en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/5366983 Comments by Matthew-Clark http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/12/07/voices-from-the-classroom-224/#IDComment514789991 I can honestly say that this is the best and most rewarding class that I have taken during my Penn State career. I have had classes before that I was interested in but never a class which made me want to get involved and actively pay attention like Soc 119 makes me. With that being said it is hard for me to narrow down the best things I have taken out of this class because I have been able to take away something from each lecture and discussion session. I would definitely consider the Christian Invaders lecture to be one of the best experiences I have had with Soc 119. It was very cool to step into another perspective and see how the other side of the war in Iraq views information and is treated by our soldiers and government. To truly be able to put yourself in another person’s shoes, especially someone who lives in a different part of the world and who is part of a completely different culture than your own, is an invaluable skill to have. When you can do this you become a much better communicator and thinker in general because you are given the strongest tool in people-to-people interactions: empathy. I think overall Soc 119 has helped me to develop my sense of empathy and I am so much better at putting myself in other people’s shoes than when I began the course at the start of the semester. Another powerful lesson I learned from this class was that you really never can judge a book by its cover. Just because someone has dark skin or light skin doesn’t really tell you much about them at the end of the day. You really need to get to know someone individually to see what their culture is like and how the color of their skin has affected them in their life. Someone you think is white could actually be mostly Arabic or some other kind of “surprise” to you. You only really get to know these things by talking to people and experiencing things you normally wouldn’t in your cultural sphere. I am lucky enough to be a TA for next semester of Soc 119 and I am really looking forward to continuing my Soc 119 experience in this way. I also can’t wait to try to help other people reach the kind of intellectual and social conclusions that I have from taking this course. If I could help the people in my discussion groups to get at least one thing from this amazing course than I would consider that a success. I honestly believe that this course is one that every Penn State student should take. Sun, 9 Dec 2012 23:29:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/12/07/voices-from-the-classroom-224/#IDComment514789991 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-213/#IDComment508150085 Before I begin talking about this situation I need to clarify that the easiest way for me to be able to kill someone is if my family or myself were in danger. Sam put that kind of incentive aside in the prompt because I think most people would be able to kill easiest in those types of scenarios. Aside from defending the safety of my family I think that the best way to get me to be able to kill someone is to convince me that their life severely inhibits my personal freedom. More than anything else in the world I fear the infringement on my freedom. I don’t mean this in some bullshit patriotic American way; I mean this in the literal sense of not having freedom, like being imprisoned, caged, or chained. I would not do well in prison or in a prisoner of war situation because I would mentally break down if I knew I was held and could no longer consider myself to be free. I think the easiest way to convince me to kill is to put me in a “cornered animal” type mindset. When I believe that I am about to be imprisoned in any sort of way my whole body and mind react and my every instinct is to do everything I possibly can to remove myself from that situation. With that being said I think killing someone could be added to the list of doing “everything I possibly can” if I was convinced that killing would save me from imprisonment. On a bigger scale, like on one comparable to what the military does to get their recruits to be able to kill, I would need to be convinced that my area or country was under attack and the people who were attacking were intent on enslaving my people. Slavery is one of the worst forms of imprisonment and has happened throughout history (still even to this day) and if I truly believed that my people and I were in danger of this atrocity I would most definitely be able to kill. I would in fact be able to kill large amounts of people that I saw as enemies who wanted to enslave all that I know. That kind of animalistic instinct would kick in on an overpowering level and I believe it would make me be able to view my enemies as that, just enemies with no thought of them as fellow human beings. Someone or some institution who was smart enough would definitely be able to methodically convince me that my literal freedom was in danger and therefore would be able to turn me into a killer. This is scary to me because I also see how easy it could be to lie to someone like me in order to make them believe that their personal freedom was at stake when in reality it is something like oil. Sun, 2 Dec 2012 23:24:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-213/#IDComment508150085 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-211/#IDComment494484122 