en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3105102 Comments by mpm5269 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170165868 Yes I agree that posing that question about how would you plan to provide for more equitable opportunities socially was a good way to start off the lecture. When Sam starts a lecture by posing a question it always gets me thinking right away and helps me pay more attention. I really agree with what you say about people never being entirely equal. We want people to be equal so we put policies in action that make things easier for certain people. But these policies do not always make things better and can sometimes make them worse. I do not know how to fix the problem but I feel there must be a better way. Wed, 6 Jul 2011 04:11:49 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170165868 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170156776 Once again a interesting lecture. One thing I just wanted to mention is that Sam felt it was the best lecture of the course. After he said that I thought about it and realized he has said that about multiple classes. I do not know if he feels that they really are the best or if he just says that, but they all are really good. So getting back to the topic. Affirmative Action. I have heard the term before but I have to admit I did not really know what it meant. Thank you to wikipedia though i was able to easily look it up. What it said was that affirmative action refers to policies that are put in place to take factors such as race, gender, religion, and so on to benefit underrepresented groups. It also said this is usually done to counter of a history of discrimination. After reading this it was a lot easier to understand the lecture. So Sam starts off by talking about who benefits the most out of these affirmative actions. He said that women benefit the most, but not just women white women. I agreed with what he said following that. Most white women marry white males or have white sons or have white fathers. Therefore white males will also benefit from these affirmative actions. So after reading why affirmative actions are use it kind of makes me think that they do not really work if they benefit everyone. Then we watch a video from Opera. I am pretty sure we already watched this video before but it still surprises me. It is sad how some schools do not receive the same benefits. As far as a way to fix that problem I do not know if there really is a way. The state could take all tax money for schools and divide it up evenly but i feel that would cause even more problems. People who pay more money in taxes want that money to fund schools for their children not people on the other side of the state. So that would just cause more problems. I guess as far as affirmative action the government could give schools that fit certain criteria grants and more money. But like Sam said not all people who fit certain criteria experienced the same problems. My personal opinion is that everyone should have equal chances at things and no one should receive benefits just because of their race or gender. Everyone talks about being equal but this does not help it just makes things more less equal. I do not know how to fix this problem of unequality and understand why certain policies are put into place but I just feel a better solution needs to be found. if anyone has a opinion on this please comment and let me know what you think. thanks Wed, 6 Jul 2011 03:26:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170156776 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169448061 I also found this lecture very interesting and also I learned a lot of things about immigration that I did not know. The whole thing about politics and how some did not get reelected because their decisions hurt businesses. It really does show how much power some businesses have. I also found it very interesting our fore fathers and how they regulated immigration. they only let in enough immigrants to run their farms. It shows how much politics is about money. It is sad but true. Also think about how we just stole America in the first place. I want to do more research on this now and see what else I can find out about this subject. Sun, 3 Jul 2011 23:32:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169448061 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169445409 I really found this lecture very interesting but also very disturbing. The lecture was of course about Immigration and to start it off Sam brought up a very good point about our countries history. We founded our country by stealing the land from Native Americans and even stealing some from the Mexicans. I found it very interesting to think that we are fighting so hard to keep Illegal Immigrants from Mexico out of our country when we took much land from Mexico in the first place, and it was not legally taken either. The same goes for Native Americans. Our country is so strict on Immigration right now when we are all Immigrants ourselves. This country was founded by Immigrants who stole land from the Native Americans. We are now scared about people coming here and taking our resources when we stole everything we have from the Natives. I never really thought about it that way before but it really makes you think about things from a different perspective, something Sam is great at getting me to do. I also found the stories about our seventh president Andrew Jackson very interesting and disturbing. He talked about a battle Andrew Jackson is famous for, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama. I learned a little bit about this in school, but all I learned was that Andrew Jackson defeated the Indians there. The truth was much more gruesome. President Jackson pretty much just executed these Natives because their land was so valuable. I just could not believe they took it beyond that and scalp them and cut off their noses. They even used their skin and took their clothes. If something like that went on today the whole world would go up in arms. Andrew Jackson did not just make the order for this either he actually participated in scalping Natives. It really is true that we write history how we want it to be because I did not learn any of this while I was in grade school. It is sad