When Sam talked about how he and his wife went to meet with “lifers” my first thought was that it was extremely odd. Why would someone want to go and talk to a bunch of murderers? But when Sam explained how some of them were convicted of murder for things such as a bar fight, I thought of it a little differently. The majority of my guy friends get into fights every night when they drink. I could not image if something went wrong and the person they punched or slammed against the wall died. Everyone does stupid things when they drink, but being convicted of murder is definitely the worst.
Growing up, I had always assumed that if you go to jail you are an awful, terrible scum of the earth person. I never thought of the convicts as human beings or an average person in today’s society. I never thought of how one mistake just ended in a terrible situation. I could not imagine being trapped in a situation where I knew there was no hope, and no way out. After reading this entry, it made me realize that these men are normal people, they aren’t monsters they just made a mistake. The degree of their mistake was obviously much worse than robbing a candy store, but it was still something they learned from. I’m sure the majority of the convicts are not sitting in their cell thinking that what they did was right.
I thought for a while about what I would do if my dad had been placed for prison for life. It would be heartbreaking to know that I could never again hang out with him in a normal environment. We could not go out to dinner, he wouldn’t be able to walk me down the aisle at my wedding, go with us on family vacations or anything a normal father is capable of. It made me appreciate the life I have and the simply fact that I can hang out with my dad whenever I want wherever I want.
It was weird to think of the prisoners as having feelings and compassion for one another. But as I have been saying they are still normal human beings. All humans can understand what it is like going through a terrible time in life, and that does not make prisoners any different. If anything I would think that they would have a closer bond and feel more remorse for a fellow prisoner because they understand what they are going through. They understand that they cannot leave the jail to comfort the family but must wait for family to come to them. Once again this type of situation made me put myself in someone else’s shoes and look at things through a different perspective.

Thursday’s lecture was very empowering. Ethnocentrism is something I have never talked about in any of my classes, yet I think is a very important topic. I know I personally have always viewed our war with Afghanistan and Iraq as us trying to prove justice and stand up for what we believe in. I guess I always just related it back to September 11th and never thought twice about it. But after class I thought to myself, 9/11 occurred in 2001, it is 2010 and the war is still going on. I never thought of how people over there felt, or what their views on the American people were.
Class really opened up my mind and had me thinking about things. I thought of how after September 11th we looked at all Arabs and Muslims as being bad people. I remember people trying to boycott convenient stores and telling them to “go back to their country.” The thing is this is their country, and they’re American just like the rest of us. I’m Irish, and think what if the terrorists were from Ireland, would people be saying that to me? I never thought of how these people felt being discriminated against, or what if I was in their position.
I never thought of how the people in their country viewed Americans. We fight this war, and act like we’re the best country in the nation and can do no wrong. But what I got from lecture is that we’re just a bunch of spoiled brats. We want their oil and will stop at nothing to get it. We already are the wealthiest country in the world why do we need more? Why must we fight our way to get what we want? I could only imagine how we would react if a country tried to invade us and take our coal as Sam stated. We would go crazy! They would be in the wrong and we of course would be right and fight them off to do justice. However, when it’s the other way around and we are the ones invading, of course we are right again.
I never knew much about the Jihad until I watched the video in class. It was terrifying to think that there are people that want to kill us for the sole fact that we are Americans. It was crazy to watch them saying they were doing it for their religion. But then, watching the video of the Americans, and soldiers that say they as well are fighting for God is just as insane. I am a very religious person, and from what I have been taught, God does not believe in war and fighting. Last I checked, one of the Ten-Commandments was “thou shall not kill.”

