gdp's Comments

World In Conversation : If prison has taken anything away from me...

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:36:04 +0000

This letter was much tougher to read than the ones in the past solely for how truly depressing and hopeless it is. If this makes sense this letter is how I expected all the rest of the letters to be to find one that actually fulfills my expectations is a little weird at this point. Thus far all the letters we’ve read have no always been positive but show glimpses of hope and talk of all the positive things learned thus far and all the things that there are still to learn. Additionally they speak of their situation as one of the most positive and freeing experiences of their life. They speak of how prison saved their life because if they weren’t in there they would have been dead by now. They speak of how the imprisonment of the body released their minds to new heights of understanding and mental freedom to see the world for how it is. This letter takes the opposite stance. This inmate discusses the hopeless of his situation and instead of how it teaches or forces him to reflect it is a tortuous physical and mental freedom. His spare time is not spent being productive but thinking of how his situation his something that he will never escape and all time is spent staying busy for the sake of being busy because he is afraid of being alone with his thoughts. When I hear bout people in prison like this I feel kind of bad because in this situation prison is not serving as a correctional facility but rather as a torture chamber that is almost inescapable at all turns. He states “I want to pluck out my eyes so not to see what little my life has been reduced to. Such a meaningless existence.” To want to remove your eyes just to not see what your life has been reduced to is something I can’t imagine and would not wish on anyone. Above all though something that hurts my heart to read was this “If prison has taken anything away from me it is the chance to love and to be loved. To look across the crowded room and find the person who is my world looking at me the person who is their’s.” I hurts to see that what he wants is to love and be loved by someone unconditionally. After all at the end of the day even the most hardened criminal just wants to be loves. He ends the letter with “I will never know love.” I feel bad for this man and wish him all the best because without love it is close to impossible to see life as anything but meaningless.

World In Conversation : What do you think about the telephone game and why does information travel that way?- 119 blog

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:30:13 +0000

I don’t think that is a question that can ever really answer fully. If I think back to when I was a kid in elementary school and we all played the telephone game we would send a basic simple phrase through about twenty people and by the end of the verbal transactions we would have a phrase nowhere close to what we began with but not only that its also always nonsensical. Now the question becomes where did it go wrong or who’s fault was it? Did someone not speak clearly and fail to annunciate or did someone fail to listen and therefore just repeat what they thought they heard. Now for a larger scale story such as the one presented in class if there was no hope for a very basic and minor phrase to not be butchered then there was absolutely no chance for the story of that length and detail to not be destroyed. Sharing a story is different from telephone in that it is not just a transfer of words but rather an independent interpretation of ideas and thoughts. In my opinion the story was messed up by the first girl who was intended to share it. Instead of telling the story verbatim she decided to add her own twist to things and in effect take out very crucial pieces of the story. For instance the part about the racial slur something to the effect of “you niggers should leave” is a crucial part of the story because that is the rising actions and clearly states the blatantly obvious racial tensions without that part it deteriorated into what we say which was essentially “There were some black kids and some white kids. They both wanted a room. Then a white kid said something to a black kid. And there was someone named Bill somewhere in the story.” That by no means represents the story accurately. To be completely fair though and remove blame from the first girl since that is not really what the question is about I will propose another few ideas as an explanation of why the story came out the ay it did. Perhaps gender roles came into play and that is why the story became more and more condensed as it went along. Women, with all due respect, tend to be more long winded and have more to say so if the story were to be passed through all girls then perhaps it would have been able to maintain more of its initial integrity. Next guys tend to speak as little as possible when it comes to certain issues so they took what they thought were the important points and then passed those on to the next person as opposed to everything then the person before shared.

World In Conversation : "Lifer"

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 07:03:35 +0000

This letter didn’t really move me like all the others in the past have but I guess that wasn’t really the point. To be honest I can’t really say how I would react to being in the same class as convicted felons. I don’t know the extent of the crimes that these men have committed but it would still be unnerving. I want to be bold and brave and say that it would not faze me at all and claim that I would embrace the experience but I cant honestly say I could. The funny think about this is that this is coming from the same guy who always thinks that some really great men are locked up for no reason. Well. Not for no reason but from what I understand prison is a correctional facility and these men have some really insightful things to say at times much more intelligent or peaceful than a lot of “world leaders” who commit mass genocides and wars that are deemed constitutional or legal under the pretenses of protecting and serving. Yet the hypocrisy is that a man protecting his girlfriend can get life in prison yet if he went through the army and killed hundreds of “insurgents” still not really completely sure what those are who are thousands of miles away and pose no immediate direct threat to his family, he is a hero. Go figure. The most important thing I think that should be taken from this letter is that you should never ever let someone else label you. Once you are labeled there really is no escaping it and even if you do it is very, very difficult. I believe very much so about the self-fulfilling prophesies. If instead of a person an inmate is referred as a convict or by just a number that plays a huge role in dehumanization and a lost of a sense of self. When this happens a separation from your personal identity occurs and that is when people begin to commit violent crimes and behave in aggressive manners. You should always remain true to yourself and create the image you want others to see from you not the image they assign to you.

