en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/758575 Comments by jed5043 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/what-to-do-about-white-guilt__trashed/#IDComment63087271 I want to start off by saying very good comment and I agree that there was a big difference between the reactions from, in my opinion, equally rude comments. I really think that the texting software program is a cool tool to get instant polls and reactions from the class but I find it very amusing that people are upset that people aren’t being very mature with it. Take a look at Beaver Avenue on a Friday and Saturday night for crying out loud. And then we expect these same people to pull it together in class? I find that very naïve. As for the actual issue of the disproportionate response I would have guessed the reactions to be as they were. It has always been my observation that black people are more sensitive to off color remarks than whites and I understand that due to their not so distant past of being extremely discriminated against. One idea that I thought of in an attempt to explain this to myself is that of getting picked on. If someone gets picked on all of the time due to something such as their height than that person, in my opinion, will be more sensitive if someone would make fun of them for that. That is opposed to the person getting picked on for the first time because of their height. In simpler terms, “hitting a raw nerve”. I also feel that this is a perfect example of what Sam is talking about with white people at the race table. A white person says something off color and the other side flips out. So would the other side not want people to say what they think? Do they just want empty words? That will never get us anywhere in the discussion of race relations. Also when a black person says something off color about them I feel that whites can’t respond because then they are racist. In my opinion the whole topic of race relations is a huge catch 22 for white people and I do not know what can be done to fix it so that the two races can make some progress together. Now understand that I have no ill will for anyone of another race and I feel that I understand the injustices and challenges that other races have to deal with, to the best ability that a white person can, but I feel that black people have to dial down the racial comment radar a few notches. Through personal experience, whenever I interact with a black person I cannot help but get the feeling of trying to negotiate a minefield in the dark and I don’t have the slightest clue of how to detect a mine. In conclusion I think that black people just have to chill out a little bit and not dissect everything a white person says looking for a racial attack. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:22:13 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/what-to-do-about-white-guilt__trashed/#IDComment63087271 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/inequality-class-question-three__trashed/#IDComment58914475 I agree with the posters here. When I look at you Isaac, the first question that comes to my mind is ‘Where are you from?’ and I guess that I am assuming an answer of either Philly or Pittsburgh. Just from looking at you I would not suspect anything congruent with thug or rapper. Sorry if that’s the image that you are going for. On the question of an athlete, I’d definitely say no. Again sorry if you fancy yourself an athlete but I naturally look at things very logically and your body, to me, is not conducive of colligate athletics. One thing that has been said on this blog and also a lot in my discussion group is ‘I don’t judge people’. I think that that is a huge lie and anyone who thinks that is just lying to themselves. Maybe it is an attempt for the person to try and morally pat themselves on the back but in my opinion it is impossible not to judge. Judging is human nature. Plain and simple we all do it every day if we like to admit it or not. How many times are do you see a person in the hub and think to yourself that they are attractive? That’s a judgment. Judgments are just part of us. They are there at a subconscious level to help us decipher the environment that we find ourselves in. Now as I tried to show above, judgments are always there. True some might be so quick or mundane that we don’t even acknowledge them as judgments. The only ones that people ever talk or care about are ones that are against people. I’ll be honest I judge people when I look at them. It is not a preconceived thing that I do I just do it. Call me a racist, call me a bigot, call me whatever you want. I do it and I’m definitely not alone. Now I do not consider myself any of the afore mentioned type of people. I think that it is definitely possible to judge and not be a racist. To me, once I act on or instill those judgments as facts then I have crossed the line and have become racist. Sorry I just had to get that off my chest so to speak. Now back to you Isaac. I look at you and ask where are you from. Then to be honest I think that you for some reason don’t like me. I don’t know why I do but I have a feeling of tension between us for some reason. So my judgment is that black people are inherently hostile towards white people. So a question I have is “what is your first question when you see me?” Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:54:57 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/inequality-class-question-three__trashed/#IDComment58914475 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/all-that-is-solid-melts-into-air-including-our-words__trashed/#IDComment56566340 It is very sad to hear of the extinction of a sixty five thousand year old tribe in the Andaman Islands. The news of this story made me feel two emotions. First was sadness coupled with the feeling of “why didn’t we document more of their culture” and the second was a feeling of indifference. