en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2390355 Comments by klr5325 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145005345 Before this class I never really paid hardly any attention to illegal immigrants. They never really bothered me and growing up I could not tell the difference. How are we supposed to know if someone is an illegal immigrant just by their outside features without us being prejudice against them? Where I grew up at, there were mixed diversity. It varied from blacks, whites, Indians, Cambodians, and Hispanics, and latino/a. Every one was different but I can say that there was a possibility that some of these people could have been illegal immigrants but I would have never known. I never paid any mind to the drastic rate of incoming immigrants and how angry Americans are that they are here. After being in this class I have learned so much pertaining to immigration. Obviously their lives are not easy but I did not know to what extent. I learned that not every one travels to America as a family, that usually one person from the family comes, then goes back to the native country to retrieve every one else. Reading Sam’s book I noticed that it says that the rate of illegal immigrants coming in to the United States is growing each year. I can imagine that Americans are getting more upset because this is a trending topic circulating through the media all the time. But how can we get mad when all of our ancestors are immigrants. This bothers me a lot because we stole this land from Native Americans. Doesn’t this make us illegal immigrants? There is nothing no one can say about our past because they refuse to acknowledge that our people did the same thing that these illegal immigrants are doing today. They are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. Most of them are some of the most hard working people in the entire country. They will work a long day just to receive ¼ of what the average American makes. I still believe that the treatment against people searching for a better life is not right. If we could just place our selves in their shoes I am pretty sure that our perspectives will change. They are human beings too. They have two legs, two arms, and a heart just like everyone here. I do not understand why people try to dehumanize them like we are not all equal. Instead of chastising them, we should help them out with building up their money. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, so shouldn’t we help others attain that? I feel it is our duty and job to make sure that we keep the immigration rate to a satisfactory limit and to make it a better condition for those who are immigrants legally. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:30:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145005345 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142635677 I do think that there is a place and a time to use nepotism to our advantage. I strongly do agree with the common phrase, it is not what you know, however, it is who you know. The world today is very based around networking. Sam was right; most people would not be here in college if it was not for nepotism. A lot of minorities for example are here on scholarship provided by Penn State and this is due to nepotism. A lot of us are unable to provide the financial aid ourselves and so we receive scholarships based off our race and our or our parent’s yearly income. I know that I am unable to pay for college myself and so I will not stop applying for scholarships as long as I am in school I will continue to use this affirmative action to my advantage. This is an opportunity of a life time that my parents at my age were not able to cease and so I am going to snatch the chance now while I am young. Some people may look down upon the term “Affirmative Action” but when it applies to ourselves, that when we begin to justify it. People use nepotism (affirmative action) everyday. Getting a job after college is difficult and if networking while I am in college means that my changes of receiving the job will increase, then I am going to take advantage of it as much as possible. There are certain times where nepotism would be inappropriate to use. If a job manger hired me due to my race and gender just to fulfill a quota, I would definitely have to turn the job down. Or if an employer wanted to hire me just because he liked the way I looked, I would feel some type of way because if my credentials, skills, and education background is not what qualifies me for a job then I would not want it. People are so quick to point fingers at others, but at the same time they have three different fingers being pointed at them. They will take a job that a family member them to receive, but on the other hand, they want to complain about people receiving full scholarship to attend a college or university. I strongly believe that people do need help at times, but if there is a situation where I can actively get the job myself then I am going to utilize my skills in trying to get the desired job. I believe that hard work and determination will get you places you need to go in life, but nepotism will make the journey a little bit easier. Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:05:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/do-you-think-you-would-actively-try-to-not-benefit-from-nepotism-if-the-situation-presented-itself-119-blog/#IDComment142635677 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141136560 defeats our mission. The Americans are not even fighting this war because of retaliations of the 9/11 attack. We are fighting this war because of oil. Innocent people are getting hurt and killed over our nationalistic mentalities. We are plotting to take over their oil companies; acting like bullies. We can not have this: 29:1 people are dying due to our tendencies. By any means necessary is the motto that we go by. