en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2396039 Comments by bcliff13 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-156/#IDComment343886082 This is definitely a very good question. Do the inner racist views or the societal inability to accept homosexuality reign supreme with parents in regards to their children. In general I think more parents would be accepting of an interracial relationship then a homosexual one. I think this because regardless of the race of the two individuals participating in the relationship, they are still of opposite genders and able to reproduce. Also the idea that the individuals are male and female satisfies the religious beliefs held by most parents. Although many parents might be opposed to homosexual relationships, it is very likely that many would feel even stronger about interracial relationships. I feel racism in this country is very prevalent and most parents with traditional views would want their children to be in relationships with people inside their own race. It is also very important to most parents for their children to marry inside their own religion. Religious views may prevent parents from accepting homosexuality, but often times they can not account for parents inability to accept and interracial relationship. The negative connotation put on interracial relationships stem back throughout American history. They have been frowned upon for a long time and I definitely don’t think that parents’ views are going to change anytime soon. Their generation grew up in a time where these racist views reigned supreme and much civil reform was being protested for, but many did not agree with the change and still do not today. I think that may parents would definitely be more open to an interracial relationship then a homosexual relationship. My parents for one want me to have grandchildren with my wife. It is very important that the family name and blood line are carried on through my child, and that is not possible in a homosexual relationship. Another important aspect of my relationships to my parents is religion. My parents are very animate on me marrying a girl of the same religion and more importantly raising our child that religion. Either way a child could be raise my own religion, but I think the idea of having a child with my wife is very important to my parents. Although I think that my parents would be more open to an interracial relationship, I have asked my friend and he said although his parents would definitely accept his relationship either way, they would most likely be more accepting of a homosexual relationship. He live in a rural area in New York where I am assuming the residents are mostly white. Although this is a sweeping generalization, I think rural areas are a bit more racist then cities due to the lack of diversity and the civil war values of farming. Right now I’m am stereotyping rural areas very negatively, but this is the only reason I can think of that would explain his parents views. Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:45:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-156/#IDComment343886082 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/10/voices-from-the-classroom-144/#IDComment338439493 Seeing such a horrible display of discrimination is never easy for anyone, but it is also not easy for most people to stand up for what they believe. I think that most people feel some sense of responsibility in that situation, but also don’t want to get involved in other people’s conflicts. Most people are non confrontational and are taught to keep to themselves rather then being outspoken and getting mixed up in other people’s business. It is easy to say that in the same situation you would stand up for the rights of the person being discriminated, but is it true. Most people know how wrong this discrimination is and definitely notice it, but not many will act upon their feelings. Discrimination is a common thing in American society. Although we are always told to be accepting and the system accepts people of all shape, sizes and colors, it does not accept them equally. As we talked about in class, affirmative action is alive in American businesses, but it still does not mean that a black man has the same opportunity as a white man to acquire a specific position. This also translates to positions outside of employment, such as social status. The social status issue relates the most to the situation at hand. Although the incident did not pertain to discriminatory practices against black people, it did exhibit extremely racist and discriminatory views. We all know this is bad and we should refrain from exhibiting such behaviors and even stop them when we see them. Everyone is a little racist, and that view of mine will never change regardless of any argument you could make against it, but when people begin to refuse citizens of this country services because of their race or ethnicity, something has gone terribly wrong. Many of the people in the video did act out against the discrimination, but some did not. Some seemed to silently protest by leaving the store without purchasing any items. Although many would look at this video as a loss in the idea that Americans do not discriminate and our society is perfect, I do not believe this is true. This video showed just how many random citizens who see discrimination will stand up against it. It also shows how passionate Americans are about freedom and the rights of American citizens. One store patron was on the verge of tears after witnessing such disrespect against a person due solely to her ethnicity. He began explaining about how his son had recently returned from a tour in the Middle East and the fact that this citizen is not given the same rights as everyone else is appalling. This man was very emotionally attached to the idea of freedom and passionate about the cause his son was fighting for. This man shows the true American spirit as America was meant to be. Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:05:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/10/voices-from-the-classroom-144/#IDComment338439493 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/03/voices-from-the-classroom-140/#IDComment333389540 People feel that they need someone such as a priest to talk or connect with god because they don’t feel they are holy enough or able to make a dramatic enough statement. Priests of every religion are thought of as holy and much closer to god then the average person. Since the average person has this view of priests being holy, they think that having them talk to god will result in a better communication. People feel as if these religious figures have a direct connection to god, more so then anyone else. Also most religions describe a good amount of activities common to modern societies as sins. The people who believe these actions are sin, but still partake in them might feel that they are not pure enough to speak to god, where as the priests are very religious and supposed to partake in no sins at all. Priests act as a middle man between the all knowing god and the sinful individuals who wish the strengthen their relationship with the almighty. In regards to the validity of this belief, I think it is completely ridiculous. If an individual want to be close to god, then it is not important for them to donate to their church or speak to their priests, but rather to closely adhere to their religion. I believe that the most effective way to create a close relationship wit god is through kindness and inferred moral values of the stories in the holy books of a religion. As in the bible the 10 commandments were given to the people so they could follow god’s rules and act as he wanted them to act. Almost every religion stresses the relationship between each person an his fellow man. The best way to get close to god is to follow religion on their own. The idea that priests are closer to god then the average person is part of the scam that the church uses to make money. The church has been corrupt from the beginning. It controls people’s thoughts, takes their money, and controls the fate of most of the world. The church is one of the most profitable organizations in the world. Church officials have lost sight of the goal the church’s savior and have began to focus more on monetary gains. People buy into the idea that the church can make them closer to god and if they just pay and confess for all the bad things they have done in their life they will be “forgiven” and closer to god for it. The church and the belief that priests are holier then any other person is completely ridiculous and the church has continued this scam for much too long. Fri, 6 Apr 2012 23:04:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/03/voices-from-the-classroom-140/#IDComment333389540 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/23/voices-from-the-classroom-112/#IDComment300823177 Asians have been called smart or intellectually superior because across the board, on average, they do score higher on tests and there are statistics to prove this fact. But when people take that viewpoint to a different level and say that all Asians are intellectually superior it is a stereotype and a prejudice even though it does sound like they are being complimented. If they were being complimented, people would not have found that Asians get bullied the most out of any race. They would not have found that other races bully Asians more than the rest who usually get bullied by their own race. Generally speaking about Asians as smart and intellectual puts a reverse stereotype of not athletic or not cool. This is a stereotype that gets pushed under the rug because people will just say how smart the person is and never find out if they are athletic or cool. Also a lot of Asian students are immigrants without good English and that separates them from others socially. This may lead to the stereotype of hardworking and intelligent because these students may never speak out loud and receives high marks on their exams. Other students may only have these facts to base their judgment on. They only see the high scores and a person who only does their work and doesn’t speak out of turn and is seemingly only focused on schoolwork. This leads to the conclusion that they are all hardworking and intelligent. This also pushes the other students more away from that student which adds more to them being anti-social. This viewpoint turns into discrimination without people ever realizing it because they think they are complimenting the Asian community when, in reality, they are pushing Asians away from our society and not allowing their culture to blend with our cultures. This stereotype makes people think, “oh well they are Asian they are smart they will be ok” and this is wrong. Jeremy Lin is a prime example of how people have a prejudice of Asians. They don’t call Jeremy Lin a great shooter or a great player they call him a smart player that brought his Ivy League knowledge with him to the NBA. The jokes come out with the success of an Asian in the NBA. I have seen signs that said Rinning, making fun of Asians for not being able to pronounce L’s and instead say R’s. So with the emergence of an Asian star in the NBA we do see that the stereotype does limit the Asian community even after they prove themselves. Success in other fields will help disprove this stereotype and the other stereotypes that go along with it. But until they find those successes in as many numbers as they do with their intelligence, it will be very hard to change this discrimination. Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:26:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/23/voices-from-the-classroom-112/#IDComment300823177 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/10/voices-from-the-classroom-104/#IDComment289125105 I don’t identify with a race. I have no idea where Caucasian came from. It sounds like someone who is half cauc (which I don’t know what that is) and Asian. I don’t consider myself either of those and I don’t know why that is accepted as white. I also don’t understand why people are white, black, brown, yellow, or mocha. I don’t really get it. I do not have a race and if I wanted to pick my race I would say human. I am part of the human race. These labels and these groupings are arbitrary and unnecessary. Everyone can tell who is darker than whom and no one cares about race. Ethnicity, heritage, and background are things that actually mean anything. On my mothers side I am a little British and a lot Italian. On my fathers side I am a little Dutch and mostly Irish. I don’t think my skin is white so I don’t believe that I am white. I don’t think that this is that simple. When people ask about me I tell them I am Irish-Italian. Also when I look at a person, regardless of their skin color I don’t really care how they identify the color of their skin. I would much rather hear where they are from in the United States. I would also rather hear where their roots came from. And when I say roots I don’t mean Latino, African, Pacific Islander, or Asian. I want to hear which countries they are from. I feel that grouping nationalities is wrong and that is all that races are. It is a stupid grouping of people based on the shade of their skin rather than where they are actually from. The way I see it colors are meaningless. I have a cousin who gets extremely tan in the summer, does that mean her race changes in the summer? No it doesn’t she is “technically” still white, or Caucasian, and that doesn’t make any sense because she looks more black to me. People need to stop using these stupid classifications to describe people and actually learn about the world and the different nations. People from all over all look different for different evolutionary reasons. Are people from South Africa Black because they are African American? No they are all generally fair skinned because of their climate. But yet some people say that the politically correct term for Black is African American. If they are synonyms then fair skinned people from South Africa are now all black. The way I see it is I am a part of the Human Race and I have Irish-Italian roots. This is the way I feel that all people should approach the issue of race. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:55:38 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/10/voices-from-the-classroom-104/#IDComment289125105 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276373808 I have learned many things about the way the world works and more importantly the way that this society treats big issues. The world we live in is not a judicial court. You are not innocent until proven guilty. In the world of mass media and news a person is most definitely guilty until they can prove their innocence. We see that many times the real wrong doer is not the one that the media exploits and is not the one that takes the brunt of the scrutiny. If there is a tie to another individual with more popularity, the blame gets pushed to a scapegoat without a question. People always need someone to blame when they are confused. People will always need somewhere to focus their frustration. It is clear that when a person like Joe Paterno gets linked in with a scandal people will instantly go after his reputation. Rather than attacking the real criminal, people would rather focus on how this scandal affects the popular coach. Even when a man is not charged with a crime, people will change their opinions and judge them differently the second a bad news article is linked to them. This works at all the levels of sports, politics, and entertainment. Once a story hits, the media will over react without knowing facts or convictions. They attack the fact that someone was accused of doing something wrong. For weeks straight the news stations will dig apart the scandal and pretend they know all the answers and then a new story breaks out and everybody forgets. Then when these people go on trial most people don’t even pay attention. The media is full of grand reports to get the population in an uproar about an issue and then nothing gets done to change what happened or prevent it from happening to others. People just need someone to blame, a person to be mad at and a reason to be mad about. The news stations take advantage of this tendency when they exploit scandals without finding out if someone is guilty first. This makes the person seem more and more guilty to society before the court case. It points out these people and portrays them in a way to make them look guilty. Regardless of if these people are found innocent or guilty, the media plays a huge role on how the people see them. These weeks of people hearing about the scandals puts a thought into their heads and keeps putting it there until a negative stigma creates. These ideas don’t usually go away quickly, if at all. Once someone becomes a scapegoat for a scandal, his or her record gets a demerit on it. It is really hard to get people to look at the good instead of the one bad demerit. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:36:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276373808 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/16/voices-from-the-classroom-33/#IDComment267258533 The reason that Americans find such a need to identify themselves to particular race is because the only real Americans are Native Americans. This makes all other Americans distant relatives of people from a different country. This makes all Americans feel less American and causes them to have a false pride in their ancestry. Rather than seeing the our nation as a country full of American citizens. We tend to see our nation as a country of cliques. By identifying ourselves with these races, we are dividing our country. We find it hard to accept ourselves as just Americans because of superficial differences in dialect and skin tone. The need for the feeling of acceptance drives these thoughts, these questions, and these beliefs to manifest into guidelines. Everyone feels the need to feel accepted and being American is, for some reason, not enough for our people. We allow those subtle differences in origin affect ourselves as individuals. Although we were born on American land, the past is still present in our lives. We feel the need to maintain different from others. I believe that this is due to the fact that we live in a individualistic world rather than a communistic world. People identify their uniqueness rather than finding similarities. People try to make money to spend it on useless items that nobody needs to survive. People are so caught up in the materialistic idea of life that they have no concern for the others around them. People find it necessary to separate themselves from any and all people that are in different groups to make sure they can feel connected in their group and still different from the rest of the population. Even people from different states tend to stay with people from their own state. New Yorkers hate people from Boston just because they are from Boston and like different sports teams. We allow the most arbitrary things to take over our personality rather than letting our being American unify us and make us unstoppable. People are constantly finding differences in all of the people around them and forgetting all about what it is to be American. That the people who came to America in the first place did it for freedom, they did it to get away from the country that treated them badly. I find it hard to believe that these same ancestors that our families came from, specifically the European nations, would consider themselves a apart of their home nation. No they would call themselves Americans. The revolutionary war was fought to create a new country and to separate us from those ancestors. To produce a nation of proud people those call themselves American. These people also didn’t identify with people of darker skin, but I think if they saw the nation now they would be upset that race is still a problem and that people are more likely to identify themselves as their heritage and not as Americans. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:49:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/16/voices-from-the-classroom-33/#IDComment267258533 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/do-you-agree-with-foreign-aids-use-of-pictures-of-children-119-blog/#IDComment141127856 Forever these foreign aid’s videos have featured children to try and spark emotion from the audience. This is unavoidable and I think they have the right to show the children that are living in the area of which they are raising money. But it is how they use these images that poses the problem. Showing suffering children, in their country, is a way to guilt the audience into helping this country. Why not show people suffering and not limit it to children? Are the children the only ones that are suffering? No the whole country is suffering and the whole country needs help. As we saw and heard from the speaker on Thursday, these people are suffering but they are not stopping until they can help themselves. They are not just a suffering society they are living through a travesty that most of us couldn’t imagine happening to their own backyard. But showing these people happy, living through their problem, trying their hardest to keep their children happy. This is what I would look for when choosing a company or a country to donate to. These are the people who will take the money and use it properly. They are motivated, determined, and organized. Showing of just children is wrong and as much as it may spark emotion. It is false advertising and it doesn’t show where the donated money will go. It doesn’t tell the audience where the money goes. It only implies that suffering children will be helped. That seems very vague. I feel that these children are not the only people that suffer throughout the country. Many advertisements do not show how organizations of people help these children and adults in suffering in their country. Many organizations also have no need to advertise ones in suffering. If the organizations would show advertisements of how they help these countries, they can pull more attention to ones around the world. If one truly wishes to help these countries all they need to do is learn how organizations help understand what their goal is and that is to help the entire country with aid. In conclusion, children are a key exploit in advertisement. They are shown as children that are suffering. I believe if they were shown how they are helped through the donations that are received it would pull more attention. Organizations should show how these countries are helped through their actions. And they should show the actions that they are taking without help and how just a little money from everyone can be used correctly and actually help the affected area. Through positive videos and positive advertising they can become much more successful in their efforts to help those worse off. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 00:47:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/do-you-agree-with-foreign-aids-use-of-pictures-of-children-119-blog/#IDComment141127856 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/do-you-think-any-stage-is-worse-or-better-to-be-in-than-another-is-the-goal-to-make-it-to-the-last-stage-119-blog/#IDComment137610460 I feel as if these stages are just a place to put emotions and thoughts. No person is fully capable of staying in any one stage for too long because everyone has lapses in judgment or change of emotions all the time. Yes, reaching a humanitarian state is ideal because then we become one race together but it will never happen. People will be fighting with their instincts over the issue of race as long as people remain to have different color skin. On the other hand, I feel as if a person could stay in the early stages because they can just ignore race all together or only care about their own race. It is new information, new ideas, and new thoughts that change peoples perspective. Without the entry of these new ideas and these new beliefs, those people will never understand another culture or see the other race or culture as similar. It will be forever different and, in turn, forever bad or below them. By keeping their own race above all others, the other race is no longer human and people will start to believe that skin color affects personality. They can stay in these early stages by letting everything else be forgotten or ignored. Once a person starts to enter the other stages along the way, they can always regress to a previous stage through poor judgment or saying something that someone in that stage would have said. Now this will happen because we are all human. Sometimes racist thoughts might go through your brain but then eventually u will snap back out because you remember that there is no difference between people that matters on the outside. Its personality that matters, not color. And these people will probably be able to go back and realize they fell into other stages through things they said in the heat of the moment and they will have an altered view of themselves. And I think that this is the reason for the stages. By even just knowing about the stages we as a class will know where others peoples thoughts are. By understanding there are stages of progression, people further along the track will be able to classify others peoples racist thoughts and understand that they aren’t there yet. This will help the community move on and hopefully we can all be one race of humans. One single race because it doesn’t really matter, we should all be able to think about ourselves simply as a society divided. Until we can put away petty differences the issue of race will still be there and there will be people in all different stages of development. But through learning eventually maybe we all will reach the end and be better off for it. Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:30:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/do-you-think-any-stage-is-worse-or-better-to-be-in-than-another-is-the-goal-to-make-it-to-the-last-stage-119-blog/#IDComment137610460 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/is-it-possible-for-affirmative-action-to-take-things-too-far-119-blog/#IDComment134337332 Affirmative action is something that has been set in this world to make other racial groups feel more accepted. To say it simply, it is a program put in place to “level the playing field” for all races. This way when you put on a Disney channel television show, every child In the world will see a group of friends that is very diverse. Recently mass media has made a swing for the politically correct route. Commercials and television series try to put a black, white, Asian, and in some case Indian people in more appearances living in perfect harmony. Even a generally black show will have the token white friend or friends. This has been around for years ever since affirmative action. This is a good thing to a certain level because then people