World In Conversation : Do you think you would actively try to not benefit from nepotism if the situation presented itself?-

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:00:55 +0000

The question “Do you think you would actively try to not benefit from nepotism if the situation presented itself?” This is one of those loaded question that Sam always talks about. For instance in our Soc 001 class he posed the question “who in here is the douchebag roommate?” Not one person raised their hand except for one kid who though he was cool. The point that Sam was trying to illustrate is that all people have this belief that it could never ever possibly be them that is the bad guy or the recipient of something they did not deserve. To answer this question I no, no I do not think that I would actively try to not benefit from nepotism. If I am the recipient of nepotism as I was when I got a cardiology medical internship at Mt. Sinai through my mom the way I make up for my guilt is by working as hard as I can and learning as much as I possibly can so that it is not a waste for myself and I am not totally spitting in the face of the other person who may have had the same opportunity as me. Just to play devil’s advocate for a minute here though if we were to go by what Sam said in terms of if nepotism wasn’t in play the he said that there would always be another candidate that was smarter, more capable, and better suited for the job that would perpetually mean that none of us would ever get employment in which case nepotism would be our only chance. I think that even if a person did have the will a drive to genuinely want to avoid all nepotism and begin a path to gaining things of all their own merit I feel like nepotism is such an engrained part of this society. For instance if we excluded nepotism from the job place than that would mean that a doctor who’s child was let’s say just shot would have to wait the same amount of time for surgery to be performed as a regular person, and that would never happen. Is nepotism bad in that case? Another example would be if a robber or murder were to take place at a police officer’s house chances are first there would be a much more prompt response to the situation and I think it would also be fair to say that there would be a much larger response meaning that more effort would be put fourth to finding the attacker and making sure that this person came to justice. Ultimately this would be for a good cause however the fact that it wouldn’t be an equal effort Overall I don’t think nepotism is that bad we cant regulate it so we might as well embrace it.

World In Conversation : What a man is...

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 20:06:12 +0000

Every week I read a new post by one of these inmates I think they are in some sort of competition to one up the one from last week. Of all the books and lectures I’ve heard on interpersonal relationships between men and women this is one I would say is the most beautiful Ive read. To be honest I’ll go as far as to say I don’t think that a woman could have written a better description as to what she would like or what the ideal partner would look like. I really like this because for the other soc class I wrote a blog to answer the question “What would ex be called in a woman centered world?” He answered it better than I ever could. He says “He is a lover. A man should do the best to satisfy his woman’s every desire. Who can take her to another galaxy with his touch. Whose embrace would cause volcanic like eruptions throughout her body. Who could take her to her peak and bring her down slowly and easy. Who can turn her on with his words. Whose presence is yearned for. Whose not ashamed of “just holding” her in his arms.” Not a fuck buddy, but a lover. Guys talk so much trash about girls saying that they are all gold diggers or joke that all a woman is good for is making sandwiches. All gold diggers are, are women who gave up on love because of the treatment they received from men. Can you blame them for wanting compensation from the very source of their pain and agony? I sure cant. Guys call women useless yet we don’t allow them to flourish and show us what they are capable of. Women are responsible for so much of the beauty in this at times very bleak world and maybe if we let them have more of a say it in there would be little less sadness and a little more love. This guy has the right idea and no matter what his position I will follow his words and will not allow myself to fall into the category of those who forgot to believe in love and trust someone that could mean the world to them until its too late.

