en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4217501 Comments by clm5492 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-157/#IDComment350474567 I'm not even sure if you'll read this but i was very intrigued after reading your response. I have to say that i hadn't thought about that point of view before. I had no idea the amount of discrimination and predjudice you've felt just for being a minority group and it totally and absolutely makes one hundred percent to me that you would bond and relate to other minority groups pluralistically because you've both felt the same "level" ... i respect your opinion. however, why dwell on who's had it worse. why is there or does there have to be such a heirarchal attitude about it. why can't my discrimination be lateral with your discrimination? as a white, blonde, i've certainly felt discriminated against. think about all those hollywood movies with blonds, skinny waists and big boobs just flaunting their sexuality and promoting casual sex. think about play boy and the girls next door and all those plastic models on reality televison series' what do you think those messages give to the public? that other white females are one in the same. that if they dress provactatively it means they're a slut. that if you were at a party or at a bar or at a club and some guy (or girl) comes up to you and touches you inappropriately, i think it's fair to say that that is just as much discrimination as what you mentioned before. there are no levels. there is nothing harder for any particular person than the next. whats more important to focus on is the feeeeling itself. how does it feel? it fucking sucks. you know it and i know it. let's be real with one another. let's focus on ways to actively fix this racial shit like ending incarceration in prisons and relyin more on our land than the land of the foreigners. this land isnt yours or mine it's ours. hierarchal idealism is dead Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:05:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-157/#IDComment350474567 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/17/voices-from-the-classroom-152/#IDComment342704856 Is it a choice or are you born with it? I don’t think you can answer that question completely. I grew up in a very strict Irish catholic family.. needless to say I was very religious at one point. I wont say that I haven’t taken some of the values I’ve learned with me, because that would be naive. of course Catholicism has shaped me, but it doesn’t define me. it doesn’t define what I think or how I act. my morality defines me. my instinctual gut feeling that I’m doing something right or doing something wrong defines me. so. with that being said.. how am I to say anything about people that don’t concern me. I am straight and I’m very comfortable with my sexuality. I don’t care what others do. do it though! do what you think instinctually is right in your gut. do with what ever makes you feel most alive, most whole, most complete, most you! it’s a scenario where those who matter don’t mind and those who mind do matter kinda thing. I experimented with bisexualism. maybe not intentionally but yeah if me and my girlfriends were around each other drunk and no guys were there we got horny and hooked up. maybe you call it sex? petting? idk ha does it matter? probably not. does it matter what you did last weekend? I mean if it does good for you. it didn’t matter to me though haha we all woke up the next day and acted like nothing happened.. because it was nothing. but if it is something to you and you’re having those experiences then fucking right on. pursue those butterflies. pursue that excitement! because it is exciting haha its different and something maybe you’ve never expected and maybe it’s something you’ve anticipated. anyway, sexuality is pretty cool. some people make it their passion. some people keep to themselves about it - from what I gather anyway.. the thing that really trips me up with this question though is like if we are born into these gender norms. growing up as a girl, treated as a girl my whole life then like do I really have a choice from birth? how do I explain this better. like you are given a gender identity by your parents at birth. so how do you know if you’re born this way? maybe you’re not born this way. maybe there is no way of knowing why you get aroused by males or females or members of the same sex. but it’s sex. of course you’re aroused! that is the body’s physiological response to that behavior. ok so maybe I didn’t explain myself as well as I wanted but is it a choice? sure. are you born with it? sure. like there is no right or wrong answer because there are no rules in life. the key is to survive. to stay alive. to make the most of right here and right now. indulge in everything. appreciate now. appreciate youth and spontanaeity. we’ve only a limited amount of time left before our surrealist brains switch over to realist brains and our imaginative side falls to the “real” tasks of society. ..theres more to life than war and violence and who’s sleeping with who.. mind your damn business and live your damn life Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:37:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/17/voices-from-the-classroom-152/#IDComment342704856 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/10/voices-from-the-classroom-146/#IDComment336937807 I