When Sam first talked about how he was friends with several “lifers” and how they were some of the most amazing people he had ever met, I was immediately intrigued. I, for one, have never known someone in prison and I previously had no desire to. As far as I was concerned, these guys were jerks who deserved to be locked up for whatever horrendous crime they committed. ESPECIALLY if they were murderers.

For what it’s worth, I have never been a proponent of capital punishment and I would never wish anything beyond a life sentence on what I perceived to be these “monsters.” I thought I was enlightened for being against the death penalty, but in truth, I was still relatively ignorant. I never bothered to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. I never bothered to consider whether or not these guys had the ability to be genuine, feeling, well-meaning human beings who are capable or remorse … or even more drastic, capable of change.

However, after reading this letter by the inmate, I’ve come to realize how close minded I truly was. This guy never even graduated high school and he writes as eloquently as many college students I know. While I do not know the specifics of the crime he committed, I was able to put aside my dislike and distrust for these “bad guys” and see them for the reformed people they are. This man has clearly sought an education in the time since he was first locked up, an admirable feat in and of itself. But beyond that, he has proven himself not to be some cold, unfeeling killer. He expresses a desire to help others. He wishes he could donate money to the victims of Haiti. He regularly applies to donate blood. And he recognizes the need to put aside differences to offer comfort and help to everyone, even those we hate. He sounds more evolved, more compassionate, and more human than a lot of people who are roaming free among the rest of us.

It is encouraging to see that compassion is capable of thriving in an environment such as prison. In a world where so much is always going wrong and people are in constant need of help from others, it’s nice to know that even the so called “dregs” of society are able to recognize these tragedies and feel the compulsion to offer aid.

I’d like to thank this inmate for taking the time to write such a heartfelt letter specifically for this class. But more importantly, I’d like to applaud what he achieved in writing it. Hopefully a few more people, besides just myself, changed their minds after reading it.

I feel like at the end of every single class, Sam ALWAYS says “come to lecture next time, it will change your perspective, it’s the most intense lecture of the semester, it will blow your mind” and so on. And every time I kind of scoff, knowing that he says this every day and knowing that a lot of the time the lectures aren’t particularly mind blowing, at least in my eyes. But for once, I really feel like yesterday’s lecture was the best lecture of the semester – and it did change my perspective. And it kind of blew my mind.

First, I’d like to say it’s really cool that Sam showed us that video – a video that could only be described as fear mongering about Muslims, the Islamic religion and terrorism. And then he took it and turned it around and made the American equivalent of the video which showed how people in Iraq and Afghanistan probably see us. If I saw that video and I were a young Iraqi living through this war, I would be outraged.

Sam did a good job putting us in their shoes, and while I’ve never considered myself to be someone who was against Muslims and who sees them as all terrorists, I began to understand how they might see US as these Christian crusaders who are after their oil and don’t care how many people we murder in the process. I don’t agree with this war, just like I don’t agree with the Taliban or any other insurgency groups. That being said, I started to understand WHY these insurgency groups exist, and I applaud any Muslims who have the courage to condemn these groups. While I would never be able to join an insurgency group myself, I would probably support one of those groups if I were in the shoes of the people of Iraq.

I also realize Sam wasn’t necessarily saying “this is all the fault of Christians and their values.” Rather, he was saying that because of the information they are exposed to, it is easy for Islamic people to believe it is the fault of the Christian religion that all these Americans are entering their country, killing their people and stealing their resources.

Like I said, I don’t often walk away from Sam’s class thinking, “Damn, I really learned something awesome today, I’m glad I attended lecture.” But today I did, and I wasn’t even pissed that there was no attendance sheet. I would have sat through that class even if it hadn’t been required.

Watching this segment in class was heartbreaking. I have heard of studies like this before but this was the first time I’ve ever witnessed such a thing. Perhaps most astounding was the fact that not much has changed form decades ago when this same experiment was performed.

It was upsetting to see the children continuously pick the white doll – I think the narrator said the white doll was selected fifteen out of twenty one times – but it was even more disheartening to watch the children make their selections when the girl in the video asked them which doll was the “good” one and which doll was the “bad” one. In a perfect world, we would hope that all of the children would say something along the lines of “neither doll is bad.” How have these children reached these conclusions? Is it because of today’s media? The news? Television? Movies? Video games? How could children have, at such a young age, such a definitive answer for what is good and what is bad based purely on color?

