en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/5342394 Comments by mcs5382 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-213/#IDComment505293028 Before this class, I barely thought about what could drive me to kill another person. I never put that scenario into my mind really, but as we were answering the clicker question, I realized that I could almost without question say I’d do it if my family or friends were at risk. Needless to say, I would mostly likely be able to if I was put in a situation of self defense as well. It would almost be like a natural instinct to survive.. I am only assuming this though because thankfully I’ve never been put in either of those types of situations. Hopefully I never will be. I don’t know how it would effect me afterwards, I just know I’d most likely be able to do it. Honestly, I can’t think of a scenario I’d be able to kill in otherwise. I’m not for the death penalty. I think it’s wrong to take another person’s life, even if they’re a murderer, or a child molester, or someone like Hitler. Sure, the world would be a better place without them… but I don’t believe in killing for revenge. I’m more for the whole life in prison thing. Why? Because I think it’s worse of a punishment for bad people. I think a murderer rotting in jail for the rest of their life is way worse than just killing them. Think about it. I’d much rather die than rot in jail… But that’s just me personally. I go for what I think the crueler revenge approach would be. A life of the same. The jail would have to be horrible though, with lots of chances for them to be harassed by the other prisoners and guards. That’s the perfect way for people like Hitler to spend their existence. Dying isn’t a harsh enough punishment, in my opinion. I think that makes me crueler than people that are for the death penalty, for people that could easily be driven to kill someone out of revenge. Other than for revenge or punishment, I cant really think of a real scenario that could drive me to kill. I don’t see how other people can just kill out of hate. It’s actually a scary thought that there are people that have a hate so large they would kill those that they feel are a part of that group. I like to think if I were living in Germany during the Holocaust, I wouldn’t have been on Hitler’s bandwagon. I know people did it because they didn’t know better…kind of like how we just follow fashion trends and customs of our society without question. But I still don’t think I’d be for that. I don’t think I ever could. Who knows for sure though..People have done incredibly horrible things out of hate fueled by stupidity. Fri, 30 Nov 2012 06:02:30 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-213/#IDComment505293028 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/11/voices-from-the-classroom-206/#IDComment491554699 Yes, I would say that mans actions are absolutely a model of Jesus. I was astonished at the selflessness he employed in giving to the hungry. I know if I was in the same situation I would not be doing that, and it blow my mind he puts so much time and effort into helping others. This just goes to show you how the law and what is right can conflict. How are we supposed to feel about this man? He is an illegal immigrant, and he is helping illegal immigrants prosper in our country. Many of us don’t want them here. They “shouldn’t be here” technically, and yet we respect this man and what he does for them. I liked the video. It gave faces to these people many of us hate without even knowing or thinking about. We don’t consider their problems, turmoil, strife, and all the suffering they’ve endured to make it here. We just hate them because they “take our jobs”. Well, now they have a face. They have families. The have names and lives and stories. When we see them suffering and starving on camera, it’s funny how we can realize life is about so much more the national barriers and identities and borders. In the end, we are all people. The man who feeds these people in need is truly acting as Jesus would in the same situation. Jesus embraced the sinners, he embraces the illegal immigrants. In the end we are all people. Who’s to say what we would do in their shoes? We need to stop thinking so selfishly. We need to stop casting stones. Yes, it’s illegal. Yes, it causes problems. But now that they’re here, I’m glad they’re not starving. I’m happy people like the night-feeder exist. Realistically, illegal immigration is a problem, but what’s hard is solving it using less cruelty. The conditions at the border are absolutely absurd. Hearing that our TA Eric was shot at while trying to get here really made the situation real.. That’s not ok, even if they are coming here illegally. They are still people. Society is guilty of some pretty messed up things. I don’t know what a solution to this problem is though. It would be easy to say “peace, love, no barriers, no nations!!” , but let’s be real. It’ll never happen. That’s not our reality. SO how do we make our reality better? I have absolutely no idea. Especially because when it comes down to it, people are selfish. Your own needs and YOUR own family are what’s important. If YOU’RE doing well, a lot of the time it’s easier to keep things the way they are. No initiative will be made, though it needs to be. Same old story. Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:03:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/11/voices-from-the-classroom-206/#IDComment491554699 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/06/voices-from-the-classroom-204/#IDComment484402112 Tuesday’s class definitely touched on an interesting topic. Despite scientific evidence, people STILL hold on to the idea that homosexuality is a choice gay people make of their own accord, separated from physical and emotional feelings. According to the people that hold on to this idea, gays choose to feel this way, they choose, purposely, to love members of the same sex. The only explanations I can thing of as to why people ignore scientific research that proves this fact is not true is that they choose to be in the dark of this new found knowledge. It makes them feel better in judging people and being uncomfortable with homosexuality when the people that are gay CHOOSE to be that way. Since they think it’s unnatural, or wrong, they call it a choice in order to justify their lack of acceptance of homosexuality. It makes them feel bad about themselves to know they are uncomfortable with something people can’t help; if it’s the way someone was born, judging them based on it is pretty much equivalent to the ideas behind racism. Nobody wants to be labeled as close-minded or not accepting even if that is his or her true nature. It has a negative connotation in our society, much like racism is no longer accepted. I feel like that definitely plays into why people deny the research; they are in denial of their own close-mindedness. People keep to their thoughts even if proven wrong because it’s easier than them changing themselves to be more accepting. As a result, they blame others. They blame the people who are different because of their own insecurities of breaking from the social norms. It’s sad, it doesn’t make sense, but people do it all the time on a number of issues. It’s hard to break a belief you’ve been raised on a stuck to your whole life. Expecting others not to be different is just easier for people to deal with than admitting to themselves they need to change their thought process, and then effectively doing so. Nobody likes to admit his or her wrong because we’re a stubborn species. In addition, it also undermines many religious beliefs. Take Christianity for instance. The Church says homosexuality is sin. They don’t support it, and they refuse accept the joining of two people of the same sex in marriage. It’s in the Bible that a man and a woman must wed to reproduce, but at the same time it should be based on love – so where does homosexuality come into play? It doesn’t work. SO it’s a sin. So is the Bible wrong? The Church says no. It’s a major factor of their religion, and they can’t acknowledge the holder of their underlying beliefs as wrong, therefore, science is wrong. So we’re stuck in a limbo of what is fact based on conflicting beliefs. Where does that leave us? In denial. In the dark. Thu, 8 Nov 2012 21:58:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/06/voices-from-the-classroom-204/#IDComment484402112 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-201/#IDComment478361203 When Sam brought up the issue of abortion today I class, it really evoked some deep thought. As someone who holds a very strong pro-life stance, I must say the issue of rape has always been difficult to think about when it comes to being pro life. If it were my sister, or my child who got raped, how would I react? Well, rape is obviously a horrible thing. It’s also hard to imagine how the victim would feel about hosting a child from the rape – a constant reminder of the violation the experienced and the disregard of them as a person with feelings, rights, and the need for respect. The other thing that’s hard to think about is how it would affect them emotionally and physically. It’s true, it would be INCREDIBLY painful to watch someone close to me go through the torture of pregnancy and delivery of a child that they did not choose to conceive with a person who they probably are afraid of and despise. Yes, it’s almost impossible to think it would be fair to think the women had to deliver this child. Yes, it would affect them –negatively, almost certainly. However, I am still pro life. As I think about it from the perspective of this happening to me, my sister, my child, or if I was a guy, my wife, the thought of hosting this baby almost makes me sick. I understand completely why people support abortion in this case, and I have incredible sympathy for the women this happens to. However, I am still pro life. Although I do not know anyone personally who has had to deal with this decision, and I hope to God this never ever happens to anyone I know, I still cannot say I think its right or ok to abort the child. I understand why people do it, and I sympathize, but I still don’t think they should. I may seem to lack empathy for the victims of rape by saying this. But I just can’t view abortion as anything but killing an innocent baby. To me, I believe a child exists at conception. I know it’s a horrible burden to carry for the victim of the rape to carry. I know they didn’t choose to have a child and I know it must be horrible for them to have that reminder of the rape. But the child should not have to be a victim to. In my opinion, it must be HORRIBLE to have to birth this child, but they baby did not rape the women. It’s not like the baby is evil, it’s not like they baby did anything wrong. It just formed. The father did a horrible thing, but the baby should not have to die for this reason. I say this from the perspective of my mom being adopted. What if her mother chose abortion? Adoption is always an option. The women are not obligated to keep the baby. Although it’s tragic to think they have to bare this burden for 9 months and deal with the effects for a lifetime, they don’t have to keep it. The child can live. Fri, 2 Nov 2012 04:10:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-201/#IDComment478361203 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/24/voices-from-the-classroom-193/#IDComment472228995 Sam telling us our beliefs are based off of misinformation is really hard for me to wrap my head around. It’s a weird feeling to hear that everything you’ve been told you’re whole life, everything you’ve come to accept