en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2407779 Comments by cjbright219 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/would-you-help-someone-illegal-immigrate-into-the-country-why-or-why-not-119-blog/#IDComment145207094 I would definitely help someone illegally immigrate into the country. Especially, if I knew they tried to immigrate legally but were unable to because of laws or other circumstances. This is America. We forget sometimes that this country is founded by the idea of freedom of speech and religion which has drawn people here from around the world for centuries. One of my favorite quotes comes from a White Stripes song titled Icky Thump, where Jack White sings, “White Americans, what, nothing better to do? Why don’t you kick yourself out you’re an immigrant too.” There is no one in the United States, save the few Native Peoples, who would be here if it were not for immigration. My ancestors came to America to have a more prosperous life and to pursue happiness as people do now (and hopefully will in the future because if this country is prosperous people will want to continue to come). Some are so concerned for the well being of their family here that they are willing to risk anything to provide for them. How many of us would leave our family and friends, forget about our own lives, work long hours for low wages just to put food on our families plates. I don’t think anyone can argue that this doesn’t show selfless and courage, qualities that Americans traditionally admire. If I could help an alien into America illegally, there would be a whole family grateful for my service, which to me is worth the inherent risk. Immigrants are important to this country, even the illegal ones; their benefit to the economy is extraordinary. As we learned in class, many businesses in the United States rely upon undocumented immigrants to survive in a market where any cost you can save (in this case labor costs) allows you to sell your product cheaper and compete in a global economy. Plus, I think it is sobering for Americans to realize that jobs are not a god given right. If you aren’t willing to work as hard as an illegal immigrant then a firm shouldn’t hire you; period. Why should you get an unfair advantage? Because you were born here? Come on, you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for your hard working ancestors coming, just like immigrants today, to this land to better their lives. I personally wouldn’t want to be given a job if I didn’t think I were the best person for it, if I didn’t think I earned it, if I didn’t think I would work hard and do a good job. Sometimes I look at my peers and see an attitude like I should get what I want without sacrificing too much, especially time and effort. I think our culture has taught us that we can be lazy because we have it good. We can’t take our blessings for granted because if we do other nations are going to continue to surpass us in economy, standard of living, and technology. I think we can all learn from immigrants. We should welcome them and help them. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:27:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/would-you-help-someone-illegal-immigrate-into-the-country-why-or-why-not-119-blog/#IDComment145207094 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142373615 Basically my sister began where my uncle left off which he spent his whole career working up to. Nepotism isn’t fair, but will continue no matter how much effort you put into battling it. You shouldn’t ignore it and reap the rewards thinking I’m the best because I succeeded but at the same time you shouldn’t deny it because it is unfortunate you were able to achieve what someone else who might be more qualified didn’t. The best way to hinder nepotism is to understand it and the way it has affected you. Then when you are in a position later in life where you have the opportunity to give something you can be aware that there is a person whom you have a connection with and a person who is more qualified. Hopefully then you can do the right thing. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:37:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142373615 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142373554 . I don’t think nepotism is fair but not taking advantage of it isn’t reasonable. After all we are taking advantage of so many other resources every day which are few and far between in most countries. It’s not fair. I shouldn’t live a better life because I was born in the U.S., any more than I should live a better life because I am going to be a white male with a family whom are well liked among the community. I have connections to employers and educators that I don’t even know because my parents are friends with them and they’re friends with some other people in some other town. My sister got her first internship with Voice of America in Washington D.C. Why, Because of nepotism. My uncle worked for the firm before he retired so it was essentially a guarantee. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:36:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142373554 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142373423 Nepotism is around every corner and behind every door. Thus, I have inevitably been affected by nepotism since I was a child and will continue to be especially in the years ahead when I leave school and enter the workforce. Along the way I have despised it like I did when playing baseball and the coach’s son got more at bats and fielding time than I did. Yet I know that I have also enjoyed the benefits of it too, as I did the other day when I received notice I had job if I wanted it for the upcoming summer. As a white male though, I think I sometimes take for granted how much nepotism works in my favor, just the same as I expect the water I use every day to be nearly unlimited and overly purified to insure my safety. I think it is merely human tendency to want to say I achieved a goal, and did it entirely by myself, but with the current communication and interaction between people across the globe this is not true. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:36:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142373423 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142372715 Our water supply and sewage treatment were two of the most extraordinary infrastructure systems on the earth at one time in the United States history and are still by and large impressive today. The two systems have greatly influenced the increasing life expectancy among people in this country for generations. Yet I know not every country, not even most countries, have as good or expansive of water and sewage systems as we enjoy and often take for granted. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:32:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142372715 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/how-do-you-feel-about-president-obamas-use-of-money-in-comparison-to-haiti-119-blog/#IDComment141093837 Not to be disrespectful toward this guy's opinions but I would be extremely interested in conversing and enlightening him on how huge his misconceptions are. First, let me say having a family member who previously held a position in the local government of my home county, few know how much funding is truly required to run a campaign let alone a successful one. I feel like this guy is bashing on Obama cause he doesn't like him for some other reason, because let's be honest few people would hesitate spending any amount of money to secure the presidency of the United States. Republicans and Democrats alike raise astonishing amounts of money for their campaign and I will agree this is unfortunate to have come to this, where the candidate who can raise the most funding generally wins in sectors where there is fairly balanced diversity of voters. However this being said, the candidate who has the greater support from the people generally receives the most funding, and its not like this money is going to waste. Does he understand how many people are going to be employed this november by President Obama's campaign. Secondly, I would like to point out, the incumbent officer almost never has to raise as much money (even when his approval rating is below 50% in his district) to be reelected as their opponent. So saying Obama is the problem shows an extraordinary amount of ignorance. Does he know how much his opponents will be raising to try and overtake the office. The problem of campaign spending is mostly due to lobbyists. I'm not entirely sure of their significance, yet it is my understanding during campaigns it is their job to (employed by a company) to throw as much money into a candidates campaign as necessary. With the promise that in return the official will help the company prosper once elected. Not only is this bribery and unethical, it has a direct influence on who is elected which seems belittling to me as a voter because I play a less important role in deciding my governments position holders. Lastly I would like to say that this isn't 'just a job' as the guy in the video mentioned (I hope he was saying this just to back his argument). The person that gets elected isn't interested in getting payed 400 grand a year because if they do get the presidency they could not make a single dollar for the rest of their life and live a much better life than the average American. Everything is handed to them, and their is always a person paying for their expenses so money is definitely not the reason. The true reason is more obvious, the President of the United States is one if not the most powerful men on the face of the earth. So to answer this guy's question fully, yes I am glad President Obama is spending this money to get reelected because he is an honest, well intentioned President, and I don't want to have another screw-up wielding that much power in my like and the lives of individual all across the world. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 21:31:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/how-do-you-feel-about-president-obamas-use-of-money-in-comparison-to-haiti-119-blog/#IDComment141093837 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/31/if-we-lived-in-a-female-centered-world-what-words-would-be-used-to-describe-sex-119-blog/#IDComment139284053 I hadn't really thought about this topic much until Sam and Lori brought male centered sex to my attention, and at the beginning of the lecture they hadn't convinced me. Yet, as they went deeper (no pun intended) into exactly what they meant, it made me think about the 'needy penis' and what message they were trying to emphasize through language. Sometimes we arbitrarily accept slang terms, and correct terms for that matter, which may not have the best connotations and we repeat them not out of agreement but merely to be understood. If you are using a different word for the same object or action then the person next to you communication about that particular thing becomes as defying as speaking in different tongues. However often times we should step back and analyze our usage of certain terms because it can be damaging to some people if we use terms which most people associate as negative or condescending. This is very much the case with sex and can have an much more extensive impact on girls and women then I think we often realize. Violent words like slam and bang sound masculine and cool to a guy but sound frightening and painful his counterpart. Like Sam and Lori explained there is a pressure from a male centered society to always be thinking about sex and for girls to want to have sex as frequently and limitlessly as guys but this absurd if you think about it. Sam said men 'won' but if we truly won and girls would just go around having sex with every and any guy, most everyone would have a sexually transmitted disease right now. I didn't realize how prevalent these words were until last night after the lecture I flipped on