The saddest part of the entire seven minute clip was without a doubt when the woman in the experiment asked a young black girl which doll was the bad doll – she selected the black one – and then asked her which doll looked like her – the black one again.

How is it that at such a young age these girls already have such low self esteem based solely on their color? Do they really believe they are inherently “bad” because of their skin? We discussed this video clip briefly in class and it was interesting to hear the perspective of the black students in my section. I was astonished to see they didn’t seem as outraged as I was over the issue. It’s almost as if they expected this outcome. It made me wonder, if these black students had been asked this question in their youth would they have answered the same way?

It’s heartbreaking that this is accepted in our society. Hopefully if the experiment is performed again in a few decades, the children of that generation will say “I don’t know” when asked who the bad doll is.

Okay, let me start off by saying I do not think tampons would be free for everyone if men also got their periods. I mean, everybody goes to the bathroom and toilet paper isn’t free for everyone. You can’t just stroll into Giant and grab a bunch of rolls and walk out. It’s not like us paying for tampons is some giant male conspiracy where they’re like, “let’s stick it to the women by charging them six bucks a box for something they need to buy.” Just because men don’t experience something we do, it doesn’t mean we are being discriminated against.

Secondly, we don’t talk about periods because they’re disgusting. Yes, they are a part of life. But so is shitting. And we don’t all talk about what our shit looks like. So why Sam felt the need to talk about staring at his wife’s period in the toilet is beyond me. As a girl, I have no problem joking about period stuff with my female friends, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to bring them into the bathroom to stare at it. I get that it’s necessary to procreate, but that doesn’t make it not disgusting. Necessary or not, it’s just not a pleasant topic.

Also, I thought it was kind of out of line for Sam to ask girls who were menstruating on Tuesday to raise their hands. Knowing that it’s an uncomfortable topic, it was sort of awkward for Sam to ask these women to raise their hands. I get that his whole spiel is based on shock value and openness, but I also don’t really think he has the right to talk about the intimate details of his wife’s period. Regardless of whether or not she’s comfortable with it, I don’t think anyone really has the right to discuss the bodily functions of others. Just like I don’t want to hear about Sam’s boners, I’m sure the men in class didn’t want to hear about his wife’s “bleeding.”

There’s kind of an unwritten rule – girls will talk about periods with other girls because they understand. Boys can talk about penis-related things with other boys because they understand. I don’t have a penis so I’m not going to pretend to be well-informed about penis issues and discuss them with my guy friends. And if a guy asked how my period was that day, I would probably punch him in the face.

I know it’s probably not logical, but this is the way things are, and honestly, I don’t care if they don’t change. I’m happy not discussing periods openly. Sorry, Sam.

I read this article before Sam posted it on the blog, and when I first saw it I thought, “This is bullshit.”
I’ve been very lucky. I went to a relatively progressive, diverse high school in New England, and as such I’ve had lots of exposure to gay and lesbian couples. One of my closest friends took his boyfriend to our prom, and he was not met with any negative or rude comments. Our school administration did not take issue with it, and lesbian couples were also in attendance.
It amazes me how different certain states can be when it comes to issues such as these. In New Hampshire, gay marriage is legal. In Mississippi, inviting your gay partner to one of the most anticipated events of your high school career can result in the cancellation of the event and you could be essentially blacklisted by your peers.
I wish the south would hurry up and “get with it.” If this were a Christian school, I could maybe, MAYBE, begin to understand why they would be against a gay or lesbian couple attending prom. But as this school is a public school, there is no excuse for the treatment this girl is enduring.
I admire her for taking the initiative to challenge the school board on this issue. There’s no reason for her to be treated like a second class citizen, and the school needs to be held responsible for its short-sighted and outlandish decision.
Here’s what I would like to know. According to the school district, the prom was cancelled because of the “distractions to the educational process” that could occur as a result of gay couples attending. But last time I checked, prom does not occur during school hours. There is nothing inherently “educational” about prom, so how could this be a distraction to the educational process? It sounds like this school district is grasping at straws. They know they have no legitimate reason to ban these students and cancel their prom when challenged on the issue, so they have to come up with nonsense excuses such as “it’s a distraction to the educational process.”
If this student succeeds in suing her school board, which I think she will, it will be an amazing statement for gays and lesbians everywhere – and who knows, maybe it will be eye opening for the school district itself. We can only hope that the rest of the nation catches up with the less ignorant northern parts, and that all of its members will be treated with the same respect.

