en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/764210 Comments by colin56 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/what-about-people-who-can-only-afford-hard-work__trashed/#IDComment70563502 I like this video post. A lot of people dont realize that it is so hard to become a citizen of this country. And for someone who is coming here in order to make a better life for himself going through the whole process is really a waste of time. They know that they have two options to live in America; get in illegally or get in legally. If they want to do it legally it is going to take many years and it is going to cost them a lot. If they do it illegally, they can do it much faster an for free. The illegal option is a lot more attractive to someone who is already poor and doesn’t have the time or money to spend dealing with the united states governments. The point is they know they are going to have work if they come here regardless of the legality of their status. This work that they do is work that Americans do not want to do and it is work that is important for everyone else. It is funny and kind of sad that so many people are completely intolerant of “illegal aliens” yet they have no idea how big of an impact these people are having on their lives. There is a movie called A Day Without Mexican and it shows the repercussions of every Mexican in LA suddenly vanishing. And when they do people are upset about the raggy look everywhere because there are no people doing the yardwork. Bathrooms don’t get cleaned, there are just little problems that you don’t think about until they are in front of you. A main problem these people have with illegal immigrants is that they do not get taxed because they are not legal citizens, but they get to benefit form the end result of the taxes they aren’t paying. I just find it difficult to hate someone who is coming to our country to do the bullshit jobs that Americans all think they are too good to do. It is more important to get the work done no matter who does it and just because you cant take these peoples money doesn’t make them the enemy. I agree that if they are coming to America they should be legal citizens, but the fault doesn’t lie on the people. It belongs with the policies that make it so difficult for people to gain citizenship. If a immigrant could easily become a citizen after living and working in the country, no questions askied about how they got here in the first place, then this whole issue could be resolved. A lot of Americans could learn something about hard work motivation and dedication by looking at how these illegal immigrants support themselves and their families. Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:24:00 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/what-about-people-who-can-only-afford-hard-work__trashed/#IDComment70563502 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/letter-from-an-inmate__trashed/#IDComment70553442 It is pretty cool that he wrote this letter for our class. I would love to go with sam and laurie to rockview, it would be amazing to be able to meet some lifers and hear from their perspectives. Knowing that you will never get out of the little cell you are living in is such a hard thing to get over and it is very interesting to see the different ways people cope. It seems to me like sooner or later everyone comes to terms with what they’ve done and the repercussions of it, for some people that probably happens a lot faster than for others. No matter how long it takes for someone to change I think that when faced with such an absolute thing you conscious has to change in many different ways. I have heard of a man who was in for life and he started writing children books when he was there. I have never really had the impression that everyone in jail is a blood thirsty killing machine. I always thought that people could change even after being in prison for most of their life. The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies of all time and it shows some of the prisoners as friendly companions working to get themselves through the shit they got themselves into. It shows others as the violent stereotype of prisoners; it is interesting to watch how the two personality types get along. No matter what thought these people deserve to be locked up for what they’ve done. They can change and gain all kinds of new insights into the world if they want but that will not change the past. It really sucks that all of life can come down to just a few seconds when you make the wrong decision. You can perform the simple act of pulling a trigger, but then spent the rest of your life waking up and going to sleep in the same tiny room with no chance to change you circumstances. Its good to see that people can take the good side of a situation even when they are in prison and living a hard life. There are free men who don’t have the insight or self awareness to see the world in a way close to those in jail, which makes sense since so many people make bad decisions that hurt others everyday yet they don’t get caught. That’s what it really comes down to; whether or not you get got, and thanks to racial profiling and corruption in police forces, some people are more prone to getting caught by no fault of their own. Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:58:00 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/letter-from-an-inmate__trashed/#IDComment70553442 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/south-park-off-the-hook__trashed/#IDComment70548219 South Park is a satire of our society. It is meant to offend people so I don’t understand why people are making this an issue. There are other shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy that also satirize current events, but South Park is by far the best one. The way the writers of the show incorporate hot button issues into the lives of four fourth graders makes it impossible not to find the humor behind the jokes. I didn’t watch the video so I don’t know what episode in particular is behind all of the controversy, but I have seen all but the most recent episodes of this season so I can guess that almost all of them have to some degree pissed someone off. I saw on Fox News that the episode with Muhammad being represented as a mascot was causing some problems. I think it is funny that people get offended by cartoons, they are the best way for people to express criticism of an emotionally charged topic in a funny way because the cartoons can say whatever they want and get away with it but if south park was a sitcom they couldn’t get away with half of the shit they do. This is biased because I am personally a big fan of south park. I like that they try to push the buttons of people in the public eye. A lot of what they do on the show is just take a real issue and change some of the details so that they can make it possible to have a bunch of fourth graders make fun of it. This show has been around for awhile, I think this is the fourteenth season or something, and it has always been edgy and pushing the envelope and providing a funny commentary of current issues and events. Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:06:03 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/south-park-off-the-hook__trashed/#IDComment70548219 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/creating-terrorists__trashed/#IDComment69299378 That was an interesting video, i mean that in the sense that i have never seen anyone just blow up like they somehow spontaneously combusted. But i dont know if i would ever avenge the death of a loved one by blowing myself up. There are so many circumstances that need to be filled for me to blow myself up in the name of anything. If somebody killed my entire family for absolutely no reason other than they wanted to i dont think i would go in the direction of suicide bombing to get back at them... i think that with time my pain from the massacre would diminish somewhat and i could carry on living my life. If the reason that this person killed my whole family was because he was a government agent who thought they were some kind of terrorists i still think i would find another way to get him back. As im typing this i am realizing that i wouldnt ever blow myself up in the name of vengence for my family, but it is very interesting to think about what the conditions in that womens life must have been like fo r her to go so far as to blow herself up with a bomb in the middle of a sidewalk in a place where she did no damage to anyone but herself. I dont know anything about her husband and i know very little about the government of russia so i dont know what might have provoked the husbands death in the first place. Whatever happened i would think that the punishment didnt fit the crime and she was trying to speak out against that. Or maybe with her husband gone she literally has nothing else to live for, this is more depressing than the other scenario cause this means she has no friends or family to stay with. Maybe it was just an overreaction on her part, i mean they are in russia she probably already had quite a bit of vodka by then so alcohol might have been a factor. There could have been a chance she was next on the governments hit list so she decided to turn the tables on them and kill herself first, while at the same time maybe take a couple of them out. I don’t know what leads to a person wanting to blow themselves up, but that might be cause im from Pennsylvania and there is absolutely no reason to get that mad here. I do understand that there are places where life is so bad that it could be an option though. Im just glad I do not live in one of thos places. Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:58:58 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/creating-terrorists__trashed/#IDComment69299378 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/this-is-getting-to-be-too-much__trashed/#IDComment63041937 Im pretty sure that this started as a joke especially if the person who hung the noose is black. Why would he do something so racist towards himself unless he were making a joke about it. People usually dont say or do embarrassing/offensive things to themselves unless they have some humility about it. But even though a black person hung the noose it was not necessarily a joke he could have been doing it to start some shit with everyone. It might have been a big prank gone wrong. I know i used to pull pranks in school and one time it did go wrong and people were mad and i got in trouble, but getting into trouble is sometimes just what people are going to do. I know that everyone there is really stirred up about this but it clearly needed to happen. There must have been a lot of racial tension built up there for it to have to come to this for people to start talking about it. Im sure a lot of people who may not have been offended by the party or the noose or anything got in on the fighting and such just to be a part of it. Regardless of the intentions of the people who organized this event or the person who hung the noose this party turned into a much needed eyeopener for the people in and around the community. When people start to see this kind of tensions and problems between races they naturally have to put up their own feeling about it, which is what needs to happen. Sam always talks about the race table and white people sitting back and not being a part of the conversation but when this happens white people see what is going on and they must give their feelings about it which will eventually (hopefully) lead to people getting over their issues with the other race and the original tension that started this problem will be gone. I dont think that things such as themed parties and other creative outlets can be regarded as blatant racism. It is too ordinary for people to take them seriously and project their own racist preconceptions onto them in order to become the victim. Not everything in the world is intended for you. And if it wasnt intended for you then you have to assume that it was not meant to be offensive since you do not know who the person who did it. You cant deem something as an action intended to offend if you dont know the person responsible. It is okay in this world to let things go right away and not dwell on them for a long time, a lot of people feel like it is required by them to create drama. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:40:20 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/this-is-getting-to-be-too-much__trashed/#IDComment63041937 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/1880__trashed/#IDComment58883984 This is good for the three affiliated tribes. Any amount of money to these people is a blessing. The fact that the money and business and new way of life all came from the oil industry seems kind of ironic since the ancient tribal people we're very in touch with their natural world. I think that some people would say this is a bad thing for the tribe since they are going against the ideology of their ancestors. But i bet most of the people who would say that aren't from within the tribe. Most of the members of the tribe see this as a great break for them. It is the first time in 200 years that these people have actually had the ability to be like the members of the society that currently controls their land. I wish more industries saw the affect that they could have on these people. Instead of outsourcing manufacturing to a developing nation over seas, why not outsource it to a Native American reservation? These people are just as desperate for jobs and an acceptable standard of living as most people in developing nations and would work for lower wages than American citizens too. The costs of shipping overseas are much higher than the costs of shipping within our continent. Not only would it reduce shipping but it would be beneficial to the local economies to have more people with disposable income. These Native Americans are using what they have to make for themselves and their children better lives than their ancestors ever had. Its sad to me that it is having to come down to business to save these peolples and show them a life that might begin to repay the enormous debt that they are owed. The government has the resources available to help these people but it chooses instead to go to war halfway around the world. It gives aid to countries all across the globe. All it takes is for one tribe to begin to be self sufficient is one good source of income. Out of that many opportunities would arise. A lot of people in class were struggling to understand the point that sam was drilling into our heads during lecture. They were thinking that he was saying that we are directly responsible for the treatment of Indians. And that we are doing things in our day to day lives to put them down and ignore them. I dont think this is what he was saying. I think he was trying to say that the way we learn about the history of our country is wrong and that from an early age Americans are made to believe that this land was made for you and me. But not he indians. We are left in the dark about the way the original people of America live. He was saying that we need to be educated about things that are occurring right where we call home and not be ignorant about the state of our society. Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:42:03 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/1880__trashed/#IDComment58883984 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/negros-of-the-world-unite__trashed/#IDComment56612501 Does the census project a way of thinking about race, or does it reflect the population's views on race? The answer to that should be it reflects the views of the people, but if the classifications of the survey are limited than the results are going to skewed. At the same time however if the classifications of the survey are too broad, the results will be spread so thin that a judgment about them would be difficult to make. So it is important to have a lot of options on the Census, but it also needs to have an option available to make your self more specific. For example if you marked the box that says black you can write in that you are from the west indies, or from africa, or african american. But also if you mark hispanic you can write in you are from central america, or south america, or from spain. White people can say if they are descendant of Europe or northern africa. Going through each "race" on the Census and providing the opportunity for elaboration for each one would increase the accuracy of the information provided by the census. With a more accurate picture of the population, advertising would be aimed at more specifically. With an area for elaboration it would be easy to remove the need for negro and black and african americans to all be condensed into one group. Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:17:09 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/negros-of-the-world-unite__trashed/#IDComment56612501 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/the-enlightened-west-knows-best__trashed/#IDComment55359531 I dont think there is any reason in the world for a law like this to be passed. Governments are not supposed to impose any kind of will on the people. As soon as they start telling Muslim women that they cant wear a burqas they are going to tell people that they can't wear shirts that promote any dissenting opinions on them. Then they will tell people that they must dress in "decent"clothes. It is going to be a slippery slope if a law like this is passed. With all of the offensive fashion statements being made in today's world (overweight people wearing belly shirts or tight spandex pants, people wearing shirts that display anti-government sentiments, girls wearing shorts that expose the bottom half of their ass, girls wearing shorts that let their thong hang out) there are lots ways to be more offensive than women simply living according to their beliefs. To say that this law is supposed to grant women certain rights like freedom of expression or whatever is completely ass-backwards. This law is not only encroaching on the rights of those women, but every person living in France. The bigger problem I see in this article is not that the government is becoming more aggressive in asserting its will over people, it is that the article suggests that western society has the solution for these women that are being oppressed, most of whom probably wear a burqa by choice. Western society, on the whole, doesn't understand what these peoples beliefs and traditions are founded upon. Western society has the image that women are meant to be beautiful and glamorous, and in their quest for beauty and glamor western women will do anything to their bodies and wear anything no matter how uncomfortable it is. And this is starting to be the case at an younger and younger age, even going as far as child beauty pageants. When it comes down it, there is just an enormous difference in ideology for women from the west and women from the middle east. And it seems to me that the west is the un-enlightened ones. When did it become encouraged in our society to push girls to be perfect looking at any cost? This kind of reinforcement only feeds depression among children. In Islam women are thought of as being decent and reserved about their sexuality. I'm not saying that i agree with all the practices that go along with this, i am a proponent for womens rights and i think they should be able to have the same jobs men have and everything. But i do think that there is something of value in creating an atmosphere that makes girls think of themselves in a different way than just being a sex object, which is what