When the topic of slavery comes to conversation I always do get a little uneasy yet I don’t feel completely guilty. Considering the fact that our generation has to take the blame for our ancestors, doesn’t mean that we should feel “guilty” because those were not our direct actions. Instead we should look toward the future and look forward to further equality.

Regardless, it is unfortunate that freed slaves now have to suffer from disadvantages and inequality due to skin color. The “white privilege” is something that diminishes the advantages for other races that are not white, and yet is something that hovers over many white Americans without them even knowing. When Sam first brought up the topic of “white privilege” I always knew this existed, yet had never given it a name. Giving it a name though somehow makes it truer or more noticeable, giving it a stronger more “guilty” feeling—at least to me. There is no real solution to this problem however, especially with the white American population outnumbering the rest of the races. However, when we do recognize this idea of “white privilege” happening in action we should act against it and attempt to stop it in its process. People should not be given disadvantages due to their skin color or any other physical feature. It is unfair to people of color and foreign differences who suffer from minor things white Americans take for granted.

I always found America’s black history extremely interesting to learn about—probably because I never fully understood how people could act so cruelly towards others due to simple physical features. And by people, I mean white people, people who are like me. Though those people are not like me in any way other than skin color. That is one main reason as to why I feel no real “guilt” when thinking of freed slaves. Instead I am sympathetic and compassionate for the simple fact that they had to endure the torture that they did. And that they still have to endure torture even in today’s society. None of us can change the past and therefore we have to move on and look past it. It is by no means okay what happened to slaves in the past, but we cannot change that now. All we can do is change tomorrow and move in a direction that strives away from the “white privilege” and strive to make us all equal.

I will never understand the events of America’s past because I never lived through them; though I do understand the effects of the past events that took place because I am now living amongst them. The disadvantages that freed slaves endured, and ancestors still endure are not acceptable and need to be diminished in some way. Though, none of us should really feel guilty because it was not our doing and we are only living the mess that was created.

It’s not selfish, however it does affect the welfare population and therefore creates problems among many people in the United States. Clearly they love their kids, however it affects our population taxes and our personal income of all other Americans. The people who have a lot of money are therefore paying for a majority of the their kids. It is hard to categorize this as selfish because how can you say that having children is a selfish decision? But we need to consider the fact that it is hard to take care of multiple children. The expenses of todays world is beyond our control and therefore it is hard to categorise this as a completely selfish decision.
On the opposing argument this is a selfish decision, because many people like to take advantage of welfare. For example, “ocoto-mom” is a prime reason for this connotation. She could have easily looked at Kate Gosselin and therefore used her children to obtain more welfare and therefore more money to better her life in someway. Yet this is not always a money order. However, as a parent, most people want more for their children and so they go above and beyond normal standards to give their children as much as they can. Parents want to give as much as they can and therefore sacrifice their own well-being and give more to their children than they could have had. Whether it be toys, healthcare, or more importantly safety, they will give up anything they can to ensure their children. People on welfare do not always have these opportunities to give to their kids. Some may try, but it is not always possible and therefore it is sometimes selfish to consider having a lot of children like many families would like.
When adults who are living in poverty choose to have more children it affects more people than themselves. Not only do they choose to influence the lives of their children they change their lives forever. Their children are born into a culture with a lower education level and a lower chance of going to college. With more children becomes more responsibility which these individuals are not prepared for. The dropout rate of inner city schools is lower than that of rural school systems which is greatly affected by the amount of children being born into lower class families.
Social security benefits from full time workers helps the families of less privileged families. People paying these taxes may feel indifferent about these taxes but in the long run they are helping he families who are in need. It is important to understand that less privileged families need social security that the government provides.

Personally when I compare my life to other people throughout the world I consider myself extremely lucky and fortunate for what I have. It angers me the way our world is designed in regards to money, power, and poverty. Whenever I hear stories about starving children across the world, disease outbreak in foreign countries or natural disasters wiping out thousands of people already in poverty, my stomach flips upside down. It’s a terrible feeling to know that the things I have are unattainable for most other people in developing countries. They have nothing compared to what I have. I want to say I feel guilty for what I have, but I think I am more upset with what they don’t have. I wish that the millionaires in the world would stop buying materialistic objects they don’t need and instead give to the people who have nothing. The people who beg for water or food or a bed to sleep on—essentials we take for granted every single day. People in America have no idea how good they have it and it makes me sick when I hear people complain about the things they don’t have because the things they do have would mean to the world to so many people.

