rchoy1030

rchoy1030

25p

23 comments posted · 2 followers · following 0

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 8 – Lesson 14: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I strongly agree with what you said about people making assumptions on affirmative action without knowing the majority of information on the topic. How can you say something is wrong if you are not knowledgeable about it? I think that most people who come up with “reverse racism” argument on affirmative action are missing the basic factor of America’s school admission office and human resources departments. They do not hire someone who is not qualified for the job. Yes, they consider diversity of the school and company when it comes to hiring and admitting people, but it is not a matter of underqualification.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 8 – Lesson 14: ... · 8 replies · +1 points

“Most beneficiaries of affirmative action are white women” was something that I definitely absorbed throughout watching the lecture. I realized that women and middle class people benefited the most from affirmative action, however I did not know that the biggest number of beneficiaries go to the category of white women. This seems a little bit funny to me, because when I actually tried to picture someone with food stamps or is on welfare, I could easily imagine a middle-aged white female, so we call “white trash” however I did not learn until today that white women were the most beneficiaries of this system.
The video of the Oprah show was shocking as well, even though I had seen it for another sociology class before. It really is amazing how different schools can have no resources to affluent resources regarding the neighborhood they are in. The American school system is all about the property taxes, and I strongly believe that this is the core reason for social stratification of our society. I took sociology of stratification this summer as my 400 level course, and one of the essay questions for an exam was discuss if you think that each student in this country has equal access. I do no think that every child has equal opportunity for education that has a lot to do with nepotism that Sam also talked about in class. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is a phrase that we hear everywhere in the States. Except for wealth or family structure, what we can change is to provide somewhat decently equal chance to every student in the society. What is the answer to equal access? The demonstration that Sam created with three students in the classroom was very interesting. The white student was starting far ahead from the black and brown student because that is just how the system generally works. The distance from the white and black student has to be dealt with somehow, and that is called affirmative action. I really do not see affirmative action being problematic, and I do not believe in it creating “reverse racism”. With a policy like affirmative action to make our society more equal and diverse, blacks and browns still struggle with getting into the “right schools” and such. I agree with Sam when he said that people who do not get picked from the admission office or human resource department are not qualified for the position or school, so why does it matter? Economic aid, social aid such as scholarships for disabilities and certain ethnicity groups can only help our society and give a chance to those who are left beyond the starting line.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 7 – Lesson 13: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I feel very strongly about what you said; people who talk down on foreigners who do not speak English are irritating. I completely agree with that learning a foreign language as an adult is beyond difficult, and we need to be more understanding as people who live in America. We are supposedly the land of opportunity, melting pot, country that respects diversity, however I have seen so many persons who react so negatively on immigrants and make generalizations on a certain racial group for illegal immigrants. I personally can not stand people like this, and wonder how those people’s mindset can be changed.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 7 – Lesson 13: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Immigration is indeed a diverse topic of discussion, and I am glad that Sam did two parts of lectures on the subject. As a Korean-American, I know a lot of immigrants who came over here for a better life than what they had in Korea. The Myspace Forum thread that Sam showed us during the second lecture was very interesting. Mainly because the person who wrote the thread was demonstrating total hypocrisy, he/she was living in Sweden and could get by “just fine with speaking English”. However, Mexicans who live in the United States are “too lazy to speak English” and they do not make any effort to learn English? I realize that America’s core ideology represents freedom of speech, and like the lady in the news displaying “Keep Hispanics Out” on the top of her house, which I do not agree with. Freedom of speech does make a person to have freedom for happiness, however I believe that the speech should be respectful and not harmful for a specific race/ethnicity. The sign that has a hatred feeling towards Hispanics really reminded me of all the signs for segregating blacks from whites. How are they different? Both cases are targeted to exclude a certain racial group and hurt their feelings of existence, this in my eye, is morally wrong.
The fact that new immigrants have very strong commitments to family and community was something that I could relate to from personal experience and my other sociology class, sociology of education. Immigrant children for a fact do quite well in academics, and the two facts that support their well-being as students are bilingual skills and strong family ties. I know many Korean immigrants and Italian immigrants who came over to the States for a better life, worked very hard to be where they are today, and the common thing they all hold is being family-oriented. Not only they value education highly for their children, they do things as a family often. This gives the children a sense of tie, that perhaps children of native-born families do not quite experience. It is so interesting to me that the structure and atmosphere of one’s family has such a significant effect on the child’s performance sociologically and academically. Is this just a different culture trait that America lacks at adopting, or just a pattern for most immigrant families? The biggest solution to this ever-lasting problem of immigration would be trying to be open-minded about other cultures, languages, and their customs. Looking down on them because they are foreigners, or being indifferent about them because you do not have much common with them would be a very narrow-minded person thing to do. Let the real America begin!

