I would not say that my way of thinking has changed all that much throughout the course of the semester. Class was interesting but I wouldn’t say that my mind was blown or that I had a major break-through after any of our lectures or discussions. Do not get me wrong I liked coming to class and hearing what Sam had to present but all the issues were things that we see, hear, and experience every day. I don’t know what it was but some of the things just seemed to be common sense. I feel like if you sat in the HUB for a couple of hours you would see a lot of the dynamics we talked about all semester. I am definitely more open to other cultures and other religions. I thought I understood some things about other people’s culture and religion but hearing things directly from people was really cool. Also, probably my favorite part was when we Skype people who were halfway across the world. Speaking to people from Iraq and Iran is something that is so cool and so unique that I will probably not have an opportunity like that ever again. We found out that despite the common’s conception about people halfway around the world that they are just like us here in the United States
The thing that I liked the most and help me understand people better was when students responded in class. Especially when people got into some pretty heated arguments. It was cool to see how people reacted on the spot and how people interacted. For example, like if they stayed politically correct or if they really said what was on their mind even if it seemed wrong or rude to some people. Some of the “best” times were when someone would say something absolutely ridiculous and a person or group of people would absolutely blow up because they had a different point of view. It was in those times, when people were on the spot, that you really got to see what people thought and how they handled themselves under pressure and if they could defend their points. It seemed that everyone had similar opinions in some circumstances but on other issues everyone’s point of view seemed to be totally different and it was crazy. That is what helped the class interesting for me- the students and their opinions and reactions.

Well I think a lot has to do with the little world people live in. By little world I mean people chose to live and how to live the way they want. They stay inside their comfort zone and don’t really see a problem with it. People read the same newspapers, talk to the same people, watch the same news and they think they are getting all the information. But how can you be right if you only have friends from the same culture and background and race? There is no diversity so how are you supposed to become educated in someone else’s culture if you’re never exposed to it. How are you supposed to become informed on political issues if you just watch Fox news or just MSNBC? They are so politically biased to the right and to the left, respectively, that you can’t really get the whole picture.
The point I’m trying to make it that, in reference to the Travon Martin shooting, people do not get all the facts so their arguments or way of thinking is off. Someone brought up in class on Tuesday how a media corporation was getting into hot water because it purposely edited the 911 call so make it seem different or out of context. Similarly, news stations and newspapers and websites all don’t report the whole story sometimes which leads to people becoming biased. Especially when these news medians use derogatory terms or bring racism into the fact.
That is the most heated argument over this whole issue is if it was racially motivated or not. I do not know the whole story and have little pieces of what happened but from my point of view it seemed as though Travon was murdered for no reason by some guy who though Travon looked suspicious. I know a lot of people agree with my point of view and see it a senseless killing of young black man who was just walking with his hood up. Again, I don’t know all the facts but that is my point of view currently. However, there are a lot of people who believe or think that Travon was doing something bad or had endangered the man who ultimately killed him, so the act of shooting him was justified.
Its so hard to draw a line in the sand in a situation like this. One side claims that he was an innocent victim who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Another side claims that he was doing something bad and that the man acted within his rights to defend himself. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know the whole truth about what happened because one party is dead and the other will change his story to save his life. The real tragedy isn’t that we can’t decide who is right and who is wrong, who is being racist and who isn’t, what media outlet or newspaper is reporting it the right way or not; no, it is the fact that a young man is dead.

I think that this is actually a really good question to ask because I feel like this is something that has been a cause of so much conflict throughout human history. Everyone is different and has different viewpoints, morals and beliefs. Throughout human history we have seen entire civilizations destroyed and people massacred because they didn’t believe in the same god(s) as some other group of people. Even now a days with technology connecting our world in such a way that that people can spread their thinking so easily I feel like people are making it their mission to push their views upon other people.
Obviously it is everyone’s right (in this country at least) to have freedom of religion. But if this is the case then why is it that so many people feel the need to “judge” other people for what they believe in. I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I went to church every Sunday when I was at home living with my parents. I just saw it as something I had to do and was my responsibility as a Catholic. So when I came to college I just kind of forgot about it. Obviously I did not give up my religion it just wasn’t a big force in my life since I wasn’t being reminded by my parents about church or going to Catholic school where we had mass and off for special holidays. But I had an experience this past weekend (Palm Sunday) where one of my friends kind of called me out for not going to church. I just said that I forgot and that I didn’t have time and I felt as though they were kind of judging me because I didn’t want to go to church on Palm Sunday.
In my mind it wasn’t that big of a deal. Like, just because I skipped mass and wasn’t going to go out of my way and throwing my plans out the window to make it to service doesn’t make me a bad person. I thought that by this age what people decided to do wasn’t that big of a deal. As the student brought up in this video, why can’t people have their own relationship with God? Why do some people feel that it is necessary to go to a pastor or priest or religious ceremony (like mass on Sundays) to have a relationship with God? Just think about the people out there who live unmoral lives and do things that are sinful during the week but go to church on Sundays and think they are religious. I don’t know but in my mind I think it is more important to be a good person and have your own relationship with God or Allah or whoever/whatever you want to believe in.

