Its amazing how although native americans have been so prejudiced against for centuries, they receive so little attention when it comes to talking about injustice and inequality in america. its strange to think how just a couple hundred years ago, all of the land and all of the resources in this country belonged to the native peoples, and in just a short time it was all taken from them in the largest and most extensive genocide in human history. This lack of attention to native american indians isn't limited to just the united states however. On a global scale, they receive just as little attention. Genocides such as the holocaust and those that occured in africa have gotten much global attention, and the people guilty of crimes against humanity have always been brought to justice, but this is not the case when it comes to native americans. Slavery ended some one hundred and fifty years ago, and within that times span, the united states government passed laws requiring some states to pay reparations to families of former slaves. although these reparations certainly did not fully repay what was done to former slaves, or the cycle of poverty that their families were placed in. however this legislation showed that the government was proactive in attempting to repay those who had been wronged in the past. While certain legislation has benefited native americans, clearly not enough has been done to help their cause, considering what has been done to them for the past three hundred years. its unfathomable how an entire group of people, an entire civilization, one that was thriving as much as any just a couple hundred years ago, could so quickly become the poorest group of people in the united states. last summer i went to the st michaels indian reservation in arizona and was amazed at the extreme poverty of the indians on the reservation. i was only there for a week, and in that week i could easily see how much help they needed on their reservation. what struck me more than anything however, was how grateful these people were for our help and how they never complained or asked for anything. after what many of these people had been put through, its amazing how they don't make excuses for anything. certainly native american indians have as much to complain about as anyone, but they just always make the best of what they have. i think that if they were just given a little bit of help, native american indians could not only be a satisfactory part of society, but a group that contributes greaty to american society. i think we as a society should make a point to focus our volunteer efforts to native americans

As a guy I really didn’t find the needy penis talk uncomfortable at all. Even though part of the lecture was about how guys force their thinking of sex upon women so often, you can’t deny that most of what sam and laurie said was true. I know that as a man, almost everything sam said about guys view of sex was pretty spot on. I usually caught myself nodding my head and agreeing with him when he made a point about guys view of sex, even when he was kind of joking. One of the most interesting parts of the lecture I thought, was when they taught about how girls are socialized to dress and act in a certain way. I mean its pretty clear in ours society that most girls aspire to look like the models from victorias secret or cosmopolitan, and that these magazines target these girls intentionally. However, it was interesting to see how laurie and sam examined the subconscious implications of these magazines and such. In a lot of way, the way these magazines make girls feel connects to how the black children in the video felt when picking the dolls. So much of their thoughts and actions are a product of their subconscious, and are influenced from these that can even be pinpointed necessarily. I really liked the part when they were talking about how guys and girls think when they are getting dressed up to go out on the weekends. When I get dressed to go out, I try and put on something that looks nice, but like sam and laurie said, for guys its mostly about being comfortable. But for girls it’s a different story entirely. It seems to me that girls basically dress the same way no matter what time of the year it is. Even during the coldest nights of winter, youll still see girls wearing short dresses usually without a jacket. Guys, on the other hand, have the luxury of wearing shorts when its warm out, while also bundling up when its really cold. I have to say that sam and laurie were pretty spot on with this analysis. Looking around last night I had to laugh because almost everything they said was true. I think for me the talk was more interesting and somewhat informative as opposed to uncomfortable. It might have been uncomfortable when sam and laurie were telling stories about their sex life, which was kind of weird but funny at the same time. But I think that sam and laurie, being married for a number of years, probably know what their talking about when it comes to these issues and I trust that what they had to say is probably right.