World In Conversation : If we lived in a female centered world what words would be used to describe sex?- 119 Blog

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 01:23:17 +0000

Ah this is a great question. First things first I believe that even before the words used to describe sex changed I believe the whole face of the game would change. I would like to say that the male cliché of guy going to get “some” is true. I personally have heard guys even some of my friends say things along the lines of “Yo I’m trying to get in some butt tonight.” I’ve even over heard a lot of guys say things that are so, so vulgar and disrespectful. Beyond that I hear guys talking of their sexual exploits in ways that must only mean that they were out to satisfy themselves. Or most of the time I hear how they did something monumentally disrespectful and thought it was funny or an act of domination. For example “She was giving me head and I didn’t tell her I was going to cum and I busted all over her face” then follows the laughter. But then I realize, that shit isn’t funny. I feel that head is an act of love or at the very least if not love an act of respect and trust. Girls giving that receive no pleasure from the act so that means they are doing it to try to please their partner so for me to hear that they ejaculated in their face and though it was funny kind of pisses me off. I’ve never once heard a guy say Im going to find a girl and make sweet sweet love to her tonight , it just doesn’t happy. If sex were the way women wanted it to be then shit to be honest I feel like pornography would be legal and shunned upon but instead looked at as an act of love and beauty after all that is the intention of sex and love. Instead terms to describe the act of sex are “bang” meaning slam: strike violently, screw, “penetrate” meaning pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance which sounds a lot like rape to me or at the very least not being gentle, pounding meaning repeated heavy blows. A lot of males unfortunately learn their perception of sex from porn which in this male centered world is quite violent with a lot of disrespect whether is it spitting on hitting or curing out the women that they are having intercourse with. I believe that if woman had the choice as to what sex would be called it would be called something along the lines of love making or some gentle, soft, non aggressive description. Maybe it would be called the physical manifestation of feelings. Who knows? What I can tell you is that it would definitely be something more loving.

World In Conversation : Family

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:15:02 +0000

Of all the letters I’ve read it’s weird for some reason I feel that this guy was one of the easiest people to connect to and additionally after reading this letter I feel in a sense I know him, at least decently. Aside from the description that he gave us I feel he is a very simple, quite and mild mannered young man. I do truly believe that he is a good person, after all he must to be to still have the love and support of so many for so long now. He is right for the most part we view prison as riddled with tatted vicious and violent offenders which does hold some truth to it however there are some exceptions to the rule that he enlightens us about. We do in fact love to condemn prisoners for a crime or a mistake they made when we make terribly stupid mistakes all the time that could land us in prison the only difference is that we’ve been lucky enough to not get caught. This is going to sound bad but in a sense I can really relate to most of what he is saying at least in the isolation aspect. He and I are both not from Pennsylvania and as a result I don’t see my family very often, in fact only for breaks. My interactions with my family are limited to phone calls once or twice a week. When we do speak I feel like we get into a lot of frivolous arguments over nothing based off misunderstanding. They don’t understand my experience with college thus far and thereby make and stick to their own assumptions of my situation. Conversely I don’t understand their situation I guess either. It really is true, when you’re away life doesn’t stop moving. The other day I was at my desk and I got a call from my mom telling me my aunt died. I didn’t know how to take this. I spoke to her a couple of months ago and she sounds fine, we ended with “I’ll see you soon.” I wont see her again. Life is very precious and can be stripped at any moment so I really do understand where he and all men like him are coming from when they try to share their gospel to people to take things for granted.

World In Conversation : Do you ever feel uncomfortable around two or more people speaking another language?- 119 Blog

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:22:43 +0000

Coming from New York one of the most diverse places no less, cities in the nation two people speaking a language I don’t understand in front of me is a common occurrence. The beauty about the city is that depending upon the part you are in you experience different types of languages being spoken. For instance if you are in flushing queens ninety percent of the time you will often witness Korean being spoken. If you were in the Bronx or the upper west side there will probably be a predominance of Spanish speaking people present. The funny thing is that as we discussed in class if you ask the majority of people what the most American or official language of the united states is people will generally say English. However, the beauty of New York City is that the “national” or “predominant” language can and will change depending on who you ask and where you are. The language of that area can span for miles or change within a one black radius. Personally I love it when two people speak a different language in front of me. In my mind, I like to look at it as a test. To see laughter and or an argument in another language is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. I watch intently the lips of the two parties and try to dissect their hand movement and the intensity of their facial expressions to see who has a one up or which way the conversation will swing. Additionally, as far as languages go I think English is one of the most boring and unentertaining languages. When people speak quickly and expressively in Spanish, Italian, or Arabic I think that’s one of the most beautiful things one can witness. I think that’s how language barriers are transcended. You don’t know what the person is saying but you could just listen to them talk forever about whatever they’re saying. The one downside I will say is that people do abuse the secrecy and beauty of this exchange. My ex was from Spain as such she was more than fluent in Spanish however she looked white after all she was being that Spain is a European country. Often times she would tell me of her experiences on the train. She would taken the A train from her mexian and west Indian neighborhood in ozone park queens. She would tell me of the derogatory and sometimes dirty things that guys or construction workers on the way to work would say in Spanish which she fully understood. The other side of it was she would make fun of me in Spanish with out other Spanish speaking friend and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. But for the most part I think it’s a great thing.