Well I definitely think that is crap but unfortunately that is just the way things are. It seems that inner city and people who are from “impoverished” areas are always more suspected than kids, primarily white kids, who come from wealthier or nicer areas. It negative stereotyping but I guess the psychological and sociological thinking is that kids from those areas are more likely to do something or be more dangerous than someone who comes from a nicer area. Even though that could be farthest from the truth. In reality it is probably the kid wearing a dress shirt and tie who has a more negative effect on society than a kid who has to go through all that just to get an education.
From my own personal experience I went to a private school for high school and never had to worry about cops or being searched. People knew kids did drugs and drank and sometimes had that stuff on them but we never had a cop on our grounds. The closest thing to police we saw in high school was when they came to demonstrate the stopping ability of their cruisers for our senior physics class. Even after some kids a year ahead of me got caught with alcohol in their cars before a dance the one year, nothing happened. The kids had detention or some community service but the police were never called and I don’t think anything went on their records. If anything like this had happened in the city or in a public school they would have faced serious consequences most likely.
However, I worked with a friend who only lived a few miles away from me and she went to a completely different school atmosphere. She went to a public school whose district was notoriously known for being in a bad part of county. One day during work she was telling me what she and her friends had to go through everyday- police at the entrances, security guards in the parking lots and then metal detectors and searches once inside the school building. This school was only like 5 miles away from where I lived and only like 20 minutes away from private school and the difference was ridiculous. I asked her why she had all of these safety precautions and she told me about how people bring guns to school and how kids get caught doing drugs in the school and in the parking lot.
I mean, there are going to troublemakers at schools regardless of where you go to school and where you live in the country. I guess it’s just up to the school board and taxpayers how they want to protect students.

I would have to say that I would totally agree with what this guy is saying. I came from the suburbs of a major city. Almost everyone I know is white and I do know people of different races and religious but that never really mattered to me or my family. It was more based on the kind of person you were and how well you treated others.
I attended a catholic grade school for kindergarten through eighth grade. A question is brought up in another video on the website asking how when we were children we were taught to recognized our heritage and our differences but by the time we became teenagers (middle school and high school) we were taught not to bring those up. Coming from a grade school where 55 out of my 56 classmates were white, Catholics it was never really any issue (we had one girl who’s grandparents came from the Philippians so she was Asian but no one ever really took special notice and we all considered each other the same). Obviously, being in such a homogenous mixture there was no need for us to talk about race or religion intensely… plus the fact that we were only kids.
Then I went to a prep school high school. Again I was surrounded by a majority of white Catholics. There was a little more diversity than grade school but not much. I think that while I attended my high school we only had about 4% of the student body (out of 1150 students) who were considered minorities. But again it really was not an issue. Everyone got along and didn’t really matter if you were white, black, brown, Asian, purple, green, or striped. Like I said before, when it came to acceptance it really depended on your personality.
Even though some people would consider this a “sheltered” upbringing I would not changed anything. I wouldn’t want to change the way I grew up because some people grow up in communities where there are racial or religious tensions and families have preconceived notions about other groups of people. However, I was brought up to respect everyone and judge them not on their skin color, religion, heritage, or anything else but by their personality and how they treated others.
I can’t be sure if this is the third stage that this student was talking about but I do take notice of people’s race or someone’s religion if it is brought up. But that doesn’t stop me from interacting or trying to meet them. Like I have said before, if you’re a nice person I will give you a shot regardless of what your skin color may be or what god you worship.