The Christian Invaders lecture did make me angry, but not in the way that most people would think. I was honestly angry at the people who could not put themselves in someone else’s shoes and did not raise their hand when Eric/Sam asked who would join the insurgency if they were Arab Muslims instead of Penn State college students from the United States of America. I find it very hard to believe that under the very circumstances that Sam described in the lecture that anyone who has a shred of a human consciousness and emotion would not have their hand raised as high as it could be. I struggle to think of the reasons that anyone would have for not raising their hand at this point. Maybe they weren’t paying attention or just didn’t care enough. At one point in the video lecture Sam asks a female student who is in ROTC gear why she doesn’t raise her hand and she responds with something along the lines of “that is not my opinion of the situation.” That honestly pissed me off. Maybe a better word for what I was feeling was frustration rather than anger. When I saw the ROTC girl respond to Sam the only thing I could think of is that our military and governmental system is in a way forcing on or shaping the opinions of the citizens who are going to be sent over to the Middle East. This is believable to me because those are the very people who the military and government are asking to do the dirty deeds they have set out for the oil campaign in the Middle East. If Arab Muslims are depicted as crazed, evil radicals and prospective soldiers are fed these kind of images and viewpoints, then it makes it easier for them to go into Arab countries and do the terrible things that our military does indeed do over there. In the end I think it is a lack of empathy that frustrates me so greatly. The people that did not raise their hands I feel lack the kind of empathy that the people who did raise their hands have. If someone came into my country and took my brother or busted up my car because I was using it to get wood to repair my broken home then I would support many types of insurgency that would rise up in defiance of such global bullying. I am not saying that Osama Bin Laden was in the right or was a good person; I think he was an evil man. But we need to realize there are extremists like him on our side too and we are the ones destroying their homes and killing their families. Through empathy we are able to see the other side and put ourselves in their shoes. The Arabs in the Middle East are people too and most of them are hardly different from me and you at all. Mon, 19 Nov 2012 01:31:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-211/#IDComment494484122 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/11/voices-from-the-classroom-206/#IDComment487413373 First things first, I do not consider myself a Christian even though I was baptized as raised as one by my parents. That being said, I was raised in a Christian tradition and attended Catholic school from first grade all the way up to coming to Penn State. I know all about the Bible and the teachings of Christianity because of the years I spent learning about it all in school. I remember that one of the major tenants or teachings of Catholicism and Christianity in general was to emulate Jesus Christ and try to live your life by his example. I’m assuming it doesn’t mean that you should be celibate and get crucified but try to do the things Jesus was reported to do like turning the other cheek and giving yourself fully to helping others. That is where the whole “what would Jesus do” saying comes from. More than most people I have seen Jorge does indeed exemplify what someone who lives by Jesus’ example would be like. The fact that he puts strangers who he doesn’t even know before himself and his family astounds me because I feel that this kind of lifestyle is one that has by and large disappeared in our modern era. I have to admit that I could not live like that. Whether it’s me being selfish or me falling out of the Christian tradition I can’t say but I know that I don’t have the kind of charitable heart that Jorge has. I really do admire him though because of my self-realization. I know that Jorge’s mission is hard because I know I couldn’t do it. The life of Jesus as seen in the Bible is a hard life, one in which almost no time is left to focus on oneself. This is the life that Jorge chooses to live and I have nothing but respect for him. He believes in helping immigrant workers because he himself went through an experience similar to theirs. Through his empathy Jorge shapes his life into something more than what most people choose to do with their lives. He has a cause that he believes in and doesn’t let anything stop him from continuing to help others. To be able to put aside personal gain and personal growth is something that most people would never be able to do but people like Jorge do. My mother is no Jorge but she is very religious and subscribes to a Christian perspective on life and I have seen her do good in this world in her own way. People like my mother and Jorge show me that Christianity without its bullshit political side can really be good for some people and inspire them to live like Jesus and help others in a world where charitable acts are getting harder to come by. Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:14:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/11/voices-from-the-classroom-206/#IDComment487413373 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-202/#IDComment480704531 I truly believe that empathy is the best and most useful tool someone can have when dealing with race relations and understanding other people’s situations in general. And I think the best way someone can build empathy for others and get better at understanding things and putting themselves in other people’s shoes is through contact. When you spend time with groups of people who are different from your own group you learn things that can’t be learned otherwise and builds empathy. It’s hard to really get to know anything about racial groups when you only ever learn or hear about them in the news, in books, or in other forms of distanced mediums. The only real way to learn is through contact. When I was younger and growing up I lived in a predominately white, middle-class area. I had very little contact with other racial groups. Because of this I formed biased opinions about other groups of people based off of what my family told me and the things I would see on TV and in the news. It wasn’t really until I came to college that I was met with a lot of diversity. There are so many people at Penn State and so many different groups of people (racially and otherwise) and I was thrown right into the middle of it. At first I still stuck with a group of white people but slowly I had contact with other groups and some of my friends came out to me as gay; though not a racial group I was still not accustomed to spending time with them. As I got to know all these people from different racial groups and backgrounds I found that some of the things that I thought were flat out wrong. Overall I found the diversity to be refreshing and looked forward to hanging with people who were different from what I was used to. I loved to hear their stories and gain different perspectives through my new diverse group of friends. Most people would feel uncomfortable I think being the only straight person at a gay party, but all the times this has happened to me I have embraced it and enjoyed the role-reversal that I was experiencing. Probably the most powerful contact scenario for me was when I took a Maymester class which took me to Minnesota to spend time with and learn from the Ojibwe tribe of Native Americans. Being able to step into their culture and participate in their rituals and traditions had a profound impact on my life and vastly expanded my empathetic skills. I think that everyone should spend some time away from the people they are used to and immerse themselves in the culture of another group. If you have an open mind, this contact will benefit you in ways you wouldn’t even expect. Mon, 5 Nov 2012 01:48:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-202/#IDComment480704531 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/25/voices-from-the-classroom-196/#IDComment475111629 I do believe that our country is caught up in a latent racism. A lot has changed in the area of race relations since the days of slavery and the civil rights movement that followed in the wake of the abolition of slavery. Even though we’ve come a long way in this country since those times, racism and prejudice haven’t fully gone away. There is still racial inequality that reaches to pretty much all aspects of American life. Whether its politics, economics, education, or even day to day personal interactions, race plays a part in the way that things are done in this nation. The distribution of wealth is racially uneven (that’s not to say that there aren’t extremely poor white Americans), which is because African Americans still haven’t recovered from the debilitating effects of slavery. Although they are free and the unfairness of the Jim Crow laws are behind us, African Americans cannot be expected to be able to earn the same amount of money as whites who have never been enslaved in the history of the United States of America. This same thing is the reason that whites are for the majority still in control politically of this country. Like him or not, the fact that Barack Obama is president of the United States is a sign that times are changing. Even just twenty years ago the notion that a non-white man would be in charge of the United States would seem utterly ridiculous and impossible. Even with Obama as President people still use race to criticize him. I was sickened the first time I saw a bumper sticker that said “Don’t re-nig in 2012.” One of my friends works for the Obama campaign here in State College and as part of his job he has to go around door to door and ask people to register to vote. He told me that one time a kid answered the door and quickly made up an excuse to have him leave, then when my friend was walking away the kid yelled out “and I wouldn’t vote for that nigger anyway!” This just shows me that race is a big part of politics for a large group of very ignorant and close-minded Americans. It halts any kind of forward progress our nation makes in racial equality when people vote based on race rather than the issues that are actually relevant in running a country. We still have a very long way to go before this latent racism that causes so much disparity in every aspect of the American way to burn out entirely. Until then we have to work to expose the latent racism and make others aware that we haven’t reached racial equality yet; there is still a lot of work to do. Sun, 28 Oct 2012 22:02:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/25/voices-from-the-classroom-196/#IDComment475111629 