World In Conversation : What factors in your race make it difficult to date outside your race?- 119 Blog

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:44:03 +0000

Personally when it comes to love or relationships I learned to let nothing stand in your way as cliché as that sounds. It doesn’t make sense to me that one would pass up a number of suitable companions for someone less compatible simply because they are of the same race you are cutting yourself and your possible partner short with your shame and cowardice. Aside from my personal opinions I think there a few factors that make it difficult to date outside the race. The first and I think most legitimate one would have to be religion in my estimation. For a lot of people religion plays a massive role in who they marry. Some people are in arranged marriage which automatically eliminates any possibility of choosing anyone for yourself no less someone out of your religion or ethnicity. Often times religion and ethnicity go hand in hand so if you are religiously tied that you cant marry someone outside of your ethnicity. The second thing I think is very basic. I don’t know if it is necessarily shame or the whole thing Sam about saying not wanted to be bothered. I know a lot of people when considering someone of a different ethnicity often times think “What would I look like bringing this person home?” Or “What would my parents or family say if I brought this guy or girl home?” In the case that Sam brought up today with an interracial couple walking down the street do you really want to be called a “sell out” by people of your own community or have to bother with being heckled left and right. This reminds me of the example of Sam gave of a couple adopting a kid outside their race. Most people would but they don’t want to be bothered with all the looks, comments, and questions they would face on a regular basis. Based off that a lot of people feel it’s not worth it. According to a new UC Berkeley study of 1million online daters, cyberspace is just as segregated as the real world. When it comes to dating online, whites prefer whites, research reveals. More than 80percent of whites even the 48percent of males and 28percent of females who said they were indifferent to race sent messages to whites and just 3 percent contacted blacks. With statistics like these it is not surprising there is such an invisible taboo about interracial marriage or relationships. All that said Sam said that interracial couples are on the up and I feel that as the older generation becomes more enlightened or dies off racial equality and acceptance for things that are different will flourish. Soon people will be able to concentrate on love for love and much less of all the other externalities.

World In Conversation : M.'s Story

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:34:04 +0000

This is such a difficult and tragic letter to respond to. He starts out in a way that really makes you relate and want to like him. After all we were all kids once. I think we get often caught up in people’s crimes and often forget that the most vicious of killers once started out as a cute little kid with his or her whole life ahead of them. In a way its so sad to see how the world takes the innocence away from children. He goes on to say he now lives in prison with murderers, rapists, and thieves. Immediately you think “Well this guy is also a violent offender or something of the sort to get himself in there.” It turns out he is not. The reason why I say this is such a difficult letter to respond to is for the fact that all the things that I want to point out make him a good person and why I think he should get a second chance he already rebukes as things that we should not admire about him. I can’t lie, he does write very well and I feel it is a waste for someone with such intelligence to locked up in prison but he says “Do not say I deserve a second chance because I write well.” I want to sympathize with him because though the crime was heinous and vicious and yes he was in fact involved he did not kill anyone. The fact of the matter or what I got from it is a fourteen year old kid with family problems got caught up in the wrong crowd and was “involved” in a murder. The extent of his involvement was him crying upstairs and closing the doors of the other kids so that no other children would get involved or have to know what was going on. What breaks my heart in a sense is that he is his biggest critic and his harshest critiquer. Yes he honestly he believes that he could have said and done something but when you’re a young boy who is caught in the middle of a murder and is fearing for your own life it is very hard to be brave or to even know what the right thing to do in that situation is. It sounds almost idiotic to say but “m” has a very cynical outlook on life. “Why? To garner sympathy? I do not want that. People should not sympathize with murderers. To create pity? Don’t pity me, I put myself here. To cause understanding? Why would I want to subject good people to the understanding of this horror. To teach? To teach what? We all know bad things, evil things happen all the time. To show that good people exist in prison? Come on, the prisoner who learns his lesson, changes his way, and goes on to help others is a movie cliche.” At the same time this is what makes me admire him the most. There are inmates in prison who have no regrets or remorse for what they did but he is letting what he didn’t do tear him apart.