I first want to say that I think that Thursday’s class was one of the, if not the, best classes of the year. I think it was cool to see an entire class of 750 college kids with short attention spans sit at complete attention and silence as they respected the veterans who were talking at the front of the room. The respect that people have for our service members is truly an amazing thing.
But I would have to say that my view of war has changed since first hearing Sam’s TED talk about a year ago. You grow up in America thinking that Americans are the good guys and that anyone who isn’t an ally is an enemy and that they are wrong. When 9/11 happened over 10 years ago I was just a kid so I thought that all people from the Middle East hated America and wanted to harm America. However, as I have grown up and matured I have learned that this is not the case at all. 99% of the world’s population is like myself, friends, and family- good, hardworking people who don’t want violence. They are just normal people trying to live their lives in peace. There is only a fraction of people who actually want to hurt people and cause chaos.
And it’s hard to say but even some of the ‘insurgents’ aren’t bad people. Because of Sam’s speech on empathy I realized that if history had been different that me and possibly some of my friends would be these people. If I lived in a war-torn and occupied country I would absolutely try and fight people who I thought were hurting my countrymen, friends and family.
Patriotism is defined as “devoted love, support, and defense of one's country.” I consider American service members patriots because they have volunteered to stand on the frontlines for their country during a time of war. They have left their family to travel thousands of miles and die so that we here in the USA can live safe and free lives. They are brave men and women who put service to country and other’s as their top priority. That is a quality that is not taught and reflects greatly upon the people of this country.
However, using empathy you realize that some of our “enemies” are not too much different from us and our military personal, and are simply fighting for their country and their freedom. It is hard to think this way since you want all the Americans to be safe but that is the complexity of war and adds to the fog of war. How do you decide who is an Osama bin Laden and who is just an average joe trying to protect his wife and children?

I have found everything we have done in class pretty interesting but there are two things that have stood out to me- talking about Native Americans and the one discussion early in the course in which students got in a really heated debate about white people.
First, I was really interested in our discussion about Native Americans and the points that Sam brought up. The one that hit me most was that we are all technically “Illegal Immigrant” because we stole the land from the people who originally owned it (Native Americans) and now we are kind of hypocrites for trying to keep undocumented immigrants out. I obviously knew that Native Americans were here first but I always considered America the home of Americans, who ancestors immigrated here to make better lives for themselves and their families. When Sam pointed out that they were technically illegal immigrants it made me think our history and my family’s history. And if you think about why they came here then you understand why current “illegal immigrants” are flocking to the United States.
Second, I can not remember the topic or what day it happened but I remember towards the beginning of the course when we were talking about white people. I think a black girl said something about how a lot of the evil in the world had been committed by white people. It was clear she was insinuating something and a white boy responded with anger. It was towards the end of class so it got heated but eventually fizzled as class dispersed. But the fact that one statement escalated into something so much bigger was impressive to me and pretty cool to see happen in a college class, especially a 725 person class.
But if there was something that I would like to hear covered it would have to do with terrorism and our military. Obviously the past decade has had major impacts on everyone- not just on Americans but also on non-Americans. It would be interesting to see figures and discussions about what people had to say on the state of the world now and our profiling of people and their religions. Also, I am interested in what people and society think of our military. I am a passionate supporter of our troops and think that everything they and their families have done/endured over the past 10 years has been nothing short of inspirational and amazing. I think the fact that people volunteer to serve their country during war and willingly leave their families to protect stranger’s freedom is the definition of heroism. I would like to see if people feel the same way and have admiration for them, or if they feel like soldiers are unjustified in our nation’s wars and in serving oversees.

Seeing Asians as smart and intellectually superior is racist because it is a stereotype that is not conducive or true about all Asians. Yes, it is a fact that there are many smart Asians in the world who have made contribution in the fields of science, math and engineering. From this, many people have taken away that all Asians are good at math and therefore academically superior. I think this is negative towards Asians and Asian Americans because where it may be true for some, it is not true for all.
It isn’t right that every time an Asian performs well on an exam or assignment that it is “expected” from them. This isn’t right because the truth is not all Asians are good students. From data in class we saw that whites perform well on exams. But that doesn’t mean that all whites perform well on tests. There is a large portion of white people who are dumb. That is the case in every culture, race, and society- there are smart people and there are dumb people. The say that once race is smarter than the other is just ignorant to say because you can’t prove it. You would have to take every single person who is black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Native Americans, and others and test them as a large group to see if any was academically superior.
Just because Asians are more commonly stereotyped into this smart category, does not make it right. It is like making the assumption that all black people are good at basketball. Just because a majority of college and pro basketball players are black does not mean that all black people are good at basketball. If you were to say that to someone they would probably think you are ignorant because your skills on the basketball depend more about hand-eye ordination, strength, speed, training, experience, etc. The same goes for academics and Asians. A person’s intellect depends on a variety of factors and where some people are blessed with inherently powerful brains, other are not.
It is also bad because it lumps a whole race of people into one category. As we see every day, everybody is different and different areas and different societies have different ways of living. To stereotype almost 2 billion people would just be absurd. It takes away from an individuals personal identity by saying “you don’t fit the stereotype so you must be different and therefore not acceptable.” Every has the right to be their own person whether it be in the way you dress, speak, act, or what grades you get in school. A minority does not represent a majority.
That is why I think it is ignorant and detrimental to assume that seeing Asians as smart and intellectually superior is racist.

