By the time the story got around to the second or third person, who Bill was in the story became irrelevant. For whatever reason, they did not think it was important to know what race he was, when in fact it had a huge relevance to the story.
Another possible consideration is that the white students may have felt guilty. The story portrays white people as cruel and rude people. Having to stand up there and listen to their race described that way makes things awkward for them. Maybe when they had to actually repeat the story themselves, they wanted to make the story seem less vulgar and harsh than it was presented.
In the end, I do not think we can entirely blame one’s own race for why they told the story differently. Maybe you can draw the conclusion that white people are more forgetful and vague. The point I am trying to make is there are other confounding factors besides race. In the telephone game, no matter which race you use, things get altered all the time unintentionally.
(pt 2)
I thought the telephone game was a great way to see how and if students have changed since the beginning of this semester. In particular, I’m referring to racial signifiers and being politically correct. It was interesting to see how the story was changed by each of the six students, which really started with the first girl (whom I assume is of some mixed/Spanish descent). I feel as though if it were a black student, with ease they would have said the “n” word because that is a part of their lingo. For any other race, it is awkward because you do not know what the class will think of you if you have the guts to say it. Some people may shrug it off like it is no big deal. Others will be shocked because of the political correctness they grew around. If our class was all white students, I’m sure they could say the “n” word with ease, but because there are black people in the class, they will think twice before doing it.
(pt1)
Now that I know what the term means, I would try not to benefit from nepotism. I want to be hired on my own merit and not because I knew someone in the business. I do not want to take the job away from someone who potentially needs it more than I do and is more qualified than I am. I cannot sit here with a straight face and act that I can do this with ease. There is no way it would be easy to give up an opportunity for a job or grad school. It is nice when someone says a good thing or two about you helping your resume and application out. But I’ll have to try to shrug it off. However I do think that when schools ask for recommendation letters or jobs ask for references it is kind of the same thing because whoever you ask to do that for you will most likely give you a good name and try to make you stand out. That is having an advantage over another person because my connections, the teachers I’ve gotten close to, will not say something bad about me to hinder a school or job from accepting me.
What is harder though is if I didn’t have connections to a certain company but someone else did and that is why they got the job, I don’t think I’ll be as accepting of it. It sounds selfish but we all are trying to advance in the world and we can’t necessarily help others beat us to it.
(pt2)
To have connections is a good thing. In this world, it is hard to do things if you do not know people. I never thought there was any harm in having connections until Sam associated it with the term nepotism. It could be just me but I think that gives the term a negative connotation. I have known people who come to America for the first time with great degrees and job experience but nobody wants to hire them (probably because they are foreigners). But it was because of the people they knew here that they were able to get an interview at a company and get the job. Sometimes this is not the case. As a connection, all you can do is guarantee an interview at the least, but the job is out of your control. So there have been people who get to the interview stage but are still not good enough to get the job. But at least that connection tried to help.
(pt 1)
One thing it did help me understand was an outside look to my own religion. Being a Christian, I always push off the attacks about how bad we actually are. Even if I see stories in the news, I don’t want to accept it, only because those stories don’t represent Christians as a whole. Acting as a Middle Easterner though showed how some Christians just want to force their religion on them. Besides that, it was worse to see the Bible camp where they teach them that these people are bad. Christianity says to love our neighbor and tell them about Jesus, not to not accept people and force religion.
(pt3)
Last week when we had class, Sam told us the needy penis lecture would change our lives. I totally disagree. Tuesday’s lecture by far was one of the most moving. Acting like a Middle Easterner definitely helps understand their perspective and all that they think and deal with. The sad thing is we only saw a few videos and lived like that for an hour and a half. Imagine what they have to go through in a whole day, for the last 10 years. Just letting those feelings of anger, bitterness, and sadness sink in really helped me feel what they might be feeling. I have Muslim friends and I never treated them different just because that religion is associated with terrorism. I never looked at them or their families and felt fear.
(pt1)
Have my views changed on the War? I’ve heard plenty of reasons of why America is still fighting with Iraq and why we are even fighting them to begin with. This was the first time I heard that we are fighting over oil. It is pathetic that we are this dependent on oil. We could use other resources instead of fighting for something that was never ours. If this is the case, then yes my views have changed and I totally sympathize/agree with Iraq. Was it right to highjack planes into buildings? Definitely not. I’ll never agree with that choice of action. But I believe they had reason behind it and Sam said we should UNDERSTAND that. We don’t need to agree with it.
(pt2)
Last week when we had class, Sam told us the needy penis lecture would change our lives. I totally disagree. Tuesday’s lecture by far was one of the most moving. Acting like a Middle Easterner definitely helps understand their perspective and all that they think and deal with. The sad thing is we only saw a few videos and lived like that for an hour and a half. Imagine what they have to go through in a whole day, for the last 10 years. Just letting those feelings of anger, bitterness, and sadness sink in really helped me feel what they might be feeling. I have Muslim friends and I never treated them different just because that religion is associated with terrorism. I never looked at them or their families and felt fear.
(pt1)
Learning a new language is beneficial for many reasons. It gives you the opportunity to communicate with people around you who happen to speak that same language. And if they know that language because it is a part of their culture, then you can engage in conversations that help you better understand that culture. It also helps articulation I believe. I have taken 4 years of French in high school, and you always had to articulate certain words otherwise it sounds similar to other words and your sentence would be incorrect. I believe it helps you with patience. Learning a new language is not easy, especially as you get older. You have to have the patience to know you aren’t going to get things right on the first try. I have also heard that it helps build your vocabulary, comprehension, problem solving skills, and creativity. If you can gain all of this from learning a language, why not take the opportunity?
(pt 3)
I’m not the best candidate for language learning. Growing up at home, my parents taught us English and not our Indian languages (Hindi and Malayalam). When I did go to my grandparents house though, my grandmother would talk to me in Malayalam and English so I was able to pick up on understanding the language fast and know some sentences to talk in. Same thing happened at home. My parents would talk to each other in Hindi, and listening to that everyday helped me understand what they were saying. As I got older though, I lost the interest in my languages and I stopped listening. Once I got into high school I took interest again, and it took me a long while to remember everything I learned. I’m still not quite there, but I’m getting there. When I was in high school, I took 4 years of French. Each year, I would slightly forget things because I didn’t keep up with it over the summer. It could just be me and my forgetful memory, but I can’t retain language that well unless I speak it on a regular basis. However, that wouldn’t stop me from learning a new language, especially if a job asked me to.
(pt2)
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Invention