en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2410475 Comments by jpk5137 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145241080 This is such an interesting question because I thought about this a lot after class and how my opinion has changed. After Sam gave me all the facts and information about illegal immigration my opinion changed. I always thought that illegal immigration was bad and that it was hurting business and other job opportunities, but now that I see it helps most major businesses. Illegal immigration is something that I don’t necessarily 100% support, but I feel like laws should be changed to help make it easier for people to immigrate to the US. The US is a land of opportunity and there are many opportunities for immigrants. Immigrants are willing to do jobs that other people might not be willing to do. We make fun of Mexicans for cutting grass and doing manual labor jobs, but really when we think about it who else is going to do those jobs. We ask people who are unemployed to do those jobs and they won’t do them because they think they are above that type of work, but when in reality, work is work and money is money. You can make a dollar doing anything and if you are just making money I don’t see the problem with it. The fact that people who are unemployed are not willing to work these jobs is ridiculous especially when they need to find a job and they need money. No one really looks down on these jobs all that much especially if you are doing the best you can for your family and trying to survive. I also thought it was interesting when Eric told his story about immigrating here to the US. His story is so stereotypical that it is really actually interesting to hear. He had a fake social security number and a fake green card. I can’t believe that people still get away with that sort of stuff in our country. I feel like the technology is so sophisticated that that sort of thing wouldn’t be able to happen. So after this class, my opinion has completely changed. I view illegal immigration as not a good thing and not a bad thing. I feel as though illegal immigration has its pluses and minuses. It keeps our society functioning and our economy somewhat stable and I don’t think it is necessarily fair to not allow people to come into this country simply based on what they have in their own country. Some people might be willing to work hard for anything and some might even do the dirty jobs that we aren’t willing to do. This is part of the reason why immigration laws are too strict and the reason why I think our country should reconsider its immigration laws so that they don’t spend millions and billions of dollars having to catch and deport illegal immigrants. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:21:18 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145241080 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/what-are-your-thoughts-on-everything-we-saw-and-heard-in-lecture-about-native-americans-119-blog/#IDComment143193804 The class about Native Americans was probably my least favorite class of the semester so far. I felt some anger towards what Sam was saying and although I do agree with some of the things that he said I still think that, when looking at the big picture, this is what happens to civilizations and this is the nature of humanity. Dominant groups take over regardless of the way that it happens. I realize that Native Americans are part of the largest and longest lasting Genocide in the history of mankind, I get that, but the way the world works is a survival of the fittest attitude. Invading the Americas was a way for Europeans to gain more control over land because land means a lot. Land means more resources, more people, and more of an opportunity for wealth and prosperity. Taking the Native American land in the Americas was because the Europeans were the dominant power back in those times and they still are, along with what we now call Americans. I know that this land is red land and I know that we took it from someone else, but I feel as though all land was like that. All land was taken from another group of people. It is just the nature of people to expand their borders. The one thing that opened my eyes however was all the derogatory names for Native Americans. I had no idea there were so many derogatory names towards them because I have never really heard them in practice. I’m sure people still use these names towards them and it is a little discomforting to know that some people in this country do have a burning hate towards Native Americans. When watching the video, I felt bad for the Native Americans, but it is the same way I would feel bad about anyone who suffers from extreme poverty. The comment “the American government wants us to stay in poverty” is something I can agree with though. I feel as though they don’t want Native Americans to have wealth or authority because they are afraid that they would speak out against the taking of their land. This is a cruel but effective tactic by the American government. I never heard that Dave Matthews song before because I’m not a huge Dave fan, but the song was too intense for me. I understand that Sam was trying to bring the whole situation to light and prove that this was the biggest Genocide, but I feel like this was over the top. I feel as though he made the situation seem so much more than it really is. There are a lot of other people who suffer from extreme poverty, but don’t have the same background story as Native Americans, and they seem to just live life and I feel that Native Americans need to just start feeling that way too. I know that their land was taken, but this is animalistic instincts. It is survival of the fittest and taking land and gaining power is part of the animalistic instincts. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:12:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/what-are-your-thoughts-on-everything-we-saw-and-heard-in-lecture-about-native-americans-119-blog/#IDComment143193804 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/after-this-class-do-you-still-blame-terrorism-119-blog/#IDComment141123797 I don’t think that my views have changed that much on terrorism because I always viewed terrorism as a form of extremism. So in that sense I haven’t changed my view on terrorism, but I also can see both sides of the spectrum when we talk about hate towards terrorists and the lopsided views that go along with it. Of course there is going to be a lot of hate after a tragedy like 9/11, but at the same time I think that resentment needs to be focused on a particular group of individuals who set out to try and destroy the United States. I don’t always agree with the action of government, but what other reaction other than war was warranted at such a time. All the politician comments about how it was a war on Islam and things of that nature, I believe, are far extreme in this case. It would be foolish for me to believe that they were just saying these things and don’t really believe that, but many people I’m sure felt that way. Terrorism goes hand in hand with religion which makes it easy to persecute the entire religion of Islam when a terroristic act occurs. And I can’t say I blame them either for following their form of extreme religion. Many people have some sort of belief system in a god or whether they choose not to believe then that is their belief, but I can’t say I blame them for following their religion. Do I think it is wrong to hurt innocent people yes, but they view it as a religious act. Deliberate acts on innocent lives obviously won’t be tolerated by our government and nor do I think it should be. So their actions on us warrant a reaction that calls for war, but what are the true intentions of the war that we declare. Is it on Islam in general or just terrorists? Or is it something completely different, like power, land, or resources? I think that all this needs to be placed into a bigger picture and our nation and its leaders need to evaluate the purpose of war because I think our leaders are more thankful for having some reason, whatever it may be, to be over in the middle east where there is a lot of what we want, oil. Overall, there are many different reasons we are at war. One, to protect us from another terrorist attack, two, to have military force in the richest oil place in the world, and three, to prevent an extremist uprising like we have had in the past with Hitler. Should we be thanking terrorists for giving us a “politically correct” reason to be in the middle-east or should we blame them for having to be at war right now? I still don’t know. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 00:21:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/after-this-class-do-you-still-blame-terrorism-119-blog/#IDComment141123797 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment139227241 I wouldn’t say I feel uncomfortable when people are speaking a different language around me, I think I am more curious than anything else. I want to know what they are saying and I want to know if they are talking about me. They probably are saying “stupid white guy” but I have no idea because I can’t understand a thing they say. I don’t mind when people speak a different language because back home I experienced it a lot when I would be in the city. My city of Allentown is made up of majority Hispanic and black culture and whites are actually the minority now. It is funny because I used to work at a day camp with the city kids and they would sometimes say stuff in a different language that I wouldn’t understand fully knowing I didn’t understand it and they would ask me do you know what I said and I would have no idea. They would sometimes quiz me on my Spanish to see if I knew any words. I knew some from the little Spanish I took back in high school, but a lot of the kids were fluent. When people speak a different language I think it sparks my interest and my curiosity more than anything else. Part of me wants to learn how to speak that language because it would be neat to be bilingual but I don’t think I could go through the challenge. I would like to learn Spanish because it really is like our second language in this country, but I also feel like everyone in this country should learn a little bit of the dominant languages, as in everyone in this country should learn some Spanish or people who don’t know English should learn some English. I think it would be easier that way and there would be less room for hate and discrimination. Socially I think that Spanish could come in handy, but I think that, in this country, educationally English would come in handy simply because all our government works in English. I don’t think I could understand why people could feel uncomfortable when people speak another language. I don’t think that it is something shocking especially in this country. Our country is the single most diverse country in the world so there are going to be many many different languages spoken and feeling uncomfortable would just be dumb. I think we just need to embrace the multiculturalism that our country embraces and then as a nation we will be more peaceful. Language can be universal and English itself can be very universal. Most of the worlds business is conducted in English which is useful for business travel. So no I do not feel uncomfortable. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 23:40:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment139227241 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-factors-in-your-race-make-it-difficult-to-date-outside-your-race-119-blog/#IDComment137577052 This is a great question because a lot of it is a touchy subject and some might not want to hurt people’s feelings. There are a couple of factors that in my race make it difficult to date people in other races. First of all I must point out that I’m white and for the most part I really only date inside the white race because that is all I am really attracted to. I think the biggest factor for me would be my parents and what they would think. My parents are a little old fashioned and I think they would be expecting me to be with someone in my race or someone who looks like they are in my race. As racist as it sounds I feel as though that is the truth for a lot of families and situations within the white race. White families just expect their children to date other white people. I am not saying that I am not open minded to dating outside my race because let’s face it, you can’t help who you like. It is just natural attraction. But my parents would not be open minded at first, I think it would have to grow on them and they would eventually have to be accepting of what my relationship preferences were. Another factor would just have to be physical appearance. Sometimes I am just not attracted to people in other races. It isn’t that I wouldn’t say they are a beautiful person, but it’s the same thing as the color puke green, like I wouldn’t put puke green paint in my bedroom. I think it is more of just a personal preference and it is not like when I was growing up my parents were like no you can’t date outside your race that’s bad, you shouldn’t like black girls or Indian girls or asian girls. I think I have established my own set of preferences and I just have a more natural attraction to people in my own race. Maybe its because most people tend to have more of an attraction to things that are similar to them or relatable. This can be seen in our friends. I’m sure most people have friends who are really similar to them and who have the same beliefs or hobbies and interests as they do because they get along best. I feel that this is the same way for dating and relationships. If there was someone of a different race that I could get along with and we had similar interests and I was attracted to them then yes I think there would be a possibility I would date that person, but it is more than just attraction at times. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:44:44 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-factors-in-your-race-make-it-difficult-to-date-outside-your-race-119-blog/#IDComment137577052 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134310212 I feel as though trying to limit the resources that are available to us would just cause more problems and turmoil. People would argue more and it would just cause terrible conflicts. I believe the Chinese already limit the number of children that families can have. If it isn’t the entire country of China then I think I have heard that certain cities like Beijing do this because of over population. There is no doubt it is hard to provide equality for almost all 7 billion people in the world and if the population does eventually double, it will be even harder to provide for all of them. Where would all these people live and how would they get their food and every other necessity? What would happen to all the other animal species on the planet if humans are forced to move into their territories? Would they die out and become extinct? There are a lot of what ifs that would need to be answered if the population doubled. Our resources are limited and there is a major oil problem. We are in the process of trying to figure out how to conserve these resources that are available to us now. Also, when 3 billion people don’t have enough to eat this is a big problem. Our world has so many issues with our resources that it would be hard to solve them all. We consume at a rate that won’t allow us to even come close to refueling what we have already consumed. I don’t think there can be any solution to this problem. There will always be some group somewhere that has a problem with the solution plan and they will cause a problem with trying to fix the original problem. People will always have different ideals and different thought processes so there will always be disagreements. This reminds me of our own government and no matter what happens or what bills are passed; some other opposing political group will always have a problem with it and will voice their opinion. I was always curious whether the increase of population will cause more disease in the world. Will more people be sick and have terminal diseases? Will cancer be a bigger problem? I feel with people being in closer proximity and germs having the ability to spread easier, then there will be an increase in disease. But in 100 years, will we have a cure for these diseases because of technology advancing? These are things that this question has made me think about. This disease could be a way to control the population and therefore giving less chance for our resources to be used. I think overall our world will be fine. Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:22:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134310212 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/is-it-selfish-for-people-in-poverty-to-have-more-kids-because-of-their-lower-income-119-blog/#IDComment130730049 I’m not sure if it is selfish depending on the motives of the parents. If the parents just love raising kids and can manage another kid even if they are a family in poverty then there is no problem with that. On the other hand, some people do have kids just so they can receive welfare and they have more and more kids so that they can get more and more welfare. They are beating the system which is not only selfish, but part of the reason so many people complain about the welfare system in our country. You can’t fault the people who are making an honest effort to make a living for their families, but still live under the poverty line. I also am not sure that selfish is the best word