en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/6198117 Comments by Rsackett1 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/04/18/voices-from-the-classroom-303/#IDComment624762202 I have never heard of the phrase “down with the brown” before going to class on Thursday. I took that saying to mean that you are so comfortable with brown people that you would go as far as even dating a brown person. So when I hear that someone is down with the brown I picture a person that is completely comfortable hanging out with a brown person. They are not afraid or embarrassed to been seen with a brown person in public. They are comfortable enough with them that they are willing to sit down and have a conversation that could even end in an argument because the white person, or whoever, is not afraid to disagree with brown people. A person that is down with the brown would date or have sexual activity with a brown person because they would see them as the same as anyone else, I suppose. What makes a person to be the type to be down with the brown, I think, has a lot to do with how and where they were raised. In order to be down with anyone, for that matter, someone has to be comfortable with that race, ethnicity or culture. For example, if you were a completely white person who grew up with all white family members and in a primarily white neighborhood, then you might struggle a little more with being down with the brown. It’s really not that person’s fault unless they have just completely refused to try and be okay with people of other races. Because a person would not be around people of different races or ethnicities, it will be harder for them to adjust to brown people. Just like, if all you grew up around was fast food and unhealthy choices to eat, then you are not very easily going to start eating salads and organic food. It’s hard for anyone to move out of their comfort zone and try new things, no matter how simple or complex the new thing may be. It may also have to do a lot with your family. My best friend back in high school grew up in a very rural area with a lot of farming families who were not particularly racist but they probably wouldn’t approve of her bringing home a black guy. They were never mean or spoke wrongly of black people but engaging with them was just something their family didn’t do. I don’t really blame her for not being absolutely down with the brown because there are different stages to being down with the brown. I think that maybe you could be best friends with a brown person but that doesn’t mean you would go and share saliva Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:36:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/04/18/voices-from-the-classroom-303/#IDComment624762202 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/04/09/voices-from-the-classroom-299/#IDComment619398431 I absolutely agree with the statistics Sam put up the other day about girls and was not that surprised to tell you the truth. I was actually surprised the percentage for guys was low. I thought it would have been higher than that. From personal experience I would agree with the statistics about females having orgasms. I am not the one to do a lot of one night stands or hook ups but from the few I have done, the male was not very interested in the girl’s pleasure. I have also heard it from my friends as well. When in a one night stand, it seems that the focus is on the male having an orgasm and once he has an orgasm, the hooking up part is done. I also think that during a random hook up, the guy might try to pleasure the girl before sex just to please her and act like he at least tried but with the intention of just getting her to do her job. Personally I have had a lot more success in committed relationships. I feel like both sexes can be more open with each other. So if a guy was just not doing the right things for a particular girl, then that girl can have more comfort telling him or showing him what she really likes. And it would be the same way with a guy. When you are in a relationship you know that you both have something to work for and that you both will be there in the future to improve. I feel like when people are hooking up, that they think to themselves that there is no point in trying to give instruction or even trying to talk because it is only a one night stand, it probably wouldn’t mean anything and most likely you’ll ever see the other person again. I now I would rather just fake an orgasm or simply not have one during a hook up if the guy couldn’t make an orgasm happen. It would be too much effort and work to try and stop what you are doing, because you are just in a mood, to tell the other person that they are doing something wrong and to start over. I also think when you are in a relationship, the other person cares about you too much to let you not have pleasure. If you are with a guy that cannot please you, then that guy is probably not for you. I care way too much to not please my boyfriend and he also won’t let me get away without making sure I have an orgasm. That’s what relationships are all about; making the other person happy, so you can be happy together. Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:51:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/04/09/voices-from-the-classroom-299/#IDComment619398431 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/04/05/voices-from-the-classroom-294/#IDComment613854223 I see this all the time, when I go to a party or even just hang out with a group of people. The first time this topic ever came to my head was when my roommate said something to me after a party. My group of my girl fiends, about six of us who are all primarily white with the exception of my roommate, were coming home from a party on the bus. I was sitting with my boyfriend, who I met at a party at Penn State and is also primarily white, while all my other friends were sitting either with their white boyfriends or white guys that they picked up at the party, except my roommate. My roommate was sitting by herself with her head down and she didn’t look very happy. I could tell she was upset because no guy had asked her to dance or even talked to her at the frat we went to. So when we got back to where we live, my roommate and I were left alone for a little while my boyfriend was going to the bathroom and she started to break down and cry to me. She looked at me and said, “I know why no guy ever wants to be with me or come home with me… it’s because I’m a minority; I’m an Asian, I’m Puerto Rican, I’m part black, and everything else in the pot.” I stood there speechless because I knew in the back of my head that that was partially true. My roommate is from New York City where you can find a lot more ethnic groups than you can here, in the middle of Pennsylvania, and especially at a fraternity. I usually don’t even see a difference if there is any alcohol involved. Drunk or not, I see guys avoiding girls of minorities all the time. I think it has to do a lot with a guy or girl’s family history and how comfortable their family is with minorities. Maybe on other campuses the circumstances are different, but you tend to see a lot of New England-preppy-vinyard-vines-wearing-hat-on-backwards-pink-seersucker-shorts kind of guys at Penn State. And if you would look back through their family history, I would doubt that you would see too much, if any, mixing of races. So they would be brought up to believe, not specifically taught, that that is the way it should be. They should do the same and find a white girl probably like their mother and their grandmother and the women before that. It would probably be out of the norm for them to bring home a girl of a different race, and maybe even taboo to some families. I don’t really think it is being racist at all, but just a personal decision and what they are comfortable with. I am sure there are a lot of black men who are only interested in black girls and Indian guys who are only interested in Indian girls and the same for a lot of other races. I also believe that the same theory goes along with girls as well. They would most likely do the same thing where if their families are primarily white, they probably would go after the white guys. It all has to do with what you are used to and what you were thinking was normal while being raised. Sun, 7 Apr 2013 16:42:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/04/05/voices-from-the-classroom-294/#IDComment613854223 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/03/21/voices-from-the-classroom-274/#IDComment603261217 This topic provokes a hypocritical attitude in a lot of people, including myself. It is very easy to shake your head at someone who was given a job that they don’t deserve or had an unfair edge, but when it comes time to take a job that you are offered, I feel like it is a completely different story. There are many times where I look at people and wonder how in the world they got to the places they are now. How was no one else more qualified than them? How does a company or a team even function with someone like that on their side? It also doesn’t just end at job and internship opportunities. People get unfair help with getting into schools, getting loans and grants and even just little things that shouldn’t really matter too much, but aggravate on the inside more than they should. I don’t really think it is fair for employers, or whoever is making the decision, to not choose the most qualified appropriate person for a position. On the other hand, I think that you should take your opportunities as they are given to you. So if someone came up to you and offered you a job and said that as soon as they found out you were so-and-so’s great nephew, they had to hire you, what would you do? Say you’re sorry but you’ll have to pass? Yes, some people have the morals and the kindness in their hearts to own up and say that, but some people will be jumping for joy because they know that this would be way above their league. It wouldn’t even matter on the position. The job could be a cashier at Wal-mart or a new CEO of a huge company. It wouldn’t matter because it would be some sort of up-grade for you. Both ends of this dilemma have happened to me personally before and present. I have been on both sides. I am currently a lifeguard and have had my fair share of jobs over the past four years. My first job was life guarding a local YMCA. My boss was one of my assistant coaches for my swim team and I had known him for years. So I ended up working for him once I turned a certain age. Needless to say, I was a decent swimmer and I always managed to place at districts but I was nowhere near the best swimmer in the world. So when it came time for my employer to give out hours to all of his guards, I always ended up with a lot fewer hours than my teammate, who was a really good swimmer. My boss would praise my name and say what a great lifeguard I was, but I always got shoved to the end. While that story was happening at one pool, my other lifeguard job happened at an outdoor pool. This outdoor pool belonged to our county’s borrow, of which my dad was on the borrow board. So when it came time for the board to pick a head life guard, my name was the one chosen. I believe that I am qualified for the job, but I wonder all the time if their decision would have been different if my dad wasn’t on the board. It’s a tough call and I think a lot of people ride the line to right and wrong pretty closely. Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:08:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/03/21/voices-from-the-classroom-274/#IDComment603261217 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/03/12/voices-from-the-classroom-269/#IDComment598138954 This is a great question to discuss and the wheels in my head were definitely turning while the class was talking about it. I obviously could not come up with a single correct answer as to why it is not openly appropriate for females to discuss their menstrual cycles in public but I disagree with Sam on his theory. Sam stated that girls that choose not to talk about their menstruation were not free, but the key word to that claim is “choose”. If you have the ability to choose whether or not you talk about your period is freedom. You are free to go as in depth about your menstruations as you are to never ever utter a single word about it the rest of your life. There is no one standing above you forcing you to speak or not speak about what happens to you once every twenty-eight days. You are not breaking a law; you are not going to go to jail if you decide to talk or not talk about it. I believe you have the freedom to decide your own comfort levels when it comes time to talk about something that could be a little more personal to you. While we sit in the United States discussing why it may or may not be publically appropriate to talk about women’s menstruation, there could be some countries that are sitting around doing the same thing as us only it could be about something as simple as talking about what you did at school that day. Norms vary from one culture to another and this particular subject just becomes a little questionable on whether it is taboo or not. I think that maybe fifty or so years ago, people didn’t talk about women’s periods. This could have been due to a lack of information and discoveries about the female menstruation process or because norms have modified in fifty years. But now, in this day and age, people have the choice to open up about a lot of more personal issues. Just like everything else, some people are older fashioned than others. If you are an old fashioned kind of person, you might choose not to openly talk to others about a female’s menstruation just like you might smoke cigarettes like there are no health consequences. It’s not that you are afraid of what others might think of you as it is just your own comfort level. If girls did not have freedom to talk about their menstruation cycles then everyone would speak in the exact same manner, or way, or not at all about the topic. You would not see any variations in who is open about is versus who isn’t. Overall, I believe everyone, male or female, have the freedom to choose whether or not they openly speak about personal topics. Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:00:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/03/12/voices-from-the-classroom-269/#IDComment598138954 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/28/voices-from-the-classroom-259/#IDComment581641388 Until Sam had mentioned skin whitening creams in class, I had never heard of such a thing before. I was used to people always wanting to look tan and darker. I even fell into that fad where all the girls were going to the tanning salons. I started before my junior prom to get a little color on my shoulders and I ended up going constantly because I felt very unattractive looking so white. We made fun of a lot of the paler girls in my school because they were a normal shade of white for the region I live in. I think there are two reasons that people would ever want to apply these bleaching products to their skin. The first reason goes back to older times, and in some present day countries. In earlier centuries, you were looked at as more upper class, prestigious and rich if you were pale. The paler your skin was, the wealthy you were. This was because, if you were wealthy and rich, then you didn’t have to work. And if you were working then you were out in the hot sun getting darker and darker from the sun and natural elements. So your skin acted as a status for you. People would automatically know what social class you stood in due to the slight differences in your skin. This “standard” no longer really stands anymore in the United States, but I am sure that this mind set still plays a huge role in other countries. I come to this conclusion because the cream is still being sold to this day and one of the greatest marketing products. The other reason as to why people would use whitening creams would be to try and change their racial standings. There is no doubt about it, in some people’s heads, the white race is superior. This is common in black people, brown people, Asians, and, of course, white people! While there are many that believe everyone is equal or that another particular race is more superior and dominant, many others still believe white is equal to power. When we look back in our history text books, the number one example of slavery was US white men enslaving black people. While there are plenty of other examples where the slavery is one race enslaving their own or other races enslaving others, this is dominant in our story telling. So people might look at this example and conclude that whites are blatantly more powerful than any other so they aspire to be the whites. Therefore, this is when the whitening cream comes into play. By applying the cream to their bodies, they then somehow are automatically considered in the white category. Alas they feel more empowered, somehow. No matter how you look at the different uses of the cream, I personally think Fri, 1 Mar 2013 05:52:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/28/voices-from-the-classroom-259/#IDComment581641388 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/21/voices-from-the-classroom-257/#IDComment578450048 This is a question that after I heard it, I had to stop and think a little bit. I was raised protestant Christian my whole life. My mother and father took me to church every single every Sunday. I had to participate in youth bible studies and summer vacation bible schools. I can remember coming home very late Saturday nights from tournaments and being woken up at six the next morning to get ready for service. Church was never a very pleasant event for me but it was part of my life and I really didn’t have any other choice but to get dressed up and go. So if I woke up one morning and turned on the TV to hear that God did not exist, I would be a little skeptical at first. But after finding out that it was true, I would honestly be relieved. After coming to Penn State and being on my own, I have done a lot