I wish I could be 100% positive and say “YES WE CAN CO-EXIST!” but the truth of the matter is we are still fighting the same battles we were fighting hundreds of years ago. The only difference is the cause. What will it really take for us to co-exist? It has to start with a genuine care and understand of the other country. What makes us think that we have a “right” to the oil of another country’s? If the United States is so advanced, then they should find other ways to survive without depending on another country’s resources. But for the purpose of co-existing, I think it needs to be a two-way street. If we want to maintain positive relations with another country, we have to be open to actually keeping that relationship positive. We can’t keep enforcing or pushing our beliefs on to another country’s or even judge them based on our beliefs. We seem to be a nation ready for change, yet dead-set on the way things are. It’s like the other countries are playing tug-of-war with a rope hooked on to a brick wall. I’m not sure what it would take for us to co-exist, I think SOME conflict is always healthy, but not at the expense of another person’s life. I honestly think the issue comes from our arrogance and stubbornness. It doesn’t make any sense to me why we feel we HAVE to “rescue” another country. I understand that our resources might be more advanced than theirs, but we shouldn’t take on this “burden” if we are going to hold it against the other country. I understand that most of us want to co-exist and be able to effectively communicate and relate to another country, but it is those who are firm in their narrow-mindedness that are preventing us from moving forward in a positive light. We have to find a happy medium otherwise we will continue to live in tense world, where people are ready to fight at a drop of a pin. I really wish I could see into the future and see just what the world would be like. I probably wouldn’t be looking 5-10 years but maybe 25-50 years? This is going to be a great task for the world to take upon themselves because we can’t keep living in a place where people feel the only way they can seek revenge is by killing themselves and take others out with them.

I think it’s great that foreign languages are being reintroduced into classes. Unfortunately they are not available everywhere. In this day and age, we can see how the world around us is slowly changing, specifically in the United States. The US Census Bureau predicts that by 2050 Caucasians will be the minority with Hispanics being the dominant race. The top 3 languages spoken are Chinese (mandarin), English, and Spanish. I think it’s a really good thing to have American students learning another culture so that they can understand how another culture lives. Learning a different language goes beyond just knowing how to say “Si, Senor” but should include being totally enriched in it. Just as Sam Richards said, most Americans who take a foreign language haven’t retained what they learned. I think we need to make sure students who are taking foreign languages continue to do so, and also for those who have continued with a foreign language for over 6-7 years, there should be a scholarship enabling them travel to a foreign-speaking country with all their expenses paid (a girl can dream, right?). An incentive like that would greatly boost the amount of students eager to learn and provide more jobs for foreign language teachers. It’s a win-win situation in my opinion. Even though those are the top 3 languages spoken, I think we should allow more options for students interested in learning other languages. I know when I was in school, I started learning Spanish when I was in the first grade and that continued until I entered high school and switched to French. Spanish was the only option they offered, and while I appreciated learning the language and the culture, I come from a French-speaking family. I can speak French but I wanted to be able to read and write in it as well. Taking those classes in high school and then continuing in college helped me grasp my family’s native language and I’m really glad the option was there in high school. To keep up with the changing times and ways of our world, we definitely have to continue to provide students with the opportunity to learn a language that will help them succeed in the future. By doing so, we will enhance the quality of our future businessmen/women and possibly have a deeper understanding of different cultures so that we may effectively communicate with them.

I do believe there is a step 2, and I think that step is actually doing something about it. Whether it’s making the conscious choice of what products to consume or by informing people about modern day slavery. I especially think it hit home for a lot of people who consume chocolate. Even though Sam was trying to make us conscious and not guilty, I’m sure a lot of people felt that way. I didn’t eat the chocolate simply because I HATE it, but it was shocking to learn about the Ivory Coast’s practice of slavery since my parents are from there and I visit there every single summer/winter. It’s hard to believe that something like this is going on over there because it’s just not something you see or even hear about it. After listening to the man talk about how he’s never eaten chocolate, it made me think about if I’ve even SEEN a chocolate bar over there. I’m pretty sure I have, but it’s so frickin hot there, I wouldn’t be surprised if they melted before they got on the shelves. It’s such a strange thought that these people are slaving over an item that we consume at such high rates and they never even get to see the end product let alone taste it. So going back to what I said earlier, I do believe the next step is informing others. Even if you don’t think you are making a difference, the more buzz there is surrounding this terrible phenomenon, the more we can shed light on this dark practice and end it once and for all. The video is a good example of what I consider step 2, because it was made to show people that slavery hasn’t gone anywhere. What I took out the video was that they wanted us to see what goes in to what we consume. We take for granted most of what we consume whether it be clothes, shoes, food, what have you, and the video was there to open everybody’s eyes to the reality of how people are suffering and we are unaware of it. So going back to what I said earlier, the next step is to try and make a conscious change through informing others and product consumption. If I was on the other end of the spectrum, I know I would hope that there was somebody there even if it was just ONE person, fighting for me.

