en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1126853 Comments by cosuji https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84802395 I think one reason why these people have not been stopped is that there are still many people who agree with their beliefs. They may not be as open as the members of the Ku Klux Klan, but there has to be a lot of support for a hate group as old as the Ku Klux Klan to still be around and have a decent amount of people still involved. Yes freedom of speech and assembly do play apart in the reasons why they are still around, but if a group of people were not only going around spreading hate through their words, but actually committing hate crimes against people, I would think that they would have been stopped decades ago. It doesn’t make any sense to me how America can go into Iraq and execute their president for what is going on in their country, for things that doesn’t affect Americans at all, but they cannot control a group of people in their own country from openly committing hate crimes. Mon, 5 Jul 2010 00:39:12 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84802395 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84800941 I cannot count the number of times I have heard people complain about Middle Eastern immigrants getting all the “good jobs” like engineers and doctors, or people complain about every company outsourcing to India, or Spanish people taking all the minimum wage jobs. White people have a problem with non white people, especially those who are not from America excelling and that is the real problem. In my opinion it’s not the fact that these people are illegal immigrants, it’s the fact that they are immigrants period that creates an issue, and because you cannot just outwardly express your hate for foreign people the way that people do about illegal immigrants unless you will be seen as a racist, people use the illegal part to make it okay to hate people who are not “American” especially those who are black and brown, who are not “American”. This is very sad but very true, take a moment to think of the last “white” illegal immigrant you heard someone rant about, I can’t think of any can any of you? Mon, 5 Jul 2010 00:25:14 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84800941 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84800926 People often get so hung up on what they believe are the negative aspects of immigration, that they forget all the positive contributions that immigrant people and “non Americans” have made to America as a nation and American culture. The first immigrants in America were Europeans, therefore all white people in America are essentially descendants of immigrants. It is mind boggling to me why the people who are against illegal immigration go so hard trying to fight against illegal immigration when they are not “real Americans” in the way that they interpret being a “real American”. In my opinion the fight against illegal immigration is just another way to be racist and discriminate against people who are not white. There are illegal immigrants from all over the world not just Latin America, yet you never hear people fighting about illegal French immigrants or illegal Scottish immigrants or any other European nation, you only hear about groups that are not white. Mon, 5 Jul 2010 00:25:06 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84800926 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84800878 I get extremely upset when I hear people speak about immigrants because more than half the time people are just talking out of their behinds. People hear things on TV from other people who really don’t know what they are talking about and base their own opinions on a particular issue, from someone else’s view point, which is very stupid. Before speaking on any issue everyone should actually take the time to investigate an issue thoroughly before addressing it. For example the man ranting about how illegal immigrants are the scum of the earth, and all that crazy BS, he is an complete and total idiot and that is all I can say about him. First and for most I can honestly say that about seventy-five percent of the people that I know personally are immigrants or are descendants of immigrants. In my opinion immigrant people are the hardest working group of people that you will ever meet, and I can almost say that is a fact but there are no absolutes in sociology as the professor stated so I will just say one of the most. Immigrants come to America in search of a better life, and like Americans are in pursuit of the “American dream”. How can you penalize people for wanting better lives for themselves and their families? Mon, 5 Jul 2010 00:24:43 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-13-immigration__trashed/#IDComment84800878 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83647842 I agree 100%! This lecture really helped me become more open to LGBT people and how they feel. I thought that I was totally open about homosexuality, but I realize that I wasn’t as open as I thought I was. I was still seeing some of the actions of gay people as being weird, and now I realize that its perfectly normal, its just my interpretation of their actions that makes me feel like it is weird. One thing that has also helped me become more open to the LGBT community is that I have gay friends, actually living and experiencing life with gay people makes you look at them as people and not as people who are gay. Thu, 1 Jul 2010 03:48:53 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83647842 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83645267 lesson 12 People do not understand LGBT people so it is hard for them to be able to relate. What has helped me is that some of my closest friends have become gay and when you actually know someone you are able to put your differences aside because you are able to se them for who they really are, and not for their sexuality. The more I have began to learn about gay people the more I am able to realize that being gay is not really a choice. You are who you are and even if you decide to suppress your sexuality you will still be gay. The question about what was the earliest you have ever noticed someone that you thought was gay made me think of this little six yearold boy who lives in my apartement building back home who is clearly gay. He plays with my little sisters, dances around everywhere, and is just obviously gay. I never thought deep enough about the issue to actually think that wow he has to have been born gay. I must admit I was one of those people who really thought that being gay is a life style that you choose, but the more I learn about it and actually have friends who had “gay” tendancies actually come out, I realize that like being straight it is just the way you are. You cannot blame someone for being who they are. I also must admit that until this lecture I was a person who thought that when gay people openly showed affection they were “flaunting” their