en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/758650 Comments by adamreale4 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/is-nepotism-a-good-or-bad-thing-in-the-long-run-119-blog/#IDComment143238163 While the idea of nepotism gets a bad rap because of the underlying reasoning behind it, in some cases, I think it can be used effectively. My own experiences have shown me when and how nepotism can be used to actually get the right person for the job, not just the one who was recommended by a family member. As I write this blog post, I am just returning home from a job interview. To get this interview, my professor emailed me a lead about the job and my aunt’s father recommended my name to the editor of the newspaper. I have taken the professor the past two semesters so he knew exactly what I was capable of and knew that I would fit in very well for the position. Having tailgated with my aunt’s father since I was 5 years old, he knew exactly what I wanted to do and was a very good reference for me to have because he had been friends with the editor for over 30 years. During the interview, the editor and I spent the whole 45 minutes just getting to know each other, and by the end of it, she was almost ready to give me the job on the spot because we got along so well. Without my references, I probably would not have even gotten the interview. I tell this story because it demonstrates that nepotism, while occasionally preventing a more worthy candidate from getting a job, can do just the opposite as well. Having a family member or friend recommend a potential job candidate can sometimes give people who are not on a company’s radar a chance to prove themselves worthy of the position. My teacher had actually gotten the person who interviewed me a job, so she was very willing to listen to him when he recommended me. In situations like this, while nepotism got me the interview, it was my hardwork over the past two semesters that got me the recommendation in the first place and even after getting the interview, I still had to prove that I was the best person for the job. Just because I had good references does not mean I was just given the position, I still had to work for it. When the nepotism system is used like this, it can provide a good starting place to decide who gets the job, but not act as the be-all, end-all for who gets it. The problems begin when companies use nepotism as the only reason they hire people. When someone is clearly underqualified but has an uncle that works for the company, situations arise in which the company not only hurts themselves, but take away a great opportunity from a more deserving candidate. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:37:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/is-nepotism-a-good-or-bad-thing-in-the-long-run-119-blog/#IDComment143238163 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/after-this-class-do-you-still-blame-terrorism-119-blog/#IDComment141149854 For me, Tuesday’s class about the other side of terrorism was easily the most enlightening class of the semester, if not my entire time at Penn State. I thought that, as he has done the entire semester, Sam did a very good job at staying objective throughout the lesson, even while talking to a class that was inherently biased against him. More than any other class that he has taught, the right perspective was the most important thing for students to have to really take something out of the lesson. The perfect example of this occurred in the dichotomy between Tuesday’s class and last Thursday class on the Needy Penis. Last Thursday’s class was one that was meant to be fun. Whenever part of the lesson is the teacher and his wife acting out a porno, the class can only be so serious. Students could come in with the mindset that they were just there to have a good time and still take some information away from the class, as I think most of the class did. Tuesday’s class was a completely different scenario. For the last nine years, ever since 9/11, every person across the country has developed their own stereotypes and opinions on the terrorists who attacked our country. Since we have had these ideas for such a long time; almost half of our lives; it is extremely difficult to ask 700 people to throw our ideals out the window for an hour and believe the complete opposite. For this reason, students had to be able to come into class with the right mindset of what Sam was trying to say to actually take something from the lesson. Fortunately, I was able to put my biases aside and listen to what Sam was trying to teach us. He was right in saying that he was not trying to offend anyone in class or fighting overseas. All he was trying to do was provide perspective into the minds of our perceived enemies to explain why they did the things they did. To this extent, at least in my case, he was extremely successful. I think most of us knew the Iraq war was mostly about oil, but hearing it directly from the mouths of people like Alan Greenspan and John McCain showed just true it actually was. This knowledge makes our occupation much less respectable than it was when the president was telling us we were only there to bring democracy to a struggling country. Sam’s teaching really opened my eyes and got rid of many of my stereotypes by showing me that all of the Middle East is not a collection of Islamic extremists. Just like in America, there are factions of people that give the whole country a bad name, but are not representative of the area as a whole. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 02:51:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/after-this-class-do-you-still-blame-terrorism-119-blog/#IDComment141149854 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-do-you-think-of-the-diversity-at-penn-state-119-blog/#IDComment135927988 As Sam showed in class on Tuesday, the percentages of the different racial groups at Penn State are actually relatively proportional to the percentages statewide. White people were actually a few percentage points below what the statewide average is, from 83 down to about 80. While this number is still absurdly high and the numbers for minorities are lower than I ever imagined before taking the class, the fact that there is not any more of a disparity between Penn State’s and the overall numbers is not as damning as some people would make you believe. As part of my photojournalism class this semester, one of our assignments was to go out and take pictures of some of the diversity on campus. While researching different events for things that I could take pictures of, I was actually stunned at the amount of effort people put in to try to make sure they do not forget who they are. Almost every single day, there were organizations and clubs meeting to either discuss or take part in events that highlighted where they came from: Chinese tea ceremonies that everyone, not just Chinese people, were invited to, karate lessons, multicultural club meetings, and tens of other events. It was refreshing to me to see people coming together to share in their heritage in a predominantly white college that being different isn’t always the easiest thing to do. As Sam says in class all the time, white people simply cannot know what it is like to be a black or Asian or Middle Eastern person. We might try to empathize and see things from their perspectives, but we have blinders on that allow us to see only so far. In that sense, I am very interested in learning how non-white people view the diversity or lack thereof at Penn State. Do people feel the need to have events such as the tea ceremony to keep in touch with where they came from? Or is it that they feel that they do not get the respect that they deserve from the larger population so they feel they have to justify their cultures. Our class has answered some of these questions for me, but we haven’t gotten quite as deep as I would like into these subjects. The last question the girl in the video asked is whether or not Penn State’s diversity affected my decision to attend the university or not. At least in my case, the answer is a definite no. Coming from my predominantly white background, race was never really something that I had to think about. Both my high school and my grade school were almost entirely white, so I never had any reason to believe that college was going to be any different. I think this is another reason that I was so amazed at the huge variety of ethnic celebrations that I came across during my photography project. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:53:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-do-you-think-of-the-diversity-at-penn-state-119-blog/#IDComment135927988 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/is-it-selfish-for-people-in-poverty-to-have-more-kids-because-of-their-lower-income-119-blog/#IDComment134362312 The student that asked this question raises a few good points. Obviously, the decision of how many kids a person wants to have, regardless of socioeconomic factors, is a purely personal decision. With that said, it can definitely be looked at as selfish because though the adult is the one actually deciding to have kids, the kids themselves are the ones that have the most to either lose or gain from that decision. A woman can push out as many babies as she wants, but if she is able to only care for one or two of them, if any at all, then there are several lives that are being neglected that should have been considered before the decision was made. The line that really caught my attention in the video was when the student said that “people in poverty tend to have a lot more kids.” This really struck me off guard for a couple reasons. Firstly, is it really true? Having never studied the factors that increase chance of poverty outside of the lessons we have been taught in class, I do not know if the numbers say that poor people actually do have more kids than those in higher socioeconomic classes. I think this is a topic that Sam could give some really good insight on through all of his work. Sam does an excellent job at detailing the reasons that poor people are in the situations that they are ranging from blatant racism to peoples’ personal choices, but one thing that was never brought up was the average size of impoverished peoples’ families. The cost of raising children is obviously extremely high, so is having more children actually a factor that brings more people into lower socioeconomic levels? Secondly, I wonder why people in poverty choose to have kids in the first place. I realize this sounds like a snobby rich kid comment, but the question has to be posed. Outside of the joy of having a child, the best part about being a parent is raising that child and giving it the best life he or she could possibly have. If a person does not have the funds or the lifestyle needed to raise a child properly, the responsible thing to do would be to not have a kid. They would only be being born into a life of poverty, something no parent should want for their kids no matter how badly they want a child. Again, I know this sounds like a rich kid acting like he’s better than everyone else, but I think that responsibility should play a much greater role in the decision to be a parent. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:42:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/is-it-selfish-for-people-in-poverty-to-have-more-kids-because-of-their-lower-income-119-blog/#IDComment134362312 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/what-is-your-opinion-of-affirmative-action-and-has-the-lecture-had-an-effect-on-you-119-blog/#IDComment130733566 In theory, affirmative action is a fantastic idea. It provides underrepresented groups opportunities equal to those of white people in areas that throughout most of the country’s history they were denied. In theory, it could be one of the most influential and exceedingly important piece of legislation America has ever seen, akin to the abolishment of slavery. Unfortunately, things don’t work like that in real life. In practice, while affirmative action has enabled strides to be made throughout all walks of life; whether in schooling, athletics, or in the work place; the fact remains that in large part, it simply does not work as effectively as the original purpose of the legislation intended it to. Up until the last few classes, I had always been under the impression that the “racist” excuse was used much, much more often than it actually occurred. I assumed that people used it as an excuse whenever something did not go their way. Seeing the statistics that Sam put up on the board really changed my opinion. Seeing the studies that said that white people with the exact same resume as black people were more likely to get called back for a job interview showed me just how wrong I was. In particular, the