. Empathy, this really is one thing that I will forever take away from this class. Empathy is not a one plus one equation, as much as I would like to think that sitting down and ranting to a bunch of students on the hidden truths of life would earn our suffering minorities some respect it by far is not enough. Empathy is the one thing we really need in our world yet it is one of the hardest things to in fact gain. As I step away from this course I can only wish that I remain compelled to think twice about the people around me and where they come from. We may not be able to change the world but we sure as hell can change ourselves.

We need to see race to actually successfully deal with race. Ignoring the differences puts you in the box of acting like you are all pieces of Lego but embracing the differences makes you realize that you are all different but can be put together in the toy box. Mind my simple, childish examples but here is one other shift in my mind think after this class. Race is simple and can easily be dealt with yet the things blocking are way are petty childish arguments that keep us from humanely dealing with each other. Now that we are on the topic of humane I sadly had to discover from just listening to the comments of other people in my class that we should never overestimate the decency of the ease to change. I often read ignorant responses to quite clearly stated topics. What was really sad to me is that we really have a hard time changing or editing ideas that have been drilled into our minds all our life. This may be a logical issue because it is not easy for one to change old ideologies however just the sense of mere empathy rarely caught the spotlight with the harsh audience of this class.

The effects of a class are often headaches from crammed information before a final or procrastinated homework assignment that you solve aiming for a grade rather that understanding. Keeping this in mind when attempting to explain the change in my thinking I can happily say my mind shifted a lot more than in any college class. Color, race, religion, these are just a couple of concepts that we often attempt to shut off from our social radar. I usually would have praised my ability to shut off the differences I see between myself and the rest of the world. Culturally accepting, that is what I usually labeled myself as, because being blinded from differences could only be a good thing. Or so I thought. So now we come to one of the first things that were altered after taking this class.

Hearing stories from other people is an everyday interaction that we have become so use to that we almost never question the act. We read, listen and speak of stories we have heard of not ever thinking twice about what bias may come with the words or what lies may have exaggerated the words. In schools rumors often dominate any source of news and although people obviously realize that much of the words they hear are polluted by the opinions of others they still choose to follow this endless line of trash talk. Therefore when considering the question of what authority you are often prone to question one must first think of what authority we do not question. Just thinking through this idea before writing my thoughts on the matter I was quite egoistic in my ideas. I thought that I was not one to blindly follow and believe the mere words of others. However, to my surprise I realized that although we often think of ourselves as thinkers we really rarely think about the legitimacy of what we hear from others. Even when hearing facts about race in the Sociology 119 class we at that moment feel affected and vow not to ever believe or think in such narrow-minded ways, however it really is hard to push yourself into a pattern that is almost against human nature. I considered what authority I question in my own life and to my disbelief I came to realize that I do not really question much. I often believe the words of friends, I at many times follow the tracks of my parents without any objection, and although I am fully aware that the media is mostly sequels of twisted stories and biased ideas I still often fall into the bad habit of reposting news ideologies. So then comes the question of what authority is it that I actually question. I realized that although authority is rarely question, the few times that we choose to really challenge ideas and beliefs is when the idea that we are challenging is something we already we do not like or approve of. Really almost all of the people we decide to challenge, question where and how they came to their ideas and what it is that makes them believe a certain way tend to be people that we do not agree with initially. We always attempt to find evidence against people we think have stupid ideas although many times those people could be right. Although it is a good thing that we do question some people at least I think we should be questioning people of our own belief a lot more. We may think our beliefs are correct yet I am sure the authorities that passed on those beliefs have a lot of questionable ideas.

Hey thanks for asking the question I'm glad you mentioned your ideas on what we said (I'm one of the girls that spoke in class)
I really respect what you wrote on your post and hope you didn't think we meant any less of Westerns because of the way we dress. Just different culutres different definitons of self respect.

If the culture is all about talking to the girl with the better appearance then you bet that going out barely covered will gain you the attention of quite shallow people. Putting religion and culture aside I really can see the difference in approaches that I get from guys because I wear a head scarf. The real aim of conversation is often curiosity and more on the lines of getting to know each other rather than thoughts of catching “the hottest girl at the club”. People often see covering as an oppressive thing that controls your life, however I get focused on for personality more than looks how could I not love that!

Girls in our society always go around judging other people for the way they dress, they label girls as sluts and too out there and often they state that some appearances show low self-esteem and little respect for one’s self. I would say it is a safe assumption to say that thoughts similar to these have crossed everybody’s minds at least once and it is for that reason that I feel like many people are contradicting themselves when they are upset by the statement that respect can be preserved from your dress. I defiantly agree that women should not be controlled by others in what they wear or do. However, with that said I truly believe that the Western culture is becoming quite superficial in the way it judges women based on their appearance. It is for this reason only that I think we sometimes have to give in to the demeaning thoughts of our culture and realize that dress will affect the way I am seen to respect myself.

