en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2400780 Comments by jez5037 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-79/#IDComment229428988 I think there would be more outrage because the majority of Penn State students and alumni are Caucasian. In general, as we have learned in class so far and from experiences throughout my life, it is clear that people respond differently to actions depending on the color of the person’s skin. For example, we saw this in the video we watched in class with people (actors) of different races and genders “stealing” the bike. People reacted differently to each of them. What Sandusky did is something that, in our culture, is completely not tolerated and unjustified from the outside looking in, and even often for that person who does it. If Sandusky were black or Latino, it would probably be regarded even more as such a heinous thing to do. People then might have stronger hatred for the person who did that, more than we thought was even possible right now. However, people would be saying that “it does not matter because it is all about what he did not what color his skin is.” Everyone would probably be more politically correct, which as we learned is not always what people really think. _If Sandusky were black or Latino, I actually do not even know if he would have even lost the privilege to have keys and access to athletic buildings. For all we know, he could have been fired right then and not given another chance. Or, as some believe in attack to the administration, he could have not had this action overlooked. _When people discussed the scandal, the fact that it would be a black or Latino person in the headlines would have changed the extent to which people reacted to this. Furthermore, if Curley or Sholtz or McQuery or even Joe Paterno were a different race, they could have been the ones getting it worse than the person who was in Sandusky’s position. Joe Paterno probably got too much attention anyway relative to the coverage on Spanier or Sandusky but that’s another whole topic._Personally, I believe that it would not matter. Other people may see this as “political correctedness” that I said that, but I think that for the people who truly look at morals, right vs. wrong instead of those who are more affected by physical and racial differences. _The responses to the scandal would be so different in ways that are very difficult to imagine, for me at least since I grew up in a very mixed town, but I think there definitely would be more attention and certain people would make this a huge factor in the story. With or without even realizing it, we have all reacted a certain way at least in the slightest bit, because of Sandusky’s race. Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:20:30 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-79/#IDComment229428988 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-73/#IDComment222114405 The rest of the world has heard about the recent events at our school and, unfortunately, has changed the way they view Penn State as a whole. The media has not helped us here at Penn State because they have turned the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal into a story about us rioting, about Penn State students being “crazy” and radical, about how Penn State’s legacy, Joe Paterno’s legacy, etc. have been false and that we are all supporting the wrong thing. Little do most outsiders, and even the news reporters for that matter, know the true reasons for our riots and for our actions. Personally, I have made a huge effort to post articles and videos and other things on my Facebook so that I can show how we are united as a community and do want the best, most just consequences. I think that the way we have reacted has made us even closer as a Penn State community and it is sad that the outsiders are unable to see this because all they see is the same video of the news truck being flipped over. Of course I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions on this topic, but the way it is being publicized is hurting our reputation and not allowing for others to be able to form a true opinion on who is guilty, what this means for students and how and why student behaviors unfolded. If we do not even know the whole story and we are the ones in State College, it makes me angry that the people out of our bubble, who know far less and who have never experienced being a part of the “Penn State family”, are judging us so negatively. Also, they are judging the maybe 20 people being shown going crazy on television but not the other 44,980 who are not doing those things. The $22,000 we raised as a student body toward child abuse prevention has gotten far less attention than the kid standing on a lamp post in the road. That is not right. The few days after JoePa was fired, as I walked on campus I thought about how I had never seen so much spirit. As ashamed as we all were, I have never heard so many “We are” chants to tour groups, for example. I think the best thing to do is to talk with outsiders about this and show how we as a community are dealing with this, and how strong and loyal we are to our school. I know that when I go home for Thanksgiving break I am going to wear my Penn State sweatshirts and shirts and when people ask me about it, I am going to tell them the truth, which the media missed, and educate them about how Penn Staters really are. It is time they hear our side of it. Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:21:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/10/voices-from-the-classroom-73/#IDComment222114405 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment218762110 I think that there are multiple reasons for the difference in willingness to do labor between Americans and immigrants. Immigrants come to America for the “American Dream.” They come to be able to live in a land where there are places for them to work and they will pretty much take whatever type of employment they can, in order to make money and, in many cases, be able to support a family. Americans are aware of this and with an easier access to good public education, unlike that which immigrants are not always able to have access to, the Americans are at an advantage. They do not want to settle for less, or for a job that is known for being done by foreigners. Last year, my economics professor said something that I found very interesting and then this year Sam touched upon it too. This is the proof that remaining unemployed and living on welfare will give you a net worth