Two people speaking a different language around me has never really bothered me. Come to think of it, the last time it happened, I was waiting to discuss something with one of the people while he finished his conversation in another language. It was almost comforting that I didn’t have to feel awkward about “eavesdropping” unintentionally in on their conversation. Because they were speaking Korean, I just listened to them carefully, and enjoyed listening to a language I didn’t understand, without feeling morally conflicted about being nosy.
I encourage all people to just enjoy the foreign tongue; if you listen to it enough you will eventually start to pick it up to some degree. That is the method people use when they move to a foreign country and learn a different language by ear. Now, one may never become fluent using this method in such small doses but if you understand a word or two, that’s something, a small accomplishment.
Why does it make us uncomfortable? Is it because we have the insecurity to ask; “are they talking about me?”, “is there something about me that’s weird to them?” Why do we do this? We need to understand that people speaking different languages don’t talk about everybody who doesn’t understand them. As English-speakers, we don’t constantly degrade people who are near us that can’t understand what were saying, why would others? This is not the only reason, some believe that it is inconsiderate for others to speak in native tongue when there are people who don’t understand it. Its basically saying “I know this isn’t any of my business but you should be able to speak English in front of me if you truly have nothing to hide.” This is kinda ridiculous, how would an English speaker feel if they were in Mexico talking English to a family member, despite complete fluency in Spanish, and having bystanders in the restaurant (ie. Workers, customers, etc.) be offended because you are speaking a foreign language. Sometimes people just speak in their native tongue because its fun to think back, or to feel more at home, and we shouldn’t oust people who chose to do so.
The main thing that speaking a native tongue in a foreign place is that it keeps part of the culture alive in the speakers. Imagine going to a far away place and eventually never speaking English again? It would be a source of comfort and home that you would be barred from experiencing. Food is a similar culture reminder, it sparks memories and feels of home. Hearing a language everyday and then never hearing it again except on rare occasions would make most of us homesick, and expecting it of others is unnecessary.

Feeling guilty over one’s race is the equivalency of feeling guilty for one’s blood type, or one’s country of origin. Guilt is a terrible feeling, and no one should feel guilty over something that is literally completely out of his or her control. Even feeling guilt over what one’s race does, their actions and reactions, is preposterous. There is no reason to take guilt over the worst members of your group’s actions.
Obviously this question is pretty geared towards white people. While white people may have plenty to feel guilty for as a whole, it is not the responsibility of whites to feel guilty over what their ancestors did. It is however, the responsibility of whites to try and level the playing field. There is obviously a lot of latent racism in the United States and the rest of the world in the job market, criminal justice system, and in normal day-to-day social situations. While no (non-racist) white people should feel guilt, they should do all they can to improve race relations.
It starts with giving everyone an equal chance at school. The American school system is totally unequal, and therefore, bias. White, suburban areas generally have much better funding, teachers, facilities, athletic opportunities, and extra curricular activities, while more urbanized areas populated with colored people generally lack in these areas. This basically takes innocent, unmolded minds and gives whites a starting block and a head start on people of color. As a result, white people receive better educations from better schools, get accepted into better colleges and universities, and end up getting better jobs. At anyone of these steps racism can maim a person of color’s chances of getting ahead; poor elementary education sets them back, poor high school education prevents them from getting into college, no college leads to a lower paying job or no job at all, these people have families and move back into the same neighborhoods they grew up in (because they can’t afford to move away), have children and get violently stuck in this vicious process. If we as a society could create an equal educational system, we could end racial inequality in a few generations. There would no longer be “white guilt”, or any guild over one’s race because we would all be given the same opportunities to succeed.
Breaking the cycle is the key to ending racial guilt. No one should feel guilty over the way they were born, but people do anyway, its human nature. It’s sad, because people don’t simply take guilt and ignore it. It affects our actions, and can cause further alienation between races. Guilt is an awful feeling to act on, it creates action without sincerity, action without understanding, and instead of addressing the problems in race relations, simply white washes over them with shallow, misguided feelings.