definitely think fear is a worthwhile topic to talk about. Yeah the idea of empathy is there and yes we should weigh in our circumstances for good measure, but let’s take a closer look at the media and what it decides to show us. you know how many negative things are shown on the news? between violence and rape, molestation and abduction.. you really only hear about the really rare shit. why? like this shooting for example. there’s this whole debate about whether or not race was a factor and whether or not it should be taken into account. but really, is it fear? are people just afraid of the world that they’re so quick to assume that every situation has to do with what is shown on the news? terrorism, violence, mass murder, robberies, burglaries.. all of these things create automatic thoughts in our minds. if we’re constantly being exposed to these things, we’re more likely to retrieve those same thoughts from our conciousness and create scenarios in our minds that couple with the news in the media. going along with the idea that drunk drivers and public drunkenness were among the actual common causes of death, I come to question, why isn’t there more information out there about that? do you know how many people get underages in college? a lot. do you know how many people get caught selling/smoking marijuana? more people die of aspirin than marijuana? really? something isn’t right here. are we really getting the facts? are we really being told what we need to know? or is the socialist government this country decided to adopt monitoring our news channels and radio stations, feeding us only the information we want to hear? maybe hiding something bigger or diverting attention away from something that could get someone with a lot of money into a lot of trouble. I keep going back to our own personal experience with the Sandusky case. the media made it look like it had everything to do with joe and absolutely nothing to do with Sandusky? is there a trend? probably. so this shooting.. is it strinking the heart strings of Americans? is it pulling at americans’ sense of pride and justice in this country? what else is going on that we don’t know? more importantly, who decides what is casted and what isn’t? I think the media figures that people who watch the news are those who are out in the work force. do you think their rhetoric is trying to appeal to college students? probably not. do you think they are trying to reach the elderly? maybe. I mean most of those customers in that last clip we showed were older white men still caught up in racial bull shit that the youth could give a shit about. I mean im sitting here bitching, but I cant help but feel that if im noticing this, maybe I’m not the only one, and if I’m not the only one, than that means we’re all just sitting here.. letting it happen without doing anything about it. so the next thing to consider is how? how do we change the flaws in our system? how do we change the direction of our future? is it as easy as standing on the corner and waving hellos at commuters on the street? probably not. but it could mean a revolution. a peaceful revolution. a repetition of hippie history… I’m pretty sure if we got enough people to spread the word about it, we’d have a riot in no time. kinda like this past year… maybe a riot isn’t the answer. but at this point, I have no other ideas that will let our voices be heard without getting arrested or controlled by government/ policies Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:56:18 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/10/voices-from-the-classroom-146/#IDComment336937807 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/04/voices-from-the-classroom-142/#IDComment331862515 “Assume that other people are as diverse in their thinking as are the people in your culture.” This quote was brought up in one of the slides in class and really caught my attention. I want to use this space to breakdown this statement. As an individual attending Penn State, I’d say it’s a pretty fair assessment that our students are diverse in our thinking. I think amongst my friends, we are very diverse in our thinking. I think between my parents and I, we are very diverse in our thinking. Keeping that in mind, I’d like to piece the second part of the quote together. Other people are diverse in their thinking. Others and their friends are diverse in their thinking. Others and their parents are diverse in their thinking. Is it really that simple? If we step outside of ourselves, maybe we’ll being to realize that we’re not that different. If we see the world and understand the complexity of our world, we can then understand the complexity of our own people. In so doing, we can then realize that maybe our foundations are all fairly similar, but are masked by situational diversions. I really liked the example comparing the tribal people with college students. I think it strengthens the sociological argument. This idea really got me thinking though. Why do we think we’re all the same? (By we I mean like the people sitting next to me). If you think about when you were little and going over your friends’ or relatives’ houses, you’d surely notices that their routine was far different than your own experience. Maybe the dad did laundry as opposed to what you’re used to of your mom doing laundry. Maybe your portion sizes at dinner were much larger than the next. Maybe their family celebrated