During the activity I wasn’t really noticing any differences in the way the story was being told by different races. I think people were trying really hard to keep the story straight and to be confident in what they are hearing. People were trying very hard to catch on to the details. I don’t think that there was enough time for people to have a point of view in that small of a time frame. At first when I saw this question I automatically thought that it was impossible that there was a difference in how people of different races told the story. I don’t think anybody sugar coated the story but I would have to watch it happen again or a video of it. I think if I went back and watched the whole thing happening again I would pick up on differences in the emphasis on different aspects of the story. I think people of different backgrounds and ideologies pick up on certain aspects that are of more relevance to themselves. Because of this people will interpret things differently. People’s subconscious can be directly reflected in this manner. I know sometimes when things stand out to me I place more emphasis on things when I talk about them. The activity refelected more the change in stories when stories are passed down from one person to another. The story changed tremendously. Many important details were lost along the line. This happens in everyday life when someone tells something to another, the retelling of the story is not the same. Gossip works in the same manner and this is why word of mouth is not always the most reliable method. When the story began it was very long and detailed and by the end the only name that was remembered was the main character Bill. In the end Art wasn’t named correctly by people. When we hear stories we have to remember that things are twisted along the way and details are lost. Don’t always believe what you hear because of this. People have different beliefs and this can affect the story because everyone adds a point of view. This experiment was like playing telephone in elementary school. It’s interesting to see how quickly stories change and end up at the last person. Everything is up for interpretation. People don’t always mean to change a story but it changes alot of times because people see things differently. Stories are easy to tell because to don’t necessarily have to be telling the truth and not everyone is going to check your story. Knowing this you’re not going to go back and make sure that what you said was in fact correct.

I understand how offensive the act of taking a picture of a starving child can be. Pictures such as these are used as propaganda by organizations. Although these organization may have good intentions it demonstrates the lack of understanding of the culture. This understanding of cultures it detrimental to helping the country. In order to help somebody one must understand their needs and desires. I think that by taking pictures of the starving children is in a way exploitation. It can be more appealing to take a picture of one of these children than going about it in a different matter because we know that it will be eye catching if a starving child is on a poster. I think that sometimes it is difficult to get people on board with a cause. This desperation on behalf of missionaries or organizations leads them to go ahead and take pictures of the children. I had never thought about how the children and people from the poor countries felt about being photographed. They must feel like they are a spectacle and people from other places see them as such. People are supposed to realize that these are real children not just for show. I wouldn't want people to come into my country a take pictures of my sick family. I don’t think I would want people to feel pity and i think this is was people are receiving when pictures as these are taken. Pity is being invoked not a real education about those in needs. I think that education people about those in need would be more effective. People are used to seeing pictures, videos, and commercials featuring sick people. This eventually loses it’s effects. People are more willing to help when they feel a connection to those they are helping. A simple picture does not provide this connection nor education. I think that what we do wrong is going into other countries and thinking that we know better and not considering people as real people. When we view people with pity we lose true understanding. I’m pretty sure people in poor countries would like the help and not the pity. This is hard to remember sometimes people we feel really bad for others. As Americans we have the tools to help others and it’s important to teach them more than anything. It is important that we respect them as well. It is important to remember that they are human beings like us. When we walk down the street and see someone who has a disibility we sometimes try not to stare at least I do. It should be the same in this case. We shouldn’t treat people differenlty because of thier circumstances that are clearly out of their control.

I think white men don’t date black women because they are influenced by the opinion of those around them. I think that sometimes white men are also afraid that that they will not be accepted by the girl’s family. I also think that perhaps white men don’t expect black women to be interested in them. These are all guesses but I find this question really interested. I have no authority to really speak on the issue because I am a Hispanic female. I think white men find light skin black women more attractive than very dark skin women and this goes back to what our society finds and considers beautiful. I wish our society wasn’t like this but there is a trend where light skinned black people are more accepted into society than dark skinned. I’ve always wondered what makes white men interested into non-white women. I think sometimes this is ignited by a curiosity about “exotic” women. I think a lot of times white men are raised and surrounded by white women and this makes them wonder about what it would be like to be with a women of another race. Another reason is that women of color are portrayed as fierce, savage, jungle-esque, sexual beings. This doesn’t necessarily mean that when men see and understand these images they want to date a women of color, sometimes it is pure curiosity about the sexual aspect of being with a woman of color. Statistically black women have trouble dating outside of their race. Yet I think this trend is changing as race relations change and interracial relationships become more common. Nonetheless I think the main reason for why a white man would not date a black woman is because it is still considered taboo. It does make heads turn and sometimes receives hostile acknowledgement. I’ve spoken to white men about dating black woman and one of the reasons that they haven’t dated a white is that they will not be accepted by her family for being white. Family and friends are very influential and fear of resistance but them is another main reason. A person might be afraid of what their friends and family might say even behind their backs. Family and friends might seem that they will be okay with an interracial relationship but once it actually happens response can be different. Sometimes small comments and jokes can reflect this reluctance. Another things is that sometimes white men don’t find themselves in the same circle of friends as black women or women of color. I think that if this occurred more often people would looks past skin color and see each other as individuals. I would definitely like to see more white men dating black women.