This is probably one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard of. I mean I am a girl so video games are not something I am into. I know my thirteen-year-old brother is obsessed with the Call of Duty game, which involves killing people. However, this takes video games to a whole different level. I do not think any type of shooting game is something kids should be exposed to, but at the same time, most kids do not have access to a gun at a young age. Shooting in the video games is not right, however at least shooting can be used in more positive sense when used for the sport of hunting. Rape is a topic that can never be positive in any way shape or form.
Rape is a very serious issue that should not be taken lightly. It is putting females at an all time low where they are helpless, and defenseless. The fact that it can be put into a video game is so appalling that I was speechless at first and did not think I could even write this blog. We have talked many times in class about how we live in a man’s world. Men have higher salaries than women, and definitely have the upper had in our society. In my Linguistics class we talked about language and how the words such as “man” or “mankind” can be used to describe everyone in our society. But why is it we never use women? Games such as this only enforce the power that men have in our world.
This is a very sensitive topic for me because I have a close friend who was actually raped a few months ago. Listening to her story and hearing what she went through was absolutely traumatizing. Rape is something that should never be taken lightly and certainly not put into a video game. It is disgusting that a person could even think that it was ok to produce this type of filth in the video game industry. I do not understand how any human being could think that this was something that could be taken as a joke and used in a game.
We all know that there are parent warnings on games, but children usually end up playing them before they reach the appropriate age. How would you react being a mother and walking into your son’s room as he was rapping a woman on the T.V. screen? Children may not even fully understand what it is they are doing in the game. This is creating indecent exposure to children, who should not have to view the topic of rape for the first time in a joking manner.

I feel that the doll video was sad and also very interesting. I am an elementary education major, so I work with young children very often. It is amazing at how much kids pick up on that we as adults don’t realize. Because children are so young, they are very visual and see everything for it’s literal meaning. One of my explanations as to why I think the children picked the white over the black doll has to do with television and stories. When you read a story the good guy is usually associated with being pure and with the color white. The bad guy is usually dark and mean, which is why I think a lot of the children called the white doll the good doll and the bad doll the black doll. They are taught through the things they see that black and darkness is associated with being bad. About a month ago, I just saw the movie Alice in Wonderland, and even in that the white queen was the good one who was pure and did no wrong. I think this could be one reason as to the literal reason why they thought black was bad and white was good.
Along with this, it could also be because of what Sam said when explaining in class about a little girl who was dark skinned and crying because her friend called her dirty. Maybe the children are associating the black doll with being dirty, and they are taught it is good to be clean ad not dirty therefore the doll that is dirty must be bad. I think the issue here because it I dealing with kids, is about color and not necessarily race. Children don’t’ really understand what race means, and they just see things for what they are and know that the two dolls were not the same and did not look alike. Maybe the girls only have white baby dolls at home and have never seen a black baby doll. In this case, that could be why the picked the white one, because they are familiar with it and that is what they are used to having.
My final thought as to why the children picked the white baby doll is because of their environment and family background. Some children may have parents who told them they could not have the black baby doll and that is why they called it bad. Or maybe they have kids in their classroom who are black that get in trouble and that is why they think it is bad. Regardless of the reasoning, obviously race is something that is being recognized younger than we think, so maybe we should be talking about it in classrooms and not just ignoring that it exists.

I agree with the fact that a woman’s menstrual cycle can be viewed as a positive factor for different reasons. For one, it can be positive for those females who are sexually active and hope to get their period once a month in hopes of not being pregnant. I mean we see shows on MTV such as 16 and Pregnant or Teen Mom, which demonstrates that the youth of our society is sexually active. So in this case a woman’s period is a sign of relief. Along with this, as stated in the blog, a woman’s menstrual cycle is also a sign of a woman’s ability to give birth. Yes, it is a pain to deal with the actual “bleeding” once a month, but it only last for a week. Just think, that one week out of a month will some day turn into three trimesters or nine months when a woman gets pregnant, which leads to years of watching a child grow up. Also, I have heard that girls that hang out a lot together tend to get their period at the same time. This of course cannot be true for woman on birth control who have a controlled period, but for woman who receive it naturally. I know this has happened to me when a group of friends and I hung out a lot, we all seemed to get a period at the same time. It could be a coincidence, but I have heard it to happen to other girls as well.
The reason I think a woman’s menstrual cycle is viewed as “inappropriate” is because of how our society treats the topic of sex in general. We are taught growing up in schools not to talk about it because it makes people uncomfortable. We are not supposed to talk about a persons private parts or what occurs. Growing up in school and taking health class, we only touched on sexual education for about a day. The teacher did not even engage in conversation with us, but simply watched a movie and let it do the talking for her. Everyone talked about how they dreaded this part of class and couldn’t wait for it to be over. Maybe this is the reason why we have people getting pregnant so young? This could be because we are socially cultured to not talk about sex education because it is inappropriate. I know I personally learned most of the stuff I learned about sex from my friends and not my parents or teachers. Maybe if it were more acceptable to talk about topics such as sex, menstruation, or masturbation, we would not have as many problems with it as we do in our society today.

