I don’t think it’s right that we invade other countries or attempt to police them. First of all, if we truly believe in freedom then why are other countries not free to choose their own path? Why does America feel that Democracy should be forced upon the world? (Especially considering our own form of democracy isn’t a true democracy, at least not anymore, to begin with.) What gives us the right to go in and say we have the answers to other people’s problems? There are people starving in the United States. There are homeless people in this country. There are orphans in this country. Yet instead of helping the people here, we spend a shit ton of money “helping” people in other countries. What has our help done anyway? We destroy the economies of the countries we ship corn and rice to. Corn and rice that could be fed to those in need in our own country, instead of sold at a bargain price to countries that would be able to feed themselves if we hadn’t intervened. With the war going on right now, and the complete knowledge that this war is about oil, you can’t tell me you believe we are HELPING the people in those countries. Those people are not barbarians, I’m sure that though different than ours, their government was running along just fine before we stuck our nose into their business. What did it get us anyway? 9-11. That's what it got us, and having a shit ton of countries hate our guts. We go into these other countries for our own gain, and our own gain only. Yet the media will of course portray it as something else, and if you don't stand behind the media you are suddenly unpatriotic. It just doesn't make sense to me that we call ourselves a democracy and say we fight for freedom when we are basically attempting to take over all of these countries by policing them the way we are. Why else would our military be the most powerful in the world? It has to be so that we can continue be in charge of land we don't rightly own. So that we can continue to take what we want without any real recourse, because no one can really fight back against us. That's the way we like it of course. The dumbest country in the world with the most powerful military. The government loves to forget the people struggling here at home.

After learning just how prevalent sexual abuse of children and child rape is, I am of course worried. Though, I am no more worried than I was to begin with. Rape and unwanted, non-consensual sexual relations are in my opinion worse than any other crime that is committed (even murder) in my opinion. It is a sad and disgusting crime that absolutely tears it's victims apart and tests their strength and will to survive. I will always have some fear in the back of my mind that someone in my family has been a victim of a sexual crime. If I decide to have children, I will be terrified to have a daughter. I know I will fear probably for most of her life that someone would force themselves upon her or take advantage of her in some way. If I had a son, I know I would probably simply assume that such things would never happen to him, but if it did I would be distraught. How could I possibly understand what a victim of sexual assault/rape is feeling? What they are going through? How can I possibly help to heal the wounds that this kind of horrible crime would leave behind? Even after having family, and people who are family even thought they aren't related by blood, admit to being victims of sexual assault as children -I still don't know how to help. I can see that even after 15 or more years it still affects these people in a way I will never understand. In some ways I was not surprised that it is so prevalent. Unfortunately there is a handful of (all men) people in my family who have been convicted of sexual assault crimes against children. What scares me most is that these people walk free, though they have been to jail. My own grandfather (a man I was disgusted by and feared of even as a child, it seems with good reason even though I didn't know at the time) has been convicted of such crimes, yet there are people in my family that choose to ignore his crimes and believe he didn't do anything or was convicted wrongly. Then when they ask him to babysit for them they wonder why their daughter starts to do strange things... Things I won't even mention. This is scary. I am fortunate enough to have a mother who would die for me. She had never let my grandfather be alone with me, and kept me away from him as much as possible when I was little. I of course now choose not to have any sort of contact with him dispute the other people in my family who excuse his actions to have a relationship with him. This is what scares me the most I think, the fact that just because someone is family it is somehow excusable that they sexually assault/rape children. I don't know about you but that is fucking absurd to me.