different holidays. The list of examples could go on and on. It brings up a good point though, that based on our situation, we are different. Based on our emotion though, we are the same. As humans, we feel pain. We feel sadness. We feel happiness, excitement, anxiousness – emotions are universal. Honestly, this notion is so important! Forget race. Forget discrimination (okay don’t forget it, but like fucking listen) Haven’t you felt sad? Were you ever excited about something? Were you ever so happy, you were smiling from ear to ear? Ever experience a death? Yeah, me too. And so has the next person, and the president, and his dog, and someone halfway across the planet, and someone from 1500 AD and someone 200 years in the future. Do you get it people? You’re not unique. If you were unique than everyone wouldn’t be. Sure, we look different, but that’s just because it wouldn’t be genetically advantageous for us to all look the same. We’d eventually die out. Look within yourself and realize you have more in common with every human alive, whether or not they speak your language, have your skin color, or share your interests. So maybe the answer is love. Forgive yourself, forgive one another, love each other above all else. Thu, 5 Apr 2012 00:01:38 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/04/voices-from-the-classroom-142/#IDComment331862515 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/22/voices-from-the-classroom-132/#IDComment325956962 The innocence of childhood is one of the greatest aspects of humanity. I knew a 5 year old that was raised in New Hampshire in a nearly 100% white community. The first time he saw a black person, he asked why they were covered in chocolate. It was something that was so innocently meant, but taken in the wrong way. The young, black woman yelled at the little boy’s mother asking if she had raised him “under a rock”. Situations like this present the fact that this boy probably thought this woman was unbelievably different, and special. A lot of kids have an opportunity to actually form their own opinions before being influenced by the media/ parents and school. Imagine coming to our society after no exposure to anything… Wouldn’t the issue of having different skin color seem like such a trivial perspective, after all no two people (except twins and such) really even look the same. Would there even be any difference if we segregated brown hair from blonde hair? Why do we feel the need to segregate into racial classes when people within the same race don’t even look alike? The moment that teachers and parents stop calling everyone special and different is the moment where we find out that we live in a society based around judging other people on their appearance. I hate knowing that I am a part of this society, and realizing that I can judge someone within the first 30 seconds of meeting them. Even if I realize within a few minutes how dumb I am for doing it, I can’t break the habit. This is an issue throughout humanity that extends beyond race or ethnicity, and infiltrates between everyone. There would be a huge change to this judgmental state of humanity if we all believed that everyone is special in their own way. I feel that as I’m writing this, it should be so easy to lower my judgments based on appearance and actions. But then I get into the real world and see a devout Catholic, or an inner-city kid or a pot-head and I can’t help but make assumptions about their life, and why they look the way I do. I don’t think this tendency came from my parents, but instead from the media engraving what different classes look like into my head. The fact of the matter is that a pot-head isn’t just that. We have to look beyond the simple assumption about peoples lives and realize how complex everyone is. Everyone thinks their own life is complex, and not something anyone could describe within a few words. Sometimes it’s crazy looking out at the 5,000 kids I walk by on my way to class and realizing that they all have just as many experiences/ hardships/ hobbies as I do. In that way, the fact that everyone has experienced an entire lifetime of events makes everyone special. Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:10:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/22/voices-from-the-classroom-132/#IDComment325956962 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/12/voices-from-the-classroom-118/#IDComment315517396 I think it’s interesting that Sam neglected to mention the Kony scandal amidst the discussion today on international racism. I think it was done purposefully though. I read somewhere that it only donates 31% of the money it receives and it supports the Ugandan army which rapes and loots villages, so all the youth that are spreading awareness about Kony are actually ill informed. It kinda goes along with what sam was saying in class about where the money actually goes when the US donates money. so one billion dollars went to Africa and then some went into transportation and another portion when to consultants and blah blah blah. so are people making money from this awareness thing? is it actually benefiting the people it says it does? moreover, do people actually act on this thing? or are the numbers taken from the survey today about who would do something and who wouldn’t, a realistic measure of the entire countries opinion? I also thought it was an interesting point as it being used as a propaganda