as reality, and everything you’ve never questioned the truth of is now up for debate. It makes me question the validity of every aspect of our society. How can we just accept things that aren’t based off of fact? How did this happen, and more importantly WHY didn’t people question the statements more when initial belief systems were starting to form. I don’t understand why this wasn’t taken care of during early stages of beliefs forming. New technologies are now available they didn’t have in the past, which could obviously disprove what used to be considered “fact”, but the problem seems to stem much more deeply than that. People are so naïve. They believe everything they hear; especially when it justifies differences. In one of our assigned articles, it talked about how racism was basically an invention. It talked about how everyone just followed some random philosophers opinion of white skin being better than dark skin, and that was the start of racial discrimination. After that, white superiority was established. Just like that. People just took what he said as law, without question, and it wasn’t based on anything but his own twisted opinion. Because of THAT a history of racism was born? That’s insane. It’s sickening. Although it’s sad to know so many beliefs are based on misinformation, it’s actually not even all that surprising. People do the same thing when following politics, or when discriminating against different religious groups, different races, different cultures, etc. Basically, whenever people aren’t exactly the same, a discriminatory group pops up. Why? Because of ignorance, lack of exposure, and lack of acceptance. People choose to remain close-minded because it’s easier than trying to deal with and accept differences. It’s much easier to characterize people on “facts” that fit within our own frame of mind and thinking. It’s hard to question, so people choose to remain in the dark. And, for the most part, we’re all ok with it. We’re ok with it because it’s too hard to dissect a history of lies. It’s too time consuming to try to get to the truth. Opening your mind is hard. It can be emotional, too, especially when you’re experiencing support your misinformation. We need to broaden our minds, but it’s difficult when we’re so content where we are. Why change a good thing? If we’re happy, we can justify our misinformation as being truth. But, if we’re dissatisfied or we’re the victims of misinformation, we’d feel the urgency to make changes most likely. It’s such a deep concept. It’s hard to put it into words, but I tried my best! Thu, 25 Oct 2012 05:05:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/24/voices-from-the-classroom-193/#IDComment472228995 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/16/voices-from-the-classroom-188/#IDComment465705295 Sam doing the land exercise with us today really opened my eyes to the bigger picture behind the Native American land controversy. At the beginning, I understood why the first generation Native Americans had a right to the land that was forcefully taken from them; after all, it was there’s to begin with and I believe they had first priority over getting it back. However, they did not get to experience the luxury of fair, ethical legal procedures, so their losses were merely forgotten. That is unfair. That shouldn’t have happened, and it’s a shame. But as the guest in class said today, “what’s done is done”. All we can do is try to mend the wrongs of the past. Before hearing him speak, it was really hard for me to understand how the sons and daughters of Native American children could feel entitled to land that they never even had the opportunity to live on, and the fact that the grandchildren of these Native American landowners felt the same way made me even more skeptical of the grounds they had to still be angry at the white men (aka us). After all, it’s not like I pushed them off their land. The grandchildren of those who it was taken from feeling as though I needed to give it back to them because of an ethical duty to make things right appeared way beyond my scope of power and desire… But I was unfamiliar with the struggles their people deal with now. To be honest, even after hearing about them, I still can’t bring myself to feel responsible for their current turmoil. I feel bad because they are good people with a beautiful culture, and I want to help them. On top of that, it is undeniable that the government has treated them unfairly throughout history. We need to help them somehow; but we are torn because this land has now become ours. Can we share? I don’t know. So much historic tension exists between our societies it may be impossible. We can try. But honestly, throughout the majority of the lecture (especially when the guest speaker was talking about the white men), I felt the presence of an underlying hate for my people projected through the air. I felt it projected at me. While I understand where it stems from, I still personally find it difficult to build up the desire within myself to go out and actively try to negotiate with a people that I feel dislike me for reasons beyond my control – my heritage. I find this especially hard when I have no need for the negotiations, but they do. I was struggling with these feelings the majority of the lecture. I know it sounds selfish and immature, but we all have our feelings. It wasn’t until hearing “don’t drink the water” by Dave Matthews that I really felt the need to step back and get out of my dog-eat-dog world mindset. My personal feelings and everything aside, when people need help we, as a national community, need to do something. So, let’s do it. Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:31:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/16/voices-from-the-classroom-188/#IDComment465705295 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/10/voices-from-the-classroom-180/#IDComment460405666 Determinism vs. free will.. you know, I never really thought about it until today’s class. I was a huge advocate of free will being the driving force behind everything. But Sam is so right. You absolutely cannot separate circumstances, situations, and opportunity from the way people turn out. The example he used in class about grades on he exam displayed it perfectly… we really need to look at the bigger picture and learn how to think deeper into what people are going through. And we need to relate this BACK to free will. Yes, it’s true in the end it comes down to making your own choice (to study more, to work harder, etc), but what about the people who just had it harder to begin with? What if my high school didn’t prepare me well? What if someone in my family had health problems and needed my attention so I couldn’t focus? What if I had a health problem that deterred me from being successful? We are capable of making our own dreams come true, but it is a lot easier for some people. Some people, myself included, are just lucky in the circumstances presented to us in our lives. Other have it rougher. Sam’s talk got me thinking about people from third world countries, and how they’re lives are CLEARLY driven by determinism. Yes, they can choose to try and live successful, happy lives. However, realistically speaking, they will NEVER be presented with the opportunities we have in American. Why? Because of the society they were born into. Because of fate, in a way. Because they are from a different part of the world, a different culture. They are, in a way, on a completely different wavelength then us in America, at Penn State, in this class. They can choose by their own free will to make all the right choices to be successful, but who’s to say what will end up happening to them. It’s not that we worked harder; it’s the factors of determinism preventing them from reaching the success possible for American-born people to achieve. They have no economy to enter into, no business to rely on. We just need to network and work hard, while they either need to leave their home countries or develop a business plan for their nation themselves, working from the bottom up. As hard as it is to admit, we are luckier; we have more opportunity in our society. We are born with a better chance. I never thought about it using such a wide-ranging perspective until now. Sam really opened my eyes as to how determinism plays an undeniable role in everyones life, no matter how much we hate to admit it. Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:06:51 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/10/voices-from-the-classroom-180/#IDComment460405666 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/03/voices-from-the-classroom-176/#IDComment454199782 I was not surprised that the white guy and the Asian were so high above on the financial food chain than the blacks and Hispanics. Someone in class mentioned it was a product of being born into money. Other people said it was because of the areas that Hispanics and black people grow up in. It may have a lot to do with the cultural influences they must deal with to “fit in” with the large majority of their race even if they are born into money. I personally believe culture is one of the biggest factors involved. Through out history, from the time white people were being white people in Europe and before America was even established as a nation, the Protestant/Catholic work ethic was notorious for wanting to work hard and make money. White people have historically wanted to be on top of the system: the kind of the castle, the first to innovate, the first to succeed. Asian countries have hopped on the bandwagon, too. All the industrialization and westernization in China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. is a sign they’ve got money on their mind. It’s all about the competition for white and Asian people it seems; success is measured in dollar signs, not in relationships built. This is completely historically different from Hispanic culture; they’ve, according to history, traditionally based their wealth and success off the social connections they’ve made. They’re primarily about networking and being held in high regard by people in their community. They value friends in high places, or high classes, more than they value the money or innovation side of success. Black cultures seem to behave similarly, though I admittedly know a lot more about Hispanic history thanks to my Latin American Politics class. But, from the little I do know about African cultures, they seem primarily concerned with personal relationships and building relationships and alliances with people – in their villages, or other clans. They seem more involved with the success and identity of the whole community, not the individual, which is definitely not they way white people like to do things. I don’t know if this idea is just of historical significance, meaning things are completely different now in modern societies, but this idea makes a lot of sense in my mind. After Sam was playing out the King of the Castle example, it seemed more alive than ever. Another reason for the wealth gap I was toying around with had to be with physical appearances: Do employers think white people or Asian people are better workers? Is it all a mindset? Do they think white people look more willing to get the job done, more cutthroat in the business world? Is it they think Asians are smarter, and can handle the academic stresses of high paying jobs? I wonder who would get the job if a black or Hispanic person applied to the same position as a white person on Asian with the same qualifications. That would be an interesting study. Wed, 3 Oct 2012 05:51:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/10/03/voices-from-the-classroom-176/#IDComment454199782 