I tend to agree with what Sam was saying in class that often times people are attracted to girls or guys outside of their race. I feel like often times these possible relationships, however, are rarely given a shot to go anywhere because often times people are too worried about what others think. In our discussion group this week we talked a lot about how our family, and more specifically our parents, would react if we were to date or even marry someone who was of a different race. Most people said that their parents just want them to be happy, and would probably be accepting of anyone who they decided to be with, no matter what race they were. However, a couple people in the group had many issues in their family because one of their family members married outside their race. I’m sure we all have that one grandparent that wouldn’t be happy if we married outside of our race. While I think that our generation is much more outgoing and more willing to date outside their race, I think there is still negative feelings toward mixed-race couples. Personally I feel like my family would think it was weird if I dated someone outside of my race. I think the difference with out generation, however, is that our beliefs aren’t tied to our parents beliefs as much as they were for pat generations of people. I think for a lot of people, their parents would find it strange if they dated outside of their race, not that they would be angry or forcibly end the relationship, but they would just see it as different. I think kids in our generation, though, are still willing to date outside their race regardless of what their family or parents think. I think it is encouraging that the new census data shows that mixed race is the fastest growing racial group in America. Clearly this shows that dating outside of your race is much more acceptable now then it was thirty or forty years ago. I don’t know what the data is but I’m sure the mixed race category was probably near non-existent because even those who were mixed race probably did not want to say that they were. Hopefully in the coming years we won’t even give any thought to mixed race couples. Even if you have nothing against dating someone of another race, you probably do a double take whenever you see a couple of two people of different races. Hopefully in the near future this will not be the case, and we can recognize them as just two people who like being together, regardless of their race or family history or anything else.

When Sam said that the video in class was going to be the most disturbing video we would watch all year, I kind of took it with a grain of salt because after all we’ve had “the best class of the year” about ten times so far. The first five minutes that showed the girls talking about what images they receive about their hair and skin color we’re not all that surprising or disturbing, as we have learned about this thought process already in class. However the end of the video which showed the young black children talking about the dolls, was truly disturbing. I thought long and hard about where these kids could possibly getting such messages from, but really could not pinpoint why they had the thoughts they did. Obviously you could put a little bit on the media, its easy to do that, but like Sam said these thoughts are indicative of something much deeper that that. What’s even more telling about the study is how young the kids were. Its amazing to think that at such a young age these kids are already getting these messages. One thing I also thought about while watching the video was what white kids would do and say if the participated in the same experiment, because this side of it could be just as scary. You would think that if those young children of color believed that the black doll was truly inferior and “bad,” then the white kids probably had similar thoughts, and are probably receiving the same messages as them, wherever they’re coming from. If white children are being given the message that they are superior to people of color, than these thoughts could become dangerous as the grow up in a society in which white is the majority. One could say that these thoughts are the beginning of the latent and/or blatant prejudice that whites show towards black people. I feel like if white children do in fact get these messages, the can take one of two paths. On one hand they could understand political correctness and learn to try and be fair to people of all races, or they could decide that, like these messages from their childhood taught them, they truly do believe people with darker skin are inferior to them. Just as I assume it is hard for these black children to shake these feelings of inferiority as they grow up in a world still full of inequality and racism, I think it is probably hard for white children to shake these feelings of superiority as they grow up in a mostly white society. It is a shame that racial tensions between groups starts at such a young age.

I wouldn’t say that I have guilt for being so fortunate in life. I think like Sam said feeling guilty is not really the right way to go. What its really about is realizing why you are where you are today and how your ancestors help put you in that position through both their own decisions as well as factors and forces outside of their control. I think as a white person, what I should realize that in some way, I was put in the position I am today in part (however large or small) because of systems that kept white people in power and prevented people of color, who were possibly of equal intellect and skill of my ancestors, from advancing in society. Am I supposed to feel guilty because of this? No, but I should realize that it has played a role in my life. I think this same kind of logic applies to slaves, as well as all impoverished people of the third world. It is important for me to realize that in some way those people, especially in Africa, were put in the position they are today because of the actions of Europeans centuries ago. I think instead of feeling guilty I should realize this fact and decide for myself in what way I want to or should help them. I don’t think there’s any guidelines that people should follow when it comes to charity. Everyone has their own way of justifying how much of their time and money they donate to certain causes and I think that’s how it should be. Like in class when the one student said that he doesn’t have enough, in his mind, to give to the impoverished people of Africa. I think that there’s nothing wrong with him saying that, after all I have no idea what kind of financial situation he is in. I always felt that you should only give your time and money because you want to, not because you have to, because what’s the point of doing it if your hearts not really in it? My high school had tons of service projects and activities, but none of them were required. You would think that because they weren’t required less kids would participate, but the exact opposite was true. The programs were really popular because when kids saw how much other kids enjoyed serving others, they wanted to participate as well. I think the best way to get help for people like those kids in Africa is to have the people who do go over there tell people how amazing their experiences are and get people excited to do the same. But doing something out of guilt is never a healthy thing