After watching the video I was left heartbroken. It’s extremely sad to me that these girls think that the color of their skin means that they are “bad.” Growing up I never experienced this and I grew up in a predominately white neighborhood. My parents gave us the traditional white Barbie and I never thought twice about it. Now looking back I can see that all the commercials cater towards the majority. It seems like today’s youth might have it easier than us because there are more dolls created for all the different ethnicities. Even though it was mentioned that some of them are not as attractive as the white ones, I still think that we are making progress. We have to continue to reassure these girls that beauty isn’t defined by the color of your skin. Until then, we will continue to have these girls picking the white doll and thinking that they are “bad.” If they are thinking this at such a young age, then they will continue to live their lives already believing that they are “bad” and they will act accordingly. Even though I think we made progress, I don’t think we made THAT much progress because with that most recent research being recreated, black children are STILL choosing the white doll like they did decades ago. Sam mentioned in class that deep down we all feel that way, but I have to respectfully disagree. I don’t think that I would choose the white doll because it was right, I would choose the white doll because that is what I was used to playing with. It was never that white dolls were right and black dolls were bad, I just never knew they existed until I actually saw them in Toys R Us. I know my parents gave my older sisters black dolls to play with and we would share them, but that wasn’t until they were given more attention. If I had the opportunity to speak to these girls, I would tell them that being black isn’t “bad,” and that they need to realize that there is more to being black than the type of dolls you play with, and it shouldn’t define us as girls!

I don’t think white people should feel “guilty” per se only because they have no control of the past. I feel as if they should recognize that what happened in the past was a terrible, terrible thing. But then we ALL need to try and make the current situation better. This whole white guilty makes me think of the white man’s burden which also should be irrelevant at this current time. By saying you don’t feel any guilt whatsoever of the past is not right in my opinion but people still feel that way. It’s hard for me to say what white people should feel and think because I am a person of color so I have no right to tell them they should “feel” any type of way towards people of color. I honestly wish it could get to the point where we don’t have to discuss race and it have a stigma that it currently has. There honestly shouldn’t be “white guilt” or any type of guilt whatsoever because when will the future make up for the past? I don’t think we will ever truly get passed the past because it is so engraved into our history and culture.

I agreed with so many of the posts before me, I didn’t know who to comment under. I think it’s ridiculous that Itawamba County Agricultural High School (sidenote: WHAT A NAME!) had the nerve to cancel an entire prom based on ONE individual and her girlfriend. Seriously though, ICAHS needs to wake up and smell reality. I would understand if the school was private and Christian-based then MAYBE it would make a little sense. But still, it’s kind of funny to me that the school would cancel an entire prom because of two individuals. They should’ve just banned them from attending the prom, but then of course they would hear the outcry of how it’s so “unfair,” but then how is it fair to take away this event from all the other students. The answer? IT ISN’T. ICAHS is definitely in WAYYYY over their head and for them to say that having the event would cause "distractions to the educational process," is a load of BS. They are going to suffer a very big backlash especially since the ACLU is involved. Now this Mississippi school who probably thought this would just wash over, has something as big as the BBC news covering it. If this isn’t a distraction to the “educational process” then I don’t know what is. It’s sad that the school couldn’t see that McMillen reached out to them prior to get their approval and was met with the worst “approval.” I know that at my prom the most exciting part was walking in and everybody seeing you with your date. Not only did the school board tell her that if they were to attend that would not be able to arrive together, but she wouldn’t be allowed to wear a tuxedo. I honestly wonder how things would’ve been if she never went to the school board and just showed up with her girlfriend. I don’t see why the school even thought that they could ban prom and hope that the “private citizens will organize an even for the juniors and seniors.” Seriously though? All they did was wipe their hands of the situation but everybody can still see the dirt underneath their fingernails. I hope that the students at her school will see that this is not what McMillen wanted and hopefully won’t hate her for standing up for what is her rightful choice.