Unfortunately most people are too concerned with their own lives to worry about the life of someone else. I can admit to that as well. Personally I am way too worried about what I am going get on my next exam or what I am doing next weekend to really think about those in need every day. Though this isn’t really an excuse it’s just an explanation for reality of the situation. Americans are too concerned with small and minuscule problems for others people’s lives to really have an effect. If we were to make other people part of our lives I don’t think this would be as much of an issue, though it’s not every day that people travel to Africa or the Middle East to really visualize the poverty. This is why we don’t think about helping people in other countries in need regularly. We are not good at escaping our own world and are consumed with climbing up the social latter, gaining more power, and money.

I wish our world didn’t revolved money and power but if it didn’t our world would really exist. We need these to keep our economies going and to keep all the things we have accomplished throughout time. However, the important thing is education across the world. If we could provide better education and resources to those in need their lives would be extremely improved and we could fight this issue. The problem is that we cannot save the world all we can do is continue to help as many people as we can and give them the opportunity to become successful.

The King of the Mountain example is not new to me. I have heard this phrase before and I definitely believe it is something to blame when we try to define racism and discrimination. Our ancestors held the key to our future and have made our world what it is today. It all started with that one person that wanted to be on top and who was confident enough to take control. Our society looks up to authority figures and those that possess leadership qualities. The King of the Mountain clearly demonstrates this because clearly many of us believe what we are told—especially by “leaders and rulers”.

This example didn’t really sway my thinking at all but more confirmed my ideas. We all have our places in society even today and without those people that took control and became “king” we wouldn’t have order in our lives and though we also wouldn’t have this racial hierarchy either. The only reason we even have racism in our society is because of events like this. White people who came to America believed they were the best and they were above all other people. This is a social psychological phenomenon in which our ancestors had to belittle others to make themselves be superior. It’s a natural psychological thought process that we are all guilty of, however with the issue of race it is often take way too far.

Though this topic reminds me of a book I was reading for my Biobehavioral Health class. The author was talking about monkeys and how there are always the leaders of the packs take control of the group. He also talked about outcast monkeys who were abandoned and tried to join new groups but couldn’t exactly fit it. The one story he told was of a new monkey who took over a family of monkeys and then became their leader much like the king of the mountain example. It is interesting to think about how the animal kingdom works very much like we do, especially monkeys. There are emotions and the desire to lead and be on the top, and yet even the monkeys believed everyone had their place. The outcast monkeys were normally smaller and weaker and everyone discriminated against them until they proved themselves different. This is almost identical to how our society functions because we do the same sorts of things. The moment someone is new or something is different we put our guard up and create reasons as to why they are not like us or why we should or shouldn’t associate with them.

The King of the Mountain example unfortunately depicts the way our society was created and is a large reason to our current racism problems—all because one white guy said he was better because of his skin color. If only it was a black man, Asian man, Mexican or Middle Eastern, how would our world be then?

Despite the efforts of our current society, race is not something that will subside in the near future. There are too many people that still hold on to old family values in which the issue of race still plays a role holding a negative connotation. The racial ideals of our parents and grandparents are still living through the lives of us. Unfortunately not everyone can tell their families that their thoughts on race are wrong. It is hard to go against the way you are raised especially when our society is currently struggling to destroy race and create equality.

Take for example many people from the South in the United States. Many white southern families and black southern families (not all) still have many racist views and continue to live by them till this day. Although it is not right to judge someone by the color of their skin, it is a problem that has been passed on by generation after generation since Europeans arrived to North America. Many people who currently live in the South still hold racist views. White people still look down on minorities and minorities still hold grudges against whites. Race is a vicious circle that will unfortunately continue into the future throughout many families. There are too many different viewpoints and too many different cultures to be able to stop race completely in its tracks.

No one is going to be able to the change the view point of everyone. It is like asking if we will ever one day have world peace. Unfortunately no one can guarantee what will happen in the future, but we have to remember that everyone is different and not everyone is accepting. People are afraid of change and so they stick to what they know. Many black families stick with black families, Asians with Asians, or whites with whites. It is easier for humans to stay with something comfortable than to cross the racial barrier and accept everyone equally without judging their skin color first.