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a tragic story but that’s the way the world works. The world, with the advanced developments in technology, has become a much globalized world. In a globalized world the world leader’s ideology, culture and languages will become the dominant ones. It can be compared to Darwin’s Theory of evolution. Survival of the fittest. Every language in the world has the possibility of becoming extinct. This in a way ties into the past few lectures in sociology 119. Yes, it might have been luck that other languages developed in more fruitful locations in the world thus giving them the advantage to survive but being able to survive for sixty five thousand years, in my opinion, negates that argument. My best explanation is that the Bo tribe in the Andaman Islands just could not keep up with the world and fell under the trampling feet of that same expanding world. So is it a shame? Yes it is and we as a world community should take steps to preserve cultures. However on the other hand I don’t hear of many people crying about the extinction of Neanderthal man and they shouldn’t because its just the way of the world. On the other hand, was more not done to document and save this tribes culture at least for the history books. Being a student of history, I am fascinated in the idea of trying to recreate what life was like in the past and this was a perfect opportunity for that. This elderly lady held the key to a remarkable amount of knowledge about the past. Anthropologists and Archeologists should have been aware of the declining population and recorded more of the tribe’s history. Is that not their job in a way? I think this was a failure on their part. I do have some questions though. What major events led up to the extinction of the Bo tribe? I know I said globalization and technology but what exactly did happen? I say this because there are remote tribes in the pacific islands or the aborigines of Australia that are still with us on this world? Why haven’t they crumbled like the Bo tribe? What makes them better? Also could this be the Bo tribes own fault? What made them stop reproducing? So in summary this is a saddening story of a lost culture but things like this are bound to happen. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:39:04 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/all-that-is-solid-melts-into-air-including-our-words__trashed/#IDComment56566340 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/avatar-and-the-white-mans-burden__trashed/#IDComment55558332 I have never seen the movie Avatar. Like Dr. Richards I just had to interest in the film. It’s probably due to the fact that it’s a sci-fi fantasy movie and I really don’t like that genre of film. However, even without seeing the film, after reading the blog post, the posted articles and watching the video I feel that I have a firm grasp on the film. I find that funny because it seems to illustrate Mr. Brook’s point very nicely. Personally, I am on the fence on whether Brooks has a good point or not. I do understand his argument about the “white messiah” but I feel like that would be the case in any culture. I have never watched a Chinese produced or Arab produced film but I tend to believe that the protagonist would be a Chinese or Arab person helping the white man. I equate it to the religious conversation we had in lecture about the race of Jesus Christ. Each “race” views its gods or deities as one of them. With that said, why would we change that philosophy for our heroes? To me it makes sense that people would put their race on top. On the other hand is it right? Absolutely not but that’s how the world works. Until this blog post I was not conscience to the trend in films. As being a white person I guess I just let it slip by just like the fish and the water. The idea of the hero always being white is however not my ideal choice nor is it always the case. However I do acknowledge that white heroes seem to be the case the majority of the time. Although I believe that things are beginning to equal out. The one issue that did really boil my blood is that of imperialism. I come from a history of a military family and friends and the idea that soldiers are bad and the government is horrible really makes me sick. America would be in a lot of trouble if it weren’t for the government and our soldiers deserve nothing but respect and admiration. I’m not saying that every soldier is a saint but the majority of them are level headed caring people. Imperialism, in my opinion, is the destiny of the world. It always has been. Obviously, imperialism in this movie is very extreme and I would prefer a diplomatic resolution to a problem. In summary, after being reading these articles I feel that a light has been turned on and I will be more clued into underlying themes in our media. However I think that the themes discussed were not intentionally added by the film director or production and we are looking to deep into the movie. Very interesting though. Sat, 6 Feb 2010 01:59:02 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/avatar-and-the-white-mans-burden__trashed/#IDComment55558332 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/i-guess-it-pays-to-learn-a-bit-about-other-people__trashed/#IDComment54442659 I really enjoyed this article. Before this article I never knew anything about the Jewish practice of using tefillin during prayer. I have quite a few friends who are Jewish and I never witnessed or heard them talk about it either. It must