Before this lecture, my views on illegal immigration were very conservative. I believed that no one who was in this country illegally should be in this country. That there should be strict regulations on illegal immigrants and that I know our country is the best but that does not mean you need to come in here illegally. I still believe some of this today however. A lot of things we do in this class are contradictory. One being that we talk about how the population in the US is going so far up and soon we will run of our resources for everyone in this world. Well, let us start from one problem, illegal immigrants. Every country that struggles wants to come to America to start over new. Just because Mexico borders us they can get in easier. I think that maybe we should not have strict laws on illegal immigration because I do feel bad about people who are not lucky enough to live the life that us Americans live, but being exclusive is how we got this way in the first place I believe. Why can’t other countries change their views, if everyone wants to come to America, cannot they do something and make an effort to change their country and try and model it after ours? Probably not because they have fascist leaders or do not have the resources that we do to do some of the stuff that we do in our government. I think that illegal immigrants are illegal, it’s against the law and people should follow the law. They do help our country greatly with tasks and jobs that normal Americans would not do, but once we establish that people need to do those jobs, I think that our country could work systematically fine with our own citizens. I do not want to sound racist in anyway when I said all this. But I think that our country should follow its rules that they made. Our country is getting overpopulated and illegal people coming in is not helping. As much as the rant we saw in class was ridiculous, it made sense a little, when the guy was yelling about how we would not house a convict because that is illegal. That made me agree with myself more. But when we heard eric’s story in class, it kind of hit me that these stories are real, and he would not be here today if it was not for illegal immigrating to this country. It hit something in me and I kind of do feel different, immigrants are real people just trying to find a better life. Erik wouldn’t be here today if it was not for the moves that his family bravely made when he was a child.
soc119

First I would like to say that I greatly enjoyed the speaker today. He was funny, captivating, and made really good analogies about multiculturalism that I would have never thought of before. I believe that the miscommunication that happened with the telephone game was all unintentional. The story was long to begin with and hard to remember. But the face was what people actually remembered from hearing the story. People always shorten up the story they heard and leave out important parts. And they talk about irrelevant parts in the stories as well. I do not think that what people told or left out of story was reflected by their race. I think that this exercise was to show people how stories get changed and downplayed throughout the generations and years and grapevine that people tell them. As we saw by this experiment, the story was completely different from how the speaker told it to how the 6th person of the telephone line told it. By the time it got to the last person, the story was unfinished, left at “then 2 weeks later” there was some element of race differences left in the story plot but the story got changed to say that there were no minorities in the big school. Whereas in the original story, there were minorities, there were just no classes on African American studies that the student wanted to take. This slip up in translation between the people of the telephone line was crucial and shows how messed up stories can become. This also makes me think about what stories that I know today are not true, or were skewed by the generations. Do I know any of the real stories that happened in our history? Who has the accurate story and which side of the story is being told throughout life? These are all questions I ask myself now after experiencing this realization from the exercise in class.
When we were all children and we would played this game, the rules were different somewhat and also most of the miscommunication that came from this game was people not being able to understand what the person before them was whispering in their ear. The circumstances were changed in this exercise to show how stories some can be changed so much that it changes the whole plot and outlook on the story and what actually happened. I Never really realized the point of the dame of telephone but I thank the speaker for opening up my eyes to this concept. I enjoyed this class greatly as it made many references to daily things that I never would have drawn a parallel to in the multiculturalists society.
soc119

Although all of the videos we saw in class on Tuesday were quite shocking and all had some sort of impact on me, I believe the ones that had the greatest impact on me was the one where the American soldiers ran over the guys car who stole the wood, and the one where the American soldiers run the guy driving the van off the road because he was driving too slow. These are just examples of instances of soldiers taking advantage of their superiority in a situation. As Americans in America, and not involved in the army, we do not know of these happenings over seas. I know I was shocked to see these happening, because I guess I was naive in thinking that all of our soldiers are too good to do that kind of stuff to people. These are just horrible instances, and obviously these Americans got reprimanded for their actions. But this put the thought into my head about how if we don’t know about stuff like this happening over seas, what else don’t we know that’s happening over seas and around the world that our country is involved in? Are we being filtered by the government through the media of what they want us to see and what they do not want us to see? Now obviously we have witnesses who are over seas that come back and tell us how it really is over in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what about stuff where we do not have innocent people who are not affiliated with the government to report back to us.
We had this conversation in my discussion group today and it sparked quite a discussion about how the government could in fact be filtering what we see through the media. The government can give whatever they want to the media to convey to the country, and they will convey it. The media does not ask questions about the credibility of the subject if it comes from the government. The government and the president have all the power they want to do whatever they want. This includes keeping something’s to themselves and not sharing it with their country. Also, like how they could possibly be setting up their country so they can get their countries support in a certain issue. (EX: Perhaps attacking our own country to get the countries approval in starting a war with Iraq). This is just one of the many conspiracies that go around about our government and our president. Also there was another conspiracy I remember a long time ago I heard that President Bush apparently knew that there was going to be an attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th and he did nothing to stop it or anything because he thought it wouldn’t actually occur, or whatever the reasoning was. The point is that we will never know what our government and superiors are screening from us, and that is quite a scary thought.
soc119