Alright, so I’m a girl and my views on this issue are different than what I think most girls would be. We talked about this in my discussion section, and just about every girl in my class agreed that because she’s a woman she should be allowed to coach, she’ll do a great job, etc. They had the girl power attitude of she’s a female and I’m going to support her. I’m all for women stepping up in society, however, I do not think that she will be able to motive the team the same way a male coach would. I’m not saying that she’s not qualified, because obviously she is, but I think her level of motivation will not be the same as if a man would be doing it. I was a cheerleader for thirteen years, and stood on the sidelines watching football games every Friday night. When our team was not doing very well, I could hear the coach yelling to pump them up and they would hit heads or something of the sort. I just don’t think a woman will have this much of an impact on the team. I’m sure she will try her best to do whatever she is capable of doing, but I think they are going to need a man to do the screaming and yelling to get the adrenaline pumping in the boys. Also, in my class, everyone that said she will do a great job and all of that were people who have not had experience playing football, and just stated what they thought. In this type of situation, I think it’s reality vs. what it should be. She should be able to be accepted by her team, pump them up and coach just as well as a man. But I think realistically the boys on the team are going to need some time to get adjusted to having a female screaming at them instead of a man. The boy in my class who did play football is the one who had the same opinion I did. I’m just looking at this situation realistically, and my guy friends that I talked to about this had the same thoughts. Men and women think differently, and have different ways of addressing a situation. At cheerleading practice, we had a male coach come in and teach us for a camp one weekend. We had about five girls crying by the end of practice because of all the yelling and screaming he did. Girls just tend to be more emotional and the male coach did not take this into consideration. I think this is why the female coach will not be able to coach at a man’s level.

As I have read in many of the previous comments, I agree that I do not think I have ever been to a theme party that was about race. However, today in section we discussed a group of students at a University in California that did have a theme party that was directly derogatory against black people. The party was to be held to “honor black history month” and my TA passed around the invitation in class. It was appalling reading the things that were in this invitation; this is the type of party that was absolutely against race. It listed all of the stereotypical aspects of black people including eating watermelon, fried chicken, and things like that. Everyone in my section agreed that this is not something that should be looked over and would be taken offensively by anyone.
In addition to this it was discussing the requirements for both men and women. The men had a two-sentence description of what they should wear which included, FUBU, chains and a few other things. The girls on the other hand, had a long paragraph describing how they should act in a loud obnoxious manner, make noises like they were grunting, have an attitude, etc. I think this goes along with many of the theme parties that are more so against woman than man. The majority of the parties are things such as CEO’s and office Hoes,” “Golf Pro’s and Tennis Hoes,” “pimps and hoes” the common theme is guys as something positive and girls something negative. I was thinking about this and it’s weird that even though the themes are derogatory towards females, they continue to go to the parties and dress for the occasion. It’s basically hypocritical when you think about it, that girls go to something in costume as a “hoe,” yet if someone called them that on the street they would be offended. I would take this as the same thing as if a black person went to this themed party in California.
My final opinion on this whole issue is that I believe that the reason this party occurred in California at the college it did, is because they said the white population is around 96% or maybe even higher. As the invitation described, all of the requirements were stereotypical of black people. I think the reason for this is because the students are not surrounded by black people and therefore they do not know what to expect. They most likely do not have any black friends, and have nothing to go off of except what the see form the media and on television. I don’t think anyone from here would attempt to have a party in this manner, because most of us have at least one black person we are friends with.

I found this example to be extremely interesting. I never heard of this before when I took psych100. I think it is weird that the black children chose the white doll. I would have assumed that they would pick the black doll because it looks like them. I have a few ideas on why children may have had this reaction.
First, I think one reason may be because more white people who have service jobs surround children. For example the children may see white people who are doctors, policemen, or teachers therefore, they identified the white doll as being good. Another reason may be because of the environment the children are surrounded by in school. Maybe the kids have black children who are constantly getting in trouble and that is why they believed that the black doll was not the good one. Along with this, it may be the fact that the color “white” is usually used to symbolize purity, and things that are good. The movies tend to portray the villains of movies and T.V. shows to be dark, and evil. This could possibly be why the children acknowledged the white doll as being good.
The other thought I have as to why the children identified the white doll as being good is their friends at school. The children may be experiencing kids taunting them or making fun of them for being black, and they could have a low self esteem about themselves. This could be the result as to why they feel the white doll is good, because they are relating it to their life in school.
Either way, no matter what the reasoning behind all of it is, I do not think it is right that the results were what they were. I do not think that there should be on race that is known as the “good” race, especially coming from children. Children are so innocent and don’t fully understand the world yet, and it is a shame that at such a young age this ideas are already being placed in their head. I am an elementary education major, and I think one way to prevent this problem from occurring is incorporating more lessons about race into elementary classrooms. I think that by presenting this issue at a young age, it can help the children to understand about the past and the issues of race.
A reason why race isn’t talked very often in elementary classrooms is because it is an uncomfortable subject. I know there are even times in section where I feel uncomfortable participating in some of the things we talk about. Maybe if this issue was presented at a younger age people would be more familiar with it and not feel as uncomfortable talking about it.