Like many of the posts before me have mentioned, I believe the issue always goes back to black and white because of the history as well as because people feel they are on 2 completely different sides of the spectrum and all the other races sort of fall into place somewhere in between them. I don't see the reason in this because there are many other races who have their own racial issues, but our infatuation with finding and exploiting the differences between white and black people is extreme. I feel like people are so quick to assume that a white person who has something negative to say about a black person is automatically labeled a racist and you will see the person retract their statement faster than you can say "did he/she just say that?" But if that same person was to comment on another race, it would barely make a splash unless if that comment was gender-charged which is a whole completely different issue on its own.
I truly wish people can just loosen up and realize that it's not just "black and white" issue. How can we move forward if people keep holding on to the past. We all know that slavery was a horrific horrific and downright cruel, but for some of the African Americans who continue to hold a grudge should really do some history before they start hating all "White people for bring us down." What people hardly know is that, yes hundreds of thousands of slaves were sent to the west, but how many people really know that before, Africans were being enslaved by their own kind? Of course Europeans had a role in this, when they offered to guns and other items to these Kings and rulers of certain tribes in Africa for their prisoners, some of the African rulers jumped at the idea of being more powerful than the other tribes. Of course they weren't told that they were being jipped and that the weapons that they were exclusively theirs was also being given to their enemies. This is just a small part of African history, but it's also very revealing about the very nature of the people. We talked about the King of the Mountain game in class on Thursday, and this is a prime example of it.
I'm not saying that african americans shouldn't feel any resentment towards white people, what they want to do is their own business. My parents are both African and I can honestly say that it helps to know what you're fighting for when you know the whole story.
Every race has an issue, I know that's a pessimistic way of looking at things, but it's true. There's not a single race that can get by today. White people may like to THINK that they have it easy, and in some cases they do, but then there's that constant reminder of how they messed up every other race. It's like the "white man's burden" coming back to bite them in the ass!

I never wanted to see Avatar just because I have a thing about creatures that look like humans. So of course when the big hype was surrounding Avatar I was a bit skeptical. A lot of people have been comparing it to Pocahontas, which we all know is a excellent version of the white man's burden. Another example is the movie Ferngully. It seems like all movies have this rinse and repeat..everything seems like a version of something we've seen before and from what I've read, Avatar is the same. Another example of the "white man's burden," is every movie when they have a white teacher, coach, etc that goes to an inner-city school and helps out the kids and showed the way life should be..BLAH BLAH BLAH. It just gets so frustrating reading all the synopsis' and seeing the same thing. I don't think there should be such a big controversy surrounding the movie, because it has been done before and it will be done again.

I don’t know why people feel the need to tell other people how to live their lives. You don’t see the French government implementing a law that states all citizens must use deodorant or shave their bodily hair. Because I have family from France and I can say that they seemed to have missed that memo. I just don’t understand why the French government would go as far as to say they are going to fine (!) these women up $1,000 for wearing a burqa. I honestly believe they are intimidated by the look, which is only being worn by 2,000 women. France has a population of over 62 million so why are they targeting this group? I honestly believe it’s because some of the taxpayers voiced “concern” of having these women dress they way the do and the government is trying to satisfy the majority.
I don’t even see why they interviewed MEN about this ban because it’s not affecting them. The man who said that it’s not even in the Qur’an needs to understand that religious text can be translated to mean just about ANYTHING. That is why you see some Christians who believe in modesty (the Duggars) and then others who wear make up and bright clothes (Tammy Faye Bakker..r.i.p).
And the politician who said it’s just a choice, just sounds ridiculous. How can he even begin to criticize or explain something that by the sound of it he has no knowledge of?
If they wanted to prove a point, they should have interviewed women who choose not to wear the full burqa and then I believe they would’ve had a better argument. The women that were interviewed even said they had no problem unveiling themselves for identification purposes, and if more women who wear the full burqas feel this way, then what is the big deal? How can they enforce something so biased? I honestly want to know what made them come to the conclusion that they need to implement a ban of burqas. If they are worried about “terroristic threats” or “martyrs,” they should realize after the Nigerian who attempted to blow up the plane, that “terrorists” come in all colors, religions, shapes, and sizes. This is only my opinion since we can’t really assess the reason for it since it wasn’t really discussed in the clip. But I believe this is futile attempt to bring down a minute group of French citizens, shows that France really doesn’t have their priorities straight. I still can’t believe that 3/5 French citizens believe it should be illegal to wear burqas, especially since given the statistic; they aren’t the ones wearing it. People are so scared of things they don’t understand, it’s sickening.

Roxy