en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1118192 Comments by aks5248 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-8-lesson-14-affirmative-action__trashed/#IDComment85386100 7/7/10 Lesson 14 blog response Before this lesson I thought I knew most if not all of what there is to know about affirmative action in America today. But once again, Sam has a habit of lifting the cover and exposing the real impact of affirmative action on everyone today. I am honestly amazed that only ten percent of people getting jobs, scholarships, admissions, is due to affirmative action. I just thought it was so much more due to my experiences with applying to schools and scholarships myself. I researched so many scholarships through several sights where a vast majority were for x type of minority. But in the grand scheme of things, ten percent makes sense when every job, scholarship, or admission is looked at. When discussing nepotism and affirmative action, I thought of how sad that exactly zero of 828,000 high school seniors said that they are below average when it came to get along with others. There are definitely some people who fight with everyone in every large group of students in any grade or class. But no one is willing to admit that. Also the survey about how one family conserves water compared to their neighbors amazes me as well. 87% to 97% said that their neighbors could do better to conserve more water. The ego’s of everyone is just absolutely astounding. Then the whole tidbit about how an individual follows the Ten Commandments better than everyone else finished it off. How can people be so self centered? Didn’t all of the Disney movies that we watched as a kid drill the idea that no one is perfect, ever? And that everyone will make mistakes in life. I thought everyone learned that as a kid. I guess it all wears off when we are in high school. This is absolutely mind-boggling. It really shows how we as a society focus on the individual first before everything else. Maybe that’s why when anyone does an act of kindness, it’s so applauded that someone put someone else ahead of himself or herself. I was also surprised to find out that the main goal of affirmative action was to combat indirect institutional discrimination. I thought it was to give minorities an equal hand when it came to jobs or college admissions. I didn’t really think of the institutional discrimination that often happens without white people even knowing it. In that sense, affirmative action has done a decent job at that. I was also thankful for Obama’s stance on affirmative action. Obama made a compromise of both sides of affirmative action. Stating that affirmative action should be used within social and economic classes just makes more sense. It makes the main goal easier when it comes to deciding who should get what on whatever criteria. Wed, 7 Jul 2010 21:47:10 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-8-lesson-14-affirmative-action__trashed/#IDComment85386100 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-8-lesson-14-affirmative-action__trashed/#IDComment85386008 Definitely, No question about it. Inequalities are apart of out life no matter what. I got my summer job because my brother put in a word for me to the boss. I now work exactly the amount of hours that I want to and make a good wage all because my brother called our boss one day. If it were not for him, I would be working another bad job making a dollar less and working half as much as I wanted to. It really is about who you know. There is an article in the shadowboxing with race book about how most people on the Forbes list admit that they in fact are completely lucky about their fortune, most being of who they knew to get to where they are now. No one will be willing to give up an offer to be apart of a fortune 500 company, there will be no one who will say, well I don't deserve this, I need to find a job where I work harder. It doesn't make sense unless the person is a Buddhist who gives up all pleasures who denies the job offer. Wed, 7 Jul 2010 21:46:23 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-8-lesson-14-affirmative-action__trashed/#IDComment85386008 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84792259 7/4/10 Lesson 13 blog I feel now we are in the part of class where we really look at the issues of race and ethnicity in the sense of the problems that we face as a nation today. Illegal immigration is probably the biggest issue in America that is touchy because of the race issues that are associated with illegal immigration. Sadly, most people automatically assume that illegal immigrants are only associated with Mexicans and other countries south of the border. It makes sense due to the fact that most people who are entering the country are from south of the border. But when discussing illegal immigration within the united states, we need to be open to the entire issue facing America, this also includes the other illegal immigrants who enter in from the north of the border and on either side of the coast. We do see the immigrants mainly from the south, so naturally we attack the biggest source. But we need to also address the other areas that are apart of illegal immigration to the United States. I really liked the main point about how Sam addressed the business side of illegal immigration. Bringing together the American value of capitalism into explaining our current illegal immigration reform is perfect for shutting up at least some of the politicians out there who are trying to completely “shut off the facet” of illegal immigration. The truth is that we need them in order to complete the jobs and run the economy that need to be done. We could top immigration completely and hire American citizens who demand higher wages, therefore making the cost of fruit and landscaping and all the other jobs that illegal immigrants tend to take go up. It will be another pear increase of 40 cents per pound. But some politicians believe that getting rid of all the immigrants is the best thing for this nation, even if it will cost millions of dollars to afford to get rid of all the immigrants. Maybe the reason for why president Clinton built a 40-mile long fence was to allow the immigrants to get into the United States but seem like he was preventing the immigration. Much like the war in the Middle East is about “fighting terrorism” rather than