I do not agree with this article at all. I think it is one person’s opinion on the Bible, but I do not find it to be a valid one. People can twist words and manipulate them to go the way they want them to sound. That is the whole point of a lawyer’s job, to twist people’s words to make their client win the case. Or even the media, they are always finding the bad things people are doing and publicizing them for the world to see. If people want to find the good in something, they will, and the same goes with finding the bad. I believe this article is taking something as sacred as the bible that has been around since the beginning of time and trying to make it out to be something bad. It reminds me of the whole conspiracy with Disney movies having sexual hidden messages in them. There are rumors of things such as the word sex appearing in the dust of the Lion King when Simba dies, or King Triton having a boner in The Little Mermaid. I think this ties into the article of someone trying to make something good such as Disney movies with positive messages into something bad.
Back to the subject of the Bible, if it is really all about sexual encounters, then why is it still being used in courtrooms today? Why is it that so many people turn to religion and God when they experience a death or traumatic experience in their life? Why do people say to “keep someone in their prayers” when they are in the hospital? If there is no God where did miracles come from, or things that happen we can’t explain? I have been raised Catholic my entire life and continue to go to church every Sunday. I am a firm believer in faith, God, and the words of the Bible. If it was such a scam, why is it the year 2010 and people continue to practice Catholicism? If it was all based on something that wasn’t true wouldn’t it have ended by now, or been figured out. I understand that people question religion, but I have never found a reason to do so. I believe that the Bible is the book of God, and was not written with any malicious or sexual intensions. It is simply people taking the wording out of context.
This ties into the debate we were having in my discussion on usage of word such as “gay”. In the Christmas song “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” it has the line, “keep the Yule-tide gay” are they taking about keeping the holidays filled with male homosexuals? I don’t think so. But if someone were to think this for some reason, it would simply be a misunderstanding of the context of the word.

I really enjoyed Tuesday’s lecture, and after class my friends and I discussed the different aspects of it for about an hour.
First, we talked about having to face obstacles in life. I agree that some people have it easier than others, but overall it catches up with them. I feel that people who have to deal with obstacles are often stronger for it. When a person is used to facing a problem and things not going their way, they get used to going around the obstacle and over coming it. When people who have everything handed to them face a problem, it is harder to deal with because they are not used to not having their way. For example, someone who is used to living on a “tight budget” is familiar with having to monitoring how they spend money, and not buying extravagant things. If a family member were to lose their job, I think this family would be able to adapt easier, from having experience in not spending a lot of money in the first place. Compare this to a wealthy family who is used to living the life of fancy parties and luxurious items, having a family member lose their job. It would be harder for them to adjust to a lifestyle completely different from what they have been living.
Going around the obstacles in general is also what makes a person stronger. I liked Sam’s point of how people tend to stand behind and complain of how things aren’t going the way they are supposed to. Being that I’m a girl, I constantly have to listen to “girl problems” mainly dealing with boys. Girls can sit around for hours and complain about what a guy does wrong, or talk in circles about how he doesn’t like them or issues in the relationship. This is immediately what I thought of when Sam said standing behind the obstacle. Girls are infamous for being in a bad relationship and complaining to the world about it. When in reality, it’s not hard to either go around and be done with the guy, or live a life complaining.
Finally, I think that the choices we make in life are what ultimately affect how our life plays out. If we choose to live a life of happiness and try our best to do the right thing, then I believe that good things will come. A person that chooses to cheat people, and live a life of lies and scams, I do not think will succeed in the end. Sure, they may succeed in making a lot of money, but not in truly being happy. Overall, I think the key to happiness is doing well for others.