study that found that white people with criminal records were more likely to get a job than black people with no record how prevalent racism really is. All that these numbers do is show that much as our society likes to think that we moved past the racist nation we were 150 years ago, the only difference is the inward, personal nature of it nowadays. With that being said, I would be interested to see the other side of the argument. In today’s day, you can use statistics to prove pretty much any point you want, no matter how asinine or impossible it may be. While Sam does an extremely good job proving his point that there is still racism out there, he only gives one side of the story. I am sure that there are people out there with statistics that could prove the exact opposite of what Sam is proving and show that affirmative action really is working in some respects. While I agree that this is a problem more much prevalent today than I or most other people think it to be, the other side of the story could be equally as convincing. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:52:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/what-is-your-opinion-of-affirmative-action-and-has-the-lecture-had-an-effect-on-you-119-blog/#IDComment130733566 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-can-a-person-use-the-ignorance-card-119-blog/#IDComment128903916 When we were discussing this in class, I thought Sam used the wrong words in asking us how we felt about the way Americans live compared to those who are less fortunate. On the clicker question, he asked us if we felt guilty, which is not the right term. Obviously, no one born in America to relatively wealthy parents in any way asked to be born there. It is not as if we did anything to be put in the situation that we are, so why should we feel guilty about something that we had absolutely no control over? The question that I would be interested in hearing peoples’ answer to would be, “Should we feel ashamed for the way that we live, and how can we fix it?” The numbers that Sam gave us in class were astounding, and more than a little alarming. There is more slavery today than at any time in human history. Americans are richer than 97% of the world. The bottom 10% of Americans are still wealthier than two-thirds of the rest of the world’s population. I am combining this answer with two of the other questions; “how can we make more people aware of the problems that is still going on?” and “how do you feel about seeing the way other countries live?”; because I think they all go hand in hand. I am a firm believer that playing the ignorance card is just an easy way for people to get out of an uncomfortable situation. It’s akin to making the “Sorry, I was drunk” excuse when you make a drunken mistake. Ten times out of ten, the ignorance card is played by people who have made a choice to be ignorant because they did not want to learn about something. In this case, the saying applies perfectly. Though it is not one of the most prominently displayed issues out there, people absolutely know what is going on in other, poorer countries, even if they do not know the extent to which those things are happening. Much of the fault lies with the press, which has the perfect medium to make this a more important issue, but choose not to. The rest of the blame lies with the people that are too sheltered and comfortable in their own lives to would never step out of their comfort zone to learn about an issue that isn’t quite as cozy as how the Phillies did on Sunday. To answer the questions: the amount of time that we can play the ignorance card has long come and passed, and now is the time to actually start doing something about it. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:47:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-can-a-person-use-the-ignorance-card-119-blog/#IDComment128903916 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/what-did-you-get-out-of-king-of-the-mountain-119-blog/#IDComment127471780 Sam’s “King of the Hill” demonstration illustrated the relationship between free will and determinism very well. A look back at our nation’s history shows this extremely well. When our nation was “discovered” by the Europeans that would later take full control of the land, they ran into something they never expected upon reaching newly chartered territory: people. Native Americans had been living on the land for hundreds of years, and as far as they knew, no one would ever just come and take it. The indigenous people were born onto a land in which they had no outside enemies, and their ancestors had brought them up to act as such. When the Europeans arrived, everything changed. The balance between free will and determinism was on full display in this scenario. The rich, white Europeans came to America and A) made the choice that they wanted to take it over, no matter what the cost to the Native Americans that were already living on the land and B) had both the knowledge and resources to do it because of the more advanced and imperialistic societies that they came from. It was a perfect storm of everything that could have gone wrong for Native Americans. Everyone knows the story of what happens next. The Europeans won the battle of the land, and the rest is history. What isn’t talked about, however, is what happened to the Native Americans. Which is exactly the point. Because the Europeans were able to take over, they could make sure whatever history they wanted to be passed on was so that their name was not tarnished. They did this, again, by a mixture of the force that their pre-determined lives had granted them with, while also taking away the choices that Native Americans could have used to fight back. White people didn’t want them in the new cities that they were building on what was originally the Native Americans’ land? Just send them to a reservation where they could not bother anyone. The same principals that our early ancestors used in taking over this country are sadly still seen today, albeit in different ways. All of the statistics that Sam showed us in class demonstrate that there really is s direct link from a person’s socio-economic position when they are brought into the world to how successful they end up being. To go along with this, the laws that are in place and the policies that people use to govern their lives have the negative effect of taking away a less fortunate person’s ability to make it in the world, even if they really are trying to make the right choices. This was demonstrated by the study that showed that of the 67,000 loans that were given out to veterans after the war, only 6% went to black people, even though many of them tried to obtain one. Until we can find a way to get past these innate biases that we have, the world will continue to perpetuate these negative cycles. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:19:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/what-did-you-get-out-of-king-of-the-mountain-119-blog/#IDComment127471780 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/what-does-the-confederate-flag-mean-to-you-119-blog/#IDComment124475054 The student who posed the question “what does the Confederate flag mean to you?” brought up a very good point. He wondered how people from the North; the majority of the students at Penn State; can speculate on Southern culture and what life is like for those who believe in the ideals of the Confederate flag when many of them had never nearly that far South, let alone live in the culture. Being a suburban kid from outside of Philadelphia, I completely agree. I could never begin to know what culture is like in, say, Alabama, because I have never experienced it for myself. With that being said, I do feel that history has taught us certain things that remain in the Confederate culture to this day. A few years ago, I read a book called Friday Night Lights which was later made into a popular movie. The book is about a high school football team in Texas that the author (who was from the North) followed around for a whole year, taking in not only the team, but the community that surrounds it. In the introduction, he states that the racism that he saw was equivalent to what he thought the South was like before the Civil Rights movement. The town was almost entirely segregated; whites on one side of the railroad tracks and blacks on the other. The only black people that were allowed in the white school were those who were exceptionally good at football. As a whole, the white side of the tracks felt more allegiance to the Confederate flag than to the actual flag of the United States, and they let that be known in their actions. White parents instilled racism as a virtue in their kids as they were growing up and if you were ever sympathetic to a black or a Mexican person, you were, at the very least, looked strangely upon. Through the book, I gained a better understanding of the way things actually work in some towns win the South who still hold allegiance to the Confederate flag. Though we in the North choose to think that racism has died down to a minimum because of the society that we live in, the reality is that it is still blatantly prevalent south of the Mason-Dixon Line, in large part because of the rampant loyalty to a flag that has been out of date for nearly a century and a half. Though I cannot personally comment on what Southern Confederate culture is like without personally being there, if what history has taught us is true, then America still has a long way to go before we can rid ourselves of the racism that has plagued us for centuries. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 04:34:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/what-does-the-confederate-flag-mean-to-you-119-blog/#IDComment124475054 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-dont-we-know/#IDComment122345948 When I was in grade school and a few years later in high school, we were taught about World War II and all of the atrocities that the Nazis committed to the Jews and other minorities in their concentration camps. What I always found interesting was the one minor detail every teacher I’ve ever had has chosen to ignore: what about the hundreds of thousands of Japanese that the American government put into “internment camps” during the very same war to prevent them from uprising against the war effort? Weren’t we doing the same exact thing as the Germans, albeit to a lesser extent? I think the answer to the question “why don’t we know?” can be answered with a very simple, “Because we choose not to.” I doubt that more than five percent of the class, including myself knew that there was more slavery in the world today than there has been in human history. This statistic is just so mind-blowing and yet so very real that it becomes almost too much to think about. More slavery now than ever? In a world as progressive and forward-thinking as our’s is today? It just doesn’t seem to add up with everything that we know about our ever-changing society. The problem is, the only society we know is the one in which we live in. I don’t mean physical environment, but the global community with which we deal with on a daily basis: importing electronics from Japan and watches from Switzerland are as much a part of our lives as going to the grocery store, even if we don’t realize it. What we do not concern ourselves with, however, is what those products have to go through to get to our offices or onto our wrists. When I was learning about the Nazis in grade school, my teachers felt justified in condemning their actions because as a country, the U.S. was actively fighting against the genocide. They ignored the imprisonment of the Japanese because, frankly, it looks really bad on what we consider to be the greatest country in the world and, on the same token, makes us feel really bad about ourselves. The same goes for slavery in Mongolia or Cambodia. I don’t want to think about where my shirts were made because it is uncomfortable to think about how much suffering people are going through just to make a perfectly ordinary item. The fact that even Sam admits that he finds it difficult to find things free of slave labor corroborates just how prevalent it is in second and third world countries. Because America is such a privileged country, we see ourselves as above thinking about such menial people, when in reality, we would be nowhere without them. Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:45:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-dont-we-know/#IDComment122345948 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cr%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122340836 soc 119 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:11:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cr%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122340836