I read this post and found myself scratching my head. I can’t help but wonder if maybe this student and I have significantly different views about what these theme parties are. Is there a secret theme party sub-culture at Penn State that I don’t know about? If anything, I feel like theme parties are more likely to make fun of white people. One example of this would be the ever-popular “truckers and tramps” theme party.

An example of some other theme parties would be toga parties, “CEOs and corporate hoes”, “Tennis pros and golf hoes”, anything but cups, highlighter parties, Jersey Shore themed parties, etc.

If anything, Italians should be complaining about being stereotyped. Or more particularly, women should be outraged given that we always seemed to be grouped into a category consisting of the word “hoe.”

No where in there is there a themed party that pokes fun at minorities. Again, maybe there are some parties with themes that could be offensive to minorities, but I have never heard of one and I don’t think it’s fair to stereotype and say only white people have themed parties and that these themes make fun of minorities. If anything, this post makes me a little angry that I am essentially being grouped into this category by the student in the video. For someone complaining about stereotyping, it sure seems like she’s stereotyping others.

I’ll give this person the benefit of the doubt and assume she’s had a very bad experience with a rare themed party that was racist in some way. Perhaps there were students there with blackface painted on. Maybe it was a Halloween party and a couple of jerks dressed up in offensive costumes, or tried to wear a black rapper costume, etc. It’s hard for me to imagine what kind of situation she’s been through that would make her believe that themed parties are, in essence, racist and that all white people celebrate their Friday nights by getting hammered and making fun of minorities.

At the same time, I’d like to respectfully ask this student to reconsider her stereotype that all themed parties are racially motivated and that only white students throw themed parties. Hopefully we can all take something away from this post – students who throw offensively themed parties should knock it off, and this student should not stereotype another race when she herself does not want to be stereotyped.

This question in particular stood out in my mind during Tuesday’s class because I found myself wondering the same thing this student voiced in his question: If we weren’t around when the Europeans took away the Native Americans’ land, then how can we possibly be to blame for this?

I completely see where this student is coming from. He was not born in the United States and his relatives are not native to the United States, so how could he shoulder any blame for what happened hundreds of years ago? Although my family has been here for decades and although I was born here, I don’t understand why I’m supposed to accept blame for the actions of my ancestors. I certainly agree that it’s everyone’s responsibility to try to level the playing field for Native Americans, similar to how affirmative action has helped level the playing field for colored people. However, I’m not going to sit here saying “the terrible experiences of your relatives were all my fault, feel free to hold be personally responsible.” Along the same lines, I’m not going to take personal responsibility for the hardships suffered by colored people because of the actions of white people generations ago. However, I will continue to fight racism whenever I encounter it.

That being said, Tuesday’s class did have me question a family story I was once told. My mother and grandmother used to share with me a story about a great-great-(not sure how many greats)-grandmother who was a member of the MicMac (spelling?) tribe who married into my primarily white, European family. According to the story, once a month when the moon was full, my great grandmother would go crazy and try to kill my grandfather. This would result in my family locking her in the attic whenever the moon was full to prevent her from harming him.

Looking back on it, I have to wonder if perhaps my great grandmother wasn’t “going crazy”. For all I know, she could have been forced to marry my grandfather against her will, and as a result, she may have just been trying to escape to return to her tribe. It makes you wonder how stories get distorted over time to reflect the values and beliefs of society at the time the story was happening.

Getting back to the original point in this question, I agree that we should not be held entirely responsible for the sins of our ancestors. It’s like how Christians believe in original sin- that we were all born with the blood of Jesus on our hands. I, for one, know I do not have Native American blood on my hands, but I also know it is my social responsibility to try to help this group get back on a level playing field with the rest of us.

