Your statement is so true, "You cannot really agree or disagree with a certain argument, unless you take time to see both sides...." Too often, people go flyin' off with knee-jerk reactions to situations or circumstances without really thinking about the root cause. An applicant not being selected for a position needs to really examine the whole scenario and not just react with his/her emotions. I lost out on an opportunity because one of the other applicants had a dad who was a "life member" of the organization...life member meaning he had made a rather large and impressive financial donation to the organization. Yes, I was frustrated because I felt it unfair; however, later on I learned that the hired individual also had an associates degree which I did not have at that time. So, yeah, on the surface it looked like that person was only chosen because their dad gave a $10,000 donation--and I'm sure that still did play a part in it. But certainly the educational thing was a factor as well. In the end, I'm glad I didn't go off running around bantering like an idiot in reaction to the situation. In this case, I definitely would have had egg on my face.

07/04/11. You know, I just have to chuckle when Prof. Sam ends an informative lecture with, “…so we don’t spout off our mouths without knowing all the facts.” In general, people understand about 0.1% of affirmative action (AA). I’m a labor studies major so I’ve taken five or six classes that have included lessons on AA. I learned from those classes that AA isn’t as simple as “That black woman got my job [I’m ranting as a white man here—no offense to you white males] because she’s black and unqualified and I’m white and qualified but they have to meet their quotas for affirmative action!” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard a man blame his misfortune on AA. And why is he calling it “his job” anyway? It wasn’t his. It was vacant. What he should be doing is reflecting on himself, his attitude, and his personality and concluding that maybe the black woman had some additional qualification—perhaps some unique work experience—that gave her an edge over him. Why does he automatically think that he’s better qualified than she is? Would he be stomping around like this if he lost out to another white man? Why is it different? It shouldn’t be. It’s not about picking the minority out of fear of retaliation in the form of a discrimination lawsuit; it’s still about picking the best-qualified candidate for the job and making sure that a man isn’t hired for a management position just because it’s typically considered a man’s job to manage and a woman’s job to answer phones. And Prof. Sam is correct that AA can only be connected to a small percentage of all the millions of jobs out there. Hiring people is not easy. It requires a neutral mind, one that can tune out the sexism of careers in order to avoid being discriminatory. What I mean by that is just like Sam’s example where he was looking for an assistant and had in his mind that women are great for this type of work so he chose applications from women to be interviewed. That’s sexism because men can be just as effective as assistants but we don’t typically think of them in that type of work. Let’s face it: a male secretary must be gay, right? Wrong. But that’s how we’re all conditioned to think from an early age. Little Johnny gets a policeman’s hat and badge to wear for dress-up play while little Susie gets a nurse’s uniform. All of this gives us preconceived notions of who should do what jobs so sexual discrimination is an easy trap to step into during the hiring process. By following the guidelines for AA, one can avoid the trap.

Nepotism is interesting. Go back to that white man who insisted that AA gave his job to a black woman. Let's suppose that the department manager is his cousin and he "put in a good word for him" with the hiring manager. Would this white guy believe it unfair or discriminatory if he had been selected instead of the qualified black woman just because his cousin pulled some strings?

I'm so amused by your story and you have a lot of good points. You are also right on with the English language. I was an English major but I still don't get some of the twists we have -- like knife and knives, or mouse and mice --- and then there's words that don't change at all for plural -- deer and deer... who sat down and decided all these strange ways to use words? It's no wonder English is difficult to learn. I found French much easier to learn because it's so straightforward. Anyway - I guess that's all off-topic and unrelated to this lesson. No doubt, your parents faced a lot of adversity upon arriving in America with not being able to read signs, newspapers, documents, or instructions -- and then not being able to communicate verbally. That must have been very frustrating for them. What did they do for employment during their first 10 years here before they became somewhat familiar with English?

07/01/2011. Again…on immigration…a real eye opener. First, illegal immigration: The big business machine determines how many of what kind get to pass over our borders illegally just to accommodate the needs of free market capitalism. This is ludicrous. But even more ludicrous is how a majority of Americans ---some of which are pretty smart—actually fall into the trap of running around, yelling and screaming and waving signs and American flags in protest of illegal immigrants as though something is truly going to be done about it. While they’re screaming, they’re not watching what’s really happening. All the activists may as well find something better to do with their time and roast marshmallows over their burning signs because it’s all been predetermined that those illegal immigrants are staying for as long as they’re needed to pick pears, peaches, and strawberries or sew clothes together. That’s become evident since all it would take to eliminate the situation is for the authorities to gather them all up and send them back. The authorities obviously know where they are since they’re letting them in. So why aren’t they gathering them up? Oh, yeah, that’s right – big business sent a directive to the government that the illegal immigrants must stay or they’ll withdraw all their financial support from the elected officials. But, my fellow classmates, with regard to the situation where illegal immigrants are sleeping on the streets and depending on people like Jorge to feed them: do you agree that if big businesses are creating this situation, that they should be held responsible for the care of the illegal immigrants? Okay – that’s my rant.