of things that would go against everything I have ever been taught or read from my bible. The only time I go to church anymore is when I visit home for a Christmas Eve service or Easter morning. I have broken a lot of the commandments participating in what every college student does their first year. I have “sinned” over and over again. I pretty much have a first class pass to the gates of Hell. So hearing that a God didn’t exist would lift all my mistakes off my shoulders and relieve so much pressure and extra thinking that I have. I often go out on the weekends and end up doing a lot of stupid things and when I come home, all I can think about is, “woe is me, I have disappointed everyone and I am going to hell. I have ruined my life.” If a god did not exist, I wouldn’t have to worry about these standards of what is socially acceptable and what is not. I could enjoy my life without feeling the repercussions of my actions later. I also feel like there would honestly be more equality. Maybe the “goody-two-shoes” wouldn’t judge the other people who choose to live their lives differently and vies versa. Growing up around them, I have been a few so called Christians. Now, I was always taught that everyone was equal in God’s eyes and that he loved everyone the same and you are supposed to too. But that is not always the case. For example, I was roomed up with, what I thought at first was, a nice girl. She never swore, never said anything mean and she was all around a pretty good person. She was also protestant Christian. That was until I got invited to my first party. After I came back from my party, she never spoke another word to me again. She only gave me these death stares of disapproval. I finally had it with the silent judging and moved in with another girl. I have come across a good amount of these judgmental people who are supposedly followers of Christ. This is why, if there were no gods, then there would be no rules to follow or create standards of, making the world more equal. Sun, 24 Feb 2013 20:04:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/21/voices-from-the-classroom-257/#IDComment578450048 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/21/voices-from-the-classroom-257/#IDComment578448250 This is a question that after I heard it, I had to stop and think a little bit. I was raised protestant Christian my whole life. My mother and father took me to church every single every Sunday. I had to participate in youth bible studies and summer vacation bible schools. I can remember coming home very late Saturday nights from tournaments and being woken up at six the next morning to get ready for service. Church was never a very pleasant event for me but it was part of my life and I really didn’t have any other choice but to get dressed up and go. So if I woke up one morning and turned on the TV to hear that God did not exist, I would be a little skeptical at first. But after finding out that it was true, I would honestly be relieved. After coming to Penn State and being on my own, I have done a lot of things that would go against everything I have ever been taught or read from my bible. The only time I go to church anymore is when I visit home for a Christmas Eve service or Easter morning. I have broken a lot of the commandments participating in what every college student does their first year. I have “sinned” over and over again. I pretty much have a first class pass to the gates of Hell. So hearing that a God didn’t exist would lift all my mistakes off my shoulders and relieve so much pressure and extra thinking that I have. I often go out on the weekends and end up doing a lot of stupid things and when I come home, all I can think about is, “woe is me, I have disappointed everyone and I am going to hell. I have ruined my life.” If a god did not exist, I wouldn’t have to worry about these standards of what is socially acceptable and what is not. I could enjoy my life without feeling the repercussions of my actions later. I also feel like there would honestly be more equality. Maybe the “goody-two-shoes” wouldn’t judge the other people who choose to live their lives differently and vies versa. Growing up around them, I have been a few so called Christians. Now, I was always taught that everyone was equal in God’s eyes and that he loved everyone the same and you are supposed to too. But that is not always the case. For example, I was roomed up with, what I thought at first was, a nice girl. She never swore, never said anything mean and she was all around a pretty good person. She was also protestant Christian. That was until I got invited to my first party. After I came back from my party, she never spoke another word to me again. She only gave me these death stares of disapproval. I finally had it with the silent judging and moved in with another girl. I have come across a good amount of these judgmental people who are supposedly followers of Christ. This is why, if there were no gods, then Sun, 24 Feb 2013 20:01:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/21/voices-from-the-classroom-257/#IDComment578448250 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/14/voices-from-the-classroom-246/#IDComment573624335 I believe “being rich” is a hard concept for me to grasp. Many people measure rich and wealth depending on a variety of different things. Some will say it is how much money you make, some will say it is the items you own and have in your house, others will be more sentimental and say it is how happy and content you are with your life and the people who surround you. There is not just one definition of the word “rich”. In my mind, I measure whether or not you are rich as in a combination of how much money your family makes, income, and what you do with the money you inquire. I have never considered myself rich until Sam brought it up in class and said that everyone going to Penn State is considered rich. I grew up in a community where there wasn’t a whole lot of wealth. There were few “wealthy” families in my area. My family wasn’t quite up to their level but