en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4223252 Comments by nittanylion222 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-156/#IDComment343713587 My parents would rather me be in an interracial relationship than be a lesbian or transgender. I have two brothers who are homosexual. My parents are very much not ok with this. My mom refuses to acknowledge it and says that it is simply some type of “phase”. This crushes my brothers and makes them feel like they are not good sons and they are not worthy of my parents approval or love. I have gotten in very heated battles with her over this time and time again. She continuously says that there is something in the water and that it is not natural. She won’t talk to my brothers about it and refuses to ever meet their boyfriends; she would not even let me invite them to my graduation party. I have never really talked about it with my dad, but I think he just ignores it and won’t bring it up and just change the subject when it is brought up. And the best part is that they do not even use the religion excuse. My family is not religious in the slightest and I have never even been to church before in my life. I think if I were gay, my parents would be even more upset than they are about my brother’s because I am their only daughter. I have 5 brothers, two who are gay, and if they had another child making half of their children gay, they would just continue to blame themselves for this “defect” called homosexuality. My other three brothers have no problem with my brother’s sexuality and have gone out with them and their boyfriends on many occasions. I really think my parents would flat out disown me and cut me off completely if they thought I was gay. But on the other hand they are not racist per say, but they would still be wary of me being in an interracial relationship. For example, my aunt married a Mexican man and they commonly refer to her as a “wetback lover”. This is very rude. But my parents I guess don’t mean it. I am not sure. But it is always different when it is your kid. My dad has two close African American friends and a couple other mixed ethnicity friends so I think at first they would be a bit taken back and shocked but would eventually learn to deal with it and like him. But I would without a doubt be compared to my brothers as having a problem or would not be perfect if I had a boyfriend of different race as myself. Like I can imagine they saying, “Well Ron and Ken like men and Rachel is dating a (insert racial slur here). ” Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:47:36 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-156/#IDComment343713587 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/12/voices-from-the-classroom-147/#IDComment338367405 In the class exercise we had to decide who to save our child, spouse, or our mother. I personally chose to save my child as did most of the class. I have been asked this question before in lectures, and just like I did in this class, I always make the same choice. I picked my child because he or she has a full life ahead of them where as my spouse or mother are older and have less life to offer. I know that this reflects human’s future oriented mind. This mindset has helped human’s survive and pass on genes for all of our existence. Who is more likely to pass on your genes and further human existence? Not your mother, she’s too old, perhaps your husband, but more than likely the child when they get older will have children of their own. But just think what opportunities that child has ahead, what it can accomplish compared to the mother and the spouse. The education they would get is ten times better than the one that the other two had received. With that education they can have a great impact in the world, like cure cancer, or fix global warming, no matter how cliché that sounds. Also, by not choosing them you would be depriving them of their future. A bright one, with their own children and spouse. Also, if you did not save the child, then the public would think poorly of you because as this question answers that most people think that saving the child is the right choice. And you would forever be scrutinized by everyone around you. That would make your life after losing your spouse and mother even more stressful. Sure you can have another baby but he or she will not be the same as the one you lost. Or hell maybe you won’t be able to have another child because you have difficulties or you simply cannot afford one. Also, clearly your mother and more than likely your spouse would want you to save your child ahead of them so it most likely would not even be your choice to make. Also, if anyone would be able to survive and make it to the shore it would be your spouse then your mother because they are stronger than a child so they do not need the help as bad as the child. They could just drift over to shore if they really could not swim then stand up sooner than a child because they are taller than a child. This was the way that I thought out the situation. Thinking of the positives of saving each person and what is most important and the cons to not saving a life Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:47:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/12/voices-from-the-classroom-147/#IDComment338367405 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/03/voices-from-the-classroom-141/#IDComment333239528 I think that wearing revealing clothing like a bikini sends a lot of messages that are both intentional and unintentional. If you are wearing a bikini just on random days like downtown they you are clearly looking for intention from the opposite sex and the same sex. I wouldn’t say this is not having any respect for yourself, if anything this shows that you are very confident in your body because if you were not confident in your body you wouldn’t be wearing a bikini in public. But I will agree with one of the things that the Muslim woman said that by covering themselves it shows that they do not want attention and highlights their modesty. I think this is absolutely true, not that God wants woman to be modest and not draw attention, just simply the fact that wearing revealing clothes does draw attention and shows a little bit of immodesty. If you are wearing bikini and strolling down College Avenue on a Monday afternoon you are definitely looking for attention and will receive it and you are definitely not the most modest on the street. But if you and a couple of your friends