I think that in today’s society people are more outwardly racist or discriminatory towards Muslim or Arab people as opposed to black and brown people, but I don’t think that you can conclude that people are more racist towards one group or another. I think it is pretty clear that people are more openly racist towards Muslims today, especially in America. There are countless examples of blatant racism towards Muslims in the articles in the textbook. It is hard for Muslims just to get through an airport in America without receiving countless stares from other passengers or being “randomly selected” for “additional screening” simply because of their name. I think this is because some Americans feel that it is okay to discriminate against foreigners openly because they see it as patriotism, as you can see from the video we watched in class. However I think black people still often suffer from latent discrimination in many ways. This is obvious when looking at the results of the experiments Sam showed in class. Obviously over the past 50 years a lot of progress has been made in terms of race relations between black and white people. But I think one thing that has happened is that white people have buried their discriminations deeper and deeper due to the need to be politically correct. Most white people, including myself, probably don’t even realize when we are discriminating because our feelings about race are often buried so deep within our subconscious. This goes back to the experiments Sam showed in class because I’m sure that most of the employers involved in that survey were not openly racist or prejudiced, but deep within themselves there was something that made them choose the white candidates or “white-sounding” names much more often than the black candidates or “black-sounding” names. I think it will probably take a while before Americans start to feel comfortable around Muslim people because 9/11 affected so many people and is still in the hearts and minds of many Americans. However I think that as Americans become more educated about Muslims and their culture they will realize that the action of a few extremist Muslims truly do not represent the beliefs of over a billion people. After all 9/11 was still only ten years ago. The battle for equal rights for African-Americans lasted for over one hundred years after slavery officially ended with the conclusion of the Civil War. Even today black and brown people are often discriminated against in subtle yet revealing ways, as seen in the experiments from class. That being said I think it will be a long struggle for race relations to improve between Muslims and Americans as a whole.

It is pretty amazing when you stop and really think about how we as Americans live so much differently than the rest of the world. But yet few of us go above and beyond to help those who are less fortunate than us, which is in fact 97% of the world, whether you want to believe it or not. What really surprises me is how little I would have to go out of my way to make an enormous difference in someone else’s life. When Sam was talking about how only a couple hundred dollars could put many people through college for four years, I couldn’t help but think about how of the things I had spent money on that I didn’t need. In the summer I make a couple hundred dollars a week and I could easily help put many poor children through college, but instead I spend it mostly on clothes or iPods and things like that. I think the main reason that we don’t focus enough on helping people in third world countries is because we are constantly comparing ourselves to each other as fellow Americans instead of the enormous group of people that lives on less than $2 a day. When I see people who have huge houses and nice cars and possessions I immediately think that I am poor and don’t have very much. But the fact is that in the grand scheme of things, and compared to the rest of the world, I am not only moderately wealthy, but in fact very rich. I think we as Americans need to start looking at the bigger picture and looking at where we are as compared to the rest of the world and not just to each other. Even if this doesn’t stop us from buying material things that we probably don’t need like ipods and laptops, it will at least make us appreciate how lucky we are and how much we really do have. Like Sam said I don’t think it’s a good thing to feel guilty about being so fortunate and wealthy in life. But hopefully getting a better perspective on things will lead us all to be more proactive in helping those who are less fortunate than us. Despite all this I don’t think Americans are bad people or anything like that. I just think that this is how American society has grown over the years and its really just the way it is. There are many countries who are much poorer than the United States but their people are much happier. So its important to realize also that money and wealth are not everything.

I think whether someone leans toward liberalism or conservatism has a lot to do with how they are brought up. I am pretty much right in the middle but if anything I lean slightly towards conservatism because my parents have brought me up on the principle that hard work will get you far in life. My dad, for example, grew up in a relatively poor home in Philadelphia with 9 siblings. As you can imagine he did not have much growing up in such a large family. However he started working multiple jobs all year round while he was in middle school and made enough money to pay for himself to go to a private high school. Eventually he made enough money in high school to pay for himself to go to a private college as well, all with no financial help from his parents. After college he started his own business from scratch and over 30 years built it into a successful company. My parents have made enough money where they could have bought me a lot of things and probably paid for everything involved with my education at penn state. But they told me and my brothers early on that nothing was going to be bought for us and we were going to have to work for the things we wanted just like my dad had to. I’ve worked very hard ever since middle school and have made a lot of money for myself to buy the things that I needed or wanted. To this day my parents have never bought anything for me just for the hell of it. Over the last six years or so I have made enough money where I could have paid to go to college by myself. Maybe not penn state but definitely somewhere. So I tend to lean slightly towards conservatism because I know that it is possible to work hard and make enough money to go to college on your own. This kind of brings me to another point in that I think it is a flaw in our education system today that it is so hard for kids to pay their own way through college. When my dad was in college a lot of kids were able to pay for themselves but over the past 30 years college has become so expensive that it is very hard to pay for by yourself. I think this really sucks because there is definitely something to be said for being able to pay for your own education. Personally I would really like to be able to work for and pay for everything involved in my penn state education, but it would be very difficult and would probably take time away from my studies. I think in a lot of ways society has conditioned us to take the “free will” point of view. I don’t think there’s any other way to explain the vast differences in funding between inner-city schools and suburban schools. The clip from oprah is pretty astounding because clearly there is way more money going to the suburban school as opposed to the city school.