of more money. Where they could be working full time and getting paid minimum wage, the other option is to qualify to receive money from the government and not work and end up with more money than they would be making after taxes are taken out of their paychecks. Immigrants do not necessarily always have this option and with our troubled economy today, it is hard to be on welfare in the first place. But I think that there are Americans who know this, therefore they leave the immigrants the jobs that we now think of as “foreigners’ jobs”. Many of these jobs are difficult, tedious and/or dangerous. Working long hours on your feet or in the sun or in harsh conditions is not appealing. Unless that is the only possible job that someone can get, they are going to try to find alternatives. Immigrants, however, are determined to make money no matter what the conditions are and they will do the work to get it done, to get paid and to support their family. Many of them also, because they are unable to legally apply for jobs, must work the long construction or gardening jobs, or whatever they can find, so that they do not get caught as illegal. Even with these jobs, however, it is necessary for the immigrant to at least be somewhat fluent in English so that they can communicate correctly, do the correct construction or gardening job and therefore, do well enough to be hired again by these people. To get a quick job like this with maybe a partner who speaks Spanish is much easier than learning enough English to get by in a job at a fast food restaurant or something else of that nature. Tue, 8 Nov 2011 17:23:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/03/voices-from-the-classroom-66/#IDComment218762110 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-59/#IDComment215874336 When people speak a different language around me, there are definitely times when I think about it and get kind of annoyed by it, but there are also other times when I think that we are in America, and I should not have an opinion because everyone “has a right to be here”, to be politically correct. I know that it is not “right” to think this, but there are times when for example, I have been in an elevator and there are people all around me speaking other languages. I had never thought anything of it until one time when my father, who is not a racist person, said to me when people got out of the elevator, “Why don’t they just speak English? That is one of my biggest pet peeves. They come here, and in big groups they just speak their language.” When he first said this to me I remember saying, “Dad! They have just as much right as anyone.” But the more I think about it, there are definitely times I can see where he is coming from. Personally, I enjoy traveling to foreign countries a lot. When I am there, if I know the language I try to speak it. If not, I usually make an effort to learn at least a few common phrases and I always try to learn about the culture so that I can live in the culture for the time I am there. I think that by showing that you are trying, it looks good and foreigners respect that more than when you just talk in English and not acknowledge their lifestyle. I also think there is a difference between whether or not the people speaking a different language are just visiting or if they are living here. If they are living in the United States but close themselves off to solely people of their own culture/ people who speak their own language, I think that is annoying and not right because they came to America and should be a part of the “American” culture. Even though it is good to keep aspects of their own culture and even though the United States is a “melting pot,” I think they should make an effort to adapt. I know that at least I would make an effort. Some people in our culture make jokes about this. For example, the people at the nail places where I live (and I think in a bunch of areas on the east coast) always speak Vietnamese. While I do not really care that they speak this, it bothers me when they are talking for the entire time and I can’t understand anything they say. It makes me annoyed sometimes when they just go on and on and on and I am sitting there listening to that and they barely say anything to me. I just think that there are times when it is not as appropriate, however I know that when I am in foreign countries people probably think the same about me sometimes. Wed, 2 Nov 2011 16:57:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-59/#IDComment215874336 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-51/#IDComment211836555 I do not believe that just because you are one race, if you hang out with mostly people of a different race that you are a poser. I think that we were (or most of us at least) were brought up we learn to accept anyone. Typically though, the reality is that if someone saw a white person who was always with a group of black people, for example, they would probably call him some name and stereotype him as someone who “thinks he is black”. I, personally, have no problem with this person hanging out with all people from another race and I would categorize him this way. However, I know that people often do this. If the people who do not know this person and look at him from the outside, without putting him /herself in his shoes, yes, maybe it could look like this from someone’s perspective. But there are reasons why this person is hanging out with the people he chose. Some of these reasons he may not even be aware of, but the positive benefits of these friendships outweigh the negative encounters he may have with people not in this group. These reasons are the invisible strings, the factors and forces that affect us in ways we do not know (or sometimes may be able to recognize). To be completely honest, this person is probably more in-tune with himself and what he wants as opposed to the people stereotyping him, who may not be branching out to people of different races. Or another example is a kid, Ethan, from my hometown, right outside of Boston. Ethan is white and he is friends with mostly people of different races. In high school, people would joke around all the time with him and talk to him in a certain way or say certain things to him, but they never meant it in a harmful way, just in a joking kind of way. Ethan tried not to ever let this bother him. While I am sure he got annoyed with it, he kept doing what he wanted to do and hanging out with the people he enjoyed being with. That takes a lot but good for him because if he did not spend time with these friends, the other people left would be those who said stuff to him. And why he would want these people to be the prominent ones in his life rather than his actual friends would be a mystery to everyone. Ethan is one example of someone who was smart enough to be able to move past the race issue and issues of people stereotyping him and/or calling him names, etc., even in a joking way sometimes, and focus on those who truly matter to him. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:40:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-51/#IDComment211836555 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment209840352 Women dress a certain way and expect to be treated differently, for people to have different reactions and responses to them and see them in a different way. Everyone sees himself differently, too, and may or may not do a good job presenting themselves who they really are. This means that others really need to think about why people are doing certain things, the invisible factors and forces that weigh down on them and may “determine” what they do. This is partly why girls in this culture, the Penn State culture, or the college culture, or even the U.S. culture tend do dress in short skirts and shirts and in the fashion of “going out”, whatever that means to them in their culture and outlook. While they get dressed to go out they are conforming to those around them and fit the certain “look” that they believe they need to fit. Even if a girl hates wearing heels, for example, she still probably will. Maybe she is the kind of girl wears them to look good to herself but looks down upon those who wear them only for the purpose of “fitting in”. While people who know her well know this, others may in turn assume that she is one of those kinds of kinds of girls she does not like. This all ties in to the idea that she knows how she wants to be treated (the way that those who know her well treat her) and she expects to be treated this way. But when people see her who do not know her, they create these assumptions and may treat her differently; therefore, she may be dressing one way and expecting to be treated another way, a thought only according to the people who do not know her because it really is not a different way, it just seems like it to outsiders. Girls may sometimes think (because of the invisible strings, factors and forces) that if they conform into the “look” of the group or culture, she will blend in and be treated how they ideally see it. If she sees someone else doing something and be treated a certain way, it is not guaranteed that she will luck out as much as the other person and be treated the way that the girl (who maybe wore a certain style or outfit before) was. They will expect something different from what everyone else expects them to be wanting or expecting. It is often difficult for girls to realize in the first place, that there is a difference between how they see themselves and their encounters, and how others, especially guys, see them. This can create confusion and frustration for girls, if/when they are treated differently from how they wanted to be. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:17:44 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-36/#IDComment209840352 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/12/consider-the-issue-of-freedom-vs-determinism/#IDComment207188723 I think that this video is very interesting. Besides realizing how incredible these two girls are to be able to work together and live this lifestyle, it also gives me another way of looking at the “freedom v. determinism” concept. Everything they do is determined already. They seem to have very different ideas of what they like doing, what they want to do in the future, etc. However, they obviously can not do all of this and therefore, their lives are more determined than some of ours. While they are still able to make choices, they can never really do anything “free” meaning that they can never do anything 100% themselves. There are reasons people do everything they do (these are the factors and forces affecting us at each given moment) but for them, I am assuming that they have even more daily routines that are predetermined of how they go about doing them. Not only are they not free to do everything they probably each would like to do, they are not free to just spend time alone. There is a constant sense of having to not necessarily entertain someone, but having to be around someone. If there is something bothering one of them, the other I am sure already knows why, but even if she did not know the reason, there is no way the other one could just be alone. They are not able to have time to themselves, and when they are annoyed with each other or want the other to stop dawning on something that makes them upset, for example, there is no way out… for either of them. Another huge factor in their freedom/determinism is the fact that because they are conjoined, people from the outside are going to look at them, treat them and react to them differently than they would otherwise. What this means that they are going to be more determined to do certain things (people most likely react in similar ways and treat them similar ways) and they probably have mannerisms and things that they tell people that are the same each time. When all of the factors are affecting them as they interact with other people, they are even less “free”, from a sociological standpoint. In addition, when one of these girls wants to do something, the other “has” to do it too, or they could just decide to argue about it. But more times than not, if they are good to each other, they will each have to do things that they do not want to do. This means that they are determined to do these things, because they do not have the free choice to walk away. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:24:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/12/consider-the-issue-of-freedom-vs-determinism/#IDComment207188723 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment204362068 Here at Penn State, as well as all over, it definitely seems as though females “sacrifice their comfort” when going out much more than guys do. However, I believe that there are reasons for why this is, and of these reasons show how our culture has built on itself/transformed. Like me, there are many females who actually enjoy the process of getting ready. While this brings a whole new set of sociologic ideas and explanations with it, I, along with many others, think it is fun to get ready. Does this mean I should sacrifice my comfort? No. However in our culture, the Penn State one or most others, there are an infinite number of invisible strings, factors and forces that direct why we do this. Girls usually use their bodies too when trying to attract guys, and feel as though with all the competition among other girls, wearing next to nothing is the way to show it off. By practicing this over and over every weekend every year, by people putting pictures on Facebook and then relating this to the competitive nature our culture, this idea is reinforced in our (girls’) minds and we continue to build on it. I think a big part of this is that girls often are competitive with other girls. Girls are vicious sometimes, and I think that being able to fit this “look” and by “looking good”, even if guys think it is crazy that girls go out wearing next to nothing in the freezing cold winter, gives the girl a sense of satisfaction, increased self esteem and confidence. For guys, it is no question why they don’t wear short skirts tight dresses. The look that many girls like to see in a guy is jeans and a nice shirt. While guys like this in a girl too, the difference comes from everyone around us. I go out in jeans once in a while but when I do I see girls in heels and dresses all around me. Sometimes I wish I was wearing something like that because when you feel as though you look good, you feel much better about yourself; and not that I wouldn’t feel comfortable in jeans going out, but I would compare myself to them and then think (competitively like a girl) without being able to control it. Other times, I would probably laugh and say how stupid she is or how “slutty” she is, even though I have done the same thing. Seeing everyone around you wearing a style makes us believe that this is how it is “supposed to be,” even though clearly we all still know better than this. Guys do no need to worry about that as much at all. Guys are “supposed” to be chill and laid back, therefore it does not fit in with them to be obsessing over getting dressed and sacrificing their comfort. There are millions of factors and forces affecting this topic, and these that I wrote about are just some of the reasons. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:43:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment204362068 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-23/#IDComment201122861 While I do not think that race necessarily is the only thing that affects whether or not someone uses drugs, as I have learned in class and in soc001 last year, race is one of the invisible factors that influences people’s decisions. Depending on the circumstance and the situations they are in, people will do a drug or not do a drug in order to prove something or keep things how they should be. What I mean is that if they feel as though their role in a situation or every other person of their race is doing a drug, for example, then they should too. This is something that the person may not even think about while they are going to do it; it can be a subconscious or a conscious decision with rationale that they are aware of or even that they are not aware that they are contemplating. This is their choice, whether to do drugs or not, but the whole thing comes down to free will and determinism. Yes, it would be unfair to say that just because you are a certain race you would do drugs or you would steer your life in a certain direction or generalizations like that. but race, as well as socioeconomic class, setting, past experiences and other factors, do play a large part in whether or not a person decides to do something. Being in college, or even for people around my age who are not in college, it is not hard to get a drug if one is determined to find it. If that is what the media that the specific person is watching or reading or listening to has been advertizing, maybe that would be another factor that shapes the person’s decision to do drugs. Maybe it is the person’s favorite celebrity who happened to be on camera high or drunk or something, and this made it seem more appealing. Maybe the person is not involved in many things and is bored, so they turn to drugs. These are all factors that would influence him or her, but ultimately, maybe the bored student who does not do homework would turn to something other than drugs to entertain them. Or maybe not. All of these ideas and factors and forces merge together and shape us. Therefore, it is a mix of free will and determinism and millions of “invisible strings”, rather than just race, that plays a part in whether a person does this. Just because someone is a certain race does not mean that they will or will not do something, in this case a drug. However, race is one factor that shapes a person, and whether they are in the minority or majority or somewhere in the middle, their race influences their decision. Whatever the situation is, race is among the many things that impacts them. Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:58:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-23/#IDComment201122861 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment196287073 When I first watched some of the videos, I was very impressed with the Haitian people in them. I have had experience visiting very poor countries and helping out with various aspects of their lives such as building a school, teaching English to children, etc. But when I first saw these videos, I was actually very impressed with the people in them. Clorene had a great start with the bags and shirts, and I think what Sam was saying about adding pockets and kind of modifying the bag to be more useful for us/our culture (for example adding pockets for cell phones) would be a great idea for her. This would allow her to appeal to many more people, instead of just those who want a bag with sequence designs. In addition, even though her and her sister’s products are both kind of expensive, I think that this is not too big of a deal because Sam, and we all, can help her out. Her sister, Anaes, is selling her bags in an area where there are many designer stores, so I think that Sam is helping bring many ideas to them to succeed as much as they can. I think that the idea for this project is great and I am excited to begin thinking about ways to help them. Clearly many of these people do not have money for an education, but I definitely think that we can help them expand their businesses, find new resources for new/cheaper materials and provide them with feedback that