I would definitely say that every person told the story differently. I am not sure how linked the differences were to the race of the story teller however. I think that the differences were caused by the differences in what the people heard from their predecessor in the exercise and also how ready they were to tell the story on a microphone in front of six hundred kids. I think that a lot of people were also rushed through telling the story due to the time constraints. I mean the last three people were basically given about 30 seconds to recite the story. This was hardly enough time to include details. Also the rush caused a lot of confusion amongst the listeners creating holes and distortions in the story. In my personal opinion it is hard to point to race as the cause for the differences in the story overall.
There are however, a few parts of the story that I think white people would be hesitant to say out loud. The most notable example of this is the part of the story where the white student uses the n word to describe the members of the african american studies group. I feel pretty comfortable in front of black people and all but I'm not going to go around repeating that word to a black kids face just because its in a story.
Other than that specific example I didn't really think of race as a factor in how the story changed. Then again what was the point of the exercise if race wasn't a factor? It is very likely that I just did not pick up on it at the time because I was not specifically looking for it. It definitely could have slipped past me especially because it was the end of a one and one half hour lecture on one of the nicest days of spring so far in state college. The only day nicer than yesterday is probably today but I am glad that I sat down to do this blog because I have missed a few.
Back to the point. I don't think that the white people who were telling the story (I think there were two of them) were sugar coating it to make white people look better. If anything maybe they were just hesitant to talk about an offensive story like that one. I mean the story was pretty negative all around. It didn't even have a resolution that made everything come full circle. It was a pretty awful story. I think that perhaps subliminally the first couple of story tellers just left out the most offensive part of the story. Either way it was definitely an interesting exercise especially now that I look back on it with a racial connotation.

I definitely agree that something has to be done to address the dwindling natural resources that we rely on so heavily not only hear in the United States, but around the globe. We can not continue on our current path of over consumption. We continue to take and take from the planet and we are not doing nearly enough to replenish the resources we are consuming. The resources of the Earth, while very vast and plentiful, are finite. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the wants and desires of mankind which seem to be infinite. Our consumption of natural resources like oil and natural gas has been steadily increasing while it should be decreasing. Instead of finding alternate sources of energy or finding ways to limit what we use, we have been nourishing a culture of over-consumption. It seems like more and more we are feeling a sense of entitlement towards the planet. we are so dependent on oil in the United States that it has become completely ridiculous to think about life in the United States without oil. Yet, this is exactly the reality that we are facing. Sooner rather than later mankind will have to face a world without oil. This is a scary thought to many. Imagine a world where cars could no longer run on gasoline. We would have to give up the convenience of having a virtually infinite amount of food choices at our grocery stores. We would have to give up a lot of conveniences. I think that this type of sacrifice is the right approach to curb our over consumption. Although I agree that over population is definitely a key component of the problem I am not exactly down with cutting down on the population by putting regulations on how many kids a family can have. I mean if you want to have a whole bunch of kids and you are equipped to be a good parent to them all then more power too you. I don't want to sound closed minded but it seems kind of communist to have regulations like that controlling population. I do definitely agree that things need to change but rather than relying on the government to make people do things I think that the change needs to be something that is accepted and embraced on a global level. We need to all take a look at our lifestyles and see what we can do to cut down not only our oil dependence but our consumption of every natural resource. On an individual level and a societal level we need to take on a more basic lifestyle. Unfortunately our current lifestyles are simply not sustainable.

I wasn't really sure how to go about answering this question for a few different reasons. I guess the first one is that no matter how blatant racism and discrimination are in today's society white people still don't really like to admit it let alone talk about it. I think that generally white people want to think of prejudice as a thing of the past. Something that our parents and grandparents were guilty of, but that we ourselves have eradicated as a generation. I actually do believe that we have made major strides in this area. I think that this is evidence by all of the love Penn State was getting from our Muslim classmates during all of the questions they had to answer. That really gave me a lot of school pride to know that even if people of different nationalities and religions can not feel completely comfortable in certain areas of the country they can feel comfortable in an atmosphere like Penn State. I think that our generation has come a long way towards cutting down on discrimination.
Also I never thought that Muslim was a type of race. I always thought of it as a religion. I know that there are plenty of Black people that are Muslim so I think there is a sort of fundamental problem in the question. None the less I am pretty sure I know what she is talking about when she asks this question. After reading a few of the responses I understood the general consensus of the two groups of people being referred to in the question.
I think that there is more discrimination committed against Muslim Americans than Black skinned Americans as of right now. I feel like Black people or at least the culture surrounding Black America is seen as hip and cool by a lot of white Americans. From music to style to language there are countless trends that began amongst black americans. Imitation is the ultimate form of flattery after all. I am by no means saying that there is no more prejudice towards Black people in America. Unfortunately there are people who are stuck in their ignorant ways.
On the flip side I don't see many white Americans imitating modern Muslim culture. Also I think that the events of September 11th have soiled the public image of Muslim Americans. The fact of the matter in my opinion is that this is a result of a terrible mix of ignorance and stupidity. I mean Islam is one of the largest religions in the world. Also on a side note it is one of the least violent religions. To honestly think of all people who practice Islam as terrorists is so dumb, that I would hope that even the most ignorant of Americans couldn't be capable of it. Like the kids in class said those actions were from a few extremists not the entire religion. I would hope to God that no one would ever judge me for the actions of the most extreme white people.