we were close to it. I always considered my family as well off. We didn’t just throw around money on stupid novelty items and we saved up for a lot of things we wanted. We had three cars, lived in a fairly decent home, and I always had the name brand clothing that was going with the times. My parents had well-paying jobs at Penn State and we had money for a lot of different season tickets to many of PSU’s sporting events. We lived very comfortable compared to a lot of families around me. Many of my friends didn’t get to go on a vacation two and three times a year. Some of them hadn’t even ever been out of the state. So I knew where I stood when I was a t home. When I came to Penn State, it was a slightly different story. I met a lot of people who I would consider rich and a lot better off than me. I almost feel like I’m in the lower half a lot of the time. Once Sam told our class that we are all rich, it got my mind thinking. I always considered someone who lived in a smaller, run-down house who had to scrape money together to buy luxury items for their family was poor. But now I see that there can be so much worse than living like that. I never even thought about the people who don’t have a house or money to even buy clothing. I never thought about the people who can only afford one meal a day, or sometimes less. It really makes me think about how privileged and lucky I am to be where I am today. It makes me be so much more thankful for what I have and suck it up the next time I go running to mom and dad for money. Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:54:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/14/voices-from-the-classroom-246/#IDComment573624335 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/07/voices-from-the-classroom-242/#IDComment568126080 Whenever we go to a party or one of us is going on a date or even if I have an interview, the first place I go to see if I look okay, are my girls. They will usually tell me if I look good or I look like a mess and I can trust them. If they tell me I look hot or if I look really good, it doesn’t faze me at all. If they ask me how they look or even if they don’t ask, I don’t give it a second thought to tell them that they look good or give them an appealing compliment. While I believe it is easy for girls to give other girls compliments, guys definitely find it uncomfortable to be complimented by another male. It’s funny when you really think about it and how there is no difference between the words but the meanings are opposites. I think it truly goes back to history. Back in the day, males were the only bread winners. They fought for their family, they protected their family and they supported their family. When they accomplished these things, they felt very masculine and strong. There are a lot of guys who still play this role in modern day and have the need to feel manly. So when another guy says, “wow, dude, you look really hot in those jeans” or “those jeans make you look so sexy”, it gives some men the feeling that their masculinity is being taken away from them and they are be downgraded to a women. I used to be friends with a lot of guys who wrestled back in my high school and I can only imagine how they would react to one of their team mates saying they looked attractive. Wrestling is a pretty masculine sport that people usually don’t encourage girls to participate in. Most of them were not homophobic but if you said they were acting like it because of how you play the sport, they would get very insulted. They would be insulted because they took their sport very seriously and didn’t want anyone to think any less of them. I link this back to males being uncomfortable when they are complimented by another male because they would not want anyone to think any less of them. As to why girls are more comfortable, I just think that there isn’t as much to take away. If a girl tells another girl that she looks good, they aren’t going to instantly think that she is lesbian and is coming on to her. Girls also care more about looking good and having an attractive appearance so they are more likely to take a statement like that as a compliment rather than an insult. Overall I believe males have the need to be more proud and feel like they are masculine and when another guy compliments them, the just take it with the wrong intentions. Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:00:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/02/07/voices-from-the-classroom-242/#IDComment568126080 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/01/31/voices-from-the-classroom-235/#IDComment560174532 If you have never been close to a person who has cut themselves, then consider yourself very lucky. Even though you may not be the person who is actually committing the action, it can take a toile on you and your emotions. I have been very close and connected to a person that struggled with not only cutting but also suicidal thoughts. I stood eye to eye with him and I was the only person that he had ever opened up to. When I hear people talk about cutting and suicide my mind immediately goes to my ex-boyfriend. With his mother out of the picture, my ex-boyfriend was abused his whole life but was always too afraid to say anything. So in order to get the attention to be helped, he cut himself so that people would notice and ask what was wrong. When people approached him about the cuts, he would lie and claim that he got the scars from wrestling or football practice. The only reason I knew was because I flat out asked him if he was cutting himself to try to tell people that there was something else wrong. I pretty much had to figure out a good proportion of his story in order for him to open up about his true feeling and what had happened. Depending on the person struggling, I think there are multiple different ways to approach a person struggling and try to help them. Some people will open up to the next person that says “hi” to them and others take a person that they are extremely close with to tell their story. In my