I do feel some guilt after what was discussed in class but, honestly, not a whole lot. While what happened to American slaves in the past was terrible, it did not occur at my hand, or due to my actions or negligence. I was born 200 years after slavery was abolished, one cannot expect me or any other modern-day white people to take blame or guilt over an action they have had no control over for almost two centuries. This mentality that white people should feel guilty over slavery is unfair, it is no different than blaming all modern-day Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is different though, however, from say Native Americans. Our country still mistreats indigenous peoples of the Americas and more guilt is aimed towards black people (some of which have no traces to slavery in the Americas) than at indigenous people.
The attitude that whites should feel guilty over slavery is preposterous. Once again, not to downplay the atrocities that were committed against blacks in the early Americas, but its crazy to feel guilty over. Guilt in this case cannot lead to any type of action that would make slavery better, acceptable or justified, it simply has happened in the past and whites will simply have to deal with another smudge on an already less than pristine resume.
The main thing that concerns me with the belief that “whites should feel guilty about slavery,” is how it institutionalized reverse-racism by making white people feel like they owe something to black people. And while I am not arguing that the world is totally fair in anyway, and of course acknowledging the fact that black people face racism everyday, it doesn’t solve anything by making their peers and in some cases, attackers, feel like they are being looked at in a negative way by black people, that they are assumed to be racist.
Lastly, actions that are impregnated with guilt are absent of heart. People make decisions out of guilt that aren’t decisions they have made on their own good will. It’s like giving money to charity because you believe people will judge and mock you if you don’t. You should give charity because it’s the right thing to do, whites should acknowledge that slavery was terrible but not center their minds around how they should or would change the past. Slavery should be studied today for the main reason of preventing it from happening again or anywhere else. The issue in all this is that slavery occurs today and the “guilt” that whites feel doesn’t get refocused onto preventing slavery in the present, they feel bad because they are taught to feel bad. Acknowledgement of the past and hope for the future is the solution to “white guilt”.

When I compare the way I live with other people in America, I look at myself as average. My family and I don’t have a lot of money but we are by no means impoverished. I use a hand-me-down phone, my shoes are 5 years old, I keep clothes forever and rarely buy new shirts (about half of my shirts were given to me by high school sports teams), in fact the only $200 dollar piece of clothing I own is a simple white “relay for life” t-shirt that was given to me after I donated $200 to a relay team. Money has never been a big deal to me personally, at least not until college came. Once I started college my parents told me I would start to need to help pay my tuition bills because they couldn’t afford to do it on their own. I started to work 60 hours a week over the summer to help them (and ultimately myself) out.
While many or most of the students at Penn State or colleges across America might be better off than me, I am truly grateful for the opportunity to live in the United States. As discussed in class, even in my tight financial situation, I am still better off than 97% of the world. I wasn’t born with aids, into forced labor, famine or a dictatorship. I experience things that seem magical in other places in the world. When I pee, I push a lever and it magically disappears and becomes someone else’s problem. I have never had to take a strong stand in my entire life against abuse from my government, and I have never had my life threatened.
Every time I leave lecture, I am reminded of how lucky I am; to be an American, to be a white male (ie. I have never been the victim of racism or sexism), to have food to eat at every meal, to be able to throw what food I don’t finish, to be able to walk down the street with no fear of injury at someone else’s hand. Yeah, I might not have cool, new shoes, or a Mercedes but I am happy, and I live in a world where my success is entirely dependent on Free Will, no one can hold me back from my dreams and aspirations, except myself.
Any one of the slaves in the various cocoa fields would do anything in the world to be me, to have what I have, experience what I’ve experienced. That’s how I compare being in America to other places in the world. It’s the difference between being able to choose your destiny or fighting to create one.

