en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/5368822 Comments by eaa5166 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/12/07/voices-from-the-classroom-224/#IDComment514026308 I have taken many things from this class. I have taken a whole new way of thinking or thought process first and foremost. The way Sam taught class and presented information made you draw connections between things that you would never think were related. It makes you question the motives or actions of people, governments, or organizations. The thing that specifically did this very well was when Sam talked about United States aid to other nations such as Haiti. I knew a solid part of aid the United States sent ended back up in its own economy, but I never knew how much of it actually did. Also I didn’t know how much United States aid hurt the other countries economy. I was always kind of confused why the united states sent as much aid as It did especially with the national debt as high as it is, but it turns out it only helps the country a lot. That is one thing that opened my eyes in the class, but also when Sam talked about how the United States government has had chances to lower the difference in the wealth gap between races, but because the white man is on top he can keep the others down who are unlike him. It makes me think more about the obstacles that people of other races have to go through to reach the same point as an average white male. It kind of plays into the free will versus determinism, and how I get many more advantages just because I was born with white skin as opposed to being born as a person of color. Sam’s class did exactly what it was designed to do and that’s be a thought provoking and change people’s mindset and open their minds making them more accepting of more people, cultures, and races. There have been many things that Sam has informed me on, like the poverty and persecution of the Native Americans is one of those things that I wasn’t well informed on and it was disheartening. I think they should get there land back but that would be very hard to near impossible to do now because so many people have already settle down there and built lives to the point where generations have gone by. Although they don’t want to assimilate and want to keep their culture, it would be very hard for them to do that and get out of poverty and be prosperous without help or aid. Sams class just informed me of how actions of people have a ripple effect on the lives of a lot of other people. His class has open my mind and has made me more accepting and understanding of issues. Sat, 8 Dec 2012 23:27:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/12/07/voices-from-the-classroom-224/#IDComment514026308 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/12/01/voices-from-the-classroom-216/#IDComment507916428 My perceptions in the class have changed about quite a few things. I would say my view of the world before entering the class was moderately educated and fairly open, the class has made me think about things I would have never normally thought of, particularly free will versus determinism amongst other things. It has made me think about hardships that people have gone through that they cant do much to fix them. Like the Native Americans or other racial groups that are for the most part stuck in poverty and have no means to getting out due to the actions of other people or the failed actions of the government or whatever else it may be. For instance how Sam has given the example about housing loans after World War II and how the government had the chance to make the wealth gap amongst races a bit smaller but just let the opportunity pass right by. I am curious of how many times that have happened in our nations history. It kind of makes you think. Another thing that my perceptions have changed is that I realized how much hatred there is around the world. My view on this was particular opened on this during that lecture in which Sam touched upon and through the discussion group we had on Tuesday. We got into a discussion about how there are tons of acts of violence just because of religion or geography or just other things that just arent worth hurting someone else over. We talked about the genocides in Rwanda (I think it was) which I was not too informed on, so that was enlightening. But there were apparently two classes and the lower one that was getting abused and mistreated rose up and when it looked like everything was going to be friendly and nice the one that rose up committed the same atrocities that they rose up against. It just seems like there is a lot of hypocrisy and hatred in the world and that human beings have a natural inclination towards violence. And it seems that people hold grudges because of events that happened years in the past to the point that those people may have not even been alive a lot. Like Sam said even though most people would say they wouldnt kill another person everyone can be brought to kill, just give them a reason and cause a little bit of fear and the situation is right there. The class has made me realize the world is far from a just place and that there is a lot of built in injustice to keep someone on top because that is where everyone wants to be. Sun, 2 Dec 2012 17:22:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/12/01/voices-from-the-classroom-216/#IDComment507916428 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-209/#IDComment494606050 The video of Sams lecture about being an Arab Muslim was pretty enlightening. Although I have a lot of Muslim friends, and their views don’t seem the way Sam describes them because they are Americanized; I can see how Arab Muslims can have that view point. I have never really put myself in the view point of an Arab Muslim, and the connections Sam was making were very obvious and reasonable conclusions to draw and connect the dots, but just being an average everyday person with no Middle Eastern connection it just slips your mind. I think he did the lecture very well because it was an iffy subject and he could have offended quite a bit of people whether they are middle eastern, or veterans, or just patriotic people. He made the point of view of Middle Eastern people seem very realistic and relatable while putting out thought provoking ideas that made you rethink about Americas actions in not just the middle eat but many other conflicts and how it interacts with the world. Based off of how Sam laid it out I would definitely join the insurgency. The insurgence seems like it has every right to take action, however nonviolent action though. I can see how ideas like that got Sam recognized as one of the most dangerous professors in America. Although it is a completely logical and correct train of thought; many people