Why do I think that people focus more on the costs of illegal immigration and not on the benefits? Well the first thing that comes to my mind is that illegal immigrants are very easy targets. They can’t speak out or they will be arrested. They have no real rights in this country, so it’s not like they can affect any sort of change or vote. This makes them very easy targets to blame for a nice portion of our problems doesn’t it? “Illegal immigrants take jobs away from the American people!” But wait, who’s hiring these illegal immigrants? Oh, that’s right. AMERICAN CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESSES. Is there some sort of law that requires corporations to hire illegal immigrants as cheap laborers? No. Could these corporations actually check documents and regulate the hiring of their employees, to ensure they only hire legal citizens? Yes. Do they? Clearly not. Yet I don’t see people attacking these corporations and businesses for GIVING these jobs away to illegal immigrants instead of American citizens. They would rather blame the people that don’t get a say, the people that can’t fight back. Because it’s easy, it’s easy to blame people who can’t speak out. It’s easy to put the blame on anyone other than yourself, because admitting that our own people are in effect screwing us by using illegal immigrants as a source of cheap labor is to admit that we are stupid enough to allow it.
People don’t want to focus on the benefits of illegal immigrants, because they’re too busy using them as a source of blame for problems that they didn’t cause. Illegal immigrants did not take the jobs away, WE SENT THE JOBS OVER SEAS. The heads of businesses and corporations CONTINUE to send the jobs over seas every day. The only jobs they can’t send over seas, they ship the Illegal immigrants in to do, because these people will work for less than minimum wage. Because, just like Sam said, they are hungry –hungrier than American citizens. Of course no one will admit these things, no one will bring them to light. The big businesses make too much money using cheap labor to change their ways, and they keep us in the dark so they can keep stuffing their pockets. This is the way they like it. Keep the lowly American people calm and stupid. I don’t believe that illegal immigrants should be in this country. I think they should have to get their papers like any of the legal immigrants have had to do. But the thing is that arresting them all and sending them back is not going to work. If we want to “get rid of” the illegal immigrants we have to stop giving them a reason to be here. If people would stop giving them jobs and they had no way to make money in this country they wouldn’t come here, and those of them that are here would leave. The blame is not on the illegal immigrants for being here, it is on American corporations and businesses for keeping them here.

How do I feel about the fact the white people will be the minority in the future? I am ridiculously scared out of my skin. Just. Kidding. I honestly feel that (hopefully) it will be a good thing. I don't believe it should really even be a big deal. I would hope that white people no longer being the majority would simply mean that we are all becoming more mixed. I would love for the future to be a society where everyone is so mixed that prejudice of race literally becomes obliterated. I also hope that this would cause many or our racial injustices to decrease or disappear. Of course that all sounds too good to be true, but at least I can hope that good things would come out of becoming a wholly more diverse society. I am a little fearful of course. I have to question what will this mean for the future? What will it drive some more radical people to? Will this cause white people to be put down? Or, will this just level the playing field like I hope and make everyone more equal? While I do have some fears, they're not all encompassing. Overall I'm really not worried about being a part of a future minority. Especially considering even though I consider myself white, I'm a mutt. I'm parts: Sicilian, Austrian, Puerto Rican, Irish and Dutch. I wouldn't mind at all being a part of the minority. In a way, being a mutt, I already am part of a minority. How many people out there have the same exact mix of heritage as I do? My kids I'm sure will be even more of a mix than I am. I would just like to believe that this will not have any negative impact on society. I do sincerely hope that it will in fact be a good thing. Maybe the new majority of people will be a perfect tan skin tone. That would certainly be interesting. I wonder if white people are the minority, who will be the majority? Will there be a majority, or just a greater amount of diversity? If there will be a majority, it will definitely be interesting to see how that changes our culture and society. Would it be the same only with a different race taking the place of white people in how our culture works today? Will it completely change the culture to be more accepting and diverse? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Really it's hard to know what will happen. I have some fears only because I know it will mean change, but otherwise I don't see any reason to fear what I simply don't know.

I don’t think a person who hangs out with people that are primarily of a different race makes them a poser. I think that to believe that this person is a poser is a way of stereotyping. Who’s to say that someone who hangs out with people of a different race doesn’t do so simply because that’s just how it worked out? What I mean is, think of the slide Chenj put up with the picture of that one old white man who liked to play drums amongst all black people. I’m sure that guy wasn’t thinking, “oh I want to hang out with black people”, no he was thinking, “oh I want to hang out with these people who are good on the drums”. It just happened to be that the group of people he was associating with was primarily black. I don’t think this made him some kind of poser. I don’t think people hang out with people of other races in order to somehow make a claim on being a part of that other race despite their skin color. Growing up, I live in a small town in NJ and that majority of my friends were black and Hispanic. I remember some of my black female friends saying, “oh Dezi is black on the inside”. I never took any kind of offense to this, in fact I took pride in it because I was glad my friends who were “different” than me still accepted me basically as one of their own. But, now I question why my friends felt this way at all? Why did my friends have to perhaps justify my hanging out with them by saying I was “black on the inside”? I don’t think I was a poser when I hung out with my black, Hispanic, or Asian friends. I think that hanging out with people that are primarily of another race can be mostly due to circumstance. I grew up in a town that was very diverse and so I happened to have a very diverse group of friends. I also believe that it’s something people do because they want to be more diverse. I like having a diverse group of friends, not just racially but also, a group of friends with different interests. It just makes life more interesting. When you hang out with people of other races, you get to see the world from other perspectives. I would hope that any person who hangs out with people of another race isn’t doing so just to “pose” as anything. On top of that I don’t think it would be beneficial to do so. I don’t think it’s really possible to “pose” as being non-racist or diverse.

