It’s classes like these that you really have to step back and realize this is what sociologists do and whether or not you agree with what Sam is saying, he’s really trying to make you question our norms and our culture one way or another. It’s interesting that sometimes the things Sam says really get on my nerves but on this issue of Christian invaders, I was pretty much with him.

I think that racism has gone away until I hear some of the comments and jokes people make about Muslims and the Middle East. I’m always hearing people defend themselves, saying they’re not racist, that they get along fine with black people (as if just being ok with black people means you’re alright with all types of people). Then I hear the same people turn around and say these blatantly despicable comments about Middle Easterners. And when I ask why I hear, “we discriminated against blacks because of the color of their skin but Muslims attacked us on 9-11” and that’s their reason. It makes me wonder how people can be so incredibly ignorant. Perhaps because I’m in school and I’m constantly being told to look at a situation through another lense, I don’t realize that so many people today are not being given the same advice and even though it sounds like common sense, much of the American public looks past it.

But I don’t think Sam’s forceful method of teaching the way he did in this class would get through to a terrible amount of the American public because at times it seems more threatening and accusatory. But nonetheless I think he got through to a lot of the students, but for myself I’ve already heard this argument and agree with it. Of course, if I were an Arab Muslim living in the Middle East right now I don’t think I’d have a good view of Americans with their armor and tanks coming into our towns and killing innocent civilians (if not on purpose, it still happens regardless). I do see the “War on Terror” as mainly an issue centered around oil. There are plenty of places in other parts of the world that need our help, but instead we put all our money into making the United States seem like a superpower in the Middle East because ultimately we will get oil out of it. But what do we get for involving ourselves so drastically in, for example, Africa where countless numbers of people are starving on accord of their poorly run governments? I just feel like we could be using this energy so much more positively. I see many parallels between this war and the Vietnam war. America needs to understand the people it’s fighting in order to respect their life.

he first sentence of every single post above mine seems to echo what was going through my mind..I was speechless when I saw that phantom hand in the video game grab that animated teenage girl. Growing up in a culture such as the United States I can't imagine a country, another government possibly justifying the reasons for the creation of such games. Hentai, fine, so some guys get off to naked anime characters. Weird but it's porn which I feel is on a whole nother unstoppable level. But a video game in which you stalk a young teenage girl and her female family members and then rape them as revenge? How easily accessible are these games? How popular are they with the general Japanese public and what do their women think when they see this?

However, now that I am trying to look at everything as a sociologist, this kind of forces me to ask if such a game could just be a social construction. I mean...Sam has a good point when he says that all these killing games aren't much better. Why are so many games about violent killing your opponent alright but lifting a girl's skirt is going to get more negative attention? These rape games are unbelievable but it makes me really think about our norms It's always interesting to see what one culture thinks is acceptable and what another culture does.

As a woman this offends me. I really never thought about how men treat women around the world. we're taught in school all the time about how women are treated like sinning sex objects and what not. So when I leave the states it's really scary to actually experience it. I mean, when I was in MExico I was treated like a sex object. And it kind of pissed me off that some men won't take me seriosuly. Sop in conclusion, the video game is simply degrading to women and is moving us backwards. Obviously.

Maybe I was zoning out but when Sam dropped the conversation on us about periods but I was pretty blown away. I wasn't sure where it came from or how it pertained AT ALL to the class. But he is, after all, a sociologist and so in a way it was a very important issue to discuss, even in a race relations course. Learning to hide your period is a social construction, like everything else in our world it seems. It's a very strange phenomenon but ever since I was 13 I've been extremely shy to talk about it. Obviously, I've grown up and can have a serious discussion about it but that doesn't mean I don't feel awkward discussing it in front of guys. However, I'm not so sure it's completely a social construction issue. When I got my first period I was absolutely terrified. Not so much that there was something wrong with me but the fact that I was changing....my mom hadn't even warned me this would happen. My friends hadn't said anything to me. All I knew were some innuendos made in class and books about it. I was afraid to tell my mom and afraid to tell any of my teachers, even the women teachers. It just didn't seem right and maybe it scared me because I'd heard people refer to it as "you're becoming a woman" but I didn't know what that meant and I didn't want to be a woman. I was only thirteen!

Today, I still find it awkward to mention it to guys, although I generally date very understanding guys (currently one who grew up with six sisters so he knows the deal). And it's odd that I can't explain where the direct feeling came from but having my period each month has made me feel dirty...but guys don't feel dirty when they fall off a bike and their legs are bleeding?