I personally think that both of these explanations are correct. They are not mutually exclusive causes. I am sure that even in this age of progression and forward thinking there is still a certain degree of racism amongst members of our men in blue. They are not blind to color and many of them have been taught to stereotype. It is engrained in the mind of many police officers to suspect people of color of crime.
I do not think that racism is the only cause of the influx of black and brown arrests in the United States. Another important possible cause for the fact that black and brown people are getting arrested at higher rates than white people is the fact that many black and brown people live in urban areas. I know of one example near where I live. I live in a suburb of Philadelphia and have lived there pretty much my entire life. my home town is Broomall Pennsylvania. before my mom and dad moved to Broomall they lived in Upper Darby which is one city closer to Philadelphia than Broomall. Before my dad lived in Upper Darby he lived in West Philadelphia. This type of move from the city to the suburbs is very common amongst the Irish population in the Philadelphia area, a group that my father is certainly a part of. Many times Black and Brown people moved into the houses that white people had occupied. I didn't really know the reasons for such trends until Sam was talking about the example of North Philadelphia in class. I had no idea that the roots of the trend reached back so far. I found it very interesting when Sam was talking about the reason behind the fact that the is a very large Black population in North Philadelphia. He was explaining the fact the there was still a lot of discrimination and segregation after all of the slaves were freed in the United States. He said that it was often impossible for black people to get approved for loans that the needed to buy houses. This forced a lot of black people to move into low income housing in north Philadelphia. Unfortunately, with the way that our society is set up, people struggle to get out of poverty if they were born into it. After getting the story behind the black population of urban areas in Philadelphia I felt much more enlightened and knowledgeable about the area that I grew up in. I think that the fact that there is such a multitude of black and brown people in urban areas is in many cases due to situations like this.
I think that this situation is a huge contributing factor to the amount of black and brown arrests. It is only logical to put more law enforcement officers in areas of higher population. I mean purely speaking in percentages there will be more crime where there are more people. Over population leads to both poverty and crime. the fact that black people live in areas of high population means that there will be crimes committed among them. As a result there needs to be a lot of police forces allocated to urban areas. this leads to a lot of arrest among black and brown people.

I think that Sam has really done a great job over the last couple of lectures in hammering home the point that almost every part of every single persons life is effected by two man forces. The first is their free will to make decisions and do as they please or as they see fit. The second group of factors that affects everyone in one way or another is something that we have been referring to as determinism. In essence determinism refers to pretty much every social, political, geographical or ancestral aspect of your life and how it effects what you do and the circumstances you live in. I guess a better way to say this is that the concept of determinism encompasses all of the factors of a persons life that they can not control.
I think that using these two concepts to exam the factors that led you to where you are today is an essential way of getting to know and love yourself. I think that it is very interesting to do this self examination with regards to the factors and decisions in my life that led me to be a student at Penn State.
Looking back now at the summer leading into my senior year in high school the last thing on my mind was where I wanted to go to college. I was a lot more focused on just chilling with my boys everyday and ignoring most of my responsibilities. I saw my peers at school worrying about college but I never really worried too much. I knew that I wanted to go to college but I wasn't very motivated to get the application process started. Most of my motivation to get started applying to schools came from my father. In my dad's eyes there was absolutely no way that I wasn't going to college. Also my dad had started at TAP fund which is a pennsylvania state program that my dad used to help get the money for me to go to college. He put in 50 dollars a week from the time I was born. With this program my dad was essentially buying college credits at the price that they were worth at the time he deposited the money. The credits he was buying were even cheaper if I chose to go to a state school. This definitely was an external factor that led to my Penn State decision. I also liked how easy Penn State's application process was. I knew I that my 2130 on the SAT and my 4.0 in high school would be pretty much the only two things that a Penn State admissions officer would look at. So at this point I pretty much knew I could get in. Also when it came down to it after visiting Penn State a few times I realized how much fun college could and would be at Penn State. When it came down to It Penn State ended up being the only college I ever applied to and I couldn't be happier with my decision.

