en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3090249 Comments by brigidelizabeth http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170518625 I was shocked to know that affirmative action really benefited white women the most and hence benefited the white man most of the time. I always thought it was people of color in bad neighborhoods who benefited the most, mainly African American females. Even though I know that there are “white trash” people out there who live off food stamps and struggle to survive, I never thought that affirmative action could be directed towards them, let alone benefit them the most! This was probably what was the most shocking to me this lecture even though it does make sense. I just never would have thought that but now understand it. Also I didn’t know that only about 10% of people actually benefited from AA. That is not that big a number in retrospect, and it shows, as Professor Richards said, that unlike what some of us think, AA will not destroy our chances at getting a job or getting into a school, it really doesn’t affect us that much. It helps in some stances getting equality out there in some ways. Another thing that was great was the first video Professor Richards played that was from Oprah’s show. Seeing the blatant inequality and unfair advantages given to suburban private schools compared to intercity public schools was pretty unnerving. The intercity public school children had beaten up school facilities and basically no resources compared to the suburban private schools that had top of the line everything. It seemed almost impossible for the intercity kids to even consider reaching the same goals as most of the suburban kids could easily get to. This was because the public schools had few resources to allow them to succeed far. It was like they could do nothing about it too. It is sad and so unfair for them and you could tell just from the firsthand accounts of the intercity public school kids how upset they were. They actually saw how little they had and how blatantly unfair it was. In a system like this, you can’t help but wonder, as Professor Richards posted for us, how can we fix this inequality somehow? Affirmative Action is one way to try to alleviate this inequality and help out people who are struggling. I at first did not fully like the idea of Affirmative Action because the government seemed to be interfering too much in freedoms of choice, but when I learned more about Nepotism and how it is basically the same thing as AA, I realize it is a good idea. We do nepotism in almost every business and every school etc. Nepotism gives a person the upper hand at something in unfair means, as does AA. We need to accept both and realize that it is hard to make everyone equal. Thu, 7 Jul 2011 03:49:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170518625 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170183232 I thought the same thing. When I first thought of Affirmative Action before this class I thought it was just giving a minority the upper hand and I wasn’t exactly a fan of it. I thought it was kind of unfair to automatically give them an advantage even if we have equal records. Now I know that it is basically necessary and how without it we would be stuck in an unequal and unfair playing field, more so than it is with it. We do need improvements for it, but we can’t get rid of it all together I agree. Wed, 6 Jul 2011 05:39:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170183232 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment168487667 During these talks on immigration, I have come to realize that this is such a tangled and complex issue today and has been for centuries. Immigration hasn’t changed much and you would think that certain steps or policies would be passed to improve some of the problems. I know that the part of this lecture that stood out the most with me and resonated in me was the story of Jorge Munoz. This man is truly an angel like the one man in the video said. It makes us step back and re-evaluate our own lives when we see someone so selfless and giving helping out these poor immigrants every single day. And it isn’t just the fact that he is giving them food. He is giving his whole life basically to help these strangers on the streets. These homeless immigrants on the streets are helpless and sometimes don’t eat for days. We might pass them and think “get a job” or “they are filth” or “go back to your country.” These are just ignorant thoughts even though I’m sure many of us think them. We think they are lazy, yet they are the ones who came to this foreign land in search of a new life to support their family. They are the innovators and the industrious people. And Jorge sacrifices almost everything in his life to give these people just a little bit of food. Touching quotes from that video almost made me cry when the mother said “going to sleep hungry is awful” which made me really think about that and actually get sad. It is terrible, but Jorge and his family are inspirational and amazing people. Jorge said “you have to see their smile that’s the way I get paid.” It is beautiful how kind some people can be. Just the fact that he can look past the fact that they are illegal immigrants (probably because he was one so he can relate) and just feed them food and help a person in need out is great. It reminds me of my boss at the deli I work at. She owns the building and is a landlord to the entire building. She has about 8 illegal immigrants living above us, and she lets them eat sometimes for cheaper and protects them virtually. I remember thinking it was risky and she was crazy for doing it, but still thought it was kind of her. Now I can parallel her to Jorge and find her almost as a role model citizen just out of her kindness and love. I am not saying illegal immigration is okay, but these people are suffering a lot and they are people like you and me, so we could try to be a little more understanding because immigration is not going anywhere anytime soon. Fri, 1 Jul 2011 00:20:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment168487667 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment168483989 I think you said it best when you summed up your post saying “we do not have to agree with immigration, illegal or legal, but we need to understand what it means to immigrate for the immigrants and us.” That is probably tea mil issue