en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2407977 Comments by NayRox http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/why-does-society-dislike-immigrants-and-why-are-they-portrayed-badly-119-blog/#IDComment145200928 As Americans, we dislike anything that seems foreign to us. We don’t like the unknown and unfamiliar, and prefer what we are used to. When it comes to immigrants, Americans feel as though they are infringing on our territory and take it personally. What I never understood is that America projects this image of liberty and diversity, yet people still have a huge problem with immigration. A main thing is that the see the immigrants as taking all the jobs away, without working hard to get them. The American ideology is if you work hard, you will be successful and have a good job to support your family. When people see immigrants coming into our country illegally, then taking jobs they automatically become angry. There is nothing wrong with a person wanting to better themselves and their lives. Immigrants are actually some of the most hardworking individuals that I think America has seen. Americans complain that they are taking all the jobs, but don’t complain when they hire about 30 of them to work for them and pay them basically nothing. Also, the immigrants do a lot of the jobs that Americans would not even think about doing or would prefer not to do. Because of these reasoning’s, I just don’t understand why people hate on immigrants so much. I have friends whose families immigrated to America to make a better life for themselves and their family, which I have a lot of respect for. I don’t think the average American understand the process you have to go through in order to get to America and make a decent life for yourself. The video that Sam showed in class with the immigrants that stood outside everyday looking for work was very shocking to me. I couldn’t believe that some of them had gone without food for 3 days until the guy came along and fed them home cooked meals. Even though these people barely ate because they had no money, they were determined to get work and stood outside every day. I don’t think any American can imagine the will power that must take to do that every day while going hungry. I do not want to stereotype, but it seems that the more conservative/republican type of people are the ones that highly oppose immigration. I don’t know if it’s because I have the complete opposite viewpoint but I the people that tend to fall into that group usually want the immigrants to all be booted out the country. If we’re supposed to represent acceptance and tolerance, why are we wishing for immigrants to be kicked out? Diversity is a wonderful thing and I believe can make a country stronger. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:57:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/why-does-society-dislike-immigrants-and-why-are-they-portrayed-badly-119-blog/#IDComment145200928 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/14/what-does-it-say-about-our-society-if-schools-are-more-segregated-now-than-in-the-1970s-119-blog/#IDComment143177789 I find it a little bit shocking that schools are more segregated today in our supposedly progressive society. This poses a problem that our schools are progressing backwards when it should be the complete opposite. It’s also kind of discouraging that even in about 41 years later we can’t move past stigmatizing, discrimination and racism. This brings up the question as to why are the schools still so heavily segregated? I think part of it has to do with the area in which someone grows up, this was the case of my high school. My high school was predominately white and Asian (mostly white though) with few black people and even fewer Hispanic people. For me I hang out with all races and don’t really gravitate towards my own particular race (black) more. I know that some cultural groups tend to hang out with people of their own race making the environment seem segregated. There are a number of reasons why this might happen and sometimes in unavoidable. Sometimes people resort to their own race because they feel more comfortable talking to them than others. I feel like there is nothing wrong with that and people shouldn’t be looked at weird for doing so, but at the same time because of my varying viewpoints I think it’s better to hang out with a diverse group of people. It’s not fair to say that we as a whole society are moving backwards when it comes to segregation, because of how far it has come over the years. We have come a long way from oppression and discrimination against certain races and should be grateful that we have advanced in that way. Although it’s obviously not perfect and segregation and racism is still present in certain areas, it is hard to completely eliminate. People are brought up a certain way and are taught specific values as they mature. These ideologies usually stick with the person for the remainder of their life, and are applied everywhere including the school setting. School is where you first begin to network with the people around you and where you choose who you want to network with. These choices are determined by a variety of factors that may not always be obvious from an outside perspective. As I mentioned before, it could boil down that certain races only feel comfortable around theirs. Depending on what area you are in, the school might be segregated based on the lack of diversity in the town. The school might also be unfortunately be in a more racist community. It Is hard to exactly pin point why and how there is still segregation in the school’s today and how it’s more than 41 years ago. