I agree with the fact that mostly everyone will be considered a racist sometime in their lives. Whether it is jokingly or serious, it is going to happen regardless if you are racist or not. Everyone in the United States already has an advantage over most of the countries in the world. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and have so many resources that are easily accessible to us. It is very easy for a citizen of the United States to brag about how lucky and fortunate we are but that gives us the bad reputation that we hate having. It is reasonable to accept that we are better off than other countries; we just don’t need to be so blunt about it.

I definitely liked Tuesday’s class because even though we all know what happened in Haiti, it is always good to see a different point of view about the situation like Ian did. He allowed me to look at the situation in a different way than I was doing before. It was really eye-opening to see all of the photos and to see how terrible the situation really is down there. I also agree that the best way to help with the situation is to physically send people down to Haiti to help out. Yes, sending money is always going to help the cause, but I feel like if we physically help, hands-on, then the relief would get there quicker than just sending money.

At first after watching the video, I was not really sure what to think about it. It is obviously a completely different view on our education system but I can actually completely understand where he was coming from and what he was trying to portray about our education system. The one thing that bothered me though is that it is not easy to become a teacher. They have to go through a lot of school and training in order to pass on their knowledge to students. I did agree with his point about how we train people to be obedient and conformist and how we do what we are told and stay passive. I think it is also true that people are “filtered out” for their obedience because they do not do what they are told. It is so true that we complete assignments and tasks no matter how stupid they are because that is what we are told to do and that is how we will be eligible to move on to the next level. I remember throughout elementary school, middle school, and even some parts of high school where we were told to complete what seemed to me as unnecessary tasks. We would use to have to do coloring and pointless group projects which at the time just seemed completely useless, but I guess I would not be where I am today if I did not do what I was told and complete these assignments. I would always hate having to do the “busy work” but the students who did not complete it, were the ones whose grade suffered. I think that he makes a great point in saying that this is essentially “selection for obedience” because they ones who never did what they were told were the ones who would get in the most trouble or get sent to the principal’s office. I can see somewhat of a correlation between those who did not do what they were told and those who did because the ones who did not were often the ones who got punished. I feel like no matter what job or occupation you will have, you will have at least one person with whom you will have to listen to and do exactly what they tell you to do. If you do not complete the task you are given, you are going to have to suffer the consequences. I also believe that is it more evident to see the obedience and conformity at the elite universities like he said because these students are pretty much the best of the best. It is always good to see the views of others and I’m sure some people won’t agree with what he has to say, but I think it is a pretty accurate description of our education system.

I definitely thought the play was very interesting coming from a different point of view that you wouldn’t expect. I also thought the discussion about women in class was interesting as well. I definitely agreed with what Laurie had to say about all of the girls on campus here wearing less and less to class. Honestly, it is not appealing. If your ass and boobs are hanging out, it is just disgusting and are already setting a reputation for yourself just by the way you dress. Walking around campus all the time, I see many outfits that girls should not be wearing. Do you look in the mirror before you leave your place?

I think that learning any language other than English is always a good idea. The world is becoming very diverse and more and more people are migrating to the United States. There are many people who speak Chinese and Spanish and even learning a little bit of the language is very beneficial. In the job world today, most employers are going to hire those employees who are bilingual. My high school offered Mandarin, Spanish, Latin, German, and Japanese. We were required to take a minimum of 2 years if we decided to take an alternate language. I would definitely encourage the learning of alternate languages.

