en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3089756 Comments by rchoy1030 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170045858 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. Tue, 5 Jul 2011 19:40:16 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170045858 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170038296 “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. Tue, 5 Jul 2011 19:13:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/30/week-8-%e2%80%93-lesson-14-affirmative-action/#IDComment170038296 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169422523 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. Sun, 3 Jul 2011 21:09:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169422523 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169420570 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! Sun, 3 Jul 2011 20:59:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-13-immigration/#IDComment169420570 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment167999542 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. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:47:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment167999542 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment167996212 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. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:36:32 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/26/week-7-%e2%80%93-lesson-12-multiculturalism-lgbt/#IDComment167996212 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165941631 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. Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:48:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165941631 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165940554 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. Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:44:33 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/22/week-6-%e2%80%93-lesson-10-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-people-of-color-stages-1-4/#IDComment165940554 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164077438 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. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:28:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164077438 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164051398 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. Sat, 18 Jun 2011 23:05:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-9-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-3-4/#IDComment164051398 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162984243 Political correctness concept was interesting to me as well, because I do not think that you can blame White people to be politically correct. I am not White, however can relate to your saying of how our society does not make you think or question any kind of thought in being a White person. How come non-White people have so much to say about their race and ethnicity, but Whites have to stay quiet? The media plays a significant role in our culture, and I think this has a correlation with political correctness of Whites not being able to speak up about any racial issues. Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:00:51 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162984243 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162981901 This class always brings new things to my perspective that I normally do not even think of, and White people not talking about being white was struck to my head. People of color do talk about being a minority in the United States, but we never hear anything about being White in our society. According to Dr. Richards, “White people are the last that understand what it means to be white.” When he asked the class who we were, for me I thought I am Robin Choy, am a student, and am a Korean American. Obviously, to me, ways to understand the sense of myself is related to my race and ethnicity, because being Asian, Korean and American was immediately popped into my head when I was about to answer the question of who I was. Like it was represented in the classroom, how we sense of “ourselves” is shaped by others around us. I can give an example of this, since when I lived in South Korea where except for 2% of the population, the thought of me being Asian never ever came to my sense of how I shaped myself in the world. Other people that I am surrounded by have a significant impact on how I form my identity. One of the stories that was very interesting to me is his friend who tried to give his paralyzed friend a joint, like Dr. Richards mentioned, the friend only did that because he did not have any experiences before. Race pre-awakening means that if you don’t have experience, you don’t know. And this happens in our everyday life. Culture can be important as well, such as Italians in this country. I have personal experience from seeing my boyfriend who is Italian American. His world evolves around the culture of Italy from the food he eats to all the family events to the language his family uses. However, him being White does not get put into his thought of the way he sees himself in the world. Like everyone else who is taking this course, I think I am at least beyond pre-awakening and awakening stages of racial identity stages. I aware that there is “us” and “them”, and I began to see whiteness and really think about White culture. I moved here from South Korea as an exchange student, and unlike most Korean Americans, I associated myself with a host family who is White and White friends. This made me think about the white culture in America. After quite some time and understanding, I came to a realization that the culture I was familiar with all my life up until the age of 17, the culture that I was surrounded by(white culture) was drastically different, however I started respecting “their” way of life. Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:49:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/07/week-5-%e2%80%93-lesson-8-stages-of-racial-identity-%e2%80%93-white-people-stages-1-2/#IDComment162981901 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160804932 I completely agree with your argument on luck being the most significant component of deciding one’s success in life. I can come up with some examples demonstrating this point, such as friends who know the right people in the right company through family or parents’ business partners. Obviously not all of us have that kind of personal connection before we jump into job search after school, and this creates inequality to equal access of individuals. Hard work is another component, but this is a fair deal for everyone. The comparison of Haitians and People in the United States was very interesting in that aspect. Thu, 9 Jun 2011 01:16:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160804932 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160795422 The first part of lesson 6 started off with Dr. Richards asking 2 male students to scratch their private body parts in front of everyone in the classroom. Scratching your private body parts under your pants should be a “free” thing to do, although most people would not agree. It was interesting to watch the Asian student-he is free to do whatever he wants to do but he is not free at the same time. Invisible strings coming down saying “don’t do that” really stops someone from doing something. The game of “king of the mountain” really helped me understand the luck of birth concept. If you get to the top by luck or being extremely smart(most of the time, it is luck though) you are the one who develops all the rules and decides to pick whoever you want(your kind of people from similar race and social class). The example of comparing Haitians and people in the US was impressive as well. According to Dr. Richards, “once one group controls resources and ideology, it is difficult to dislodge them.” This really made me come up with the correlation of a Republican party in S. Korea being dominant over all the major decisions within the Korean society for a long period of time. They were the ones who got to the top of the mountain first, and they are doing everything that they can to maintain their status within the politics over there. From the second lecture, affirmative action given to White people was a point that I never thought of but was very eye opening. As a matter of fact, I do have some White friends whose attitude is rather negative towards affirmative action when it comes to college admission and job opportunities of minorities, but like it was mentioned in class, Whites shouldn’t get the affirmative action that they get-which is the history of White people giving preferential circumstances to other Whites. This is the most significant reason why the Whites have remained on top in my opinion. When the race and ethnic inequality in the criminal justice system in America came up, there was a lot that I learned from the data that was shown. The class demonstration of Akin and Marco committing the same crime coming from the similar background, the black kid Akin is 18.4 times more likely to be transferred to the adult system compared to Akin who happens to be White. I knew that this sort of racism exists in our system, but not to this extent. It is the racism that we all allowed to happen, and we all support to exist in our current criminal justice system. It really put things in perspective for me. Thu, 9 Jun 2011 00:27:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/06/02/week-4-lesson-6-race-and-ethnic-inequality/#IDComment160795422 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159761193 It really is amazing what a person’s will can do in someone’s life. For you to decide your own decisions to stay in school for a degree, and not let those obstacles stop you like Dr. Richards mentioned in class, you are already a successful person. I had my own obstacles during sophomore year and had to take a year off, but I did what I needed to do to overcome the difficulties and I am where I am in life. I am proud of both of us, and wish you all the best luck of going beyond obstacles like you have done. Mon, 6 Jun 2011 00:09:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159761193 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159758705 It was so interesting that he pulled two group of students of Whites and Browns/Blacks to demonstrate typical judgments that we make of these categories of people that we created, but we do not know the individual differences in people. He wanted us to see the distinctions of white people and a group of color(white people are wealthier than black and brown people), and understand the differences of the group thing and individual differences. The really striking point of genetics and race is the fact that “99.9% of human genome is the same in everyone.” From the second “Understanding Social Inequality” lecture, the example that Dr. Richard gave out about his own personal life decision whether to have dropped out of college or not was pretty impressive. It really demonstrated that psycho-cognitive explanation was based on the free will-libertarian position. I think that I really could relate to this example, because I was in a similar situation as him where I had to make a life-changing choice to better myself and it was all me, my inside will to learn more and get a degree from Penn State. I had advantages compared to other people as well, but I am proud to say that I took charge of the right decision making to stop being stuck in the same corner of my life that had so much potential. This lecture gave me a great lesson on human beings’ real definition of freedom and their free will. The positive correlation of the SAT scores and the family income, and the SAT scores and the student’s parent’s academic background was very interesting to see as well. Dr. Richards continued to explain that the number one determinant of how well you do on the tests is family income. It does not mean that the poor kid cannot do it or he isn’t responsible to work hard, but the ones who are wealthy can work just as hard if not more. For instance, this happens a lot in where I come from, South Korea. Students who are from middle, upper middle class have more resources to be surrounded by, such as private tutoring lessons after class or foreign language classes that are taught from native language teachers. Lastly, the Oprah show that we watched was depressing. Clearly, the two schools that are half an hour from each other in Chicago had an educational system like day and night. From the gym facility to the quality of math class, the high school with the Olympic sized gym had so much more opportunities to offer than the other high school. I saw a huge difference in race of most students in these schools, that the school with a very low graduation rate was mostly consisted of Blacks and Browns. Mon, 6 Jun 2011 00:01:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-5-social-inequality/#IDComment159758705 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158392385 I completely agree with where you stand with the insurgents in Iraq. Like Dr. Richards mentioned, I do not agree with what they are doing, however I realize the motivation factor behind their action that often times frightens people. The bear and the honey demonstrate your point perfectly. The U.S. and Iraq are both doing what would benefit them the most(even though I would say that U.S. is the one who started the fight), but there needs to be a