en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3568807 Comments by KES92 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-80/#IDComment231391300 Those videos that Sam showed us of our troops over seas was shocking and disappointing. I always thought of the men and women in any division of the military as honorable people; people who should be setting a good example. What they do while they are away in other countries is how we, as Americans, are viewed. People of the military can also be role models to children. They look to people in the military as heroes. The people in the videos are abusing their power. I really hope that those people were held accountable for their actions. For them to do the acts shown in the video is upsetting. I feel like anyone who has had crossed paths with any military forces has the right to dislike us and get an idea of how Americans are by looking at those who have hurt them for no reason. There are some people in the military that do great things and want to help people and it’s unfortunate to see a few ruin a reputation that takes many years to make. In the first video, the soldiers crushed the car of men who stole wood. I still don’t understand why they are getting involved in something of that nature. Are American soldiers over in Iraq to help with small theft? Are they simply working as police officers and enforcing our laws over there? Dealing with these issues in another country should not be something of a major concern. I would think that the military has an objective to this war and not roaming around looking for people to pick on. If someone here in America were to steal wood, the authorities would never crush their car with a tank. I don’t even think they would go to jail for something of that nature. That is a minor crime and to take something of importance away from them is so upsetting. Their actions were not that of role models or honorable men. I really think they made our country look terrible and heartless. In the next video of soldiers running a truck off the road was also very disappointing. That person obviously didn’t do anything at all. They were simply minding their own business, going where they needed to go. For American soldiers to run someone off the road, damaging their car, and possibly injuring people just for fun is outrageous. I honestly don’t understand why that was even necessary. There are many ways to have fun in this world, but doing it at someone else’s expense is unnecessary. I hope one day they will apologize for what they have done and realize how many innocent lives they hurt for their own entertainment. Fri, 2 Dec 2011 00:41:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-80/#IDComment231391300 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-32/#IDComment227394121 At a young age, the majority of us wanted to pursue a career that would make us the most money. Whether it was being famous or being a doctor, we knew we would earn a lot of money. Children are always looking up to people in the media or people they meet in everyday life to be a role model. Once we see their life style and compare it to our own, we start to think that’s what we want when we’re older. To see someone that has the expensive clothes and home, we automatically assume that they are happy. But having the money to buy whatever you want does not always mean you are happy. Happiness comes from many factors in our lives. Happiness could be affected by the people that we surround ourselves with, our job, our home, or ways of entertainment. Some people could have millions of dollars but have a poor family and friend support system. Not all families are functional and just because you have the money to spend, does not mean that it will fix those relationships. Not all friends are genuine. They could be faking the friendship to get gifts from you or they could jealous and try to make you feel guilty about how blessed you are when they have nothing. Money can make or break relationships. But if you are surrounded by people that do not love you, how is money going to fix it? Some people may think that they are going to go to school and major in whatever is going to make them the most money. They may struggle and become stressed with the work load or maybe they may find they dislike the subjects. If you are putting in so much effort for something you do not enjoy is it worth it? Will that person be happy that they are making six figures doing something they dislike for the rest of their lives? Our society has become specialized in our work. It is difficult to just go a different route when you decide you hate your work. You are stuck with it. Money can also buy us ways to entertain ourselves. We can go to nice restaurants , go to a movie, buy a boat, or go on a nice vacation. There are many things we can spend money on for activities we enjoy doing. I would have to say that money does play a role in happiness but it is not the star. There are many factors to making a person happy. Not everyone is going to find happiness the same way. I think many of us want to be rich and be able to buy whatever we want, but as we get older we realize that the ways of getting the larger salaries aren’t always worth it. We are always learning and finding what truly makes us happy. Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:19:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-32/#IDComment227394121 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-70/#IDComment220623929 I ate the second piece of chocolate! Chocolate is something that I have grown up loving. To stop eating it is very difficult. It is in many treats and beverages that I enjoy having. The video that we has to watch in class was shocking. All of those people who left their country looking for work and to provide for their family were turned into slaves. Working on a farm is not easy work as we saw in earlier videos of ones in the United States. Those farmers were planning on paying Americans a $10 to $13 an hour for their hard labor, unfortunately not many Americans lasted too long. The farming for Cocoa is not much different. The work that they do is hard and long labor. If they want to take a break they would get beaten. The harm that was done to those slaves is a terrible sight to see. All of those scars from being hit with belts until they couldn’t move. No one should have to go through what those men and young boys do every day. You might be wondering why I still ate