I didn't even really think about being uncomfortable during this lecture. It was so entertaining and interesting that feeling awkward wasn't on my mind. But as I went to choose a video to answer, I felt uncomfortable sharing my thoughts, thinking that other people can read what I'm saying and think I'm some sort of freak. But this is the wrong idea, and I think the antithetical objective from this previous lecture. This lecture was encouraged for woman to kind of stand up and recognize that sex is mainly focused around men and that we need to have our “needs” and thoughts recognized.
This lecture was very interesting to me, as I never really thought about the act of sex as being male dominated. I always just had the mind set like ok ill do it, it is what sex is….but I never thought about it in a way like the needy penis. That men really do dominate every aspect of the world, and mostly our personal lives. I always see girls wearing clothes out, or should I say lack of clothes, when it is below freezing, obviously they don’t want to be wearing that…I remember one instance where my friends tried to convince me to come out with them when I was sick, I said I would if I could wear the sweatpants and sweatshirt I was in. But in reality, why CANT I wear that out and it be expectable? Or not even that, I should wear what I want to and not be influencing myself to uphold this standard that guys have of us to flaunt our attributes to the world.
I think this lecture really made a lasting impression on me, as I immediately called my boyfriend and discussed this all with him. Not at any point though during this lecture did I feel uncomfortable or anything. This is something that we all need to be aware of, especially guys, and you can not open up your mind to this idea if your uncomfortable. I did not feel mad or “attacked” by anything that was said today. I simply thought of it as a mind-opening lecture that really brought all these new insights into my head that I will take with me for the rest of my life.
I would have never thought about these thoughts before. And as I discussed this lecture with my friends after class, we all agreed that all guys should have to see that lecture. But then we thought about how most guys aren’t affected. But I think that a lot of the girls in the audience were affected a lot, it gave them a thought that probably has never crossed their mind and hopefully give them pride for themselves in their sex life future.
soc119

I never really thought I would ever be in an interracial relationship until I found myself in one. I am a white female and I’m currently dating a half-Korean male. He does look mostly Korean so most people looking on the outside would categorize us as an interracial couple. This boy went to my high school and I never really noticed that he was in a different race as me. I knew him since I was little, when I would say I was in the pre-awakening stage. I never put it together that he was different then me. All through my life though, I thought about if I was ever to date a black man. I was never opposed to the idea but I know what the reactions of my friends and family would be. This idea never stopped me from dating a black man but since my high school was predominantly white, I never got close enough to meet someone of the African American race. When most people think of interracial relationships I don’t think they would think of a white girl and a Korean boy. One would normally think of a black and white person. Perhaps that is what kind of hid the fact that this boy who was my best friend was Korean.
My dad is very judgmental when it comes to people of different races. But I think that me dating someone outside of our race, he has come to realize that it’s not about their race that makes them a good boyfriend to my daughter, it’s about how they are as a person. My parents would never dare to tell me any objections they have about the race of my partner. I do not know what they say when I’m not around, but I think they don’t think of it as that abnormal, since my dad’s brother is in an interracial relationship as well.
I sometimes wonder what people think of me and my boyfriend as they see us walking down the street holding hands. Do they look at us and think of how we are an interracial couple? Or do they just see us as a couple? What if we were a black and white couple? Would they look at us different then? But when I am with my boyfriend, I honestly never think of the fact about how we are of different races, it just never comes to mind. I look beyond his physical features and judge him by how he is as a person. With this being said, it would say a lot about what stage I am in, but then I think about my thoughts about other races and I believe I am in another stage with a different race. Is this possible?
soc119