I don't like that Sam was trying to teach us something about periods that we didn't know, or at least that's how he was borderline appearing to me. Yeah I know some guys think it's gross, yeah, I know some girls think it's gross. It's a social construction. Well what are we going to do about it? Just like we don't eat certain foods like squid and octupus, our culture might not ever accept that periods are perfectly alright. It really sucks though that guys don't get anything equivalent because it'd be nice if they could be more understanding or on the same playing field. But nothing's fair right?

I've always thought ti was really interesting that we never discussed Hawaiians, I don't mean only in class but out in the real world as well. Weren't Hawaiians given the same exact treatment Native Americans were, what with overthrowing their government, taking over their land, and making them permanently underprivileged? It seems that nowadays we hear "Native Americans" and as soon as we go beyond our first image, which is most likely tepees and feather headdresses, we're reminded of the injustices they faced and still face and how they're all placed on "reservations" like they're all a bunch of cattle that have been allotted a certain area to graze. But when we "think Hawaiian", we think honey moons, hoola dancing, pinapples, surfing, and big, happy brown people waiting for us at the airport terminals and our flashy hotels. I almost have this image of these people that are happy to serve me....well, if I'd ever were to visit.

Bert Beaman, a Hawaiian who lives at Keaau Beach Park said "Whatever Hawaiians can get, get it and be grateful." This quote surprised me because it seemed like Beaman was telling Hawaiians to settle on whatever help they can get. Don't they deserve much more than that? If Hawaiians really do “earn less money, live shorter lives, get sent to prison more often and are more likely to end up homeless than other ethnicities” then it's going to take a lot to get them up to speed with the rest of the United States.

But I'm kind of confused about the idea that Hawaiians would have their own government. How is this possible if they're a part of the United States. Do Hawaiians even like that technicality? I think it might be really beneficial for them to have their own government. I mean, can we really say they're American? I didn't mean for that to sound like I have an issue with it, but how can we really say they're American when Hawaii is an island a thousand or so miles away from the mainland and with a completely different culture and way of life from people in, for example, New York City?

I wish this article could have interviewed more Hawaiians because now I'm really curious about their opinions. And I've never been to Hawaii so is it really as bad now as this article makes it seems? We can't fall into the ecological fallacy and start to believe that every single Hawaiian is affected negatively by all this right? Some have got to be perfectly content with their hula dancing and surfing lifestyle? Haha I really feel like I have no right to have an opinion on this issue because I know so little.

Is it just me or does this woman talk like she's mildly ditsy or trying to at least give off too much of a girly persona? Maybe she wants to keep her feminine side in tact and show that she's not butch? That sounds crass but I'm just saying what first comes to mind about this interview. The person before me is right, she needs to be tougher on the field if she wants wins- or so I think. I don't actually know anything about football but she'll be ridiculed by other football coaches if she doesn't work out. Either way, I’d really like to see her on the field and I’d like to see her relationship with the players because I’m willing to bet that’d be unique. I wonder how the boys themselves feel about it.

When I saw this I thought it might be about a woman becoming a football coach in like the NFL or something so when I saw high school I thought ok what's the big deal? But now that I think about it it is kind of a big deal, there will most likely be many issues to discuss about this. If anyone is really opposed to it I bet they'll accuse her of of doing inappropriate things that would be perfectly fine for a male coach like talking to the boys in the locker rooms. True, it's the 21st century but there are always people willing to oppose and go to great lengths to get rid of people...

So she's a coach for young football players, for young men? Ok fine I'll stop, I'm critiquing her way too much. People are right, it is amazing what she's accomplished and the potential she has for changing gender roles. Who knows maybe someday we'll be seeing buff guys teaching little girls to do ballet.
I think whenever something like this happens you always have to take into consideration today that affirmative action could be playing a hand in it all. Ok, I’m sorry for being so extremely negative about the fact that a woman is a football coach. I don't know if it's all because of social constructionism or if there's a real reason behind it but the whole thing seems bizarre. What does a girl know about football? That might sound really ignorant of me but I mean it's a man's sport for the most part, I'm sure most people wouldn't deny that. Even on a girl's team of football it's not recognized as being on the same level as boys. Some people really may not take her seriously and I think it's going to take a while for her to gain some respect. I'm not saying it can't be done, just saying it might be a rough road for her...

There's so much to say on the subject of Native Americans for me and I've realized that much of what I want to say aren't statements, they're questions. I really don't have a good handle on what it means to be a Native American in the United States or what it's ever meant. My childhood interpretation were that they were dark skinned people who ran around in loin clothes and feathers and were nice to our European settlers, our "heroic" ancestors. I used to like history class growing up until I learned we were learning from distorted positions, and that if someone else was in charge of our curriculum we would be hearing much different stories.