the chocolate after I saw that moving documentary. The answer is quite simple. I knew that if I didn’t eat the chocolate after that I would be lying to myself. If I didn’t eat it, it was a sign (to me) saying that I would never eat chocolate again. I knew after that class I would still eat chocolate, whether it was in a cookie, a candy bar, or hot cocoa. To have a food that you like the taste of and enjoy eating is hard to give up. It isn’t a change that you can make over night; not just with chocolate but with any food. I know what happened to those men was terrible. It is hard to say that it isn’t and not admit that it is happening in our world today. Slavery is still in many parts of the world and make many products for our country. Giving up one thing because we saw 1 video means we will have to keep giving up more and more when other slave product videos come out. For example, suppose after the video we watched in class we saw another of slaves making our clothing. If I chose not to eat the chocolate, would that mean I shouldn’t wear clothing either? Not eating the second piece of chocolate would say that I am against products that had the assistance of slaves. Every time something is said to be made by slaves I would have to stop buying the things I like and start buying the things I don’t. I know slavery is wrong, but is not eating chocolate the answer to stopping it? Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:30:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-70/#IDComment220623929 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-59/#IDComment216892861 We are growing up in a generation where our country is getting more diverse. With diversity comes a difference in languages. The English language is the hardest language to learn and with age it gets more difficult to learn a new language. It is understandable why immigrants choose to speak their native language over English. I come from a very diverse town and I am use to people speaking different languages around me. The majority of my friends have parents that speak other languages. Even though they are trying to teach me to speak the same language as them, it is very difficult for me. It is hard to remember all the phrases and accents on the words. When their parents are speaking to them in front of me, I do feel uncomfortable. I know that they can speak English and it makes me wonder if they are secretly talking about me. However, when during school I have never felt awkward around the different languages. It was something that I became accustom to hearing. It was never something that I had to think twice about because the majority of my high school was bilingual. In class everyone spoke English and there were never any communication barriers between classmates. However, the time before or after class and lunch were different stories. People would speak the language they are most comfortable with and express their heritage. I have had two jobs where there were many Spanish speakers. Those people would talk to each other in Spanish because their English was not that good or because they did not know any English. It was sometimes difficult to communicate. I found it more annoying than uncomfortable. I think being uncomfortable all depends on the situation you are in. If you are in a different country and do not know their language, then I do not see any reason to be uncomfortable. Those people do not know that you do not know the language. They are not speaking it to bother you but because that is what they know. However here in America, we come across people speaking different languages wherever we go because we are the melting pot. I think it is possible for many people to feel uncomfortable towards someone speaking and have no idea what they are saying. I do sometimes, but only when I feel like they are talking about me. Other than that I am use to using little phrases and hand signs to get by. Being around different languages gives you a feel for their culture and is a learning experience. There is no need to feel uncomfortable around other people just because you can not communicate. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 18:16:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-59/#IDComment216892861 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment213235801 For the majority of my life I have not felt white guilt. It wasn’t until high school where I began to felt it. I started to branch out from my main group of friends and I was having many different people over my house. I began to notice that the Asian people I had over my house were in awe over my house. They automatically assumed I was rich. And later on it wasn’t just the Asians; it was everyone I invited over. Before people reacted this way, I never thought I was rich. Even though these comments took me aback, I still pursued the friendships. I started to pick them up from their homes and actually got to know them well and that was when I realized why I was the rich friend. I was living in a house with 2 parents that have a stable income. My friends live in apartments, a mobile home, or their house is close to foreclosure. Many of them only have 1 parent that provides the income, or their parents are being laid off. I now have 3 friends that have lost their homes and are living with other family members or friends. I enjoy having these friendships but sometimes they take my life style for granted. I sometimes feel like they want me to feel guilty. They always bring up how I am “rich” and say how they don’t have any money to buy things. The majority of the time I try to pay for my friends things because I feel guilty that this is happening to them. Feeling this guilt can be really hard sometimes. I am already a sensitive person and whenever my Asians or Hispanic friends bring up money I can’t help but feel upset. I am upset for them and I am upset that they pin point me out. I am not the only one of my friends that has 2 parents with a stable income and in a nice home, but they never seem to say anything about the others. It is always me. They are both white, 19 year old girls just like me, but never once have they brought up their money. Before this class I never thought about this situation as being white guilt. I didn’t think my friends could pick on me because I was a rich white person to them. I now wonder if they would act the same if it was one of their own that was rich. I am slowly moving past this but it’s hard to say when I will completely guilt free. Just because I am white doesn’t mean that I should be blamed for the world’s problems. It is a lot of pressure to put on people. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:38:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment213235801 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-51/#IDComment210530968 I honestly don’t believe that hanging out with groups of other ethnicities makes a person a poser. Everyone has their own personality and has their own say in who they hang out with. I come from the most diverse school in all of Connecticut. Sure everyone has their main group of friends, but mostly everyone can get along with all the different races in our school. Every race is represented in every class. No matter what you’ll be learning alongside with a person that doesn’t look like you. When I took a tour at Penn State my senior year of high school, my tour guides told me that this University is diverse. When I had to take the world in conversation class for my freshman seminar, my facilitators told me that Penn State is a diverse school. Penn State is not diverse to me at all. My classes are mostly white students, I rarely see people of different skin colors hanging out. The Asians stick with the Asian, Whites with Whites, and Blacks with Blacks. I think for most people at this school, when they see the races mixing they automatically assume that the white person mixed with all the blacks is a poser. They just want to say they have black friends, and they are probably going to inherit their culture and way of speaking. People who think that mixed race groups have posers in them are just ignorant or too wrapped up in stereotypes. There is no law saying that white people have to act a certain way, that they can’t act ghetto or they can’t have colored friends or they have to dress a certain way. There is no equation for anyone, no matter the race, telling us who we are meant to be. No one has to change their culture to have friends from other races. I am white and the majority of my friends are Asian. The main group of friends that I usually hang out with contains Asians, Indians, Hispanics, Whites, and 1 black guy. We all hang out together, we all have our own personalities, our own styles and our own culture. Just because the Asian kids dominate our group does not mean we all act Asian. Sure they thought us to eat with chop sticks, teach us a couple phrases, and card games, but we never changed who we are deep down inside. No one ever thought that since us white girls have all these Asian friends we should start dressing like they do in over in Asia or maybe we should add an accent on a couple words to fit in better. That would be rude and ignorant. Maybe you may be thinking of White people that act Black or Black people that act White. This is very common in my school. Those people that do that are not posers. The way that they talk and dress is their choice and what they are most comfortable with. Let’s say we are talking about a white person who hangs out with all black and brown people. This white person has grown up around these people their whole life, they dressed and acted like this from a young age. From elementary school to high school this person has always been with the black and brown people because that is who they relate with. It is their personality and they aren’t going to change that if they went and started to hang out with a group of typical white kids one day. The ghetto white person isn’t going to think, Oh I am hanging out with all these white kids now I should change the way I talk when I am around them and then next period when I see my black and brown friends I’ll go back to being myself. If someone thinks they have to do this to be accepted by another group is wrong. That is being a poser and that is insulting. Never change who you are to get friends of other races. That is the only way you will be viewed as a poser. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:33:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-51/#IDComment210530968 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment207475803 I am a girl and this question still confuses me. I don’t exactly know the correct answer. I sometimes dress up but it’s in a conservative way. I don’t want anything exposed. I live in a dorm that is all girls, so I see everyone dress up from Thursday to Sunday and the first thing that goes through my mind is slut. They are all wearing heels that they can’t walk in, every dress is way too short so their ass and or breasts are exposed; so I guess they are giving off the wrong message if I am thinking the same way as you. The majority of girls that dress up want to fit in with their group or outshine everyone else. For example, if you are going out with a group of friends and everyone is wearing a dress or skirt (girls) or a button up (boys), you are going to want to look like you are in their group. You don’t want to be the different one wearing jeans and a t-shirt or sweats. Everyone has the thought of fitting in and conforming to what everyone else is wearing. Girls also ask each other what they are planning on wearing so they can get an idea of what they would like to wear. If she says, I’m wearing a dress and heels then the girl that asked will wear the same. Many girls also dress to impress. Not so much for the boys, but for the girls. Every girl wants to look the best out of their group of friends. So in a way dressing up to go out and party is kind of like showing off to each other. Everyone is itching for compliments and words of approval to boost their confidence. Dressing up is their way of getting in a party and turning eyes in their direction. There are some girls that are actually looking for sex and to hook up with guys are parties. I live in a corner room and many people choose to talk on the phone and sit on the heating unit by the window. Some of the stories I hear are so disgusting. They are either planning their night out or hoping to hook up with someone or they are telling their friend how sex went last night with some random guy and they don’t know his name. I have also walked in on some conversation in the bathroom. “Hey, do you think I’ll get laid tonight? I don’t know if I should shave.” “Shave anyways if you don’t get anything I’ll take care of you.” EXCUSE ME! Did you not just see me walk in? I don’t want to hear about you not hooking up with anyone and then having sex with each other. As you can see some girls love being sluts and wearing those clothes are just a way of getting that message across. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:24:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment207475803 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/02/voices-from-the-classroom-27/#IDComment203637986 I guess everyone has their own idea of what they would like as their “picture perfect” family, but never gave a thought about the sexual orientation of their kids. I would love to say that I wouldn’t have a problem with having a child that is gay, but I think deep down I might. I know what some of my gay friends go through and I don’t want them to deal with people looking at them like they are different. I come from a roman catholic family and being homosexual is something that is frowned upon in the church. It would be hard to be the person who has their kid committing the greatest sin of all. People will not just be looking at my kid but also me. I don’t want people to feel like I bringing up my children incorrectly because of something that is not chosen. I don’t think I will be able to convince people that my child didn’t choose this, that no one can choose what they feel. It will also be awkward with my relatives who may share the same views. I don’t want to be rejected from my family because I care so much about them. We are a very close family outside my intermediate family and I would hate to suddenly be excluded from things because they do not want to be in the presence of my child. I don’t know if any of those would ever happen. A big part of me knows that no matter what my family will stay together but there is always a what if. I also know that going through school can be difficult. I wouldn’t know to help my child deal with the bullying or the feeling of embarrassment for being different. When one of my best friends from high school came out to me I was shocked at first, I really didn’t expect it and after I told her that it was ok and it wouldn’t change our friendship she said that she was so afraid to tell me because she wasn’t sure if I would still accept her. I don’t want to have my kid look for acceptance from their peers. I want them to already be accepted in this society. Enough of what I think about what other people would think, but I know I would feel awkward. It will definitely be some getting use to. I wouldn’t know how to give them advice. It would upset me that I won’t be able to look forward to having grandchildren since adopting is hard enough for straight couples. No matter what I will love them but it is just something that I am not expecting in my future family. Thu, 6 Oct 2011 00:17:44 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/02/voices-from-the-classroom-27/#IDComment203637986 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/15/voices-from-the-classroom-11/#IDComment200097210 Choosing a college or university is always difficult for any high school student. There are many factors that go into looking for a school that best suits you. When I was searching for schools I was looking for a university that has a wide variety of majors, a nice environment, and name recognition. I wanted to have a large school with many majors in case I wanted to change my major. If for any reason I need to, I would not have to transfer to another school. I wanted a school with a nice environment because this is where I would be living for the next four years. I have visited schools where there was hardly any grass areas or trees; those schools just looked dead to me. Penn State also has a large amount of alumni still active in the university. The University has many connection and programs through the alumni. This happened to be something I found appealing. When I came on a tour I was blown away by the size, the rankings of their programs, as well as the cheerful environment. Everyone seemed very friendly, the buildings are well kept, and the technology is was more up to date than some of the other universities I visited. That tour really enlightened me on all of the benefits attending Penn State could give me. On the tour and my time here, the students say this school is a very diverse. This is something I disagree with. I went to a high school where there were as many white kids as there were black kids. The majority of my friends were Asian, but I had friends from all races and always got along well with whomever was in my classes no matter the race. I am now a sophomore and I still do not see the diversity the school claims to have. Both of my roommates have been black (I am white) and I have always gotten along well with them. So it’s not like I don’t see any black people, its just not to the extreme I am accustom to. So I guess I can say that I came into this school thinking it would be similar to my high school with a variety of races, but the reality it is not. I chose this school knowing that I would get a great education and have a good chance of receiving a job after graduation. I did not put much thought into what the main race of people are. I just wanted to be in a place that will further me on my journey. Penn State is a place of opportunities and I plan to take advantage of all of the ones that come my way. Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:06:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/15/voices-from-the-classroom-11/#IDComment200097210 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/08/voices-from-the-classroom-5/#IDComment193157944 Technology is something that is always improving. There is a new version of a product coming out everyday whether it is a cell phone or a car. Communication technology is something that is progressing at a fast pace. Our parents’ generation did not grow up with the same means of communication as we did. Texting, emails, and social networking are all fairly new to our world. People use to write letters or have phone conversations, but now we rather type something to a person than actually use our voices. Although we are now getting back to talking to someone face to face via video chat. It is a great way of seeing old friends from home when you are away at school or having a business meeting with other companies. The television and radio stations are also a great way for our world to pass along information. If there is a storm or terrible event, it will be broadcasted that day. All of these ways of communicating are more convenient and