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/16/voices-from-the-classroom-186/#IDComment469479908 I was very excited and thankful to have our special guest from the Leech Lake Ojibwe reservation in class on Tuesday. Two summers ago I went on a kind of class trip that is offered as a course here at Penn State. The course gives you knowledge about the Ojibwe people and then you go and stay in Minnesota, learning from the Ojibwe people themselves and being quests at their ceremonies and other parts of their rich tradition and ritual lives. I even had the privilege of staying overnight with a host family on the Red Lake reservation (close by to Leech Lake) which is one of only two sovereign Indian reservations in the nation; meaning that the land around Red Lake has never been owned by the United States. Ever. On this trip I met many dynamic and awesome people, participated in rituals that originated hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and had an overall life-changing experience. I talked with Ahman (I apologize if I misspelled your name niji) after class and told him I had gone on this trip. It turns out he actually knew some of the people I met up there. I chatted with him for a bit and thanked him (“miigwetch” in the Ojibwe language) but I didn’t ask him any questions. I am familiar with the plight of the Native peoples of this land and consider myself invested in their struggle. We have done terrible things to them as a country and we still do. So I guess if I asked Ahman anything it would be this: after all your people have been through at the hands of the white men ruling this land now, how can you be ready to help us since, as you say, this will happen to us eventually? After all we have done to try to snuff out your culture, you say that your culture is in fact what will help us when this kind of tragedy happens to us. I think it takes a special kind of human being to offer up such a suggestion because, not only do I believe it to be true, I don’t know if I would have the fortitude, wisdom, tenacity, and love of this world that you do if I was in your shoes. I admire you and your people and think your culture has a kind of power that doesn’t exist in the capitalist empire of the United States. I only hope that more people listen to the pleas and teachings of the Ojibwe tribe and other First Nation peoples because America cannot remain on top forever and when our time comes we will need something strong to hold onto in order to survive. Miigwetch Ahman for visiting our class and I hope many students really and truly listened to what you had to say. Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:43:38 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/16/voices-from-the-classroom-186/#IDComment469479908 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/07/voices-from-the-classroom-178/#IDComment457834267 I think it was very interesting that no one wanted to identify themselves as rich. In a room of around seven hundred people I feel like there had to be a good number of people who know that they are considered to be rich. And yet no one was willing to raise their hand and acknowledge themselves as rich. In this way, being called rich was coming off derogatory even though I think that anyone who is rich would be happy they are. It seems that even rich people (or at least college students) have the idea that socially sometimes being rich isn’t a good thing to flaunt. I think this is in part because of the environment created by the recent political upheaval on Wall Street and the one percent versus the ninety-nine percent. Wealth can be a point of contention for many people and now the majority of Americans are thinking more prominently on the distribution of wealth in this country than they previously did. The media spread the news all over the country and whatever spin they may have put on it doesn’t matter in the sense that wealth is now something to be thinking of in the terms of socio-politics. The general feeling throughout the nation has become one of anger against the wealthy. I personally do not oppose this because I feel that the wealthy in this nation are the villains in many cases. But no matter what I think, there is definitely an anti-rich vibe going on. I think another factor that made the rich people in class choose to stay anonymous is the topic and atmosphere of the class. A number of race issues point at the wealthy as the villains and there could be a kind of hostility towards rich people in a class where these race issues are what is talked about. Anyone who raised their hand and admitted to being rich would no doubt have been judged by a good number of people in the class, including myself I have to admit. Because being rich is a privilege if you are a young college student, it is not something you should want to flaunt for fear of coming off arrogant. A humble rich person is better liked than an arrogant one by most people I would assume, but even a humble rich student who raised their hand would be misjudged as arrogant. Instead of raising their hands rich students kept their wealth to themselves and even when probed for more responded with “I’m well off.” It was hard for them to admit that they are rich because of the uncomfortable assumptions that come along with it. If rich people are in the class and really do feel passionate about the topics and cause then that is a very good thing though. They are just another group of