Now, legal immigration. My first question is, “Who are we to demonize immigrants and tell them they’re not welcome here when all of us—with exception of the Native Americans—are descendants of immigrants ourselves?” Is that hypocrisy at its best? Talk about people in glass houses! So, is this a “we were here first” mentality? I’m just trying to make sense of this because I don’t get it. America is not a sandbox that only a specific neighborhood is allowed to play in. While I do see the inherent problem with adding more people to the welfare rolls since unemployment is so high right now, that situation won’t last. Our economy goes through regular feast-famine cycles. It’s the nature of the beast. We’re in a famine stage now, but when we emerge from it and the economy expands and prosperity returns, most of those on the welfare roll will find jobs and that includes the legal immigrants---and they'll pay taxes. More workers, more taxes, more money for government operations. Can we expect that all the yelling and screaming about immigration will cease because everyone will be prospering again? Probably -- it's amazing how a little more money quiets some people down.

Prof. Sam had a very strong point on the subject of gay couples adopting children. There are a vast number of unplanned/unwanted pregnancies each year—isn’t the statistic something like 2,000,000 abortions annually in the United States? That’s sickening. And the single teen moms that opt to keep their children do not always provide the most loving environments because they find they are not equipped to handle the stress and commitment to a child. This situation doesn’t happen with gay couples because they cannot “accidentally” make a baby for obvious reasons. Any children they would adopt or conceive through artificial means would be planned and wanted and loved.

What did you guys think about the statistics on people saying they wanted diversity in their neighborhoods? Is your home (realizing many of you live on campus) neighborhood diverse or, if not, do you feel it would welcome diversity? I understand why immigrants – especially new immigrants – would want to settle in areas where they have a “support system” of others with the same cultural background. But I would hope that, once they’ve adjusted to life in America, they would feel comfortable moving into a neighborhood where there were many different cultures represented. I guess this is one of those things that we all have to work towards in this drive for peace and tolerance among all the various peoples in our “salad/melting pot” known as America.

I found all the statistics about multiculturalism fascinating. Until we got to this lesson, really until I got into this class, I had not really thought about whether or not my neighborhood is diverse or even if I had a preference for one or against one. I’m a Republican – not sure if I’d put myself in the conservative Republican group or not – but I am comfortable with diversity in my neighborhood. There isn’t much just yet because it’s an old, established neighborhood where the majority of residents are in the houses they built themselves back in 1940 or 1950. But, because they are now aged 80+, they’re dying off or moving into nursing homes and retirement communities and so they sell their houses and open up our neighborhood to new residents. This is how we got our house. So far on my block, there’s an African-American family from Detroit next to me and a Chinese family about four houses up across the street. We have block party-style cookouts in our yards and it’s great to get to know our neighbors. It would be interesting to get more diversity at the picnic table, but that will be a slow movement considering how many original residents still live here and are healthy in their old age.

Prof. Sam is correct in stating that America is a multicultural nation. While I don’t feel that any immigrant should have to leave their customs and cultures behind at the border, I do agree that they should learn English rather than all of our media having to be provided in 20 different languages. That’s not being anti-multicultural (if I can make up a word). The same expectation exists anywhere. If I were to suddenly decide I want move permanently to Indonesia, I would expect to have to learn Javanese or Bahasa or whatever the language would be where I settled. I would not expect Jakarta or Bandung governments and businesses to reprint all of their labels, pamphlets, manuals, and forms in English just to accommodate me (I realize English is the most common foreign language there but this is just for illustration). I need to learn to communicate with them because I’m the newbie – but that doesn’t mean I have to leave my American customs and cultural aspects behind. The scale on which amalgamation and assimilation sit is a difficult one to balance. Both are necessary in order for all Americans to feel at home.

For the LGBT portion of the lesson, I gained some perspective. While my religious moral convictions are in conflict with LGBTs, I do not condemn, dislike, or avoid them either. The perspective I gained was realizing that I was one of those people that felt that sometimes gays flaunt their gay-ness. But Prof. Sam is right. They do not flaunt it; it’s just that it’s unusual and unexpected so I notice it more. Stupidly, I never put all that together. Women and men dancing or strutting around provocatively is way more of a “flaunt” than two males or two females holding hands. I’m glad that I’ve gotten beyond that viewpoint.

Is it a bad thing if a black or brown person feels more comfortable with white people than with people that have the same appearance as they do? I suppose it depends upon the reasons underlying that feeling of being comfortable. Prof. Sam gave us a lot to think about on this. For instance, if a person is conditioned from toddler-hood on up to accept all things white and reject all things African or Negro, then their state of feeling at ease with white people is based on denial of who and what they were born as and this makes the answer to the question be a firm YES. Incidentally, this person would enter stage 1 at the moment that they came to this realization. Another bad reason might be if the person was trying to disassociate with their own culture later on in life because they develop a hatred for their own group. A positive reason for the black or brown person to feel more comfortable with non-black people might be that theyre choosing white people who have worked through all their stages over non-white people that are stuck stage 2 or stage 3 because they themselves have worked through their stages. What if they just want to be happy and they believe white people are happy so they choose to assimilate to white people and hope that their happiness is contagious?