The article stated that the U.S. government gives these Native American tribes 60-70 million dollars in federal aid? Maybe I'm just being naive but that seems like an amazing amount of money, so where is it going? Does it go specifically to the families or through some abstract idea like buildings and schools that may affect these families but not quite as much as by putting the money directly into their bank accounts? So these Native Americans are poor and are segregated by being placed on special land called reservations. Why are they given these reservations, that makes me think of them as some rare species of animals!

True, the first thing that popped into my head was that this is karma, Native Americans are getting back billions of dollars by a white man's mistake. But the person who made the first comment made an extremely good point, as I'm sure others did as well. Why should Native Americans be happy with this outcome? With the fact that their land is being drilled and their resources taken in ridiculous quantities. I think ancestors of Native Americans today might even be angry if they could see their descendants right now and the compromising they've had to do. Not to say that Native Americans today have much of a choice it seems, at least to me. While the casinos in the area gave them another 200 jobs or so, in the end I think a casino will have even more negative effects. From statistics given in class, it appears that all this poverty leads to Native Americans causing more crimes and struggling with problems such as abuse and alcoholism in addition to a lack of a job market. So how do they fix it? By building a casino so they can spend their hard earned money and become more susceptible to becoming gamblers.

I feel alittle hesitant to throw out this comment because I could be completely wrong on this entire subject. I realize I'm a bit ignorant to Native American issues because they don't crop up very often.

I'm not entirely sure I like Sam's method on saying just about anything rash just to evoke some sort of response...but I guess anything to get people to respond is better than no response in a classroom? I agree with the first person to comment. True, some people may be in high places because of who they know and not what they know, but I generally believe that most businessmen and women are where they are because of their will and education, not just because of mommy and daddy- though I'm willing to bet more of that is contributed than is fair. They're equipped with the tools to help them survive, and unfortunately that can sometimes include their parents money. It appears that if this woman had been born in the United States, she would be at the very least an independent and successful small businesswoman. She appeared humble from the NPR report, which makes me wonder if she would have stopped at having her own private business and not have bothered to climb the social ladder to the very top. The comment before me makes a good point, if you're going to attack any sector, attack them all fairly because there are much worse things in America than workaholics.

My first thought when asked how I would fare in Haiti was, "not very well at all." But then I realized I was looking at how I would fare right now, as my 21-year-old self grown up in the United States. If I had grown up in Haiti I may be a completely different person. My guess is growing up a place such as Haiti would have made or break me. Either I'd be dead by now or living in a poor area would have strengthened my body and soul as a human being. You never know what you're made of until you're thrown into tough times. At least my head would be strong carrying all those eggs ;). You have to remember that also, if she was born in the US she would have most likely been born with a security blanket like the rest of us, or at least welfare of some sort. Therefore she would have had the opportunity to build the same character and will. Sorry, I feel like I'm trying to fight Sam's point but I think part of the reason for that is that sometimes he just seems too sure of himself! Sure sure, she's a brilliant and innovative woman and I want to say if I were her I wouldn't be doing the same, I might be sitting in the dirt crying but you never quite can tell unless you're in that situation.

I’m so happy this topic was finally brought up simply because I have never heard anyone but myself wonder this exact phenomenon. As I sat in my race relations discussion group, I was extremely tempted to ask the only apparent Asian in our group but was afraid of sounding too rash, considering I don’t know him. This is, by the way, still a problem I feel in our discussions that we still haven’t broken down enough barriers to comfortably discuss these issues but the semester is young. Anyway, I did muster the courage to ask a Chinese American guy in a drunken state of mind over the weekend and he laughed and said “oh you want to know about the yellow people you racist.” Unfortunately he had little to contribute, but if I were Asian or Middle Eastern I wouldn’t be quite sure where to place myself in the issues of race because I feel I would be constantly left out.
You made a very interesting point, stating that blacks through the civil rights movement paved the way for other minorities who came afterward for the end of segregation. In fact, I also read that article for another class. I feel that it is because of educated black students and radical/peaceful figures that the idea of race and prejudice is always led back to African Americans and perhaps will continue to be for a while, however I’m only guessing another generation or two. When people think of race issues, they want to bring up how we’ve changed after the civil rights movement, how we’re grown to become so accepting of black people and how now no one is segregated or literally held down (despite so many altered and discreet versions of racism today). We don’t recognize the fact that we’re still prejudice towards other races. We hear phrases like “Dirty Mexican” and “Cheap Indians” and we laugh because today I feel like the vast majority thinks of it all as a joke, not realizing how derogatory these words really are or how strongly they shape our perceptions of people.
I also agree that is easier to talk about black and white issues because they have already been covered so thoroughly over the years. With other races, I feel like people are not entirely sure how to approach the issues. Perhaps this is because it is no longer just about the color of your skin, it’s about religion and culture as well.
I think that is we want to abolish the issue of racism and prejudice we need to fully address the issue and include all races in the conversation. If we don’t do this, then the conversations will never be an accurate representation of everyone involved in the issue of race.