If our society keeps on pursuing the issue of destroying racial views, maybe one day things will be different. Having an optimistic approach is definitely needed because anything is possible, but I don’t think it will happen in our life time or our children’s life time. The issue of race will prevail because it is something we created as humans. It is something that has been programmed into many of our minds and not everyone is ready to change from the way things were. It has taken years to get to where we are now on the issue of race and it will take many more to overcome it. I wish I could say I definitely believe one day we will be able to move past the issue of race, but I’m not really sure because people will be people and we are all different.

We are all human regardless of your race, ethnicity, or cultural background. Unfortunately the human brain works by categorizing things by association to keep some type of order. Also, we are all different and individuals. I mean isn’t the big thing today about being an individual? So why is there a strive to be like everyone else? No one likes stereotypes, and yes they often have a negative connotation, but the great thing about the human mind is that it is our own and we can create any outlook we want. Although our ancestors created “race” and this mental organization by skin color we are all still human. I think we can all see this when nations come together is times of need, for example the tsunami in Indonesia, hurricane Katrina, or even the earthquake in Haiti. When people are in need, our nations all around the world do come together to help and lend a hand. So although there are still hate crimes and problems with race and ethnicity, we as human beings care about the lives of all of us. It’s hard to completely change the attitudes of our families and social groups on the outlook of race and ethnicity but I believe that things are getting better and we are all moving in a better direction.

However, going back the issue of the human mind, we all force ourselves to categorize things and human beings are no different. I believe we are all human in every aspect regardless of our cultural background. Every racial group has negative and positive stereotypes that continue to be passed on through generations. Unfortunately I don’t think this will ever truly come to an end. Another downfall in the human mind is that we love to talk and justify peoples’ actions. A lot of the stereotypes we created are due to justification and blame of peoples’ actions. We force ourselves to then see a specific set of people a certain way because we are a judgmental and complex species. This is how we are made and this is what we do, whether we think it is right or wrong in some aspects, we are always going to have flaws. We should remember though that we are all human, regardless of the differences in culture or race. We are all the same species, with the same DNA, with the same thoughts and feelings.

Yet diversity is not a bad thing. It makes our lives interesting and keeps us on our toes. Being different races should not be categorized as a negative thing. So instead of asking why can’t we all just be human, we should probably be asking why do we have to attach negative connotations to simple words? Why can’t we all just live our own lives and forget about the inputs of others?

We have a natural tendency to label people when we first meet them or look at them instead of getting to know the individual beneath their clothes, skin color, hair styles, weight, or other bodily images. Therefore our stereotypes come from our own thoughts and what we adopt from other people. Even though these stereotypes are wrong in most cases, there are some individuals that prove some stereotypes true to people. When we come across the types of people that agree with the stereotypes, we unfortunately reinforce the ideas into our minds and we unconsciously make these prejudices against others. Even though these stereotypes are wrong for the majority of people, we are human beings and our beliefs come from the combination of categorizing. We are taught from a young age to categorize things together and yet as we grow older we learn to accommodate differences but we do not all grow out of assimilation, especially when stereotyping.

So where can we put the blame for stereotyping? I don’t think there is one set answer for this because there are too many different variables. Some people may blame the media; others may blame family generations, high school clicks, and some will blame the unconscious mind. We are all guilty of stereotyping because we are built to make judgments about the world around us and especially about the unknown. Our mind continuously tries to piece things together from what it already knows and thus we create our own stereotypes. I think it is the combination of all of these things that we, the human race, created and all of the outside factors that we are influenced by.

Many outside factors encourage stereotypes. The media for not only news reports in major cities but also for entertainment. Many TV shows use stereotypes as a source of entertainment and I think we can all admit that we are guilty of watching and laughing at many major TV programs like South Park, Family Guy, and various other sitcoms. We constantly reinforce these stereotypes knowing not all of them are true but because they are all around us. Our friends joke about them, our families believe in them, and we believe and adopt the ideas of others. As much as we would like to admit we think for ourselves, in reality we are just a ball of inherited information from our surroundings, social groups, and what we are taught by others. I do think it is unfortunate that negative stereotypes of one group can affect various individuals in harmful ways but it is something we are all guilty of regardless of our skin color, ethnicity, or style. But in the end, I think this is a never ending battle, similar to world peace. It is just something that will never subside because there are too many variables and things that would need to change in order to prevent stereotyping and sadly our world populations will never let go of their insecurities.

Soc 119