tool. I never even considered that! the news reporters were saying how it happened over 6 years ago and how they had stories on it and no one responded but now that it went viral, there is huge awareness now. is it because of the major oil discovery in Uganda? possibly? I mean we’re talking about Haiti in class. ill admit idk much about what goes on around the world but I think sam had a point today when he decided to talk about Haiti rather than Uganda. where are we putting our money? we are the rich, so we have the upper hand in where donations go. moreover, penn state is like what 85% white people? (or so it seems) does that mean that we as white people have the upper upper hand? yeah. yeah it does. so what do we do? I guess we should start by being more informed about who really needs money and what really premises giving people money? is it to feed the hungry? is it to help people who have struggled with natural disasters? shit. are we giving money to countries with similar experiences as our own? I mean we never had a rice shortage.. so is that why people weren’t paying attention today? because we cant relate? but with kony there was so much media and movies about human trafficking and Americans going to foreign countires and being kidnapped. is that why we empathize those people? so is empathy greater than sympathy? and if that’s the case, how do we get a nation to sympathize rather than empathize with people who actually need the money the most? and if America is so obsessed with oil then why the fuck aren’t we putting more tax dollars into energy research instead of military weapons? Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:29:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/12/voices-from-the-classroom-118/#IDComment315517396 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/29/what-more-do-you-want-to-think-about/#IDComment305599210 I think the coversation that particularly struck me was the fact that white people like to sit back in terms of talking about race. I mean we’ve grown up hearing all the terrible terrible things that the “white race” has done to the minority groups and I just cant help but feel badly for what their ancestors faced. at the same time I also felt strongly on the opposite end. why should I be the one to take the responsibility for my ancestors mistakes? I don’t have anything against people of different races. I was always so worried about saying the wrong thing or offending someone by saying something that would be considered racist. in reality though, people of minority aren’t worried for the most part about speaking out about race, so why should I be? and also, why the fuck are all the whites considered the same? haven’t you ever considered that we are different shades of white? just because people are conscerned with white supremacy as the law of the land, doesn’t mean that whites don’t experience discrimination. furthermore, just because someone is white doesn’t mean they haven’t gone through rough experiences on their own. coming from wealth isn’t always a blessing. in fact, well off people are more likely to cheat and steal according to a recent study. coupled with that are a whole slew of issues. some things I can think of off the top of my head are divorce, alcoholism, eating disorders, depression, domestic abuse, suicide, and bullying. I mean emotions are univeral. and isn’t that what all of this race talk is based on? hurting peoples feelings? I mean somewhere someone was upset by what someone else said and their feelings were hurt. its basic principle people. stop saying things that you wouldn’t want people to say to you. I mean maybe its not that easy and there are other things that could be taken into account but more or less it has to do with saying offensive things about someone. after this class though, I am defintitely less willing to hold myself back in terms of talking about race or talking to people of different ethnicities. like one of the articles explained, if we don’t throw ourselves into uncomfortable conversations and situations, we’re never going to ultimately become comfortable with talking about race.. which is dumb. let’s get over this already. there are so many important things to worry about. if we get passed the past essentially, we could work together to fixing prevalent issues.. like poverty and war. you know that if you make the choice to be a vegetarian, you save approximately 100 animals lives a year? and by saving those one hundred animals lives, that is one hundred less animals mouths to worry about feeding yucky corn pesticidey crap to, and 100 more potential human mouths to feed… let’s move on shall we.. I’m willing to be your friend, if you’re willing to be mine. be the change, and be an advocate for peace. Thu, 1 Mar 2012 17:43:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/29/what-more-do-you-want-to-think-about/#IDComment305599210 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/22/voices-from-the-classroom-110/#IDComment299282922 I think that your economic status is inevitably and invariably one of the main components your success. It is essentially predetermined. The status to which you were born plays a key role in to how you are raised, what opportunities you are given, and how far you can actually go in life. The environment that you are raised also plays a key role. Characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sociological