With white people not utilizing their freedoms and power within the right way I believe they do not deserve the help some minority groups should be getting. As we discussed and seen the numbers in class, white people with criminal backgrounds still have more eligibility for gaining a job then a black person without a criminal background. Those statistics are startling and really makes me wonder why some people within the white culture have not stepped it up to make some situations better for themselves just yet. My feelings on the poor white society is that yes some people may not be that rich, but as a white person we have enough power and freedom to at least make a living for ourselves and stay off of the streets. I would not in any situation say that my family is well off, both of my parents as well as me, break our backs working day in and day out to give our family a better and healthy life. Having white skin just gives you a better hand at that, some whites just have to work harder for it than others.
However with blacks being suppressed for many years and getting a slower start on the education train I believe it is only right to help them climb up the latter of rights, freedom, and education because our white ancestors are the reasons for their struggles to make it in society today. Yes, it may be the same that some black families have to work harder than others to make a living, but so do whites. In this question and situation, if I witnessed an info commercial on television, one to help poor minorities, and another to help poor whites, I would be more apt to help the minorities due to their struggles that have set them back from leading a fully free life.

On the topic of either helping my own race or another race I believe that I would be more apt to help another race. It is different within certain circumstances though, if I were walking down the hall and saw someone drop their books or papers, I would not discriminate against their color or race to help them or not. In this case I pride myself on treating others they way in which I would like to be treated. This holds true for little everyday tasks, such as, opening the door, saying please or thank you and just common courtesy.
I do feel certain discrimination however, when help goes beyond this. When the help involves donating money to a certain group to help the underprivileged I feel as if I discriminate against my own class (white). I think this way because of what history has given us. White people have hardly been suppressed throughout history, if we had major set backs for education or power as some of the minorities have suffered with than I would be more apt to help people of the same background as me.

By first confronting people with the high multitude of a problem that slavery is we can begin to implement how certain decisions can bring about changes. When we are taught in school we are taught how to succeed and become better business people, not how to make the world a better place. Just like the discussion in class with the student who gave an opposition to how he will spend his money. We are taught to handle ourselves and be smart with our money, no one brings up the difference in price for certain products to help cut the businesses that will use slaves to produce products.
I agree that the student was partially right, we are not ignorant, maybe it is the educational system that is placing too much emphasis on certain areas. When in reality there should be a spread education on how to become successful while at the same time helping make the world a better place. It is not ignorance, it is lack of education and situational analysis.

I believe that this was a very good point to be brought up in class. And I am glad that people are now challenging this. The demonstration that Professor Richards made in class is something we that we need to see happen on a daily basis in the world to help people understand the problems that are still going on in these countries. Yes, we are one of the most highly educated, but educated in what sense? We had a lecture room full of some of the brightest students who had no idea of what was going on with the cocoa plantations, until we seen the video of the work of the salves.
I feel as though people are not playing the ignorant card just because the media has no yet exposed this problem as a highly serious problem. If I have never gone to that class I would not believe that there is still a big slave problem in some countries. Being an educated country does not mean knowing a lot about everything, it is knowing a little about a lot. So I do not believe that so many people are playing the ignorant card I believe it is a problem that the media is suppressing.
Once the problem is exposed you can not just throw out all the facts and say here fix it, people need to be fronted with a problem and a solution in order to make changes to anything. The best way I believe to start education is through the media, once there is a lot of education about this subject circulation through the internet and the news broadcasts, then and only then can we say that people are using the ignorance card.

