I kind of wanted to cry too watching these videos. They really were so uplifting and so sweet. I love that we got a chance to comment on something so wonderful and caring instead of the usual more unsettling topics we discuss in race relations. I hope that maybe next year Sam decides to include more lessons that inspire and motivate others to really care for others around them instead of focusing on past transgressions and all the bad things that exist in the world. These videos have really inspired me to consider other’s situations and it really illustrates a quote that I love, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

I completely agree with you. It is so easy to form casual friendships with others, but so much more complicated to commit that kind of kindness and courage to someone you barely know. This man really gave up a part of himself to someone he had no personal or intimate connection with. I would also love to believe that I could sacrifice something like my kidney for another person in a dire situation, I’m not sure that I could, but after seeing this video I think that I would make a much more committed attempt to really evaluate my final decision.

I am so glad Sam posted some videos to warm our hearts. I feel like I am usually upset or unsettled after watching videos or reading articles posted on the race relations website, it was nice to watch two videos to counteract all the negativity in the world. It just goes to show that for all the hatred and discrimination and apathy out there, their opposites exist as well, and I would like to think that there is more good than bad.

The video about the man offering his kidney to his favorite checkout woman at the grocery store was probably the single most sweet and caring video I have ever seen. He asked nothing in return, his only desire was to help another human being. This unconditional love and caring for the human condition is truly inspirational for everyone to really consider what you can do for others instead of writing off their concerns. I think this man really exemplified the best of the human spirit and I commend him for being so selfless and charitable. I think that often people only make such personal and selfless offers if someone in their family is ill and I think if more people hear this man’s story perhaps it will inspire others to consider what they can do for others and sacrifice for more than just immediate family. I think it is hard to imagine going through surgery for another person, but I think it might be harder for me to say no if I knew I would be able to save someone’s life. Being on dialysis is not living the way humans are meant to live, and this man sacrificed his own potential well being to improve the life of another. It is truly inspiring.

I also found the video of the two kids utterly adorable. They probably could not have found a more charismatic and engaging young boy to interview… he really tugged at my heartstrings. I loved how the message they were presenting came at the end of the video and as an audience you were presented with the children’s answers before seeing the overall theme of the video. I think the children represented such innocence and acceptance, which is so often missing past adolescence. It is so interesting how children develop their worldviews at such a young age and there should be a lot of emphasis placed on their cultural and moral development. What adults say around kids has such an impact on the way they think of others and I love that this video brought attention to that.

I think these videos were the perfect way to start the week before finals and I hope that everyone gets a chance to watch and feel a bit more uplifted about all the good that humanity offers instead of always being brought down by the bad.

The resourcefulness of these people really is amazing. I do believe that people just choose to go on despite what happens to them. They could have either lain down and died or worked with the few resources they had to turn this disaster around. It says so much for the strength of the human spirit and the innate will to live that it is unimaginable to me to go through a situation like that. What is the most shocking is something Sam said, that most likely these tent cities will be around for years before they can turn the country around.

It is very interesting to see that no matter how devastating an event, life still goes on. People still need to find some semblance of their lives before the earthquake, and help others to do the same. They saw the need for certain necessities like shelter and water, and once those were generally met, they moved on to providing entertainment and luxuries like movies and salon functions. In a very small way, Haiti’s tent cities represent the change in national economies all over the world from the beginning of time. Once basic necessities are met, people start to purchase and bargain for the things they desire on top of that which they need just to survive.

It is so hard to imagine what life inside prison cells is like. There are so many movies and books that try to illustrate to the reader how the inmates live and survive, but they fail in truly providing knowledge to those on the outside. I think this letter really described well the many layers of human condition for its readers. How the man described the men hating each other to the fact that they were embracing and helping each other in a time of despair, it was really beautifully written.

I do not know how I feel now about life imprisonment. I always believed that the crime of murder is too horrendous to perhaps let happen again by someone. But it was also discussed in my CAS class how much we are paying to keep all these men incarcerated. And if men really do repent what they have done and know in their hearts it will not be repeated, then perhaps it is in our best interest to let them out.

I think what this letter really offered to me as self-reflection about my own opinions about life imprisonment. I had never really taken the time to consider how I really felt about locking people away for good, but I am not so sure I think it is the best idea now. I know this class is supposed to get us to think about things we might not have had to discuss before in everyday conversation and this letter is one topic that particularly struck home with me. I guess we just never really discussed prison at home—other than to warn my brothers not to end up there. I guess I just never really realized that the people who are in jail could grow from the experience, as people are able to grow from anything.