sexuality. I feel very ignorant to have never thought that just like we show our affection to the people that we love so do they. Has everyone ever noticed how people generally treat gay men worst than gay women? Why might that be? How much does being gay actually take away from peoples views of a gay mans masculinity? There are so many questions that people have about LGBT people that they are too scared or embarrased to really ask. Gay sex vs. being gay is very different from one another. For some reason when I was in tenth grade in high school every girl in my school was turning “lesbian” and many girls who have always seen themselves as lesbians were upset about all these girls saying this about themselves because they fellt as if they were making a mockery of their actual sexual orientation. I have friends who make sure that they make people understand the difference between being gay and being attracted to people of the same sex. Just because you find people attractive who are of the same sex does not mean that you are gay. People are so confused because we just don’t know, we should all take the time to understand people before we even think about forming opinions that are basically uneducated. Thu, 1 Jul 2010 03:39:17 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-7-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt__trashed/#IDComment83645267 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82515425 Reading making peace between our colors is very interesting to me because you are able to see race through the eyes of someone who is not “colored” which you often do not get to see. I think I have to agree that minorities rarely acknowledge the fact that racial issues also affect white people, which enable them to form a well thought out opinion on racial issues. I must admit that I haven’t always been so open-minded to the idea of white people actually having a good understanding of race relations, because it always seems as if they do not have the problems that we have. The Author speaks about how her father worked extremely hard to get where he is at, and I do not doubt that at all, but if a minority had the same story there may have been some road blocks in his way, simply because of his race. I believe that the main issue between colored people and white people is that even as much as a white person may try to understand what we go through as a colored people, you can never really understand because you are not colored. I am black but when it comes to certain racial issues I can feel like almost anyone of any race can relate to me but white people because they are not colored. Every colored person has or will experience some type of racism in their life, and although a white person might have an experience with racism it will never be like the experiences that colored people have. It isn’t that we will not allow white people to understand, it’s that we feel as if white people can’t understand. For example the professor spoke about how he began to become very acquainted with disabled people which enabled him to get a better insight about how life as a disable person may be, but no matter how acquainted he becomes he has never been disabled. He may be extremely familiar with the disability but because he has never had to really experience life with a disability, his knowledge stops there. This is the same for race relations, you can know as much as your mind will let you learn, but until you actually walk in the shoes of a person you will never really know. Even today I was hanging out with my best friends from back home when one of my friends whose first name is Shaniqua, said that she was considering legally change her first name to her middle name which is Renee because she thinks it will prevent her from getting a good job when she graduates from college. How many C.E.O’s of fortune 500 companies do you know with a name like that? Sadly this is life for many minority people and it’s difficult for us to really believe that a person who will most likely never experience the things that we experience can really understand our struggle. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:31:07 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82515425 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82577395 I was also shocked by the experiment, I went home this weekend and noticed that my little sister have a couple white dolls, and I asked them why they choose white dolls instead of black dolls just to see what their response was, and luckily it wasn’t any real reasons. They were regular responses like they didn’t have the black doll, or they simply just liked the doll and there is nothing wrong with that at all, even I have had white dolls when I was younger but I never thought about any of the things that the children in the experiment thought about the white and black dolls. I want my sisters to grow up loving and being comfortable with their race the way that I am. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:49:59 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82577395 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82575679 Reading making peace between our colors is very interesting to me because you are able to see race through the eyes of someone who is not “colored” which you often do not get to see. I think I have to agree that minorities rarely acknowledge the fact that racial issues also affect white people, which enable them to form a well thought out opinion on racial issues. I must admit that I haven’t always been so open-minded to the idea of white people actually having a good understanding of race relations, because it always seems as if they do not have the problems that we have. The Author speaks about how her father worked extremely hard to get where he is at, and I do not doubt that at all, but if a minority had the same story there may have been some road blocks in his way, simply because of his race. I believe that the main issue between colored people and white people is that even as much as a white person may try to understand what we go through as a colored people, you can never really understand because you are not colored. I am black but when it comes to certain racial issues I can feel like almost anyone of any race can relate to me but white people because they are not colored. Every colored person has or will experience some type of racism in their life, and although a white person might have an experience with racism it will never be like the experiences that colored people have. It isn’t that we will not allow white people to understand, it’s that we feel as if white people can’t understand. For example the professor spoke about how he began to become very acquainted with disabled people which enabled him to get a better insight about how life as a disable person may be, but no matter how acquainted he becomes he has never been disabled. He may be extremely familiar with the disability but because he has never had to really experience life with a disability, his knowledge stops there. This is the same for race relations, you can know as much as your mind will let you learn, but until you actually walk in the shoes of a person you will never really know. Even today I was hanging out with my best friends from back home when one of my friends whose first name is Shaniqua, said that she was considering legally change her first name to her middle name which is Renee because she thinks it will prevent her from getting a good job when she graduates from college. How many C.E.O’s of fortune 500 companies do you know with a name like that? Sadly this is life for many minority people and it’s difficult for us to really believe that a person who will most likely never experience the things that we experience can really understand our struggle. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:31:07 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82575679 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82515449 Reading making peace between our colors is very interesting to me because you are able to see race through the eyes of someone who is not “colored” which you often do not get to see. I think I have to agree that minorities rarely acknowledge the fact that racial issues also affect white people, which enable them to form a well thought out opinion on racial issues. I must admit that I haven’t always been so open-minded to the idea of white people actually having a good understanding of race relations, because it always seems as if they do not have the problems that we have. The Author speaks about how her father worked extremely hard to get where he is at, and I do not doubt that at all, but if a minority had the same story there may have been some road blocks in his way, simply because of his race. I believe that the main issue between colored people and white people is that even as much as a white person may try to understand what we go through as a colored people, you can never really understand because you are not colored. I am black but when it comes to certain racial issues I can feel like almost anyone of any race can relate to me but white people because they are not colored. Every colored person has or will experience some type of racism in their life, and although a white person might have an experience with racism it will never be like the experiences that colored people have. It isn’t that we will not allow white people to understand, it’s that we feel as if white people can’t understand. For example the professor spoke about how he began to become very acquainted with disabled people which enabled him to get a better insight about how life as a disable person may be, but no matter how acquainted he becomes he has never been disabled. He may be extremely familiar with the disability but because he has never had to really experience life with a disability, his knowledge stops there. This is the same for race relations, you can know as much as your mind will let you learn, but until you actually walk in the shoes of a person you will never really know. Even today I was hanging out with my best friends from back home when one of my friends whose first name is Shaniqua, said that she was considering legally change her first name to her middle name which is Renee because she thinks it will prevent her from getting a good job when she graduates from college. How many C.E.O’s of fortune 500 companies do you know with a name like that? Sadly this is life for many minority people and it’s difficult for us to really believe that a person who will most likely never experience the things that we experience can really understand our struggle. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:51:42 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment82515449 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81700106 Lesson 10 The “A girl like me” video was almost scary to me, I have three very young sisters and I wonder if they would do the same if they were tested. I wonder what I would have done if I were tested at that young age. I was surprised that these African American children would prefer the white doll over the black doll. The reason why they have different color dolls is so that your doll can actually look like you, which will make you feel more comfortable. When I was younger I used to have all types of dolls, my mother is a light skinned African American woman (she has the skin tone of a Hispanic person) and she used to buy me Spanish dolls because they were her color, and she wanted me to have a doll that looked like my mother. Not to say that there is something wrong with choosing the white doll, even one of the girls in the class said her first doll that she picked for herself was black, although she was white; it’s the things that the children said about the black doll that scared me. It was scary because if that is how they feel and they are so young than this may be how they will feel when they are older. I was shocked at what they said about the black doll versus the white doll because it was strictly because of color. Both dolls were the same in every way but their skin color. I am sure that this is not because of what they are being taught in their house, so what is making these children feel this way? I cannot remember the first time I realized my “blackness”, but I have never really been one to let race issues affect me so easily. I have always thought racism to be a ridiculous concept, and it never effected me so I usually do not pay much attention to it, but taking this class opens my eyes to many issues regarding racism that may be affecting me that I never realized. I never thought deeply into the fact that people may be discriminating against me when I look for a job, or a house. When you become older and better able to understand things it makes more sense as to why my mother used to sound so white when she was on the phone, or why even in the suburbs there’s always a “black side of town” , or even ironic things like why is it that every Martin Luther King Blvd is in the ghetto areas. I never thought deeply into any of these issues but they are now beginning to hit me. White student attending a HBCU school is a great example of how the majority of black and brown people feel at Penn State. White people never think about it but it is a very awkward thing sometimes when you are the only black girl/ guy in your class, in every class. I didn’t even know Penn State had so few black people attending, 1,500 is like a tiny rain drop in a lake compared to about 35,000 white people. Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:59:58 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81700106 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81689900 I also interpreted his lecture a little differently. I think that what he was trying to say is that if we do not understand how white people could have been so passive about an issue like slavery, we should look at how passive we are about Native Americans. This is important to think about because as I can recall in my schooling all I learned about was the negative effects of slavery for Africans, I never really heard about how horribly the Native Americans were treated. It’s sad to say but the knowledge most people have and learn about Native American people is about sharing corn with pilgrims and hunting turkeys. You hardly hear about how horribly Native Americans were being treated. It’s important for all of us to become aware of what is going on in our world, and become proactive about preventing wrong doing of all people. Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:00:21 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-6-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-people-of-color-stages-1-4__trashed/#IDComment81689900 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment81228255 It’s amazing how race can be incorporated into every aspect of life. I never knew that white people didn’t use wash clothes that frequently, I thought everyone used a wash cloth. Not to say it is a good or bad thing I just was not aware that there were race related reasons for things that we use to bath. For the most part I felt like either you washed with a sponge or a washcloth I never really stopped to think otherwise. It’s actually kind of funny to me because as a black person if you say you don’t use a washcloth people will think that you’re dirty. There are so many things that you would never know about other races because you are unable to experience them. Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:00:18 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment81228255 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment81227122 I couldn’t believe the white supremacist twins! Its 2010 who still proudly raises their kids to be racists? Not even just racist, but white supremacist pop singers. I wanted to ask the mother what she would do if she had another child and the eyes weren’t blue, would she discriminate against her own child? I actually felt very bad for those two girls because they are being raised by ignorant people, and it’s going to be a very rude awakening when they are separated from their extremely sheltered lives that they are living right now. I could never fully understand how people can be racist. I must admit that I have probably said some prejudice things or maybe something that could even be considered racist, but I do not personally hate or believe that someone is inferior to me because of their race. It’s actually very sad that people can be that misguided by extremely old and false beliefs about different people. There is enough evidenced in this world for us to understand that the differences we see are because of outside factors, not because of the color of someone’s skin or the color of their eyes. The part of the lecture where the professor talks about why it is important to leave out unnecessary things like white person, Asian woman, female, gay guy, any of those unnecessary things, because if we continue to pay attention to those very important details then we will continue to always look at color or sexual orientation, or any of those things that we use as descriptors of people that are not needed. We also should be comfortable enough to bring up ones race in a conversation if needed, like with the TA example, we should easily be able to say the black TA or the white TA easily, because that’s what they are. This is the point where the political correctness comes into places, because people do not want to be the person to seriously offend someone or be called a racist, but stating a fact does not make someone a racist. When the professor talks about how black people are always playing white people when it comes to making them feel bad about something that they didn’t really care about, is actually funny to me because this really does happen. I can say that there have been times where I have made a joke with my friends saying things like if this person doesn’t do a certain thing I’ll just call them a racist and they probably will, and they usually do. I do not think that white people should have this blanket of guilt covering them for something that they do not have a direct connection with. You are the person who controls how you act and live your life not your ancestors, and if a person black or brown makes you feel like it is your fault for events that happened centuries ago than they are the ones who are ignorant. Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:48:24 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-white-people-stages-3-4__trashed/#IDComment81227122 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80346977 I also enjoyed the talk about coolness. Your confidence often sticks out like a sore thumb, that’s why it is so obvious to see when someone has self esteem issues. No one is going to think that you are cool if you do not think that you are, so your confidence is the key thing in being cool. I think style of dress is a great way to see that it is actually your confidence that makes you cool, because half of the styles and things that we think are in today are usually not, it’s not the way that the person who is wearing it carries themselves that make it so cool. If you think about it that is why they use models and actors to advertise products, it is not the fact that they have the item; it is the way that they wear the item that makes it so marketable. I think the same applies to the cool factor. Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:54:11 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80346977 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80346146 Lesson 8 I never thought about what it may be like to be white because white is generally never seen as different, it is “normal”. The professor started that your sense of “self” is shaped by others around you, so it makes sense that white people may not be aware of their “whiteness” because people generally don’t make white people feel different or out of place. When you are in a different environment where white people become the minority then they became aware of the fact that they are actually white not just a person. Something interesting that I thought about while watching the lectures was how people often do not categorize themselves based on just their actual color, they often category themselves based on cultural background like Italian or Jewish or Czech. To the average non-white person they are white people, but they are not all white. I believe in race relations the first step is to really understand our differences not just to notice them or be afraid to question or explore our differences. Using the wheelchair example was a great way of showing how we are not able to understand things that we do not know about. If you have not been exposed to different people it is going to be hard to understand them. As stated in the lecture after the civil rights movement people were curious to know what they could do to make situations