en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2416584 Comments by nilesjon http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145287975 Illegal immigration is a topic I haven’t given much thought to in the past. I see it constantly argued over during elections and candidates bicker back and forth debating which stance to take. Now that Sam has offered me another perspective, it has been enlightening. When we were asked the clicker question I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I opted to answer that I disagree that any of my family comes from illegal immigrants. The perspective Sam offered really gave me some food for thought on this topic. Illegal immigration is a term that could mean a lot of different things depending on a persons’ perspective. Thinking about it from the perspective of Native Americans has really made me see ‘illegal immigration’ in a new light. To them, America as it is today was founded on illegal immigration. And it really was. We came to this land and really disrespected those already here. This perspective of illegal immigration from a Native Americans’ perspective isn’t often discussed. I find this really upsetting. When we talk about all these issues of inequalities and the ‘King of the Mountain’, I never give much thought to Native Americans. Now, realizing how much America has really taken advantage of the ‘First Nations’ people here has given me much to think about regarding inequalities. During Spring break I went to Vancouver Canada. There was a lot of talk about the ‘First Nations’ people. I had heard the term before but it was unfamiliar to me. Basically ‘First Nations’ people of Vancouver are Native Canadians. We went to the UBC Anthropology museum when we were in Vancouver and there was a lot of history on the ‘First Nations’ people. It was interesting to find out that even in Vancouver, a place that now truly values its ‘First Nations’ people, had treated them badly in the past. It’s sad but I was happy to see that their culture, though it might have been repressed in the past, is now a celebrated culture that is shared with all the people of Vancouver. I’d like to talk more about the museum. Much of the artifacts I saw there was some of the most amazing and resourceful technology I’d ever seen. There were interesting tools I’d never seen before that had all sorts of different uses. Another thing that amazed me of some of the artifacts was how massive some of it was. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 04:00:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145287975 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/14/what-does-it-say-about-our-society-if-schools-are-more-segregated-now-than-in-the-1970s-119-blog/#IDComment143299515 I'm not particularly surprised schools are more segregated now than the 1970s. Schools have been segregated for a very long time. Though there are examples in ways we've worked to desegregate schools, such as the Civil Rights Act and overturning Plessy v Ferguson, many of these examples happened before 1970. The truth is that segregation still exists today, in contrary to what many people might think. This is because there are two types of segregation. Types of Segregation- De Facto: based on fact De Jure: based on law Plessy v. Ferguson is a case from 1896. It ruled that segregation was ok as long as facilities were "seperate but equal." The case that overturned this is known as Brown v. Board of education. This case brought to discussion the 'de jure' segregation, racial segregation that is based on law. It ruled that seperate facilities are inherently unequal and schools are legally enforced to not discriminate on the basis of race. Though this decision acknowledged racial segregation based on law, it did not fix the 'de facto' segregation, racial segregation that is based on fact. This racial desegregation based on fact refers to the fact that schools are already segregated based on the types of races that live in particular areas. This is important because since the Civil Rights Act, some of us believe our schools are completely desegregated when they aren't. Race plays a large role in where people live. For example 'Great Migration' refers to the African Americans that moved out of the South after slavery was abolished to urban areas in the North and elsewhere. This migration of former slaves separated people by districts, suburbs, cities, towns, ect. So there are some reasons different races sometimes go to different schools (de facto segregation aka racial segregation based on facts). Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:08:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/14/what-does-it-say-about-our-society-if-schools-are-more-segregated-now-than-in-the-1970s-119-blog/#IDComment143299515 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141055392 This statistic is frightening. Its very impersonal and it makes me feel like the military doesn't see civilians as people. I know in wars, such as Iraq you can kill one civilian and in doing so, cause five more to become terrorists. This is a fact, and its not fair to assume civilians in countries that we go to war with be empathic when we have statistics like these. Its discerning. I think this statistic is interesting when you consider this word empathy and 'putting yourself in the others shoes'. Putting yourself in the others shoes is something that's very difficult to do in many situations. Think of how hard it is for Americans after 9/11. Now how could it be any easier for the 29 civilians we take out for the 1 bad guy. I don't know how legitimate this statistic is and a lot of military members (those that are knuckleheads) probably disagree. But the statistic is still upsetting when it comes to thinking about empathy. Sam's lecture focused on experimenting with empathy. It got me thinking of other experiments with empathy. I thought about the experiment I've seen on MTV and in health classes where people put make up on that makes them look a different race or a suit on that makes them look obese. Their reactions are always eye-opening. It would be cool to conduct this experiment in more ways on different levels. But as important empathy