en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/757293 Comments by happybell0 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70081744 I total agree with you about how a lot of people do not seem to care about this devastating catastrophe and continue their lives like nothing has happened to me. I think one of the factors that makes people more ignorant or be careless to this tragic disaster is that people cannot find any relationship with their lives. To people, this is just an incident that happened in different country and they think they are not related in anyways. I think this is true for everybody. We are prone to not remember what is happening out there unless we see, feel and experience. We always think that there are other things that be have to worry about to make my life better. We worry about what is around us and what seems to be connected and what would affect my life. So for some of us, just looking what is on the media might touch our emotions and feels for couple of minutes but its very hard for us to think about this incident and do something for the people, who are suffering now. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting these data and statistic. Come on, 300,000 people died from this single incident. That’s like having all the people from this campus get killed. Sometimes these statistics are numbers are so massive that it is so hard to believe this to be true. Personally I do not even know how to react to this incident. I mean, I know that there are many people killed and suffering from this but it’s really hard to put myself in their situation. If we understood and felt what is it to be like the people suffering, we would not be sitting here worrying about our tests. We would be running around to do something to help Haitians. This is same for every other topic. When we had a lecture about the slaves and coco planting, Most of us felt guilty to eat chocolates for that moment. I was even disgust to see some people eating the second piece of chocolate. But few days later I have found myself enjoying chocolate without even remembering how I felt before. I think it is really hard to share other’s suffering or even remember how they feel. In all, it is almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes. Then, what are we suppose to do? Do we simply ignore what is happening out there and carry on with our lives? Or do we simply struggle from the guilt everyday? I think very best thing we could do is living our lives up to the full values and use whatever we are given to the people, who are less fortunate than us. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 07:35:40 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70081744 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70080459 I total agree with you about how a lot of people don’t seem to care about this devastating catastrophe and continue their lives like nothing has happened to me. I think one of the factors that makes people more ignorant or be careless to this tragic disaster is that people can’t find any relationship with their lives. To people, this is just an incident that happened in different country and they think they are not related in anyways. I think this is true for everybody. We are prone to not remember what is happening out there unless we see, feel and experience. We always think that there are other things that be have to worry about to make my life better. We worry about what is around us and what seems to be connected and what would affect my life. So for some of us, just looking what is on the media might touch our emotions and feels for couple of minutes but its very hard for us to think about this incident and do something for the people, who are suffering now. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting these data and statistic. Come on, 300,000 people died from this single incident. That’s like having all the people from this campus get killed. Sometimes these statistics are numbers are so massive that it is so hard to believe this to be true. Personally I don’t even know how to react to this incident. I mean, I know that there are many people killed and suffering from this but it’s really hard to put myself in their situation. If we understood and felt what is it to be like the people suffering, we wouldn’t be sitting here worrying about our tests. We would be running around to do something to help Haitians. This is same for every other topic. When we had a lecture about the slaves and coco planting, Most of us felt guilty to eat chocolates for that moment. I was even disgust to see some people eating the second piece of chocolate. But few days later I have found myself enjoying chocolate without even remembering how I felt before. I think it is really hard to share other’s suffering or even remember how they feel. In all, it is almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes. Then, what are we suppose to do? Do we simply ignore what is happening out there and carry on with our lives? Or do we simply struggle from the guilt everyday? I think very best thing we could do is living our lives up to the full values and use whatever we are given to the people, who are less fortunate than us. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 07:29:33 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70080459 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70082541 I total agree with you about how a lot of people do not seem to care about this devastating catastrophe and continue their lives like nothing has happened to me. I think one of the factors that makes people more ignorant or be careless to this tragic disaster is that people cannot find any relationship with their lives. To people, this is just an incident that happened in different country and they think they are not related in anyways. I think this is true for everybody. We are prone to not remember what is happening out there unless we see, feel and experience. We always think that there are other things that be have to worry about to make my life better. We worry about what is around us and what seems to be connected and what would affect my life. So for some of us, just looking what is on the media might touch our emotions and feels for couple of minutes but its very hard for us to think about this incident and do something for the people, who are suffering now.Sometimes we have a hard time accepting these data and statistic. Come on, 300,000 people died from this single incident. That’s like having all the people from this campus get killed. Sometimes these statistics are numbers are so massive that it is so hard to believe this to be true. Personally I do not even know how to react to this incident. I mean, I know that there are many people killed and suffering from this but it’s really hard to put myself in their situation. If we understood and felt what is it to be like the people suffering, we would not be sitting here worrying about our tests. We would be running around to do something to help Haitians.This is same for every other topic. When we had a lecture about the slaves and coco planting, Most of us felt guilty to eat chocolates for that moment. I was even disgust to see some people eating the second piece of chocolate. But few days later I have found myself enjoying chocolate without even remembering how I felt before. I think it is really hard to share other’s suffering or even remember how they feel. In all, it is almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes. Then, what are we suppose to do? Do we simply ignore what is happening out there and carry on with our lives? Or do we simply struggle from the guilt everyday? I think very best thing we could do is living our lives up to the full values and use whatever we are given to the people, who are less fortunate than us. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:36:07 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70082541 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70082197 I total agree with you about how a lot of people do not seem to care about this devastating catastrophe and continue their lives like nothing has happened to me. I think one of the factors that makes people more ignorant or be careless to this tragic disaster is that people cannot find any relationship with their lives. To people, this is just an incident that happened in different country and they think they are not related in anyways. I think this is true for everybody. We are prone to not remember what is happening out there unless we see, feel and experience. We always think that there are other things that be have to worry about to make my life better. We worry about what is around us and what seems to be connected and what would affect my life. So for some of us, just looking what is on the media might touch our emotions and feels for couple of minutes but its very hard for us to think about this incident and do something for the people, who are suffering now. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting these data and statistic. Come on, 300,000 people died from this single incident. That’s like having all the people from this campus get killed. Sometimes these statistics are numbers are so massive that it is so hard to believe this to be true. Personally I do not even know how to react to this incident. I mean, I know that there are many people killed and suffering from this but it’s really hard to put myself in their situation. If we understood and felt what is it to be like the people suffering, we would not be sitting here worrying about our tests. We would be running around to do something to help Haitians. This is same for every other topic. When we had a lecture about the slaves and coco planting, Most of us felt guilty to eat chocolates for that moment. I was even disgust to see some people eating the second piece of chocolate. But few days later I have found myself enjoying chocolate without even remembering how I felt before. I think it is really hard to share other’s suffering or even remember how they feel. In all, it is almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes. Then, what are we suppose to do? Do we simply ignore what is happening out there and carry on with our lives? Or do we simply struggle from the guilt everyday? I think very best thing we could do is living our lives up to the full values and use whatever we are given to the people, who are less fortunate than us. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:34:32 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70082197 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70081914 I total agree with you about how a lot of people do not seem to care about this devastating catastrophe and continue their lives like nothing has happened to me. I think one of the factors that makes people more ignorant or be careless to this tragic disaster is that people cannot find any relationship with their lives. To people, this is just an incident that happened in different country and they think they are not related in anyways. I think this is true for everybody. We are prone to not remember what is happening out there unless we see, feel and experience. We always think that there are other things that be have to worry about to make my life better. We worry about what is around us and what seems to be connected and what would affect my life. So for some of us, just looking what is on the media might touch our emotions and feels for couple of minutes but its very hard for us to think about this incident and do something for the people, who are suffering now. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting these data and statistic. Come on, 300,000 people died from this single incident. That’s like having all the people from this campus get killed. Sometimes these statistics are numbers are so massive that it is so hard to believe this to be true. Personally I do not even know how to react to this incident. I mean, I know that there are many people killed and suffering from this but it’s really hard to put myself in their situation. If we understood and felt what is it to be like the people suffering, we would not be sitting here worrying about our tests. We would be running around to do something to help Haitians. This is same for every other topic. When we had a lecture about the slaves and coco planting, Most of us felt guilty to eat chocolates for that moment. I was even disgust to see some people eating the second piece of chocolate. But few days later I have found myself enjoying chocolate without even remembering how I felt before. I think it is really hard to share other’s suffering or even remember how they feel. In all, it is almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes. Then, what are we suppose to do? Do we simply ignore what is happening out there and carry on with our lives? Or do we simply struggle from the guilt everyday? I think very best thing we could do is living our lives up to the full values and use whatever we are given to the people, who are less fortunate than us. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:33:31 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70081914 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70080980 I total agree with you about how a lot of people don’t seem to care about this devastating catastrophe and continue their lives like nothing has happened to me. I think one of the factors that makes people more ignorant or be careless to this tragic disaster is that people can’t find any relationship with their lives. To people, this is just an incident that happened in different country and they think they are not related in anyways. I think this is true for everybody. We are prone to not remember what is happening out there unless we see, feel and experience. We always think that there are other things that be have to worry about to make my life better. We worry about what is around us and what seems to be connected and what would affect my life. So for some of us, just looking what is on the media might touch our emotions and feels for couple of minutes but its very hard for us to think about this incident and do something for the people, who are suffering now. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting these data and statistic. Come on, 300,000 people died from this single incident. That’s like having all the people from this campus get killed. Sometimes these statistics are numbers are so massive that it is so hard to believe this to be true. Personally I don’t even know how to react to this incident. I mean, I know that there are many people killed and suffering from this but it’s really hard to put myself in their situation. If we understood and felt what is it to be like the people suffering, we wouldn’t be sitting here worrying about our tests. We would be running around to do something to help Haitians. This is same for every other topic. When we had a lecture about the slaves and coco planting, Most of us felt guilty to eat chocolates for that moment. I was even disgust to see some people eating the second piece of chocolate. But few days later I have found myself enjoying chocolate without even remembering how I felt before. I think it is really hard to share other’s suffering or even remember how they feel. In all, it is almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes. Then, what are we suppose to do? Do we simply ignore what is happening out there and carry on with our lives? Or do we simply struggle from the guilt everyday? I think very best thing we could do is living our lives up to the full values and use whatever we are given to the people, who are less fortunate than us. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:30:10 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/300000-whats-it-mean-to-us__trashed/#IDComment70080980 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/christian-invaders-the-turnaround__trashed/#IDComment68304878 As Axg5068 mentioned before, some people are missing the point that Sam said. This lecture was to enlighten us by allowing us to look though the ‘different lens.’ He was trying to show us how many Americans view Islamic Arabs as extremist and radicals. He is simply presenting the title ‘Christian Invaders’ as an example that other Arabic people could Americans as. Regardless of what Christians or other Americans actually are, people who are exposed to one sided view will always think in a certain way with misunderstandings. So for Muslims, they could think that all the Americans are Christian invaders who came to Middle Eastern countries to take their resources if they were only exposed to biased information. Another point that a lot of people missed was that a lot of ideas that he said in the class is not real ideas that Sam actually believes. As Sam said in the very at the end of the lecture, he as a sociologist understands what others can think and where these ideas and conflicts are coming from. The things that he said in the class was not necessary all his ideas beliefs. He was just throwing ideas from all the perspective to show us what it is to see the world by wearing different lens. So when Sam mentioned about Christian Invaders he was really trying to show how ethnocentrism has blinded many of us from seeing how some people can view Americans as Christian Invaders. So, when I saw how some people were sickened by how Sam was talking about Christians, I could see how ethnocentrism is controlling our thoughts. I mean what is it such a big deal that Sam or other people think? Some people don’t even know why they are so upset about this issue. It’s not like somebody directly insult Christianity. Sam just said things that some people ‘think’. I mean, who are we to say that those ideas about Christian Invaders are wrong and should fix those ideas? On the other hand another idea came up to my mind. If some of us care so much about our reputation about our religion or country, have we as Americans have felt anything about how some Muslims are viewed as extremists? I am pretty sure that there are some Muslims that are as upset as us being ‘Invaders.’ You see what I mean this is ethnocentrism. Without us knowing why we are upset about this subject, we are already justifying our emotion and ideas. If we are thinking that “We are always right” or “We would never be like that if I were to be in that situation” than I think it's good time for us think how Ethnocentrism has messed up our ideas. Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:10:23 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/christian-invaders-the-turnaround__trashed/#IDComment68304878 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/this-is-totally-off-the-hook__trashed/#IDComment66881728 I have seen so many comments about how people are shocked and surprised to see this video but I think this is kind of expected. I think I was just a combination of two major aspects in Japanese culture: pornography and video games. This not only ignores women’s but it also destroys ones morality. I mean this games is pretty much telling everyone that one should do whatever they sexual desires tell them to do. This is what all the animals expect humans pretty much do. They follow their instinct without their consciousness. They just act what their hormones tell them to do. We are different. Our conscious control our body to make us distinct from other animals. ‘ Japan is really open to sexual activities and many Japanese are generally more accepting to pornography (I think they call it adult videos in Japan). We can compare how much people spend money on pornography. In Japan, media is definitely influenced by the pornography and we can not deny the fact that it is major aspect of Japanese culture. Another major role that is contributing Japanese cultural aspect is the video games. In terms of economy, people spend tons of money to play games. They have developed many game tools (Wii, Xbox, etc) that people of all ages could enjoy. So game makers definitely researched to find aspects that more number of game players would be satisfies. So game programmer decided to combined pornography and video games to satisfy game players. Statistically speaking, there are more males playing games. So, game makers introduced new genre that most males are obsessed with: Sex. It became another source to fulfill their sexual fantasies. People (same for all the video game players) like to experience the new things and their fantasies through their games. I am not saying that curiosity towards things that are new is bad. I am saying if that curiosity has wrong purpose than it is very problematic. It will be really problematic if video games are dealing with something that people would never do in real life. Raping and murdering is the worst thing a human could ever do. But in many video games people are performing such action to ‘experience new things’. Worst thing is that some people do not realize what they are doing in the game reflect real society. As I mentioned before video games and pornography is another tools to satisfy their “fantasy”. When people are expose to these ‘Fantasies’ for long time they forget what is real not real. Imagine kids or other young people, who do not have good sense of moral values are exposed to these games. It will not only destroy their moral values but it will also lessen their judgments. Imagine how much ‘rape game’ will affect people. Fri, 9 Apr 2010 21:55:53 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/this-is-totally-off-the-hook__trashed/#IDComment66881728 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/nothing-about-the-census-is-easy__trashed/#IDComment65483806 Personally, this whole situation about dealing with this problem is so ridiculous. If some people are upset by seeing this term in the census I want ask them what is it such a big deal to use this term in census. I mean I see African Americans say this word everyday and every time when ever they meet another African Americans. Every African Americans address themselves as ‘Negro’ when they are around African Americans. If they are labeling themselves as ‘Negro’ why is it so wrong to label them census? I am not ignoring the fact that this word was originated from social conflict through out the history. I am simply addressing how complicated to identify individual in satisfactory manner. As one of the interviewer said this issue of identifying individual is not just simple as just choosing one racial background that one likes to be called. It is really hard to define individual’s background without discriminating or ignoring the heritage. White people have always tried to identify people of colors in a way that they would not upset but there are so many variety and preferences that white people just get overwhelm by this issue. These issues it can be quite bother some too. I mean, if you were to identify people of color accurately in census, researcher had to use the term that has been used to recognize African American for long periods of the time. Where some people become upset to use this term or not this term has to be there to accurately describe. I really this process of accurately describing racial or ethnical background is there for greater goods. It is not big of a deal that what there has been in a past. Now is the time to move on to improve what has been done wrong. The way the word ‘negro’ should used to bring greater good to African Americans. The bottom line is that the issue from the census is just not necessary. As it was mentioned in the video, I think greater good that comes out of the census is overshadowed by this particular issue. The purpose of the census was to help people by recognizing the statistics of the population proportion not to harm anyone. So when the researchers or people who made this census put the word ‘Negro’ or ‘Hispanic’ they wanted to make sure that certain race group are accurately described. As some people said in the video the termed ‘Negro’ is still used with older generation of African Americans and I think is appropriated