will help them with decisions that will get them the most revenue. All of these people are hard workers and deserve success. It is hard though, as they are all competing to make their business thrive more than the next person, yet it is awesome that they also seem like they want to help each other. Figaro Louis and the other who have to travel long and far every week also really impressed me. It made me think about how difficult and how much of a burden that must be to spend an entire day out of your week, when you could be making money, just traveling to get resources. It would be great to help her find easier and faster and cheaper ways to do this. I have worked with people in poor countries before, and the amount that they appreciate our help is unexplainable. All of these videos and stories have definitely made me so excited to continue helping others and I am proud that hundreds of us are going to work with them and help their businesses and improve their lives. Looking at this project from a completely outside view, it is amazing that at one school, this one class has the potential to mach such and incredible and life changing impact. To be able to say that hundreds of students in your soc119 class at Penn State worked with some of the entrepreneurs in Haiti provides such a sense of satisfaction and pride. Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:29:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment196287073 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/13/voices-from-the-classroom-9/#IDComment193198183 I do not think that it is fair that your future can be determined by the income your family has when you are in high school. Though this probably means that with the higher income the family lives in an area with better schools and therefore contains more the kind of kids that good universities are looking for, it is not fair at all to discriminate against these people leaving them to do worse on the exam for no real good reason at all- it does not seem fair. I have personally had a really bad experience with the SATs for various reasons other than my family’s income, which is why even though I understand that when you look at it from the big picture it makes sense that SAT scores rise with income. The more money a family makes does mean the more money they can spend on SAT preparation and tutors; the budget they give academics is increasingly much more, obviously, the more money the family has to spend. With more money also, the children would probably be in a nicer school with better academics. The luxury of going to college becomes more achievable if a family has more money, which also influences a student’s motivation to do well on the SAT. In my town there were many different tutors and you could choose how ever many sessions you wanted, you could choose if you wanted a private or classroom lesson and you could choose how big or small you wanted the group to be if you were not doing a private lesson. Of all the different tutoring companies as well as individual tutors, they are very competitive with each other and therefore have similar prices. These prices are very high though, and each has an extra amount you can pay so that they will do something “extra”; for example, one company would “help” with your essay for an extra fee, but what “help with your essay” meant was really that they would write your entire essay for you. All the student had to do was memorize the essay that the company wrote, the essay with all of the huge vocabulary and styles, and then adapt it to fit whatever the question was asking. Besides income, however, there are many more factors that influence SAT score. The ability of the student to take tests is a huge factor, and their level of test anxiety compliments this. Pressure is another huge factor; those kids who feel pressure, either from parents or themselves, or even both, may be extremely smart but get psyched out. Thus, their test taking ability would not demonstrate their real ability. Parents are another factor as well as groups of friends; these both determine how an individual sees the world in terms of academics/college/standardized tests like this. Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:35:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/13/voices-from-the-classroom-9/#IDComment193198183 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/06/voices-from-the-classroom-2/#IDComment190537202 I believe that in more recent years (that is, in the past few decades), people have become much more educated and aware of the idea of being “gay” and having a “different” sexual orientation from what they had previously seen as the “norm”. Way back in history, there is not (as far as I have ever heard and not getting into the whole Bible-argument) really evidence for people being gay or transgender. There were more straight-forward, conservative cultures and societies, and the question of sexual orientation was not a developed thought. Until recent years, there has not been nearly as much, if any at all, publicity on this subject. Once the radical movements started and this idea became more known and more controversial, more and more people started to “come out of the closet”. Would they have known they were gay if this movement never began? Or is it a topic that a group of people exposed, and then planted this idea in more and more people. Of course I do not know what is true, but I am just saying that the amount of attention this topic generates and the amount of controversy over it is huge. These are invisible strings and forces that people become aware of, and thus by becoming aware of it, they can, subconsciously or consciously, live their life according to it. With the amplification of all the consideration this topic has been receiving, we have also seen a huge rise in the number of people who label themselves “gay”. All this said, I do not know if people necessarily choose to be gay or not. There is so much pride for the gay community and so much support, that once someone is out of the closet, in many cases they seem to be proud of their sexual orientation. Of course there are those people who are the opposite and even resort to harming themselves, but I think that this whole movement and the love the gay community expresses really helps people. This may also be an invisible string that influences people to subconsciously “choose” this orientation. If a young child knew nothing except for this love, not the harsh reality of the difficulties this community has faced, one could want to be