don’t think that way and don’t want to think that way. It is a very open minded train of thought that to some who can’t follow it or are closed minded might seem anti-American or like it supports al-Qaida. It doesn’t obviously, but to those who aren’t as open to outside ideas and might not be as educated. The video that man sent Sam or the video within the video in our case was scary. It wasn’t scary in the way that I think Sam wanted it to be scary. It was scary in how misinformed and naïve it was. I would love to know a Muslim persons opinion on that video, whether they would find it offensive, or funny (I did a little, it had terrible effects and the information was so wrong that it was funny). I believe they would find it highly offensive and the fact that that guy would basically insult the fundamental religious beliefs of over 1 billion people on this planet is just flat out ridiculous. I would like to say that I am a pretty open minded and understanding individual especially about the matters of west vs middle east. I don’t know if it has to do with being friends with a lot of them and finding them just the same as myself for the most part or just being informed. Mon, 19 Nov 2012 04:55:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-209/#IDComment494606050 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/06/voices-from-the-classroom-204/#IDComment487476736 I think the class today provided an interesting perspective into how gays realize their feelings to fit the societal norms and are not mainstream, and how they view themselves within society. Particularly the one guys story about how when he was 4 years old he prayed that he would like girls. It is generally accepted that gay is not a choice, but there are a few reasons why someone might think that gay is a choice which is hard to believe. Many of these reasons for the thought that gay is a choice can be traced back to religion. Many people just use religion as a cover for their discomfort with gay people and just use it as an excuse to cover up their ignorance and prejudice. I think people just dont like the idea that people are gay because they havent had enough contact with the gay community or any contact they do have with is with someone who misrepresents the gay community. We talked about this in our discussion group. Some people draw their opinion based off of meeting one person from the gay community and that person could just be a bad person. And just like with anyone in a community there are good people and bad people, and not just one person can be representative of that entire group. I think that very religious people say that being gay is a choice because they dont like the thought that god made something they view as wrong and that the bible says is wrong. They dont want to think that the creator could make something that he says is wrong, which would make him a cruel and god if he made people who had no choice but to sin. It not only gives comfort to religious people to think that, but people who like to think that they can make whatever choices they want and there is no determinism. It gives substance to the idea that one can pull them up by their bootstraps or make their own way, the typical freewill argument. I dont understand why people think that gay is a choice because who would choose to be discriminated against, probably upset their parents, and be bullied. However when you are you should embrace it and be happy about it because who cares what others think. You are dealt the cards you are dealt and you cant really do anything about that except embrace it. This topic could feed into a nature versus nurture conversation very well. There are gay people, you shouldnt judge/generalize them as a whole, and every person is different whether they are gay or straight. It is only a persons sexuality. I dont mean only in the regard that it is minor, it is a big part of life, but it is nothing to be afraid or discriminate against people for. Gay is obviously a choice. Thats about it. Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:53:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/06/voices-from-the-classroom-204/#IDComment487476736 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-201/#IDComment480106023 To not have empathy for the victims of a heinous crime such as rape is terrible. In most issues involving race relations, the victims of crimes or disasters, or people suffering due to extreme poverty and poor living conditions having empathy is absolutely vital. As horrible and despicable as they are rapes are going to happen; they are hard to prevent. I have to say that I am not the biggest supporter of abortion, but in that case no one should be able to tell the woman what they can and can’t do for not only her sake, but the sake of her family and the child. The woman did not ask for that to happen to her in the first place but to say she can’t abort he child and just make her have that visible reminder of what happened to her for nine months at the minimum is just torture. Although I don’t really support abortion I don’t think it is anyone’s say on what someone cant and cannot do to their body. I would say abortions in those cases should be covered by health care and abortions in other instances should be allowed, but in other cases should be very expensive because it is a life and something special that is being removed after all. That would make people think more seriously before just getting an abortion because they made a series of poor decisions. To say a woman can’t get an abortion after a rape and have her know that there is a walking reminder as result of that event would be terrible. I think empathy should play a major role in anyone who is making major decisions that affect many other peoples rights, whether it be the in law making process and what is and isn’t criminalized or in such things as hiring practices. Empathy is such an easy thing that everyone should have before making a decision that affects other. You literally just have to think if I were that person “what would I want to happen.” It would only take a very short amount of time and is so simple, yet it makes all of the difference to the person involved in the decision. I think that is black and white on the subject of abortion because of rape. The victim should have the choice that should be common sense. Abortions as a whole is a different subject, personally they bother me, but should still be a choice. I am a big proponent of small government though, and think that the “Pursuit of Happiness” as stated in the constitution means no one should be able to control your decisions by telling you what you can and cannot do as long as it doesn’t impede on anyone else’s happiness. Sun, 4 Nov 2012 06:36:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-201/#IDComment480106023 