I had not thought of this concept of racial signifiers until Sam brought it up in class and I find this topic to be very interesting. I never realized how much the people around me, including myself, do these things. I am white, and come from a very affluent white hometown. It was rare to see anyone out of the races of White or Asian come into my town. It seemed almost necessary to use racial signifiers in my hometown of Montgomery. When referring to the new kid that came into Montgomery my senior year of high school, you would walk down the hall and hear the buzz “Have you seen the new black kid yet?” Everyone would know whom each person was talking about. The were about 10 new students, one of whom was black, and no one recognized him until they saw his race and realized that they had never seen him before. There were about 1200 people in my high school and I could probably only recognize about 300 out on the street, but seeing a black kid in the school, knowing that he was maybe one of 30 in my school, it stuck out to everyone. It’s not like we never saw a black person before, but in respect to referring to the new kid, that was black, we would say, the new black kid. It seemed the only way to decipher quickly without knowing his name.
There are many other instances however, where racial signifiers were not necessary. For example, I would find myself saying this one a lot “some Asian kid in my math class got a 100 on the final”. Why would I use the signifier of “Asian”? Because he was different from me and I felt the need to express that the Asian kid was really smart? It felt natural for me to use the signifier in that sentence. I never was aware of it even until I am in the presence of someone of the race of the person I am talking about. When I am in public, I realize it. I stop myself, look around, say “black kid” and continue with the story. I didn’t need to stop my story, and look around, just to say that the kid was black. My point would have gotten across just as well without having to say the “black” kid. But I did it anyway. I was conscious of it and I did it regardless having to pause my story.
After last lecture however, I have become MUCH more aware of when I use these racial signifiers and I am trying to tone it down as much as I can. As I deem it unnecessary and somewhat inappropriate to the story.
soc119

I think that this person brought up a really good point. In order to save our scarce resources, population regulation really needs to happen. One idea that I feel will work to control population from ever growing to the point that we don’t have enough resources, is to limit the age in which you are allowed to have children. I think that this will not only prevent teen pregnancies but also make people have more time to decide if they REALLY want children or not. Yes, most teen pregnancies are not planned, so how do we prevent these accidents from happening? Well, if people under the age of 22 have a child, they have to pay reparations to the state in order to keep up with producing resources to provide the rest of the world with. If the person cannot afford these reparations then it should prevent them even further from having more children.
I believe that there should be one exception to this rule though. If someone is under the legal age to have children, if they are married for a year, then they are allowed to have children. It helps them think out their decision and grant them with a reward if they stay married and want to have a child at an early age.
One may think that these rules I made up are ridiculous but it is the only way to help save our world of an over growing population. Perhaps once the population is growing at a steady rate, we can loosen these rules and allow people to reproduce earlier. But for now I feel like this system is a great idea to help save our world.
We are quickly running out of resources in our world, which has to do with the growing population. These two things, the production of resources and the growing population do not grow at the same rate, the population grows bigger. This is the problem. I believe with the system that I proposed, that this would also help solve somewhat of the poverty problem. By having less people to share the world’s resources with, more can be shared with the poorer countries and people.
I am not saying that I want this policy to come about but if we were in a situation where something needed to happen before the collapse…then this what my suggestion would be. But the more this issue becomes ignored, the bigger the problem will get. Before we know it, this problem will overtake our country and our world and we will be stuck. People will start to riot and ultimately, the world will all fight against each other and perhaps we will have nothing left.
soc119

I believe that at this point in time, people in America are more racist towards Muslims than black people. This happens with the fact of who our country is fighting a war with. The war in Iraq/Afghanistan is tied to Muslims and when we see our loved ones and friends and family and fellow Americans dying because of Muslims, people have harsh feelings towards Muslims. People also believe that every Muslim is tied to the 9/11. This is false too; do people really believe that Muslim-Americans were all connected to 9/11? No. Just because some of his or her people did something bad does not mean that everyone in the same race is as bad.
Regardless, I can’t really remember how Americans acted in terms of Racism prior to 9/11, since I was very young. I believe that some lingering racist feelings towards black people still occurred. But after 9/11, America discovered a new race to hate, Muslims. Like the video we saw in class regarding the Muslim woman who was denied service in the coffee shop, the fact that the video was involving a Muslim woman, shows how people have now challenged Americas racism towards blacks. If most Americans were still more racist towards black people, then the video, if they chose to do the experiment would have involved a black woman trying to be served.
In our society, we can see how black people have defied the effects of racism by succeeding more then other races in America. Oprah for example, is black and is one of the most successful women in America. Also, our president is black, and also has ties to Muslim. Barack knew that he could get the peoples votes by being black over Muslim. He may believe in the Muslim culture but when running for office he made sure people thought that he was Christian, another religion he was raised on. This shows that he tried to reduce the risk of people thinking he was Muslim, rather then trying to reduce the risk of people thinking he is black. He knows that people are more racist towards Muslims these days then blacks. Barack didn’t try and convince people that he was only half black and preferred his white roots to his black roots.
Not only in restaurants where Muslim people get denied service do we see racism, but mostly in airports. As we can see from experience and what the one Muslim student told us about his experience on planes, people get alarmed to see a muslim in an airport. People, including security, use their racist/discriminant mind and point and single out Muslims and suspect that they are a terrorist. If a black person walked onto a plane or through security, now-a-days, people wouldn’t give them a second look. Black people aren’t terrorists, so they are fine. But not all Muslims are terrorists either, no need to assume.
soc119