instantly “in” this group, or a part of its culture. In a way, one idea that I am trying to express is that because of the love, pride, togetherness and care that has increasingly been shown by the gay community, it is much more acceptable, welcoming and desirous to be a member of this culture. While it may not be a black and white, obvious answer to the question, I believe that there are definitely some aspects of this question of whether or not you can choose sexual orientation, which can subconsciously enter our minds and take control over part of people’s characters. Wed, 7 Sep 2011 02:23:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/06/voices-from-the-classroom-2/#IDComment190537202 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/08/26/what-do-you-want-to-know-before-its-all-over/#IDComment187799087 I took introduction to sociology last semester, and learned a lot and thought a lot about how stereotypes, regarding race, gender, age, etc. arise. There is no correct answer, however it is interesting to continue to look further and further into the question of why we have stereotypes, how they originate, and what would happen if race were never even an issue. If there were no initial controversies, would the idea of people being unequal or looked down upon have surfaced? I think it will be interesting to look deeper into the question of how it originally started and why people thought that just because someone has a different skin color, they have a different set of values, beliefs, etc. I want to look further into this question, past just simple history that we have all heard a million times before. Also, I would like to look into questions surrounding people of different ethnicities who move to another region of their country, continent, or the world. I would like to understand how these people are stereotyped and issues relating to that. How much does it depend where they were born? What about if they have moved around and lived in multiple places? What if someone speaks nearly perfect English, but does not know American history? Or even the other way around? I am curious to figure out how we, humans, Americans, even just me personally, how we subconsciously look at people differently (not badly though!) if they are different. The invisible strings are always present, even when one is “not a racist” person. I am from a town right outside of Boston, where racism is studied from very early on. Therefore, I feel as though the people in my town know a great deal of information regarding all aspects of racism. However, I have still seen so much of it. It seems as though even when a society does not want racism present and is fully aware of all aspects of racism, it is inevitable to witness forms of racism. So, is it actually ignorant to subconsciously make racist assumptions, even though we all do? Or is it okay if we think about our decision, see things from all points of view, and then stay with our decision even though some may view us as “ignorant”? One last thing that I find extremely interesting is the debate about whether or not certain group of people continue to create racism. For example, many people believe that all of the education and attention and media that relates to African American racism almost increases racism. I have personally thought about this before, and while I am not a racist person, I do believe that sometimes certain ethnic groups feel as though they are being discriminated against or they are almost too obsessed with finding the “racism,” even when it is completely unintended to mean anything racist. This is all part of seeing from the other side, and I am interested to study more about race and ethnicity and to think about these questions. Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:55:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/08/26/what-do-you-want-to-know-before-its-all-over/#IDComment187799087 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/18/war-through-the-ages/#IDComment144017570 At first when I started watching this video, I just looked at the small explosions and thought that yes, there have been wars all throughout history, but I already know, so what is going to stand out about this video? However when there were the few huge explosions that took up a large part of the screen, I was actually really shocked. It is no surprise to me that the explosions got bigger, because of military and technologic advancements, because of more globalization, because of more resources, etc., however I did not realize the extent to which the animated explosion would grow. There is somewhat of a pattern shown in this video, one that shows only relatively small wars on US turf, as well as greatly increasing sizes of wars and/ or casualties. To think back to what we have been discussing in class recently, about how all sides of war are involved in war for a certain reason, how soldiers from everywhere, not just the US, have families they want to get back to, is pretty upsetting when watching this video. Something else that I realized while I was watching the video is that some of the biggest explosions, such as the “Yom Kippur War,” are battles that I have never even heard of. As an eighteen year old American girl, I feel as though I have traveled a great deal and have learned a lot about world history, however I was surprised to see these battles that I have never heard of. I think it is really sad to watch a video like this and think about how the more interconnected and globalized our world becomes, while this should be a good thing, what it actually means (as depicted here) is a negative thing; here, it means that more communication with other nations gives us more reasons to fight and kill. However, no matter where I travel and whom I speak with, no one has ever said that war is a good thing. In such a modernized world I think we should really be able to solve problems without using a method that will continue to drastically increase the size of the explosions in this video. I was truly shocked to see how big they got, and to compare the difference in the sizes of the explosions from the beginning to the end of the video. Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:49:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/18/war-through-the-ages/#IDComment144017570 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment141994493 I think that this letter is really interesting and strongly relatable. The author discusses a very fundamental idea that we have all heard millions of times (not to label people/judge someone before you know them). He goes into the significance of this idea, and discusses the effects it can have on the person. Being an 18 year old girl I can definitely relate to this, and I am actually pretty sure that everyone can. We all experience times when we are doing something and some unknown person passes us and we think “oh that was so embarrassing, did you see that look they gave me?” and other comments along those lines. However because they do not know why you are doing it or because they are not aware of how you might have had the idea to start doing it, they have no right to really call you “weird” or “bizarre,” etc. At Penn State, as well as everywhere else but it definitely is seen frequently here, girls dress up to impress people when they go out. Other girls, because girls are very jealous, typically see other random girls and maybe label them “sluts” or other things like that, even though they may be wearing the same thing or acting the same way. Just as the author said, I agree that it can be pretty detrimental to oneself. I know that I have previously been falsely labeled, and then once the people who formed these false first impressions on me got to know me more, they even said to me how different I was from what they initially thought. It is true that we all make first impressions, and there is no way to prevent oneself from doing this. However, I think that we all need to be more open and instead of judging someone off of one thing that we saw them do or heard them say, we should try to see the context from which this thought or action came from. For the lifer, hearing people label him and furthermore stereotype him, his probably very frustrating, especially after all that we have learned about their true inner emotions, feelings of guilt and love and regret, and realizations they have had that completely oppose those of the “stereotypical inmate”. Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:15:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment141994493 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment139970260 This post is extremely relatable to me. While I was reading it over at first, I was thinking about the significant relationships that I have had with guys, and I was also trying to think which ones treated me most like the way that is described in this letter. This is what our society thinks “true” love should be, as opposed to the way that the media describes other outlooks on relationships, such as the one that is mentioned – that women look for sex and money. In other ways, I think that this is hard to relate to, since the people with whom I have relationships are younger than this man, and we are all used to living in the “college lifestyle,” very different from the real world. It may have taken this man the amount of time it did to realize this, the number of hours sitting in his jail cell thinking about this topic, because he needed something to make him look at his life/our society’s mentality, from a different perspective. Instead of living in the relationship, he is now thinking more forward, thinking about how to maintain a long-lasting relationship. He is also realizing that he does not know what he has until it is gone. He writes that he will use this insight the next time he finds himself in a relationship; whether this means he regrets not doing this before, or just that the time has come to be more serious with relationships, it took him until he was able to fully look in from the outside, on to what are the truest values that people (women) hold (in men). What I do think the media does, furthering his argument about it, is that until a man proves differently, he “is the typical guy”, and finds a commonplace with friends when it comes to having more girls, finding the hottest girls, etc. I think eventually, most people come to realize this and truly understand that there is more to a relationship than what the media dictates. Even though the majority of people will say they know all of this, it takes a certain amount of time to actually live in this mindset and 100% move past the media’s perceptions of relationships. Mon, 4 Apr 2011 20:33:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment139970260 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment138932584 I think that this article is really sad because it illustrates how one man, who says he was/still strives to be a “good man”, and who is only 28 years old, is now a lifer. In the beginning of his letter he talks about how the world in which he lives is so drastically different from how people can even imagine. I feel as though I kind of know what he means on a different level, because I always talk about school and my friend who goes to community college in my hometown thinks that he knows how different life is when you are away at college. As much as I try to tell him that he does not get it, he tries to insist that he does; however I know that there is no way he can know how I feel unless he comes here as a student and lives in the Penn-State-mindset. I completely agree with the author’s statement, “I believe you can’t know about a place until you know the people who live there.” I also really agree with his statement that “as long as you are able to love there will always be someone willing to receive the love that you have.” I think that all of us learn over time that having “more” friends is a lot less important than having real, good, true friends. The author makes it clear that he has realized this. What I think is really sad about this letter, is how he talks about his pre-sentence self; he says he never hurt anyone, he was a “fair guy”, and a “good” guy. The fact that not only friends still write to him, but his high school teachers as well, truly says something about his character. It is upsetting to read that even such an admired person (as it seems from reading this) is now a lifer. He also says how he tries to be a parent-figure to a lot of the lifers. It seems as though he is of course not happy about being in prison, yet he wants to make the best of it for himself and for the other deserving (in his opinion) people there. I think about some of the things he says a lot, especially how relationships with people now determine who we become in the future. I think everything that happens to us, no matter how minute it may seem, somehow affects and shapes our character. Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:18:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment138932584 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/m-s-story/#IDComment136619722 I think that this story is sad in many ways. The regret that he feels reflects, as someone previously said, the corruptness of our judicial system. Yet, as another person said, this person murdered someone so this is their punishment. What makes this so upsetting to read is how much he hates thinking about his crime. In the end, he says he did not want to and did not enjoy writing this. I know from certain things that I have done that I regret, that talking about something from which you have learned and regret, is extremely difficult to do. It makes you feel a kind of hatred and/or guilt in yourself. This lifer was convicted at such a young age, and as much as he would have grown morally in the rest of his life outside of prison, he was not able to. Therefore, all of his growth has been from inside a jail cell and he clearly has learned. He even says “I am not wise”. But then again, how could a fourteen year old boy be extremely wise. When I was fourteen I did some dumb things too, and even though I knew not to kill people, this person had extremely different invisible strings affecting him. Even the fact that he is a man makes his invisible strings extremely different than the ones in my life. He explains that he did not know that the people he was with were planning to kill anyone. This means that in the heat of the moment at the last second when he realized, he might have felt trapped. Not that this justifies his murder, but it is an extremely important thing to think about. It is true that he could have said “no”, but he admits that he did not have the courage. Plus, who knows what the people he was with would have done to him if he turned away. He calls himself a “coward” and says he showed no emotion, and now thinks about that night every day. The way that he describes his feelings now and how he says he probably will never forgive himself, etc., is very sad to read. His transition from being a boy to an inmate seems unfair when I try to put myself in his shoes, yet it is hard to judge, as he remained an accomplice to a murder. Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:37:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/m-s-story/#IDComment136619722 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/14/kids-getting-life-how-is-this-serving-us-really/#IDComment135474441 I think it is important when you read this letter, to place yourself on both sides of the argument that this inmate makes. He questions whether or not we as the reader think it would be smarter to place a 13 year old in a prison environment where they could be the victims or rape, abuse, etc., or if we should place them in a different type of place. From one side, it definitely does not make sense to try to lessen the anger in the kid during his punishment by placing him in such a violent setting. But, on the other side, to have a place that will accurately reflect a fair punishment for such a crime, many people believe that such harsh conditions are mandatory for it to be taken seriously. However, turning back again to the first perspective, if I had a child, friend, family member, etc. who was killed by a young teenager, I probably would not believe that it was fair for him to get out of prison; it is hard to say though because that thought of mine is influenced by the ways I grew up and learned morals, the police shows I have watched, and other invisible strings around me. At one point in the letter he writes, “Please think about all this. Ask yourself, ‘Is there not at least one of these 464 lifers who deserve a chance?’” I think this is a very good point he makes because it really puts in perspective the ways we may have previously viewed an inmate. It makes you realize that people can change a lot and the stereotypes that outsiders form against them are sometimes inaccurate. Also, I know that for me personally, there are a few times in particular when I really could have gotten in trouble but I got lucky. One time stands out, and if I had been in maybe a different state or if someone handled it differently, I could have been pretty much screwed. However, because I got lucky, I was given a second chance. (Obviously that isn’t to say that I would have been a lifer even if I had gotten in trouble, but it is to connect and try to see through their perspective). Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:25:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/14/kids-getting-life-how-is-this-serving-us-really/#IDComment135474441 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/01/lighting-our-way/#IDComment131717860 Last year I took a sociology class and we learned about a disorder called seasonal depression. I definitely see parallels between this disease and the mentalities of the people living in Finland who are greatly affected by the short days. Seasonal depression occurs for many people in the wintertime and it makes a person unenthusiastic about doing pretty much everything, because it is cold, dark, etc. This is how a huge percentage of the population in Finland feels. I know that for me personally, I hate going out unless I have to during the winter. I tend to stay in more unless there is somewhere fun to go out, but my energy level until I am actually leaving to go is much lower. When it is summer however, or at least when it is warmer weather outside, I am definitely much more happy and I am more carefree in the summer. I am not walking around trying to huddle around myself to keep warm and I do not walk with my heat down to try to escape the harsh winds. Though sometimes when it is warm I think to myself that there is no way I would want to go to class and I would want to do something fun outside with my friends, I actually have realized that, like a few weeks ago, when it is warmer outside I actually look forward to going to class much more. The longer and sunny warm days make me excited to wake up and get out, instead of waking up in the morning and dreading the long painful walk to class. In Finland, people probably live their every day dreading their walk to work, etc. I would have thought that they would get used to these patterns, however it does makes sense that it would be nearly impossible to adjust to these types of days. To live every day like this would drive me crazy, and even if that was all I knew of, I would not be the enthusiastic person that I am when the weather warms up in my own life. Tue, 1 Mar 2011 23:34:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/01/lighting-our-way/#IDComment131717860