I walked into the movie theater with a fairly opened mind last January when I went to see Avatar. I was hearing good views. “It will change your life,” someone told me. “A science fiction love story version of Titanic!” This sounded perfect because I loved romance and my boyfriend loved sci fi. However, it didn’t take long before I found myself being immediately disinterested and unamused with the plot line. Despite the beautiful graphics, I felt as if I had been fed this idea before. It reminded me incredibly of Ferngully, the children’s movie about the big bad wood cutters in the forest filled with nature loving fairies. The effects were not enough to trick me into believing this movie was original.
I believe this form of storytelling is getting old. Sooner or later, people will wake up and realize they’re watching the same movie with different actors. Brooks made many good points throughout his article, The Messiah Complex. The natives are kind, courageous and nature loving and never white, in fact this time they’re blue! The “messiah” is always a white man, ignorant at first but when the natives show him their ways he suddenly excels, is even better than they are. Jake Sulley went from an ignorant ex marine to the most revered of the natives, excelling in the language, hunting, and he even got the princess who swore she wouldn’t care for him. Then it becomes to the white man’s job to save them from his own people. I’m tired of these stereotypes and the irrationalness of the movie, even if it’s pure fiction. He would have been murdered by that tribes, not welcomed because a tree told them to do so.
It’s not a white man’s job to be the leader of a black man’s movement. Let them have their own thoughts, their own strategies, and their own heroes. Race superiority crosses my mind every time I watch a movie like this one and it pisses me off.
I’d just like to throw it out there that I really like the analogy that our own culture is like a fish in water. You really can’t feel the weight of your own culture when you’re in it. I feel like I’m always saying, “I wish I had culture” when the truth is that I have just as much culture as anyone else, I just can’t truly grasp the enormity of it. That said, there’s probably some aspects of these messiah stories that I’m still not getting. Most likely my subconscious has been brainwashed to think it’s my duty to learn about other people but only on the outside. Perhaps in the end I’ll only think even more highly of myself? I’d like to think that’s not true but you never know. That’s why the race relation group discussions are so good, right after you voice your opinion there’s always someone else who can say they don’t agree with what you’re saying.

I can understand how the French government could see this as a problem. In an increasingly secular world, people don’t want to see others and their blatant displays of affection and adornment to their own religious values and traditions. In fact, it is already illegal to wear such religious emblems as crosses in the workplace in France and England (says my English roommate). Women wearing burqas, to many Westerners, is a symbol of women’s in sub ordinance to men as the reporter in the video mentioned. We see this as a tradition that needs to be abolished for women’s rights. We see the women covered from head to toe, hiding their faces completely save for their eyes, and we get nervous, wondering if they’re terrorists, fearing they could be hiding a weapon behind their cloth.
All of this is a direct result of our inability to understand other people’s religions. I do not believe the French government should put a ban on the wearing of burqas because it takes away a fundamental freedom, most importantly because their clothing does not affect anyone else, save for maybe making them feel uncomfortable in their ignorance. Some people may argue that if we have laws against wearing nothing than we should have laws against certain clothing. A burqa is not a threat to anyone. Someone running around wearing nothing is called indecent exposure and such laws prevent people from having their eyes scarred and their children’s innocence protected. If a child saw a burqa and questioned it, it could be seen as a positive thing, that children are growing up and learning that not everyone looks the same, acts the same, or worships the same God. Although many parents try to refrain from teaching their children about other religions, it is nonetheless important information necessary to coexist in today’s diverse society. Perhaps this is the general consensus of the class because we are all young and mostly left wingers who have an open mind about people’s freedoms (just a thought to throw in).
In conclusion, the women in the video agreed that if asked to see their faces for legal reasons, they would be obliged to cooperate. This is one of the most important points made I feel. These women aren’t trying to break the law or make other people uncomfortable, they are simply exercising a right, just like most Western women who exemplify the right to wear short mini skirts and bear it all. Why should that be considered more acceptable? Women today are deciding how much or how little they want to wear, not men.