I love interracial couples and I’m glad that the amount of interracial couples is growing. Most of the relationships I’ve been in are interracial. Most of the men I’ve dated were white and I’m of Mexican heritage. That reminds me of the joke Sam said about black men liking white girls. His example was really funny because it was true. I have friends that are black and they definitely don’t like it when black men date white women. It’s jealousy on behalf of the women because they feel that men of their same race don’t find them as attractive as other women of other races. Although he was referring to an example where he was referring to black men and black women but it also happens in the Hispanic community. My high school was a very diverse school and a lot of people were Hispanic. Many times you would see white girls and Hispanic boys dating. This made many of the Hispanic girls jealous. I can understand why black women get offended or jealous that the black men don’t always date them. I wrote a paper on interracial couple and researched statistics. It turns out that the amount of white men who date black women is a lot smaller than the amount of black men dating white women. Black women then have a slimmer chance of finding a partner of their same race or of any race for that case. In this case I understand and I don’t necessarily think its bad or good that black man date white women. I think that interracial dating is good because people from different backgrounds come together. I think it demonstrates that people are becoming more comfortable with different types of races. I know my family has encouraged me to date white men. My parents have always told me to find myself a white skin blue eyed boy to marry, at least the women in my family used to tell me this when I was little. I don’t hear this as much. This situation makes my family seem like they are comfortable with interracial dating but they are not. The reaction and encouragement would not be the same if I brought a black man home. I think that my family in Mexico would have much more to say about it than my parents. My parents initially would be surprised but they would be fine with it if they knew that he cares and takes care of me. This isn’t surprising to me because I have seen how racist Hispanics can be against people of darker skin. This is not all Hispanics but it is common amongst the older generations. I think the younger generations don’t have this prejudice to the same level but it sometimes is the case.

I don’t think there’s much diversity at Penn State and if you look at the number it’s pretty clear that by far the majority of people at this university are white. The university has an equity program that is aimed at minorities and the retainment of those students. I remember Sam in class mentioning that when he began teaching his classes were more diverse and that throughout the years he has found that there are less and less non white students in his classes. Penn State has become more and more selective. Tuition has also increased and this can become a huge barrier for minorities students. The income of minorities tends to be much less than white people therefor if you have higher tuition you are preventing minorities from attending your institutions. Even though the school has diversity initiative the school isn’t doing enough. There have been administrators at this school that have have apathetic towards the increase in tuition repercussion on minority students. It would be a great benefit to this school if it were more diverse. I think that students become more exposed and better educated on other cultures when there is more diversity. I think the most important thing about diversity is having a welcoming environment for all people. I think that Penn State is affected by racism. There are plenty of welcoming people at Penn State but there are racist acts that are not uncommon whether they are blatent or latent racism. Income gaps affects students directly. Alot of minorities don’t have savings which could otherwise help this issue. If i had know about the lack of diversity in this campus and the effects it would have had on my experience I would have probably considered not attended this college. My high school was very diverse. I’m of Hispanic background and my high school had many Hispanics. I could relate to people and I didn’t have to worry about being discriminated by my peers. The rest of the students were white and some other minorities were black and Asian. I think this had a very positive impact on me because I was able to learn about different cultures and I could connect with other minorities. There weren’t as many blacks at my school for a while and then there was a change in this and there are more blacks and asians in my school. I think Penn State has been the least diverse environment I have been in. There isn’t alot of diversity in my courses for my major either and the classes where there is diversity are those I specifically have to search for. There have little incidents that have occured to me that were prejudice, not necessarily aggressive but really rude comments. People also have the mentality that anyone who isnt white here is “exotic” or not American. Little comment like this show the lack of exposure and awareness people have at this campus to other cultures. I also don't think people realize that they are being about