World In Conversation : Freedom

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:22:45 +0000

Of all the letters I’ve read thus far this is my favorite. I honestly would not be surprised if this is the guy that Sam always talks about being the holiest of holy men he knows. One of my favorite quotes of this letter is “I have choices, and if I choose correctly, they allow me to be free. Using all I have and choosing to think and feel, act and interact in ways that make me a better person gives me live a better life. It is this ability to choose, think, feel, to be happy or sad, to live a life of purpose that has lead me to freedom.” This shows that free isn’t a matter of monetary wealth how much you can buy, how much you can party. It shows freedom is how much you can feel and learn from whatever situation you are put in and how free you are to make the most from it. The next thing that this man said that truly moved me was this, one of the most prolific quotes I can honestly say I have ever heard: “Freedom is not where you live, it is how you live. It is how you treat others and how this makes their lives better. It is getting up each morning and living a good life. it is loving yourself and finding happiness in the moment, in the little things you can choose. True freedom is not just of the body to move, but of the heart to feel, the mind to think, and the soul to shine.” After I read this letter I really had to sit and assess what this letter meant and how it pertained to my life. What I found that was pretty interesting to me but sounds odd in a way is that prison purifies you. Now, you may think that is an obvious answer because the purposes of a prison is to be a correctional facility but what in actuality I mean is that prison takes everything away and leaves you with basically nothing. All you really have the option of doing is rebuilding from scratch. When all the superficial distractions of life are taken away you are left with yourself, your values, and your new found freedom to get you through.

World In Conversation : How do irrelevant racial signifiers affect racial stereotypes?- 119 Blog

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:11:00 +0000

I really like this question because it is one that is so plainly out there but never really addressed. It is true that many people use racial indicators in stories to emphasize a point. What I’ve realized is that I feel people use racial signifiers specifically when the ethnicity is doing something that would otherwise fit into a stereotype of some sort. For instance, in an earlier response to this very question this girl discussed a homeless man and admitted shit used the word BLACK four times in the telling of her story and perhaps if this homeless man were white lets say that the racial signifiers would be excluded. This is perhaps because the media often shows a lot of black men being incarcerated or a lot of black men involved in crimes therefore as people we make the natural connection in our mind that if there is a crime committed or some type of assault such as the hair pulling that a black person must be involved. Another example is in the case of Mexican Americans as Sam joked about in class. He spoke of how people often specify Mexican or Hispanic when discussing their gardeners. I often feel like the opposite is also true of racial signifiers. I think racial signifiers are used so people seem more worldly or traveled. Often times I will hear people start off a story with something along the lines of “I went to this Latin jazz club with my friend of (insert latin American country here) and we had a great time. Racial signifiers on a more basic level allow context to be given or give a physical description. I think we are all guilty of using racial signifiers to add dramatic affect to a story I have definitely done it with all races. You will often hear me say “this hood ass black dude” or “this corny ass white kid.” When I think about why or when I started to do this I think it stems from just watching comedians tell stories after all that is how most of theirs begin. I digress though, to answer the question of “do irrelevant racial signifiers affect racial stereotypes?” I think the answer is undoubtedly yes. The very notion of using racial signifiers automatically ties an ethnicity to an act. With the homeless man using the racial signifier of black ties blacks to violence but not only that violence towards white but more specifically against white women. Using the racial signifier of Mexican or Hispanic gardener ties Hispanics to manual labor or yard work. Though using racial signifiers is not the most blatant form of racism it still heavily contributes to racial stereotypes.