and accurate to describe African Americans. I understand how this word has been used in terms to put down African Americans in the past but if this word is used to bring greater good to African Americans, I think this should not cause such issues and problems. Fri, 2 Apr 2010 07:13:52 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/nothing-about-the-census-is-easy__trashed/#IDComment65483806 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/if-men-could-menstruate__trashed/#IDComment64145012 I think that the idea of male domination has taken a major role in think topic. As Sam said these ideas have been in our society for such a long time that we don’t even recognize why we are acting in such a way. I mean I didn’t know why people (Including myself) felt weird to talk about this topic. (I didn’t even know why there was a uproar why this topic was brought up). Anyway, then I started asking myself why can’t we talk about thinks that are not supposed to be said. I mean who even come up with this idea anyway? After asking these questions I realized how people like to think and act what others have told them to think and I starting to understand how this topic is related. Most of us are raised in a way that we don’t talk about this topic in such a open matter. We are always told not to talk about women’s menstrual cycles because we are educated that it is rude to talk about it. We were taught that not talking about menstrual cycle was just another manner that must be kept all the time. However now I see how this ‘manners’ are another standard set by other people. Then I asked myself a same question that you mentioned in your video. Are men less educated to be discuss about thins topic? I think that men are educated fairly enough about a women’s menstrual cycle but I don’t think that these education about biological system affects any men’s opinion on this topic. I mean we men have basic ideas of what women go through but we don’t necessarily understand what the menstrual cycle is unless we experience it. This is like white people do have a sense of what racism and discrimination are but they don’t necessarily truly understand what people of color have been through. The only way that white people can fully understand what people of color been through will be being in a same position as people of color were. There is no way that one understands somebody else’s problems unless one is in same position. One way that one can understand other’s problems and conflicts will be discussing about problems. This is not only a good way to solve the misunderstandings about the problem but it is also great way to get better ideas of one’s problems. I think Sam already knew how talking and discussing about the fact that people are ashamed to talk about (or not used to talk about) is a great way to solve the conflicts. I think that is the reason that Sam likes to bring up this topic constantly regardless of how people think about this topic. Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:46:17 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/if-men-could-menstruate__trashed/#IDComment64145012 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/does-this-rudeness-thing-cut-both-ways__trashed/#IDComment63010092 I think this is a great question that makes us to reflect the topics related to race and society. I have felt the same as you did when white people said something offensive or rude about people of different color. I think there was the uproar from large groups of black and brown students. I thought that was pretty reasonable unto the point when black and brown students were making offensive and rude comment. I was really annoyed to see the same group that was upset laughing at the offensive and rude comments. Why can’t they think that if they are upset by the offensive comments than others white students can be upset by those comments? When I sit back and think about this incident I think there are several reasons that caused the incidents like this. First of all, I think people of color sometime think that it is okay to throw such comments as a pay back from the past. I mean people of color sometimes show the ‘my ancestor and I my self been through this its time for you see what I have been through’ attitude. In other words, people of color think that white people should be responsible (at least for some part) for what ever happened to people of color in the past. That is why people of color could not take lightly when white people were making rude or offensive comments. People of color expected white people to understand instead of upsetting them. So when those rude comments were made, people of color would have reacted more than how white people reacted to the comments. I think the way that the comments were presented upset the people of color. If these rude comments were said by the person that they know, than this incidents could have been less problematic (even though I highly doubt, who would say such a think directly to the people they know). The fact that the comments were made by anonymous people made color of people more upset. I mean the only think they know about the anonymous people is their race. Then, color of people do assume that the all the white people are behaving in such a matter and obviously it double the misunderstanding. This would be true for why people but why wouldn’t white people reacted bit different than how people of color did? Again, this can be explained by the white guilt. As Sam mentioned in the class, the worse that that white people can be labeled will be being a ‘white racist’. As a result, the white people are always stepping aside to such a race issue. They are just scared to be responsible for these issues that have risks of making them worse as it could be. They simply take in these problems and chose not to do anything about it. When I look at this incident, I think discussing about such conflicts would be a best solutions to solve the conflict among different races. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:01:52 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/does-this-rudeness-thing-cut-both-ways__trashed/#IDComment63010092 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/native-americans-question-four__trashed/#IDComment58750853 I think a lot of people seem not affected and lack emotion toward the subject because a lot of people are ignorant and indifferent towards what happened before. In this country, many people are aware of massive genocide occurred during settlement period but people seems to forget what they have done to others and only care what they have now. People simply ignore about the history as they think this incident is irrelevant to their personal lives. To them, genocide is just an incident that happened in the past and they think they are not related in anyways. They do not realize the fact that this tragic incident has switched their or other Native American’s lives. If this land was not taken by any of new settlers, the lives could have been completely different. If new settlers didn’t get over took this land, there could settlers wondering around and find hard time to live. The position of Native American could have been completely switched from white settlers. Can you imagine you been put into same position as Native Indians are now? We will be wondering about to survive this bias and prejudice world. We would have no choice but become like what Native Indians are now. When we see ourselves put in this position, wouldn’t we blame other for what they have done? Of course we would. We will not only blame others but we might ask back what we used to have. Do you still think what Native American blaming is relatively irrelevant to you? Or are you just indifferent? These questions and problems can be solved when we start to understand their position. It does not mean you feel sympathy and apologize all the time. I am simply saying acknowledge what has happened. Acknowledge I mean put your thoughts and think that we are all part of this incident. It is not just a conflict between our ancestor and Native American ancestors. It is not just between white people and Native Americans. Everyone, who is in this ‘red land’, is part of this problem. With such a mind and mentality, people will see what can be done to understand and put themselves in equal position as Native Americans. Then, this will bring actions to set justice. As you can see, defining who are to be blamed is not the solutions to solve this conflict. It’s the matter of how you are putting yourself to change this difference. I think this simple practice can be applied to any other problems in the world. First set your mind and mentality that you are responsible. Having such a connection to the problem will make you more passionate towards this subject and try to do something about it. As there is old saying if there is a will there will be a way to these problems. Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:15:09 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/native-americans-question-four__trashed/#IDComment58750853 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/lgbt-class-question-one__trashed/#IDComment57592572 In my opinion, difference between gay couples adopting a child and lesbian couple adopting a child could be how they role as a parents. In other words difference is in LGBT parents’ own male and female identification. I think these differences does not cause problems to love children and raise kids. In fact difference that causes problems is how society goes against LGBT people adopting a child. I know how Sam has talked about our society’s perspective is changing and people accept more LGBT people but we can not deny the fact that many older generations have negative connotation towards LGBT community. Whether we like it or not these ideas has impacted our society as they had power to go against LGBT community. As a result, LGBT couples get no rights to certain things that other heterosexual couples are allowed. It is really interesting see how people are going again LGBT community not by personal opinion but by ideas from others. When we see religious people, they go against LGBT mainly because other religious leaders opposes to LGBT marriage. I mean what right does these leaders have to decide what people think about LGBT people? How can you not question them in first place? They just don’t care enough to think that sexual orientation could be different for some people. I don’t mean that all religious leaders are wrong about their thought but I mean that we should keep our faith based on our thoughts. It is time for us to judge LGBT based not by what other people say. I think some LGBT couples can raise their child really well. As Sam mentioned in class, LGBT couples are really determined to raise their child when they decided to adopt a child. They are absolutely willing to raise a child and I think they will put their efforts to achieve that. In some sense they will raise their kids better than heterosexual couple, who do not want their child. LBGT couples will know what it means to have a child. Another positive impact can be how LGBT couples can open up different sexual choice for their kids. Regardless all this positive influence, I think our society is not ready to accept LGBT communities yet. It is partly true that younger generations are more accepting LGBT communities but our society still discriminates LGBT communities. We can see how gay guys are bitten up in high schools. When we apply this fact into our original question, I can’t imagine how much pressure could be put into kids, who are raised by LGBT parents. Kids will have to deal with other negative connotation put their parents without knowing. For now, negative connotation towards LGBT communities itself causes problem for LBGT couples to adopt a child. Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:13:40 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/lgbt-class-question-one__trashed/#IDComment57592572 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/why-is-the-conversation-always-about-black-and-white-people__trashed/#IDComment56442313 When I read Lia_1031’s comments, I was surprised how ignorant I was about American labeling. I was surprise how I have never asked how white people are just recognized as Americans and colored people (minorities) are labeled with something attached to it. Why do we even define what kind of Americans we are? What does it mean to be true American? To me Americans are just anybody, who happened to lived in America and raise with muti-cultural society. We have to ask ourselves why colored Americans are always labeled differently. What gives white people that they are more American? Does the fact that white man conquered this land and settle earlier than color people makes them more American? Does the fact that minority immigrants (Hispanic, Asians, etc) came to this land later than white invader make them less American? Then what about Native Indians? What I am trying to emphasize here is that there are no particular group that represents Americans. United States of America, doesn’t this tell us anything? The Combination of all groups of people makes our nation whole and complete. Another interesting fact is that white Americans are not recognized as European American but recognized by their specific culture? Take a look at these ‘American’ groups: African American, Hispanic American, Asian American and Irish or Italian American? How can you label someone based on their continent? There are 47 countries in Africa, 42 countries in Asia and the term Hispanic is not even referring to the continent. Do you see how minority groups are inaccurately labeled? This shows how we are so indifferent and ignorant towards minorities. I pretty sure many people don’t even care to fix or at least talk about these problems. It is really interesting to see how Americans introduce us as New Yorker, or Texan (maybe some other states), when we go to different countries. I have never seen any Americans that mention anything about ethnical background. Maybe we just want to be proud ‘Americans’. Or maybe ethnical difference does not make you special or distinguish you. When white people go to Europe, then they are just one of the same people with no external differences. Then maybe be they want to stand out and different like they were in America. I think one of the reasons for segregation in America is desire for distinctive identity. We are just looking for the groups that can define and express our identity by external features and races. We sometimes we simply want to show that we are different from our group. This simple separation becomes problematic, when people choose to be indifferent about other’s differences. This indifference can certainly act as a catalyst that causes misunderstandings and conflicts among other races. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:40:27 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/why-is-the-conversation-always-about-black-and-white-people__trashed/#IDComment56442313 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/avatar-and-the-white-mans-burden__trashed/#IDComment55289594 I think whole idea of ‘White Messiah complex’ has caused from media. I think we are so used what media wants us to see that we are starting to lose our perspective. When media was first introduce to our culture, it was absolutely necessary to attract more audience to be successful. So, writers, editor and any one who were involved in that field wanted to target white as their audience (because they were the majority in our society). This made media to focus on the subject or stories that other audience can be interested in. As a result, movies tend to share similar ‘white hero’ characters that would draw more audiences. Of course I love how Avatar has one of the best artistic features and has great 3D effects, but what I like to point out is how blinded by the effect of media. I pretty sure there are many people have not challenged to think like Brook about ‘White Messiah complex’ in different movies. This shows how much we are assimilated to the ideas that media has fed us. We often think that adventure movies (with ‘white hero’) have obvious story-lines but we never complain how story-lines follow our expectations. Instead we watch them anyways (some of my friends told me that adventure movies are suppose to be like that). Hmmm… what do they mean by ‘suppose to’? Is suppose to means what Brook has just described in ‘White Messiah complex’ article, where this ‘white hero’ saves native civilians? I think the movie Avatar some what shares this expectation in its story. Actually, not only Avatar but almost every other movie does. There are so many movies out there that illustrate ‘white hero’ as a one who dominates . Only exception I could think of is the movie Independence Day. That movie had Will Smith as one of the hero that saved the world but, he was only one of the heroes. There were many other ‘white hero characters that satisfied what audience wanted and supported his role. If he was the only hero in the movie, movies would not be as successful as it was (considering the how old that movie is and how Will Smith was unknown back then). The point here is that we became so numb to not recognize how media feed us with not only ‘White Messiah complex’ but with other stereotypes and generalization. Look how media has made different generalization of different races and other celebrities. Like it or not, now, media control how we think and what expect to think. It’s pretty obvious how we are soaked in to culture where people similarly under the influence of media. I think is our time to challenge ourselves to think differently and independently. Thu, 4 Feb 2010 06:00:44 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/avatar-and-the-white-mans-burden__trashed/#IDComment55289594 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/i-guess-it-pays-to-learn-a-bit-about-other-people__trashed/#IDComment54164195 As I was reading this article, I was