I am lucky to be a part of one of the ethnic and gender demographics that is almost exempt from any type of discrimination. I have never been the target of a racist comment or a sexist comment. As a result I have had very few socio-economic hurdles that I have had to jump through. Both of my parents have had good jobs throughout the course of my life (with the exception of the past few years due to the economy), and as a result, my own effort in my life has been the only obstacle that I have had to conquer, I had to work hard. Except, that I didn’t. When I was in high school, I rarely did homework and did the bare minimum to get by. As a result, my crummy grades and my lax attitude landed me in Penn State Hazleton.
All the decisions I made in high school and middle school affected me long term and got me accepted into Penn State Hazleton and declined from Penn State University Park. As a junior in high school I decided that I would attend Penn State Hazleton and transfer after a year and a half. At the time I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be able to attend a great university after basically getting through high school without ever really trying. There are so many people today, in high schools across America who will try twice as hard as I will and go to a worse college than Penn State.
When I got to Hazleton I immediately realized all the mistakes I had made in high school. PSU Hazleton has a tiny campus (less than a total of 15 building), with a tiny student body (roughly 1200 students) and almost no extracurricular activities. With no option for a real social environment, no outside the classroom activities, and little to keep me entertained at a college smaller and less engaging then my high school, I hit the books hard. I wanted to transfer early, I wanted to get out of Hazleton and into a real college environment as soon as possible. I wasn’t able to transfer early but for the first time in my life I was getting good grades and trying hard to keep them up. I had always tried hard at my various jobs and at sports but it never carried over to school, when I graduated I was on the fence about college at first.
Today, I am so grateful that I am able to attend such a good school and I try not to squander that opportunity anymore. In the last year money in my family became very tight and my parents have had to make sacrifices to keep sending me to school. They told me I’m not allowed to work, that my grades are what they care most about, they don’t want to make sacrifices so I can work, I can do that at home. While I haven’t always agreed, I respect their rule because as a result they are giving me an education. I try and show them that I’m thankful by working hard since nothing else is really holding me back except my own drive and determination.

Whenever I write on the blogs I try and come across as coherent, mature, intelligent, non-discriminate, respectful of other’s beliefs (even when different from my own) and most of all professional. This will not be one of those blogs. What that person wrote is beyond fucked up. Hate is what fuels the extremist Muslim jihadist radicals that seek to hurt others and spread fear and lies throughout the United States and the rest of the world. They spread LIES about Americans, they spread propaganda they KNOW isn’t true. So, now I must ask, what makes this hate-mongering piece of scum any different? All he has done is take Muslim/Islamic-based stereotypes and list them. So much of what this person has written is an attempt at a cheap laugh from other people with deep-seeded racism like him or herself.
First, “you have more wives than teeth” and point number 9, polygamy may be considered acceptable in Islam but many Muslim societies challenge its acceptability and it is prohibited in some countries such as Turkey. Mormons also believe in allowing polygamy, but the writer has dubbed this acceptable because most Mormons are white and the writer is a racist. Second, “you think vests come in two styles” and points number 7 and 8, this of course ignores that most Muslims are incredibly peaceful and pleasant people who disagree with the jihadist mentality and find it just as cowardly as the rest of us. This is of course ignored because the writer has not done any research and, of course, is a racist. “Your Cousin is president”, President Obama is not a Muslim (not like it matters!) and doesn’t deny the claims that he is a Muslim openly because he doesn’t want to appear as hateful as the writer of this awful piece. If he were to come out and say, “I’m not a Muslim”, many people (including myself) would be appalled because he is then suggesting that there is something inherently wrong with being Muslim. The writer, again, has failed to research, but more importantly, he is a racist.
Finally, my favorite “You find this offensive or racist and don’t want to forward it. You may be a Muslim”. I can tell without any shadow of a doubt that I in no way identify with the writer of this thing. I identify myself closer with Muslims than I do with hate and propaganda like this. Its so sad that someone believed that this was a good enough idea to write it down then send it to his/her friends. What’s sadder is that his friends weren’t offended like they should have been, and they sent it to more people. If any of my friends sent me this, they wouldn’t be my friends for much longer. I can find peace however, in the fact that whoever wrote this isn’t a very intelligent person and that most people who read this will be totally offended and immediately think the way I did, that the writer is racist, and that his email was racist too. I guess that makes me a Muslim, and I am damn proud.