is, its not an emotion that we value all that much in society and American culture. I say that its not an emotion we value in American culture because if you really want to have empathy for your other citizens I feel like more people would be interested in discovering more about the lives of other people. It wasn't until senior year of high school til I saw a completely different school than I've ever attended, in a bad area of Philadelphia. It was eye-opening, I got to talk to the kids and follow them throughout a school day and it was like nothing I had ever seen. Right there I grew empathy for others in schools like these. I think if other Americans really wanted to be empathic towards fellow citizens, they'd seek out opportunities like these to try and understand the lives of others. I'd like to talk about the American dream and empathy. The American dream is something most Americans stand by as citizens of the US. If we really want to offer an American dream to US citizens then I think it is necessary to be empathic of others situations and how far/close they are to that dream. I think if you continue to live your life and ignore situations of those in lower socio economic statuses, you aren't being empathic to how far they are from the American dream. I think also means you don't stand by the principles that we founded this nation on. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 18:17:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/05/what-do-you-think-of-the-291-statistic-and-what-number-would-you-pick-119-blog/#IDComment141055392 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment139186327 First of all I think uncomfortable is a very vague emotion, one that is probably interpreted differently but tons of people... that said, I feel many different ways when I'm around people talking in another language. comfortable isn't one that comes to mind. usually I feel out of place. it doesn't tend to be a feeling of awkwardness (though sometimes it may be) but more so a feeling of being out of the loop. The most I've experienced this is when I play pick-up soccer. I like to go over to the IST fields around 4pm somedays and play pick-up soccer with a lot of kids. Most times, a large number of the kids there are international students. They tend to speak in their own language to one another. Situations like these are actually more cool than it is uncomfortable. I'm excited to be joining in on an activity with such a diverse crowd. Sharing an experience, like a fun game of soccer, is pretty cool even though I don't know how to speak the language of some of the kids I'm sharing the experience with. My friend and I joke about what they say sometimes, maybe they're making fun of my lame soccer skills? But this is more comical than anything since it doesn't really matter to me what they say about me. To me this activity with such a diverse crowd is about sharing a fun experience with new kids, possibly making a few friends, and being physically active while doing it. There is a specific experience when I was at a 3v3 late night soccer tournament that got quite ‘uncomfortable.’ We were playing the team from Kazakhstan and at the before our first game we were shooting around with them. It was harmless and fun until one of the members asked me if I like Borat. Not thinking of the consequences of my answer I said “I love Borat” then went on to stick me thumbs up and imitate Borat…something I later deemed insensitive. Because even though I thought it as a fun gesture, I didn’t realize how much the movie ‘Borat’ offended this particular kid from Kazakhstan. He went on to describe a lot of the politics that the movie dealt with, propaganda, and a bad spin it gave on his country. I apologized immediately, felt immensely guilty, but tried to show my new understanding of the movie. I also tried to point out to him that the movie makes fun of America too. I went on feeling terrible about the conversation and how insensitive I was. We played the game of soccer and both teams enjoyed the experience of a very close game. It wasn’t until later I met these kids again for an indoor game of pick-up soccer. This time we had a few enjoyable conversations and another fun game of soccer. I realized that these kids didn’t really take too much offense to my insensitive comments. The situation really just set an opportunity to discuss our different perspectives coming from completely different cultures. So maybe when I play these kids, even if they’re making fun of my lame soccer skills in their own languages, I really enjoy being able to share each others’ cultural differences and have interesting and enlightening conversations like the ‘Borat’ one I had earlier. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 20:00:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment139186327 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/do-people-feel-guilt-about-their-current-positions-when-knowing-about-the-disadvantages-of-the-freed-slaves-119-blog/#IDComment134358719 This is a really interesting question. I think it is very important to address as well. Because the disadvantages correlated to race are far-reaching within American culture and politics, we see them everyday of our lives. Yet we often go on without noticing or acknowledging any of the advantages or disadvantages we have. This feeling of 'guilt' is really important to address as well. If you have advantages and you feel this guilt I think it is important to address. I'd first like to focus on something Sam said in class that I really appreciated. He was talking about parents making their children feel "guilty" for leaving home. He talked about how debilitating guilt can be. Its true, guilt is a feeling that does suppress other feelings of hope. It makes you not want to try. And in that, it can be upsetting and debilitating. But that’s why I think we should reevaluate this feeling of guilt. I think that as debilitating guilt is, these underlying feelings from the advantages (or disadvantages) we have can be turned into other emotions that can be much more useful than guilt. This somewhat misplaced feeling of guilt should be reevaluated and changed to feelings of motivation. It