but I guess it is part of what made history. Maybe that is why some other countries do not feel too fond of us. To move on from that I did agree with what Sam said about Immigration being about business. Right now we are restricting immigration because it is hurting our economy because they are making money and exporting it and spending it in other countries. If immigrants were helping our economy right now the doors would be thrown open and we would accept anyone. That is what America did in the beginning but once we got all the people we needed we shut the doors and tried to keep everyone out. I feel immigration is a tough subject because people should be allowed to come here but we also can destroy our economy. i would like to hear some other peoples opinion on this. If you would please comment I would appreciate it. Thanks. Sun, 3 Jul 2011 23:16:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169445409 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168086330 I agree with you about the homosexual laws in some places. I find it kind of hard to believe that in some countries it is illegal to be gay. I guess it is just because of the fact that I am so use to seeing people who are gay and we are raised to not think different of them because they are gay that i find this so shocking. i could not imagine arresting people for something that they feel is right like that. It is not like it affects us, what they do in their home is their business. I feel it must be a religious thing. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:19:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168086330 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168077411 This Lecture was once again a very interesting lecture. Sam always gets me thinking. I found it very interesting how Sam seemed to almost want us to be stoned for the first part of the lecture. He said we would almost have to be stoned or high to understand what he was talking about. I was not stoned but he was talking about if It matters what language we speak or what flag we wave. I believe he was trying to say that if I were chinese I would speak chinese and I would wave a chinese flag. but because I live in the United States I speak English and I wave an American Flag. I guess he is trying to say that we want everyone to speak english and we are so proud to wave an American flag but if we would have been born in China it would be the other way around. I would be waving a Chinese flag and speaking Chinese and wanted everyone to speak Chinese. I am pretty sure that is what Sam Richards was trying to say. I hope i got this right but I was not high or stoned so I do not know if I can really get it. One thing that same was talking about shortly before this that I did understand was the idea of learning Chinese or Spanish. He said that if you want to go into business or finance you should learn another language such as Chinese or Spanish. I Believe this is a very good point. This is a good point because a lot of business goes over seas and too other countries. Not everyone speaks English so in order to do business with these other countries one would have to speak their language. So if you can speak their language you can do business with them and there fore make money. This kind of goes into the idea of wanted everyone to speak your language. We think business would be a lot easier if everyone spoke English but other people from other countries are thinking business would be a lot easier for them if we all spoke their language. Maybe I do not have to be stoned to understand this because I think I do understand what he was trying to say. A girl in the class talked about how she lived in China for a while. She said everyone who was American lived in their own little bubble over there and did not take in the Chinese culture. The Americans rejected their culture over there. I believe this is why the United States' economy is not as good as it use to be because we as Americans do not want to change. While all of the other countries are willing to change and there fore they are becoming more successful. I feel if we change this we can be much more successful as well. There was a lot more covered in this lecture but this all I have time for. I am interested in looking to see what everyone else has to say. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:01:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment168077411 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165639947 I agree with you saying that these lectures have really opened me up to different important and interesting topics. All of Sam's lectures really get me thinking. In this last lecture when we watched the video about the black versus white and beauty. I could not believe what that video showed. All of the girls felt that light skin represented beauty. When they did the test with the young black children and they had to chose a doll I was stunned. I could not believe at first that most of them chose the white doll. Then when they asked which one was bad they said the black one because it is black. It really makes me think how we are raising our children. I just found that really interesting. Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:13:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165639947 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165637814 I just wanted to start by saying I really like the whole idea of "The Tale of the Two Legged Amphibians". I think these analogies are great ways to explain the topics of race and culture in different situations. The same goes with the White Fish and how it represents white people and how they only know white. Same as a fish only knows water until it is introduced into air which would be different races for white people. The Tale of the Two Legged Amphibians is kinda of the same idea. An Amphibian is born in water but goes onto land and then can also return to the water. I just think is a great way to represent some one of one race who can understand different races and cultures. I do not know who comes up with these analogies but I really think they are clever and I would like to meet this person. So anyways to get back on topic in these lectures Sam talked about the four stages of racial identity again only