I really enjoyed this lecture. It was really cool to hear from someone whom most of us would never get the opportunity to talk to. Someone who is currently in Iraq and just getting to ask him whatever we want and hear what he has to say was just really cool. This really made me think with how I think about people from Iraq and just how the news portrays people. He was such a nice and intelligent man who is completely normal. Its horrible that most of us when thinking of someone who is from Iraq or any of those countries that are associated with terrorism is to automatically think oh that country is bad or those people are horrible. Its not everyone though and it breaks my heart that there are SO many nice people and “normal” people just like us who aren’t completely anti American, and they just want to live their life just like we do.
I thought the questions that were asked were perfect like are we over there for oil, what’s the weather, what does your food taste like, what are the American soldiers like over there. I wish we could have seen him talking it would have been easier to understand they probably should have tried skype! Other than that though this was a great job on Sams part and to definitely have guest speakers like this in upcoming classes because It really changed my perspective on things and what I think. It’d be cool to show our families this lecture just so they can hear what this man has to say. I like how he mentioned how he had a Jewish friend and he had no idea until 3 months later and he had no problem at all with that. Its so nice to hear that he was just so open to everything and he hopes the best for everyone and doesn’t want war or all of this nonsense to effect our lives. I wish more people could be like him and he definitely outshines ANY stereotypical Iraqi. This was one of my favorite classes and it made me happy to hear such a nice man speak and really let us get a feel for what he is like and his thoughts of current situations . Very very interesting and I am happy we got to talk with him!!

I thought the telephone demonstration was funny and interesting to see it done in a different way by using a full story instead of a simple word that’s normally done during this game. I wasn’t apart of the demonstration but even just sitting and listening to the story the first time I was confused like at first it’s a lot to read and take in for one time and than be told to repeat it. It was a very detailed story with names and different settings. The first girl did a good job re telling it from what she could remember from quickly reading it the one time.
I noticed that each time ( I don’t know if it was intentional) it was like a white person than black person alternating each time coming out to listen to the story. I don’t really think any, which left parts out any more than the other. I think people do sugar coat stuff or just I think in that setting we did have very little time so it was more rushed. I think its funny that though in real life when people spread gossip this is how it works because from one person to another SO much critical information can be left out. In this particular story by the end all that was remembered was scuffle and a tv breaking a someone wanting a certain room.
This is a great way to show that many people shorten and alter most things that are heard and people just aren’t ever fully paying attention which is pathetic when you think about it. Just a simple exercise can show how our society is and how most people change things so easily.
I really liked his lecture he was a funny guy and the couple exercises we did in class really show how people handle situations. I know this wasn’t part of the question but no one seemed to talk about the exercise about choosing your mom , significant other, or kid to save. I loved how we were able to hear the responses of different people and of why they would choose that person to save. Its interesting to me how we value children the most and their lives where as other countries have different values and rather save their mother who lived a full life over an innocent “child” . INTERESTING! The house exercise was amusing too , and seeing depending on where you are from and what you consider a house or front yard. I liked seeing those examples as well. I enjoyed this class a lot!

The video that had the biggest impact on me in class the other day would definitely be the American soldiers running over those peoples car. Taking their tank and crushing the Iraqi’s car completely running over it multiple times and shouting horrible comments while doing it. The people who stole the wood ( which isn’t a big deal) were doing it for nothing else other than to keep warm. Like mentioned in class obviously not EVERYONE in the military has a heart of gold and is nice there are plenty of assholes that serve and this stuff probably does happen more than we know. This was disgusting to see someone representing this country do something so disgusting and awful. It was like Oh we are bigger and better than you and we have control so here we go! I think they should be setting an example and obviously not belittle and destruct people’s property. To do that to take our their own anger of having a bad day or whatever is going through their mind to do that , I cant comprehend.
Anyway no matter how much I despise some of these countries and what they do to their own people I don’t think its right to do something that destructive to someone who obviously doesn’t come from a lot and their only way they were making money was by that car they have. This car obviously wasn’t something people over there can just get so it was sad at the end of the clip how it said and this man was a taxi driver that car was how he made his living.
On the news they would never show that clip of an American solider doing something like that and I am happy to know when Sam said I am sure when a sergeant or whoever is above them sees this video or sees other videos of people doing awful things like this to the people in other countries they will get in trouble.
We obviously don’t know what happened to the people who took part in this but it does show you we have some real assholes in our country as well. I think everyone is doing something wrong and were all at fault but to see such behavior from our “lovely” country is just horrible. I would love to know how much of this stuff really does go on and if anyone has a handle on it or do these people actually get in serious trouble.