This is a pretty loaded question that could go a bunch of different ways. I think it is ignorant not to listen to other people’s point of views when it comes to religion (and also politics but that is a whole different Pandora’s Box that I won’t get into). I think it’s ignorant because the best way to learn and the best way to educate oneself is by listening to others and hearing what they have to say. Obviously everything that they say may not be true but there is bound to be some truth and rational thinking in there somewhere. If you simply shut someone down and disregard what they are saying then you are not going anywhere.
I was raised Catholic and went to 13 years of Catholic school so I feel fairly confident that I could hold an educated discussion about faith and beliefs with someone from a different religion or an atheist. I think it would be awesome to have a serious discussion with someone from a religion that I do not know much about. For example, Islam is one of the world’s major religions and I feel like I don’t know as much about it as I should. Like I said above, I may not believe everything that a Muslim believes in but that shouldn’t stop me or anyone else from hearing what they have to say. When you have discussions like that I feel like so many ignorant things can be avoided.
The second part of the question that Sam brought up, in regards to you believe what your parents believe, is something I totally agree with. It’s no one’s fault. When you’re a child you don’t know any better and you just do and say as your parents tell you. As you get older you either accept what you were raised in or you begin to question your beliefs. I know many people and friends who have challenged their upbringing’s religion. Their parents or family has been upset by this and I don’t understand why. Once you reach a certain point growing up you have the rationale to seriously think something through and question your religion. In the end, it is your life and you should be able to believe what you want to believe in.
There have been many a times when I am in Catholic masses and see the same rituals, traditions, and prayers and it’s just like “what does all this really mean?” But that is the point of growing up right? Questioning what you believe in and trying to find the answers. This is what makes you a better person in the end, right? People believe what they believe in mostly because of their upbringing but that shouldn’t stop them from trying to learn about other people’s religions either.

I think that both Shamans and our “traditional” way of learning both have their merits. However, if my life depended on it I would absolutely prefer a professionally trained and educated doctor to treat me.
From Sam’s story in class and other things that I have read or heard about throughout my life I think there is some merit to natural medicine. I don’t know if I can believe the whole ‘going into a trance and finding the answer to everything’ but I definitely consider natural medicine to be beneficial and useful in certain situations. I mean for thousands of years people were getting sick and relied on Shaman’s and other people to treat them for their illness and wounds. And obviously some of that had to work for people to survive. I know there are isolated tribes and cultures that still rely on tradition medicine as their main source of healing. Some people in America today still swear by natural medicines even though they have access to modern medicine.
However, like I said before, if my life depended on it I would absolutely, 100% take a person who went to college, medical school, and is a professionally trained and licensed doctor. Though natural healing is useful for some things and can cure certain things, we haven’t become the advanced society we are today without modern medicine. There is a reason why the average life expectancy is in the 70s or 80s now a days. Compare that to the life expectancy of past centuries- I don’t know the numbers- but obviously much lower. Yes, our way of learning may not be the most efficient. Learning in a classroom is sometimes not the best way and people can cheat or skip classes but in the end it works. Clearly, with modern medicine you have a better chance of surviving a car crash or beating cancer, I trust doctors and nurses who are trained in trauma or chemotherapy than some guys who closes his eyes and might guess the right thing to help you.
So in conclusion, if I was stuck in the jungle or in the middle of the dessert with a life threatening situation I would trust a Shaman to treat me. I mean I would be totally sketched out by him or her but in the end you really don’t have a choice. But if I sick and went to a building with the option of seeing a Shaman or a licensed doctor I would absolutely want into the door of the doctor’s office. Shaman’s may be merited in some circumstances but, as I said before, we haven’t gotten to where we are today without tried-and-proven modern medicine. Doctors may not have the cure for everything but I would will to bet money that doctor could out treat a Shaman 99 out of a 100 times.