It is quite interesting to respond to this video question since ultimately the girl was picking on my words. I am one of the Muslim girls that spoke about the reasons for wearing a head scarf and gave details on the matter in the Sociology 119 class. First of all I think the girl in this video made a different interpretation to what was said, we did mention that wearing a head scarf is a way that we show our modesty and self-respect however we also clarified that we do not judge anybody else that chooses to do so because this our definition and culture. I think it is quite interesting however that the girl in this video choose to pick out and interpret our words in this way, I am not sure if it was just a point of miscommunication or a sense of defensiveness. If however it is the latter I am sure that defensive attitudes always seem to come from deeper sense of dissatisfaction.

The reaction people had toward the Hunger Games character being black is on huge jump backward in the path of humanity. Just when we think we are progressing as a human race small events creep up on us, events that seem insignificant at first however, they show hidden derogatory feelings. Although the big fuss about the character Rue being black in the Hunger Games is being blown off as an issue of reader expectations I think it highlights the biggest problem the people of our world encounter. Not speaking about race! The comments that were made about the race of Rue are obviously real thought out feelings that prove disrespect for another race. People however always make excuses when they see such behavior, claiming that these people are a minority, do not know what they are talking about or are simply unhappy readers. However, the more we accept these excuses and believe in petty reasons as to why people can be racist then we will never progress in the matters of racial discrimination. Instead of attacking the people who made such ugly comments I think it is about time that we faced them. Take them into the boundaries of free speech. In such a context we would be able to understand what is making people continue with a sense of hatred toward minorities. For all we know they could be victims of racial discrimination themselves and so they decided to generalize hatred toward the black community. I personally felt very offended and disgusted when I read the comments because really when you find people being racist toward a simple scene in a movie you can only wonder what else they have to unleash to the world. In my opinion it is these small comments that really are the roots to violent racism, we should not be waiting for things to escalate out of hand to mark peoples acts as hatred. Just recently we have witnessed two crimes ultimately built on the base of racism. Treyvon Martin was a young boy who was shot and killed because he apparently looked suspicious to a white neighbor watch guard. Also, on the same lines of this murder, Shaima AlAwadi was a mother of four who was beaten to death in her home in California. The reason being that she was a Muslim woman wearing a Hijab. The thing that is common here however is that both are crimes that root from a hidden inner prejudice. Deep down people are thinking they have the right to act against others and these feelings keep on growing till they result in barbarian acts such as the ones mentioned. And why does this keep happening? Because we do not want to talk about it.

As we have progressed with the issue of discrimination against blacks within the last decade we often attempt to pretend that we have successfully passed the age of oppression. Throughout the past couple of years companies and people have learned to handle the day-to-day interactions with people of color without being called racists. As much as we really want to believe that we have overcome our inner discriminator all we have actually accomplished is a habit of political correctness. Being an Arab Muslim studying in the United States the statement really threatens my existence. I am often sadden by statements similar to this one since the United States often advertises its name as a place of justice, integrity and freedom but the actions of its peoples show otherwise. The contradictory nature of the United States values really angers me because their words make you feel safe however their actions leave you scared for your life. Another thing that really works me up when I remember the heavy words of this statement is that we have fought for so long but discrimination has become subconsciously apparent. We often fight against racism and show our disapproval of hate crimes but what is now obvious is that people are not purposely racist, this hatred is hidden in the back of their minds where it becomes involuntary. Finally, my greatest reaction to this statement is fear. Yet the fear that comes from such a statement is not the abuse or death that I may receive for the mere fact of being a minority in such a racist country. The fear that I feel comes from the idea that I may be abused one day and their will still be people fighting against the protestors claiming that the abuse was justified. Just the thought of having my life ended at the hand of hatred scares me but what scares me more is that there will be people in our world with the nerve to support hatred. The answer to ending such demeaning actions is apparently long ahead the minds of humanity. As long as people begin to understand each other then we may find a comfort in the presence of different people. However, when we close off questioning the stereotypes we carry around all we gain is shocking news headlines telling the story of victims of loathe. Just recently in the past couple of days it was announced that a mother of five children living in California was beaten to death in her home for the soul reason of being Muslim in America. This news not only threatens the lives of peoples safety in the “land of the great” it places a huge question mark on the humanity of the people of this country.