en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2397683 Comments by kionad_ http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/would-you-help-someone-illegal-immigrate-into-the-country-why-or-why-not-119-blog/#IDComment145194476 No I wouldn't help someone immigrate to this country just for the simple fact that they're coming over here illegally and I could be punished for it. The subject of illegal immigrant is a touchy subject because I feel like everyone has their own personal opinions about it. Some think that we should allow illegal immigrants to come over here and other think that we shouldn't I personally have different opinions about it. Because I feel as though people come here to make a better life for themselves and their families and they should have the right to do that however it is taking a small toll on our country. By helping an illegal immigrant get to the United States I would also be putting myself at risk. And I don't think I would ever be willing to take a huge risk such as that one. Helping them is considered a crime here in the United States. Although we may think that we are just being good citizens and helping them we would be committing a crime at the same time. There are some goods and bad to the situation though. For one thing they do work for cheap over here. A lot of people choose to help them out simply because of their cheap labor. However I don't think this is fair on either part. Because technically your cheating them out of money. A lot of immigrants come here poor with no where to sleep and no food to eat so for someone to underpay them is just wrong because they're trying to make a living just like we are. Most of the time they come here to get their heads above water and to get educated and then they go back to their countries and take the knowledge with them. This isn't helping our country in any way. In fact it's harming our country. Although I wouldn't help them to get here illegally I would probably help them to survive while they were over here just as the man did in the video we watched in class on Thursday. because I feel as though if the picture was turned around I would want someone to help me. I wouldn't get them over here but once they're over here I would give them a helping hand. It was sad for him to watch them go through the same thing he went through so he decided to help them. I think I would do the same thing because I don't like to see people suffer and as a human being you should automatically want to help out. I don't know anyone personally who lives here or once lived here illegally so I can't say that I understand how they feel but I know its a struggle. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:26:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/would-you-help-someone-illegal-immigrate-into-the-country-why-or-why-not-119-blog/#IDComment145194476 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/14/what-does-it-say-about-our-society-if-schools-are-more-segregated-now-than-in-the-1970s-119-blog/#IDComment143224559 The fact that schools are more segregated now than they were in the 1970's says a lot about our society. For one thing we haven't made any progress in since those years. For as long as I can remember we have been fighting to have equal rights for all people of every race however this does not hold true. We have become accustomed to being together and working, and learning with people of other races so this information shocked. I thought that as a whole we were making progress and we were slowly moving towards an unsegregated world. I think it's a shame that we can not see past the color of our skin. We shouldn't be judged on that because we do not have the ability to change that. This race barrier is holding us back from a lot of opportunities especially towards the minorities. We have to fight twice as hard as whites to fill in the same positions. Racism is something that should have been eradicated a while ago but it still exist in the world we live in. I think it's especially sad because people don't believe that racism still exist when in fact it does exist and its getting worst. Although it's sad I can understand why because schools are in certain neighborhoods and those neighborhoods usually hold only a certain race. Therefore there is only one race at the schools. I however can not relate to this statement because my high school was very diverse. At prep charter, the school I attended, we had a good mixture of every race. This also supports the fact that our society is so passive. We know these facts. We know our city is racist, we know we have segregated school, etc but we do nothing to make a change. We accept whatever is handed to us with no questions asked. This is not how we should approach the issue. If we don't like or don't agree with a certain situation I think that we should stand up and make a change. I think that we have been going through this for so long that we have become accustomed to it and we've forgotten that we have the ability to make a change. I don't society solely at fault because I fell like its only this way because of the surrounding area that the schools are in. I think that the amount of segregation depend on the way the neighborhood is set up if the neighborhood is mostly made up of minorities than minorities will be in the local schools. Most of the time people like parents and counselors don't take the time out to send their children to schools far out so they send them to the nearest one. As a result our school systems become segregated. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:32:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/14/what-does-it-say-about-our-society-if-schools-are-more-segregated-now-than-in-the-1970s-119-blog/#IDComment143224559 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/would-you-be-willing-to-learn-a-new-language-for-a-job-119-blog/#IDComment139281609 I would love to learn another language not only for a job but just because I’m interested in learning how to communicate with others. In today’s society, especially in the United States I believe that it is important to know other languages. I say this simply because our country is so diverse and we have so many languages spoken here. I think it’s important that we enforce diversity and get educated on not only our culture but other cultures as well. Often times we judge others because of the things we believe. But everything we believe isn’t true. That’s why it is important that we learn about them before judging. I am currently taking Spanish 2 as a freshman here at Penn State and so far it is a good experience. I like learning new things. Especially when they are useful in real life. For example I went to Los Angeles, California for spring break. Over in California there are lots of Mexicans who all speak Spanish. When my two friends and I got in the swimming pool there was a Spanish family there also. The two little girls in the pool were very friendly so I decided to talk to them. Once I noticed that they were Mexican I wanted to test out my skills. I started off by saying what’s your name? Como te llamo? When the little girl responded I was excited and wanted to keep going. I think they were shocked a little to see an African American girl speaking Spanish. It was an amazing experience. I realized that what I had learned was useful. Currently I am a freshman but when I become a junior in college I want to study abroad in a Spanish speaking country just to expand my knowledge on their language as well as their culture. I think it actually should be required to learn at least one other language. I say this because on many occasions I have been in a store where the cashier didn’t understand or speak English. If I knew another language I would have been out of trouble. I also feel like with the skills of learning another language you will be better qualified for a job because you can reach out to a better range of clients. Most jobs now look for bilingual employees. Also if we had more bilingual people we could help immigrants better adapt here. When a lot of people come here they have a hard time adjusting to our culture mostly because they don’t understand our language. In conclusion yes I definitely would learn a new language for a job because it would be beneficial to me in so many ways. I’m definitely interested in learning a new language. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 03:19:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/would-you-be-willing-to-learn-a-new-language-for-a-job-119-blog/#IDComment139281609 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/why-do-we-need-to-show-the-clips-of-comedians-before-having-serious-discussions-about-race-119-blog/#IDComment137618841 The reason why I believe that its a good idea to show comical videos before talking about any issue is because often times we find that Americans in particular have a hard time discussing this issue. Americans silence conversations about race because no one wants to admit that racism still exist in the world. I think that the videos such as the few shown by chris rock gets us to a position not where we take the issue as a joke but so that we feel comfortable discussing it.This is done by a lot of professors when they talk about something that people don't usually bring up because it helps lighten the mood. I know for myself a lot of times I feel uncomfortable with some of the topics discussed in class. I feel that we need to be more open to these subjects if we want to tackle the issue.This techinique is used to help the class relax and want to talk about difficult issues. Also because comedians can say whatever they want about whoever they wan.t Many times comedians say things that are very racist and sexist but they aren'y punished for it. Comedy is the one way to get away with things. For example I can say the most racist thing out of my mouth to a white person. Its almost gaurenteed that they will be angry if I say it in a serious tone. However I'm pretty sure that if I say it in a joking manner they would probably laugh it off and not take any offense. Also when we viewed the videos it wasn't just one race in the audience. Our class consisits of many different races and we all watched it together which made it a little easier. When we viewed the videos in class no one took offense we laughed it off. It goes along with the discussion on stereotypes. Most of what the jokes are about are common stereotypes. We know that all stereotypes have some truth to them but we laugh them off because many of them are stupid. I enjoyed watching the clips in class because I never watched something involving race in that manner with people of other races. It was interesting to see what their reactions were.I think Sam does a great job of taking us where he wants us to go as far as to spark emotions. For instance, he obviously didn't want us to be too shook up about the race issue so he showed us a comical video before it. WHen he wanted to spark a negative emotion he showed us the clips about the slaves. I like that he kinda controls where our thought process goes. As far as the class on racial comedy videos I'm glad he constructed the class that way because if it had been done any other way he would have had many angry students. Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:30:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/why-do-we-need-to-show-the-clips-of-comedians-before-having-serious-discussions-about-race-119-blog/#IDComment137618841 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/do-people-feel-guilt-about-their-current-positions-when-knowing-about-the-disadvantages-of-the-freed-slaves-119-blog/#IDComment134289253 I do feel some type of way about the situations that freed slaves are in. I’m not quite sure what I feel but I know it isn’t guilt. I guess I don’t feel guilt because it’s not my fault that they’re in these predicaments. I know that it’s also not their faults that they’re in these situations but we need to realize that it could happen to us at any time. I also try to put myself in their shoes when looking at these situations. If I was the slave I probably would want someone to feel guilty about my problem. I think there’s two sides to the situation looking at it from a white perspective although I’m not white. I think there’s the white racist. These are the ones who are proslavery and inequality. I think that they have no problem being deemed as superior to another race. Therefore they don’t feel any guilt for the slaves because they just don’t care. On the other hand I think there’s the group of white people