I believe that the reason that more races get arrested more than others because they are mainly populated in urban areas rather then because police are racist. By observations and statistics I am sure one could see that mostly black and Hispanic people populate urban areas. You can also see that in urban areas, more crime occurs. This could happen people the more people in an area, the more crime of course. The most dangerous places in the US are of course urban areas, so more police patrol the streets of urban areas rather than suburbia. The more police, mixed with more crime, makes for more arrests. Most of these people are of the black or Hispanic race. Why? Not because the police are out looking for these people because they know they are creating trouble, but because these races populate the urban areas and the police are doing their job, they see trouble, they fix it. I really think it has nothing to do with race. Also, more arrests happen in urban cities rather then suburban places. Mostly white people inhabit the suburban land and people who live in suburbia seem to have less crime occurring. Or is there just as much crime in suburban and urban areas and police in suburbia don’t catch people like they do in cities? Possibly, but usually there are no gun fights and stuff in suburban areas, which is why more police need to be in the urban places. Another thing to bring up about this issue is that people of perhaps black or Hispanic descent seem to be treated harsher then white people while getting arrested. I suppose in some cases, the chance that the police officer is racist is possible. Or it’s just that the police need to use the force due to the severity of the crime they are being punished for. But what some people don’t see is that these types of things happen to white people too. For example, New Brunswick police in New Jersey are getting sued for police brutality. By whom? A white arrestee. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ombjniazxZA&fe...
That is the clip if you would like to watch it. The kid supposedly threw a punch at the officer which is then why the officer retaliated with 4 punches back to the face. That’s a little much. Both the officer and the person getting arrested were white. There is no race issues there. People of the white race get treated unfairly by police. I think a bigger issue is with sexist police. Or anti-sexist police. Which you can see how women get less tickets and stuff then men? Why? Does this have to do with most police being men? This has a stronger argument then police being racist. With this video though…which has over 98000 views….if someone were to put up a video of a black person getting mistreated by police…I think that the video would have a lot less views and attention as this case. There are arguments on both side of this racist police force issue and there will really never be a straight answer.
soc119

“I think that all the silence is worse than all violence- Lupe Fiasco”. These lyrics have a lot of meaning that is not hard to understand. The biggest problem today is that people see violence happening, but no one does anything about it. That is my “interpretation” of that quote. But in the case of, the Darfur genocide, people know that violence is happening in Sudan but no one is doing anything to help. People are all being silent about it. The genocide is still occurring and people are still just sitting back and watching. Colin Powell even declared that the violence occurring in Darfur is considered “genocide”. But it is still going on. The silence of people and the fact that no one is doing anything to intervene is worse then the violence actually occurring. The only way to make the genocide stop, is by intervention. People need to speak up and stop being silent about this issue and start doing something to stop it. The silence needs to stop before the violence stops is a way to make a reaction to these lyrics by Lupe Fiasco. The first step to ending violence is recognizing it and beginning a plan to stop it, by speaking out.
These lyrics do not only refer to physical violence, but also to verbal violence and perhaps the ethics of “the bystander”. By watching something bad occur, you are also responsible for the violence occurring because you are not trying to stop it. If you see someone getting verbally harassed by something because of his or her race or religion, if you stand and watch and ignore, you are part of the problem. You could be the person creating the violence, or at least you are categorized as being like them. You are either the violence creator or you oppose the violence. You cannot be someone in between. If you see violence and don’t do anything to end it, you are also a violence creator, even if you feel that they violence occurring is wrong, you are essentially supporting it by not doing anything to stop it.
If you are with a person robbing a bank, and you personally did not steal any money from the bank, if you get caught, you are charged for aiding the robber. This is the same with what I am trying to say, guilty by association, you are aiding the violence by not stopping it. You are fueling the violence creator’s fire by making them thinking it is ok to do what they are doing because no one is stopping them. If you are not for it, you are against it, so pick a stance and stand for one. If you don’t speak out, you are aiding the violence. There is a big difference between being against or for violence.
soc119