status, physiological status, and psychological status are also big areas to consider in terms of their future. Someone coming from a poor background has to work a hell of a lot harder than someone born into wealth at getting ahead in life. Even education is expensive. Between school supplies, transportation, textbooks, teachers.. I mean really it’s absurd. Where you go to school is also a thing to consider as well. Education at the national level varies greatly, as too do its educators and faculty. Certainly more wealthy areas have better schooling systems because they can afford to pay taxes to support higher education. College is just a whole different ball game. Lets talk about the SAT’s for a moment. I learned in my psychology class that these are often racist in the fact that they relate mostly to white, middle class, giving those with different racial backgrounds a disadvantage and a self fulfilling prophecy that they will do poorly on the examination. Moreover, the fact that SAT’s weigh so heavily on getting you into college is just stupid. it doesn’t measure your test-taking ability, it merely measures how well you take a test and handle pressure. I mean I guess that’s important, but really how you do in school is probably a more realistic factor to take into account than how well you take a standardized test. Besides the fact I don’t think that it measures how smart you are. I think that it doesn’t have anything to do with how much money you make. What matters is where you go to school, what work you put into it, and what you get out of it. It’s getting your foot in the door somewhere and doing something about your current financial situation. It’s doing something for yourself, going after what you want, it being proactive about every decision you choose to make in your lifetime. Far too often people have the misconception that unemployed people deserve monetary compensation. Well I disagree. In fact I want to personally tell them to stop moping and groveling and get off their sorry asses and do something about it. There is so much money out there and so many opportunities to get your hands on, its just all about hunting for it. Your parents did it, and their parents did it, and their parents did it and so on. So, you can go ahead and do it too. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:32:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/22/voices-from-the-classroom-110/#IDComment299282922 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/16/voices-from-the-classroom-108/#IDComment295232886 I think certain races are better at certain sports because of a variety of reasons. For one, it all depends where you grow up, where you were raised, who you were raised by, what your surroundings were like, what environment you grew up in. I mean the possibilities are endless, but if you look at the fact that most black people play basketball or most white men golf, look at it sociologically. Lets take golf for example. Golf is a very wealthy sport. It requires you to have a lot of money, and a big stick up your ass. No, but really. It’s very serious. When someone is attempting to hit the ball, everyone is silent. So think about where this sport would be popular. In the big wealthy areas where people can afford the equipment, the gear, the trainers, the hype, the lessons, the membership… there are a lot of factors that come into play. Now take basketball. All you need is a court and a hoop and a couple of people and you have a game. It doesn’t require lessons as much as it requires dedication and practice. It requires you to practice taking shots around the key, and running layups to improve your for m. So basically it’s situational. If you look at it from an evolutionary standpoint, it goes back to what sam was saying earlier about the differences in hair for example. The whites were very sophisticated. They were slaveowners. They were involved in royalty. They were involved in spreading Christianity. They were involved in a whole lot of inactive things. Like befriending the native americans and then killing them all off, taking their land, and spreading christiantity.. bastards. But anyway, the whites have been good at bitching and moaning about how difficult their average life is with their big white sports and their big white egos because their big white heads are shoved so far up their big white asses to realize that their big white selves don’t run the nonbig white world. Blacks or African americans or hasians or whatever you want to refer to – people of “color” were not so. From an evolutionary standpoint, these people were enslaved. Their ancestors had a lot indurance and strength. They were out on the fields or in the factories, or on the farms, or in the kitchens, and basically did the bitchwork for the big-headed whites. So naturally, blacks (to put it bluntly) are gonna be bigger, faster, and stronger, because our big white ancestors couldn’t do something for themselves for once and now our white ass selves are faced with obesity, heart disease, and cancer. This is the most primitive example of karma being a bitch, but yea basically they’re just better because black ancestors were more physical than the white, sedentary fucks. Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:58:49 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/16/voices-from-the-classroom-108/#IDComment295232886 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/08/voices-from-the-classroom-99/#IDComment289264039 Before taking this class, I can definitely say that I would shy away from talking about race. I grew up in a fairly white neighborhood, surrounded by religious white irish catholics/Christians that don’t know a whole lot about the world around them. I’d say I grew up in a bubble. Ever since I was young, I’ve been told not to date black people. And before you get defensive, just hear me out. Just because my parents have these beliefs and ideals doesn’t mean I too share the same opinion. In fact, I think quite contrastingly. In a way, I think interracial relationships are a good thing. Through interracial relationships, I think we can eliminate “color” until we are all one uniform human race. However, some may feel that this should not be so. Anyway, back to the whole shying away from race subject. I know like if I go in the city in particular, I see a bunch of black people in a group wearing red or blue, I get very nervous. This is because of my education and my upbringing. I can’t tell you how many times Ive been told about gangs and gang violence and unfortunately the first thing I think about is black people. It really never occurred to me that there could be white people in a gang. How wrong was I? and how easy it is really to think a certain way. You know I think it’s particularly interesting how quickly impressions and predjudices can be formed. They’re almost immediate. It’s a sort of automatic processing of sorts, where it is not intentionally or consciously decided, but merely fostered on a priming or foundation on only what I know. After taking this class though, I am more exposed and aware of the people around me. It’s funny, the other day I was in the elevator with an “asian” and I forget how the conversation started, but we somehow got onto the topic of where he was from. His name was Juno and he was from south korea. It was so easy. I made a friend just by asking what his name was. Like how cool is that? Instead of just keeping to myself and letting my thoughts sit in stereotypes of like the typical asian smart kid. I met a nice kid named juno from south korea. It’s funny how a small conversation could completely turn around a thought process – a mentality. And so this kinda relates back to what I was saying earlier about how people shy away from talking about race. It’s merely because they don’t know what to say without being offensive. I mean technically the shouldn’t even worry about it because it’s their ancestors that were responsibily for the actual harassment and maltreatment of the blacks, but nevertheless I’ve gathered that simply asking an individual where they are from or what their ancesteral roots are could actually allow a person to make a friend and recorrect their thinking about any uneasiness they may have about bringing up the topic of race. I thought sam made a really cool point, and I look forward to using this tactic in the future.. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:39:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/08/voices-from-the-classroom-99/#IDComment289264039 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/31/voices-from-the-classroom-93/#IDComment283298568 I don't have an opinion on illegal immigration. I think people are misinformed about the actual underlying issue of unemployment. I mean, that’s what everyone is complaining about right? The Mexicans are coming over the border and taking jobs. Okay white people. Go ahead and work in the farms. Chances are you can’t and wouldn’t want to. Fact is people are lazy. And everyone loves playing the blame game. so let’s just blame the Spanish-speaking Mexicans who are new to this country trying to make a new life for taking jobs away. Wake up people. They’re the not the problem. They aren’t doing anything to hurt ayone are they? They’re just doing what our ancestors did. They wanted to change their life. They wanted to make a better future for their families, just like our ancestors did. Do you know what it takes to be a citizen in this country? It’s pretty freaking difficult. Some of the questions they ask are legitimately difficult. I’m pretty sure I don’t even know some of the answers. And why? Why is our country so difficult to become a citizen? No wonder why there are illegal immigrants in this country. Just like unemployed people are too lazy to get jobs. Spanish people are too lazy to become citizens. I mean if they can find a substantial job, why go through the process. They may not have the means of getting it. Whatever. Honestly it’s not important. And neither is speaking Spanish. Yeah it’d be cool to learn the language but don’t think it’s necessary for everyone to learn it. English is the language of the United States. Its in our constitution and all our official documents are English. I don’t think it’s an issue. What I thought was more prevalent of an issue was the fact that presidential candidates are actually at a disadvantage if they know more than one language. How crazy. Why would knowing certain languages be of any importance. Does that pose a threat to society? I don’t think so. I think the public just has their heads shoved up so far up their asses to see matters that actually matter. Who gives a shit who is white or not or black or brown or red or fucking purple. Who gives a shit. Why is skin color so important. Why are my ancestors actions still brought up