I think that this is a very interesting topic to bring up. It is especially intriguing to me because I am a big fan of stand up comedy. I have been watching HBO and comedy central stand up specials for as long as I can remember. even when I did not really understand everything that the comedian was talking about I still enjoyed them because I noticed how it made my mom and dad laugh. Once I started to actually understand the jokes that the comedian was delivering I fell even more in love with stand up comedy. I am a huge believer in the fact that people should be able to laugh at themselves and laugh with one another. I think that everything in this world should be looked at with a sense of humor. After all without humor how depressing would this world be. There is so much negativity on the news and in our everyday lives that every one needs something funny and happy to share.
I think that Sam Richards was absolutely right when he pointed out that comedy is in essence pointing out and poking fun at the obvious. I suppose this is why skin color and race is such a common topic in stand up comedy. After all race and skin color are among the first thing we try to see when we meet a new person. Ok I guess I shouldn't say it like that. I mean to say that skin color is an "obvious" trait of a person even if race may be much harder to decipher. Either way the bottom line is topics like this are pretty easy for stand up comedians to hit on. These are some of the things that people find funniest.
I would definitely agree that social commentary on race from a white comedian is less readily accepted than similar jokes from a black, hispanic, latino, or asian comedian. I am not saying that this phenomenon only occurs in the United States but I would hypothesize that it is most common in this country because the United States majority in skin color is white. I personally think that there is a huge difference between someone in the majority poking fun at a minority and someone in the minority poking fun at someone in the majority. If a white person in the United States is making fun or someone in a minority such as black people than it tends to be seen as a sort of bullying. It is almost seen as white people ganging up on the other races even if it is just the words of one white comedian. This is sort of a shame in my eyes because I believe that it is essential that we all be able to laugh at ourselves and one another.

Body image issues are undeniably a huge concern to many people. I would say that there are very few to no people that are completely and totally comfortable with each and every aspect of their body. That is to say that most people would jump at the chance to change a certain aspect of their body to make it "perfect". I can personally say that there are certain parts of my physical appearance that I would love to change. I think that this phenomenon is very common among people my age. Teenagers have a lot of emotions and hormones flowing constantly and they tend to be pretty self conscious when it comes to their physical appearance. I think that for many teenagers and for the general population the physical characteristic that they tend to dwell on the most is weight. Weight is an issue for a lot of people. even people who really have nothing to worry about when it comes to weight will likely tell you that they would like to lose a few pounds. I think that this is a result of society at large telling us exactly what we should look like. The images that we see daily of beautiful people with perfect bodies sometimes make us feel self conscious. I personally am not sure that blaming pounds on parents to use alliteration is particularly helpful. I don't think that blaming weight concerns on heritage helps people cope. If anything it probably just frustrates and angers people more because they feel like they can't help it.
I will say thought that although weight is definitely a major source of body image issues it is far from the only one. A lot of people will pick apart practically every aspect of their physical appearance failing to appreciate their own inner inside beauty. On a side note I think this is really sad. When you take a step back and look at it pretty much every person has at least a few pretty fucking awesome qualities. I mean yeah people have some different physical features. Some people have big noses or slanty eyes. Others have big ears or chubby cheeks. Everyone is pretty different if u want to look at each individual physical feature in depth. It's not like we all came out of some kind of a cookie cutter. If you ask me it's an awesome thing. I mean variety is the spice of life. If everyone was the same like some sort of Stepford Wives shit the world would be a pretty boring place. I guess what I am trying to say in this free flowing, slightly confusing response is that rather than looking for a way to "blame" our differences in physical appearance on our racial make up and heritage, I suggest that we all just embrace the fact that we are all different and we are all beautiful in our own ways.

I agree with your first point whole heartedly. I thought that the entire exercise was definitely very interesting. I definitely didn't envy the position of the students chosen to separate the others according to race. While i would absolutely love to say that i am a four O student, I would quite frankly feel awkward as shit telling my peers to stand with other people who I assumed they were the same race as. I don't know why but something about it would make me uncomfortable. I thought that they handled it beautifully though, and I appreciated how light-hearted the exercise was considering how touchy of a topic race can be. I thought it was very interesting to see how peoples racial backgrounds translated into their physical appearances. I have to admit i was certainly fooled by a few of the faces. Then again Im gonna give myself the excuse of being pretty far away from them. One hundred Thomas is a huge classroom. It was very interesting to hear the people reveal their actual ethnic backgrounds. I definitely had no idea that that one girl was Native American. I was also a little disappointed in myself today because I realized that I totally fall into the mindset of the stereotype that all asian people look alike. As Sam Richards hammered home the point by showing some pictures and videos and finally with this exercise I realized how ignorant and down right stupid it was to think that way. I mean their are so many varieties of people under the category Asian that it should be obvious how diverse they are. I made a promise to myself to make a conscious effort to be more observant to the features that I use separate people. Ideally by removing the filter through which I see people of Asian background, I will avoid grouping people together as simply "asian". While I'm not so sure about the word provocative describing the exercise I will agree with it in the sense that it stimulated me to think about some new stuff. I didn't see it as outrageous or shocking however. I suppose that is because in a class dedicated to the discussion of race with an edge-y professor like Richards I would expect these sort of exercises. Either way though I thought that the entire class was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. I really like the idea of race as simply a social construct. We are all human beings and even the differences in the way we looked are just from natural evolutionary tactics that our ancestors adapted in order to survive. In a sense the races are sort of stories of the way different human cultures branched out and adapted from the beginning of human life.

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