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 7 – Lesson 12: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I agree with your perspective on gay rights and gay marriage. Before you start criticizing about someone being gay, just think about why they would come out to be gay. Sam mentioned in previous lectures that people are born to be gay, not choose to be gay. Like someone who is Black cannot choose his race because he was born into his race, people should not judge a gay person and say “well, he chose to be gay.” You can’t tell another person to choose who to love or marry, in my opinion, this violates the individual right that America has offered for its entire history.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 7 – Lesson 12: ... · 3 replies · +1 points

The numbers that were presented in the multiculturalism lecture were interesting, and I do understand why Dr. Richards showed them to us, and what he meant by “why there is a notion why Republicans come off as racist.” However, I think that he could have presented the other side of argument from Republicans’ point of view just to give students a fair chance to look at things from both perspectives. From looking at numbers from surveys and studies, we can have a general idea of what the majority of a political party’s opinion is, but obviously this does not include everyone’s judgment of living with immigrants or their will to live in a more diverse area where they have neighbors who are not from the same racial ancestry.
An interesting questions that he asked from the same lecture was “if I entered a small grocery store and the clerk spoke none of the languages that I speak I would:” and I was glad to be in the 18.8 percentile. I would definitely try to communicate in some way with the person and perhaps ask them how to say greetings in their language, because I find different cultures very interesting. Like he mentioned in class, what we can do to improve racial relations in the United States is to get intrigued by immigrants. Try to understand them and their culture because this is a global world, and also this is a way to get ahead in this international business world.
On assimilation topic, I can share my personal experience as a person who moved to the States at the age of 16. I actually did not have a choice but to adopt the culture of America, because I was placed with a host family in the middle of nowhere that was an hour north of Pittsburgh with all White residents and friends. However, I was always one of those people who attempted to stay open-minded about different cultures and people from diverse backgrounds. I recently experienced a person who said that she was not willing to live with someone who was not of her race. This was almost shocking to me, because I thought, how would or could you learn more about other cultures and understand different racial groups if you made up your mind about not living with non-Whites? If you are not willing to live with someone who does not share the same racial ancestry as you because even those who do have problems with you because they come from different family backgrounds and morals, this appears to be a very close-minded person.
Obstacle to assimilation was said to be “falling in love with someone of any other different race than my own” was interesting to me. I am Asian, and my parents were totally okay with meeting my boyfriend who is White. But I know that not all families would support interracial dating or marriage.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 6 – Lesson 10: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

It is interesting that you brought up the question of why other people of color were not participants of the doll experiment. I wonder myself as an Asian person if Asian children or Hispanic children would choose the white doll and associate the black doll as negative or bad. I am also curious of the reasons why children think this way, is it the media or just embedded white supremacy in our culture? Will it ever get better or fixed? I do not see much assimilation of blacks to the white culture, but it was very interesting to see how the black girls wanted white hair and lighter skin color.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 6 – Lesson 10: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