faster than old ways of sending messages. However I do not see how these improvements have affected the way we categorize people. Even when a faster more efficient way of communicating arises in our lives, that will not change the way we view people. Having an easier way of communicating with other countries will never change how a race is viewed. We are communicating just fine in this generation and i do not see a correlation between the two. I believe that advances in genetics will begin to change our understanding of how people are categorized. I feel if we knew what all of our genes code for we will start to categorize based on that. It wouldn’t just be skin color anymore. Everyone will know who has what genes and become prejudice against them. Imagine every single gene in the human genome had a known function. With one drop of your blood a lab will be able to know everything about you by decoding your DNA. From the second you are born you will know everything you will grow up to be. How tall you will become, what diseases or disorders you will soon face, and maybe even a life expectancy. Soon enough there will be rumors of good genes and bad genes. People are only going to want to associate themselves with those who are of the so called perfect genes. It won’t matter what you look like because it will be your DNA that makes you superior over another person. Maybe having this knowledge will change the way we live our lives. Say we got to start our life but this time knowing what all of our genes are, would we follow the same paths and pick up where we left off or will we all be on different paths? Will employers, schools, or even governments begin to have genetic requirements? Will genetic categorization occur? People love finding ways to themselves superior to another, so why not with their genes? Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:50:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/08/voices-from-the-classroom-5/#IDComment193157944 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/07/questions-from-the-classroom-2/#IDComment191106926 I would like to say that I think families classify themselves as a whole. When you were young, people asked us questions about our ethnicity and religion. But how did we know the answers to those questions? We ask our family members. Whatever they tell us is what we grow up to believe and say when answering questions. These categories are based on what we are told and that is what you go on believing. I classify myself as white. This is something that I don’t have to ask or wonder about. I am a very pale person that is no mystery. I come from a German, Pennsylvanian Dutch, and French-Canadian background. My great grandfather was Pennsylvanian Dutch and while fighting in World War II met my great grandmother over in Germany. He brought her back to America where they built their own home. My grandmother came here from Quebec, and my grandfather from Maine. They are both from the French speaking part of Canada. Not until recently my Mom told me that there is also rumor in my family that my great grandmother was Native American. We never say that we are because we are unsure and do not have the records to state that. So when people ask me what I am, I answer them as Canadian and German. As for my religion, I classify myself as a Roman Catholic. This is what I was brought up to believe and something that has stuck with me. I am not forced to go to church or stick with this religion. Being a Catholic is a choice of my own. My brother and my father both started off as Catholics but have turned away from it. They only attend church on holidays. This past summer I went on a pilgrimage to Spain. This pilgrimage is called World Youth Day and is an event that happens every 2 to 3 years. This is a program the Roman Catholic Church created to interact with other youth from around the world and to help us get closer to God. I enjoyed my time there and I loved to see the differences in the ceremonies from culture to culture. As for my gender, I am a female. There really is no picking that. No one picks what gender they are born as. It is a natural random process unless your parents went to a geneticist and picked your sex. Even if that happens, your parents are deciding, not you. I choose to be a girl. I have no interest in changing my sex. I am happy of the women I am growing up to be. However some people dislike their gender. It seems very common these days from people to cross-dress or have a sex change surgery. If you want to change sex go right ahead no one is stopping you! Sure some people may judge you, but will most people know that you had a surgery? No. Just be who you want to be. Thu, 8 Sep 2011 15:30:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/07/questions-from-the-classroom-2/#IDComment191106926 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/08/26/what-do-you-want-to-know-before-its-all-over/#IDComment188859024 For the majority of my life I have been hearing people describe me as too white. Yes I am white, and no I am not an albino. I have been called names like Casper and Snowflake, and that it’s blinding to look at me in the sun light. This past summer I had someone tell me that I was so white and I would be pretty if I had a tan. I find everything that is said to me hurtful. It was very hard for me growing up during middle school as well as high school. This is the time that you want to be accepted in what everyone thinks is normal. But I realized quickly that I would never have the skin color people wanted me to have. I have learned to love my skin color and I never want to purposefully tan. I think this is what makes me beautiful; this is what makes me different. I personally don’t see racism often in our society today. I feel that the color of a person’s skin doesn’t matter in our generation or at least where I am from. But when people ask me why I’m so white I wonder if those people are being racist against me. With that being said, I want to know: Why people think of the whitest thing and call me it? Why can I only be pretty if I tan my skin? Why have my peers commented on my pale skin at least once? Why does everyone want tanned skin? Do people that are really dark encounter the same issues as me? WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING TOO PALE? Fri, 2 Sep 2011 01:05:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/08/26/what-do-you-want-to-know-before-its-all-over/#IDComment188859024