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/25/im-wondering-how-i-would-see-things-if-i-walked-in-this-mans-shoes/#IDComment450063516 I don’t know if I can really put what I’m feeling about this into words right now, but here goes nothing. I’m appalled and in disbelief that the United States – the people we live among – would choose to torture other people. I wonder: what was it that made these Americans able to harass and beat these prisoners? Obviously, it was probably pent up hatred for the entire Middle Eastern community for the lives lost on 9/11. But why on earth can people let their anger over that event cause a hatred for basically an entire continent of people. I guess it’s easy to hate them all and group them as the same. When you have more to hate, you probably feel like you have more to fight for and stand against. It makes you cause, which is the most important to you, appear even more important in your mind. But what we forget is REAL people are facing the consequences of this hate, and giving them a reason to do the same thing to us. Should this man now go on to group all Americans as the reason he lost 5 years of his life to brutality, conviction, and uncertainty? He could easily come back with a vengeance, and we could easily be unknowingly fueling the terrorist groups in the Middle East by giving the innocent people there a reason to think these terrorists groups are right in wanting to destroy us. I’m glad that this does not appear to be the path this man is taking, and I am even more surprised he agreed to tell his story to us as Americans through news coverage. I think I’d be afraid of what else the United States government would do to me, or I just wouldn’t want to spur any more recognition or contact with the people who imprisoned me. That takes a lot of courage, and I admire this man for being brave enough to tell his story and see through the fact that we are not a faceless nation – we have differing opinions about the Middle East, we are not all the same, we are not all supporters of torcher. He is an example of how we should be reacting to the Middle East. We as a nation cannot group them all as terrorists, which has become easy for people to do since 9/11. We need to see the faces of these people though, and although we do need to take precautionary measures to protect our national security, that is no excuse to torture – especially so leniently in terms of number of people and degree of their crimes that got them in these camps (which may more may not be real). We all need to see through the hate, through the ugly faces we’ve formed of each other as people of different cultures, and realize we are all not the same. We need to restore the faith we have in humanity and let go of some hate. However, it’s easier said than done. Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:06:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/25/im-wondering-how-i-would-see-things-if-i-walked-in-this-mans-shoes/#IDComment450063516 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/18/voices-from-the-classroom-168/#IDComment443698644 I literally got every single “guess-the-nationality” question wrong today in class. This got me thinking about a lot of things. To start, it made me realize how COMPLETELY oblivious I am to the different traits of different races of the world. I feel really uncultured, and it makes me want to travel. It also made me realize how much race really means. It seems like it is just a way to judge people, or identify them. But what’s funny is these identities don’t give us any real information about culture, backgrounds or actual heritage. I thought the Russian woman was a Native American. On top of that, I originally thought she was a man (not to be rude- it’s just not what I pictured as feminine). It’s a little embarrassing how bad I am at racial identifications, and I honestly feel stupid and rude for not being more cultured. My own inability to identify people’s cultural heritage really got me thinking about how irritated I would get if someone constantly thought I was of a different cultural heritage, yet I get it wrong all the time. It’s irritating because not only do we use perceived physical appearances as identifiers, which in and of itself could possibly be insulting because it’s making a different ethnicity the main face of who a person is. But on top of that, to get that ethnicity wrong must be infuriating because the identifier says absolutely nothing about them. Racial identifiers will probably always exist though. Wrong racial identifications will probably remain pretty common, too; Especially in a place like America – the “melting pot” that knows very little about other cultures overall. What’s funny about it is they really don’t matter. To be completely corny, we all came from the same place. I really want to take a DNA test to see what kind of cultural heritage they can find in my background. I tell people I’m 100% Irish, but I really doubt that’s the truth after listening to Sam talk about all the people who have African ancestry and didn’t ever know it. My mom was adopted, too, so I really don’t know. Yet like so many other families, we cling to our Irish heritage. We pride ourselves on our Irish-ness, and yet we are probably so much more. All of my siblings have Irish names, my mom says she’s all Irish (she’s guessing), and my dad frequently talks about taking a family trip to Ireland (which I would love). Yet, there’s a whole other part of my heritage that’s in the dark, and we’re keeping it that way. I feel like a lot of people do that because they want to identify strongly with something, no matter how true it actually is. It’s a weird concept, but it almost makes me feel powerful when I say I’m all Irish. It shouldn’t, but it does. What a strange concept. Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:04:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/18/voices-from-the-classroom-168/#IDComment443698644 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/07/voices-from-the-classroom-161/#IDComment438254438 What do I want to say about last Thursday’s class…? A few things. First of all, I was glad that I wasn’t the one with the mic who said “colored people” instead of “people of color”. I would’ve (and still accidentally could) use that phrase by mistake in a conversation. It’s not like I’d be trying to offend anyone .I just didn’t see it as offensive until I heard the reasons the black members of the class were offended. I didn’t realize how they felt about it, though I understand why they felt that way now. I also think everyone – all races – have these phrases within their own race communities that have this deeper meaning/ offensiveness that other race communities don’t realize. The comparison Sam made about a man not knowing what it was like to be a woman really made me see this fact. I’ll be honest, before he compared a man not feeling afraid walking alone in the dark to a woman probably feeling afraid, I thought the black community was being hypersensitive. I really didn’t see the difference in the phrasing. I still really don’t to be honest, but I can accept the fact that there are some things white people just don’t get about being black. And vice versa. Personally, I can’t really think of a name (that I’m familiar with) that a black person could call me that would hit me like it did by calling them “colored people”. Calling me a cracker just doesn’t really get to me. I guess it’s different because there is no history behind it. I’ll be honest, names like “bitch”,“slut”, or “whore” don’t really get to me either… gender specific stuff like that I don’t really take seriously because I know I’m not what they’re calling me. I don’t believe it, so it’s not a big deal. Even if someone called me the “c-word” I think I’d just be more shocked than offended. Maybe I’m just not a sensitive person. Or, after today’s class, I’m thinking maybe I haven’t had the life experiences to make me get more offended by these phrases. The one description that gets to me is “ugly”. I think every girl who has been to a frat has been called it, but add the word ugly in front of anything you call me, and you won’t be having a very nice conversation with me. Fat doesn’t get to me – I don’t think I am and neither does my BMI. But ugly is different because you can’t really know if you are or not. There’s no way to prove or disprove it, and there’s no way to defend yourself. That’s one word that really gets to me. And I think that’s the closest I’ll be able to come to feeling what the black girls in class felt when they got so offended by the phrase “colored people”. I don’t know though, I ‘m just trying to relate to something I won’t ever understand fully. Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:06:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/07/voices-from-the-classroom-161/#IDComment438254438 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/04/voices-from-the-classroom-158/#IDComment435288269 From the first class, I knew Sam's teaching styles weren't going to be like other professors' I've had at Penn State. He seems to somehow find a way to use funny - but totally true- comments to approach awkward issues many of us are scared to approach in every day conversation. So far, I love the way he does it. You know he's not just feeding you what you're supposed to hear and believe in race-based conversations; he's actually giving his opinions. It lightens the mood, and makes the class feel more like a room full of friends than a room full of strangers. To sum it up, Sam is really entertaining when he talks about race issues. But, I think that's pretty obvious from the reactions we give in class. I personally love when he calls out random kids in the lecture for their appearances, and he tries to provoke a response out of them. It get's everyone engaged, whether they want to or not. He has a knack for turning socially sensitive topics like skin color into something to almost laugh off. His comments to some students about being "super dark" or "so dark you can't see them when the lights are out" isn't your typical dialogue between instructors and students, but it makes the class so much more open and tension-free because of it. I'm curious to see how more serious debates in class will go, because things haven't been that intense yet. The most intense topic we’ve hit on was the Christianity and slavery controversy, which didn’t really cause any colossal breakthroughs in terms of class participation because I don’t think anyone really knew quite what to say, or what they could say in class yet. Sam didn’t seem fazed by this, but I was a little disappointed. I really liked the class response to Sam’s questions of who was gay, and who had come out to their parents out of those people. Sam’s reaction to the responses was so real – he straight out told people they should be more excepting like that one kid’s dad was, and it elevated the spirit of the class, too. His questions and responses make the class open to each other; he has a way of bringing honest reactions out of us. I guess when the semester goes on the responses will get deeper as we start to delve into these types of controversial issues more. When people start opening up more, things are going to start getting real - and possibly really heated. I'm looking forward to hearing different views. I know this class will get me thinking.... I’m excited, but a little nervous about it to. But bring it on, Sam, I like what I've seen so far. Thu, 6 Sep 2012 05:46:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/09/04/voices-from-the-classroom-158/#IDComment435288269