I loved the picture that Laurie pointed out to us with the heels and the way the foot was positioned. It was funny to think that’s really how a lot of us girls walk around. I personally do wear heals most the time when I go out. I think its fun to dress up. My boyfriend doesn’t go to this school so it’s not like I am doing it for anyone I just kind of like getting dressed up I think its fun. Is it not the most comfortable thing to do walking around in heals, ABSOLUTELY not. I love love love shoes though so I do really like to dress like that. I however do think its hilarious how they pointed out how we dress up in tiny little outfits and wear absolutely no jacket when its 20 degrees outside. It is the most ridiculous thing to see when you think about it. I HAVE done it though. The only reason why I have not worn a jacket is because it’s annoying to carry around in the bars until I realized you can check your coat! So now I bring a jacket. I have seen girls walk around in tiny little skirts when it was snowing out and its ridiculous. I do think it is put in our heads that girls usually dress up to go out and boys going out clothes are obviously jeans and whatever. I have mixed feelings about this topic. I personally like dressing up but at the same time I would love to wear comfy clothes too I guess. I wouldn’t go out on a Friday night in sweat pants and a big T-shirt that’s just not what you do.
The opinion of Sam and Laurie didn’t offend me at all and I think its great and really funny how they pointed out so many things that are so true. We are all ridiculous but that’s how we are, that’s how our generation is and I feel like its not going to change. I don’t think what was said should offend anyone, and if anything its something to think about. I see guys dress up too though. Guys dressing up could be nice jeans, shoes, a collard shirt. Guys deck them selves out like girls do too so I think the same goes for men and women. Why is there a need for it I guess you could ask. Its interesting to think about.

I think there are a lot of factors for dating outside your race especially when you are white. I personally do not think it is a big deal at all what so ever but a lot of people do. I think its looked down upon more when a white male or female is dating a non “white” person. I think if your Spanish and dating black guy or Asian and dating a black girl its not as big of a deal. I think this is true because if you are not “white” you are considered a minority so if a minority is dating a minority it does not matter as much as if it was a white person and someone who wasn’t white.
I know most “white” parents today would be a little shocked if their son or daughter brought home a black guy or girl Not intentionally being racists I think parents are not always okay with it because of how they were brought up and what they are comfortable with. I give interracial couples a lot of credit. Good for them because it shouldn’t matter at all but people just seem to have such a problem with it. From reading other peoples responses from previous blogs I saw many people writing that their parents would disown them or would not be too happy about them bringing someone home who was “black, spanish and so on” . Even just in class I feel like though we talk about how its wrong to judge people just because of their skin color SO many people do.
For example Khloe Kardashian is dating Lama Odom .. that family is known for dating black guys. I do hear remarks at times oh they only like black guys or they would date a black guy doesn’t surprise me. It’s interesting how people react when you see an interracial couple together. I was on a plane not too long ago going to LA and in front of me on the plane was a Basketball Player a very very tall black guy ( I forget what team) anyway his girlfriend was this little petite blond girl they were so cute together but him obviously sticking out in the crowd and being so tall and his little blonde white girlfriend they stuck out. You could just see the looks they were getting when on the plane and when off the plane. It was like people thought oh look theirs his little trophy wife. Its not too often you see a white blonde girl with a tall black guy. I think because you don’t see this too often people aren’t as comfortable with it.
One of my best friends older brother lived in Japan for a year and works there now. He recently came back home to the states and his girlfriend came to visit ( she obviously from Japan) they are in a serious relationship. He is a white guy and she is Japanese. At first when I saw them together I thought in my head oh interesting! Just because I am not use to that combination of people dating, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with them being together. I wish the world wasn’t so concerned about what your religion is or what color your skin is because in the end IT DOES NOT MATTER!