people who need to enter into the discussion of equality. Mon, 8 Oct 2012 01:01:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/07/voices-from-the-classroom-178/#IDComment457834267 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-173/#IDComment452553868 I’m sure that growing up everyone was told one form or another of the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” As cliché as this saying has become, I view it as one of the most simple yet best forms of advice that someone can hold to, especially in the context of race relations. No matter how non-racist someone says they are I truly believe that everyone notices another person’s skin color right off the bat. Just like you notice the types of clothes someone and the color/style of their hair you will also notice the color of their skin. It’s inevitable and harmless to do so as long as you can keep your observation free from stereotypes and prejudices. Skin color and race are just two more things that define people but it is not the only thing that defines them. In this day and age everyone, and I mean everyone, is a mutt in one way or another. Looking at someone’s skin color doesn’t tell you where they are from or even what nationality their ancestors were because people have been reproducing with others from different nationalities and backgrounds for years and years and years. A white American may identify as Irish, German, and English while a black American may identify as Jamaican, Nigerian, and Kenyan, and an Asian American may be a mix of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. There is so much more to our identities and race than the color of our skin. You never really know just by looking at someone who or what they are or how they behave. I am lucky enough to live with one of my best friends who is a prime example of how “judging a book by its cover” can lead you to the wrong assumptions. My friend Chris looks like a big Irishman, with pale white skin and curly reddish head and facial hair. Anyone who meets him assumes he is just another whiteboy from the country Mon, 1 Oct 2012 03:58:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-173/#IDComment452553868 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/20/voices-from-the-classroom-171/#IDComment447217225 I would rank music and art among the most powerful and influential things in the world, right up there with politics and religion. It has the potential to reach out to billions of people, especially in the modern era where most of the world is connected through the internet and media. There is something about art, most of all music, that reaches people from all different walks of life. It is often less edgy than politics and religion too; it tends to rub people the wrong way less than those two topics. When music and art is used as a platform for something it becomes a whole new animal and carries an influence with it that is powerful. Music creates die hard fans and if the music is carrying a message then that too usually becomes part of the fans personal culture. In today’s world I feel that it is easier to find people who take their musical taste more seriously than their political or religious leanings. Certain bands and artists actually put the messages in their music first and foremost and openly admit that they are using their art forms to bring the message to the populaces of the world. In this globalized world people from the East and the West can be into the same music and art, giving it the potential to from relationships and bonds between people of both regions. As we saw in class on Thursday from talking to Pedram (I believe that was the man from Iran’s name) people from the East are very influenced by the pop culture of the West and the USA most of all. That can be used to transmit messages from our country to others whether it is in a positive way or a negative one. One band that I am a huge fan of is Rage Against the Machine who are chiefly known for the political messages and activism that they build their music on. They are heavy and in your face with all they do but their cause is one of justice and equality. For example they have many songs and openly support the Zapatistas of Mexico and urge their fans to help these people. Above all Rage Against the Machine and their actions serve to make their fans aware of the hypocrisy and corruption that is a huge part of our nation’s government and foreign policies. Fans of theirs from all over the world learn to think for themselves and “take the power back” into their own hands and to fight injustice and strive for equality for all. If more bands and artists use their art forms for transmitting these messages of equality and justice then the growing generations of young, internet-rooted peoples all over the world will attach themselves to the cause and can work at bridging the gap. Mon, 24 Sep 2012 02:14:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/20/voices-from-the-classroom-171/#IDComment447217225 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/12/voices-from-the-classroom-162/#IDComment442097861 In my opinion noticing differences is unavoidable no matter if you consider yourself to be racist or not. When you meet someone you unintentionally notice things about them right away that may or may not affect your impression of that person. Clothes are something that can tell you a lot about a person and is often one of the first things you notice. Skin color is another external, visual