I thought portion that brought in the Dead Prez tune was interesting—but what was even more interesting was finding out that this guy is singing a song about how white schools can’t teach black people anything (at least not anything he believes they should care about or want to know about) when he in fact graduated from a non-HBU facility himself! If he really felt the way his words portrayed him, why didn’t he drop out of the Univ of FL (I think that’s where Prof said he went) and then enroll in a well-established HBU? He could have used his own experience to encourage other black students to enroll in the university that they believe will benefit them the most. He blew it. And it’s bad that young kids are listening to this and believing that this performer is living what he’s singing so they identify with him and his foul-mouthed negativity and it’s all lies. Even worse, it’s going to perpetuate the general opinion that white people don’t care about the learning experience of anyone that is not white…and that couldn’t be further from the truth. In my opinion, this performer is doing a good job of enforcing the “keep the wagons circled” mentality and keeping the white people in their own disintegration stage.

I have a different thought on the baby doll thing. These children appeared to be somewhere between two and five years old – their age group may have been given but I don’t recall it. Anyway, at this age, the children may not be identifying with the black/white thing as a skin color, but rather a good/bad or clean/dirty association. At this stage of development, children don’t routinely pick their friends based on their skin color, hair type, or shape of their eyes--unless they are raised in a very prejudiced environment that specifically indoctrinates them to only accept a specific type of person as a friend. From their environment (tv, books, movies, conversation) they can learn that light is good and dark is bad – not relative to skin color, but relative to everyday situations. Kids are afraid of the dark; they can't see and so feel threatened and vulnerable because there may be monsters. Do you know any who are afraid of the light? And with clean and dirty. If those children just recall seeing dirt on a white shirt and then mom cleans it and it goes away, then maybe they understand the preference to clean over dirty aspects of dark and light. Unless children are exposed and educated about people differences at an early age, they have no idea what makes things the way they are so their imaginations just try to make sense of it for them. Okay – I promised myself I would not share this story publicly – but here it is. This is my own story and it’s 100% true. When I was four years old, I saw my first black person ever. I was out at the mall with my mom and encountered a black family. Confused about their appearance, I asked my mom, “Are those Hershey bar people?” My mom would probably have preferred that the floor open up and swallow us at that moment, but she told me that God makes people with different colors of skin to make the world pretty and interesting. So, when I got to Kindergarten and had my first black classmate, I already knew that she was different because she was made pretty. Her skin wasn’t chocolate and she wasn’t dirty and God didn’t leave her in the oven too long. So, I would like to know if the person conducting that survey asked the children first what they knew about black and white or light and dark before asking them to choose a doll.

Hi. I enjoyed reading your post, partly because I can relate to much of what you wrote as I have felt the same emotions and hesitations. This class has been beneficial to me. First, it helped me realize that I was carrying a level of guilt for being part of the “king of the mountain” race. I always felt bad knowing what we did to the Native Americans, then the slavery, and then herding the Japanese Americans into little secure camps during the War. What I didn’t realize was that I was harboring guilt that wouldn’t allow me to open up to people. Maybe because I didn’t feel worthy in some way. I’m not sure. But then Prof. Sam didn’t just leave us all there to wallow and figure it out for ourselves. He went on to help me walk through that and realize that just by realizing and accepting that all the terrible stuff happened, I have moved forward and there’s no need to carry a heavy heart about all of it. Actually, until Prof. Sam did his demonstration standing on the desk, I had never considered how we (the whites) got to where we are. And those twins!! That ‘s sickening that their family would raise them with such opinions and beliefs and it’s even more sickening that there are people out there supporting this kind of programming of children. It’s people with attitudes like the family of those girls that perpetuate the very conditions this class seeks to enlighten and correct.

Never thought about the fact that my house is sitting on land that once was owned by Native Americans. Now they’re all forced to live on just a portion of land when at one time they had it all. Yes, I feel bad about that. Guilt is actually part of the healing process that helps us get over all the unfair and unjust actions that have been taken against other people groups. We cannot fully comprehend all the wrongs that went on if we don’t experience the guilt that this realization brings with it. But guilt isn’t something that we need to hold onto because it eventually becomes patronizing to the victims or it becomes a roadblock to the person feeling guilty so that they cannot move forward and make peace with what’s happened and let it go. But there are people that don’t want it to go away. They want white people to go on feeling guilty and responsible for all the inequalities that exist. This kind of attitude is actually just as bad for the black and brown people as it is for the white people because everyone loses when no one is allowed to move forward and progress toward finding common ground. This evidently leads to white people trying to avoid offending other races to make themselves acceptable. But if that doesn’t work and they keep being confronted by people from other races, they cannot move on so they become angry and grow tired of the confrontations and end up reversing back to not wanting to deal with the situation.

So, in the United States, it seems like the white people have been in the king of the mountain position and beaten down all other groups in order to get what they want and keep others from stopping them. I wonder, what’s it like in countries where black or brown people are in charge? Do they plow over each other in order to be in charge? Do they discriminate against new groups of people from other races that move into their territory? Here it’s white supremacy. Is there a country that has black supremacy or one that has brown supremacy? If not, this really says something about the tendencies of white people. It’s a bit unsettling.

And I always use washcloths. I think it’s gross to not use a washcloth.