The significant difference of age in regards to experiencing “Awakening” stage of racial identity was very interesting. The example of Dr. Richards friend’s daughter having to deal with her skin color at the age of 4 was sad but seemed very realistic to me, because I know many other similar stories of minority children who had to go through racial concerns at a young age. Going with the topic of racial identity, the section about what it means to be Asian in our society appeared to be interesting as well. I do know a number of Asians who assume that they are “white” for whatever reason. This happens in pre-awakening stage, because it is the stage where “little thought given to racial and cultural differences.”
The video “A Girl Like Me” was almost shocking to me, especially the part where the experiment of black children having to pick either white or black doll. Not only 16 out of 21 participant children picked the white doll, they also associated white dolls with being nice. I had a decent understanding of the dilemma of darker and lighter skin blacks about wanting to be lighter and having not afro like hair from media and friends’ stories, but watching blacks make comments about the black culture of preferring to be light was something that I saw for the first time.
Penn State is a predominantly white school with 83.2% of total undergrad student population being white, and Asian population was larger than any other non-white race. Going with east dormitory buildings having one minority per floor proves that the best way to promote and advance race relations is to connect whites and other racial people by making them roommates in a college campus. I am in total agreement with that, but also agree with minorities who sometimes need a sense of comfort. So these two things can make a conflict, so Penn State is trying to balance the two. I can really relate to this because that is exactly what I got to experience when I came to Penn State as a freshman. I grew up in South Korea with every single friend of mine being Korean, who share the same race and ethnicity, and when I came here to start my college career, everything has changed in regards to my surroundings. I experienced severe culture shock and homesickness, however I had no choice but to make myself feel better by making friends around me who were mostly white. I was the only Asian girl on my floor, and had a difficult time getting adjusted to white culture, but I also understand where Penn State race relation department wants to demonstrate.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 5 – Lesson 9: S... · 0 replies · +1 points

I completely agree with your argument of everybody having different ideas of what being racist means. From personal experiences to their own color of skin, people react very differently to a particular race issue, often involved with their surrounding of people or situations that they have experienced before. Like your example of calling a Jewish person a Jew, I who have a very close friend who is Jewish can call him a Jew in a racist context, however this would not offend my friend whatsoever. I think it really is a matter of personal experience and how much you care to know about other races other than your own.

12 years ago @ World In Conversation - Week 5 – Lesson 9: S... · 2 replies · +1 points

It was interesting to hear about “the first rule of being white”, which is see and treat everybody equally. The “White Nationalist Girl Singers” took a different awakening stage as white supremacist type people and jump into playing around with the race issues because they are interesting. I am obviously not agreeing with what they are expressing, but I do realize that these girls are at least trying to seek a deeper understanding of race issues and act out something as next stage.
The story of racial identifiers was something that I could really relate myself to as well. Like Dr. Richards said, “you’ve got to learn the language of race, and the biggest thing to learn, is when you bring somebody’s race into a conversation, when their race does not enhance the story at all.” We often do this in our everyday life, perhaps for attention or to make the story more interesting to people, but this does not make it right.
A lot of white people fall into the category of revisioning was something that I learned from watching this lecture. I started wondering about where I would fall into out of these stages of racial identity. I am surely beyond stage 1 and 2, however maybe not in the revisioning stage yet. I do begin to see racial inequality, white privilege and racism, however I have not really tried my best to reach out to people of color for any reason.
I was very shocked to see 10 people or so raising their hands to the question of “how many of you feel guilty of being white?” That thought never even crossed my mind for a second. Guilt occurs from feeling bad about something that you have done, but being born in a specific race is not anybody’s choice. So how could you feel guilt about being white? As an Asian person, I have never felt guilty about being Asian. This brought my perspective to broader perspective of relations of race and ethnicity, which is thinking about white people and their culture. I could never understand white guilt fully, because I am plainly not white, but the groud that I stand anywhere in this country is red land which was taken away from Native Americans-perhaps I could feel more kind of way about this whole thing.
Lastly, the advice from Dr. Richards that you will never talk people out of being racist, if a situation where you are labeled as racist-just keep quiet and pull yourself back from the conversation. This made me feel sad that not everyone is on the same level of openness of being able to talk about race issues in our society even though I feel like racial relations is a very significant matter.