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 01:35:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141136560 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141136520 outrageous. The Muslim extremists were the ones who crashed the plane into the twin towers and killed the millions of innocent by standers who had absolutely nothing to do with the issues they were facing. The extremists are the US troops who take their job too seriously and just kill anyone who gets in their way. Watching the video of the US troops destroy the innocent man’s car was too difficult to watch. No matter how right or wrong the person was, he is human. He has a heart that is beating, he has air in his lungs, he has has the right to live his life the way he wants to. The fact that the US troops ran over his truck; his home, and laughed about it, I became outraged and I am not even Muslim or from the country. He is human just like us and we have no obligations to deter an innocent by stander from living a comfortable life. We went over there and are bullying the people. I am saddened by the fact that more people get injured when troops are looking for a single person. This is not the American way to go about defending our country. The fact that they say we are doing this because God sent us to do it really Sat, 9 Apr 2011 01:34:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141136520 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141136479 It is a shame that the U.S soldiers would chose to kill innocent civilians just for one particular person. It is also a shame that we are not informed about what is going on over seas. It is unethical that we go over in to their lands searching for one person, and in the mean time, people are getting injured and killed for the sake of another person’s actions. I had the same reaction to September 11, 2001 when the world trade center was crashed. As years went by, I began thinking, why would they do that, and I would categorize all Middle Easterns into one group. I assume that they do the same thing to us and this is everyone just being ignorant. Since I began taking this class I have began looking at scenarios from an objective perspective, but in no way can anybody justify the actions that the US troops take to find a person while killing others simultaneously. The actions that some of the extremist commit are Sat, 9 Apr 2011 01:34:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141136479 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/31/what-was-more-enlightening-the-information-on-your-own-sex-or-the-opposite-sex-and-why-119-blog/#IDComment139259802 Most of the things that Laury was addressing I found that I could relate to. Women are much more complex and boys are extremely simple. I have a boyfriend and we constantly are having a talk about the struggles of being a female. Girls are always and forever going to be affected by the double standard rule. It is frustrating to know that people are always categorizing negative words with females and the guys are always getting the long end of the stick while we get the short end of the stick. The media and word of mouth has caused men to think that they have supremacy over women because they do not go through the different things we go through. Vaginas give birth to the world and have to experience a menstrual cycle every month. Also they endure pounds of pressure by men penetrating it with their penises. So when women do not feel as though they do not want sex, men appear to be dumbfounded and lost to the fact that sometimes we do not want sex all the time. That is the difference between men and women, men want and think about sex constantly on a daily basis, while women may think about it every now and then and may not want it as badly as men. If we could experience and orgasm every single time that we have sex then yeah maybe we may like to have sex however, that is not the case at all. Statistics showed that about 1/3 of women actually experience and orgasm during sex. That really amazed a lot of guys because they are programmed to believe that females experience exactly what the experience. This fantasy is falsely provided by movies and porn. In the porn of course the women are faking orgasms but guys in real life actually believe that they are really reaching ecstasy. Truth be told, this is not true. Most women do not experience orgasms through penetration. Most guys did not know that the way to pleasuring a girl fully is to stimulate the clitoris. It holds the same amount of sensitivity as the head on the penis and is made by the same tissue therefore that is the gateway to reaching orgasm. Sex to men is rough, fast, etc. Sex to women is a totally different thing in our eys. Sex involves intimacy, kissing, touching, caressing, foreplay, slow and sensual sex. Guys do not understand this because in porn, the sex is in the perspective of a man and not from the woman’s. Time and time I have to coach my boyfriend on how to really pleasure a woman because in he believes that we have the same point of views of what sex is expected to be like, same as for other men. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 01:54:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/31/what-was-more-enlightening-the-information-on-your-own-sex-or-the-opposite-sex-and-why-119-blog/#IDComment139259802 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-factors-in-your-race-make-it-difficult-to-date-outside-your-race-119-blog/#IDComment137055040 I do not have a major problem with interracial relationships. My culture and race, however, have developed a problem and barrier between people dating outside if their race. I can say that the only problem I do have is when I see a white girl and a black man. It is in a way so cliché to see them as a couple. Primarily black women have a problem with this; I can not speak for white men or other races. The reason black women have a more prominent problem is because we have been battling this dilemma for years in the past and present. Back in the day black people were brain washed in to thinking that white is right. So black men have always gone after white women and abandoned the beautiful black women. When black women see a good black man with a white woman we automatically revert back to the mentality that the white women are taking all of our good black men. In the black culture, dating outside of our race is kind of looked down upon and accepted in certain conditions. For instance, nobody in my family has brought