or even more so your family is at the beach then by all means wear a bathing suit. It is completely normal to wear a bathing suit at the beach. No one really has any right to judge you on your modesty or say that you are just looking for attention because bathing suits were designed to be worn at the beach and everyone else is going to be wearing one too. But I guess you could say if it was a really revealing tight and not well fitting bathing suit then you are going to receive attention and send out messages of wanting attention. But on the whole respect/ disrespect issue you can really argue any outfit any way. Like if you go to a frat in a tight revealing dress and heels you don’t necessarily have disrespect for yourself but you are welcoming others to disrespect you. We are a society that judges each other on looks and clothing choices so a lot of girls, I know I do sometimes, feel pressured by friends and the media to wear clothes that may seem disrespectful of oneself. By showing a lot of skin you are welcoming others to judge you and that forces you to then apply the same judgments to yourself. If people make negative judgements and say hurtful things then you will start to think they are true and have low self-respect and hurt feelings. So perhaps this is how wearing covering clothes can be disrespectful to one because you think that you aren’t skinny/ pretty enough to wear other clothes. Fri, 6 Apr 2012 18:24:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/03/voices-from-the-classroom-141/#IDComment333239528 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/29/voices-from-the-classroom-138/#IDComment327941086 This video was eye opening and disturbing to say the least. The family who stopped and stared at the white kid, but then kept walking certainly is an interesting part of the video. The mom and dad and even the small children stopped to stare at the bike thief. But none of them said anything and carried on their way. They obviously thought something was up but did not act on their suspicions. There can be any number of reasons why this occurred. Maybe they did not get involved because they thought may be the kid would get violent. Or perhaps they just decided to ignore it or were going to go get a park official. But most likely neither of these are true. When people know that something bad is happening but fail to call for help or report it is actually very common. The brain tricks you into thinking that nothing bad is happening and fins ways to rationalize it. A perfect example of this is in 2005, a woman was murdered next door to a coffee shop in New York City. People were at the coffee shop and heard the gunshots and everything yet not a single person called 911 or the police or went next door to check out what was going on. Incidents like this have happened many times. I first heard of it when someone compared the above story to Mike Mcquery. That when he walked into the locker room that say and witnessed what he said he did a lot of people asked why he didn’t go running to the cops or stop it. A lot of people and even psychologist listed this above effect as the reason why. That his mind simply tried to convince him that he did not just see what he did and nothing was going on. I think that’s what was happening in this video. But the question that this brings up is do people turn off this switch when it is a black person doing the crime? From this video the response is yes that many more people reported the incident. That they overcame the need to pretend like nothing bad was happening. But why? Is it because we are conditioned to feel this way. To report a case or intervene in a potentially violent situation if the wrongdoer is black. This was clear for white people in this video because for the white kid they simply kept walking even when he admitted to stealing the bike. But is it the same for black people. Will they be more likely to intervene if the bike thief is also black? Or would they be more likely to intervene if he is white? Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:12:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/29/voices-from-the-classroom-138/#IDComment327941086 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/22/voices-from-the-classroom-127/#IDComment323116274 I think I that people believe they start at stage 6 but really they do not. They think that they accept all these people but they do not realize that this is simply ignorance. After all, they do say ignorance is bliss. I think that the stages are an accurate way of conceptualizing race relations. Especially the white stages, I felt like I as a white person could really identify. With that said I think that some people misinterpreted them. I think that they didn’t fully understand how they worked in part because it is hard to understand and because it was not explained as well as it could have been. In stage 6, the person, white or black, is supposed to not see race as a central issue, but still accept that race is an issue. Yet this person will accept all races openly and help each of them regardless of race. This can be confused with the first stage because a stage 1 person will help any person regardless of race because they do not see race!! A stage 1 person does not see race, whether it is their own race or other peoples. I absolutely do not think that we start at stage 6. We definitely start at stage 1. Then work our way up to stage 6 through all the other steps, it truly is a process. The best example of this was the video we watched in Thursday’s class with the presentation. The video showed small children of all races at a table with a white doll and a black doll. The children were then asked to pick which doll was ugly and which doll was pretty. Also, the children were asked which doll they would prefer to play with the white one or the black one. To my surprise, many of the children picked the white doll as a preference to play with and that the white doll was the pretty one of the two. Not only did the white children do this, but all of the black children also had the same results. If people truly started at stage 6 from birth and not at stage one like I believe they do then these children would have no preference and instead would have said that both of the dolls were as attractive and wouldn’t mind playing with either or they would have picked one for a reason other than skin color. I think stage 6 is something that takes a very long time to accomplish and anyone who is under the age of 25 cannot even fathom to think that they are at stage 6. I think that these people are just lying to themselves. Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:25:09 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/22/voices-from-the-classroom-127/#IDComment323116274 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/15/voices-from-the-classroom-120/#IDComment317746191 This video and lecture completely toppled my views of the entire situation in the middle-east and what I thought about Middle-Eastern people and culture. Sure I had heard it was over oil, but I only ever really believed we were over there to get bad guys, like terrorists, and create reform. But it makes sense that we are over there to get oil. We are a very large country and are burning through fossil fuels faster than any one on the planet. This does not justify us going into Iraq and taking their oil. It is their natural resource after all. A part of THEIR country. But the news makes it look like they are soulless killers and I should be afraid of Muslims. That is completely ok to kill insurgents and the more the better. That yeah it is sad that innocent civilians like women and children are dying but its ok because it is for a cause. I never knew this cause was for oil. For the first time in my life, I realized I had been being lied to for years. I began to understand Middle-Eastern people. When Sam gave the example of the Chinese invading the US and taking our coal. I found myself angry and hating all Chinese people. My eyes were opened to what the Iraqi people go through and feel every day and have been putting up with for years now. I would have raised my hand and said I would have fought against Americans. I understand what the insurgents are doing. I would be pissed. I see that they have the same type of false perception of Americans that I did of them. They see us as Christian Invaders who just want to get their oil and eliminate them from the equation. How could they not see us as this? The video of the tanks running over cars and running people of the road left me completely speechless and angry. This is as my normal American. If I were an Iraqi citizen I would be frightened and angrier. The number one thing I struggle with is how do I deal with this? Like how do I go on from here? Can I ever trust the media again? How can I feel bad for a soldier who comes back to the United States dead when I know that the person who was fighting him for reasons that entirely reasonable to me? Why is our government and everyone else in our country ok with this and treat it like an every day occurrence and just turn a blind eye? How could I have been so blind to this issue as well. I am left feeling frustrated like I can’t do anything about this situation and that no one else can either. Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:04:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/15/voices-from-the-classroom-120/#IDComment317746191 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/23/voices-from-the-classroom-115/#IDComment301012123 Studies like this prove that racism and white supremacy is alive and well in the United States. Studies like the one mentioned in class should be discussed around the country not only in classes but in the media and everywhere. The only way to change things like this or at least to start to make a difference is to let the public know that this still occurs. I always knew that racism still existed and was practiced all around the world not only in the United States. What I did not know is that it is this alive and well. The fact that an employer would discriminate because someone has an African American sounding name is disgusting. I brought up this study to my friends, recently, and they did not know that this actually happens. And then one friend said something that I was actually really upset and mad about. My friend said, “Well maybe Black people should look at this study and think again about naming their kids with these crazy names and stick to better white names.” I was so mad. I told her maybe she shouldn’t be so racist! That African Americans had the right to name their children whatever the hell they wanted and that shouldn’t hold them back from getting jobs! It is just proof that racism is alive and well and we don’t even know that we are being racist in the process! White supremacy at its finest! This example really put the meaning of white privilege into prospective! That because my name too is something very common I have so many more privileges. This also backs up affirmative action in a sense that it helps to level the playing field for minorities everywhere. Interviewers moving away from black people when they interview them is a stunning fact. But even more crazy and unbelievable and truly astonishing is that even if the interviewer is African American they are still more likely to pick a white person than people of the same race as them. People who think that racism is dead and that white supremacy is a joke and does not exist clearly need to be informed and told of these studies. I will admit that I was a little skeptical that white supremacy was this dominant especially in our “modern” country and society, but after this example and others of the same message, I am starting to open my eyes and realize that racism is a big deal and that is very popular. White privilege is a term that I did not think was applicable to today’s society let alone to me, a normal average middle class white female, but in fact it is and I have been blinded. Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:00:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/23/voices-from-the-classroom-115/#IDComment301012123 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/16/voices-from-the-classroom-108/#IDComment295401911 I think that certain sports are dominated by certain races for many different reasons from cultural reasons to economic and evolutionary reasons. I think that black people dominate certain sports, a vast majority and diversity of sports, because they have better bodies for such activities. Evolution made their bodies better suited from this type of activity. Like being able to be at peak physical performance why sweating bullets. People who trace their ancestry to hot places like the Caribbean islands, or Africa, or other hot locations, will be better suited for this, as evolution tells us, than people who trace their ancestory from cold locations like most white people. Also, people who trace they’re ancestory back through slavery, many slaves were picked to breed for special traits, like the strongest and biggest and therefore best slaves had children with the biggest and best also and had children that were like this. Who is good at sports? People who are big, and fast and strong like the best slaves would have been. Just like who run the best marathons? People who train in higher elevations like the mountains in Kenya hence why the Kenyans run so much better they have trained there bodies and have good genes for such activities. Then you say why white people are so good at white dominated sports like hockey? Well here you can turn to a multitude of reasons but I think that you can definitely without any suspicion blame this one on economic reasons. What was the most expensive sport to play in high school? Hockey, if you’re School offered it. Just to rent decent equipment not including skates and sticks it was $700 plus other things, like paying for transportation to the nearest hockey ring because most high schools obviously do not have one in there school. Plus where do most blacks live? In the south, last time I checked it doesn’t get that cold in Georgia for hockey to be that popular of an activity. Plus if you are black you don’t want to be on the hockey team with all for he white kids because it is seen in our culture as a white sport so our own society keeps black people from trying out for such a sport! Another example would be swimming, there was one African American swimmer on the entire US Olympic team in 2008. Why is this? Because African Americans live in the city where they do not have their own private pools and most public pool cost money to go to. The statistics back me up on this point too because African Americans are five times more likely to not know how to swim then their white counterparts accounting that ¾ drowning’s involve African Americans. Sat, 18 Feb 2012 04:40:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/16/voices-from-the-classroom-108/#IDComment295401911 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/08/voices-from-the-classroom-99/#IDComment289188050 I agree that white people do have a strong tendency to avoid race, and if you don’t agree with that then you are in serious denial. I am white and I know that I do it and I know other white people do it. I’m not saying that other races and ethnicity always talk about race like it’s no big deal all the time, but I’m saying that they talk about it more often and more freely than white people do. I think, at least personally, for white people it’s hard to talk about race because we are just white, we don’t have special background or any special history pertaining to being white. Like African American students have slavery and other things, and racisms that they can talk about. When you have always been on top and are the ones oppressing others it’s hard to talk about race. As we talked about in class and proved a dozen times over, white supremacy is alive and well and it keeps people from talking about race especially white people because we have caused the problems that have to do with race. We are the ones who define what is beauty and set the standards on being beautiful. We have that mentality that “white is right” and anything else is subpar to being white. That we should feel bad for other races because of the income gap, discrimination, and whatever else they tell us in school to feel bad about for being white, but that is just school it is another thing all together to go out in the world and witness racism and white supremacy in the flesh right before your own eyes. We are the guilty ones, it makes people uncomfortable because we have been conditioned our whole lives to not see race so when it is thrust in our face we don’t know how to respond so we just kind of bury it and not talk about it. Racism doesn’t negatively affect white people so we don’t talk about it. It is kind of like oh it’s such a big deal, but we don’t speak about it and don’t do anything about it which I know is a huge contradiction but it is very true. For example, oh Hispanic people are flooding into our country and working awful jobs and don’t have health care, but then someone says oh but they are no good dirty beaners so why should help them out. Also, I think white people don’t talk about race a lot because they are afraid to insult people of other races and say something that is not politically correct. I know I always am afraid I am going to accidently insult someone and be branded as a racist in front of everyone. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:35:38 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/08/voices-from-the-classroom-99/#IDComment289188050 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/02/voices-from-the-classroom-96/#IDComment283031191 I am white and I think interracial dating is ok. I would date someone of a different race. I am attracted to people of all different races, but prefer white men. I don’t know why. It might be because of what Sam said about society pushing us to think of white people as being beautiful, but it might just be because I personally aren’t attracted to them. Then there is so evolutionary ideas that what we conceive as beautiful would be that strong men can protect and provide for their families back in the days of hunting and gathering while they weak could not so obviously women were attracted and wanted to procreate with these men. In our society, there are a lot of problems that come with dating people of different races. I know whenever my grandmother sees a white person with a black person she says, “why does he/she lower themselves to a black person? They should stick to their own kind.” This is extremely rude and old age thinking but she grew up in a different age. But other people I know including relatives, would be mad at me and offended if I had a boyfriend of a different race and would intentionally make it uncomfortable even if that person was good for me. I almost went to prom with a black kid in my grade my aunt was so offended when she found out she asked my cousins friends if they would go with me instead. I have heard so many times in my life stereotypes of black guys liking white women. My own father has made comments about. Even if I dated a black man who had a college education and was very smart and spoken perfect English my parents and family would not approve and make him feel excluded. If I dated an Asian kid I feel like my parents would be less offended, but my extended family would still not approved and make racial remarks especially my grandfather who fought in the Korean conflict. If I were dating a person of a different race I wouldn’t even tell my family. Still people make a scene in public and make comments behind your back. Even people of other religions my parents wouldn’t approve of even though I am completely agnostic and have no religious affiliations. Like my grandmother hates catholics and talks about them all being alcoholics. Not to even mention Jews. My entire family would be mad if I were dating a Jew. Even ethnic backgrounds play a part in mate selection in our society. I know people who would never date a Polish person because they have the preconceived notion that they are all stupid. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 19:19:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/02/voices-from-the-classroom-96/#IDComment283031191 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/24/voices-from-the-classroom-91/#IDComment275187368 I am a victim of sexual abuse. This lecture resonated with me in ways that I wish it had and hadn’t. I never began to understand how large the statistics are for people who have gone through the traumatic experience of sexual abuse until I came to Penn State and this whole scandal happened. Statistics about cases of sexual abuse started to pop up on the internet, in the Daily Collegian, and in class. To be one of those unspoken victims in class as others who have not been abused count up to 8 kids look at the ninth and think that they could have been abused is more painful than anything else. Which is odd because I know people are suppose to find relief in knowing they are not alone but it scares me because it happens that often and a good percentage of the time nothing is done. But something must be done. But what you ask? People need to start talking about it. Whether it be with your friends or your family just simply talking about it can open the door for so many things. I have only told one person in my whole life and after I spoke about it I felt so much better. I know it sounds cliché’ but it’s true. Non-victims should talk about it with other people, people they are close with because you never know if it may spark someone pouring out their own experience and make that person’s life that much better. Or if you know someone who is a victim anytime that they look like they need to talk don’t hush them up and sweep it under the rug like so many parents and other people do. Like Sam said it is a secret and no one likes to talk about it so I personally can speak up. I can make people realize that it can happen to anyone by anyone. I can tell my story and inspire others especially younger people to come forward and get help. It can mess with people in so many ways; make you never want to trust another person as long as you live. Like what happened at our school once one person came forward and found the courage to stand up against sexual assault many other people found the strength to come forward and tell their story to make it stop and bring a very sick screwed up individual to justice so that not another child would have to go through what they did at the hands of Jerry Sandusky. I have not confronted the person who did it to me and I don’t know if I ever could but the thought of that person doing it to someone else as I sit back and ignore what happened KILLS me every day inside. That I could be so cowardly as to not say something because I am afraid to break up my family all the while it could be happening to other kids. Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:45:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/24/voices-from-the-classroom-91/#IDComment275187368 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/17/voices-from-the-classroom-90/#IDComment267973830 Before today’s lecture I had given a lot of thought about immigration. I suppose because I come from a place where a lot of people came to mine coal so we have a lot of different ethnic backgrounds and all of these different people lived by each other and went to the same churches and belonged , and still belong, to the same groups. For example, there’s the Polish Country Club, St. Anthony’s church where everyone is Italian, and the American Lithuanian Club. Also, at my high school we had a lot of pride in our ethnic backgrounds and had Ethnic Eats where we got to bring a dish from our ethnic background. Unfortunately about 90 percent of the class was Italian so all we ever had was Italian food. But also in 11th grade we took a trip to Ellis Island and did a project on immigration for that. But I had never thought of Native Americans as the victims. In middle school, we had to go visit local landmarks and one of them was Queen Esther’s Rock, a rock that is now a monument that marks the site where Indian Queen Esther, angered by the death of her son, used a maul to smash the skulls of a dozen plus soldiers. We were told to be sad and mourn for the soldiers, but were never told that the soldiers actually killed her son. So I don’t want to blame my school for me not paying attention to the fact that Native Americans were slaughtered, but they definitely played a part in my ignorance. I think that Native Americans were done wrong when Europeans came here and we continue to abuse them. It is an unusual coincidence but before class on my MSN homepage there was a link to the poorest 15 counties in the nation and 4 of them were where reservations were. The overall unemployment of the State of South Dakota was just 13.2% but in these counties it was as high as 50%. The number one spot was Ziebach County over all poverty rate 50.2%, poverty rate of children at 52.3%, and the average income of $25, 669. I was appalled and thought how could this be? How can all of these counties be only a few thousand dollars above the poverty line, defined at $22,314, and no one was doing anything about it? And no one was talking about it? The reason why the only thing we could think of when asked about Native Americans was Alaskan State Troopers is that we are not taught about Native Americans in a sense that they were the victims and Europeans the real immigrants because no one wants to tell the ugly side of the story and our society chooses to ignore Native American’s past and current suffering. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:52:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/17/voices-from-the-classroom-90/#IDComment267973830