I definitely thought yesterdays lecture was one of a kind. This lecture and the points that Sam was throwing out there was completely necessary for everyone to hear. I am glad that Soc 119 is such a large class because more people need to be informed of these issues. I definitely liked how Sam made us look at different perspectives and he allowed us to think outside of the box and get a grasp on different views. I was really able to see the aspects of religion and war from another point of view. Sam isn’t trying to bash Christians and say they are horrible people. He is allowing us to see the view of the Muslims and Arabs because as a society, we view them as evil and violent terrorists. He is showing us how Arabs and Muslims perceive the war because of how they perceive Christians and the mass number of Christians in the world. I thought it was really interesting when Sam showed the pictures of the US soldiers that were carrying weapons and bibles while the Muslims are carrying rocket launchers and the Koran. Almost every United States soldier is Christian and like Bush said, they are all on a crusade. I was really happy when Sam yelled at people for disrespecting the troops at the beginning of class at well. Even if you disagree or are against war, you should be able to show respect for your soldiers because they are putting their lives on the line for everyone. They are fighting for the safety and protection of our country and knowing people who have served in Iraq, they all agree that being in Iraq and fighting is absolutely necessary. The United States Military is doing everything they possibly can and by some of the pictures Sam showed us in class, some of the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan agree that the “USA is Good”. For all of the people that are saying the war is unnecessary, think again. War is inevitable and it needs to happen in order for things to be the way they need to be. Yes, the war is mostly about oil, but the terrorist attack on September 11 also triggered war. The video that we watched in class about the “jihad” was very intense and felt a sense of fear and also a sense of anger. I just could not believe it and it really put some things into prospective for me. I definitely felt afraid of what would happen or what could happen if this really did occur. It is just scary to think that so many people have so much hatred for other people. It makes me angry to realize that there is so much hatred in the world and people don’t realize what they are really fighting for.

I can understand where you are coming from by saying that we should stop buying clothes to try to end slavery but in all reality, I definitely think people would have a hard time with that. Everyone likes to buy their new shoes and new outfits and to “have the new” everything. Another issue is that not all of the slavery in the world is included in producing clothes. What about all the females who are forced to work as prostitutes and all the others that are working on plantations? It is really hard to determine what would be the best step to end slavery.

I was always skeptical about taking this class because I hate when teachers only express one sided views. I still feel like Sam is somewhat one sided but there are times when he does throw in views from the other side. A lot of the things he says are completely outrageous and would never expect to hear from anyone but he does make you think. I feel like a lot of the material is common sense but he allows for us to think about questions and statements that not many people have heard before. Sometimes I hate sitting in his class because I disagree with most of his views, but besides that I have definitely thought about things a lot more.

I always knew there were strange and absurd things in the world, but this definitely throws those over the top. I cannot honestly believe that today there are video games in which girls are depicted as getting raped and that raping a girl is one of the objectives the game. What kind of sick fuck would create a game like this? I just don’t understand how these games were let onto the market in the first place. Obviously a good amount of people know about them too since they are being purchased and casted online. What is the world coming to? There have been a lot of studies to suggest that numerous amounts of violent video games like the war games and fighting games actually led to violent and aggressive behavior. As the war and fighting games are not very realistic because kids are not going to be walking around with real guns shooting people, the game about rape is actually relevant to real life because unfortunately, rape occurs very often. This may sound like a dumb assumption but for the people playing the games, is this going to lead to more aggression towards women? Or is it going to lead to men taking advantage of women more commonly because the objective of the video game is to grope and rape a woman. I really would like to know what the person who created this video game was thinking. Did they really find it necessary to have the objective of the game to rape a woman? Why is the Japanese government allowing for these types of things to be out in their market? This whole situation just does not make sense to me. There are already enough issues in the world and women are still fighting for their rights so I definitely think this game is not going to help anybody out. The reporter could not even show us some of the graphics from the game because of how degrading and vulgar they were. This game is pretty much showing that if a female messes with you or does something you do not like, it is ok for you to rape and grope her in public. It was ironic as well because some of the locations to where the female was standing were sketchy as hell. I feel like the creator of this game knows a little too much about what places are good for a female to get raped and groped. I honestly think that there is an increasing amount of sexual assaults or harassments in Japan because of what is out on their market today. I really think their government needs to figure out how to regulate the things that are getting put out on their market.

The video was definitely interesting but unfortunately, people get offended by anything so easily. The people who create the census are trying to make it so it satisfies everyone but as we all know, that can never be possible. The people who create the census put a lot of time and research into it so they can try to make it as accurate for people as possible. There are so many different people with so many different backgrounds. The way that some people identify themselves as probably will not be on the census because they cannot have a description for everyone.