someone home of a different race and introduced us to him or her. The only person to do that was my older sister Nina. A few years back we were at my aunts house for a block party and she brought her boyfriend Tom to the party. We were all shocked to see that he was white and also shocked because she never told us about him. At first we were a little uneasy. I was more uncomfortable than he was. After a few times of meeting Tom we all accepted him into our family and now he and my sister are happily married with children. After a while, I began to look past his skin color and looked at the fact that he made my sister extremely happy and that was all that mattered to me. Other than that, I do not believe that I have a problem with interracial relationships. Many Americans, overall, have accepted the idea of dating outside of race since our country is a “Melting Pot”. I believe that we are much more lenient and liberal compared to other countries. People are always going to be prejudice because we each individually have our standards of what a relationship should be. Instead of judging the relationship based off of the exterior we see, we should not judge at all because whether they are happy or not is none of our business. This is a lesson that I, myself, should adhere to because sometime I can be a little judgmental when I have no place to be that way. Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:17:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/22/what-factors-in-your-race-make-it-difficult-to-date-outside-your-race-119-blog/#IDComment137055040 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135747359 I have never ever felt guilty for being the race that I was born to be. I can not feel guilty for something that God has blessed me with and neither should anybody of any race. I am of African American descent and I am proud to be this way. Nothing or nobody makes me feel ashamed or guilty. My ancestors have been through many triumphs in the past and we have finally embraced the fact that our black is beautiful. I could understand how other races such as white could feel guilty for being who they are because they could realize how other races are being discriminated against and treated differently. However I am not white and I could only base my opinion off of what I know. I can say that I do see other races and people with different backgrounds being discriminated against and I can also say that I fall victim to having prejudice against certain cultures and races. Ethnicities and races such as in the Middle East, I admit that I have latent and regular prejudice towards because I am ill informed about their culture. I notice that people feel the same way and thus people tend to discriminate against them; especially after 9/11. Because I feel sorrow for them, I do not feel guilty for being black. I feel empathy towards them but not guilty for being who I am. My race has and still is dealing with different act of prejudice and discrimination; even in this present day. Everyone knows about our past and till this day we are still battling with inequality. It has taken years and years to build up the confidence that some of us have. But many are still stuck in the idea that colored is bad and white is right. I know that many white people do feel guilty for being white being as though they are more privileged than any other race. If I were white I admit that I would feel slightly guilty for being born in the world where my ancestors have decided that my skin color will be granted more opportunities than other cultures. But when I think about about it, people of different races want to be accepted into other cultures. White people are constantly tanning just so that they could have color in their skin. People of color are bleaching their skin and straightening their hair so that they could resemble the white culture. Nowadays, people do not really feel sorry for other cultures if they are constantly trying to assimilate and blend in to the race. It seems strange to me but this is the world they we live in. People just want to be like other people. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:12:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/have-you-ever-felt-guilt-from-being-of-a-certain-race-119-blog/#IDComment135747359 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134756031 I do believe that the world is eventually going to run low on our natural resources if we as a people continue remain oblivious and ignorant towards these repeating issues. The world is going to over populate if we do not make a change. I can not help but notice how the media is constantly saying that we are coming up scarece on certain products. Well, in my opinion this could all be avoided if the government will intervene and stop people from wasting valuable products that many people are not fortunate to consume. Food is a number one priority that many people waste in their life. I can say that I was involved in wasting food when I was younger because I was aware of the many people who are not fortunate to afford the nutrients I was consistent with throwing away in the trash. Now that I am aware of the 97% of people across the world who are in poverty, my eyes have been opened and I believe that a change has to be made. The upper classes mostly are the victims of wasting valuable items because they know that they are able to get their hands on another thing to replace it. This is the mentality that many Americans have because in a sense I believe that we are spoiled and are ill-informed about critical matters that could impact us. A solution to maintaining the maintenance of our resources is putting a limit on population. If we have a steady population, we would not have to worry about running out of resources. China was up to something when they initiated the idea of up to two kids per family. At first I was amazed that people actually heed the idea but at the end of the day, it was a genius move. China is an extremely large country and if people had the chance to give birth to whatever amount of children they want, there is a possibility that resources could run out. The government implemented a law that there is are a two children per family policy. Maybe if America or other countries could do something similar as such as this, possibly the amount of people without the correct resources needed to live and adequate life would be decreased to a level that we can manage with. However, I believe that poverty will inevitably be around because there is a finite amount of resources that people are exposed to. If we could open up the issue about scarcity of natural resources, then there is a chance that people will take immediate action. It is not really circulating throughout the media about the limited amount of resources because people who are ignorant believe that we have a life time supply of materials. This is not the case and something has to be done about it in order for a change to occur. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:25:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134756031 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/do-you-think-his-lighter-skin-gets-him-ahead-in-society-119-blog/#IDComment130225154 It is sad to say, but I do believe that being African American and having lighter skin will definitely give him an advantage compared to someone who is a darker shade than him. I believe that this problem is also circulating amongst other cultures besides the African American race. I was just reading the article in Sam’s book and I learned that other cultures believe that having lighter skin is better than having darker skin. This girl was Latina and Black and although her shade of skin was slighter darker than the rest, she was discriminated against by her own race. I for a fact have had a first hand experience of knowing about discrimination within the same race. I know that many boys around my way prefer lighter skinned girls over a girl with dark skin. Even the entertainers and rappers are forever rapping about light skinned girls. In Lil Wayne’s song, he specifically says, “I like a long haired thick red bone…” A red bone in Black culture is a person who is so light, just their skin could pass for a white person’s skin color. It is mind boggling to know that black people are giving into the idealism that white is right. Not only the blacks, but other people around the world are assimilating to the ideas that were started by Europeans. It broke my heart to hear one girl in class story. She was from India and her mother has a darker shade than regular people residing in the country. She said that her mother’s neighbors basically told her that she was ugly due to her skin color and her daughter was beautiful because she had a lighter shade than her mother. It is a shame that people all over the world are conditioned to think that lighter skin is better. It is also a shame that people like the one in the video are immediately given better opportunities because of his skin color. The people that do have lighter skin also think that they are better than people with darker shade. I know for a fact in America earlier years, freed blacks with lighter skin were more accepted by white people compared to other blacks. The boy in the video also told me that his experience amongst white people was similar. He said that his roommate’s family was skeptical when they were told that he was black. However, once they saw him in person, their perception of him dramatically changed. He had a strange feeling that it had something to do with his lighter skin. Not all fall into this category, but many usually do fell a little relief being around people who have similar color as them because hopefully they could connect better with that person. Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:23:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/23/do-you-think-his-lighter-skin-gets-him-ahead-in-society-119-blog/#IDComment130225154 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/#IDComment129006515 To answer this question like Sam said you have to consider both options as well as numerous outside factors. I lean more towards the fact that the reason why more black men are incarcerated compared to white men is because the black men live in more urban areas. Everyone is close in contact and neighboring which makes it easier for the police to find the suspects. It is much easier to trace a person’s track in an urban setting compared to a rural or suburban setting. The people in the neighborhood will sometimes give up the suspect’s information about where they live and this will easily lead the police to the person/people they are looking for. This would be difficult in the suburban areas since the houses are more spread out. Mostly white people reside in the suburban neighborhoods compared to the black people. Therefore, there the incarceration rates are higher in blacks compared to the whites. However, in a way, I cannot solely blame the incarceration rates on just racism and police being more populated in urban areas because there are other factors attached. Some police are or could be racists, and some could not be. The ultimate reason that more black men are arrested could possibly be because drugs and crime go hand in hand within the black community. This stems all the way from the great Migration. During that time all the white people flew from the urban cities and left them destitute because all of the business was gone. This was what the black people were left with. They had poor systems of business and schooling compared to the suburban neighborhoods and this was a factor in preventing people from receiving good jobs. By this happening, people were forced to resort to violence and crime. In a way, this explains why black people have absorbed drugs and violence into our culture. Police force is so accustomed to arresting people for this because it is just so prevalent in the black culture. In my opinion, I can not necessarily say that the police are being racist because it is true that many black people as well as white people do drugs. To me, I believe that white people consume just as much as blacks but we just happen to get caught much more often than any other ethnicity. I can say that there are more police forces in urban cities compared to suburban because the chances of catching and arresting people dealing drugs is much higher urban settings than suburban settings. Just like Sam said, people are constantly dealing drugs all the time; it is just than black people are a little more open about it than white people. It is a shame but we are so close in approximation that the likelihood of us getting caught is higher. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:03:34 +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/#IDComment129006515 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127450432 I strongly agree that free will and determinism go hand in hand when it comes to everyone in the world. It is not just directed towards the minorities or the underprivileged but there are people everywhere who are affected just the same. It is a shame to know that some people have more determinism against them than free will and vice versa. I am an African American young woman and I never really realized that I my free will and determinism are somewhat balanced. However, I do believe that I have more determinism weighed upon me than my actual free will due to my ancestors. Because I live in an area heavily populated by many blacks and other minorities, I was not given the same privileges compared to someone who lives in a suburban atmosphere. My parents gave birth to me in a neighborhood that had an adequate amount of resources that I grew up to appreciate. I can’t say that I was not fortunate because I was compared to other unfortunate people who have more determinism against them than I did. I was fortunate enough to attend a magnet middle school and received an excellent education there, despite the fact that the neighborhood was extremely dangerous and violent. I was fortunate enough to attend a magnet high school instead of my neighborhood high school. I was even fortunate to receive SAT practice lessons so that I could do well enough to get accepted into multiple institutions. None of this is because of what I did, or my free will from what I learned in class today. Because my mom told me that I was leaving my mediocre elementary school and was going to attend a more advanced middle school was the first step of me getting closer to attending college. Even when I tried to challenge my mom about going to an all girls high school, she stood her ground and told me I had no choice. My mother was the one paying for me to constantly take the SATs until I got a good enough score suitable for her. So far in my life I can honestly say that there was much more determinism than free will because I was dependent upon my mom to guide me in life. Once I entered college is where I begin to make my own adult decisions. Everything that happens from here on out is going to be a balance of free will and determinism. I am no longer latched to my mom like I was in my early years. We can all relate to our own free will and determinism; which are other factors being held against us without our consent. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:39:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127450432 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/01/interpreting-names-for-people-of-one-race-who-act-like-another/#IDComment126009176 I do notice that people are always comparing Blacks and/or Asians to “acting” white. A couple years back, I had asked a similar question that this student in the video asked to one of my Asian friends. I asked my friend why so many Asians from Cambodia and bordering countries hang around Black people all the time. She told me that Asians don’t really have a definite identity; they either act Black or act White. Hopefully I did not offend anybody but this is what she said. Obviously I do not know why that is true but I do notice this trend in my neighborhood. People are constantly judges one’s character and comparing it to another culture or race because that individual is not accommodating to the stereotype or expectations that people set up for them. For instance, when a Black male speaks with etiquette and wears his pants on his waist with a belt without revealing his boxers, people in the Black community will say “Man why you acting like a white boy”! Or if an Asian girl is walking around wearing Abercrombie & Fitch with chocolate Ugg boots with her hair in a messy bun at the top of her hair, people would label her as being a “Twinkie”. Sometimes we see people who behave in a manner that a Black man would such as Vanilla Ice and his nick name would be “Uh-Oh Oreo”. However, like I was saying before, we really don’t hear people comparing themselves to behaving like an Asian. It’s strange but true. My thought about this is that it seems like Asians don’t really embrace their culture as their own and are forced to take on other identities. Many stereotypes that the Black culture face is that we like fried chicken, watermelons, Kool aid, we speak loud and people presume that we are all ignorant. If a group of people saw any other race that was not indigenous to the culture, for instance the Black culture, they was claim that that particular individual is acting like the culture who’s stereotype he/she is fitting. Even if the person is displaying only a few features of the stereotype of the other race, individuals will still categorize the person into that group. It really is a shame but I do have to admit that I myself have been a victim of stereotyping people or claiming that a person is acting like another race. People are just not used to others “stepping” on their territory, especially Black people. For some reason we feel some type of way when we see other displaying “Black” characteristics. We often get offended if we see a white person with dred locks or wearing their jeans sagging low. In a way it’s kind of a slap in the face because we feel as though we had built our black culture up to what it is now and we sometimes don’t want others indulging into our prized possession. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 22:50:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/01/interpreting-names-for-people-of-one-race-who-act-like-another/#IDComment126009176 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/why-do-we-associate-with-people-of-the-same-race-and-ethnicity-as-ourselves-119-blog/#IDComment124439814 I believe that we as humans have the innate tendencies of wanting to belong. As soon as we were brought into this world we were supplied with similar characteristics that we cannot turn away from. From taking Psychology in the fall I learned that in other countries around the world they practice collectivism. Collectivism is the normal predisposition to always be categorized to a group. One country I know for sure that practices this ritual is China. They put belonging to a specified group on a pedestal because it is part of their culture. Not belonging could take a humongous effect on that individual whether they are from a country that practices collectivism or individualism. The United States practices individualism, yet, people are still concerned with belonging with others. If you are surrounded with people that look like you, act like you, and share the same interests as you, the likelihood of being alone is decreased. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and many people that lived in my neighborhood resembled the same features as me. There should be no surprise that I tend to surround myself with other Black people because this make me feel within my comfort zone. This is my reason of why people of the same race tend to travel with the same crowd. We all like to be comfortable and if we hang out with people with drastically different races, cultures, and/or ethnic backgrounds, we run the chances of being judge by another audience. I f we, on the other hand, surround ourselves with a crowd that has similar backgrounds, then it makes it easier to assimilate with that group of people. The number one factor that drives us to want to stay within our culture is fear. Fear is a driving force within people that makes it difficult for them to really show who they really are on the inside. Many people are insecure about how another race may embrace their friendships with other distinct races. This is obviously a problem that we are conditioned with because this decreases the chances one has of experiencing a different culture. I can’t help but see how many people are ignorant to other people’s cultures due to lack of venturing out and taking a chance to learn about them. This inhibits us from dating outside our race, befriending other races, and stepping outside the box because we too concerned with what society will say. We are consumed with fulfilling the status quo of staying within our race in the hopes of not becoming an outcast. I can say for myself that I do fall victim of traveling with my race but it’s only because I feel comfortable with other black people. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:22:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/why-do-we-associate-with-people-of-the-same-race-and-ethnicity-as-ourselves-119-blog/#IDComment124439814 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122866729 I was born and raised in Philadelphia and the neighborhood that I am from is populated with people that look like me. The neighbors on either side of my house were some kind of Asian descent but I couldn’t tell the difference because they all looked the same to me. In high school was when I began to explore different horizons because my school was very multi-cultural. So I have gotten better at determining some various races but I’m still not as good as I should be. I believe that exposure to different cultures would be the remedy people in the world need to cure this mental block that prevents us from acknowledging the multifarious races that exists in our world. I learned a lot about how people think and that I am not the only one that thinks a certain way. The in-class activity taught me a lot about how we perceive things in the world and that we are not always right. Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:07:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122866729 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122866680 It was proven in class that our perceptions of people tend to get the best of us because we are constantly making assumptions in our everyday lives. We all believe that our ideas are accurate and this exposed the negative side that human beings are innately born with. The two volunteers, I must admit, were very brave because I would be highly embarrassed by my way of thinking. In a sense I was embarrassed for the girls because I know for a fact that I would have gotten many of the races incorrect. I think that many people are close minded because maybe perhaps some were not exposed to different cultures and different ethnic backgrounds. I can say that I am an advocate when comes to being very narrow minded. Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:06:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122866680 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122866587 The exercise that was taken place in class was very interesting because I know that I speak for everyone when I say that many human beings tend to stigmatize people based on the color of their skin. I never really paid attention to that fact that I constantly judge people based on the façade that is visible to me. The in-class activity helped bring me to terms that I tend to categorize people on what I think their race is. If this is the case, people cannot get mad at Linneus when he systematically divided people into racial groups because we all do it every time we are faced with deciding what a person’s race is. Is it really his fault that he took the leadership role of what he thought of deciphering people into racial groups when no one else had the courage or audacity to do it? I do not agree with the different categories that were provided, however, I cannot be mad at him because today in class lucidly showed that we are all as close minded as he was. Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:06:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122866587 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cr%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121136495 Soc119 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:35:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cr%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment121136495