World In Conversation : Is it possible for affirmative action to take things too far?- 119 Blog

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 03:06:34 +0000

I personally don’t think that affirmative action can be taken too far simply for the reason that Sam stated. Sam said it perfectly when he stated that a lot of people go along with the common misconception that affirmative action takes a lot of jobs away from very capable middle class white men but that it is incorrect. What it actually does it that it balances things out. People who would not of had an equal opportunity prior to affirmative action such as minorities and women and put those applicants on equal standings as the others so that the process is fair and equal. I don’t know if this is true but I feel most people associate affirmative action with black students applying to college. People seem to be under the impression that if two applicants who are white and a minority apply to a school and have identical application that’s the minority will always be picked and that is why there is so much animosity held towards affirmative action. That is a matter of ignorance. An interesting fact that Sam enlightened us to what that the primary beneficiary of affirmative action is White women not blacks, Hispanics, or Asians. The kid who asked this question asked if we fell that affirmative action can or will go to far in the sense that it will disenfranchise all whites and have the affect of reverse racism. If he agrees or thinks that affirmative action has gone too far than I am genuinely confused. If anything I think its fair to say that affirmative action has not gone far enough. Sam showed us some statistics that I found to be truly appalling, the statistic that blacks who are crime free are much less likely to be hired than whites who did have felonies to their names. With statistics and facts like that around I absolutely think that affirmative action is a necessary “evil” if you choose to see it like that. I think affirmative can’t go too far maybe when they get to the point that white can no longer get jobs but since that will never happen I don’t really think its possible that affirmative action can go to far. The whole purpose of affirmative action is to equalize the playing field for all people of different ethnicities and genders. It was started with the intention to maybe help minorities yea, however over time it has expanded to help people of all ethnicities to make sure that all people have a fair chance at success. All Americans need to know that they are not being discriminated against unjustly and that they are not being excluded from certain jobs because of their skin but of their character.

World In Conversation : FEAR

Tue, 1 Mar 2011 22:58:57 +0000

I think this is the first letter that I’ve read at least that addresses an issues and emotion that one would think would be the most prevalent in jail and that is fear. Fear is something that incarcerated or not we all as humans face on a regular basis as a matter of fact it is very fair to say that fear is what governs our life. Think about it we wake up go to the shower but first we put on our slippers as to not touch the nasty shower floor. Why? We fear getting sick or having something unhygienic touch us. We next brush our teeth. Why? For fear of maybe losing them if we don’t take care of them or perhaps for fear of not being able to as effectively attract someone of the other gender as someone who has a beautiful smile. We wash our face. Why? Because we fear getting acne and being a social pariah that no one ones to look at. We bundle up in this rather harsh and unforgiving Pennsylvania weather for fear of becoming ill. We pack our bags for fear of being unprepared and we study for tests in fear of failure and disappointment whether to family or ourselves. However you ant to slice it fear governs our life. What I found most interesting if that all of this inmate’s fears are fears that we “free people” encounter on a regular basis. All of his fears are pretty much dictated by his predicament. His fears of loneliness, being someone he didn’t want to be, missing the good times in his family’s life, letting people down, and not succeeding are all things that he has already been sentenced too along with his life sentence. It is hard not to be able to mirror his sentiments. He is not 31 and has been in for 13 years already which means he went in at around my age. The price one pays for a careless mistake in this life are merciless and as such we all have to learn to appreciate what freedom we do have and must have the bravery to conquer our fears for those who cant.

World In Conversation : Remember

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:35:24 +0000

What I really like about this letter I the very fact that it is not a letter at all. It is simply written a very basic list of sort but manages to be so personal. He starts out slow then builds up to all these things that I could not imagine not only living without but, not even being able to remember them would be insane. He starts out saying he can’t remember his first day in prison big deal I cant remember my first day of high school or elementary school for that matter. Then he just jumps into the fact he can’t remember the day his mother became his only support system. I know a mother’s love is a beautiful thing but for me personally my family each and every member always has my back. Also they fill in for my mother at times she couldn’t be there games graduation I truly don’t know where I would be without them I don’t think I would be able to make it. The next thing he says is he can’t remember when he lost his last appeal. It may not sound big but to me it sounds like that it the day where he gave up hope when weather he wanted to or not he had to except that there were no more maybes but that this was his fate. He goes on to say I cannot remember the last time I heard from any of the friends I grew up with, I cannot remember the last time I heard from a woman I dated, was friends with, loved, or thought I loved, or the one I married. All these things considered it made me realize the fact that once you are in prison everything you love and that makes you is gone. I feel so bad for this guy that all he does in fact remember is the pain of his crimes and the hurt he has caused for his family and the family who’s kid murdered. I used to think it was such a cliché that people found religion in jail but to be honest I can see that all you have left really.