acquiring the oil. The government chooses the pros and cons of stopping or not stopping illegal immigration. They pretend to stop it by building a fence and telling the public of all the reform that is happening, when really the border is only covered by a little fence that a lot of people can just walk around if they have the necessary food and water to make it into California or Arizona. Sun, 4 Jul 2010 22:50:43 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84792259 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84792129 That guy who posted his rampage and the quotes that have followed just go to show the steps that we still need to take to subdue racism in America. He is obviously uneducated about the whole term of illegal immigrants. The comments are also an example of what I think is one of the most obvious forms of racism that anyone can show. And of course the guy doing the video has to be white which shows everyone that all white people are racists. Obviously a lot of us (including American citizens of color) are upset with the illegal immigration issue today. But video posts like this have absolutely no place in the race talks to solving the problem today. Sun, 4 Jul 2010 22:49:22 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84792129 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83593666 6/30/10 reply About the LGBT community, the fact that god plays a huge role in deciding if LGBT people are allowed to live their lifestyle annoys me. I feel that the LGBT community will take twice as long if not longer than people of color to reach some form of equality, only because of the religion card that the majority of people play who are against the LGBT community. The bible says that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and people who don't agree with that are going to hell. The idea of going to hell is supposed to scare everyone straight. I think we have moved forward as a world into manipulation people with fear into living their lives. Religion works by scaring people from committing murder, and sadly it does the same for being gay or lesbian. If only we could re-write the bible to be more human rights friendly. Thu, 1 Jul 2010 00:21:53 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83593666 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83585816 6/30/10 Lesson 12 blog response Sam’s lectures about multiculturalism and the melting pot/ salad bowl were impressive in the sense that the US is so more different from other countries in the world. Everyone in the US was considered immigrants at one point or another in time in the history of the United States. I’m pretty sure that the United States is the most diverse country in the nation due to the opportunities that the US has today. The US is the cool kid in class that everyone else wants to be apart of. So people of other origins come to the US to be the best in the world. And it makes sense; a lot of immigrants come to the US for a better chance of living the life from the American dream. The only people who are truly non-immigrants are the Native Americans that were here first. And even then we are not sure where they come from. So in the beginning of America there were white colonist from Europe that made the US into what it is today roughly 500 years ago right? So with the advancement of technology and transportation, immigration and growth has exponentially increased in the US. So it will not take 500 years, but rather 50 years for immigrants in the rest of the world to migrate and be larger in numbers than the white people who took have been the majority in the US for so long. I think this is the reason for the feeling that white people get when they see that they will almost be minorities to people of color in the US. It just moves so much faster and we are not used to it. It makes us feel uncomfortable about being knocked off the biggest group list. That is the American way sometimes. The bigger the better, like the natural selection theory by Darwin. So I wished Sam did a better job at explaining why white people might have that feeling. That is the best that I can come up with according to my experiences and thoughts. Also, I think most people are confused by the whole idea of a salad bowl and a melting pot. I generally hear the media state that the US is a big melting pot with all sorts of cultures interacting. This is true, but I think most people should think of a salad bowl of uneven proportions. As of now the white people are the lettuce, and the different minority groups are the add-ins, like walnuts, chicken, tomatoes, dressing. This way se can see how white people compare to the rest of the people of color either with respect to one group of color people or as all of people of color by not seeing the lettuce. Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:51:29 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83585816 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81793203 Lesson 10 reply I think the main reason to why people of color go through the first stage so fast is because they can see the difference from the way of life that is shaped for the white race. An extreme example I think is the civil rights movement. Like the colored people had to go to the back of the bus or they had to use a different drinking fountain, different schools and so on. They realize that they are being treated differently than their white citizens because of their skin color. Which I guess leads them to realize that, "hey I'm black/brown/yellow". I think people of color realize they are colored faster is because of the world that the white majority set up for everyone. Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:01:06 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81793203 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81789617 6/23/10 Lesson 10 It is amazing to me to compare how white people realize their stance in society is so different than that of color people. I really like the analogy of the fish and the two-legged amphibians to describe how white people and color people interact in their worlds. The white people are always involved with the their upper hand world while having no experience of living in a white world as a minority. The people of color have to adjust their lives to fit in the white stream America while also accomplishing the task of living in their own world of their own race and it’s entails. Each minority group has to deal with making sacrifices to live in main stream white America to get a chance to strive in. They have to juggle dealing with both societies, which can be stressful. The video Sam showed us of the black girls who talk about how they or their families adjust to fit in the white society really connects with this fish and frog analogy. The main point after seeing this clip was, who is the group that is forcing the black people to try and be whiter to fit in? Or are all white people sub consciously forcing white people to be like them. Another thing I thought interesting was when on the racial identity steps, when white people and color people split their ways on their respective paths for racial identity. The immersion for color people is obviously very different than the revisioning stage of white people. It is safe to say that this split is caused by the fact that white people are in control of everything that the people of color encounter. While most people of color realize that there is now a difference between them and the white people, I found it interesting that a particular group of color will become uninterested in a group of another group of color. I think if we want peace between whites and colors, we need to take that extra step and understand other people of color asap. It might come in a later stage, but I think we as a society will be on a faster track if we all took the time to realize the other “thems” in this situation. The last thing that I found very interesting in this class is how our white run society has sub consciously made black people the bad group. I am of course referring to the white and black doll experiment performed on a group of black six and seven year olds. This is very shocking to see that in the pre-awakening stage of racial identity, the white mainstream has already manipulated a lot of the black population that they are the bad kind. This is most likely on if the big sources for hatred of color people, when they finally come out of the first stages of racial identity, they see how the white population as slowly continued to take over. Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:32:13 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81789617 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment80921882 I took Sam's soc 001 class last spring and we actually watched a documentary about the twins and their band Prussian blue. It was interesting to see how the freedom of speech in the United States gives the parents the opportunity to raise their kids however they feel necessary. In the rest of the documentary, the audience later finds out that the mother of the girls "the father is not in the picture" was sexually assaulted by a black man when she was a girl. The mothers personal experience is probably the driving force to her promoting the white race as much as possible and using her daughters to do so. The girls actually confess that they don't want to sing about their mothers harsh views anymore and eventually push her out of making the decisions for the girls lives. As for the commercial, I think it was meant to show the audience that the audience will always point out the difference between white and black no matter if it is on the street or in a furniture commercial. Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:32:12 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment80921882 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment80918852 06/18/10 As lesson nine continued with explaining how white people live in this racially stressed, I have begun to see how I am involved with more than one stage (of the four we have discussed) at a time. Sam has shown how complex every different racial situation we encounter is. It is nearly impossible to tell what level someone may be in at any given time. It is nowhere near being black and white. I think taking this first step to understand that every person can be any different stage in racial awakening is vital to improving the race relations in the US now. The one thing that I thought was interesting was when Sam discussed how white people are taught to be colorblind to improve race relations between every race. I was under the impression that this was a fantastic idea. If we truly threw race out the door entirely, it would be easier to treat everyone with equality. But the matter of the fact is that race is apart of everyone and ignoring that just prolongs the healing of racial relations until later. We take this class so we can embrace race and then go forth and attempt to heal what is wrong about race relations today. If everyone tries to be color blind in society. We are really being like the white people who don’t try to say anything that might offend someone. It’s all about prolonging the discussions that we need to have. After hearing about the fist four stages that a white person may be in, I can say that I have been at least one point in time in any one of them. There were different experiences in life that led me to feel one of the four stages that Sam has discussed thus far. There are sometimes where I just don’t know what to say about meeting someone of a new race that I have never encountered but was curious to know. There are also times where I just get fed up with people of race who constantly blame any white person for their struggles in America. I just wish everyone were more educated about how to confront the racial issues that we face today. People are often too quick to make judgments about race and keep them there until they have an experience that they take amongst themselves that will change their first initial judgment. The last thing that I have about this lecture is about white guilt. Because of our American values that tell us the power of guilt, white people feel guilty about being the better race when they consider them selves not racist in the first place. I agree with Sam on this point. We are forced into feeling guilty for something most of the white people didn’t cause. It’s just a natural feeling that occurs due to the way that we were raised as Americans; it’s just another issue that we need to discuss. Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:53:38 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment80918852 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80216486 It really is sad that most people never realize that the way to learn about different people is to see it from their point of view. If everyone just tried it once, it would make tremendous strides to reduce racism and racial misunderstanding today. This lecture about seeing the world with the understanding of others is similar to the Christian invaders lecture that Sam did very well a few weeks ago. We never really understand what it's like until someone like Sam who takes the time to teach a class about racism and ethical inequality. We should just spread the word around about this class and make everyone take it. At least it provides a start for us. Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:46:32 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80216486 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80211214 Lesson eight did a good job at pointing out one of the main differences between white people and everyone else in the world. I didn’t really think about how the way white people do or don’t think about being white is different than being brown or black. As a white boy myself, I especially never thought about being white because I was always surrounded by other white people. I went to school where one could count all the black people on two hands. Being white never affected my daily life. I have definitely always been in the pre-awakening stage for all of my life. There was absolutely no reason for me to constantly look at the fact that I was white. Of course I went downtown to go see a baseball game and then I would be in a little bit of a different environment racially. This was probably the only time that I realized that I was white. Denver is still a pretty white city, but there is a lot more diversity than the western part of Denver. It is noting compared to Philadelphia or New York. This makes me even more in the pre-awakening stages. I did have a couple of questions about the other stages. I know that we only covered the pre-awakening and the awakening stages, but of the six possible stages, which one is the best to be in? I’m going to assume that being in the sixth stage is the better of the six. But if the majority of white people are in the first or second stage, then do the white people in the fifth or sixth stage act different to the white people who are in the first or second stage? Also, when white people are in a pre-awakening stage, how do they view other races? Do they only focus on the races that are not included in with them? Are white people who are in the pre-awakening stage more likely to lean towards racist tendencies as white people in the upper levels of own racial realization? If I had to take an educated stab, I world say that most people would be more racist if they didn’t really understand their own race in the world that they live in. I feel like more people who have a better understanding of their own race will be less likely to have racist tendencies because they took the time to understand their own, so then I bet that previous experience provides a template for learning about different races. The last question that I had, was how do white people move upwards or downwards on this list of separation? Is it based solely on experience of the white culture? Do we just have to go to stuffwhitepeoplelike.com to find out more about the race as well as personal experience of white people around us? Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:43:44 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80211214 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79249701 I definitely agree with you on the way Sam reaches out towards us in explaining the sociological issues at hand. It really opened up my mind on how the freedom vs. determinism and king of the mountain issues work in these sociological explanations. It is also very interesting to think about where the word would be if blacks or any other minority were on the mountain first, or if we all figured out a way to be given the exact same opportunities at exactly the same time. I think if all races were given the exact same opportunities, we would be close in terms of equality due to the fact that there isn't really an advantage if we all have options to choose from. As for the jail stats, the media, which i guess is run by white people, have the same subtle racism that exists in the judicial system. Here is an example of racism towards phillies fans,just on ESPN today, one of the top headlines stated that a citizens bank park camera caught a kid drinking from a beer bottle. Now, I love to hear a good story slamming anything phillies related. But in all honesty, was this article really necessary to be a headliner today? Whoever is in charge of headlines wants to keep the phillies from becoming a more respected fan base (which I think is nearly impossible) but little acts like these are certainly not helping the phils case here. This is basically the same thing going on with the whites keeping the minorities down today. But I don't know what we can really do now. Only time will tell. Wed, 9 Jun 2010 07:43:04 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79249701 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79247180 6/9/10 The way Sam is able to make these different complicated sociological explanations appeal to a classroom full of 20 something year olds and people who don’t really have a clue about how race is a huge part of our lives still amazes me. It really was an eye opener when Sam explained how white people became to be on top and how they maintained their high stand on the mountain. I think this really shows how humans still act accordingly to their human instincts to have the strongest one rule. I also liked how he continued to go work with his freedom vs. destiny topic through explaining why white people are on top and minorities are still below. It gives an in depth view on how being in the middle of the two is really the best way to go when confronting these race issues that we face today. I wonder if our society would be any different if black people or any other minority were to be the ones on top of the mountain. I think it would probably be similar to what our situation is right now. The superior group will most likely be the ones who will subtly keep the minority from advancing in society and keeping them in jail more often. With the use of America’s famous documents that state our American