I found this article to be extremely interesting just like everyone else. I saw in the CNN article it mentioned “unlucky winners have been featured in documentaries such as E!'s "Curse of the Lottery.” I have actually seen this air many times and its fascinating to hear peoples stories who come from these small towns all around the country who come from nothing to millions. Winning the lottery is this dream that most people have “ oh what if you won a million dollars” “ I hope I win the lottery one day” the lottery is so sensationalized and not to say its overrated but I feel sometimes it could do more harm than good. There are so many jealous people out there in this world and from just watching all these crazy stories it is horrible what happens just because someone won.
I use to watch Lost and one of the characters in Lost won the lottery and that’s when things in his life started to go wrong and people started to use him and everything around him went horrible. It just reminded me of this topic and another example of it going bad. In the CNN article it talked about the good story of how the lottery did someone good so they could send their family member to a procedure that was needed and pay of bills and help other family members.
Not to long ago I was just having a conversation with my dad and I said what would you do if you won the lottery. My dad said well depends how much I would pay of all my mortgage payments, college, all those payments as well as my close friends so they don’t have any debts. I thought that was really nice that he would pay off close friends of his debts. What I don’t agree with is when hearing stories about peoples family and friends asking for money and all the sudden bombarding you just because they know you have money now.
In 5th grade I had a project to do what would you do with a million dollars. We had to make a power point and presentation with every little thing we would buy with a million dollars down to the last penny. ( very intense for that grade) at that time when I think about it now its funny from what was important to me than and being so young how I would spend my millions.
I think people need to be content with what they have in life because money absolutely does not buy happiness. From reading even just that CNN article and watching that E true story on the lottery it was horrible to see all the vandalism done to these poor families who just want to live there life. To be afraid to be in your own home and have to run away from where you came from because you won a game is not right. There are a lot of crazy people in this world and I think people need to be more content with that they have.

This is a interesting question and interesting experiment the other day in class. We actually talked a little bit about this in my group the other day. I thought that it was funny to see what people thought and it was an interesting experiment to think about , but I thought it would be even better if someone had a hidden camera in an open area where you could really see people contemplating where to sit as they look around the room . Maybe at an assembly or a place where seats are not assigned and you can see people standing looking around where they should sit, it would probably be more accurate since they wouldn’t know they were being watched.
In this experiment we did in class I feel like they obviously were like “ wait just sit down?” and everyone is watching so if it was me up there I would have just sat in the middle. That is basically what everyone did. I don’t think they were really choosing where to sit it was just like I guess ill sit here. The other thing is that there were only one chair in between each person so if someone sat down they were really sitting in between two people so it was uncertain of whom they actually wanted to sit next to, but for class purposes it was a good.
In this class I just sit in the same seat every time with my friend I could care less who sits next to me I don’t feel uncomfortable. I never really thought about it this way but maybe I probably have self-consciously thought about it some time in my life oh I should sit here or I should sit there based on who was sitting there and didn’t really realize it.
Its funny how in class Sam said “Asians” are the safe place to go when in doubt. I could see that being true in a way that people may see them being right in the middle like this is a safe place to sit. It sounds so wrong but I guess that is true sometimes. It was interesting how the black girl sat next to the black girl and Sam figured that would happen that they would “stick together” . I think this experiment can show people what a lot of us do and I really do like seeing all these different experiments to show us how we do classify people, feel about people, and self consciously do things that we don’t even realize as well as judge. We all judge people and its amusing to see Sam who has no problem calling someone out, or saying things that non of us would say. Its great though because someone needs to talk about it.

This is a good point to bring up ,and in my recent group discussion we talked about this . I think that in the media they are always showing a black/colored people being arrested and they are always being portrayed as causing a fight, act of violence or going to jail. I definitely think where you live has a big impact on the amount of police that are around. A lot of good points were brought up in my group and in some situations “whites” got away with a lot more than any other black neighborhoods or neighborhoods that were “un safe”
I think that there are a lot of un safe places to live lets say people see the projects in New York as an unsafe place to live compared to the upper east side in Manhattan. There is going to be more police watching over the projects probably due to drugs, or act of violence that are noted. Does it mean that there are no drugs in the wealthier parts of the city… absolutely not. Money has a lot to do with it. As brought up in my group a lot of us that go to schools in wealthier areas there are so many drugs going around. Kids have the money for it and can get away with it more either because they are white or as someone in my group said “ their parents can just pay them to get out of the trouble they are in” In some cases that is true. I do see being white does have its advantages because you are stereotyped less in the big picture.
Where I go to school it is a mostly white school, but the cops are everywhere. People are constantly getting pulled over, drug tested, questioned, watched over. It seems like there is nothing else better to do than to sit around and wait for someone to go over the speed limit. There is a careful watch where I live even though I do not live in a bad area at all. Not all just “ghetto”, “poor” areas are the places that have the most police only targeting blacks and arresting them. There are cases every day where people are targeted just because they are of a different ethnicity, and in some cases treated different when arrested. Some times charges are harsher. Some people in our group brought up cases where people were doing drugs in a bathroom and the police let them go. It was white cops and white kids. What if this was reversed … would the kids be let go too? Its an interesting topic to talk about and think about. I think the media has a big part in stereotyping a group to be the “bad guys” They’re police everywhere not just in urban areas but though blacks aren’t the only ones targeted out there it is constantly portrayed that way.

