en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3550027 Comments by crk5182 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/12/02/voices-from-the-classroom-85/#IDComment231960411 I still think that the American dream exists, although with that being said, I believe that the “dream” is much different today than it has ever been before. The American dream today is more about the idea so to speak of achieving success. But at the end of the day what even is success? Working all your life to buy that Mercedes-Benz that you’ve dreamed about since you were a kid to only be able to finally afford it and to what? Sit in the drivers seat and turn on the ignition, and than its all over. The American dream of the past consisted of a blue collar or middle class, preferably male, working his way up from nothing to build a better life for himself, that being—having a family, well=paid and respectable job, nice house, possibly a pet or two and living comfortably. That was the American dream. The American’s job may have been to work in butcher shops, coal mines and or American car companies in cities such as Detroit or Cleveland. Americans went to work forty hour work weeks plus to be the bread winners for their families. The American dream is now much different due to globalization and the downturned state that the United States economy has been in since 2008. More jobs are out sourcing their manufacturing to foreign countries where production is much cheaper versus that in the United States this has forced business and jobs to drastically shift. The family idea has greatly changed as well with that of the American dream. The picture perfect family of the 1950s with very rare today with a divorce rate that is at a staggering 1 out of every2 marriages and with more and more families struggling with separation issues, this indefinitely has an impact on the families not only with the adults but with the children living at home too. The American dream is much more today than ever before of to the very least keeping one’s family together through all that the outside world as to effect on a single person and deriving one’s success through daily trials and tribulations. The American dream does not have to die though., and it hasn’t. it has simply just changed as everything with the modern age. People need to believe in themselves and keep foothold to their morals and stand their ground and to that success will follow not far behind. After all, success isn’t measured by the number of material things one can say they have or all the people they have hurt or screwed over to get to their successful place but all they have accomplished abiding to their original morals, strengths and mental pursuits. The American dream is still very much alive today. Sat, 3 Dec 2011 03:35:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/12/02/voices-from-the-classroom-85/#IDComment231960411 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-79/#IDComment227359663 If Jerry Sandusky had been black or Latino I think the situation currently at hand would have been handled quite differently. For starters if the media broadcasted a black or Latino child molester who had been convicted of over forty different counts against young children on the Penn State campus for almost a decade, the media, public and political sector would have had an absolute field day to say the very least. This isn’t to say that the media hasn’t already spiraled Jerry Sandusky’s story all over front pages, websites and television stories across the country but the headlines and stories would have been portrayed drastically different if Sandusky had been a black or Latino male. The situation at hand would have appeared much more aggressive, demeaning, violent and horrific if Sandusky had been a black or Latino male, instead of a white upper middle class middle aged male due to the stereotypes that go along with the persona of black and Latino males of all age groups. This is definitely unfortunate to say, because if Sandusky has been of a different race, ethnicity and was accused of the same allegations, essentially nothing would have been different except for the color of his skin, way of dress etc… This is quite problematic when dealing with the media because the minute a person is white the storied is immediately manipulated. This may not be fair and or politically correct but that is just the way things are today unfortunately. The stereotype that goes along with black and Latino males is a whole crime based or outlawed culture based on the perceived attitude this group of people is displayed as having based on distorted media, entertainment/ music industry culture and crime statisitcis based on gender, race and nationality. Unfortunately these two groups are portrayed as worse off or the ones guilty or violent situations whether they are actually guilty of the crime at hand or not. In the case with jerry Sandusky that is currently going on, if Sandusky had been a black or Latino male there would have been media and great public out-lash and strong grievence for the victims because the accusations would have undoubtly been portrayed as more risky, violent and exposed. Luckily for the sake of the reputation of Penn State and for Sandusky himself that he was in fact a white male and not a black or Latino male. The time Sandusky may have been sentenced to could have been different (even though he has not been found guilt or non-guilty yet) if he had been of a different race, and he would have been portrayed as a greater risk throughout the years if his race has been different. Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:31:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-79/#IDComment227359663 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-72/#IDComment220626032 I think that there are many external factors that contribute to the reasons for which the human race is naturally, and so quick to pass judgment against others. External factors that contribute to why people pass judgment include, things about different kinds of people and where people are from through their upbringing—whether its their parents, siblings. Another reason may include, the school environment from which students learn and learn from their peers as well as media outlets that share the way one thinks based on their political views and socio-economic standing. Another reason may include, the orientation of a person as well as their gender. In my opinion all of these factors contribute to the reasons who which people are so quick to pass judgments against others. People are so quick to pass judgment against others because of the way they were brought up. When a person is born, there’s a fresh clean slate, unaware of social