World In Conversation : Do you think his lighter skin gets him ahead in society?- 119 Blog

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:12:07 +0000

To answer this question yes, yes it does. Your question directly addresses all the issues Sam discussed in class today. By looking at the data the Sam provided for us today in class it shows that people of any ethnicity as long as they are light skinning or at least lighter than most black people then they are more likely to be hired for a job than black people. It was said that White people were twice as likely to be hired than a black person. In addition it is said that white people are one point five times as likely to get a job than Hispanics. The most appalling statistic that he shared with us is that a white person with a felony conviction is still significantly more likely to get a call back or receive a job than blacks. A funny story is I’m not particularly fond of my name and I always tell her all these eccentric names that I wish she would have named me and she always say that people screw over their kids when they give them wild, crazy, “unique” names. She always told me that people wont take your child seriously if they have a silly name additionally people wont hire someone because based off the name they aren’t a good representation of the company and sadly to say it seems she was right. I think its absolutely ludicrous that identical applicant were discriminated against based off name. In this case the names were not even crazy or outlandish they were more so related to the person’s ethnic background such as Kareem. As silly and obvious as it sounds discrimination based on skin color goes all the way back to when slavery was still taking place, it was. If you think about it the dark skinned slaves were the ones who had to do the most and most strenuous work in the fields. Conversely the light skinned black slaves, who were generally the love child of a slave and the slave master were less subject to the direct abuse of the slave masters. Instead they were given house work which was much less rigorous and or detrimental to their health. Also light skinned slaves if they were lucky enough could sometimes pass as white people which they would use to their advantage to grant themselves freedom and blend in with the rest of white society or escape some of the harsher punishments. Historically and even now having light skin or being lighter skinner has always seemed to grant people an advantage among their darker skinned peers. I find it so interesting and confusing as to why there is such a stigma behind darker skinned people I hope that one day there will be an answer.

World In Conversation : Reflections

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:05:32 +0000

It is quite tough for me to respond to this story of getting life because on the one hand I really do feel bad for him in the sense that he in a sense threw it all away and it was his fault not too many of the invisible string has an influence playing here. At the same time though you should never pity someone who doesn’t want it and I think that this man has made major steps in his acceptance and enlightenment by acknowledging that he was at fault for his action and being able to recognize that he lead himself to this point. I don’t know the particulars of why this inmate was incarcerated but from what he hinted at I’m assuming that in his insatiable quest for sexual gratification that he began using and or distributing drugs and alcohol to women in return for sexual favors. This is a tough position to be in and I can understand where he is coming from. As a teen especially right around the time of puberty your hormones are genuinely running rampant and you condition yourself to deal with the lack of gratification by well, not being sexually gratified, generally. But, for those who do in fact have and are able to attain sexual gratification consistently I would imagine it would be like a dream come true and you get caught up in the moment and have no desire to stop at all and unfortunately that seems to be what happened in the case of this inmate. I feel truly bad for him and his family though because from the sound of it he has a magnificent family and especially a wonderful father who would and did in fact do anything he needed. His father went the extra mile to make sure that he insured his son the best life possible and made the most of a bad situation. He made sure that even though drugs and violence were present they were not a factor. In my estimation this comes all the way back to education. I believe that if from a young age this inmate was given health education he would of fully understood the ramifications of his actions and the path in which he was going down and would have maybe been able to turn it around.

World In Conversation : Do arrests of different races occur more due to racism or more police in urban areas?- 119 Blog

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:24:12 +0000

Not so sure there is a definitive answer to this question though there may be I think it may be a mixture of both things you proposed. Statistically it would make sense that there would be more arrests in urban areas being that first, there are more people, and second, there are more police. The larger the population typically the higher the crime rate will be so it is more of a focal point to authorities then suburban areas and rural areas. Additionally, the larger the population the more chance for a diverse group of citizens so in that same regard I don’t think you can adequately compare urban to suburban and rural areas. I’m going to go ahead and say that yes I do in fact feel that there is a fair amount of racism in the criminal justice system. Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I in no way believe that all arrests that involve minorities are in all cases racist and unjust but statistics show that there is what seems to be a quite evident discrepancy in number of arrests with minorities and whites. Sam said in class that whites make up approximately sixty-five percent of the population in the U.S. Of that sixty-five percent of whites almost sixty percent admit to using illegal drugs recreationally. Out of the forty-two percent that use illegal drugs white people who are the majority population in the United States and who also use significantly more drugs than any other ethnic group only account for twenty-eight percent of inmates in prison for drug use. Conversely African Americans who account for only twelve percent of the American population and who only make up around forty-four percent use illegal drugs are the ones mainly imprisoned. In state penitentiaries I believe Sam said that African Americans are responsible for something like sixty percent of the inmate population incarcerated for drugs. With these statistics it is very hard to ignore the very evident trends that seem to be taking place with arrests of minorities over whites. Recently my friend who is from a small town in New York called Pleasantville there was a shooting of a star collegiate athlete. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/nyregion/16pace.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion) In this event the cop said that this kid was driving a car while intoxicated so he fired upon the vehicle. Now I can understand but here is where the holes in story begin to become very evident. He stated that once this student was in the car he was driving erratically and hit the officer with the car and kept driving. Now unless this cop is Murphy from robo cop I don’t see how he could have been hit by a car “speeding away”, caught it, got on top of it, and put two in this young mans chest. Even if this guy was driving while intoxicated I personally have never seen anyone killed for that. So I leave it to you to be the judge.

