Going through Sam’s class and looking at terrorism from the perspective of those we deem “terrorists” really changes your mind. While we’re always taught to look at things from multiple perspectives, when it involved something as strong as nationalism it’s much easier said than done. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that. Most of us know what the war is about, and we didn’t need Sam to tell us it was all about oil, but he brought a new light to it by shifting our viewpoint. If someone was invading OUR country, fighting over OUR resources, we wouldn’t take very kindly to that, especially as Americans. In that respect, we cannot blame people of those nations for reacting the way that we do. We are stealing from them, and what else is there for them to do?

Obviously we’re outraged at people we consider “terrorists,” but to them, that’s what we are as well. The American people are ignorant to some things, unfortunately, but most of us are aware of the oil in Iraq. For that reason, our support of this war is support of stealing from a lesser nation. That is not to say that I don’t support our troops. My very best friend is a marine and headed to Afghanistan in June. I am a very big supporter of our military, but in no way am I a supporter of this war. A lot of people say, “after 9/11 we were all ready to declare war.” While that may be true, I was 11 when that happened and knew as much about war as I did arithmetic. Maybe the rebel group in charge of 9/11 were just terrorists, plain and simple. But maybe they were defending their country. This is the thought that the lecture has left me with. It’s quite rhetorical, seeing as I’ll never actually know, but I can’t help but wonder. They had to have motives, they wanted attention brought to something larger than themselves. How could anything justify the damage they’ve done to their nation? But obviously, in their minds, something DID justify those attacks. That, more than anything, baffles me.

Sam’s lecture was great, and it really opened my mind to different perspectives. But I think it was the thought that he provided that has snowballed and kept me so interested. There’s so many scenario’s where we, as Americans, can think back and reanalyze, was this an act of “terrorism,” or was this these people’s attempt at protecting their country? It’s just not the way we react and so it’s hard for us to understand, but I’m sure there are many things about American culture that are hard for the rest of the world to understand.

I’ll say the same thing here I said in my discussion, I grew up in a small suburb of Philly where there was very little diversity. In my high school there were MAYBE six black/brown students throughout the entire middle school and high school. I’ve always been friends with those students, but I was never interested in their personalities enough to consider dating them. In my entire high school career I “talked” to/dated one African American guy. Since coming to Penn State, I find myself being so much more attracted to men of color. I was never opposed to dating outside my race. I was just rarely presented with the opportunity.

I think I’ll have the same response as many other girls; race has never been an issue. As corny as it sounds, having a connection with a person is much more important than the color of their skin. Finding a good man is not an easy task, so for me, color doesn’t matter. It’s all about the way a man treats you. Whether he’s white, black, brown, purple, if he’s a gentleman and if you feel a connection that is really all that you can ask for. I drove four hours home today and listened to the Beatles most of the way. Because of that, I guess one of the only things I can say on this topic is, “All you need is love.” I know this response is vague and cliché and really corny, but I think that judging someone from their color of their skin is ridiculous. That and I am a hopeless romantic. I believe the best in people and (another cliché) I think that love is blind.

Not to mention, mixed raced children are the best looking children out there. They have the perfect complexion and are born without prejudice. Sooner or later the whole world will be interbred, and I think it should be sooner. There’s no reason why people of different races can’t be together. I’ve always thought that and being here at Penn State just reassures me that they can and will be.

I've never understood the people who limit themselves to only dating in their race. There are so many men out there, each of them with different things to bring to the table. Saying, "I'm only going to date white guys," is like saying "I'm only going to eat pizza for the rest of my life." What's the point? There is so much more in the world of food, and in the world of men. Limiting ourselves in that way leads to a pretty boring life. No two men are exactly alike, regardless of skin color. Don't you want to be able to experience as much as you can? I love meeting new people and learning about their experiences, and even more when they are vastly different from my own.

When we are young our parents instill our morals and beliefs. That is the basis on which we grow up. I think that it’s fair to say that because we’ve grown up with those morals, they are likely to stick with us. That’s not to say that we don’t grow up to have our own system of beliefs, but until we are old enough to create our own, we go off of what we’ve been taught. Because of this, it’s so hard to “relearn” racial ideas. For years you’ve believed one thing, it’s not simple to just change that. If you grew up with two parents that had one idea about different races, it’s not likely that your idea will be much different from theirs. However, I can relate to people that have ideas differing from their parents. My father is and always has been a very racist person. Luckily for me, I was raised by my mother who is the exact opposite. I have seen both sides and I was able to decide for myself. I’ve noticed that my father’s hatred has made me even more compassionate and accepting. Whether it is to combat him or just because of my appreciation for life, my ideas on race are vastly different from his.

The answer to this question is similar to the saying, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Anything is easier to teach to someone who has no opinion on the subject. That’s why the things you learn when you are young stay with you. The ideals you have then will, mostly, remain the same as you get older. This is why people sometimes excuse the elderly for their racism. It’s not okay for an old person to be racist just because those are the times they grew up in, but for some reason we accept it. That’s proof that it’s really hard to relearn racial ideas. Obviously, somewhere along the line people did change their beliefs and that’s how racism has decreased. But it still exists, which means parents are still teaching their children that hate is acceptable.

The world would obviously be a better place without all of the pollution caused by our industrialization. The carbon footprint each of us are leaving on this Earth is severely detrimental and it’s caused because our want and need for bigger and better technology. Having more highly developed brains has really been our curse. We’ve seen the potential of a human and now that we have, there is no turning back. To say that we would be better off living as monkey’s is absolutely true, but we no longer have that capability. We may all have evolved from similar ancestors, but the truth is, we aren’t monkeys. We share similar DNA and have similar qualities, and many groups of primates are highly developed, but they still do not have the brain capacity that we do.