The media has such a big influence on people these days, which I feel that if anyone is going to think that there is a problem that needs to be fixed, and they are responsible for it, this needs to be voiced through the press. As discussed in class we see people being discriminated against for sending their children to the wrong type of school. The fact that the press had aired this brings about either two options; one is that people will see this and agree that there is a problem with inequality or second, decide that minorities are stepping over their boundaries. A good step to fixing any lack of felling responsible for the inequality would be through the way in which the press portrays their stories.
I had just read an article for my Soc 001 class about how whites believe that they are slowly becoming a minority themselves, and one reason they believed this is because there was so much talk on the news about blacks committing crimes. With the press are depicting the black society in this light, the white population may begin to believe that blacks only commit crimes for the world, and feel that there is no reasons to step out of their boundaries to fix the problem of inequality. So in conclusion, yes I do believe it is our responsibility to correct this problem, although not everyone may feel like it is their personal problem to make the change in the world.

I believe learning about the different inequalities and discriminations that are apparent in the world is our first step to fixing any disparities. It is our responsibility to fix these problems that people are still encountering, although it is not just the majority who has to work at it, I believe it is also the minorities who have to take a step towards fixing it. Without teamwork from everyone, there will always be a missing link to get the problem of inequality taken out of our society.
If we are all to be treated as equals that means the way in which businesses higher will have to change, affirmative action will have to be abolished, and people have to really start revamping the way in which they classify people. A way of looking at the situation of inequality is that it is not exactly a responsibility of citizens it is more of a want. Nobody is born with this responsibility to make the world a more equal place, its about the drive and determination to want change. As we talked about in class on Thursday some people are just born determined to succeed in life while others may not feel they have any say in this situation, so they feel it is not their problem.

In conclusion the terms do not have that much of a strain on society, people conform to different cultures all the time, and we just see this as more prevalent within the white society because of the differences in numbers of diversity. There are so many different terms created to describe people whether it is by the skin color, the way they dress, or the culture that they embrace. There could be terms that Asians use when in their home city to describe outsiders when they conform but since I have not traveled for a long enough period of time I do not know if there are any terms that are used the way they are used in the U.S. to describe the minorities in another culture.

With the terms of “twinkie” and “oreo” it is really just a way of saying that these minorities are conforming to the social norms of the white areas that they may live in. There was another situation that arose in recitation where one guy had two black people in his high school; he described the differences between these two as one conforming to his surroundings and the other embracing his family’s culture. He did not use any nicknames to describe the way in which they acted, he just described them as conforming or embracing their heritage of their elders.
It does go one other way though and the term is a “wanksta.” This is a term that people use when a white person acts with the mannerisms used in the black culture. The term “wanksta” is used when white people wear their pants low on their waist, listen to urban rap music and use the same hand gestures and follow the same fashion trends.

My response to this question is solely based from an Americans perspective. My grandparents and parents grew up in the United States so I identify myself as an American. I believe these terms have been obtained for the reason being that whites are the majority of the population. It would be more likely for a minority to take on the same characteristics of white American culture.
Some people who identify as white Americans do take on the characteristics and mannerisms when they reside in an area where there is a diverse group of people. For example, in our recitation groups we talked about the differences between the words “nigga”, and “nigger”, as well as the context in which it was being used as well as the place where it was being used. A girl who identifies as white in the class admitted to calling her friend who aren’t even black from time to time a “nigga” because that is how people addressed each other from her area. They took on the roles of the diverse group of people they were. The question asked is why do people start acting like the majority? My answer is because people feel more comfortable when they are following the mannerisms of others.

As we discussed in our last class, my gender is chosen for me at birth, even though some people may make the mistake of calling me a male instead of a female at one point. I can classify myself as a female, but if I chose to portray myself as a male if that is what I chose to do, in this case I would accept being classified as a male although society may not feel comfortable with this transition.
The point I am trying to make is everyone is who he or she are and what they make of themselves, but societies judgment will always hold a very strong influence over the way you are treated. This is why people of color, and women are still working their way up the ladder for better and higher paying jobs. These judgments society puts upon us are what helps shape our lives, how we classify ourselves only means something to the people who are willing to ask and listen. Do I classify myself? Yes, of course I do. Does it matter when society will make their assumptions just by looks and known affiliations? Not one bit to me, and this upsets me although it is the way in which I view classifications of the world.