that feel bad because they feel that their people have damaged another persons life. They also feel like they are a part of the problem when they aren’t. These are the people that feel guilt. As for minorities I believe that all minorities might have a little guilt because they can relate to the struggle of the enslaved person. I guess it is okay to feel a little guilt because as American we have many many privileges and we take them for granted. We don’t realize that not everyone has what we have. Not everyone has the freedom that we have in the United States. But yet we still don’t realize it. I think that the best think we can do to help is to educate ourselves first. We sun out other countries because we have it so good over here that we aren’t concerned with their problems . And that is a problem right there. Americans are deemed as selfish and overprivileged and I’m not sure if I can argue that that isn’t true and it’s sad.Once a slave is freed he has no place to go. They let these people go out on their own with no money, no shelter, and no food. How are they supposed to survive? I would like to think that our world has progressed and has gotten pass the slavery stages but it hasn’t. We learn about history that just continues to repeat itself. We are living the same problems just in a different time period. If we work together we can change all of this. But no progress will be made as long as we wait around waiting on the next person to make change. Change starts with you. Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:35:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/do-people-feel-guilt-about-their-current-positions-when-knowing-about-the-disadvantages-of-the-freed-slaves-119-blog/#IDComment134289253 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/how-do-you-feel-about-the-poor-white-society-and-who-are-you-more-likely-to-help-119-blog/#IDComment130748971 First of all I would like to say that I was kind of offended by this class. I was offended mostly because it seemed like everyone expects black people to be poor that s why they don't feel as sorry for them as they should. I feel like society has everything to do with this situation. For one thing blacks as a whole have always been put under the bus since slavery times. It's a bad thing to place all of us blacks in one category because we are all different just as any other race is. There are poor whites, rich whites, poor blacks, and rich blacks. But society tells us different. They say that blacks are ignorant, poor, and a bunch of other negative words. The is the racism that the media plants in our minds. They lead us to believe that one race is superior to the other. However I know that is not true because whites are at fault just as much as blacks are. The only difference is that whites get away with the crimes because of the racist people in the world. The clip shown in class was really sad to me. I felt bad for the woman and her children because they were poor and they did live in the trailer home. At the same time I don't think I should feel pity because she wasn't trying to help herself. She didn't clean she didn't put any effort to help her situation. What really surprised me is that she looked down on her son for wanting to make his life better. He was trying to change, He dressed properly. He wanted to go to college, and he had friends that were in better situations than he was. I feel like lots of people felt bad because we don't expect this from white people. We feel that just because they're white they are rich. I personally wouldn't care what race a person is In a situation like this I become color blind. I would help a black or white person because we are are humans. From the clicker question I can see that not everyone thinks the same way as me. Because first Sam had the colored students answer the question then he had the white students answer the same exact question. The tables completely turned when different races answered the question. I don't blame the students I blame society and the media because they play a huge part in most of our thoughts. I think that people need to place themselves in the shoes of the poor person and how they would want others to respond to their problems. Because I know that I would want help from anyone therefore I would give help to anyone race doesn't make a difference because we're all human. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:46:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/how-do-you-feel-about-the-poor-white-society-and-who-are-you-more-likely-to-help-119-blog/#IDComment130748971 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-can-we-make-people-more-aware-of-the-slavery-that-is-still-going-on-119-blog/#IDComment128961659 I know a lot of people who aren't aware of slavery and it's existence. For example, after every class I go and tell my roommate what we discussed. And when I told her about Thursdays class she was surprised because she wasn't aware that slavery still happens today. From her understanding slavery had been abolished and that was the end of it. So my solution to the problem is communication. We can't criticize people for what they don't know. Instead we simply have to educate them. If every person in the soc 119 class told a friend about what we learned the issue would spread around the world because each person would spread the word. There's a lot going on around the world that we are unaware of and that's simple because society has created an ignorant generation. In the media we know the smallest facts about every celebrity but we know nothing on whats happening around us. I also put a lot of blame on America itself. A lot of times when issues aren't concerning us we ignore the fact that things are going on because it doesn't affect us in any way. As free people in America we have an upper hand and we need to use that as a tool to help others and learn more about them. For example when we had multiple genocides The U.S which was the only country who could help stop this stood in silence. We turned our backs. And that is what we are doing now. The chocolate situation hit me hard because as Americans we take so much for granted. We don't ever sit back and think of how we have some of the things we have things we have today. The video made me sit back and