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:16:32 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/14/what-does-it-say-about-our-society-if-schools-are-more-segregated-now-than-in-the-1970s-119-blog/#IDComment143177789 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-do-you-think-about-interracial-relationships-119-blog/#IDComment137588066 Interracial relationships are wonderful in my opinion and fully agree with couples dating outside their race. I think it is a great way for people of different backgrounds to learn about each other’s cultures and to open their minds. I never understood why some cultures only seem to want or are told to date inside their own race. In my eyes this is the 21st century and socially we should be pass the race barrier and not only see color. My mom is half black and half white, along with other mixed things on my mothers side. Because of this I am obviously open to dating outside my race and am comfortable with it. I have experienced dating outside my race and although the relationship itself fell apart, I enjoyed seeing what it was like to date someone that isn’t black. Mixed races are more prevalent in today’s society than they were 10 years ago. You see more people of mixed backgrounds which is interesting to me because i always like to find out what different cultures they come from. I have many friends form different cultural backgrounds, some of which are mixed. Even for myself some people look at me and don’t know right away what my ethnicity is. I find it rather sad that some people still have the mindset that if they potentially date someone from a different race that it is consider un-pure. What I find interesting and rather disturbing is that it seems for most races, dating a black person is the worse you can do. I do not understand where this came from and why so many cultures think this. It is mainly the parents who believe in this I think and not so much the children. What are the parents afraid of? Are they afraid that the relationship will result in them eventually getting married or something and don’t want to be related to a black person? Whatever the reason may be I do not agree on it and find it ridiculous in this day and age. I know unfortunately that the world will probably not ever be in complete racial harmony, but i think maybe one day we will reach to a point where we are close. Even though dating or being with a black person seems to be taboo, it the most common kind of mixed couple I tend to see. I think out of the races, Asians seem to be a little more stricter than white parents. This is obviously not true for all Asians, but for my Asian friends (Indians and Orientals), they have all said they were told that they could not date a black man/woman. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:58:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-do-you-think-about-interracial-relationships-119-blog/#IDComment137588066 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-do-you-think-of-the-diversity-at-penn-state-119-blog/#IDComment135897516 I feel like for me it’s always hard to correctly judge how much diversity a particular place has. Ever since I was little, I have always had an extremely diverse group of friends so in my world everything seems diverse when I know it probably isn’t. As of right now, I have friends from backgrounds such as Indian, Mexican, Italian, polish, Guatemalan, African and so many more. I guess because I am open minded I tend to connect with people of various backgrounds a lot easier than maybe so other people do. When I came to Penn State, I started out at the Berks branch campus. Berks itself wasn’t very diverse and was actually populated with the majority of African American people. The reason for this is because Philadelphia was only about an hour away from berks, so many of the black population from philly went to berks. I guess from an outside perspective Berks seem diverse, but I don’t think it was very diverse. There were a lot of other racial backgrounds and groups but not enough for me to call it a true diverse campus. Berks also being a satellite campus contributed to the lack of diversity in my eyes and most likely couldn’t accommodate tons of people of different backgrounds. When I transferred to Penn State University Park, there is definitely a noticeable difference in diversity. I would say right away there were more white people and less black people, but I do see a good amount other ethnic backgrounds when I walk around the campus. I feel like everywhere you go there is going to most likely be more white people than any other race in the area just because of the history of America. Because of this fact, I think it’s kind of unfair to say that just because the majority of an area is white that it’s automatically not diverse. Of course if there is an obvious lack of any ethnic beings in the area at all, then that wouldn’t be diverse. But for the example of Penn State I think it’s pretty diverse. There is a mix of people from different backgrounds, beliefs, sexual orientations that make it a more diverse community than other places might be. I think alone to have clubs and organizations for minority groups such as African Americans, LGTB, and Muslims and so on is a step closer to being considered diverse. Although technically Penn State may not be considered truly diverse because of its large white population, for being a school in the center of Pennsylvania I think it has more than proven to be seen as accepting of people from all backgrounds and cultures. It is probably impossible for one area to be completely diverse and have an equal amount of different cultures to be present. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:54:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-do-you-think-of-the-diversity-at-penn-state-119-blog/#IDComment135897516 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/28/scholarships-for-white-men/#IDComment133714487 I think this is an interesting topic for discussion because it will automatically bring up controversy. I think he is technically not at fault for offering such a scholarship choice, because like he said there are a lot of other race based scholarships available so why should another one be a big concern. Although I think the man who organized this scholarship has good intentions, I do not think everyone else in America such as minorities will see where he is coming from with this scholarship. The controversy behind this scholarship goes back to the history that white people have in America and the advantages they have had for hundreds of years compared to minorities. When people see a scholarship that is for one dedicated to white people then a white male, red flags go up. The white man if we look back into our history has always had an upper hand with education, job security, etc in our society compared to the female and minority population. I do not think giving out a scholarship exclusively to white males is right at the moment because it’s not going to be looked at as the same level as the other race and gender based scholarships. The