This letter really sad to read and depressing because it sounded so helpless. It makes me appreciate all the things in my life. All the letters we’ve read have not always been uplifting but show a little bit of hope and talk of all the positive things learned in jail and how they are still learning and growing as a person. They speak of their situation as one of the most empowering and learning experiences of their life. They speak of how prison saved their life because if they weren’t in there they would have been dead by now. This letter takes the opposite stance. This inmate discusses the hopeless of his situation and instead of how it teaches or forces him to reflect it is an awful experience he no longer has physical or mental freedom. His free time is not spent doing things that he enjoys but thinking of how his situation sucks and how he will never be free or never escape. He tries keeping himself busy because he doesn’t want to have to think of his awful situation. When I hear about people in prison like this I feel kind of bad because in this situation prison is not serving as a correctional facility but rather a place to hold people not worthy of receiving any benefits. Then again people do not go to jail for participating in positive acts for the world. They aren’t winning community service awards or changing peoples lives for the better. It is hard to think that someone deserves this kind of life, but then again what did they do to get here. He states “I want to pluck out my eyes so not to see what little my life has been reduced to. Such a meaningless existence.” This statement is so graphic and really shows how absolutely miserable he is. The worse was “If prison has taken anything away from me it is the chance to love and to be loved.” It is so said that he has no family support or anyone around him who loves him. It is also hard to have sympathy because if he is in jail for murdering for example, he took away someone else loved one. Does he deserve love if he took it away? People are put into jail for a reason and while it must be awful to have to sit alone and do meaningless work for no reason sometimes the punishment fits the crime and you have to accept the consequences of your action. I think it is so hard to watch the families of prisoners suffer watching your loved one in an awful place with no hope and there is nothing you can do to help their situation.

I think that the telephone game shows that you cannot always believe what you hear and that gossip is how many people learn their facts. It was very interesting to see how badly the story got distorted when passed along. I also think it began badly because the story was way too long for anyone to understand and I think it is pretty much knowing your going fail before you even begin. Our society abbreviates and concise stories in every day speaking and this story show what the results of not telling the correct full story. Having the story go through 6 people was going to be difficult to begin with but then when he showed the length of the story it was pretty much impossible. The last person got such a distorted story. It was interesting to see how miscommunication is a big problem in such an easy task. It makes me think that sometimes as a society we have just gotten lazy or just stop listening to people, which is sad to think that our society no longer cares. Our society today usually embellishes and exaggerates stories or simply miss tell them to make them better or more entertaining which eventually leads to bad news and a false story or accusation. I think the telephone game was a great example of the effects of miscommunication in today’s world. We all at one time or another have been involved in gossiping a false story and it is almost impossible to escape it in today’s world. I believe it is just the lack of listening during a conversation. Technology is a huge reason why I think people’s communication skills are not as sharp. Texting has ruined the English language because people abbreviate everything and grammar is thrown out the window. We no longer have to rely on face-to-face communication to talk to one another, which is why miscommunication takes place. Our society has created so many shortcuts instead of meeting up with people and listening to what they have to say. People are always constantly multi tasking as well so their attention is never fully on what a person is saying. People read emails, cook dinner, or are running errands while talking to people so they never give 100% of their attention. I think texting and instant messaging on the computer is a huge downfall of our society and I am scared to see what the next generations of kids are going to be raised like and how they will communicate. It is important to take this lesson we learned in class and realize that taking time and having lunch with friends or meeting up with people for coffee is important instead of hearing everything word of mouth.

I think I would be willing to learn a new language for a job if I was working in something to do with international relations. When I graduate I want to get a job in production. For example if I worked at ESPN and they wanted me to work on the world cup and it was being held in Spain so they required me to learn Spanish. I definitely would. I am going to be out of the country and want to form a good relationship with the people of Spain, so I think it is necessary for me to learn Spanish. I also want to know what is going on over there at all times so I can be prepared for any situation. I think it is important to not be hung up on everyone speaking English because sometimes if English is people’s second language important information can get lost in translation. It also shows that Americans are willing to immerse themselves in another culture when necessary and are not so ethnocentric and refuse to learn about other cultures and their language.
I however would not learn Spanish or French to try and communicate with people in the United States who were not willing to learn English. I understand that it is difficult that as people get older it is harder to pick up another language but I think it is a key to success to be willing to learn and try hard at something even if it is difficult. I do not think it is fair to make others learn a new language because of others unwillingness to try. There has to be a middle ground and if you are in a country where the primary language is English you should have a desire to learn it so you can be successful and communicate with all people. It would be very stressful always needing someone else to translate for you and not being able to be independent because you do not understand the language. If most of the signs in the Untied States are in English then I think people should learn English. I went to France and if you didn’t speak to people in French they were rude and standoffish. I do not understand why the French are allowed to act that way, but we as Americans are expected to learn other people’s language. I think it depends on the situation whether I would learn another language for it. I think it really depends on how badly I want something. If I wanted a job or something really badly I would do whatever it takes to attain my goal. I think that is the same for most people.