doesn’t need to be motivation to directly correct the complex issues of race but maybe motivation to fix many of the problems that have risen because of our cultures advantages and disadvantages with race. For example, rather than working to fight for education for disadvantaged black people, maybe use this motivation (guilt) to fight for education for disadvantaged. Use it to fix poverty in communities rather than readjust advantages/disadvantages. Because the facts are there to show that some groups are advantaged while others are disadvantaged…it is a GENERALIZATION. There are people of all groups in poverty, people of all groups who have lower education, and people of all groups who have disadvantages. Though these problems often correlate with race in America, you can’t ignore certain groups that are disadvantaged because of past history. It’s important to acknowledge, but I think it’s just as important to not let ourselves feel guilty but rather feel motivated to fix these problems that often (but not always*) correlate with race. This is just my two cents. I’m not sure how right I am on this issue, but these feelings of guilt should be acknowledged. Reinstating what I said earlier though, I think they should be reevaluated. We gotta figure out a way to fix these problems that come with the disadvantages. Acknowledging where these problems come from is very important so, in my opinion, feelings of guilt aren’t bad. I think we should just be very careful to use these emotions as motivation rather than allowing them to debilitate us or give up on solving the problems that correlate with our nations history Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:17:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/do-people-feel-guilt-about-their-current-positions-when-knowing-about-the-disadvantages-of-the-freed-slaves-119-blog/#IDComment134358719 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-does-the-statement-in-the-video-from-class-make-you-feel-119-blog/#IDComment129006641 Slavery is something many of us don't think about in our everyday lives. I'm still a little confused on Sam's message today. He tried to make it clear but some of the conflict in the discussion points out that we are all a little confused on this topic. Sam's words after the discussion are still resonating with me, "when you point the finger, you've got three fingers pointing right back at you." These stuck out to me and made me really think about these problems. Cuz its easy to point a finger that argued with Sam's generalizations when he's wearing a bluetooth headset...but what can we really say when I'm wearing slave made clothes and holding a slave made phone. When Sam was talking about world poverty he really was pointing out the truth, its hard for anyone to honestly say they aren't in the top 3% of the worlds wealthiest if you're at Penn State taking classes. But the biggest message I took was that we must internalize these questions in our head. We can't ignore it as consumers. We must take that responsibility to acknowledge in our head (or out loud) that we might be buying slave made chocolate, clothes, or blackberries. But I think that since we are most likely in that 3%, we have a responsibility to do more than just internalize it. We have a responsibility to support fair trade goods. Why? You might ask that and I think the answer is because of how many of that 3% actually are aware of these issues? I knew sweatshops existed but I didn’t know slavery is more common today than ever in the history of the world. That’s stunning. That video of slaves in the Ivory Coast was stunning. The horrible lives that slaves live is alarming and I know I feel a responsibility to make more of the 3% of the wealthy aware of the current situation. Someone in class asked; what can we do about it? It’s seems like an impossible feat to save the world and abolish slavery everywhere but I think if you feel this responsibility you have to take a step beyond simply internalizing these facts of slavery every time you may or may not buy a slave made product. I think the next step is to raise awareness. Start with your friends, start discussing it, start talking to teachers, family, students, taxi drivers, store clerks, etc. Start talking about it to everyone and anyone to raise awareness. Beginning advocacy for change starts this way, spreading the word and making people aware. Because I wonder how much of the top 10% wealthy in this world would feel a responsibility to do something (other than internalize these problems) if they knew how big of an issue slavery in our world really is. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:03:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-does-the-statement-in-the-video-from-class-make-you-feel-119-blog/#IDComment129006641 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/what-did-you-get-out-of-king-of-the-mountain-119-blog/#IDComment127441507 Sam's King of the Mountain idea was very interesting. It is a pretty cool metaphor to describe the way society was set up and how the 'king of the mountain' can set barriers for other 'competitors.' But something that really gets me confused is why we have to think of it as a competition? I understand there is a 'king of the mountain' in society and many of the inequalities we see today have roots in the 'barriers' the king set up to make it difficult for some other groups. The history is there to tell us about these barriers set up (ie. Post-Slavery, The Great Expansion, GI Bill and WWII benefits). There is really no denying that. Many agree success in life can be achieved through competition. But rather than compete and fight with these 'barriers' and 'rules' set in place, why can't we work unified as Americans or even better, human beings? Otherwise it feels like we're swimming upstream to fight these barriers and rules. Societal barriers like institutionalized racism or 'reverse affirmative action' are man-made but so is societal progression. When I say societal progression I mean a lot of things...examples include programs like Teach for America (the group Sean discussed in the 90 second commercial) and Americorp or health care for those that can't afford it. I feel like we can achieve so much more progression in society if we work as a unified force of people. Something that really stands out to me is how segregated we are when we discuss race and ethnicity. Sometimes the topics aren't very comfortable for some to discuss. Now don't misunderstand, it's not a bad thing if it's uncomfortable to discuss. The point is that we are discussing and confronting these issues head on, as a unified group. And look where we are getting. Think about how 'open' most of our discussion groups are and look at how we discuss these issues 'openly' in class. These efforts should be applauded because it would be surprising if we could even discuss inequalities and race as a unified force outside of class. Its something we should work on, not as white, brown, or black people... but just as unified people. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:50:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/what-did-you-get-out-of-king-of-the-mountain-119-blog/#IDComment127441507 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/inequality-in-home-ownership-119-blog/#IDComment126095908 This is a really tough question. Statistics like these are staggering and leave us searching for answers as to why stats like these come about. I've heard many different answers. I've heard people suggest that Urbanization has something to do with it. Some say another factor is that some minorities (in general) live in urban areas with less 'homes'. Another answer was questioning the definition of 'home ownership' that the study used. Or the definitions of the categories (ie. black, asian, etc.) that they used for the study. There really are an infinite amount of factors and answers to why the study came out as it did. As far as inequality, I think the real reason for Inequality in home ownership has a lot of factors too. I'd like to focus on two that I believe are very significant. One is the statistics we discussed in class about poverty. I think the correlation of two statistics, home ownership and poverty, play a huge role in why there is inequality in home ownership. But that leads me to another question, why is their inequality in poverty? The second factor I'd like to focus on (which may offer some insight into this new question) is cultural factors. Now when discussing these 'cultural factors' I think you have to be very careful when defining 'culture'. Dictionary.com offers 12 very different definitions for the word. But one in particular stands out to me as the way I mean to use culture in the term cultural factors; the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another. I want to use this definition when discussing cultural factors because it recognizes that culture is the way of living "built up by a group." Cultural factors are greatly affected by how society treats different genders, races, groups, etc. and if you look to America's history, I think it will offer some insight as to why cultures grow as they do. For example after the abolition of Slavery in America, The Great Expansion took place. The lingering racism in the South and lack of jobs pushed nearly 2 million former slaves and blacks to the North, Midwest, and West regions of America. In particular, much of this group moved to cities where the jobs and housing were. A possible explanation for these inequalities in housing could be that during the Great Migration, this large “group of human beings” or culture of 2 million flocked to cities with apartments, townhomes, etc. and not “homes” as it was defined in the study. You could also correlate this group with the inequalities in poverty. Though we learned in class that poverty is more likely to happen in Rural America, it seems that it might be in greater numbers in Urban, congested areas. Urbanization usually leads to slums and this large group of 2 million in the Great Migration could have experienced much of the slums and poverty that come about during this Urbanization period. Just an idea, I’m not sure if it’s correct (and I’m obviously making generalizations). But my point is that we can look to our history, cultural factors, and how society has treated different groups in the past to explain some of the statistics that leave us in awe today. Sat, 5 Feb 2011 07:35:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/inequality-in-home-ownership-119-blog/#IDComment126095908 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122852752 I really liked the exercise Sam Richards had the two 4.0 GPA students do. It was interesting and quite complicated. I was so surprised when I actually heard the results of certain people that were grouped into categories. That was the part of the exercise that was the "wow" factor for me. A lot of conclusions can be drawn from this exercise. A interesting point, that many other comments have mentioned, is how uncomfortable it would be to be one of the 4.0 students categorizing everyone by their race/ancestry. I heard several murmurs from students in the audience saying what they would do, or how they wouldn't categorize anyone at all. But I think when put on the spot, like the two 4.0 students were, it would be much different. Their obvious discomfort with the exercise shows how uncomfortable we all are with race/ethnicity. I like how Sam helped make the setting appropriate for such an exercise. Another point I'd like to bring up from the exercise is how Sam chose two students with 4.0 GPAs. There's a point to be made in their lack of ability to categorize everyone correctly. It points out how difficult and silly it is to categorize anyone at all (for even the smartest of students). I know our culture and cultures of the past have constantly tried to categorize groups (and failed) but rather than using categorization methods like we do, maybe we should disband categories. It seems like these categories actually work to promote false stereotypes. And the slide that showed different categories we've used by decade in America points out how farfetch'd (and ignorant) the idea of 'categories' are. Just a thought. Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:40:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/18/what-do-you-think-blog-2/#IDComment122852752