better and they were continuously receiving different answers. This is a problem that occurs when we make generalizations of people from a few people who may be run as a representation for a type of people. Situation like this make it appreciate getting to know people on many different types of levels is more effective in helping us understand different people. Getting the experience helps us better understand. I am a black woman and I was not offended by Senator Byrd choice of words. I believe the point he was trying to get across by using the term “white nigger” is that we need to get over the color barrier that is out there, one we are able to do that we will be able ro understand the true meaning of things like “nigger” which to me means an ignorant person, not just black people. We all need to get over the color barrier that is out there, and when we are able to do that we can associate words and their meanings to individual people based on their personal set of characteristics, instead of grouping people based on physical characteristics such as skin color and assuming that they will explain personal attributes. Race is such a difficult topic to discuss, there are way too many factors that play a part in every aspect of race relations. Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:44:55 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-5-lesson-7-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80346146 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80020772 Like in the lecture where the professor talks about how we could help but wouldn’t want to because then it would decline our living status, I believe applies here. Although it is very expensive to facilitate an inmate, it is probably more expensive and inconvenient to actually try and help the inmates. They would have to treat them better and really try to look into why they behave the way that they do, and make programs to help them. Many people honestly do not care enough and I think that is the deeply rooted problem in all issues today. People often do not care about things that do not affect them. Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:25:52 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80020772 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80017161 Lesson 7 I never realized how impoverished the Native Americans people are. I have to admit that I was one of those people who thought that the Native Americans lived the way that they did because they wanted to. I have to admit that I feel so ignorant! I never knew how horribly they lived, I thought that people who lived on reservations were kind of like Amish people in the sense that they make that choice to not use modern day technology and wear old fashioned clothes and things like that. As much as I feel bad for not knowing something so big, I also realize that it is not my fault. In history classes they leave out a lot of important details about history when there is negative connotation. If you think about it almost everything in America’s history has some type of negative connotation so there is going to be many incomplete and fake stories to cover up Americas wrong doings. Watching the video of the Native Americans reminded me of videos we saw after hurricane Katrina. America not only forcefully removed them out of their land; they gave the small plots of the worst land in America. I do not come from a very wealthy family and after the recession my family’s money situation became even worst. I had to make the decision to continue my education at a community college at home or to fund my education by myself at Penn State, and I chose to continue my education here and work very hard to keep myself afloat. I would usually say that If I can do it you can do it, but I really mean it in a positive way. Watching the lecture makes me realize that there are factors that can really hold someone back in many ways, that are very hard to overcome. I can be honest enough to say that although my situation can be bad at times its probably 50% better than the average Native American. Something that also was really crazy was the percentage of crimes against Native Americans from whites opposed to the percentage of crimes against whites and blacks are against their own race. Many people know about the racist acts against black people, but you do not really hear about the things that happen to other races. I guess that’s because if America actually took responsibility for all the crimes against humanity it would be very over whelming. The question in my head after receiving all this new information is how can we possibly help these people? They are so poor compared to most people, and they are used to living on their reservations so how can they be comfortable in a different environment. Also we have to remember the fact that there is animosity towards the people who stole their land. Like most of the problems in America it is way too complicated to have an effective and favorable solution. Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:14:57 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment80017161 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79374069 I think that the main issue with minorities being in jail is that it’s becoming a norm to see them their, and that’s where the problem lies. When I hear so and so went to jail for selling marijuana its almost like a shoulder shrug because it happens on the regular. The greater issue is not why they are in jail, its why are they doing the crime. Nobody wants to stand on the corner and hustle people to buy their drugs, the same way people do not want to sell bootlegged dvds, or be thirty-five working at a fast food chain. Sometimes the options that you have are very limited and that is what causes people to commit these crimes. Wed, 9 Jun 2010 23:32:59 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79374069 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79372950 minorities are used to living impoverished that they do not notice that there are so many other opportunities out you there to take advantage of. Even in my own life I can say that until I came to college I was unaware of so many things. I never realized how crazy it was that I lived in a two bedroom apartment with eight people until I came to college and began to have my own space. I can’t even go home and be satisfied in my house back home now that I realized how over crowded it is. Even in terms of education, so many people were satisfied by just continuing their education at a community college. When I told some people that was attending Penn State they were acting like I was going to an Ivy League. As great as our school is, it isn’t an Ivy league school but for some it is because getting to a place like this is such a dream, the way attending an Ivy league is for some. Wed, 9 Jun 2010 23:22:24 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/06/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality__trashed/#IDComment79372950