I don’t believe that we have reached a point where being Christian and proud of it makes you a bigot, I believe we have reached a point where when you create “us against them” situations, you get “them” to oppose whatever beliefs you are proposing. When you make a comment like “if your not with us your against us” or “if your not Christian, you are not my brother or my sister”, people will oppose you unfortunately. How is a comment like that supposed to make Jews or Muslims in Alabama feel? Ousted? Different? His comments bit him in the ass because not everybody is a Christian, and those Christians (like myself) who feel more unity with those who promote peace and understanding, resent comments like that as well. Now you could argue that Rachael Madow took his comment out of context by cutting his speech short and leaving out the “and I want to be your brother/sister” comment but the issue remains, does that mean I have to be a Christian or convert my beliefs to be considered and equal? Does that mean that unless I am Christian or devout enough in the congressman’s eyes that I am not going to be saved? Does that mean that people of different religions are inferior in his eyes? He may not have directly meant any of this, but when drawing lines between “us” and “them”, many of “them” became concerned that they were being looked down on. What would the reaction be if a Muslim congressman or congresswoman had made the same comment? How would the Alabama public respond then? He or she would be ruined, nobody would defend them and they would have most likely ruined any hope of a future political career. Because the comments made were about Christianity, the congressman has a large percent of the Republican Party defending him and he will most likely be able to recover from his controversial statement, especially because Alabama is a heavily conservative state. The sad part is that the senators comments are merely a small part of the biggest problem with the U.S. political system. Both sides are guilty, but the new political philosophy has been that of segregation. Republicans calling Democrats socialists, Democrats calling Republicans Nazis, that’s the problem. Politicians aren’t uniting the public, they are telling the public “you better agree with us, because we are right, and if you don’t agree with us, your part of the problem”. Hate and slander have replaced respect and unity in Washington. Stephen Cohen comparing republicans to Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels, Rush Limbaugh insulting the Chinese President, the list goes on. Instead of working together to get the U.S. through a tough time, we point fingers and pass the blame to others. It’s disgusting. Where are the advocates like Ghandi, Mother Theresa, John Lennon, and others who advocated peace above all else? Why after all these years can’t we just give peace a chance?

The south park episode that stirred up controversy came under scrutiny when it became apparent in the episode the week before that the writers were planning to show an image of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. In response to this potential action, a radical Muslim group decided to issue a threat to Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone (the writers of South Park). One of the leaders of the group even wrote on his twitter page “he prayed for Allah to kill the show’s creators and burn them in Hell for all eternity”. What is especially ironic about this controversy is that the south park creators have shown Mohammad in a previous episode. But, the south park situation in question is the epitome of hypocrisy. It is simply one group (the radical religious group), exercising their freedom speech by threatening another group (the south park writers) for exercising their freedom of speech. The religious group has basically decided that it is perfectly fine for them to say whatever they want, including making radical violent threats. Now, not that I agree that the south park writers should include an image of Mohammad in their comedy series, but the first amendment protects their right to say whatever they please. The Radical religious group exercised their first amendment right as well when they issued the threat to the comedian writers. Comedy Central (a subsidiary of Viacom) opted to censor the offensive material in the episode in question, effectively stripping the writers of their first amendment rights. This situation is no different than when former Gov. Sarah Palin issued a map with crosshairs over certain states in which she had differing opinions with the political office holders. While this could be considered a threat or act of violence, she was allowed to do so because she was protected under the first amendment. I am not arguing that what South Park did was morally sound or sensitive to people’s beliefs, but there should be no conditions to our first amendment. Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation, or both. Later in the controversial south park episode, Buddha is depicted snorting lines of cocaine in front of children and Jesus is depicted as having an Internet pornography addiction. Both of those images were exhibited uncensored. The effect of the episode simply exposed a double standard. Viacom made it public that under no circumstance is it acceptable to depict the prophet Mohammad in any way, but depiction of other religious prophets doing any type of action (regardless of how violent, sexual, racy or offensive it may be) is allowed. It has been outlined in supplemental Islamic religious teachings (not specifically in the Qur’an) that depiction of Mohammad (or any human being for that matter) in any way is sacrilegious, however, I believe that depiction of Buddha doing hard drugs in the presence of children or Jesus having a sexual addiction are at least as offensive.

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