it seems like they are becoming in the west. If American women were as dedicated to being modest and covered than their daughters would see that it is possible to have inner beauty and they would learn to embrace that. Unfortunately that kind of image doesn't sell in the media so there is no exposure for that kind of lifestyle. Im not suggesting that America and the rest of the western world make a move in a more conservative direction, not only is this highly unlikely to ever happen, but i think it would cause a lot more problems than whether or not Muslim women in France can wear a burqa or not. I am only suggesting that, like the law states, people are free to express themselves in anyway they see fit so long as they are not hurting anyone in the process. This means that if Muslim women living in France want to wear burqas, they should wear burqas. Having more than one tradition/culture/ideology in one place is a good thing. People CAN learn from one another despite what our current situation might show. Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:41:02 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/the-enlightened-west-knows-best__trashed/#IDComment55359531 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/haitis-calamity__trashed/#IDComment54137845 I think that there are an infinite number of ways to find within yourself the true meaning of God. A lot of people wish to put a face to the thing we call God, make Him easier for us to relate to. Since no person can ever be on the same plane as the almighty or whatever we have to bring Him down to earth. This has been done for as long as humans have been able to think. First it was pagan beliefs, God was the earth or wind or oceans. Then people started to be able to conquer these things with farming and shelter and boats and everything since. Then people moved on from worshiping and fearing the elements of the Earth because they were no longer considered to be out of the control of people, they became trivial. With nowhere but the stars to turn to people started believing in a divine creator who made them and all that was around them. They now had a new way to fear and pray to the unknown. God became more human, he had the power of creativity(a human quality) he had the ability to decide what was and what wasn't, he got to control how humanity lived and understood everything. People were at His mercy. Then one day God (literally) became human. He suffered as a human, died like a human, and returned to His place in the stars. To some people this progression seems like a series of very different beliefs and values. Granted praying to God's Human incarnate and praying to the Mountains are two completely different things with two very different goals. But I believe that Humanity has been deceived this whole time. For ages we have put different faces on the same feeling. The feeling that somewhere, somehow there is something that we are all a part of that is much grander than we could ever be or dream to be or even fathom. Whether its having faith in Jesus to bring you to salvation, or praying to the earth Goddess to bring a good harvest or meditating to achieve nirvana and end rebirth and suffering, everyone wants to acknowledge that there is something that can't be understood. The only constant in all of these things is the involvement of self. Whether self comes through in the form of Faith or discipline or desperation. Controlling the self and mind has been the basis for religion for all of history and it continues to be. But it seems to me that the ease with which people living in our culture and others have forgotten this simple fact, and has created a sort of lazy mentality in people. Laziness in controlling self causes people to loose what is out there that is bigger than they are. Yet people have no problem controlling others cause that is easy, especially with guns and modern technology. So instead of looking inward to find a solution to their problems people prefer to look out into the world and see what they can change in order to improve their life. There is no doubt that this catastrophe has touched a lot of people and caused them to look beyond themselves and realize that there are bigger more important things in the world than their own ego, but what is equally probable is that many people look at what happened and just pump their own ego with the thoughts that "at least it wasn't me". Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:44:16 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/haitis-calamity__trashed/#IDComment54137845 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/last-name-begins-with-s__trashed/#IDComment53946899 sam richards Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:15:09 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/last-name-begins-with-s__trashed/#IDComment53946899 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/clubbing-the-bejesus-out-of-rationality__trashed/#IDComment52720828 As human beings we have the ability to say, believe, or act how we prefer. In America we,or at least some of us, have the ability to preach our words to millions of other people. And more and more people have the option to listen/watch whichever talking head they want to. I am sure that there are a ton of people out there who have the same sentiment as Pat Robertson. I don't agree with it as I'm sure many people don't. People are going to listen to whatever confirms their preexisting notions, and are going to ignore whatever goes against them. I truly don't believe that this whole issue surrounding Pat Robertson and Keith Olbermann stems from either one of those men. There is a problem with the way people handle diversity. Instead of coming together to form a new outlook on an old problem, people are too content with ignoring and distrusting the other side of the coin. The problem is people are afraid to face the differences head on, so we just continue to have two wildly opposing views that constantly fight about which side is right, and neither side can be right as long as they are both still fighting. On an unrelated note I think its funny that our government can tax us to pay for the death of millions of people in one country but cant do the same to help another one. I know that sooo many people would find the idea of a tax to aid a foreign nation appalling, but isn't worse to put up with a tax that ultimately kills so many? Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:59:20 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/clubbing-the-bejesus-out-of-rationality__trashed/#IDComment52720828