everyone has with immigration. They argue over if it is right or not, but at this point we need to realize that people are struggling every day to find food and survive, and we need to just treat people better and understand that immigration has been occurring for years and years and it isn’t going anywhere. Fri, 1 Jul 2011 00:03:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment168483989 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090830 Another survey that stood out to me was the one that asked how often have you shared a meal in the home of someone of a different race? It is true that a lot of us can say that we have friends of different races or know a lot of other raced people, but to actually go to their home and share a meal with them is different. The numbers don’t like too, and the majority of people rarely have eaten with another race at their home. It is so weird how we are so hesitant to commit ourselves to different races. In turn, however, the question of if you were open to a marriage with someone of another race ancestry group was kind of contradictory to this entire lecture. Most said they would with 35% saying strongly agree and 36% saying they agree. I find this pretty awesome and pretty weird how we are willing to fall in love with a different race, yet we are hesitant towards most in terms of living with them and having them in our country. Just made me think I guess. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:32:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090830 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090782 I just put myself in an immigrant or foreign person’s shoes and say I went to a different country that I didn’t know the language and there was a sign like that for me. I would be so embarrassed and wouldn’t know what to do. It would be hurtful and I would think that that country really hates foreigners and I would come back home and tell people that. It gives America such a bad reputation, but according to most of the statistics Sam gave in class, this is pretty much how most Americans feel. We want all of the foreigners to conform and assimilate; however, we want them to do it on their own time and not around us. It is quite hypocrisy if you ask me. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:32:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090782 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090437 I just put myself in an immigrant or foreign person’s shoes and say I went to a different country that I didn’t know the language and there was a sign like that for me. I would be so embarrassed and wouldn’t know what to do. It would be hurtful and I would think that that country really hates foreigners and I would come back home and tell people that. It gives America such a bad reputation, but according to most of the statistics Sam gave in class, this is pretty much how most Americans feel. We want all of the foreigners to conform and assimilate; however, we want them to do it on their own time and not around us. It is quite hypocrisy if you ask me. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:31:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090437 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090382 So certain aspects of this lecture caught my attention. I liked how there were a lot of surveys in the first lecture done of the Soc 119 class. The one survey that sat with me was the one that asked if you entered a store and the clerk didn’t speak you’re language how would you feel. The answers to this were pretty predictable because most people are still weirdly afraid of other cultures and want people to assimilate. Sam said, however, that we should all have no sense of discomfort when it comes to different languages. We don’t need to be afraid or uncomfortable because this is just silly it is just someone speaking. It made me think about how in Philly there is the famous steak place called Geno’s that has the racist logo of “This is America, when ordering ‘SPEAK ENGLISH!’” This is so ridiculous and dumb. And I know many people that agree with this bull. My own roommate has a t-shirt with that exact logo on it. I mean yeah it is funny but do they understand how offensive it really is? Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:31:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168090382 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168073580 I totally agree with you. It confuses me why so many people have to make it an issue if someone is LGBT. I think that that is their personal choice and really has nothing to do with anyone else but themselves. They are still people like you and me and no greater or lesser a human. It is just so ignorant to act different around them or make them uncomfortable. It is not a choice and if they could choose most probably would choose straight so that they could avoid such criticisms from society daily. I just feel so bad for them and think it is so unfair and hate when people make ignorant jokes about it. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:50:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168073580 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521640 One last thing that stirred my interest during this lecture was a comment made by a boy who said his roommates didn’t like Asian people in America and thought they should speak “American” in America. This same exact ignorant comment came up when I attended a World in Conversation discussion group. There as an Taiwan girl in our group and she said her friends spoke Chinese and Taiwan all the time to each other but she wants them to speak English and we asked her why they don’t speak English and what her thought were. She said something that upset me and made me feel badly. She said that some of her friends have very strong accents and are embarrassed to talk in class or around other English speaking people because they don’t want to be made fun of. Her best friend experienced it in a CAS class and has since been even more scared to speak English out of fear of being made fun of. It made me feel so different and so guilty. We are so quick to judge people and don’t put ourselves in their shoes. I always speak out against comments about language with Asians now at Penn State. Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:48:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521640 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521232 One last thing that stirred my interest during this lecture was a comment made by a boy who said his roommates didn’t like Asian people in America and thought they should speak “American” in America. This same exact ignorant comment came up when I attended a World in Conversation discussion group. There as an Taiwan girl in our group and she said her friends spoke Chinese and Taiwan all the time to each other but she wants them to speak English and we asked her why they don’t speak English and what her thought were. She said something that upset me and made me feel badly. She said that some of her friends have very strong accents and are embarrassed to talk in class or around other English speaking people because they don’t want to be made fun of. Her best friend experienced it in a CAS class and has since been even more scared to speak English out of fear of being made fun of. It made me feel so different and so guilty. We are so quick to judge people and don’t put ourselves in their shoes. I always speak out against comments about language with Asians now at Penn State. Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:47:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521232 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521179 In terms of the Pre-Awakening stage for colored people, it is clear now that they are not in this stage as much as white people are because they experience white supremacy on a daily basis almost when they were born. What stood out the most to me was the example of the girl like me video. It was sad hearing all the black stereotypes on girls and showing how so many black girls felt ugly or terrible about themselves because they weren’t as white as other black people or how their skin was kinky. It was also awful to know that a lot of black people use skin bleachers just to look more “beautiful” and white. What gives us the right to decide what is beautiful and lighter is more beautiful?? The biggest shocker of this video was definitely the experiment with the baby dolls. When most of the black children in the study chose the white doll as the one that is good and the one that they liked when given a black and a white doll to choose from, I was shocked. Even more remarkable was, when asked which baby doll was bad; almost all said the black one, even if they were black. They were then asked which was like them and they chose the black doll which inadvertently showed that they saw themselves as bad just from their skin color they were born with. It is so sad. Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:47:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521179 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521052 This week’s lecture dealt with a very different spectrum of the race card for me: the colored person’s perspective. It was interesting comparing what we already learned from the white perspective of their racial identity to the beginnings of the colored person’s different stages. One small side note that I thought was kind of interesting was how right off the back professor Richards mentioned that gay, lesbian, or transgendered people may relate to people of color in these identity stages because they are dealing with similar discriminations. I would not have thought that being gay or transgendered would be correlated to the feelings of colored people, but I guess it is true since they have to struggle with the torment and feelings of being different on a daily basis almost. Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:46:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165521052 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165520943 I thought the study done by the high school student with the baby dolls was also very surprising and sad. When the black children almost always chose the white doll to play with even when given a black doll to play with, I thought it was strange. You would think that they would pick their own color baby doll but they didn’t majority of the time. This is indeed taught to them through society and ingrained in their brains at a young age that black is bad and white is good. I find it very disturbing and it clearly shows that white supremacy does reign today and starts right from birth. Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:46:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165520943 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164395419 I love these lectures on whiteness and understanding our whiteness and accepting it. White never ever wants to be seen as racist people so they either resort to political correctness or avoid the issues in order to not offend anyone. White people and many other people don’t realize that being prejudice and racist is very hard to avoid because it sometimes happens unconsciously and we don’t even notice we are being racist. Also, different things offend different people so it is very difficult to please everyone. It is sometimes not even in our control and can be just from our environment or from our up brings. The video where the two twins were singing was very weird. This showed how racism is seen from one generation to the next. If our parents are big racists and the kids are only surrounded by racism, it is sometimes hard to not be racist. This is sad and is the reason that some terrible racism still exists. If we can break away from our own race and try to understand other religions, then we will be so much better off, because the world is made of so many different people. The stages of our racial identity are important to reach. Getting even past the Awakening stage is probably difficult for most people because we don’t know what to do once we know that there is a problem and we practice political correctness in order to avoid offending anyone. I think that after this class, I have stepped up the ladder of the race identity stages. I wasn’t stuck in the Pre-Awakening stage because I have been exposed to many issues of colored people in Philadelphia and with my roommates and I know that there are terrible problems today. Inequality is ridiculous and I have been awakened to them through personal experience and through classes. I am no longer in the Awakening stage because I have learned that we can feel guilt or we can try to work through the problems. Even though I may avoid certain issues with race, I don’t in general anymore. My roommates and I would talk about our personal race issues all the time and compare what we have been through racially. I had a black and an Asian roommate so it was so great getting to know their side of the story. I feel so bad for the inequality in our world towards black people and for other minorities and I think that now I will take steps to let people know these inequalities. If someone says something ignorant like “can they stop pulling the race card, slavery is over and we are all free now” I will quickly let them know how unequal colored people are just from learning about the imprisonment rates and the stats on jobs between blacks and whites. It is clear that there are inequalities, and I want to change that the best I can by acknowledging it and by teaching others about it and finally by getting to know people based solely on their personality and by their person, not by their race. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:39:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164395419 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164391965 i like how you brought up black supremecy and if it exists. this is something i haven't really thought of but it is true it probably does exist but maybe deals more with religion in some countries that discriminate on religion. Also like your last comment. hahaha i always use washcloths too. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:25:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164391965 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164389328 I agree with you in terms of judging people just on the people they are and not by their race or skin color. Even though you have more experience with race since you are simply older than me and had more time, I still have done a similar thing. I came to Penn State and surrounded myself with a diverse group of friends because of the clubs I have been in, and the roommates I have had. I come into a new situation with a new person of a different race openly. I personally actually like being friends with different races because it interests me and I want to learn about their culture and their customs because I know very little since I am white. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:12:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164389328 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162988398 Thinking about whiteness is not a common practice for me and for most white people because we don’t really talk about it. This lecture made me think about it more and brought up a lot of questions that I still don’t really know the answers to. After hearing this lecture I actually thought back to last year when I had to partake in the World in Conversation discussion for my one class. We had to do this one-hour discussion group about race with random people and at first I really didn’t want to go and thought it was going to be a waste of time. After sitting in on it, however, I was so glad they made us do it. In the discussion, our got very personal and dug deep into race issues, but the main topic that stuck with me was about whiteness. Our TA who was running the discussion asked all of us why doesn’t we says we are white when someone asks what are we? We constantly identify with our culture instead of our race. Like if someone asked me what I was I would say Irish not white. It is like we are not proud of our race like black people or Latinos are who openly express their pride. I know here at Penn State there are clubs and organizations that are called things like Black Student Union or Black Cultural Fair, (made up) but you never see a club or organization saying White Student Union for example. It would seem bizarre and discriminatory but at the same time many other races do that. There are Italian clubs and Irish clubs but never white clubs. I think the main reason for our lack of talking about or embracing our race is because of how racist we have been towards other races. It is almost like we don’t want to recognize the fact that we did those things and we don’t want to come off as racist by being proud of our race. Its like if we start talking about the whiteness we might feel like we are bragging or being more discriminating so we just ignore it. Blacks embrace their race because they had to overcome so many torments based on solely their skin color in the past. We are the ones that did the harm, so we feel embarrassed almost by our race even though we probably like being white. I enjoy being white and am happy to be white but I never say that or talk about that. Again I think about whiteness like I did from that discussion in the fall, and I feel like I want to talk about being white more and break away from this weird embarrassment. Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:21:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162988398 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162984946 I felt the same way. I never think about my whiteness like most people who are white, and this lecture made me ask questions about my own skin color that I never thought about before. It is so weird how we don’t talk about our whiteness really at all, and I am glad that Richards put these questions into my head. I’m sure if I were a minority I would think about race and my skin color more often because of discrimination and prejudices, but for most whites it is different. I think asking ourselves what it means to be white and how our whiteness affects us can be the starting point to opening our eyes to discrimination on other races. Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:04:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162984946 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160808099 I totally agree. The part of the lecture that shocked me the most was about the World War II Vets low interest rate loans and grants. I also was disgusted at how the United State, with all its freedom and social justice, only gave out about 100 of the 67,000 loans to colored Vets. They fought in the same war and served with the same amount of bravery and honor as the white Vets, and yet they received such racism and disrespect in terms of these loans. It is shameful and pure racism. It makes us realize how truly unequal and unfair our free country was and still is in some ways. Thu, 9 Jun 2011 01:33:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160808099