I can’t stop fighting with myself on this issue. See, the thing is that I believe in equal rights for everyone, the LGBTA community included. I have gay friends, and I love them with all my heart. If they want to dedicate their life to someone, I support that and will be so happy for them. And if they choose to have their union recognized by the state, more power to them. I would expect them to receive all the same benefits as a straight couple would receive.
Now here’s my issue: Marriage is a religious institution. I don’t consider myself to be Christian, so don’t think I’m biased in that regard. I know Sam said he doesn’t think Christians who don’t follow the Bible to a tee have a right to say anything against gay marriage. I see his point. Nobody really respects marriage anymore- people get divorced all the time, adultery is commonplace nowadays, and no one really seems to uphold their vows.
But I’d like to propose something completely different than what Sam suggests. Because marriage is a religious institution, and because the state and religion are supposed to be two separate entities, why doesn’t the state just issue civil unions to ALL couples instead? Because of the benefits associated with unions, the state obviously has the right to regulate them to some point, but what gives the state the right to issue marriage licenses and determine who can and cannot get married?
Then, if certain couples decide to have their marriages recognized by the Christian religion, the Jewish religion, the Islamic religion, or any other religion, they have that option. And each of these religious institutions have the option of either performing these marriages or not based on their beliefs. Hopefully these religions will do the right thing and allow same-sex couples to be married (though obviously I am not holding out hope for that.)
I know a lot of people will probably disagree with this opinion, but I just can’t see how we can claim to have a clear line between the church and the state when the government has a say in religious institutions such as marriage. Like I said, I fully support equal rights for all couples, and I would love to see equality worldwide in that regard. So perhaps states should stick to regulating civil unions (for ALL couples) and leave marriage to religions to issue.

This is the first post by Laurie that I’ve read and commented on. She brings up a really good point by acknowledging that race discussions always seem to only revolve around black people and white people. It makes you wonder why we don’t consider other groups, such as Latinos and Latinas, Asians, and Mexicans in these racial discussions.

I’m pleased to say my group’s discussions haven’t been overly-centered on the differences between whites and black. However, I would argue that my group has concentrated on one racial group in particular- Latinos and Latinas. This is understandable to an extent, because my section consists of a few white students along with a smattering of Latinos and Latinas, so it’s the most pertinent racial group to my group. However, I would love it if we mixed it up a bit and discussed something along the lines of the relationship between blacks and Asians, or Asians and Hispanics. It would be really interesting to discuss how these racial groups view one another- to add a little variety to your stereotypical racial discussions.

Laurie’s connection between our “typical” racial discussions and the civil war was particularly intriguing to me. We have such a history of black and white segregation in our country that we seem to neglect the fact that other minorities also face racism today. Certainly black people have suffered at the hands of white people in the past, no one can dispute that point. However, racism today covers a broad spectrum of minorities and it’s crucial that we don’t neglect them when we discuss these issues in our group conversations.

Laurie’s post definitely has me considering our stance on racial discussions. I hope this is something that we can talk about in my group this week, to see what other minorities think of this. As a white person, I would love to hear what black people think of this post and whether or not they agree that we should expand our discussions to include additional minorities.

I really can’t decide where I stand on this issue. I keep arguing with myself over whether or not the flight attendant did the right thing in this situation. Were the boy’s rights violated? Most likely. Would I have reacted the same way as the flight attendant? I’m not sure. Do I think she was wrong? I have no idea. Because I can’t decide if I would have done the same, I don’t think it’s fair for me to say the flight attendant was necessarily wrong.
I feel bad for the boy- he probably thought nothing of pulling out his teffilin, since he does it every morning and it’s such a normal thing in his family. It’s sad that we don’t all know enough about one another’s cultures to recognize something like a teffilin, but I can completely understand why the flight attendant was thrown for a loop.
The other thing that really concerns me is the fact that, given all the terrible terrorist attacks, including failed attempts, we have to be concerned when somebody pulls out an unfamiliar object on a plane. The passengers on the flights of September 11th probably had no idea what was going on when the terrorists took over the flight. And most recently, when the foiled terrorist attack happened on Christmas day, it was probably thanks to passengers and attendants noticing unusual behavior by the would-be terrorist that he wasn’t able to carry out his plan.
I can see why the cords would raise an eyebrow or two- looking at the picture Sam posted, it almost looks like some sort of martial arts weapon or dominatrix prop (I hope that’s class-appropriate to say…). But the fact that it’s attached (I think) to a yarmulke maybe should have tipped off the flight attendant to the fact that it was a religiously-related. Even so, maybe she assumed he was a would-be terrorist praying before he commits the act.
See what I mean? I can’t stop arguing with myself over whether or not the flight attendant acted appropriately so I can’t pass judgment. I guess, if pressed for an answer, I would say better safe than sorry. It just stinks that an entire plane had to be sorely inconvenienced in the process- and that a young man had to be detained because of it.
Like Sam said in his post, it’s all about being culturally aware, Yes, he is more aware then most, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that he didn’t know what a teffilin is either. It’s too bad that we can’t all learn everything there is to know about every other culture in the world- I guess that’s the only fool-proof way to avoid situations like this.