Do guys feel the need to conform to what society wants? The answer is obvious if you look around and see what guys are wearing on weekend nights. The majority of guys will be in a button up shirt or polo so do guys feel the need to conform to what society wants yes. That’s just looks but it goes deeper than that. No guy wants to be called soft or a pussy which causes them to act similar. Guys who are more emotional or sensitive are often looked at as less than a macho buff tough guy. Guys want to fit in with other guys and will do this by liking and participating in “manly” activities. Guys are suppose to love football, beer, and half dressed women. Those who don’t like these things or are not interested in sports are often questioned on their sexuality. One of my friends is not into sports at all not into video games and not really into competition, he love Glee, singing, gossiping and other things that are not considered manly, and people always ask me if he is gay. He actually has a really hot girlfriend which I find funny since people assume he is gay before getting to know him. I get mad when people assume he is and don’t believe me when I tell them that he is not because they do not think it is possible to be into these things and be straight. Society has cast these stupid trends that guys need to be into football and drink beer and girls should be super skinny and are emotional and it sucks. Everyone should be themselves dress how they want and be happy with how they look and act. I do not conform to societies standards by any mean. I am into sports a lot and I do like beer but I am a loving caring person and I am not ashamed to let it show. People who are constantly comparing themselves to other people have deeper issues than not looking the way they want. These people have insecurities that they should face and overcome and that is how they will be happy. You should never change who you are, what you like, or how you dress to impress other people. In the past I felt the need to fit in and wanted a different body type or personality or anything to be like the people that our society idolizes and I dressed in ways I wouldn’t dress now. I did it to try to fit in during high school which I’m sure many people in the class have gone through. It was not until I started dressing how I liked dressing and being myself that I was happy.

My initial reaction to this report was shock. I could not believe anything like this exist, and find it not humorous, but silly that anyone would want to play these games. Who wasted their time creating a game like this? To answer Sam’s question, no I would ever play this game with my guy friends out of fear of what my mom would do if she ever found out that I played such a disgraceful game, and because of the game play. Why the hell would anyone want to play a game where the object of the game is to rape an innocent girl? I am having a hard time responding to this, I cannot get over the fact that this game even exist and find myself laughing, not because I think it’s funny, but because it’s so off the wall I can’t do anything else.

I do not think Sam’s goal for this semester is to change anyone’s opinion, I think he wants to inform us on things that are real and going on around us every day. I am not sure if any of my opinions changed because I do not know what opinions would change as a result of attending and taking this class. However, this class has opened my eyes to stuff that I would have never known. If you or any other student walks away from class thinking about the material Sam just went over than Sam is reaching his goal.

I can not imagine how this feels as I am not multi cultured. The only advice I would give to you is identify with the side that you were raised with. I felt really stupid at the end of this video because people always assume that I am Italian because of my skin completion and dark thick hair, and I might be 10% at most. I have only gotten mad once when a girl called me a guido, but I just laughed it off because in a way it was funny to me that she thought I was a guido.

The welfare system is the messiest thing in the nation. Some people need to be on it and some people cheat the system. Over summer I worked at a bank in a low income area where people would get welfare checks, SSI, and Social security. Some would need these checks while others didn’t but still got them. A lady was getting money from the government every month while working an under the table job, and also collecting un-employment. This got me outraged. My money that is being taken out of my paychecks which do not stretch very far are going towards her checks? We obviously need a welfare system for the children but isn’t WIC good enough?

I do not fully understand the ins and outs of affirmative action so I am in no way shape or from an expert with the topic. I do agree with the point you make though. I believe in equal opportunity but is affirmative action the correct way in ensuring it happens? From what I understand the university, work place, whatever it is needs tor reflects the population. So if the population of the state, or city, is 45% black than the employees or student body must properly reflect that. Again I am no expert and could be 100% wrong with that statement. But if I do understand it correctly it does not make sense. If you have two applicants of different color or ethnicity applying for a position as a doctor and the staff does not accurately reflect the population does the best candidate get selected for the position? I do not think the problem lies in the interview. In class Sam has showed us studies and videos that show job applicants and people calling for an apartment rental are often prejudged based on their names. How does this affect affirmative action? It is disturbing to see the video of the man doing different impressions and countlessly being turned away from renting an apartment until he calls using a cultured, intelligent white accent. It was equally disturbing learning about the applicants being turned away or not called back for an interview based on their names. To me this is the problem, and affirmative action only helps. I cannot come up with a solution to this as I cannot control what others believe and how others act. Is there a way to diminish this from happening? It’s hard to prove if one is being unfairly treated based off of their names(with job applicants and housing) since the one who does not receive the job offer or gets accepted for housing does not know if the reasons were legitimate or biased. To stop or decrease this discrimination from happening I think those who are doing the discrimination should be made examples of through legal actions and media exploitations. If an example can be made where someone is fired from their job after discriminating against someone for anything race, sexuality, ethnicity it might deter others from doing it. In a perfect world none of this would happen and there would be no need for laws such a affirmative action, but this world is far from perfect. America has developed vastly since its dark days of genocide, slavery, and segregation and hopefully one day the American society can get over discrimination. As the older generations die out and our generation moves into the leadership position we can make this difference.