World In Conversation : Letter from an Inmate

Wed, 9 Feb 2011 23:47:28 +0000

Well first off I’d like to say this kind of ties hand in hand with determinism versus free choice. This man did not graduate high school but yet was able to write such a touching and well flowing letter that successfully communicated his thoughts and feelings without a high school degree. We talk a lot about those who don’t have the tools to succeed and this man is a perfect example of one, however he made the choice to learn how to read and write, but not only that but to also be able to do it well and he achieved it. Now to address the content of the letter. Its kind of ironic how we often down on society and say that we have lost all hope and humans have turned purely evil. We see world leaders starting monumental wars over a slice of bread that is half of their border and half on a neighboring country’s. Those in my eyes are the most petty and violent men who commit mass genocides of their own people nonetheless but that isn’t recognized by anyone because of what Sam talked about with people not being able to see things that they are stuck in the middle of, you can only see the truth if you take a step out and have a new perspective. If we think about it, it makes perfect sense that inmates are some of the coolest and most chill enlightened people he’s ever met. They have been taken out of the center and been put on the outside literally and figuratively. They can now see the flaws of society that lead them to make the mistakes they did. Additionally they help us to see the hypocrisy within society. Hardened criminals who have been sentenced to life and have nothing more to lose can put aside their differences for someone who has lost a loved one in a tragic accident, and the fact that this is not a rare occurrence says a lot. If you think about it criminals have caused the most pain with the people they have killed and the pain they have caused to families. They are forced to sit in a cell for what like fourteen hours a day? That is a lot of time to think about your actions they probably understand pain better than anyone internally and externally.

World In Conversation : Inequality in Home Ownership- 119 Blog

Wed, 9 Feb 2011 03:39:22 +0000

I like this question a lot because it is something that I have thought about a lot. I don’t believe there is one specific contributing factor only but rather a few big ones that contribute to this occurrence. The first and most important I would say all lies in education. As we saw today in the data Sam showed, Whites and Asians have the highest incomes, additionally we see a correlation between income and home ownership. Today in the video we saw the very drastic potential difference in education from two schools in the same state but not only that only 30 miles apart. The Harper school had little to no facilities and the ones they had were in terrible condition. Additionally the graduation rate was only forty percent. Conversely the other school was a sixty-four million dollar school with state of the art facilities with and Olympic size pool. With all these thing that school also boasted a ninety-nine percent graduation rate. Harper had sixteen percent of kids reading at the level they were supposed to, two point five with science and point five percent with math. With those numbers failure is inevitable. But lets put aside the bad for now. When the top students from Harper visited the other high school and sat in on a class they were completely lost so even the best of the best at Harper who have straight A’s aren’t able to compete. That is a huge problem high school is supposed to prepare you for college but when you leave with great grades from a sub-par institution you’re screwed over when you arrive and you’re completely lost. The whole answer to your question is a never-ending cycle of ignorance. Sam showed a chart of expulsion rates based on parent’s education and parents with a high school degree kids are most likely to be expelled. That means the sixty percent every year who don’t graduate from Harper are setting their future kids for failure. Lets think about the series of events that generally lead to getting a house. You graduate high school, go to college, maybe go to grad school, meet the love of your life in college who is also highly educated, get good jobs, put your money together, buy a house, and start a family. When you get older and pass you leave your house to your children. With a lot of minorities this cycles ends at high school if even that far sadly. There is no progression of wealth all there is, is a family that never truly learns or stresses the value of education to their kids and a cycle that continues over and over again. The last thing is that Whites have been in America for the longest and therefore have the longest roots in society and having homes that have been in families for generations.