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/18/voices-from-the-classroom-190/#IDComment469605785 This is a complex question. What makes it so complex is the fact that so many generations have gone by that the land cannot just be given back to the Native Americans because people have already established themselves on those lands and have been there for quite sometime. To give the land back now would be just as bad if not worse because it would be uprooting and displacing more people now than it did in the past. Although I am against giving the land back to the Native American because it is just logistically improbable, Native Americans really do deserve help. The fact that they were the first people on this land and the first people to tap into its resources, so they should be the most well off however they are the least. The only way that can be fixed is if the government gives them more aid that actually goes to them rather than for example the fact that on the leech lake reservation only three percent is owned by the native and none of the profit from the private businesses that are on the reservation go towards the natives, and not only that but the fact that they won’t hire the natives because they believe that they steal, it’s quite frankly ridiculous. The demonstration showed that the Native Americans have every right to get there land and everything they’ve had taken from them back, but from the point of view of the people who took all of that stuff, we don’t want to give it back at all. There isn’t many solutions to fix the problem that the majority of people (white people) would support. We would say it is bad but we aren’t going to necessarily do anything about it. That’s just the nature of people who are privileged. The clicker question was interesting, especially the first time when a large percentage of people said if someone took something from them they weren’t entitled to it back. Also the one kid said that if something was taken he then he didn’t deserve it because he wasn’t strong enough to keep it. However Sam tricked that kid into giving him his clicker and then gave it to someone else. That brought up an interesting point about what we did to the Native Americans in the past and the fact that not only were they brutally murdered and taken advantage of, but were tricked into settling for worse lands and tricked almost into plenty of other things. For being the first people of these lands it is kind of surprising and upset how poor and disadvantaged they are. There should but more aid programs directly target towards them. Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:58:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/18/voices-from-the-classroom-190/#IDComment469605785 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-173/#IDComment452255008 The guessing game exercise in class was intriguing and eye opening. It was interesting because I tried to guess as it was going on to see how well I would do and I only got 6. I did not fare much better than the other two guessers. The exercise showed that it is basically impossible to guess every ones race and be exactly correct because the guessing has to figure out what happened over multiple generations. That one girl who was originally from India but was a fourth generation Zambian, it is basically impossible to guess that just from looking at her. If someone did guess that it would be extremely impressive, and thats why Sam said he would give the 4.0 student one hundred dollars if she was able to guess it. It would have been interesting to see Sam guess their races because I feel like he knows the genetic features that are associated with certain geographic regions and could at least make a more educated guess compared to anyone else in the class. Even then though I still think he wouldnt do so much better than anyone in the class. With how mobile people are especially now a days people can be half around the world in a day. That leads to the exchanging of culture and mixing of genes which results in a challenging background for people to guess. Plus here in America it is even harder because the vast majority of people here migrated here within the past two hundred years from all over the globe, hence why America is called the cultural mixing pot. It would be easier to guess some ones background if you were guessing it in a community that has little outside influence, but in America it is almost completely outside influence because we are a nation of immigrants. That makes it extremely hard to the point that a 4.0 college student looks silly trying to guess and even Sam would have a hard time. I can see why it is harder to guess with Asian people because the region known as Asia is so extensive and divided into so many nations that it boils down to luck to get every ones exact cultural background right. The purpose of the activity was to show that we shouldnt assume or try to guess peoples background based on the looks because more likely than not we would be wrong. It would also be very hard to do this activity with people of European descent because Europe is very sub divided and interconnected at the same time. To guess some ones background or ethnicity wrong could possibly be very insulting and thats exactly why instead of guessing we should just ask. Sun, 30 Sep 2012 17:22:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-173/#IDComment452255008 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/18/voices-from-the-classroom-168/#IDComment447260789 Lecture opened my eyes on how easy it can be to confused people and put them into the wrong groups. During lecture when he showed a picture of an Inuit next to Vladimir Putin it really showed how diverse racial groups can be. The fact that they cover such a broad range yet are so inclusive can cause for such a large mix of people, especially now a days. Racial groups are beginning to seem like a think of the past in most parts of the world do to the mixing of so many backgrounds and cultures. This was especially visible with Omar; he had a mix of middle eastern/Syrian with an American background which creates for more unique people. So I think it’s very hard to group people into just one group. It’s an odd practice to group people into specific groups. I think to properly group people now people can be allowed to fall into multiple groups. Specifically I would consider myself American but my family cultural heritage is from Germany and Poland, so if someone were to ask I would like to give them two answers. And for example with the picture of the Inuit person and Vladimir Putin I would not categorize her as white however by country of origin she would be. I think we can’t categorize whole countries as white or black. The way