surroundings, free of opinions, interests, likes and dislikes. A person does not even understand how to verbally communicate for the first few years of their life, thus from infancy, people listen to and watch the people who are around them most—who raise them to be the future of the world and thus with this, people pick up others opinions on the world. A person can’t pass judgment if they have not been informed prior of something associated with a peer, whether its where they’re from, their gender, what they physically look like, how much money they have or how they talk. Judgment is made when a person see or hears something that they do not instantly relate to or find something appealing that interests them or they feel threatened. A substantial reason why so many people are so quick to pass negative, confrontational, or anger related judgment against others is that they feel others or whoever it is that they’re passing judgment towards are from jealous, or anger towards another for reasons that the other person may not even know of, just the person gets mad from pre-conceptions from someone or for example, a girl may have a pair of boots another girl wants and the girl passing judgment may say that the girl in the boots looks ugly I general or ugly in them and it’s not because she actually thinks the girl looks ugly in them, she probably thinks that the girl looks really good in them but simply because she is jealous of the other girl she is going to feel jealous or hate because actually she is the one who wants the boots and because she cannot have them she is going to get unreasonable mad and pass judgment. Not that this is okay but it isn’t actually passing judgment its just making up for the loss the the person who is passing the judgment actually truly feels. Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:37:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-72/#IDComment220626032 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216893176 All in all, I don’t think that Americans are lazy or are getting these hard labor, minimum wage jobs taken from them because I think we can all agree on, more likely than not, these are all jobs that we wouldn’t take if we had other opportunities due to the money, working conditions, hours, hard labor etc… I simply think that these immigrants are willing to work for the money harder because they have been taught to work this way their whole lives for much less and even a little bit of money means so much more to them where they’ve grown up in a country where it’s so much harder to make a living versus in the United States and so they are going to be prone to leap at these opportunities versus Americans who are going to wait it out for the better job opportunity because that’s what we’ve grown up being taught and are used to in this country. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 18:17:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216893176 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216893108 . The vast majority of the Mexican population is forced to, or grown up their whole lives working outside, doing the hard labor jobs that pay under the table/ very little versus a professional job with a degree certificate required. So when Mexican immigrants come over and into the United States illegally they are solely looking for a better life to make more money which will lead them to greater opportunities. This is their sole purpose, whether it is doing hard labor, dealing/ transporting drugs back and forth, whatever the case may be they are just trying to make money, but isn’t everyone? Thus, Mexican immigrants are going to take up the hard labor or minimum wage jobs in this country that aren’t necessarily going to ask for or look for valid citizenship for the employee, while the employer is just looking to get around paying taxes on his workers or save some extra money. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 18:17:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216893108 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216893037 Mexico today, is still considered a developing country because of its historic government instability which has profound effects on the country’s peoples and the institutions, systems, unions and policies that have never been given the opportunity to come to be or get off the ground because the harsh and strict government runs its operation throughout the country like a monopoly and is solely focused on increasing its revenues—I.e. the vast problem of the drug trade, drug market/ distribution and the drug cartels that are virtually running the country by people’s horror of them, money and power. With such a small group compared to the over 112 million that inhabit Mexico, one would think that this problem wouldn’t be so profound and have such impacting effects, but in reality it happens to since this small group holds most of the wealth or at least a great deal of the wealth of the country and the vast majority of the population has little to nothing, can barely read and write, cannot go to school either because they are not allowed, cannot afford to or must support their families to which they belong and here inlays the problem. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 18:16:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216893037 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216892873 In my opinion I feel like Americans won’t do the hard labor that Mexicans will do not because we are too lazy, or do not want to but are not used to doing such things. Growing up in America versus Mexico, the society ideal is to start school as young as five years old and continue on through high school, graduate and attend college and hopefully even graduate or professional school afterwards. The ideal isn’t to go work out on the farms, picking vegetables or fruit, do construction or hard-labor to make ends meet to feed your impoverished family because of the unequal and unfair corrupt government system in being, that is just not how it is, but that’s how it is in Mexico. Fri, 4 Nov 2011 18:16:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment216892873 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213674943 Another problem that will rise in this country in the future when whites become the minority population is that industries and ways of life in general will definitely see a shift. I believe that there will be far greater Hispanic influence in culture and everyday day to day ways of life in this country from advertising, foods, customs, what’s for sale in the stores etc…. This switch in the ways of everyday life and culture to one that is currently foreign to the majority of the citizens of this country today will durastically change things for the future and for our grandchildren and great grandchildren etc … This is another problem that will arise from whites becoming this country’s minority in the future. Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:12:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213674943 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213674807 Another problem that will rise when whites become the minority in this country is when the mixed races of brown and black people who have felt oppressed in history and many today who still feel great inequalities and unfair treatments in the job markets etc… are going to want to rebel against the new minority, the “whites” who are naturally now going to feel inferior to this new popular face in the future and there is going to be wide spread corruption and violence and deaths of the “white” population who have been the oppressors to these peoples in history and there are going to be far greater problems down the line. I could definitely see this becoming a problem in the future when the white population in this country becomes the new minority peoples. Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:11:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213674807 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213674660 In my opinion when whites eventually become the minority in this country there is going to be a serious problem for all of the “whites” who were too ignorant to learn and pick up a second language such as Spanish, as easy as it is because soon the most widely spoken language next to English when whites become the minority in this country will be Spanish. If people are not able to pick up Spanish or know enough of the language Spanish speaking people are going to take over major job and businesses and hire fellow Spanish speaking employees and the teachers are going to be Spanish speaking and they will be teaching Spanish to the future children in this country but the people who don’t know the language yet are still not going to know it and I doubt are going to be that willing to go out and learn a second language such as Spanish right away. This will only be one of the major problems that the “whites” of this country will face in this country when whites become the minority in this country. Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:11:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/27/voices-from-the-classroom-58/#IDComment213674660 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-45/#IDComment210535332 A person’s particular race shapes the way they view the world for a number of different reasons. A few of these reasons may include and are not limited to, their up bringing/background, if they’re a certain race in a rural or an urban setting, if they are male or female, if their parents are divorced or not as well as the obvious stereotypical associations that go along with all of these factors that play into race outside of a person’s race itself. Factors that play into how a person of a particular race views the world outside of race itself is due to the stereotypes associated with and how an urban black male from a split home may feel/ act/react to certain situations and circumstances versus a male from a full household in rural community—without question and whether people will own up to themselves/ believe it, these predispositions about people and how a person may think a different person from a different race and thus upbringing feels about the world—thus their outlook on the world is without a doubt going to be vastly different. Going along the lines of how a white person may view the world is going to be vastly different than a black person. For example, in this day in age, a white teenage girl or boy is probably not going to take into account, at least not on a regular basis the hardships and struggles fellow black teenage children have to go through in urban communities today where they have already been set up for a labeled “failures” in many cases and seen as less likely to graduate high school or go onto college etc… and many people are less likely to hold their faith in children in this particular setting of this kind of race. On the other hand, black teenagers from rural regions are going to have to take similar criticism from their elders and peers, not because those around them do not hold the same incapable faith in them but that more times than not, black children in rural communities are going to indefinitely be the outnumbered minority and there is a lot that minority students in rural regions that are particularly conservative in political view and thought or going to have to accept/over- come to be accepted in these communities. And this isn’t even touching the surface of how hard it was from black children fifty or sixty years ago. Unfortunately blacks have to face a lot more than whites overall today in society and therefore may hold certain judgments, thoughts or misconceptions about white people and the world as suppressers, but as a whole the black community has made significant strides in the last century to where they were and have come to today. I use this example of the teenagers because I think that the younger generation today is much more accepting and sees things how they are and that’s that and kids of an historically more privileged race—that being white, fail to take into account a lot of these aspects in their day to day lives and I think that these aspects are really important to understanding the outlook on the world of that of other races. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:49:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-45/#IDComment210535332 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557775 The lingo of many of the other black students would use would usually consist of “ghetto” slang and if us white kids would joke around and attempt to talk as most of the black students would, we would get weird looks, comments directed towards us and or made fun and that’s not okay. Nobody should feel ashamed of how they look or they’re race and have to act a certain way for it. I felt “white guilt” all throughout high school and I never should have to or want to experience it again, but it’s inevitable. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:24:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557775 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557672 A few instances in particular where I felt “white guilt” besides being in the bathroom and looking in the mirror to check my make-up or hair and not being able to look a fellow black student in the eye or at her in the mirror because I was afraid other females students would question me or attempt to get into an altercation with me definitely made me feel guilty for being white. Also I always felt like I had to dress and talk a certain way. Most of the black students at my high school, the school being so urban and all, made most of the black students sort of “ghetto” so-to-speak, which is significantly different than going to school here at Penn State. Nevertheless, I felt increased pressure to indefinitely dress more “preppy” or clean cut and not supposed to know how to “grind” or dance “ghetto” at Homecoming and various other school dances. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:24:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557672 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557581 Being a white student in a primarily black high school I was always cautious of what I said, who I walked around with—never leaving class to go to the bathroom when it wasn’t in between class periods in fear of being alone in the hallway with black students of other races. The reason I keep referencing the black students is that the only times I really experienced and or felt “white guilt” in particular situations were ones that I was engaged in and or interacting with other black students. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:23:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557581 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557444 I have experienced many situations where I have felt “white guilty” per say. I attended an urban high school in upstate New York for four years where blacks and students from many other races outnumbered white students. The drop-out rate was over 33% and my high school was nationally labeled a school “in need”. Therefore, I dealt with situations on a daily basis where I, being white felt like the outsider or the student who got the short end of the stick or who had to walk on egg shells during conversations and walking around school with her head down in fear of making eye contact with those black girls in the bathroom mirrors—who instantly turned on you and wanted to beat you up. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:23:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-44/#IDComment207557444 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421682 There is something much different reflected when a woman dresses slutty as if she is going out to a club five days a week and wears the same attire to class versus if she solely wears that style attire when she is going out to the bars with her friends on a Friday or Saturday night and is dressed casually, covered-up and “normal” like everyone else the rest of the time. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 16:29:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421682 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421624 What we wear is indefinitely a form of self-expression and says a tremendous amount of who a person is as an individual I believe. Unfortunately today, young women get the crap for how we like to dress in tight clothes, and short skimpy clothing and dresses to show off the bodies we have now, but will eventually lose with age due to our metabolisms and children and our bodies, face the facts will not go back to what they once were—that being in college. I do think that what women wear reflects a significant amount of who they are as a person but I don’t think that that is to say at all that who they are as a person is intellectually dumb, “easy” in the sense as “slutty” or vulnerable. I feel like dress says more about what kind of style your into which also correlates who often you dress in a certain type of way. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 16:29:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421624 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421151 I think along with age is definitely a maturity sense. The younger and older age ranges of women are not going to dress a drastically different way for one thing versus another because chances are that they are mothers, grandmothers or pre-teens or young children and that just isn’t going to happen. But the bigger point is, is that college men towards the way college women act and dress are at a lower maturity level or better a “younger” maturity level than their female counterparts at this stage in the game so of course they are going to think and initially react to things a lot different about women if they see them dressed a certain way but going along with what we have talked about in class the past two lectures—men shouldn’t go off of women stereotypes just as women shouldn’t abide by men stereotypes because most of the time they’re false anyways. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 16:27:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421151 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421019 There is something much different reflected when a woman dresses slutty as if she is going out to a club five days a week and wears the same attire to class versus if she solely wears that style attire when she is going out to the bars with her friends on a Friday or Saturday night and is dressed casually, covered-up and “normal” like everyone else the rest of the time. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 16:27:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204421019 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204420827 so why wouldn’t women want to attract the attention of men. Most women in a cliché say that they want to go to college in hopes of finding/ meeting their husband and at a school especially as big as Penn State with thousands and thousands of students, how else are girls going to get the attention of guys in particular if it is not for the way that they dress. __What we wear is indefinitely a form of self-expression and says a tremendous amount of who a person is as an individual I believe. Unfortunately today, young women get the crap for how we like to dress in tight clothes, and short skimpy clothing and dresses to show off the bodies we have now, but will eventually lose with age due to our metabolisms and children and our bodies, face the facts will not go back to what they once were—that being in college__. I do think that what women wear reflects a significant amount of who they are as a person but I don’t think that that is to say at all that who they are as a person is intellectually dumb, “easy” in the sense as “slutty” or vulnerable. I feel like dress says more about what kind of style your into which also correlates who often you dress in a certain type of way. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 16:26:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment204420827