here for this situation. I don’t think it is fair if a person’s motive for having more kids is to gain income through the government, but it is not fair to fault people who are not able to support their family and utilizing government income and welfare properly. I have also seen rich families with a lot of children so families with more children don’t necessarily come from low income families I think we just talk about families like that more because it is more of a financial problem in our country. If large rich families were causing problems in our country we would focus on them more too. It all depends on social media and what the news programs and other media outlets are portraying in this country. Taking advantage of the government systems doesn’t allow for our country to run properly and I think it is one of the reasons our national debt keeps increasing; not to mention wars and other stupid expenses. In Tammy’s situation, I’m not sure her parents were acting selfishly because maybe they just liked having children. I think she mentioned that her father worked very hard to support his family which was one of the reasons she got off of welfare also. This could be one example of a large family from low income to be supportive without welfare or any government aid. Do you think we would stop welfare and let people fend for themselves? Do you think there are ways people could prevent themselves from being below the poverty line? For the first question I don’t think stopping welfare is the problem, I think that we need to limit welfare and have a tougher process for receiving government aid because I see people in my city on welfare who drive nicer cars than my family does when we aren’t on welfare. For the second question, I think there are ways for some people and for others there is no way around a life with welfare especially for people with disabilities. People who do have too many children and use welfare as a means to a steady income definitely are a prime example of what they can do to prevent being on welfare. JUST GET A REAL JOB! Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:31:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/is-it-selfish-for-people-in-poverty-to-have-more-kids-because-of-their-lower-income-119-blog/#IDComment130730049 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/16/do-arrests-of-different-races-occur-more-due-to-racism-or-more-police-in-urban-areas-119-blog/#IDComment128962215 I think that the result of more arrests of black people definitely has a lot to do with the greater police force with in cities. There is more of a chance of getting caught doing whatever illegal activity it is that you are doing. With police almost covering every square inch of the city at all times, it would seem like you are under a bigger microscope than when you are in a suburban or rural area, but I am curious to see the number of black people arrested in suburban areas as well. There is no question that urban environments have higher crime rates than suburban and rural areas simply due to a number of factors such as closer living quarters, homelessness, etc. Naturally there is more police in those types of environments which make crimes easier to catch, but catching more blacks and other minorities does pose a question of racism. I know that recently in my city of Allentown, PA, the number of, so called, minorities has surpassed the number of white people in the city. This makes whites, or Caucasians, the minority now. So, it would seem more likely that due to a higher population of Blacks and Hispanics in the city environment, it would be easier to catch them doing illegal things. This doesn’t, however, rule out the fact that some police officers might have prejudice or racist thinking, but I think that the majority of the urban police force’s thinking has more to do with the stereotypes our society has given them about criminal culture which would give them a blinded eye towards anything outside of those stereotypes. If you were a police officer with the stereotypes our society has instilled upon us about crimes in cities, wouldn’t you be wondering why there was a black guy looking very shady standing on a street corner as compared to a white guy? It is these types of stereotypes that have led our society down paths like this that have us questioning thoughts about racism in our police forces. I’m not saying that all cops aren’t racist because some do have that point of view. I am simply saying that we need to look at the bigger picture here and examine the societal philosophies we have built about urban police forces or just police forces in general. Sam gave those statistics in class about drugs and race, but I think that crime rates are more about things other than just drugs. Maybe blacks do commit more crimes or maybe the police force is racist. Maybe white people are better at not getting caught than black people or maybe whites just get lucky. Whatever the case may be, I think there is something bigger here than just the racism card. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:21:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/16/do-arrests-of-different-races-occur-more-due-to-racism-or-more-police-in-urban-areas-119-blog/#IDComment128962215 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127215972 The reason I am at Penn State was partly determined for me and partly my own free will. I chose to get good grades in high school so that I would have the option of attending Penn State or any other great institution of my choosing. However, the main reason I’m where I am today is because I was given an ultimatum by my parents. My path was already determined for me I just didn’t know it until the final last argument when choosing a school. My original intention was to attend Virginia Tech. That is where I wanted to go, I visited and I fell in love with the campus. My parents had other ideas. They told me that I would either be in debt at Virginia Tech or I could go to Penn State and they would pay for school and then I would inherit the loans after I graduated. I didn’t want to be in debt no matter how much I loved the school. I chose to do all the work in high school and get good grades so that I could again choose to go to a school that I really wanted to go to. Determinism played a role in my life though when choosing a school and there is no doubt that it played a role in determining how I was brought up and the family I was raised in. I feel like choices in my life right now are due to my own free will. Even if I am funded by my parents I think that they give me the leeway to make the right decisions and decisions that I think are best for me. So as of now, and since being in school, free will has been the major force in my life. Personally, I feel that determinism can only affect you so much and for so long. Yeah you are dealt your cards, but then it is up to you what you do with them. Also when you get older, you make your own choices and your influence is then on your family. Free will is a major role in your life when you are older. But, contradictory to that, your choices can be determined by your family then like your kids, your wife, and still even your parents. I’d like to think that everything that I do is free will because to know that I have made my choices on my own makes me feel great about myself. Sam talked about how being right in the middle is a good position to have because both factors affect everyone. Determinism affects free will and vice versa. I definitely have to agree with Sam on this. Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:23:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127215972 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/do-you-think-race-can-stop-being-an-issue-in-the-future-119-blog/#IDComment125987834 I don’t think that race will ever stop being an issue. As long as everyone looks different from one another, there is always going to be an issue of race or an issue of inequality. Until everyone looks exactly alike, we can expect to have race play a large role in our lives. I always wondered why there were so many black athletes in the NBA or why there are no legitimate white running backs in the NFL. What makes black athletes superior to white athletes? This is a big issue with race and it generates stereotypes. Race is relevant because we make it relevant. We see things that aren’t like ourselves and classify them as “different”. Then after we classify what is “different”, we continue the classification further and develop expectations amongst those races. We generate expectations, or stereotypes, like all white men can’t jump or all black people are poor. All Asian people eat rice and all Mexican people are illegal immigrants. These are things we can’t avoid. As long as race is relevant, stereotypes will occur and I honestly believe that race will never die. Like I said, until we all look the same, talk the same, and walk the same, race will be something we will have to just live with. I can’t remember when I first started thinking about race, but I would say it was at a young age because I had black friends when I was young. So the majority of my life I have noticed race. I think that we all notice race, we all notice something different than when we look in the mirror. It is in our nature to think of someone as different that you and we can’t help but listen to stereotypes when it is something we all grew up with. Comedians always poke fun about stereotypes, so this stuff is around us everywhere. Race is an issue that’s always around us constantly. Some people are even enslaved because of their race, but when did race become something that gave us an excuse to abuse other human beings. Why was race the reason black people were enslaved? Why couldn’t it be all the people who had green eyes? Race is an observation of human beings based on their appearance and appearance matters. This is why some people are chosen for a job over someone else and the reason that guys hit on girls. Race is part of our appearance which is the reason we need it to be relevant in our lives. This issue is something that we can’t avoid, we will never avoid. There is no way to get rid of race and no way to stop differentiating between black and white and brown and yellow. It is how humans have developed even though I could have swore those were all just colors. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 20:50:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/do-you-think-race-can-stop-being-an-issue-in-the-future-119-blog/#IDComment125987834 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/what-does-the-confederate-flag-mean-to-you-119-blog/#IDComment124442862 First of all, I have to say that I don’t identify myself as a “redneck”, but I would like to comment on what the confederate flag means to me. I have always had the perception that the flag symbolized a different country all together as in the southern states are all a different region of our entire country as a whole. The flag almost always goes hand in hand with the saying “the south will rise again”. I have heard of southern hospitality, but to me, the flag gives off a vibe that the south is bitter towards other parts of the country. Basically, living in the past and not wanting to be a part of this country is what I feel when I see the flag. I was recently in the south last semester when Penn State played Alabama in football. I had a whole perception of the south as in I would see confederate flags on cars, on houses, and on signs. This wasn’t even the close to how it was. I think I might have only saw one or two confederate flags the whole time I was down in Alabama, and when I think of Alabama I think of the deep-south too. The entire atmosphere of what I pictured to be a redneck