ex-boyfriend’s case, he really needed someone to tell but it took a great connection and level of comfort for him to tell me and there are still subjects that he hadn’t told me before we parted our own ways. Like Sam said, these acts are so private to people. If I wasn’t very close with a person, I would be very lenient about going directly up to them and questioning them. I would make sure to tell one of their closer friends or tell a family member that they might be struggling and advise them to help. No person should be ignored when they are going through something like this. In my situation where I was very close to my ex, I could ask him questions where he knew that I wasn’t going to judge him or make things worse. He knew that my intentions were harmless. I would tell him that I only wanted to know because I truly cared about him and his well-being. People also go at different paces and that you couldn’t expect to hear their whole story all in one day. After two years, I am still finding new parts of my ex’s story. No matter what the situation is, approaching a person who is struggling is a very delicate process and should be handled in the utter most care. Fri, 1 Feb 2013 18:15:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/01/31/voices-from-the-classroom-235/#IDComment560174532 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/01/23/voices-from-the-classroom-233/#IDComment554890035 Since the very first week of class I have thought about this question and struggled to come up with a straight answer. There are so many ways to define racism and I am sure everyone has different ideas. I truly believe that the way you define racism has to do with the situation you are in. As I sit here just thinking about it, I would say racism refers to nationality and where you are from. If someone was from China, then I would consider them Asian. If someone was from Africa and currently lived here, then I would consider them African American. The list can go on and on and on. But then I think about when I am out in public. When I go to my classes and a black person sits down in the row in front of me, I immediately get the stereotypical thought in my head and assume that their race is African American. The thought never even crosses my mind to think that they could be from the Middle East or the Caribbean. I also do the same thing with Asians. I cannot tell the difference between a person from China versus and person from Japan. And almost every Asian person I see, I instantly classify them as Chinese. It is truly ignorance toward race in general that I admit to possess. I believe that this is why I have such a hard time trying to define race. I want to be seen as non-racist, so I try my hardest to be politically correct and use the right terminology that probably just ends up insulting people more. But in the back of my head, I cannot overcome the stereotypical views I have always grown up with. And as I try, somehow I doubt that those thoughts will ever be permanently erased. When Sam asked the clicker question “How many white people are afraid of black people?”, I answered that sometimes I am afraid. I will admit that I feel more endangered walking past a group of black men than I do when I walk past a group of white men. And if you asked me why, I wouldn’t be able to answer you because I actually don’t know. A group of white men have the exact same ability and chance to do any harm to me as the black group of men do, but for some reason I am more afraid of the black group. It’s really funny when I think about how I initially was going to respond to this question and then how it came out. I had to catch myself from thinking in my fake non- judgmental views and finally just tell the truth and how I really think and feel. Maybe if we all didn’t try to hide things and opinions, race would be a lot easier to define. Sat, 26 Jan 2013 20:52:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/01/23/voices-from-the-classroom-233/#IDComment554890035 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/01/18/voices-from-the-classroom-229/#IDComment549396423 Race is a difficult subject. You can look the word “race” up in a dictionary and it will give you a definition, but there is no one way to describe race. Everyone’s opinion of what it means has different standards, characteristics and components. No two definitions are alike. So when Sam asked the girl if she was really white, no one out of that large auditorium thought the exact same thing including the girl. Depending on your definition of the word, you could have thought it was very ignorant for Sam to ask her that, or you could have thought it was a completely acceptable question. Some people seemed really taken back when they heard the words come out of Sam’s mouth. Maybe they thought it was inappropriate to question her. Personally I didn’t see anything wrong with what he did. Being in SOC 119 for only two weeks has really made me think, not just about people but about myself as well. I have gone my whole life believing I was white because no one ever questioned me. I could very easily be part black, or anything for that matter, and never knew it. What makes a person call themselves just one race when they are multiple races? How do you categorize yourself? There are so many people who have a white father and a black mother, yet they consider themselves black. Why is that? What makes you more one race than the other? Do you think you are better if you say you are white if you are half white, half black? I didn’t see anything wrong with putting the girl on the spot. It should make her think; it should make everyone think. Race is just another factor to life. There is no point in trying to hide what is true and what isn’t. I am not saying the girl was trying to lie about being biracial, but she, and everyone, should be more open and accepting about being more than what they believe. Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:30:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2013/01/18/voices-from-the-classroom-229/#IDComment549396423