The thing I really don’t understand about the whole Confederate flag issue is that the flag represents something that happened hundreds of years ago. I don’t understand why people fly their Confederate flags and talk about how great the Confederacy was when they, or anyone they’ve ever known for that mater, weren’t even alive at that time. Plus the Confederacy not only lost the war, they were a mess politically and economically, and caused widespread poverty in the south for years after the war. To me that doesn’t really seem like something to be proud of. When you fly a Confederate flag, to me, you are supporting everything that the Confederacy believed in, most obviously of course was slavery. I don’t see how you can say that you’re not racist or don’t support slavery if you’re flying a Confederate flag because when you do that you’re saying you support and believe in everything it stood for. Someone earlier talked about how when someone displays a Nazi symbol, they are saying that they believe in everything that the Nazi regime stood for. Displaying that symbol is unacceptable in our society because the people who were behind it were racist and arrogant and enslaved and killed millions of people simply because of their race or heritage. The people behind the Confederacy were no different. They were people who believed that others were inferior to them simply because of their race, and believed that they had a right to enslave other human beings. Having said this I don’t understand why flying a Confederate flag is acceptable in our society because of the things that it stood for in its time. A lot of people will say that the flag simply represents the southern culture and pride in the south. And while southern culture is a far cry from what it was in the 1800s, you can’t deny that the Confederate flag also represents what the southern culture was when widespread slavery and racism did exist. Personally I wish that the government would abolish the Confederate flag, or at least prohibit people from flying it outside public buildings. Its also funny because a lot of southern people, and usually those who fly Confederate flags, are patriotic and are proud to be American. With that being said, If you support America then flying a Confederate flag is somewhat of an oxymoron since it represents such a dark and divided time in American history. To me it is impossible to support the United States as it exists today and at the same time fly a Confederate flag. I think theres a lot of other ways that southerners could show pride in their culture besides flying Confederates flags

I think the main reason that God has always been perceived as a male is because the people who wrote the Scriptures were almost always male, so it was natural for them to portray God as a male figure. I went to a Catholic high school and one of my religion teachers always talked about this subject, why God is portrayed as a male. The analogy he made was that God was basically an image of Santa Clause. He is portrayed as an old man with a long white beard who is always watching over humanity, making sure you are being good, and in the end he rewards you for good behavior. While this analogy is just humorous, its interesting because it points out how flawed the image of God has become over the years. The truth is no one knows what God is, or what he/she looks like, and no one ever will. I personally believe that God is a being that no human can fully understand, so I try not to think about God as a man or woman, although it is hard not to. But really there isn't any way yo can say that God is male or female, black or white, or any race for that matter. I just think its best to concede to the fact that God is something that no human can never understand. I believe only when you die and see God face to face will you be able to grasp what he/she really is and how he/she works. I think it would be interesting though to talk to a priest or minister, etc. and refer to God as she just to see their reaction. I agree with Sam that not only would they think it was weird, but they would probably tell you that its incorrect to call God she. Of course their is no legitimate proof that can say God is male or female. When you think about it though, the traits of God, especially those given to him by Jesus, are very much woman-like, or mother-like. Jesus portrays God as an extremely loving and totally forgiving being, traits that in most societies would be attributed to females, and more specifically mothers. It seems like the image and portrayal of God has changed as society has changed. In BC, woman were looked down upon and men were dominant in society. The community often punished people when they committed crimes, and in this times God was viewed as a man who would punish those who defied his orders. But when Jesus came around, he preached that all people should be treated with respect, and thus the portrayal of God changed to a more loving and forgiving figure. I think as our society changes and becomes more accepting to all people, God's image could again change.