be a practice only strict Jewish people use. Now about the incident, I believe that the situation was handled correctly and professionally by everyone involved. The pilots, flight crew and police on the ground seemed to act quickly and decisively at a perceived threat. It’s semi-comforting that they are keeping a vigilant eye and looking out for this nation’s safety. I used the word semi due to the ineffectiveness lately but that’s a whole other topic. I disagree with some of the other comments say that the flight crew “freaked out”. With the whole firestorm of terrorist attempts, senate hearings and media that airline terrorism is getting I think they acted the only way they could and what in my opinion was the right way. One response that I read was that they should have just talked to the kid and then they would have found out what was going on. I find that solution laughable. If the kid actually was a terrorist my bet is that nine times out of ten he wouldn’t give himself up. He’d just lie. This situation was handled very well. Now on the other had I feel bad for the kid. He was doing nothing wrong and just practicing his faith. I understand that in his mind performing his daily prayers is normal to him. However people must also understand that airline security is a very intensely watched situation and anything that is even slightly out of the ordinary will be perceived as a threat. I think that the kid just made a poor judgment error. I also appreciate the understanding of the grandmother and other Jewish official. I got the sense from their comments that they knew that the kid “kinda sorta” messed up. . He should have been aware that people will be on edge and very cautious on airplanes. Like I said before he did nothing wrong and he should be allowed to practice his faith but discretion is key. I am glad to see that our flight crews are keeping a vigilant watch and protecting our airlines. I am also glad to see that “the system” seems to be working. Again I feel sorry for the kid and the mess he got himself into. I hope that people read this article on the New York Times website and took it as a lesson as of what not to do on airlines. Some things are just better left to doing on the ground. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:37:39 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/i-guess-it-pays-to-learn-a-bit-about-other-people__trashed/#IDComment54442659 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/haitis-calamity__trashed/#IDComment53499167 I want to start out by saying two things. First is that I believe that the disaster is Haiti is a horrific event that the world must come together to help fix and that I am deeply saddened by the suffering that is taking place there. Secondly I want to state that I am a Christian. I’m going to touch on a wide array of topic concerning the disaster in Haiti but first to respond to the original post. In my belief and understanding of the Christian religion, the disaster in Haiti is not another “crucifixion”. In my opinion, nothing can come close to the torturous death of the Son of God. However an event such as the one that took place in Haiti can bring people closer to God, as Dr. Richards said. It does recalibrate our lives to what is important but I feel a sense of disappointment that it takes a disaster to do that. The love, generosity and support that I have seen over the past ten days should be just as prevalent in our society at all times. To sum things up in my opinion, this was a random act but it can still teach us the same moral values that the crucifixion of Christ does to Christians. I have one comment for Dr. Richards about his post. Again this is my understanding of Christianity. Being generous, kind, helping and selfless are good characteristics to have in the Christian faith. So his death is a constant reminder to Christians to live their lives like that. Still on the topic of Haiti, I heard some confusing reports on the news a few days ago. It was reported that initial when U.S. military forces arrived in Haiti that they went to work in a professional manner to help the victims. However, shortly after they arrived the Haitian government told them to stop their efforts. Since being told to stop they have been reduced to nothing more than securing the main airport in Point-au-Prince. The reason that they were told to stop was that the Haitian government felt like that the military had too much of a domineering attitude. What I got out of this is that the Haitians felt like they were “being taken over” by the United States military. Obviously that is not the intent of America. This makes no sense to me. The United States Military has the equipment, manpower and training to deal with disaster such as this. It is actually one of their planned purposes. I think that even though the Haitian government might not like the idea of U.S. military personnel “take charge” but that is exactly what that country needs right now. They need a professional organization trained to set up shop and get help to the people. Diplomatic negotiations have no place in a disaster like this. America has the money and means to help but they are being stopped. This seems to me somewhat related to the whole race relations issue we are talking about in this class. I don’t think it’s a matter of black and white or anything like that but more of the idea that America is the bad guy, the same way America is perceived in the Middle East. I just think that it is sad that something like that comes before the welfare of people in need. Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:36:24 +0000 https://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/01/haitis-calamity__trashed/#IDComment53499167