After reading a few of the comments, I’m going to take this in a different direction with my opinion. It seems like a bunch of people feel that women are told by society to dress in a certain way that portrays them as sex objects. To this, I agree. Women are taught from a young age that they are here to be looked at by men, and to please men. (Yes, even in today’s world. Deny it if you’d like.) People also seem to think that a girl that wears a short skirt and heels is “slutty, skanky, promiscuous” and wants to be treated as such. To this, I question why in the world you would think that? First off, the notion of being slutty is defined by culture, not by the individual woman. Don’t assume that just because a woman dresses by your definition of a “slut” that she is one, or that wearing a short skirt (no matter what time of year it is) means she’s just looking for sex or male attention. I don’t think it has anything to do with “dressing one way and wanting to be treated in another”. The way society has been cultured to think that a girl that “dresses promiscuously” must be a “skank” is f***ing bullshit. How many woman on this campus do you know that don’t want to be treated with respect? Do you think that these women just change their mind about wanting to be treated with respect just because they’re wearing a different outfit? Seriously, take a moment to think about that. When I go out on a Friday night in a short skirt and high heels, I still expect to be treated with respect. Granted I know that society is cultured to have their notions about skimpy outfits being equal to “slutty girls”, but it’s an entire notion that I think is bullshit. If women are expected to respect men no matter what they are wearing, then men should have the courtesy to do the same. Women should not be put down, or treated with contempt simply because they do what culture has told them to do. I dress in my short skirt, my low cut shirt, and my cute black heels because I enjoy the way that outfit looks when I see myself in the mirror. I know culture has had a huge influence on what I wear and why I think it looks good on me. When I go out in that outfit I understand that there will be men and women that sneer at me for it. Personally, I feel that those people that would judge me, or make assumptions based on the way I’m dressed aren’t, and never will be, worth my time. I still feel that this notion that men seem to feel that women dress provocatively specifically for them, and specifically to signify that they want sex, is bullshit. It’s also just another way that our culture is defined through the male view. We see women in skirts as sluts, because that’s how men see women in skirts.

Well the first stereotype that comes to my mind is the stereotype about black men being aggressive, abusive, "thuggish", all in gangs, and subsequently robbers and whatnot. This is bullshit. Anyone has the capacity to be any of these things, and certainly it has nothing to do with your skin color. I have had many black friends none of whom expressly bore any of these qualities. Although many of my male friends would front being in gangs, none of them actually were in any gangs (thankfully), and none of them were people I would be afraid to walk by in a dark alley. I wonder a lot about how these stereotypes started and why they still exist when the majority of them have been disproven. An uncle of mine was mugged in Elizabeth NJ by someone he identified as black, and every since he is convinced that black men are dangerous. Just don't get how you can take the actions of one person and then assume that everyone of that race is the same way. Truly it boggles me. I know that people have the capacity to do cruel things and to me that has absolutely nothing to do with your race. People have the capacity to do basically anything they set their minds to and weather it's good or bad, the chances are it really has nothing to do with their race. I also don't buy into the stereotype about all asians being good at math. One of my best friends was Vietnamese and she never liked or did necessarily any better at math than I did. Neither did our Korean friend. On top of this... I know plenty of people who are exceptional at math and they are of a mix of different races. I won't pretend to actually know anything about this, but maybe this stereotype came about because some asian cultures value education very highly. So people assumed because of those particular cultures where Asians may have been better at math simply because they tried harder at school, that all Asians are good at math. I just can't buy into this kind of logic, assuming based on someone's race that they are better at math? I'm sure there's also a lot of stereotypes I still don't even know about because I just don't pay close attention to those things. I took Philosophy of Love and Sex last semester and during one of the discussions our professor was talking about the "common" stereotype that black women are hypersexual. A lot of people in the class didn't seem to be too surprised by this but, I was totally confused. I had never even heard this before. I don't think I would have bought into it even if I had heard it. Stereotypes are just a way for people to label others without ever coming into real contact with them.