the television and a girl described another girl who hadn't had sex in a month as frigid a term that I didn't even know existed until this lecture. Can you blame girls for not wanting to have sex as much as a guy. Guys and girls alike use works like pussy, cunt, and vagina to refer to someone you dislike. And the use of slut and whore is so extensive that I think that alone would stop me from having sex if I were a woman. All of these terms are demeaning and have tremendous subconscious denotations. Sure you could call someone a dick but its not quite as offensive and usually implies only that they were being rude not that they have a character flaw. In a female dominated sex society, these words would have completely different meanings or may not exist at all and girls could be more open about how they are feeling sexually. It might actually be a good thing for men if they tried. Sure, it would be less focused on the male and pleasing him but many females would no longer have some negative stigmas about sex and therefore they would be inclined to have sex more frequently if it were pleasurable for them. This would inadvertently benefit guys because they would get laid more. Now who's not on board with that plan? So guys should work on eliminating these words, meeting their partners needs, and just being more open about it because it would be in everyones best interest if sex was a genderless thing. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 03:31:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/31/if-we-lived-in-a-female-centered-world-what-words-would-be-used-to-describe-sex-119-blog/#IDComment139284053 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-factors-in-your-race-make-it-difficult-to-date-outside-your-race-119-blog/#IDComment136911200 Interracial and interfaith couple face some enormous challenges but I am glad to hear, as Sam said, they are the fastest growing relationships in the United States. I believe it is important people get diminish the negative feelings between other races and religious groups, and what better way to do so then blurring the lines further between who is "us" and who is "them". First, I think everyone who doesn't support interracial and/or interfaith marriages needs to remove themselves from their emotions and look at the hypocrisy of what they believe to be a truth, their own relationship. Almost no one has a true mono-racial relationship or marriage because not all white, brown, and black people are alike. Much like Sam professed earlier in the year, you may have more in common genetically with a black or brown man than do you with a white man (if you are black or brown flip it). The majority of my ancestors were of German origin as far back as we have been able to trace my lineage, however, my parents, nor most white people find fault with me marrying a woman of Greek ancestry. In fact, most of them would not ever learn enough about the two of us to realize we had a completely different genetic pool. However, my parents though they have raised me to be considerate to all races would I'm sure fear for my life if I were to marry a Mexican, Asian, or an African. Not because they would have trouble accepting my spouse as a member of the family but because they are aware of the prejudice I would face in our the current society. Which brings me to my next hypothesis as to why people an interracial or interfaith relationship is forbidding. Most of us, whether we are willing to admit it or not, care about how society views us and we are daunted by the idea of social dislike to the choices we have made in our life. We often have preconceived ideas of exactly how we will be viewed before we embrace a situation. This is stupid. After all, Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers once said, "You never know just how you look through other people's eyes". Although I believe this it would be hard to convince others to share my outlook and to some extend I'm being hypocritical because I have never been on a date with a woman of another color or religion. Lastly I would like to propose the factor which might pose the greatest difficulty to interracial or interfaith couples. I believe this is what is stopping me from marrying a woman who is not Christian, even though I do not attend services frequently and am unsure of my faith. I was raised by Christian parents and have a comfortable understanding of the faith but if I were to date a Muslim or Hindu girl I would need to learn a whole new religion, whether she wanted me to adopt it or not, and likewise she would have to learn Christianity to truly know me. The idea of comfort translates to race because in a parallel frame of mind you would need to learn a new culture. Comfort is the key, without comfort the relationship couldn't truly succeed. I feel as a nation we are realizing our fears and thus trying to conquer them. This is the only explanation I have for an increase in mixed relationships in the United States. I truly hope this trend continues and I hope I have the opportunity to expand my comfort zone someday by dating a black or brown girl. I think it should be common place for everyone to date outside of their arbitrary "race" because there would be no stigma associated with and interracial or interfaith marriages. A white and a black couple would be just another family. Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:30:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-factors-in-your-race-make-it-difficult-to-date-outside-your-race-119-blog/#IDComment136911200 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/how-do-irrelevant-racial-signifiers-affect-racial-stereotypes-119-blog/#IDComment135962245 Unnecessary racial signifiers, by my observation, are understandably less frequently used in State College then in my hometown, which is predominately white, but nonetheless need to be examined. From a white male’s perspective it seems apparent to me this would be the case, not necessarily because everyone where I lived was a discriminatory prick, but because it is easy to describe someone among your friends. When there are only a few people of that particular racial group in your community, no one frowns upon saying, “The Asian girl is going to be valedictorian.” even when it is not appropriate to the conversation. I realize there is more bigotry in my hometown then here at school, yet racial signifiers and even discriminatory behavior are far from abolished at Penn State. Not surprising given, the University was founded on agriculture, a profession which in the north has been dominated by whites of a lower socio-economic class. Even I use unnecessary racial signifiers and have often caught myself saying “my black professor” (like this somehow changes his character), even though he is arguably the most knowledgeable and competent teachers I have had at Penn State. On a more quantifiable note, irrelevant racial signifiers seem to be employed most prominently in situations where the specific person being signified is not fulfilling his/her stereotypical role. For instance, in a professional basketball setting, one may refer to a Caucasian player as “that white guy,” whereas a black player would most likely receive no signifier in this case, and would thus be referred to as simply a “player.” Getting back to the original inquiry, about the effect of racial signifiers on stereotypes, I believe they can only reinforce them. Which in turn, probably with societies current view would be considered negative. Usually to some extent racial signifiers are used, whether consciously or not, to back up a stereotype. For instance, Sam used the example in class of him telling a story where someone cut in front of him while driving and almost hit him and he mentioned it was a woman. And whether he was conscious of it or not it helped in no way the widely used stereotype, women are worse drivers then men. Also, I often hear when talking about doctors, or others in the medical field, people unnecessarily say that they are Indian. I’m sure people are not doing this to be hurtful towards anyone race, ethnicity, sex, or culture but rather they do it to support what they have heard about a particular group in both their minds and the minds of others. I don’t always agree that racial signifiers are a terrible thing, but they people should use them sparingly and in a context that does not promote stereotypes. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:36:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/how-do-irrelevant-racial-signifiers-affect-racial-stereotypes-119-blog/#IDComment135962245 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134337713 I believe population increase is a huge problem and as the guy who posed the question stated needs to be addressed in the near or immediate future. Too often, I think we wait to solve a problem until the time we encounter it. In fact, our government is sort of structured that way, to only act when is absolutely necessary. If we can look twenty, fifty, or a hundred years in the future and say here are some challenges that might be emerging then we could potentially deal with these problems before they are ever encountered. Obvious drawbacks occur though in the process. First, you cannot solve future problems without neglecting some present ones. And second, it’s hard to justify the spending of resources if you cannot – which you cannot – be certain of the future. Estimates say, in the next 100 years the population could nearly double and this is definitely a crisis we should begin talking about now, keeping in mind though, this is an estimate, nothing more. No one can say the size of the population for sure in 2110 because there are a ridiculous number of factors that could change this in a matter of days (ex. disease, natural disasters, and nuclear threats). The guy who queried the question suggested controlling the population with very strong government intervention like the Chinese Republic has had in place for a number of years. Such as, limiting the number of children you can have and at what age you can have them. This is a plausible solution but would be widely disputed in this nation and may be unnecessary. The United States actually has one of lowest population percentage increases in the nation because our culture has increasingly favored having small families and having children only after gaining financial security and job stability. The population increase in our country is at record lows and continues do decline as it has done so since the baby boom. In other countries like China and India however, these are probably policies that are for the best to adopt if we want to continue to be able to feed, cloth, and shelter as high of a percentage of people around the world as we do today. Population control is a strange issue because it is lives you’re dealing with, yours, his, hers, and mine. Natural selection once solved it but with advancements in medical techniques and increased awareness of cleanliness this has become a much more complicated issue because of low child mortalities and long life expectancies. However, I believe a time will come when we have a new form of selection due to lack of space and resources. So maybe little or no restrictions should be placed on family size. In short, I think the message I would like to get across on the issue is that we need to be thinking about population control but not be over anxious to instate any policies which are too drastic because they could be more of a determent to humanity than a savior. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:56:44 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134337713 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/do-you-think-his-lighter-skin-gets-him-ahead-in-society-119-blog/#IDComment130413237 Finding out how society would feel about him as apposed to a darker skin African American or Caucasian American would not only be tough but I imagine would be tremendously blurred. First I think it would be hard to do studies like the ones we’ve seen in class about employers hiring whites more often than blacks because if you have a group of lighter skinned African Americans and they don’t get hired as often as a group of white “controls” one can’t decipher whether how much was due to racial inequality between blacks and whites. If I had to guess myself I would say that his light skin will not benefit him but in contrast it would be more likely to be a determent to his opportunity to get hired because neither white nor black employers would want him. White employers would see an African American and would hire the white man next to him most of the time. Black employers would see a man with probably some white blood in him and hire the darker skinned man next to him most of the time. It may be possible to do accurate controlled studies on this and I would be interested in knowing the outcome yet this is the outcome I would predict. But I’d like to also point out that there are many other forms of discrimination which occur outside of just getting a job, getting a loan from the bank, and buying a house. One example, which I believe also greatly affects society’s acceptance of an individual, is connections. In this respect I believe the lighter skinned man in the video would definitely have an advantage in a predominately ‘white’ thinking society. It seems to me, he would be more likely to have white friends and he might even be more accepted in white circles because whites feel they can’t be openly discriminatory to him while in black circles he might feel out of place because I believe blacks don’t have the mentality that they need to watch their words to the same extent as whites do. So in this respect he might benefit from being slightly lighter in skin color. However, it be nearly impossible to determine to what extent that would affect his life. The truth of the matter is, it plays both a positive and negative roll in his life in the factors that are outside of his control. The factors in his control, such as the decisions he has made and his work ethic, would be much more evident in deciding his future. This is why it would be so hard to say to what degree his skin color played in his acceptance in society because even if one could decide how it affected him in one situation, it might be completely opposite in another situation. Race inequality is one of those things you just can’t change so you just have to do the best you can and from there just pray. Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:00:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/do-you-think-his-lighter-skin-gets-him-ahead-in-society-119-blog/#IDComment130413237 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-can-we-make-people-more-aware-of-the-slavery-that-is-still-going-on-119-blog/#IDComment129034381 To me, it is surprising people know so little about slavery in the world today including myself. When Sam asked us whether we felt guilty about this or not my first reaction was yes of course but the as I thought about it some more I thought why am I just now learning about this now. I have had fourteen years of schooling, I read news posts all the time, and grew up in a house where watching the six o’clock news is as frequent of an occurrence as eating supper. Its not like I have been hiding from the truth all these years. It makes me angry. I feel like I have been lied to in some way by the media, or society, or the government, or someone. How can we as a nation produce hundreds of millions of dollar in aid for Tsunami victims when the media decides to make it the front story but yet we can turn our back on slavery around the world where people aren’t enduring hardship for a couple of months their struggling with it everyday of their lives. I felt like Sam pushed on us and said we were all to blame and to a certain extend that’s true but I don’t believe we are that immoral as a society. I do, however, think our actions are directly based on the media attention of a news event. If all of the major news distributors (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) would get together and say tonight we aren’t going to broadcast anything except for slavery in the present day world, I think in the course of the next couple of weeks Americans could really make a difference in the frequency and brutality of slavery around the world and ultimately try to achieve a goal to end slavery everywhere. We have done great things in the past when called upon. But there’s something stopping this from happening, business. I believe business and economic benefit will tremendously hinder this from ever happening unless people start to push back. Why would companies want to stop slavery, it means more profit for them. Why would media want to challenge industry, it could be tremendously detrimental to their ratings. Why would politicians want to bring the situation to light, it would immediately cause business to withdraw any funding they have contributed and thus would surely be the end of his or her career. It is extremely ironic. Americans continue to fund slavery even though most are in strong opposition with because they are unaware of their affect, yet they will never become aware of the subject unless they stop funding corporations that promote slavery. Only then can media bring attention to the subject further, and only then can Washington, and other governments around the world step in and say lets put an end to this once and for all. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 04:20:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-can-we-make-people-more-aware-of-the-slavery-that-is-still-going-on-119-blog/#IDComment129034381 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127152682 I agree with Sam when thinking about my own situation. Both choices that I have made and factors outside of my control have led me to where I am today and will continue to guide me the rest of my life. I’m not sure if the two of them had equal weight or power in affecting me however I’m going to start with “Freewill” as apposed to “Determinism” simply because I believe it is easier to analyze for several reasons which I will explain later. My freewill is imperative and obvious to the life I have currently. I obeyed all the rules throughout my childhood and high school. I worked to get good grades, some of the best in my class. I stayed out of trouble. I stayed away from the wrong crowd. I never tried drugs or spent my weekend nights vandalizing things. The point I’m trying to make is that by surrounding myself with the right people and figuring out how to play by the rules my grade school career was for the most part a breeze. As a result I was accepted to Penn State University Park Campus as a freshman, which I consider a great success. However, while it might me easier to say I did it all on my own, it would be a naïve and ignorant statement. Almost as much so as saying that I have never faced any adversity and my life to this point has been filled with nothing but success. This is one of the reasons why determinism is much harder to explain, because I don’t think anyone can say they had all the chips in their favor or against. Plus, sometimes it is hard for us to analyze just how significant our advantages or disadvantages are like the painting example Sam gave us in class. Obviously, Sam would never have known why he was as busy with those painting jobs without essentially competition that was black. I thought it was interesting that they even left a key for them to get into the house because I know even today many of the people in my neighborhood would not do that because of the color of someone’s skin. Anyway to get back to the factors outside of my control that have determined my life thus far the first thing that you have to point to is one’s family. I grew up in a middle-class white family with good moral values and potential intelligence and I know that without one of those four factors on my side I would probably not be attending Penn State University right now. However, there is a second major influence in my life today which I don’t hold in nearly as high regards and that is the environment in which I grew. The area I lived in my whole life, before coming to State College, is and has been an extremely poor area for several generations. Thus, I don’t think my schooling was nearly as rigorous as it should have been and so I picked up several poor habits like laziness and procrastination when it comes to doing schoolwork. As a result, I often feel like others here around me are smarter and more suited to succeed here. I did poorly last semester and I’m trying to reanalyze my work and study habits so that I can catch up with everyone else but that hard for me right now. This is why I think it is hard to be truthful in say that only freewill or only determinism has left you where you are today because both can be very powerful and influential in every individuals life. Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:30:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127152682 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/inequality-in-home-ownership-119-blog/#IDComment126073668 In class Sam displayed a slide showing the percentage breakdown in home ownership among different ethnicities that I thought to be particularly compelling as I am sure others, like the guy who asked this question, did. If I remember correctly, adults who classified themselves as white statistically were seventy some percent likely to own their own home while blacks and latinos were significantly less likely, I believe they were somewhere around forty percent likely to own a home. Obviously, we have a huge difference in home ownership among adult Americans but I am not sure weather we should label this as an inequality because these statistics can be quite misleading. They are presented in such a manner as to exaggerate the misconception that whites are wealthy and can afford homes while minorities are not and cannot. I believe Sam briefly touched on the idea that to some extend this is a cultural statistic. Some individuals feel more obligated to purchase a home due to their perception of what society wants them to do as an individual of a certain color, background, or ethnicity. Meaning blacks and Latinos may not feel as pressured by their peers and culture as do white people. Another fact to take in to account, is the definition of a home. What passes as a home can be quite pathetic. A small FEMA trailer technically counts as a home. I am not sure if my next statement is completely accurate but it has been my observation that rural areas are more densely populated with caucasians while urban areas are populated more significantly with minorities. If my assumption is accurate it quite adequately explains the difference in home ownership among races. In a rural setting it is almost essential to own a home because there are extremely few apartment complexes or other temporary residential buildings. In contrast it is crucial that people can rent apartments for two reasons, one being the limited amount of space. Permanent residencies for everyone would be far to space consuming and two, people in cities are often younger and thus moving more frequently. So yes, maybe whites do own more “homes” however what is more fit to live in, a trailer or a penthouse apartment? So I guess to get back to the question I believe the main contributing factors for home ownership inequality among race is culture and setting. I think it’s important to understand statistics like this and learn from them but never get too attached to them because they may not represent what you think they do. This is why I think this particular subject can’t be classified as an inequality because it is very hard to interpret this data and many people would have much different but equally as compelling arguments to what these statistics actually mean. Sat, 5 Feb 2011 04:27:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/inequality-in-home-ownership-119-blog/#IDComment126073668 