not surprised to see this kind of problems in United States. Honestly speaking, I didn’t know what tefillin were until I read this article. Even though I lived in different counties and exposed to cultural variety, the essence of conflicts in multi-cultural society in U.S, always surprises me. It always starts with little misunderstanding between people who are culturally different. It is really interesting see how flight attendant’s misjudgment made religious young man to be perceived as a terrorist and made all passengers to panic. What did this religious young man have done to have handcuffs? People can see this story as a one random incident but I think it is a good chance for us to recognize the indifference in multi-cultural society. It is obvious that it takes extra efforts to socialize with people, who are culturally different. It is even harder to become a friend or live around them. As a result, many people chose to disregard and even ignore others. This causes segregation and grouping in multi-cultural society and makes people hard to be exposed to cultural diversity. This limitation also shortens understanding of different culture and cultural practices. I think this incident is a good example of people’s indifference towards other cultures. . I am pretty sure that she has seen Jewish people on aboard and she had a chance to recognize this young man as a Jewish. Then she could have an idea that this young man’s activity in related to religion. Is she that ignorant to not recognize difference between ‘suspicious behaviors’ and religious practice? Out of all, why didn’t she ask anyone about this ‘suspicious behaviors’ in first place? I think if the flight attendance was not responsible for the safety and security of all passengers, she would not care to even look at this young man. I am not criticizing about her ignorance towards other culture. There are possibilities that she has yet not exposed to other cultures but what makes me upset is her indifference towards others. “Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.” This is quoted from George Soro. Like what George Soro said, we all are imperfect and cannot know the difference of people around us. We certainly cannot have perfect knowledge of other cultures either. But these things are things that we are not ashamed of. Rather we should be embarrassed how indifferent and careless we are. If we do not have a heart to care for others, who have different culture, conflict will rise in our society. On the other hand, little cares to others will remove individualism in our society. Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:28:16 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/i-guess-it-pays-to-learn-a-bit-about-other-people__trashed/#IDComment54164195 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/last-name-begins-with-p-or-q__trashed/#IDComment54038134 한글자로 답하기 --> one word response Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:15:52 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/last-name-begins-with-p-or-q__trashed/#IDComment54038134 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/clubbing-the-bejesus-out-of-rationality__trashed/#IDComment52830298 I didn’t even know who Robertson is until I saw this video in youtube. So, I did some research on Robertson and read some Robertson’s comment to get better idea of him. When I look it up, I was surprised to see how influential and well-recognized to many people. I still don’t understand how Roberson, who is well educated and founder of many organizations, made such careless comments. Was he that ignorant to not know the right time to make such a comment? Does he even know what is going on Haiti right now? I mean, why would he even consider to put two not related subject together? Can making pact to the devil be a reason for natural catastrophe? I also wonder what Robertson was thinking to make this comment in such a time while there are thousands of innocent civilians suffering and seeking for the help. If his intension was to illustrate this catastrophe as an example to evangelize others, wouldn’t simple act of love and compassion set better example? God would rather wants him to comfort their broken hearts than wasting his time on ‘urban legend’ analogy. Look how lost he is! He even forgot greatest commends of all. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This simple line is direct quote from Jesus. Aren’t Christians meant to illustrate love of God to others before even trying to threaten ‘Non-believers?’ Yet, we often see people cover up their false religious practice under the name of God to ‘convert’ others. They claim to act evangelism to glorify God, while their original intention is to get satisfied through self-achievement .Seems like, these Christians are blinded by their on analogy of evangelism and forgotten fundamental idea of love of God. I am a Christian myself and I can’t believe that Pat Robertson, who claims to speak words of God, made such an absurd and insensitive comment publically. Maybe Pat Robertson’s intensions was to show an example of God’s punishment for doing evil deeds (making pact to the devil), but would God really wants to punish other innocent civilians who don’t even know about the pact? What about other fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Would God really want to sacrifice entire nation to set an example? I doubt it. Rather, this tragedy is enlightenment or God’s message for us to realize our ignorance towards others, who we were supposed to take of. I really think this discussion should not end as criticizing and rebuking what Robertson has done. It is time for us to reexamine our insecurity and ignorance towards people around us. Until we realize what we were and what we have done, I think we are not different from Robertson, who is blinded by this analogy. Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:23:08 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/clubbing-the-bejesus-out-of-rationality__trashed/#IDComment52830298