If you are ok with being perceived that way then I do not think it should matter what others think of you. I know that for some people it is natural to speak in their native language because that is what they have grown up with. I don’t think that it is a problem when people speak their native dialect. I have a problem when they speak it in certain situation that gives people the wrong impression. It leaves their conversation open for interpretation and if people around you are wondering what you are saying it is probably an inappropriate time to do it then.

I also feel that when people speak in a language other than English they talk louder and don’t follow certain polite rules because not many people can understand them. In the library I often hear Asians speaking extremely loudly to each other or on the phone. It is an unwritten rule that you whisper in the library, but since no one understands them they feel they have the right to speak loud and disrupt students studying. I think it makes me so uncomfortable when two people are speaking another language around me because I think it is rude and personally I assume that they are talking about bad things. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Iranians speaking in Farsi are talking about terrorist attacks it is not that kind of concern for me. It is more that they are speaking negatively about other people. I do not respect people who talk behind other people back. If you are going to say it say it to their face in English so they can understand it. Speaking in another language hear in America is making yourself part of an exclusive group that not everyone can join.

I do feel uncomfortable when two people are speaking another language around me. I assume that if they are not speaking English then they are talking about things they don’t want people to hear. I think it is so rude when you go to a nail salon and Asian women will speak English to you, but then to their coworkers they speak in their native language. I always feel self-conscious that they are discussing how gross my nails or feet are. I do not think it is fair for them to have an upper hand like that. One of my friends was taking mandarin Chinese in school and could pick up on some of the conversation that her pedicurist was saying and in fact she was talking about her feet. If you would not say it in English, what makes it right to say it in your native language.

This would play a role in my decision even if I say that I make the final decision. I think it is all about who you share common interests with and who you can create a future with and I don’t think that dating a black guy would fit into my religion and culture. It is in the same way that many black people won’t date white people because of the culture clashes. You can still have tons of friends who are black and just not be attracted to them and want to date them.

I was raised in a predominantly Jewish town with everyone around me just like me. I think if I dated a black guy their perfect image of my life would be changed and they would not know how to respond. It is also a completely different culture from mine so I am not sure if we would find a lot of common interests. Then again sometimes you cannot choose who you fall in love with and I know that at the end of the day my parents want me to be happy. They would definitely try to persuade me to rethink my choice. However, at the end of the day it is my life and my choices so if I fall in love with a black guy and want to marry him I am going to do it with or without my parent’s approval. It would make me sad though if they did not like the guy I was dating or who I wanted to marry.

I would honestly never date a black guy not because of my own personal beliefs but more because of my parents. My parents expect me to marry a Jewish man and they are not very open to any other types of guys. I think it is part of the Jewish religion to marry other Jewish people and as observant Jews they expect me to follow the religion. At this point in college I do not see the point of dating people and calling them your boyfriend if you know that you do not see yourself having a future with them. I think that the main reason that Jewish people want Jews to marry other Jews is because that the holocaust wiped out six million Jewish people and if we want to build and grow our religion we need to have more Jewish couples creating Jewish babies. I think it also has to do with how my parents were raised. When they were growing up there was very few or none at all where they lived interracial couples so it is something completely foreign to them. They want me to have the life of comfort that they lived and that is being raised in a Jewish community surrounded by people similar to me.

I think it is hard for me to answer the question of do I have any experience with white privilege because it is all that I have ever been exposed to. I have always gotten an opportunity because of my race it has never inhibited me, so in that case I have experienced a lot of white privilege. I also have never been stared at on an airplane or suspected as a possible terrorist for the way I look. I don’t know if that is white privilege though or if the ignorance of others makes whites have more advantages. Reading the book, really made me sad listening to other races tell their stories on subjects I was completely unaware of. I was mad at the United States for the way they treated Muslims after 9/11. I couldn’t believe the disrespect and mistreatment they receive. I feel that I have experienced white privilege in relation to this because I was living in a completely different world where all the white people around me were unaware of this because it did not have a direct impact on us. I cannot believe that the police and government who knew this was going on supported it. It makes me sad to think that I think we have come so far in accepting other races and embracing the melting pot that is United States, but then something so recent as 9/11 still shows extreme racism and the feeling that whites are better than other races. It is also scary to think that something so huge as what was happening to Arabs and Muslims after 9/11 can be pushed under the radar by whites. I think that is an example of white privilege. Having the power to deport and jail thousands of Americans without many people knowing is a privileged that is definitely special to whites. I cannot imagine having someone be ripped away from my family for no reason and not knowing where they are or what is going to happen to them. It also surprises me that this happened because after white people threw Japanese Americans into internment camps and suffered so much humiliation and embarrassment from that, that we still have not learned our lesson and continue to think that we have power over other races. It now makes me constantly question what the government is doing behind our backs and trying to keep a secret. I think that because we elected a black president this should help with some of the oppression on minorities but you never know. I think that I have experienced a lot of white privilege without even realizing it. I think not being aware of others suffering and living in a bubble where everything is always working out for you is definitely white privilege.