This is a topic in my ANTH 001 class right now. 5 million years ago there was a branching point where Homo Sapiens Sapiens (humans) can actually be traced back to. At that point we were separated from monkeys. One of the defining factors separating monkeys from other primates is that they have tails. Similar to Chimpanzees, we do not have tails, therefore, we are not monkeys. We have all evolved from there, and while that video was entertaining, it isn’t very accurate.

Even so, if we were all considered “monkeys,” there have been studies throughout the world that prove Chimpanzees in large groups become aggressive and even participate in a type of warfare very similar to our own. To live as they do, we would still experience pain and suffering so to say that engaging in that lifestyle would be better for us as a species, I don’t know. It’s clearly better for the planet if we could reduce our impact on it by living in the wild, but as far as human beings could benefit from living that way, I don’t think so.

While some transcendental souls would love to live in a world free of industry and cities, you have to think about it. We wouldn’t have any stimulation. Our minds are too complex to be occupied all day, every day by the rainforest or savannah. We need books and music and institutions to keep us from going crazy. Now, I could just be feeling this way because that’s the way that we’ve lived for thousands of years but I can’t imagine my life without Billy Joel or Harry Potter. Without the technology we have, none of our favorite musicians or authors would exist. It’s so limiting to live in a way that monkeys do. While it sounds thrilling and relaxing and enjoyable, truth of the matter is that there’s a reason why we’re living the way that we do. We need the stimulation and we need the competition in finding the next big technological advance. It’s in our nature as the HUMAN species, because we aren’t actually monkeys.

To be regarded as human is simplistic and very general. In the world we live in, people are always searching for ways to distinguish themselves as individuals. The most obvious and immediate way to do that would be by physical characteristics. Most of those characteristics are most similar to people of similar skin tone, so in the simplistic mind it is easiest to distinguish ourselves and others by identifying with one group or another.

I completely agree that calling someone “white,” or “black,” or “asian,” is dated. With all the diversity around us, it isn’t really fair to lump together a group because of the way they look. But, unfortunately, the ignorance and the lack of effort leaves us with this flawed system of classification. To play Devil’s advocate, though, we’re distinguished from other mammals by species. If we’re going to ask, “why identify as a color?” then we could also ask, “why identify as humans at all, why not just mammals?” While it is a stretch, I think it’s a valid point. It’s all just part of identifying who we are. I know no one wants to think that they are defined by physical characteristics, but we all are, everyday. Every college, job, scholarship application we fill out, a question you can always assume will be asked is your ethnic background. Why? It doesn’t make you any more or less of a person, but somehow it has worked it’s way into the definition of ourselves.

Trying to break away from this identification is impossible, no matter how far we come in beating racism. It is the simplest way to group people, and for the minds of modern society, that is a very important thing to do; understanding people not for who they are, but for their assumed background due to skin tone. It’s definitely not fair, and maybe if everyone took Sam Richard’s class they’d think about it the way that you and I can. But truth of the matter is that people are small minded. They are set in their ways and they won’t fix what isn’t broken, and to many people this system of classification works. Sadly, not enough people are outwardly offended by being identified as “asian,” “white,” “black,” or anything else. While some people may see it as a problem, there isn’t any argument behind it except for that we are all human. That we are, but until we find a quicker, easier way to classify, I’m afraid that we are stuck in our ways.

I think the question was asked because in class Sam stated: "Red necks are looked down on by everyone." To generalize and say everyone looks down on one social group or another would have been shallow and not very well thought out, since I've seen a Confederate flag or two myself in the counties surrounding Penn State. Who would really just assume everyone looks down on one group? Just a thought.

Being politically correct is near impossible, let’s face it. Like Sam said in class, one person takes offense to one term that another prefers and vice versa. There is never going to be general consensus as to what terms are ACTUALLY “politically correct.” As a white female, there isn’t much that I can be called let alone that I would be offended by. In this society people are far too sensitive. True, people are ignorant and sometimes don’t care to call someone by the proper term, but those of us who are educated are even more confused. Take “Native Americans,” for example. In all my years of learning, that has been the most often used and most accepted term. Obviously, there are other terms to be used, but I never thought that someone could be offended by being called that. Apparently, they can be (sorry if you’re one of them!). Maybe it’s because I’m not very ethnically diverse that I don’t quite understand the big deal, but don’t we preach tolerance? So please, tolerate me when I say “Caucasian,” and you prefer to be called “white.” The idea just seems ludicrous that these are actually grounds to be so deeply hurt on. It’s all subjective, too. My roommate is African American and jokes all the time that I am racist because I called her that once. She’d prefer I call her “black.” Which I was happy to abide by, because who cares to be so formal? Obviously I’m not racist, but she gets such a kick out of the fact that when we first met I thought that was politically correct. And for anyone who is still questioning me, she’s also one of my best friends!

The other thing about being politically correct is that we designate what that means. If people continue being offended by every term out there, no one would be able to identify as any one ethnicity or another. And maybe we shouldn’t, but I am proud of my ethnicity, as I know many people are. It’s strange to think that common terms we use daily could be so offensive. To be honest, though, political correctness is just people being scared of their own ignorance. When we don’t expose ourselves to other cultures and ethnicities, we’ll obviously be worried about hurting feelings or saying the wrong thing, but when we stay sheltered by our own guidelines, how can we know anything of others? Especially here in the United States, we need to be more active in learning about international cultures. It would help us to be more understanding, but also a lot more intelligent. Maybe then these restrictions that are created by political correctness can be thrown out the window like they ought to be.

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