think and it actually made me not want to eat chocolate anymore. When Sam said to eat the first piece of chocolate I ate it with no problem I didn't think twice about it. The thing that stuck with me most on the video was when the reporter asked the enslaved male what would he say to Americans who eat the chocolate and his response was that it wouldn't be nice words because he works hard to get those cocoa beans. He said that we are basically eating his flesh. This was a powerful statement because something as little as chocolate is harming someone. He are these young men trying to make their lives better going to find work to get paid and they are cheated. . Another thing that got to me was the fact that they never got to enjoy chocolate. Here we are in this country "The land of the free" where we enjoy and praise chocolate and it's such a burden to those in other countries. The work twice as hard as we do and don't have any benefits at all. They are treated like animals. And beaten and killed when they don't obey commands. I have a problem with this and although Sam said to continue to eat chocolate I have made a commitment not to eat this boys flesh again. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:19:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-can-we-make-people-more-aware-of-the-slavery-that-is-still-going-on-119-blog/#IDComment128961659 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/interpret-the-lupe-fiasco-lyrics-119-blog/#IDComment127372061 This actually is an interesting question. Unlike the other topic it's not really about race. However it can be if you look deep into it. I actually like this song by Lupe Fuasco because I think it has a whole lot of truth to it. In today's society we have a lot of rappers that aren't intelligent and only rap about materialistic things, and sexual pleasures. I love when a rapper can think outside of the box and touch on issues that we face in life. I think that the saying "silence is worse than violence" means that what you don't know actually can harm you in many ways. Being silent means that you aren't taking a stand for anything therefore you don't care. Another important quote that goes along with this is "If you don't stand for anything than you'll fall for everything" I believe that when you are silent it's your choice not to have a voice. Another line in the song reads "With words that I should have said/I can't take back the words I never said" This statement is very true if you don't speak up you'll never get the chance to do so and you would be left regretting the change you could have made. I am a Christian and I read the bible. A verse in my bible says "speak now or forever hold your peace" I f you don't say anything now then when will you say it. Tomorrow isn't promised so if you wait you may never get the chance to voice your opinion. In this song he touches on issues that we Americans have today such as the Wars, the Presidents, and other atrocities going on that we don't know about. There's people in the world that are supposed to inform us on certain topics but they choose to keep their mouths shut instead of informing us. Silence gets us no where. When we sit back and become passive about every situation we face we will always be in trouble. We accept whatever is handed down to us. Our voices are what can help us get out of many situations whether we believe it or not. I also says "Fear is such a weak emotion" This also is a true statement. I think a lot of our people are scared. We're scared to have that voice. We've been put down for so long that we are afraid to take that first step and make a change.Fear is whats keeping us from making progress. we need to get over the fear in order to make that necessary change to evoke growth within our country. This is such a great song that I probably can write a book on it. But "Silence is worse than violence" has to be the most essential line of the whole song. Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:48:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/interpret-the-lupe-fiasco-lyrics-119-blog/#IDComment127372061 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/do-you-think-race-can-stop-being-an-issue-in-the-future-119-blog/#IDComment126020113 For as long as I can remember we have been placing one another into categories. We feel that we are all human beings but we need to be classified into a subcategory. If we are trying to get equality in this world I don’t understand why we do this. Why can’t we all be American? In America we categorize everything from the food we eat to the human race. As the world grows older I think it is necessary that race stops being an issue because we are developing new races everyday with the multiracial people in the world. It is not fair to just group them into a category and say they are either black white or other. We leave out Asians Hispanics and all the other races. We categorize all people that have brown skin as black. We place every kind of African, Jamaican as black when they don’t want to be categorized as that. Just as we categorize all people that look white together. This goes along with the term political correctness. We should always want to be politically correct and not to offend people. It shouldn’t matter what color your skin is as long as you are a human being. We have a hard time being politically correct because we listen to the ways of society. Society tells us what to do and how to do it and we go with it without question. We need to stop and take a different approach with things. These categories are what causes racism. I don’t think that there will ever be a time in this world where we can all live on an equal playing field. Discrimination, racism and other aspect have been going on ever since the beginning of time and I just don’t think we have a chance to change that. Especially when we have some races that have their beliefs and aren’t willing to change them. However, you can’t blame everyone for those beliefs. For some it’s the way they were brought up their parents exposed them to racism and that is all they know. We have both white and black people who hate the opposite race and aren’t willing to come to an agreement that is why we still have racism. We need people in the world with an open mind that tries to understand