values, it is easy to cover up any racial tendencies that we have. If we actually found a pattern to why black people are more likely to end up in jail rather than white people, how would we as a society address the issue? That is one of the bigger questions that came from this article. I’m sure it is due to all the white judges that are apart of the system to keep the blacks off the mountain, but what if there is an actually biological reasoning to the trends that we see? How would we address the issue then? Would we try to develop a pill that would stop it? Or would we just ignore it? If a private science firm were to find the reason, would they be willing to face all the possible lawsuits and hatred from everybody else to confront the “truth”? My guess is that not a lot of people want to tackle the task for identifying the cause if there is one. Because then that research group would be labeled by society as racist for coming up with any sort of explanation. Another very interesting thing that I discovered from this lesson is that as more people get more education, the less likely they believe that the harder they work, the more likely they are to be successful in life. My guess is that when people have more money to pay for a graduate degree, they realize that they were lucky to begin with a large sum of money probably from their parents. Also they probably don’t take much for granted when they find out how the rest of the world lives. Wed, 9 Jun 2010 07:09:27 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79247180 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality__trashed/#IDComment78571897 I basically said the same thing in my blog response. The thing that comes to mind when talking about the different schools with different advantages reminds me of that movie The Blind Side. I think this movie does a good job of showing the differences in schools and areas where kids grow up but it also states that the reason to why Michael was in the slumps was because of outside factors that he could not control. It didn't really say anything about the choices that Michael might have made that put him where he was in high school. Our media really does a good job of generally making assumptions that these reasons to the differences are either one of the three. The media should really take this class before making their stories. Fri, 4 Jun 2010 23:22:00 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality__trashed/#IDComment78571897 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality__trashed/#IDComment78568971 I remembered this particular topic being one of the big points that Sam talked about in his intro soc class. I can now see it being put to use here in the discussion on how some groups of people are advancing higher than other groups. I agree with Sam that it is a complex combination of both the free will and the uncontrollable factors that are imposed on us. It is a very gray distinction for explaining the differences of median income. It helps that Sam pinpointed money as the main reason to how people can advance further. The hard part is trying to figure out how Asian and white people make more money than black people and Mexican Americans. My guess is that most everyone will have their individual reasons for why things are they way they are, and also their reasoning will be within the free will or the uncontrollable factor realm. The thing that I question is will the groups of people that are on the lower spectrum generally lean towards the reason of uncontrollable factors? And will the groups at the higher end lean towards the reasoning of free will to explain their differences? It makes sense in my mind that someone whose family is constantly in poverty will say that other factors are keeping him or her poor because they don’t seem to advance as quickly as the rich people. And vice versa with the more rich people, I feel like they would want to say that they got to where they were with hard work rather than forces that are not in control gave them all they wealth that they have now. But the truth is it is probably a complex mixture of both reasons. There are probably some reasons that the lower end and the upper end don’t want to admit as a factor that helped or hurt them to the position that they are currently in. A lower end group may not want to say the drug addiction was because they didn’t want to get help. While the whites don’t want to say that the power that emerged from slavery way back when might have given them an advantage today. It really is a different story for everyone I think. And once we put all the stories together we may be able to find some general pattern to help explain the differences using both the free will and the uncontrollable factor reasons. After seeing these lectures, I can say that one of the uncontrollable reasons to why I am an out of state student is because both of my parents were encouraged to go out of state as kids and they imposed this on me when I decided to look at different schools. I can’t help that they both were out of stats students of the fact that my grandparents were willing to send their kid off to school across the country. It was just the way they were brought up and of course they wanted to do that to their own kids too. And I may very well give that option to my kid in the future. Fri, 4 Jun 2010 22:52:06 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality__trashed/#IDComment78568971 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism__trashed/#IDComment78163756 6/2/10 I'm with you on the different sets of pictures that show the different views of the war. It is absolutely terrifying that the media has that much power in controlling what people do or do not see. It truly shows that a picture says a thousand words and evoke specific feelings. The media has the power to change millions of people's views of any topic. The sad part is the media really doesn't care too much, just as long as they can pull in viewers to make more money off of companies who buy air time to advertise their products. It's sad how capitalism plays some role in the ethnocentric country that we live in. Wed, 2 Jun 2010 05:47:18 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism__trashed/#IDComment78163756 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism__trashed/#IDComment78158410 6/2/10 Lesson 4 I was lucky enough to have taken the