I don’t necessarily think that the issue if the lack of resources but instead the correct allocation of these resources. There is no equal allocation of these throughout the countries and the peoples in the world. Yet i still believe that having access to the resources that we do have we must also be responsible for not having these go to waste. I'm also not too sure that we’re going to double our population. It could very well happen that the population peaks and you also have older generations passing away so I think it’s wrong to make this assumption. I also don’t think governments should limit people from having as many children as they want. I think everything reached a peak so we must always take care of what we have. Sometimes I see so much food being wasted and it makes me angry because I know of people who don’t have food to eat. I remember once reading about this kid who got his town restaurants to donate their food to the homeless. Restaurants weren’t allowed to do this because they face liability if someone gets sick. Sometimes it is legal issues that don’t help us preserve our resources as much as we wish. Sometimes its not this reason, it sometimes is because people don’t realize that resources aren't endless. I think the way our society views things doesn't help us realize this as well. I know recycling is important in our country but there sometimes isn't enough emphasis on this. We don’t care whether or not our resources are going to end or not because we don’t feel that its going to happen during out lifetimes. We know it could be catastrophic but we also don't know when our actions will have a true impact. We don't ever think about running out of water because of the way our houses are built and our plumbing. When we turn the faucet on we expect there to be water. This plumbing makes it seem like we don't even have to worry about wasting water or not because there will always be water and all we have to do is turn the faucet on. We also expect the government to provide for us. When it comes to oil people don't imagine the US ever running out of oil. Some experts have predicted that we have passed the oil peak and that the US will have less access to this oil. If you tell an American this you will get a response like “Oh the government would not let that happen” and we begin to believe that in fact we are safe from the issue. Resources came with the earth and it is truly incredible to see people so clueless about these resources and the incorrect use of them.

I believe that we shouldn’t be passing judgement on poor people for having alot of children. I don’t think it’s correct to even think to question whether someone should be having kids because of their economic status. I think there are so many other people who have a higher income and are much worse parents than the kids who’s parents live in poverty. There are parents who have kids and practically let their nannies raise their children. I think that a reason for why people with lower income may have more children is because of the lack of education. People haven’t always been access to birth control nor have been educated on it. In school i remember going through sex ed where my teachers covered the reproductive system in middle school and several methods of birth control in my last year of high school. This benefits many of the students and served as a preventive measure that low income people do not always have access to. I know some people in class thought that the fact that Tammy was from a family of 22 children was ridiculous. I think this was also another generation. I don’t think that nowadays people have as many children compared to a long time ago. Tammy only had three children now and is much different from when she was growing up with 21 other brothers and sisters. I don’t think its selfish for people of low income to have alot of children. Everyone is allowed to pursue happiness and if they choose to have a large family then they should be able to. If they wish to have children they should be able to without other judging them and considering them selfish. There are plenty of middle class people that treat their own children terribly and social class does not determine how good of a parent will be and how much they will love their children. I don’t think people should be prevented from having as many children as they want like China’s one child rule. Some people may believe that it is in fact selfish for people of lower income to have children because they won’t be able offer their children with a quality of life that they deserve and their children will have to go through struggles. The children may also come into a world of suffering, but I don’t think people should judge regardless of this. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t care but instead that we should try to tackle the issue of poverty instead of judging the poor for having too may children. I think that people should be able to have children if they want to and if their economic status isn’t as high as other people it doesn’t mean we should judge them.

I believe that it’s probably both yet I think racism is a very influential factor in the number of arrests and the race of the people being arrested. I think some people can say that cops are just doing their jobs when they catch someone who is actually committing a crime but what don’t think about is that although you may not consider someone a racist they can have tendencies and prejudices. Many cops and people for that matter don’t even realize that they hold stereotypes and prejudices. Police do alot of racial profiling and for some this may be appear to be the only effective way to catch criminals, it is wrong nonetheless and racism is rooted in this. The fact that our country participates and encourages this is a sign of racism. Unless you or someone around you has been harassed by a cop because of the color of their skin you probably won’t realize how terrible this is. Cops are humans and have their opinions and although they are following orders they incorporate their beliefs and perceptions into their job. In other cases it may not be racism but instead the power cops feel and have. I think the abuse of this power is very dangerous and it happens more often than people think. It is much worse when this power mixes with prejudices. I don’t think anyone considers themselves a racist even when they are because people don’t like to face the truth and perhaps they don’t despise someone because of the color of their skin but they hold prejudices they are not aware of or admit to.We imagine that racists are terrible, bad ignorant people but the truth is that racist people sometimes are good people, church goers, teachers, and people in authority. It’s a disease that affects everyone including cops. I have witnessed cops targeting people because of their skin color. I remember driving behind a cop one day and watching him staredown and follow a man that was doing nothing wrong but simply walking. The man was a Hispanic man that was wearing ragged cloths but still wasn’t doing anything. I have also seen cops keep close eye on teens of color more than the rest of the teens. I also belief that there will also be more arrest in areas such as urban areas predominately inhabited by minorities. There will be more cops patrolling and arrests happening because there is more crime. It makes sense that there is a correlation between the increase in cops in a crime affected area and the arrests occurring. These arrests will probably be of the race that is more common. I think Sam made a good point when he said that it is harder to catch criminals or catch people “doing drugs” in the suburbs because the houses are spread apart. I think there will always be more crime in big cities because of the large populous and I also believe that alot of cops do their jobs from a neutral standpoint and in a fair manner, but it would ridiculous to believe that law and the execution of the law is free from racism.