community was more of a preppy style way of life. Everyone wears collared shirts and khaki pants and everyone rocks a come over. When I say redneck community I mean everyone drives a truck, they have race car hats on blue jeans/shorts and boots no matter what kind of weather. This is the stereotypical type of redneck we all think of. I feel like everything is always stereotyped in our society. Even the confederate flag comes with stereotypes of who displays their flags. Then we stereotype those people who display the flag. And when it comes to southern hospitality, I was blown away. A group of friends and I were walking around the campus and everyone was saying good luck to us and hi to us. We couldn’t believe how nice people were to us even though we were there to watch our team beat theirs. In class, I was surprised to see that anyone identified themselves as redneck because public perception gives them a bad rap, just like Dr. Richards said. Confederate flag is something that we, in the north, look at negatively. I think that in the south though or in more “redneck” areas, they view the confederate flag as just history and a symbol of the past. So the confederate flag gets viewed negatively for me at least. This is because I am from the north and I really do believe that northern people would have a different view on this question than southern people. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:45:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/what-does-the-confederate-flag-mean-to-you-119-blog/#IDComment124442862 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-do-we-still-have-stereotypes-blog-1/#IDComment122613014 I think that stereotypes are something that we can’t avoid. We give a certain people a category of how they are supposed to act and some people act to that description and others don’t fit that category. I think we are sometimes blinded by the people who aren’t stereotypical that we only can view the people who we have labeled as stereotypical. Many people say all Asians look alike, but we have proven that wrong in class. Sometimes it is difficult to pick a part someone who is Asian and someone who is Native American. We saw an example of this in the activity we did in class. The two students picking the groups had a hard time choosing the groups and actually had no idea that the one girl was Native American. Dr. Richards keeps telling us that we all probably have different types of bloods in our DNA make-up and I strongly believe that there probably are ethnicities that I would never have thought would make up my DNA. I know that I am Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch, but I definitely would expect some different things. Stereotyping people doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing though. I think that some stereotypes could be offensive, but there are others that can be laughed at. When we took all those survey questions in the second class proving those stereotypes wrong was really interesting. I definitely found myself giving into stereotypes and clicking answers that would be considered “stereotypical” and upon finding out that my answers were completely incorrect was actually shocking and surprising to me. I’m not so sure that we can’t help, but stereotype because I feel as though stereotyping is in our nature. I feel as though it goes hand in hand with judging people and as a society we have a high tendency to judge people a lot. We constantly judge people on how they look, how they act, and how they feel. We say all black people look alike, we say all Asian people are good at math, and we say all white people can’t dance. These are common judgments and, better yet, stereotypes that we live with every day. Being white, I like to think that I can dance and many people are surprised that I can dance. This is how I am stereotyped. I never really thought about how people stereotype me until I was thinking about this. It makes me think about how I stereotype other people. I don’t like being stereotyped so it definitely opens my mind and makes me think about how I have stereotyped other people. I will definitely think about my feelings about other people a lot more. I have already learned about myself which is interesting because it is only the second week of class. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:33:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-do-we-still-have-stereotypes-blog-1/#IDComment122613014 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122387075 Yesterday's class exercise really got me thinking about how difficult it really is to actually pinpoint someone's race. As I was sitting in the audience trying to sort out the people into different racial categories, I realized that putting someone into the wrong category could get them angry, like calling a Japanese person Chinese. Some people really do get offended. Overall I liked the activity and I think it made the activity better when he brought up students with 4.0's to try and sort out the people. It really doesn't make a difference if you have a 4.0 or a 1.0 because most of us all have the same stereotypes. We laugh about these stereotypes, but we realize that most of them aren't true and Dr. Richards has showed us that. By thinking all black people look alike and all white people look alike and all Asian people look alike we think we can put all these people into categories like we saw in this activity. We found out it's a lot harder than it looks. Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:42:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122387075 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9ck%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121197657 soc 119 Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:36:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9ck%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121197657