Honestly... Personally, if Sam were of a different race it would make no difference to me. He would still be as mind blowing and mind bending as he is now. The color of his skin would not change that for me. I do believe that his perspective would change though. Clearly he could no longer talk about being a privileged white man. In fact if he were of another race and could still say the things he does and see people as equal despite growing up in this country as a minority, I think I would not be able to help but have even more respect for him. But, maybe I can say that because I’m a white woman that grew up in a small diverse town where the whites didn’t actually outnumber the minorities, and most of my friends growing up were everything other than white. So this is my unique perspective. Although I think it’s easier for him as a privileged white man to see the unfairness bestowed upon other races (and the other sex?) from a perspective that isn’t racist (prejudiced), because he’s never had to deal with what minorities (women) have had to deal with and never grew up feeling the resentment that some underprivileged minorities (women) might feel. Yeah, the fact that same is a white man allows him to say what he says and talk about all of the things he talks about, without the backlash that might ensue if he were of another race. Sam often makes racial jokes during class. He’s non-discriminative with jokes, and makes fun of white people (himself) just as often as he makes the other jokes. I wonder though if he was Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino and he made fun of his own race in a classroom setting with lots of students of all races, would that be considered ok? Or would people criticize him for putting his own race down?
Really this question is basically null for me. Because, if Sam wasn’t white the chances are that, even if he were to be teaching this class, he would not be teaching it the way that he does; because he would be teaching it from a different perspective. That is the basis of determinism. Sam wouldn’t even be who he is if he wasn’t white. Though my opinion still stands. I would have the utmost respect for Sam no matter what race he was, especially if despite being a minority he still had the view that he does now.

I don’t follow any religion. Religion bothers me because often religions put people down, like the way some religions consider gay marriage a sin and others treat women like cum sacks that are only good for worshiping men. I could never understand this. If God is so forgiving and wonderful then why does he/she put people down? Religion as an institution is too controlling for my taste. I believe that a huge part of life is learning from your experiences and the experiences of the people around you and then choosing what to believe in and what to leave behind. Religion doesn’t allow you to do this, it forces people to believe right and wrong according to the rules of that religion and is unbending. I realize that many people follow religions and simply ignore certain aspects, but why? Why do you have to follow a religion to believe in God or another form of Divinity? I can understand believing in God, despite the fact that I don’t believe in God, because people take comfort in having something greater than themselves to believe in. I don’t think religion is necessary to believe in God though. Religion is just a form of control, in my opinion. Let me mention that I have respect for all people an their beliefs, and I’m truly sorry if this is offensive to anyone who may be reading it. I just don’t feel that religion as an institution is necessary, though I do understand it. I assume a lot of people choose to believe in a religion because it is ingrained in them by their parents, most parents don’t exactly give their children a choice in what God or Divinity to believe in. This is just another way to force people to conform, parents choose for their children and raise them to bend to the beliefs of whatever religion they believed in. (the invisible strings) Personally I don’t follow religion because of it’s controlling and prejudiced nature. I believe in divine power, but not in one all-powerful God. I think people can discern right from wrong without religion and also have perfectly respectable morals. A lot of religions make things too black and white like believe you’ll either end up in heaven or hell, and there’s no in between. Yet, there is also no true definition about what makes someone perfectly good or perfectly bad. (Unless you are LGBT, then in most western religions you are most certainly bad.) I choose to believe that it’s possible people are reborn, there is power in nature, and people hold more power than they will allow themselves to use or believe in. Sometimes I question whether I would be happier if I believed in a religion and followed that religion religiously (see what I did there?), but I’m too free-spirited to allow religion to control my thoughts.

THIS IS NOT MY POST FOR THIS WEEK, but I'm curious... What twitter account? Did I miss something?