I had never heard the Lupe Fiasco song and I’m really happy I as introduced to it. I think this is a really interesting question. The song touches upon alot of different subjects such a racism, inequality, war,the lack of activism, and apathy. I really found this song really deep and touching. The song begins about talking about the “war on terror” and criticizing it’s motives and about the “cover ups”. Bush just needed an excuse to begin is war.The second topic is about money and the school system. Budget cuts affect many lower income community and although budget cuts occur all the time in affluent and non affluent communities the most affected are the poor who have no option of where to send their kid to school. This reminded me about the story of the woman who sent their child to another schools district instead of the one where they belonged. This mother did this because they had no choice. They most likely could not have paid for a private school education or housing in another community with better schooling. The lyric following are “keep you at the bottom but you tease with the uppercut, you get it then they move you so you never keep up enough ” this refers to the “king of the mountain” concept about the people on top making the rules to keep the others down. The song then criticizes the media for covering soft news and manipulating the news. The media is no longer serving the community. He then calls Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh racists which I agree with. Lupe talks about the lack of response from the President about the Gaza strip. Lupe Fiasco talks about his apathy because he says he will not be voting in elections because he doesn’t believe in it but instead he believes in peace and in his people. I think this is not the correct response, apathy is never the correct response. Change never comes from people who don’t do anything about the status quo. He also touches upon Israel Palestine conflict. He also defend Islam saying that that Islam is not murdering. I think Lupe also talks about activism when he says that if “you don’t become an actor you don’t become a factor”. This is very true. If one does not take action and get informed one will just become a victim of those who do take action and don’t always do the right thing. I found it interesting that Lupe talked about the use of meds in this country. We are an overly medicated country and it has become our crutch. He also talks about the abuse of banks who make profit out of people who don’t have the money to even pay them back. He then closes the song talking about people staying silent and how terrible that it. I think silence can be just as harmful as the people committing the act. The main point is if you don’t speak up all the bad things around you will continue to happen. As Lupe says “fear is such a weak emotion, that’s why I despise it”

I find this question confusing because in the video she’s talking about biology and the fact that there’s no difference between people but the question is wy do people like bad news. Perhaps it should be rephrased to why does the media place emphasis on race and portray people in bias ways whether it is negatively or positive. I think that what the girl was getting at is an example of a football or basketball player being the main headline in a scandal covered by the media. Although the media may not directly speak of the athletes race there is attention placed on athletes of color. I don’t know if this is something we truly observe in the media but I do agree that the media focuses on celebrities because this captured people’s interests. The shallowest news will get the most coverage. We can compare how often we hear of the latest celebrity scandal versus how many times the war is covered. Sometimes people forget that we are currently involved in a war and people are still risking their lives. The media plays off of stereotypes. Many news and entertainment channels have an agenda and cater to different mentalities. The news media will also cover what the people want. It is like an economic model where demand determines supply. The more people watch the garbage on tv, the more garbage they’re going to get. I have seen many examples where people are portrayed in very racist ways in the media for example the house intruder video. This video became an instant hit on YouTube because people found it funny. This was originally a news report where a man had climbed into a woman’s room through the window. The man then assaulted the woman. The reporters interviewed the victim’s brothers. He went on a rant where he called out the man who assaulted his sister. I have analyzed this video in another class and found this video to be racist. The editing of the video was what made this a mockery of the crime. The victim’s brother acquired five minutes of fame. The report was not professional in any way. There was no focus on the actual victim or the fact that this was a serious crime. The victim and her brother lived in the projects and were black. Instead of taking the event serious it became a joke. The video went viral and has gotten many hits. You can hear people quoting this video and laughing without taking into consideration the events behind it. Another example of people being portrayed in a negative light is the video of a white woman recalling the story of grocery store robbery. In this case it was a poor white woman. The video has also been turned into a song and gotten many hits on YouTube.