we should judge racially or ethnic groups should be on a case by case basis. This was also shown by the picture he was showing about the difference between Hispanic and Latino. A person can be both; they are in a way not even the same type of categorization. One, which is Hispanic, categorizes a persons background in more of a historical and ethnic sense; while the other one Latino categorizes a person in more of a geographical sense. Sam made a good point in the fact is that you cant look at someone just by image because even though they can fit into a stereotypical image because with all of the travelling people have been able to do there has been a huge genetic and cultural mixing. When you begin to throw in a religious grouping to there becomes even a harder problem with grouping. There is even a problem when it comes to defining these groups between people. This is the case especially with the term jewish and the fact that It has a ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious definition. So to be jewish can mean a lot of things making it hard to consider it one group. Grouping people is a very complex thing to do and there is no right way to do it aside from not assuming people are in a specific group. Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:44:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/18/voices-from-the-classroom-168/#IDComment447260789 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/16/voices-from-the-classroom-165/#IDComment442124592 The photos that were shown were shown were shocking. I didnt know that predator drone attacks had that much collateral damage. I originally thought that there was good reason to support drone attacks because it kept our soldiers out of harms way, but now I see that they are very imprecise and indiscriminate in whom they kill. The pictures were very upsetting and you could tell most of the room didnt know about them and were shocked and appalled because the room was speechless. It took a usually lively and talkative class and put a damper on it not in a bad way, just in the fact that it was a very upsetting topic. No one likes to hear about children being harmed and killed. When Sam said that president Obama orders most of the predator drone missile attacks as much as I wanted to say it shocks me that a democratic president would be the person on the forefront of ordering attacks in doesnt surprise me in the least. He did promise to bring our soldiers home and I think he realized he cant do that without the drone attacks. But the fact that Sam brings up these topics and point of view that Sam brings to the intrigues me and probably makes most of the people in the class think in a mindset or from a point of view they normal wouldnt think from. His class is a good source for current events and issues that arent commonly thought about unless youre involved in those situations. There was one kid who said a very true statement that if you arent involved in the situation such as race you wont know the full extent of the difficulties and problems of race. He said that because he was just an average white guy and didnt experience the difficulties of race. This can be said about the drone attacks, unless youre involved in work that deals with the victims such as the military or aid work you wont know how bad it is. Thats why most of the class was shocked by how many kids were hurt and killed. He also brought an interesting view about the news with the riots in uproar in the Middle East about that video of Muhammad. He also did a good job with relating that situation to the situation here about joepa and those riots and how things can be misconstrued by the media and peoples point of view. Im sure Sam can go on all day with topics that not too many people are informed on and people will be shocked by the reality of them. This could inspire people to get involved and what not, which I feel is what Sam tries to do. Inform and inspire. Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:53:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/16/voices-from-the-classroom-165/#IDComment442124592 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/04/voices-from-the-classroom-158/#IDComment437377992 I think Sam’s approach is very unique because of the fact that it takes a very head on approach on the issues. He doesn’t beat around the bush at all. Sam during the course of a discussion on an issue tends to crack quite a few jokes which I think help to lighten the mood and help people talk on a subject they would avoid talking about otherwise. When Sam jokes although it doesn’t seem like it, he is very careful about it. He knows he is walking a very fine line with what he is saying and he says just enough to lighten the mood on these topics and get people talking. Also his humor is good for keeping people entertained and focused and wanting to listen to him. I think that is the only way he is able to keep every ones attention especially in 100 Thomas. I know I look forward to going to that class just to hear him talk for an hour and fifteen minutes and I’m pretty much everyone else there feels the same way. I’ve seen teachers who can barely keep the attention of 30 people where as he has 700 people there intrigued by what he is saying and enjoying the class. I also think it’s interesting that he has a different way of thinking about things. I would have never made the connection to African Americans and Christianity if he didn’t present that. That is one of the things you just never think about, but you know however you just never connected the dots. It starts to make you think about what other things in history and how they may have a giant secondary impact on modern day life that just goes unnoticed. I think that everything Sam does is very calculated, although it may not seem it. I can see why some people can take some offense to what he says like that one girl in class who thought she started an argument about the term “colored people” when to most of everyone it seemed like more of a debate or dialogue; that’s just because some people are much more sensitive than others. I will probably never get offended by anything said within the class but then again I’m just a middle of the road white kid. I was surprised and quite frankly found it hilarious when Sam made the comment about math problems to the Asian girl (mainly because that seems like a joke I would make to my Asian friends), but I could see how that comment may be slightly across the line to people. I think to enjoy Sam’s class and get the most from his approach you need to be able to put yourself in the shoes of others and to be able to laugh at yourself. Sun, 9 Sep 2012 15:57:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/04/voices-from-the-classroom-158/#IDComment437377992