interviewer in the news piece brought up a good point in asking the guy what happens when people such as white supremacist see this and thinks it is in support of their cause. I know the guy said that the organization wouldn’t accept any money donations from such groups, but it is hard to say whether or not this is true. The white supremacist groups may disguise themselves as something else in order to indirectly give their support to a scholarship, which in their eyes is in direct relation to their beliefs. It is also hard to say anyone’s true intentions with anything. For all anyone knows, this guy can be for white supremacy and just wants the white man to get ahead in life and would gladly accept money from any donors, negative or not. What I found really interesting about the criteria of the scholarship, is that you only have to be at least 25% white. If I wasn’t a female, I would technically be able to receive this scholarship assuming I passed the other prerequisites. My mom is half white and half black, making me 25% white but from an outside appearance you necessarily wouldn’t be able to guess that. My brother who is a few shades darker than me is technically 25% too, so I wonder what they would do if someone like him were to apply. Just because from the outside he looks black, would they automatically deny him? If that case they probably would want evidence in order for him to prove he was part white. Overall I do not think it’s a terrible idea, but America isn’t ready and I don’t even know if I am ready to see a scholarship of this kind yet. Wed, 9 Mar 2011 23:44:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/28/scholarships-for-white-men/#IDComment133714487 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/why-do-we-think-of-people-from-other-countries-as-so-different-from-us-119-blog/#IDComment130421091 One of the main reason as to why I think we see people from other countries as different is because we are afraid. I think it’s in the nature of human beings unfortunately to quickly judge something or someone if it seems “foreign” to us. When the Muslim students talked in the last class, one of the students stated how he is just like us and his people are just like us. In the end we are all human beings and should be treated no less or no higher but equal. I think the discrimination against certain groups of people, especially the discrimination the Muslim society is facing currently is wrong. It’s actually pretty embarrassing to see examples of how ignorant people in this country can be towards people from other countries. We tend to have this ethnocentric mindset that we are better than people from other countries just because all of our lives we have been told America is the greatest country in the world. There is a difference in having pride in your country and being just ignorant and judgmental. As an American, I have pride for my country and have respect for what are values should be, but do not think I am better than someone else just because I am from America. When I see people in unfortunate situations in other countries, my first reaction is to want to help not to judge. Last semester in my biological science three class we watched this video on the bushmen tribe in Africa (I forget if I mentioned it in another blog response) that really shows you never know who is satisfied with their life and who isn’t which makes it impossible to judge and really say you’re better off. These bush people had literally nothing to their name and lived in mud based houses with very minimal material things. The video showed that even though these people had nothing compared to like me or someone else in America, they were the happiest people every. They never experienced argumentation, conflict and just all were about sharing and helping each other. From an outside perspective I wish I could experience that in a day, live in a care free world and I think all of us strive to achieve what these bush people have had all their lives. So who am I to judge these people and say they must be miserable and I’m automatically better than them because of the material things I have? We all need to take a step back both Americans and non Americans because judgment happens everywhere and really think about what we are doing. We are all human beings that deserve to respect and give it in return. Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:45:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/why-do-we-think-of-people-from-other-countries-as-so-different-from-us-119-blog/#IDComment130421091 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-do-you-feel-about-the-way-people-live-in-america-compared-to-other-places-around-the-world-119-blog/#IDComment128820021 Virtually anyone that lives in America should be grateful that they were blessed to have been born in such a stable society. America is in no way perfect, but is a much better place to live then some of the other countries we talked about in class. As Sam mentioned, I believe he said that Americans live better than 97% of the world. I do not care if you do not consider yourself rich, I sure don’t (far from it), but I can safely say that I believe that statistic whole heartily. The one example Sam gave of the poor Haitian woman who lived in a mud house no bigger than the projector screen is just crazy to imagine. As an American, I can’t picture what this poor woman must feel like to sleep on a hard ground each nice, with nothing to your name. If one of us from class were to switch places with this woman for a week, we probably wouldn’t be able to take it. It really does make you appreciate everything a lot more when you think of people in such terrible living conditions. Even aside the living conditions, just how our country is run is better off than most countries. Although our government has a lot of problems and isn’t perfect and never will be, you have to be thankful for at least having inborn rights as an American. In some countries, you are the victim of conformity and have little to no rights. I have always had an interest in helping the world’s problems I am an advocate for world peace and would love for the world to one day be tranquil. Sometimes I really do sit and think about how some of the problems that are in the world today are just so ridiculous and its mind boggling that people cannot get pass it. I thank God all the time for my birth into such a loving family and a good country. I’ve thought about from time to time what if I was born somewhere like Haiti? How different would my life be and how would that shape me into a person today? If I were born in a country such as Haiti who is stricken by poverty, maybe my personality would be the same who knows, but my attitudes about life and how I see the world would probably be drastically different. What I value in life and my outside views of countries such as America would be different. It is amazing how despite their living conditions are the most driven people, just as Sam mentioned. I truly admire people such as this that they always are optimistic and hopeful about the future. I think many Americans can learn from people like this and maybe can appreciate their life and what they have a little bit more. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:46:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-do-you-feel-about-the-way-people-live-in-america-compared-to-other-places-around-the-world-119-blog/#IDComment128820021 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/do-we-have-a-responsibility-to-fix-inequality-119-blog/#IDComment127415963 It is impossible for inequality to completely vanish from our society and the world, even if it would be nice if it did. I do think it is up to us to minimize it as much as possible in order to have a better more open-minded community. People will always have different views from you that you will not always agree with, so it is also important to be respectful. Some ideologies of people can seem very messed up and actually help the inequality gap increase, but it’s hard to change people’s mindset who have grown up that way all their life. Unfortunately inequality has been so ingrained into our culture for as long as history wants to tell it that we can not necessarily picture a world without it. Without it, there would be no wars, no disagreements and everyone would get along for the most part. This utopian kind of society doesn’t exist and never will but can come possibly close if everyone learned how to be equal. As Sam mentioned in class so many times, how his ‘white skin’ has gotten him to experience certain opportunities it makes me wonder why we are so obsessed with skin color. Skin color is one of the main roots of inequality which makes it difficult for this issue to be erased. We cannot help how we are biologically formed and should not be ashamed anyway of how we are formed. For an example it is safe to say that having darker skin in our society and mostly other societies is looked down upon. It doesn’t even make sense that automatically because of my brown skin I am less of a person than you, less of a being than you, less human than you. What makes me confused is that if brown skin is so undesirable, then why do people spend hundreds on tanning salons, tanning lotions and other products? What does that say about how we are treating the inequality issue? That is one thing I never got, and being a black girl I never understood why people go tanning to get brown skin, yet I am looked down upon because I have brown skin. Inequality roots generally don’t make sense and have no real grounds as to why they are considered legit. No one should be looked down upon because they are gay, a woman, black, Muslim, mixed, poor, rich the list goes on and on forever. If every individual would take small steps to just becoming more open-minded in general, I think that is a huge step. The first part of becoming more accepting is to be open-minded and understanding of different cultures and backgrounds. This can ensure that we are on a long but steady path to being a loving society. Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:03:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/do-we-have-a-responsibility-to-fix-inequality-119-blog/#IDComment127415963 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/01/interpreting-names-for-people-of-one-race-who-act-like-another/#IDComment125991901 I have been called “white” or “white girl” and oreo many times in my life and still presently because I am black but according to some people I act “white”. I am a very calm natured person and it takes a lot for me to get offended, but I understand what you are saying about this issue. It poses the question as to what defines a black/white/Asian etc person. How are my actions and my way of life being interpreted as being another race? This originates from stereotyping and certain perspectives of cultures and races that we as a society have come to learn and know both negative and positive. I think it is truly impossible to find the finite “root” of these stereotypes that we attach to many races today. I think black and white are widely use more than a race like Asian because of how being “white” or “black” is portrayed in the media more frequently. You always see in movies and television shows display extreme interpretations of how black and white supposedly act. Constantly being exposed to these put an image in our head of this is how these races act, and most people buy into these preconceived notions. Calling people other races is usually material for comedians to make light of racism and stereotypes, which also contributes to people’s perception of how a race “behaves”. Everyone in one way or another is guilty of saying that someone has more qualities of a particular race than the other. I myself will admit that I have called some of my friends “white” when they’re really black and vice versa. When people such as my friends or even me do it, it’s more in the sense for light humor and with no intentions to hurt the person’s feelings. We should all still be careful what we label people even if we are only doing it to be funny. You never truly know how people feel inside when being called another race, could come off very disrespectful. On the other hand, some people may think of it as a compliment of sorts because of insecurities they have within themselves. I know some people that are white and actually enjoy being called “black” or being recognized as “acting black”. This also goes back to a few class discussions ago about what the “ideal” race/features are in cultures, with white being the usual ideal. This raises the question to these people as to why they want to be identified as another race that’s not their own. This complicates everything even further and because of this we will probably never really know why people refer to other as a different race, or what it really means to be “white” or “black”. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 21:14:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/01/interpreting-names-for-people-of-one-race-who-act-like-another/#IDComment125991901 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/why-do-we-associate-with-people-of-the-same-race-and-ethnicity-as-ourselves-119-blog/#IDComment123966738 I think this evolves from wanting and maintaining a level of comfort that comes from people hanging out with other people of the same race and ethnicity. You do tend to see mostly international students hang with each other, and I think in this case it’s still from being new in another country and not being completely comfortable with branching out. I do not want to stereotype or anything but, since high school I’ve noticed that the Asian population seems to always hang around each other. I know at least in my high school it was noticeably prevalent and I’ve always wondered why. It is true for pretty much every race, but I’ve just noticed it more in the Asian population. For me I’ve always had friends from multiple cultures and backgrounds, and do not hang out with just one particular group. Being an African American I never found myself hanging out with just other African American people, but have friends of the same background. I’ve always been and still am interested in culture and race and I suppose I naturally just make friends that are different from me. Hanging out with people of different race and ethnicity can be very beneficial and a learning experience. As a society we have grown in that aspect and you do see more and more people with friends from different backgrounds. That is to say I do not think you are automatically a bad person if you hang out with people that are only of your race. For the most part, I do not think people deliberately hang out with people of the same race and its more of a natural subconscious thing for the majority of people to hang with people of the same race. Us human beings like the sense and feeling of belonging, and sometimes in order to achieve this satisfaction one move towards befriending people of the same race. Right off the back you and this other person already have some stuff in common, and sometimes people want that security. I am extremely open minded and embrace other cultures and backgrounds so for me that is the main thing that drives me to befriending people of other ethnicities consciously and subconsciously. It probably also depends where you are, since more places are more tolerate than others about branching out. There are any factors probably that say why people hang with others with similar race and ethnic background. I believe what’s most important is how far we have come that we can at least have one or two friends of complete opposite backgrounds. We are learning each and every day as Sam said, and we still as a society have a lot to learn about race, ethnicity and where we come from. Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:45:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/why-do-we-associate-with-people-of-the-same-race-and-ethnicity-as-ourselves-119-blog/#IDComment123966738 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment123560839 When Sam announced what the excise was that the two girls would be doing, I automatically knew that it would be difficult for not only them but all of us in the classroom. Like we talked about in class, the human race is becoming more and more mixed making it harder to determine what race someone is really. After the exercise was completed, we discovered some misconceptions that the girls had with diving the people solely one race. I know for myself I could not fully tell what someone was enough to distinguish them in a category. I liked this exercise though because it is interesting to discover what background in race people have and to see how we see people based on their looks and skin color. Some features are dominant in some races compared to others, but even then it is still hard to tell what someone is sometimes. The people that participated I wonder what feelings they must have had being placed in a section that maybe was way off or in something that they didn’t see themselves. Before the girls completed the exercise, I don’t think anyone really expected them to get all of them right which made it a huge learning experience. I have always been intrigued by race and culture and found it exciting when the people who participated told everyone their background. I kind of poses the question of is anyone truly one pure race? As Sam mentioned in class a few days ago, one of his students found out that he was indeed 45% African even though from appearance he was white. I believe that everyone has some kind of different blood in them even if it’s in the smallest amount. I think this exercise also shed some light on how people of mixed background distinguish themselves to society. If someone is half white and half Mexican and from an outside appearance looks white, would you question them if they only identified themselves as Mexican? Some people relate to one particular race more than the other which makes it interesting from a societal point of view because we see something completely different skin color wise. This perspective would also make it hard for this exercise to be completed exactly right because you don’t really know how people view themselves. I think as a society we rely too heavily on skin tone to determine the race of a person. As discussed in class races such as black and Asian have a spectrum of different skin tones that vary from person to person. We tend to stereotype dark skin with black people or “yellow” skin with Asian. If we take the time to get to know each other on a personal level and learn their backgrounds, we can eliminate some misconceptions. Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:40:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment123560839 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cg%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121204932 soc119 Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:25:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cg%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121204932