stimulus that our brains pick up on when we see someone. This doesn’t mean that noticing a black person is dark skinned when you first meet them makes you racist, it’s just another thing that distinguishes them from the rest of the people you may meet or interact with during the day. Unfortunately stereotypes are rampant in the world today and that is where the danger lies in noticing differences. If you notice a difference and let yourself attach a stereotype to that difference then you are going beyond the bounds of normal observation and stepping into shaky territory. Using these personal guidelines I can expand this topic to a cultural level. I agree one hundred percent with Sam Richards when he says that noticing differences can actually be important in being able to get past differences and have a more open-minded view of other people and their cultures. I agree with this because culture is huge to humanity and individuals are affected by culture constantly. Whether or not a person accepts and embraces the culture of their nation or background or if they fight against it has an enormous impact on them as individuals. In the case of race and ethnicity, culture can be tricky. Someone who isn’t thinking as open-mindedly as they should may notice the color of a person’s skin and assume they are part of a certain culture when in fact they could be part of a completely different culture. A black person from Jamaica won’t have the same cultural identity as a black person from Ghana. Just like stereotypes you have to be careful in assuming anyone is part of a certain culture. If you do know what culture the person is a part of though, you can learn a lot about them and how to treat them with respect in the ways they would want to be respected. Things differ from one culture to the next and something that would be polite or acceptable in one may have an opposite effect in another culture. That is where noticing differences becomes beneficial and a tool for treating people equally and respectfully. Everyone wants to be treated with respect but not everyone has the same standards and ideals for what being respected would mean. Knowing the differences of someone’s background and culture from your own is the key to treating others respectfully and eventually moving past the noticing of differences. Mon, 17 Sep 2012 01:49:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/12/voices-from-the-classroom-162/#IDComment442097861 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/04/voices-from-the-classroom-159/#IDComment437887356 The first thing I realized when we learned about racial signifiers and I took a step back to think about the application of them in my life was that I use racial signifiers a lot. Even before learning about them I knew that I used them less often than most people I talk to on a daily basis as well. So what I’m saying is that I hear racial signifiers being used all the time, everyday. I wasn’t even fully aware I was using them, it just seemed like a normal thing to me. But being in Soc 119 and being asked by Sam to think differently and open my mind has enabled me to really examine the reasons why I use racial signifiers and also why I assumed they were ok to use. I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia in a predominantly white neighborhood. Throughout my childhood I was almost always around people who were white exclusively. As I grew up and expanded my horizons I started to have interactions with people of color and different backgrounds. Because of this upbringing, if I was talking about someone who wasn’t white I would use a racial signifier to make that fact known. I believe I did this because it was a way of distinguishing between people; I used these signifiers in much the same way I’d use other adjectives to describe someone (like tall, skinny, chubby, blonde, etc.). I never thought twice about it and I definitely never thought it could be considered racist to use signifiers. Two separate things made me reconsider my usage of racial signifiers: a growing awareness of racial stereotypes and an occasion in which my brother called me out on my signifier usage. As I got older and more cultured I became aware of the broad range of racial stereotypes that exist in the world. When I was aware of these I started to listen to and recall the racial signifiers I was hearing and had heard and what context they were used in. Unfortunately I found that the majority of the times someone used a racial signifier it was fulfilling a stereotype (“this Asian lady was driving so bad” or “this loud black girl in my class”). Secondly, I was once talking to my brother about something that happened up at PSU when I said “my Hispanic friend Dave” and my brother interrupted me and said “why do you always include the race of someone who’s not white?” It hit me like a brick and made me aware of the frequency in which I used racial signifiers, even if I wasn’t using them to fulfill stereotypes. Maybe I just thought I was cool having non-white friends and had to let everyone know. I still don’t for sure but Sam has already taught me the right contexts for using racial signifiers. If it doesn’t truly add anything important to the context then there is no reason to use a racial signifier, especially if it is fulfilling a stereotype intentionally or not. Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:12:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/04/voices-from-the-classroom-159/#IDComment437887356