limit when it comes to innocent civilians’ death and endless amount of violence. Why do the Christian invaders falsely advertise everything when the real reason is getting Iraq’s oil? It blows my mind. Thu, 2 Jun 2011 02:36:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158392385 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158389878 From the first lecture, what sounded really striking was Dr. Richard’s saying of “hunting is ethical.” The different viewpoint each of us carries has a lot to do with how we perceive and judge phenomenon. Even from cultural relativism view, everybody has his of her limits such as public stoning and female genital mutilation. You do not have to take everything into the culturally different action category and justify it. Another interesting topic was the fact that Anglo cultures do not use the name Jesus for a person, and we do not know the reasoning behind it. The Christian Invaders lecture was one of the most powerful lectures that I have ever watched in my life. Not only the lecture provided much needed information about our military being strongly involved with Christianity, but also the understanding of what motivates the insurgents in Iraq to go after American soldiers. When Dr. Richards asked the entire class, “knowing the whole picture, and the reasoning behind the U.S. military attack, you Arabs, would you join an insurgency?” I nodded my head like the most people in the lecture room. Also, his attempt to make us imagine to be Arabs and Muslims was such a special approach that I have never experienced from a professor before. It really put things in perspective of their culture and what they want to keep in their lives. The pictures that were shown in the class were something that I never thought I would see. I found it very touching when Dr. Richard told us his old TA’s experience with people in Iraq before the bombing started. Those people wanted to take a picture as a gift to the TA’s family. Along with the pictures that captured the ordinary people in Iraq looking content and normal, my opinion just came down to how everyone wants the same core in life-happiness. The Christian military leaders of U.S want to attack Iraq in order to get their oil below their ground for what? More money, which creates comfort and perhaps happiness. The insurgents in Iraq who fight for the American soldiers risk their life with a gun for what? Because they want the U.S. to leave their own land alone. Kind of like the cultural relativism concept, we all want our profit maximizing conditions in life, but we also need to figure out the limits of not affecting other people in a negative way. Why do 29, or 30 innocent civilians of Iraq have to be killed? For the U.S. military to find one bad guy? I do realize that we need tons of oil for our system to keep working like it has been, but we, especially Christians who are supposed to love everyone for harmony represent contradictory. Thu, 2 Jun 2011 02:24:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/25/week-3-lesson-4-ethnocentrism/#IDComment158389878 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/22/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race/#IDComment156204560 I come from South Korea as well, and the skin whitening is really common like Dr. Richard described in the lecture. I often find it embarrassing that cosmetic surgeries to look more Westernized occur left and right over there and many other Asian countries, but I think that the core problem is more about how we are not happy with how we look like you mentioned. Also it’s interesting how we constantly want to change our appearance, but want to look like others-we want to look like each other eventually. Like the video that was shown in the end of second lecture, monkeys just can’t obtain themselves to be happy? Thu, 26 May 2011 03:19:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/22/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race/#IDComment156204560 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/22/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race/#IDComment156203185 The 2 lectures were full of excitement and they made me realize and absorb so much information and thoughts. The first thing that I found very eye awakening was that Dr. Richard’s view of who was first to classify race. According to Dr. Richard, if it was Blacks who were there first to make classifications on the physical difference of people, they would have definitely put themselves on the top, and White would have ended at the bottom of the picture. Also, his mention of how an individual need to spend a lot of time around the people to ascertain the difference among different race. The Video “All Orientals look the same” was upsetting to me at first, but I could understand how it takes time and effort to be able to differentiate a group of people who share very similar physical traits after looking at pictures of Asian kids, White Kids, and Black kids. After the first lecture, slavery was a topic that was very new to me, but slavery always existed, because it makes sense-you’re going to own and use people for certain purposes. I think that it is human nature to be selfish, so that explains slavery perfectly. Going onto the topic of race, the notes that I took were that physical features are real, but racial groups are human construction. There is no set number of racial groups. Racial classification is outdated. Nasal Index was something that I have never heard of or learned before. Wider noses are resulted from ancestors that were adapted in climate that was warmer and humid, on the other hand, narrow noses come from ancestors that had to be adapted in climate that was cold and dry. Of course there are people whose noses are in between being wide and narrow, their place of origin often explains the result. Even thought, people from the same racial group share similar physical traits, the modern society has a huge effect on people to do something in order to look different, I would say more Westernized. The classic example of this is the eyelid folding surgery to look more Western in Korea and China. So why do we still discuss race when we can’t identify racial groups? The reason that was the most interesting was the fact that some physical traits are deemed more desirable. Skin whitening being the leading cosmetic produce in the world, people tend to think that white is being perfect. The movie about monkeys was the most powerful video I have ever watched, and I agreed with the expression of human stupidity on fighting over our differences for no reason, and human beings want to be happy, but they just never are content with themselves. Thu, 26 May 2011 03:12:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/05/22/week-two-lesson-2-intro-to-race/#IDComment156203185