While reading Remember I felt so sorry for this man. For so many reasons it is so wrong to feel sorry for him but its amazing what one stupid decision one drunken night can cause and how much you have to lose. “I cannot remember the last time I heard from a woman I dated, was friends with, loved, or thought I loved, or the one I married.” This is so horrible to never hear from people you loved or thought loved you back. To have no one there for you anymore and finally understanding why you deserve where you are.
“I cannot remember the last time someone in authority saw me as a man, not a number.” You are not respected anymore, no one cares about what you need, what is going through your head, how sad you are, or how sorry you really are.
The things that will stick with this man forever is the pain that he has caused so many people who loved him as well as all the people who are hurt by him. He will live the rest of his life re playing what happened and never being able to fix it. It is such a sad situation and I think it is inspiring to see someone who is serving life and to hear how they have changed, what their thoughts are and how stupid his decision was. While reading someone else’s post I noticed they wrote instead of having a surprise 50th birthday in 2 years he will be behind bars with nothing. No friends, no one to call him by his first name and think he is anyone important. You are just another person in line to get food in the cafeteria. It is heart breaking to read this and think about how many people go through this everyday and also heart breaking that someone on the other side is just as affected as he is.
I was kind of curious what actually happened, my first thoughts were drunk car accident or something even though that’s not really the point of this story. This line really gets me at the end when he says “can remember that tears, sorrow, repentance and remorse cannot change what I’ve done.
I can remember that to society, I’ve gotten what I deserve, and am worthless.” To hear someone say that about themselves is just I don’t even know what to say. This really is a touching “poem” if you call it that, and in little words gets the point across of how this man lives his daily life for the rest of his life.
In high school for one of my classes we had inmates come in and talk to us. They were in jail for a variety of different reasons , can’t remember if it was life, but they came to talk about what its like, the things they were put in for and how its affected them. I think when people read this it will teach them something about life and not take what you have for granted.

This was a good question. In my world in conversation group I had to do in the beginning of the year we talked about this and it was really interesting since my group was really diverse boys and girls and every one of us was really a different ethnicity. I think that people choose to hang out with people of their own race most of the time is because that’s what they feel comfortable doing. It can be the type of music they listen to, or what they are interested in doing.
My school growing up was mostly white but there was definitely diversity. I noticed that yes a lot of white people would hang out with white people and black people hung out with black people, or “wiggers” if you would call it that. They were kind of the bad ass’s like you wouldn’t want to “mess with them” . I am friends with all type of different people and I get along with everyone. I am friends with people with all different types of backgrounds. I have black friends that you would classify though not politically correct the “whitest black kid you would ever meet” what does that really mean though? “Super preppy, wasn’t ghetto, and didn’t really hang out with black people.” Its fascinating in this class how we do bring this up and what does it mean to be white, or black, or Asian, Spanish and so on? There is absolutely no good reason why people choose to hang out with only people who look like them.
A better reason to hang out with someone would be because you get along, you are interested in the same things, you like to do the same things on weekends and you don’t let your beliefs get in the middle, or care what other people think . In my conversation group earlier in the year that was required to do there was an Asian kid in my group who was an exchange student here and though very quiet we were interested in who he hung out with and why. We asked was in the language barrier where it was uncomfortable to talk to other people because they may not understand you? That could be it I could see if you were an exchange student from another country and you come to this big school and find other Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and so on students that share the same language as you ( as an example).
For people that are Americans here where we all speak English yet we still have our barriers up. We are all the same no matter what color we are or what we eat at home , or shop were not different just because we have a different color on the outside. I think people are afraid to befriend people outside of what they are comfortable with because they may not be use to it, comfortable or not from a diverse area. Very interesting to think about though and its really just an open question where there could be hundreds of reasons and it really just depends on the person.