crazy things to fit in proves that women have more pressure to fit into whatever society deems as the ideal woman; however men clearly go through similar pressures and that fact should not be forgotten. The one thing I will say is I don't think guys compare themselves to other guys nearly as often as girls do, but they do it occasionally. As long as the guy gets a girl, it doesn't matter as much to him how good the other guys look.

This is definitely an interesting question. I think what Sam first said on the first day of class, and what he has repeated several times, is his mission in teaching this class is to make his students think. Not thinking differently, or think a certain way, but just to think about the world. I mentioned to him today after class that I really appreciated his passion while he's "lecturing". It's clear that he really cares about what he's discussing with us, and the least we can do is pay attention.

On a personal note, as I told Sam today, after every class, I feel very conflicted in my thinking. This probably isn't what Sam is going for, since I don't really change my thinking since I'm so conflicted and confused about my current thinking, but it is at least a step in the right direction.
The point is that, at least with me, Sam is definitely making a difference in how I think about the world. At the very least, I remember what he has told us when I see certain things for sale or when I hear white people talking a certain way about another ethnic group.
It sounds like people who don't come to class with an open mind are not going to get anything out of the class. That is really a shame because I think this is a terrific class (and I signed up for the class because I heard about Sam's reputation), and I will definitely recommend it to many of my friends.
I wonder if the guy asking this question has really learned nothing, or possibly he is afraid of ashamed to admit that he has really opened his mind to issues he had previously felt very strongly about. For example, the only "controversial" issue that I feel strongly about is LGBT rights. This class strengthened my beliefs and even offered ammunition for me to use against those bigots that have no true backing for their beliefs and just believe blindly. Those are the people that really need to come to this class and open their eyes, because I am at least willing to listen to opposing viewpoints before I offer counter arguments.

It sounds like this guy needs to take a breath, and then open his eyes at least a little to what Sam is saying, because he knows what he's talking about. As Sam has said, he's seen a lot of these problems at work in front of him, so he rightly feels strongly about them.
What I take away from that is, given the way Sam describes these issues with stories, pictures, and videos, how can you not feel something about them? If you don't feel anything, if you're truly apathetic, I would argue that you are at least partly not human.