I heard about an interesting psychological study where the brains of convicted felons were actually scanned. Apparently there is an area of the brain just behind the left ear that is in charge of feelings of remorse and guilt and some people do not have sufficient brain tissue in that area to feel the same as others do. This could explain scientifically why some people are racked with guilt over very small transgressions and others do not feel remorse over taking another’s life. I wonder if the science progresses whether or not we will at some point be able to discern those prisoners who really do feel bad and would not repeat the same actions, and those who still might in the future. Of course, to do it scientifically would still take all the humanity out of it, but perhaps it is a start.

I think the story about the little girl coming home and referring to herself as “dirty” is not necessarily bad, I think it is the natural course of young kids, like Sam said. When white kid’s skin turns brown it means they need a bath, the other child was only trying to logically explain the difference in skin color. I think that the way situations like that are handled, and especially that that child’s parents should have talked to him before about how much diversity and variety and beauty there is in the world. I feel like if parents take a more responsible role in teaching their children about the differences in everyone in the world then situations like this would be more rare, and less painful for everyone involved.

I do not think that I would find that disturbing in the least bit. I think it is more natural to want to play with dolls that resemble you. That is why American Dolls has a doll you can build to match your resemblance based on skin, eye, and hair color. If there were even half the amount of children who preferred a black doll over a white doll I would have felt better about the video, but it is the lack of self-worth they see in their skin color that reflects their doll choices, as can be noted by their descriptions of the dolls as “nice” or “bad” based on whether they are black or white.

I cannot begin to explain how that video made me feel. To see those little girls and boys struggle with a decision over which doll they prefer—based on skin color, was agonizing. To hear them say that the black doll was “bad” and the white doll “nice” …I cannot even put into words how I feel about that.

It really does make me wonder at what age we develop our self-esteem and self-worth, and how the world around us influences that. In the last ten years I think we have seen much more diversity in the way of toys, but we still have much much farther to go. Especially when dolls of color are priced lower than white dolls as was the case in Walmart. According to employees the price was lowered because the dolls were not selling, which leads me to two conclusions: one, that it is true that children prefer white dolls if the black dolls do not sell, and two, what that says about our culture in a larger view, that color is valued less than whiteness?

I should perhaps interject now that I am white, pretty average, from suburban Virginia. One of the things that gave me pause during Sam’s presentation was one interesting fact I remembered from my childhood. I had a black doll. When American Girl Dolls were still coveted assets among young girls, I had two of the more rare varieties, the red head, Felicity, and the black girl, Addy. I am not really sure why I was attracted to these dolls but strangely enough I did not a white doll with blonde hair that would naturally reflect my own looks. Perhaps I was just one strange anomaly in the research of young children, but I think that it is important to note that perhaps if you are raised to appreciate others (not just from a very liberal family—as mine is not) then perhaps the stories behind the dolls are more important than the dolls themselves. This may have been true for me because as I recall I was of an older age than the children featured in the experiment, but it is still interesting to note that that the opposite effect may be true.

I do not think I will ever forget the one little girl around the 4:50 minute mark when she asked to the respond to the question, “ And can you give me the doll that looks like you?” She immediately reaches for the white doll before slowly changing her mind and pushing forward the black doll. Those five seconds in the video had enough of an impact to probably remain with me forever. I do not know at what age self-awareness and self-esteem is largely formed, but we do need to do something to make minorities as main stream in our toys and entertainments as they are in the country today.

As a white person, I was very upset and perplexed during Sam’s lecture on Native Americans. The reason for this due to questions from black students about why they should feel any guilt for what happened to the Native Americans since their ancestors were brought over involuntarily so they did not need to take any responsibility for what happened in our history. Perhaps it is an example of “white guilt” that not only did I feel terrible about what happened to another people, I felt actually enraged that someone could write off what happened in the past and feel no tie to it whatsoever. I think that while perhaps white people learn to feel guilty about what our ancestors did over time, we still have no reason to believe it was specifically our ancestors. That is what makes me so angry during class when others try to brush any bad feelings away from themselves because “they had nothing to do with it.” It’s like Sam said, if you live here now, you live on Red Land, and I think if you cannot connect and feel some sort of guilt to what happened to another culture whether it was you and your ancestors or not, then what do you feel guilty about?