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/could-g-d-be-a-she-119-blog/#IDComment123802682 I thought it was interesting that Sam tried to challenge our religious beliefs, especially those as fundamental as our perception of God. I expected him to focus more on challenging our ideas of race but the more I think about it the more I understand how religion ties very close to many cultures and ethnicities. Plus, the perception of one and only one almighty and all governing God identifies with a significant portion of the students and the population in general, be you Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. To me, Sam calling God a she wasn’t as much of a revelation as he intended to be and as much as I’m sure it was for other students. I have always told myself that god was genderless and didn’t appear in human form, however I do find it hard to not attach God with an image that makes him more identifiable to myself. Meaning I often inadvertently picture God as a human white male. I know that this has been the pitfall, of not only myself and my peers, but also generations before me even dating back to when many books of the bible were written. They often refer to God as a he and tend to personify the being in order to make him more relatable to the audience. I think it was a good idea on Sam’s part to put the idea out there but I’d go one step further than calling God a she, I’d like to see God referred to as a presence because in my opinion it better describes what God is. It also accomplishes another point worth noting about many peoples belief about God, it implies that God is all around, in the air we breath in the dirt we walk on, in the water we drink, rather than some celestial being that lives amongst the stars completely detached from earth and its inhabitants. However I’m sure Sam’s inquiry was enlightening to many individuals in the class. If all people of a religion tried to “degendertize” God and similarly if clergy were to teach and preach this idea, I believe that individuals would have a deeper perspective of God and his or her purpose in the daily lives of religious people. If someone were to come up to me on the street (outside of class) and refer to God as a she I would commend them on their effort to analyze their religion more deeply. If I had enough time I would also like to see if I can push them one step further into dehumanizing God completely. Its an intriguing topic to me and I hope that students in our class will think about it themselves and meet the challenge that Sam gave us. Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:07:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/could-g-d-be-a-she-119-blog/#IDComment123802682 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/21/body-image-issues-119-blog/#IDComment122896879 Knowing and understanding your body is the way it is because of your ancestors and their geographical location and political status is undoubtedly important. However, I don’t believe this understanding would be comforting to millions upon millions of people in the world that wish they could change the way they looked because even if they understand their lineage, others most likely would not. By this I mean, people you are smaller and thicker might realize that their ancestors lived in an area of the world where they needed to retain their heat but that doesn’t change how society perceives them. Society would still favor tall thin people and thus many people who fit that mold would still desire to grow a few inches and lose a few pounds. The problem is not with peoples perception of themselves the problem is with societies perception of them. Most everyone in the world would have to be on board with the idea that all people are beautiful and unfortunately that’s not going to happen and if it did it would still take many years and probably several generations to fully destroy the idea of certain characteristics being more desirable that others. Here is a hypothetical position I want you to put yourself in. I am going to use a situation specific to myself but as you are reading think about a similar situation that would apply to your body features. Lets say I am no longer in the United States where tall and skinny are two “good features” but rather in an area of the world where short and thick are beautiful. Lets also assume that I was born in this other place in the world but grew to be the same six foot two inch, one hundred and fifty pound male that I am. From a young age I realize that I am very different form the people around me and during my teenage years, psychologically speaking, the most unstable years of your life, some answers start to develop as to why I feel like such an outcast. Girls don’t want to date me and guys make fun of me. I realize that I wouldn’t want to date me either because I have grown up in the same society, which admires that short thick girl. I don’t think many people in the class could honestly say that they would feel fine about themselves, not want to change the way they look, and ultimately assimilate to societal standards. If you can than you are a much stronger person than I am. So there is a real problem here with society and people should definitely pursue a future without such standards because it would benefit nearly everyone on the earth but you can’t just accept that your body is beautiful, you also have to accept that EVERYONE you encounter is also beautiful. I think that is the thing that people find so hard to do. Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:00:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/21/body-image-issues-119-blog/#IDComment122896879 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cb%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121090569 SOC 119 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:42:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cb%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121090569