today? It’s just not a big deal. And I certainly think that we should focus on the earth. I think we should try and improve our country before we can help anyone else. I think we need to focus on issues that relate to our future. Lets focus on education. Lets focus on why it’s so god damn expensive. Lets talk about something other than illegal racism. .. I mean immigration Sat, 4 Feb 2012 02:17:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/31/voices-from-the-classroom-93/#IDComment283298568 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276530856 I'd like to talk about the media. I'd like to start by saying that the only people that actually have a "clue" about this issue are Penn State students. I'd like to add that the media did a hell of a job of representing the "wrong" people. ..IF the media is misrepresenting us, THEN what does that say about issues involving other things the media reports. We experience bias from all areas of the news. Who's to say that we really receive all the information? Ideally, that's not even possible. Let's take the election for example, we has Penn State students (as passionate as we are for the death of our Grandpa) have missed an entire week of debates. I'd speculate the vast majority has not even the slightest clue about the elections. Do they vote anyway? It's not easy to say. If they do, (and were assuming they're unaware or ignorant to what is going on) they're probably just doin what their friends or parents vote for.. ideally, i'd be more likely to vote for something in favor of something my family favored as well. it's just biological principle really. Anddd if they don't, well then we've just narrowed the voting pool to people who actually care. [Now let's neglect to comment and say that statistics don't prove shit. they do, just sample pools over various regions - mind you, not a real representation of the world at large. ] I'd like to ask: "What percentage of United States Citizens actually vote during the election?" What is their background? Where did these citizens come from? I want the media to show me numbers. I want see truth. The media is feeding me garbage. ...minor side note, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word, CITIZEN. "Higher" Education is stupid. I could do this reading on my own time. I want to actually learn things in my classes. That's what you get in soc119. I enjoy this class. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:29:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276530856 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/17/voices-from-the-classroom-90/#IDComment269660909 The first thing that comes to mind when I think of immigration is honestly that of my ancestors. My ancestors came from all over the globe in the hopes of making a new life and new start for their family. However, the topic of discussion in class touched on a very important issue. WE are the invaders of this country. The original inhabitants of “our land” were the Native Americans. The country was swarming with hundreds of thousands of families that made a living off the land and livestock. The fact that the immigration of MY ancestors is actually considerably genocide frightens me. When I think of genocide I think of the holocaust. I think of blood and gore and passionate hatred for a people in no way deserved the treatment they received. That is exactly what happened to the Native Americans. We came here. We took their land. We stomped on their ground. We scalped them, tortured them, separated families, and wiped out an entire culture, tradition and way of life. Richard’s metaphor of our ancestors opening and closing the door behind them as they entered this country is entirely true. But when you look back at the way the native Americans treated us, they were nothing but humble and welcoming. The shared their faith and tradition with our ancestors. Our children played with theirs; our wives cooked with their wives; our men hunted with their men. We destroyed a people that did nothing to us. We are selfish. We are greedy. Nowadays, we bitch and complain about the illegal immigrants pouring into this country. So fucking what? So fucking what! HOW DO YOU THINK WE GOT HERE? We were immigrants at one point, working for no pay just trying to make a living that this nation was founded upon. No matter what we will still be the elite race. We will still run this shitter of a country that claims freedom of religion, freedom of speech or whatever. Personally, I think immigration is normal. I think immigration is expected. Only when we stop thinking about ourselves and actually take a look around we will find that we are all mutts. The actual Americans of this country are the truest Native Americans – the ones that were here from the beginning. We have foreign exchange students coming into this country, using our education system and going back to their countries. We are literally feeding the rest of the world our knowledge only to have it stolen from us and used to make other nations more powerful. But that’s what it comes down to right? Power? We all want to be the powerful nation - the strongest, most elite motherfuckers that run this world right? How stupid. We need a revolution. I’m sick of this tyrannical bullshit. Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:11:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/17/voices-from-the-classroom-90/#IDComment269660909