and children see a diverse television and it doesn’t brainwash them about race. This was a good idea at the beginning and it started the ball rolling but I think the very idea that it is in place to “level the playing field” means that we have still not grown as a society. I can honestly say that I have no idea how we can move past all racial issues because the question will always be there regardless of if affirmative action is still in place or if its not in place. A black and white guy go out for the same job, one of them will get the job the other of them will not get the job. The guy walking out is going to think to himself, “Did he get that job because he was black and I was white or was he really better than me?” This question is always unavoidable because we as human beings have this annoying ability to rationalize every situation instead of seeing it for what its really worth. Regardless of who gets that job it is a stepping-stone in both of their lives and it points them in a new direction. What they make of it is entirely up to them and society as a whole. Until our world starts realizing that we all share the same air, water, and ground that we walk on there will always be a question of race and there is nothing we can do but hang on for the ride. There will be a time where affirmative action will no longer be needed because hopefully this world will realize that we all share this earth together for a reason, and we are all the same species with the same intentions. To Survive and live on and find our purpose. But even if racism calls in to question we must all remember and opportunity lost is and opportunity gained. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:54:16 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/is-it-possible-for-affirmative-action-to-take-things-too-far-119-blog/#IDComment134337332 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/why-are-black-and-brown-people-more-expressive-of-their-problems-than-white-people-119-blog/#IDComment130743455 I think that black or brown people are more expressive of their problems then white people mostly because on average white people have less life threatening problems that they face on a daily basis. We saw in class that there is certainly a white privilege and that on average the lower classes are primarily filled with people of black or brown color. This means the most abundant people to be complaining about the way their life is would be the black or brown people. But I feel that even if someone is white they still can face these very same problems. But I don’t think the question is black or white and that they are more expressive than each other. I think that the poor and the worse off will always be more expressive than the upper class. Plus who even cares if a billionaire or a wealthy white person is complaining about anything. What would they have to be passionate about? They are going to complain about not being able to afford the beamer and have to settle for a sebring. No one wants to listen to a white person complain about how terrible their life is when we see these people who are suffering to feed their family. A man or woman who is struggling to feed their family or support their family is going to feel ashamed of themselves and in turn they will be very passionate about expressing their problems. They are more likely to speak with heart and passion because their problems effect their very survival instead of just the way the world looks at them. I don’t think its as much of black people are more outspoken than white people but its because of this white privilige that it looks like black or brown people speak more openly about their problems. They just have more problems on average that effect their lives and they have more to worry about. Its not which college will their kid go to its can I get my kid through college can I pay the mortgage, can I put food on the table? These are problems to be passionate about and it is unfortunate that the split has become a race line. There are people with problems all over the world and of all different races. They all will tell you, with a passion, everything they feel is wrong in the world because their world isn’t luxurious it is tough and they must fight to keep their family together and their family happy. But I feel that the difference is the fact that the problems differ and when a problem affects your family and your future you are going to speak more openly and more passionately than when it just affects your image. Plus if someone complains they couldn’t afford a third beamer no one is going to care. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:06:30 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/why-are-black-and-brown-people-more-expressive-of-their-problems-than-white-people-119-blog/#IDComment130743455 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-do-you-feel-about-the-way-people-live-in-america-compared-to-other-places-around-the-world-119-blog/#IDComment128808365 Honestly i think the direction that america is headed is ridiculous because every american is obsessed with a material world. They have become infatuated with the idea of having the highest quality cell phone or computer. We learned to believe that we can not live without electricity or the internet or a cell phone. But in reality in order to survive all human beings need is water, food, and shelter. The elite created government and economy in order for the elite to continue to rule the world. Money isn't real but to most people in todays day and age, money is the most important thing in life. But until we realize that technology is growing far to rapidly for any of us to ever try to control. Eventually computers may take over every job and we as people, as americans, will lose all purpose in life because we constantly have to try to find easier ways to complete any task in order to help us live more leisurely. As an entire society, globally throughout the world, we have lost touch with our planet, ourselves, and especially our original ideals and beliefs. Technology has shadowed all of the bad news in the world. There is so much information out there on the internet to distract the public from any and all bad publicity like the fact that slaves are used all over the world to help produce our unneeded products. This is a vicious cycle and unless we can separate ourselves from these materialistic beliefs we will never end slavery and we will always need to exploit someone to keep our economy going and our people happy. Or at least believe they are happy. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:39:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-do-you-feel-about-the-way-people-live-in-america-compared-to-other-places-around-the-world-119-blog/#IDComment128808365