different perspectives. Some people think that just because we have a black president racism has been eradicated. That statement is completely false. First of all our president is of mixed race and he’s been in office for about two years now and racism still exist. So that didn’t change anything however I do believe that it was a step closer to ending racism. Everyday we are coming a step closer but will we ever get there? Fri, 4 Feb 2011 23:39:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/do-you-think-race-can-stop-being-an-issue-in-the-future-119-blog/#IDComment126020113 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/21/body-image-issues-119-blog/#IDComment124244506 There are many reasons why people are concerned with their body image. I would say that the media, and society plays a huge part in these decisions. The media has its own view on what the ideal body type is and why we should look a certain way. In most cases it’s long hair, blue eye, and light or fair toned skin complexions. For as long as I can remember light skinned people have always been labeled as being better than darker skinned people, and this all goes back to slavery times. In the media every celebrity has a “nice” figure the men are usually toned, and the women are slim with long hair. These are the people and the things we idolize without realizing that everyone is not born with those qualities. We idolize people that set high standards for what we should look like. Society tells us that being skinny is being healthy. Some people aren’t skinny because it isn’t in their genes. We are constantly breaking people down by telling them what they should look like. As of 2011 we are getting better because we now have plus sized model, which was unheard of back then. Tyra Banks has many episodes on her show dealing with body image issues, because she didn’t always have that hour glass figure and she had to work hard to get it. She also did a series of America’s Next Top Model on plus sized models. But that is not the only thing that looks good. I believe that you can be beautiful no matter what body type you have. Because although we may think it is, beauty is not just skin deep. Instead of putting pressure on everyone to look the same and look like the people who we put on a pedestal we should encourage and accept all different body types because it’s what God gave us and it’s what is passed on from our ancestors. When I was younger I did struggle with the things that went on in the media because I am an African American with a darker shade skin. I had the thought in my mind that I was ugly because that’s what was displayed through media. Media brainwashes us to think that we are supposed to be something that we are not. Now I am grateful for my skin color because it is a part of who I am and it was given to me by my ancestors. I no longer idolize people who push others to lose weight just because they are supposed to look a certain way. I love the way I look and it’s because I got away from the stereotypes, and the things that society shoves us into. Fri, 28 Jan 2011 03:16:36 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/21/body-image-issues-119-blog/#IDComment124244506 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/23/south-park-off-the-hook/#IDComment122641546 In my opinion I think that people shouldn't let tv shows like South Park influence them too much. Shows such as this one are made to ridicule things in life. They mock religious figures, tv icons, and even presidents to make people laugh. It's a tv show, and a cartoon at that who cares what a character says. South Park, Family Guy and other cartoons of this nature are known for doing things we wouldn't normally do. For example poke fun at God, or Muhammad. I think that Muslims are taking the tv show way too serious because as I stated before they also ridiculed God in an episode. However, that doesn't make it right. The episode where they made fun of Jesus didn't get much publicity, therefore, I don't think the one about Muhammad should either. I personally saw the episode myself and I laughed when I watched it because it touched on the stereotypes that society has about the Muslim religion. Most of the plot seems to be accurate to me besides the scenes that were strictly made to make us laugh. For instance, it is true that Muhammad's face is not supposed to be drawn. However at the end of the episode a made up face was shown as that of Muhammad. We alI know that that face was made by one of the illustrators and looked nothing like the real man. I think the problem was that our world has become anti-muslim after the whole 911 incident, and now Muslims take offense to anything and everything that is said against their religion. When we were threatened by Muslims we began to hate everyone who practiced Islamic religions. Obviously their complaints weren't taken into consideration because the show is still on air and it still makes fun of many things we take serious. My argument is some what biased because for one thing I love south park. I think the show is hilarious, the plots are intelligent. Another reason my argument may be biased is because I am not a Muslim. But neither is most of America. We are allowed to do things like this in America because we are mostly are a country where we have freedom of speech, and we can say whatever we want most of the times and get away with it. Our currency reads "In God we Trust" so of course we'll poke fun at other religions because we don't look at it from others point of view. If I was Muslim i don't know how I would feel about the situation but I am in no way shape or form Muslim so that goes without saying. South Park had made fun of everything I can think of from racism, to our presidents, to religions. Muslims aren't the only target of the show so I don't see what the big deal is. Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:44:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2010/04/23/south-park-off-the-hook/#IDComment122641546 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cd%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment120804125 soc 119 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:28:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cd%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment120804125