I agree with other bloggers that distinguishing between Asian international students and Asian Americans is challenging and the majority of the majority would fail at doing it. The things I would look at would be language accents, and mannerisms. In high school one of my good friends was Korean and a lot of white people just assumed he was Asian or Chinese he got upset by it. Only once was I as a white guy told that I look like all other white people. It felt weird and I didn’t understand what the hell my co-workers were talking about. I would hate to go through that all the time though.

I grew up in a house with two sisters and a mom I was use to periods being talked about whenever. If a girl wanted to talk to me about that topic I would let her it wouldn’t bother me because its natural. Sam went to far with it though. Saying he wanted to see it calling it beautiful and calling it bleeding was to much for the majority of people in class. It didn’t gross me out but I don’t think that’s something you should talk about with people you’re comfortable with. But I still thought the whole thing was funny.

This was not the first time I’ve seen this video but the impact it has was still the same. It is indescribable to express the feelings that video gave me. Until seeing this video I have never noticed how beauty is portrayed by media and society. It was heart wrenching seeing those children have these ideals embedded in them at such a young age that white is the nicer, prettier race. One of the reasons I think this could happen is the way beauty is portrayed in mainstream media. The majority of commercials that are aired have white actors and these commercials are beer, beauty, toys, cars etc. and all kids are seeing these commercials and seeing the white people and white kids always playing partying getting the new toys and think that it makes the white people the better color. It’s bullshit. Advertising for toys especially dolls is always white dolls. The children see these commercials and consider them the good dolls since they are on TV. When they are then faced with choosing a white doll that they may have seen on TV or one that looks similar to it, and a black one they may not have prior recollection to they assume the white is better. I could be completely wrong but that’s just what my take was of a disturbing situation. I remember when I grew up as a white kid and playing with my little sister and her dolls she had mixture of white dolls like barbie and colored dolls from various places my parents and aunt traveled to that replicated the culture of the country. Obviously she played with Barbie more because its Barbie. If you think of the popular dolls and princess figures girls have growing up that are on tv and in toy form almost all of them are white polly pocket, tinker bell, Cinderella, beauty and the beast, raggy anne, the little mermaid, dorthy from wizard of oz and more. All white all figures that children look up to for entertainment and fun. There needs to be more black princess and more black dolls that are advertised as much as Barbie and polly pocket. Even in the Power Rangers did anyone else ever noticed the pretty white girly girl was pink, the Asian girl was yellow, the Italian cool guy was red, the nerd was blue, and the black guy was black. It’s almost kind of funny how they purposely did that. Why couldn’t the Asian girl be pink and the black guy be red and the nerd be yellow?

That is very interesting I have never thought about history in that perspective. If these tragic times in history of whites oppressing other into slavery, segregation, and manslaughter where written from the other side’s, the guilty tone may not be there. The perspective of writing would be completely different if a man of color was writing about segregation rather than a white man. The man of color may have relatives who experienced the segregation who can give him detailed description of what went on. The white man would write it and most likely consider political correctness which can cause a guilty tone. During my race relation discussion require for section 33 students to take we discussed the possibility of teaching the story of the Native Americans in a different way. All of us remembered growing up and being taught that the “pilgrims and Indians” where peaceful and ate Thanksgiving together. The earliest any of us remember being taught about the genocide that took place on the grounds we trek daily was in high school and that’s unacceptable. The truth needs to be taught early so children do not grow up believing that the Native Americans were treated fairly. They also need to refer to them as Native Americans not Indians. The question is how can this be done, how can a tragic event, a genocide, be taught to elementary school children without scaring and horrifying them?