this time we talked about people who are not white going through these stages. Sam pretty much covered everyone as well. He covered everyone from black, chinese, puerto rican, adopted people, and even people who are gay or bisexual. First off sam covered the Pre-awakening stage. This stage is very similar to white people. You do not know much about your race or others. The difference is according to Sam is that white people can stay in this stage of Pre-awakening white people of color are throw out of this stage very early. Sam gave an example of a little girl at the age of four years old when she realized she was different because a friend of her told her she was dirty. I never personally had an experience like this because i am white and I grew up in a white community so I can not relate but I can imagine. If some one said something like that to me I feel it would stick with me forever. After that sam really got into talking about asians. We watched a video of a asian comedian who was doing a skit. The skit was pretty much just talking about how asians are under appreciated or at least that is what i got out of it. I feel some people do under rate asians in this society. The one student told a story about his roommates who were being racist against asians in the United States just because the did not speak English. I feel some day they will see past their racism. That is all I have time to talk about today but I will cover more on my next blog. Thank you for reading this and I hope you will leave a comment so I can see how you feel. Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:02:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165637814 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164315146 I also have suffered from white guilt and I feel all white Americans do as well. We feel bad because of the advantages we have and the disadvantages others have because of something our ancestors did a very long time ago. I do not have anything against guilt though. i feel guilt is a good thing and with out the feeling of guilt the world would be a much worse place. I use my guilt to make me want to help others. You can do your best to not be a good person and equal to different races but if you are white you will always be stereotyped as racist. There is not anything you can do. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:39:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164315146 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164313318 This lecture continues on from the last lecture where we covered stages one and two of racial identity. In this lecture we covered the next two stages of racial identity. Stage three is the revisioning stage. In this stage is when a white person like myself would begin to see the racial inequalities and see the advantages of being white and also begin to realize racism. After getting this far in the course I feel I do now see these things. I now see the inequalities and understand the advantage I have because I am white. The fourth stage of racial identity is the reversal stage. This is when a white person would feel discomfort because they do not fit in so they fall back into old habits and or bring out anger towards people of color. For this lecture we talked a lot about guilt. On the power point guilt was defined as the remorseful awareness of having done something wrong. That really got me thinking cause I always feel guilt but it is for no reason. The whole example of seeing a dead animal on the side of the road. Every time I am driving with my girlfriend and we pass a dead animal on the side of the road she says awe. I always ask what? because I do not usually see the dead animal. She always answers saying there was a dead squirrel or a dead Bambi and she feels bad about it. Like Sam said in class, she did not hit the animal or have anything to do with its death but she still feels guilt. I do not know why she feels guilt over dead animals because that is just how life works but I have an example I can relate to. Whenever someone says the do not feel good or are sick I always say I am sorry. They almost always respond with "it is not your fault" and I say back "I know but still". Ironically while I am typing this I was also text messaging and that just happened. I guess this would be considered guilt. Even though I had nothing to do with someone being sick I still feel bad about it and want them to feel better. I feel guilt is a huge part of our lives or mine at least. I do a lot of things because of guilt or in fear of feeling guilty. If I saw someone drop money I would go give it back to them just because I would feel guilty for not doing it. Because of this I believe guilt is a good thing and everyone should use it. If no one felt guilt the world would be a much different place. Something else I wanted to talk about was the whole wash cloth thing. If that is true I think it is so weird. I am white and I do not use a wash cloth but I assume some one in my family does because we have so many of them. I wonder if there is any secret reasoning behind all of that or if it is just a cultural thing. I am very interested to ask different people if they use wash cloths or not now. I just hope they do not call me racist or anything for it. I also wanted to make one last comment on that website we looked at called black people love us. I found that pretty funny. I just did not know a lot of those things were said about white people. I did know certain things but the whole wet dog thing? I guess I thought I just smell normal but to other people I guess not. Once again I really enjoyed the lecture and am looking forward to the next one. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:30:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164313318 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment163013350 I agree with you about this lecture completely engaging you. This lecture really got me to think all though so do almost all of Sam lectures get me to rethink things. At the beginning of this course I was probably at the pre awakening stage. Now I feel I have reach the awakening stage. I now really do have a sense of "us" and "them" when it comes to race. I see the stereotypes of others but not really of myself. The website about white people stuff really made me realize that I have a stereotype of myself. I am looking forward to the next lecture on this topic. Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:24:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment163013350 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment163011577 I am White but I never really thought to categorize myself beyond that. At the beginning of this lecture I thought all we were going to talk about is being white. This lecture however made me really think beyond just the fact that i am white. The whole class we talked about race and culture and much more but now we are finally talking about race relations. Sam Richards did a great job on introducing us into this topic. Sam did the same thing he did with the Christian Invaders lectures when he put us into the shoes of Arib Muslims. Only this time he put us into the shoes of White people. I feel he did this so that we can see things from a different perspective. He asked us to think about Identity so that we see how we see ourselves. When I thought about this I came up with what i assumed most other people thought of. I said i am a average white guy. That is all I could really think of at first. When Sam said what came to mid of himself he came up with many different things. He said he is a husband, son, professor, member of the Penn State community, and even a Pennsylvanian. I have always lived in Pennsylvania but i never described myself as a Pennsylvanian. After that Sam took it to the next level and made us ask ourselves if we have ever thought about being certain things. I have thought about the fact that I am male but I never really think about being straight. I guess I have just always been straight so I never had that moment when I declared myself straight. I think it would be almost weird to have realized I was straight. As far as height I really understood that one. I am only 5'8" which is not really short or tall but I do think about it. The reason I feel i think about this is because of my major. I am in criminal justice and plan on going into policing. I feel that only being 5'8" my affect my career because of me being less intimidating. All thought it was not until he got to the point of being left handed that I really understood what Sam was getting at. I am right handed which is the most common so I do not have to think about things that require handedness. If I were left handed I have to look for certain things that were made just for left handed people. When i bought a guitar I could pick almost any one at the store but someone who is left handed would have less of a selection or may even have to order one special made. the same thing goes with desks. I always got made when i got stuck at a left handed desk but someone who is left handed is probably mad that there are not more desks for them. In all I really enjoyed this lecture and it really got me to think about being white in a different way. For now on when some one asks me about myself I will have a different response. Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:16:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment163011577 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment162091084 Okay, so lecture one for lesson seven of racism and discrimination. Doctor Richards covered a lot of good topics in this lecture. First of all I would like to talk about the who Native American topic about stealing their land. I truly feel it is horrible what happened to their people. Americans are responsible for one of the greatest genocides in world history. Their land was stolen so that we could have a place to call home. The song we listened to really made me think about it. Also the statistics on Native Americans. It is sad to see how high their rates of suicide, alcoholism, and abuse is. Is that really because what Americans had done to them though. Am I to blame for them having such a hard time and being poor. I do not feel it is my fault these things have happened to them and i wish they had it easier. the one girl in the class brought up a really good question of when are we as white Americans going to stop receiving the blame for Native Americans troubles and African Americans troubles. I did not enslave anyone and I did not steal any ones land but yet I will live my life seen as the one to blame for these things. Another kid in the class ask another really good question and I feel Sam Richards had a really good response. This guy asked if it is a type of Darwinism that we are succeeding and they are having troubles. Sam said how we are successful because we are helped out growing up. We have inheritance and our parents are able to raise us well and pay for our schooling and help us out. Native Americans do not have anything to give to their children. They can not afford to send their children to college or hand anything down to them to help them get started after they die so that they can receive a head start. I felt that was a really good way of doing it. Sam used the king of the hill analogy to explain this again. Americans took their land and then forced them onto reservations and made it harder for them to get out. To kind of get off topic I had something I just wanted to talk about. At my high school we were called the warriors and our mascot was a Native American warrior. I know other schools had the same thing. My question is this offensive? I know some teams are called the Red Skins and just Reds. I personally feel that is a racial slur. I think of it like if there was a team called the fighting crackers or the greasy guidos I would find some offense to it. At my high school back home we did not change our name but we did change our logo to a shield. I am glad we did that because I feel using racial groups as mascots is offensive and I am sure they find offensive as well. I think you should think about this and leave me a comment on what you think. Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:44:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment162091084 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160744111 Sam really does have a way of getting you to feel like you are in the classroom. The whole thing he did with Avery had me laughing as well. I was sitting in my room by myself laughing out loud. Seriously though who would ask someone to scratch their balls in front of a class of hundreds of people and he is being filmed so others can see. Avery really did not care though he did it in front of everyone and said he would do it again if they itched. I always enjoy these lectures and they always make me laugh. I hope you enjoy all of these as much as I do. Wed, 8 Jun 2011 20:46:30 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160744111 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160742760 Once again Sam does something that makes me laugh. When he brought Avery in front of the room I was already laughing because Avery seems to be a joker. Then Sam asked him to scratch his balls and Avery actually did it. I have to give him credit on that one. I always enjoy when Sam uses these situations with students to explain something. The king of the mountain was great example of these. I took it as him trying to explain that things can happen because a some one or some race is superior or it could happen just because of luck. In history a lot of things that happened could of changed very easily. For example America was discovered by chance. What if they never tried to sail around the world instead of around Africa. Maybe the Chinese would have discovered and claimed America. Than the China would have the upper hand. Once someone or some group has the upper hand they will do what they have to do to keep the upper hand. This has to do with inequality because people on top are gonna stay on top. Personally I see how Inequality and discrimination goes on so much in the United States. Once white people established themselves in America they had it pretty good. If I had it really good I would want things to stay the same for me and my children. I would want the best for my children. That is why I feel other racial groups were discriminated against in the United States because white people were scared of losing what they had. I am not saying I agree with discrimination I am just saying I can see why it went on. Going back to the beginning of the part one lecture it really makes you think what would the United States be like if Black people or Asians got here first. Whites could be the minority and discriminated against. To change to topic I really liked Avery's comment. He made a good point how we will say someone does something because of slavery or discrimination but when they do something else we say it is just because they are a bad person. I guess we really have to look at the larger picture and see all of the factors. I really liked the first part of the lecture. I am a criminal justice major and I have seen the statistics in classes and we have gone over them. They really do show that majority of people in jail are black or brown. Sam asked us why this is? I really do not know for sure but every one has their opinions. I believe some possibilities could be white people are able to stay out of jail because they have more money and with money comes power. Wealthier people are able to hire better lawyers and then have a better chance of staying out of jail. Because of this less white people would be in jail because on average white people are wealthier. I just feel that is one possible reason i feel could be why the statistics are the way they are. The last thing I have to say is about Sam's little sex talk. I am a little confused about why that whole speech happened. I have to say it was funny but also a little awkward. I personally do not think I would be able to do anything with another man and I am a little freaked out by what he said. Well that is all I have to say this time but once again I did enjoy both lectures and I am really glad Sam is keeping me interested. Wed, 8 Jun 2011 20:41:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160742760 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159769275 I was the youngest of four in my family. My father had attended college but my mother has not. My brother and my sisters all attended college right after school and grad school. I felt I was just expected to go to college after that. Like Sam said we all have choices but there are also obstacles. I could have choose not to attend college but I did it because I wanted to. I feel you had your choices too but you were pressured to make a certain one. You just have to live with the ones you made and get the best out of them. Mon, 6 Jun 2011 00:36:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159769275 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159767632 Sam really did do an amazing job while teaching this lesson. Instead of just throwing out information he really forces you to think about stuff. Growing up I lived in a pretty wealthy community and we had a pretty nice school. We had pools, gyms, and special classes. We were however mostly white if that really does factor into it. I know a neighboring school districted had a much nicer school. They had several buildings with several pools and even multiple sports complexes. How ever they did have a much larger percentage of black people attending their school. I do not know if they were upper class or not but I am assuming some of them were. I is really sad that some people have to grow up with less opportunities than others but that is just how it is. The way tax money is distributed there just is not enough for everyone to have the same standards. The Oprah video was a great example of showing how different it can be. It did appear that most of the kids attending the poorer school were black and a majority of students at the nicer school were white. I personally feel everyone should have equal opportunity but sadly that is not the case. It was really shocking to see how run down some of the facilities were. I really cannot believe that there is water leaking in the gym and the weight room was so run down. The example Sam used when he brought the eight students to the front of the room was a great example in my opinion. I took it as you can look at certain people and make judgments based on their race but they are not always true. The statistics say that one person has a better chance of being successful or of being wealthy but that does not not say anything about the actually person. Just because their race