Soc 001 class from Sam last semester. He did a slightly watered down version of the Christian Invaders lecture for us. Needless to say, it was still as impactful after watching the lecture for the second time. I believe that ethnocentrism is probably one of the biggest factors to why there is so much hate in the world. Here is what I have thought of about the deal of ethnocentrism so far. Everyone wants to be the superior more knowledgeable group or individual of people than the others. A lot of us want to be the best and most competitive. This happens individually and within groups that we have associated ourselves with. I think it is easier to associate with a superior group rather than be the superior individual because it is easier to be apart of something then be something yourself. With that in mind, we support and push for the group that we have joined. We think of our group as being the best, because who wants to be apart of a group that is below average? Where can one show pride in a group that is in 8th place? The point that I have thought about even before this lecture is we always want to claim the number one title; the frightening part is that it applies to all groups that are similar. Countries, baseball teams, science Olympiad, Greek week. We have this competition between similar groups to be the best. This is exactly what Sam was talking about when he brought up the Michigan vs. Penn St. issue last week. This is only one main thing that I have thought about ethnocentrism and how it forms within the world we live in. Of course after seeing the new lectures I know that it is also based on not even knowing or taking time to consider the “other groups” point of view. This makes me wonder whether or not Ohio state fans have similar or different points of views on football or any other of their sports. Do they think Penn St. has any weird traditions? We wouldn’t really know unless we spent a great deal of time attending Ohio State and watching one of their football games. But which of us Penn St. students wants to take the time and money to learn about another culture when we are fine with ours? If people are too lazy to learn about other cultures, then they should not be able to make judgments about other people. But we read and watch what the media gives to us about cultures as Sam mentioned. It’s sad that we only see half of the story. But what can we do about it? The media puts out stories that will get the most watchers that will make them the most money. Wed, 2 Jun 2010 04:37:26 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism__trashed/#IDComment78158410 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race__trashed/#IDComment77151530 I was pretty floored about the number of slaves that exist in the world today. I thought a lot of countries would have tried to model the US and not use slavery to get work done. But we do have to remember that a number of slaves are sweatshop workers who work for US companies. I suppose one could say that slavery is more subtle than the whip cracking days of the old south. Maybe a large portion of the slaves come from North Korea or other dictatorship run countries that use their people to advance their country. I guess it all depends what we say a slave is. I am going off of s slave is when someone is forced to work against their will. Wed, 26 May 2010 05:40:42 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race__trashed/#IDComment77151530 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race__trashed/#IDComment77149023 To be honest I was one of those people who just assumed race was white, black, yellow, red, and brown. I used these general colors because that is what the media and everyone else that I know seems to use. But I always did wonder why people never were more specific about which race they were. Like whether brown people included Mexicans and Pacific Islander or if they were a different type of brown for their races respectively. It was interesting to have Sam put an actual difference between race and ethnicity. I knew that ethnicity involved cultural beliefs and a groups way of life; but I also thought race was directly related to ethnicity. You don’t really hear about a black Irish person and if you do it’s probably the only one you may ever encounter. Even knowing that race is solely based on biological/ physical characteristics, the lines between who is what race are still completely blurred. The fact that most people can differentiate race by the shape of their nose still impresses me. I was like most people who assume race is defined by skin. The nose being different due to the weather was pretty interesting I’ll admit. Personally I never thought I would ever hear the explanation to why “Asian” people (if we call them Asian anymore) had narrow eyelids. But it all makes sense due to the natural conditions that most oriental people grew up in for however long. The one question I have about that is what about the Russians that we consider white who live on the border of the oriental countries? Do they also posses the same narrow eyelids as their oriental neighbors? I never thought that I could ever have a little bit of African in me. I was always pretty convinced that I was German and Scottish. Taking a DNA test does seem pretty interesting though just to see if anything different comes up than what I already know. It would be eventful if I told my aunt that she was in fact, just a little bit African due to the drop in America. The four reasons to why race is still discussed today frightened me. The main one being that it is easy to go out and buy skin whitener. If a lot of races want to be whiter to go with the stereotype about white people, then go for it. It’s their body. I do find it odd that a lot of white people think it’s a swell idea to look darker and more exotic to stick out more. The tanning business does bring in a LOT of money. My question here is why do whiter people feel the need to be darker and darker people feel the need to be whiter. This is same concept as the “Wigger”? We are so fascinated with other races enough to mimic them when the opportunity arises, yet we still enslave and discriminate in society. Just a few thoughts on the second lecture. Wed, 26 May 2010 05:09:10 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/05/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race__trashed/#IDComment77149023