is on average the laziest does not mean that individual is actually lazy. I was not expecting to find out that the differences genetically are actually within your own region. That just amazed me to find out that fact. Also the fact that only .01 percent of our genetic make up varies. Two people can be so different but yet so much alike genetically. Continuing on with that in the first part of the lecture Sam talked about why certain people dominate certain sports. I liked the example of hockey. Hockey is a very expensive sport and there for only wealthy people play. That is why hockey in the United States is mostly white. I did like the comment the one student made however. He said he played hockey his whole life and everyone was mostly white but, when there was a black kid on the team he almost always the best player. I feel that proves that there is nothing from stopping black people from playing hockey except the money. He said basketball is dominated by black people because its cheap and on average black people are poorer than whites. I also found it funny when he said you never see a white kid playing basketball with black kids unless he has game. From what I have seen that is very true. In all once again these lectures were very interesting and entertaining. I really do learn something every time I log on for this class. Mon, 6 Jun 2011 00:31:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159767632 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158337223 You make a really good point about Kat Williams and other comedians. We watch comedy skits and shows making fun of other people from other parts of the world like they are not even real people. Some people wonder why some other people from around the world hate Americans and there is one of the reasons. I also feel a lot of people make jokes and talk about middle eastern people but do not know what their culture is about. I feel Americans need to be better educated about other cultures. If everyone had a better education about each other the world would be more understanding in my opinion. Wed, 1 Jun 2011 22:52:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158337223 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158335856 I feel in all these last two lectures were very interesting. Before I watch the lectures I never even heard of the work ethnocentrism. I guess you really do learn something everyday. If I am not mistaken this word means to have narrow vision when it comes to culture, or in other words one sees what they want to see. Sam used the analogy of blinders like on a horse. This really made it a lot easier to understand. The entire lecture really made ma think. I tried my best to imagine I was from the middle east as Sam went through all of the things that our politicians and armed forces said and had done in the past. When you take it from the point of view of someone who is from this part of the world it really is different. From what I have seen in the media and have read I feel we are doing what we need to be doing in the middle east but when you see it from their point of view some things seem a little over the edge. As far as cultural relativism, the whole discussion really got me thinking again. The example of hunting was very interesting. I am personally not a hunter but I do eat meat. I have many family members who are hunters and do it for sport but they also eat everything they kill. I find nothing wrong with that it is part of life. People who are against hunting but still eat meat I feel really need to think about it. I have seen videos of cattle farms and I am sure many other people have as well. It is pretty brutal what you see. Cows are locked up in cages and injected with hormones their whole life until they are finally killed just so we can eat them. I would much rather eat an animal that i knew had lived free before it was killed. As far as bull fighting in Spain, I do not agree with that. I understand it is a part of their culture and has been for many many years but it is just so violent. These bulls are literally tortured for the entertainment of people. I know it will probably never change and will be around forever I just wish people did not find so much enjoyment out of watching animals being tortured. The whole Christian Invaders lecture was pretty intense. I never thought of things from the other side of things. I am a Christian and I always learned in church to be a "fisher of men" as they put it. This is where the whole jesus fish symbol comes from. One of the symbols of Christianity actually stands for going out and trying to convert people. A huge part of Christianity is missions work. Muslims have the same thing in their religion. They are just trying to do the same thing I as a Christian am trying to, convert people. On the other hand I do feel some radical groups take it too far when they use terroristic actions to do so. I understand everyone has there views and a lot of it is because of their culture. I just do not understand why some people do things that just go to far. Everyone has their faith and have a right too and it should be left at that. Too many people try to force views of their own onto others and it always has negative effects. I really enjoyed these last too lectures and they really got me thinking about what is going on in the world and why it is going on. Wed, 1 Jun 2011 22:46:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158335856 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/22/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race/#IDComment156183815 I feel the same way as you. I always thought race was just the color of ones skin. So if they were black they were black. I also feel media is a huge influence on us and our opinions. I grew up watching tv and seeing the different races as they portrayed them and the stereotypes for each one. I agree with what you were saying how people do not associate their race more with where they are from instead of their color, but i also feel that today more and more people are saying they are from so and so instead of just saying they are white or black. Thu, 26 May 2011 01:37:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/22/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race/#IDComment156183815