If this is what we are doing over there in the Middle East to an ordinary civilian; of course the Arab Muslims would think we were wrong. The other point in the lecture that I enjoyed was the example with the Chinese invading Pennsylvania in order to take our coal, which we have a lot of. From this point I can see even more clearly how when you flip the situations or even put yourself in someone else’s position, the judgments in your heads are no different. Overall, Sam did make me realize that this whole entire war between The United States and The Middle East is completely due to the oil that The Middle East has and that we want.
If anything the United States needs to lower our dependence on fossil fuel and start looking towards other methods of getting energy. I have a best friend who is currently in the Marine Corps and went over to Afghanistan last December for this war. That brought me to more attention to what has been going on there especially from hearing stories from my friend. But the other thing is that I can’t believe my friend is risking his life over oil which I use for my daily life. Seeing this from someone else’s shoes, I can understand why they are so angry with us “invaders” coming into their land and taking what is not ours. This lecture had taught me to keep an open mind and always try to see the issue from another viewpoint because it will give me a better understanding and also help me make sense of everything. The video yesterday with the American soldiers using their tank to crush the man with the stolen wood’s car upset me. It seems as if the American soldiers were having fun in harassing a civilian.
The lecture Sam gave the other day did not change my view on the war because I thought the whole way he approached it was incorrect. He kept saying that the oil in the Middle East was “our” oil. It is not my oil. It is the people how live on it and own the land that is it on. Therefore, it is the countries in the middle east’s oil. Sam’s lecture on the war in the Middle East definitely changed my eyes and to the point now that I agree that the war is all for oil. Being in the United States, we have the largest energy consumption out of all the other countries and with the growing population, it is only going to expand and so is our need for oil. In the sense that we are going over to a land that is not ours and stealing something to our benefit is horrible. From the standpoint of an Arab Muslim, I would hate what the Americans are doing in my land. It makes no sense for us to just go over and start a war, wasting our army just so we can get a few extra gallons of oil.
It would be a lot easier to believe or settle on the fact that Sandusky did these horrible acts if he was a different race. As sad as it is, it is true. It is what our society has categorized people as that allows people to judge them. Not only would it be different if Sandusky was a different race, I think it goes for Joe Paterno, Tim Curley, Graham Spanier, and Gary Shultz, and all the other people that are involved that are white. I think support especially for Joe Pa would be less if he were Black. It would be easier for people to point their finger at him if he was a Black man. It would be easier for people to realize that his morals were in the wrong. The race of someone partially defines who they are whether they like it or not, it is what society does. That’s just how this society is.
Most police focus their time and energy where there are more broken windows and run down houses-mostly lower SES areas. Criminals that are caught end up mostly being Black or Latino because police focus on the areas that they live. It has been proven that most drug -elated criminals are whites, yet mostly Blacks are in jail for drug crimes. Our society is more trusting of white people and believe they are nicer. Even children of different races will pick a white doll over a black doll, even if the child is black. Stereotyping makes a black or Latino man walking down the street more threatening than a white man. Since Sandusky was supposedly a “white collared” man, people trusted him better. People put faith into what he did. I’m sure it was hard to believe that someone of this stature was doing such horrible things. Yes, the race of the man definitely made the scandal more shocking, since white men are never supposed to be seen in such a bad light.
I think Sandusky will eventually get it pretty bad, most likely a life in jail or end up committing suicide. But the fact that he isn’t in jail right now, or the fact that he is on bail is ridiculous. And unfortunately I think things would be different if he were black. In questioning if there would be a difference if Sandusky were Black or Latino, one must look at the stereotypes that exist in society. Sadly, but true, I believe that our society would be not as shocked if they found out the scandal was done by a Black or Latino man. It goes back to the video we watched in class with the bike stealing. Everyone saw the white man blatantly stealing a bike, yet most people did nothing. Once the black man was stealing a bike, most people acted. They told him to stop, threatened to call the police, asked what he was doing, or called the police. People suspect black and Latino people to commit crime more often than whites. This is due to more black and Latino populations existing in lower SES housing.
Everyone who was involved needed to be out. Which is why I don’t understand with Mike McQuery still has his job. That is completely absurd that Joe would be fired before McQuery. But that is beside the point. All in all I think unfortunately our reputation as Penn State students has diminished, but I also think if this situation is fixed, by hiring a whole new coaching staff and president, and is fixed quickly, our reputation can easily be restored. Because after all we are Penn State, and always will be.
That was only a handful of students here and the media took that and blew it up to make it seem like everyone was partaking in those violent crimes. I am embarrassed (at a professional stand point) to say I am a Penn State student. But as a teenager looking for a crazy time, I am extremely proud to be a part of Penn State. I am just upset because, as Sam said, I think the rest of the world is looking at the 80 percent of us (who agree that Joe Pa was treated unfairly) and saying, “wow! You kids are insane.” I am a part of the 20%, not because I don’t like Joe Pa, but because in order to restore the reputation of this university and be able to have some what chance of bringing in a great new coach (Urban Meyer!? Hint hint) the board of trustees needed to clean house and act fast in order to show the rest of the world that we are committed to fixing what has gone on here. Unfortunately, that decision is at fault to the legendary Joe Paterno, and unfortunately this incident is going to tarnish what this man has done for this university.
Unfortunately, I think for people that don’t know Penn State and have never experienced what normally goes on here, they most definitely are looking down on us as Penn State students. This isn’t because of what happened here in terms of the case, it’s because of how we reacted in the riots that most of us partook in last night. And they are most definitely attaching a negative connotation to our reputation as Penn State students because of how the media (particularly ESPN) portrayed it. After I got home last night from the riot, I turned on ESPN to find kids being interviewed and a video of the news car being flipped on repeat. To the rest of the world it seems like last night was more violent than it actually was. Now don’t get me wrong, last night was extremely violent, but only after midnight. The first part of the rally (when it was on beaver avenue) was somewhat peaceful and just a bunch of students showing their pride for Joe Paterno. Then, after many of the students left, the students that remained decided to go crazy and flip over a news van.
Now some white people and probably the majority of the older generation will not like this very much and will not like being the minorities because they have lived their whole life in a way that has been centered around whites, but I think it will be a good opportunity for our society to become closer together and to root out the discrimination and racism that still exists today even though people do not want to believe it. Overall, I do not think that whites will become the minority in America. But, if they do, I actually believe that the power will stay with the white people because essentially we are the ones who made this country what it is and how powerful it is, and no one can take that away
![[Avatar]](/images/avatar26.png){kind=avatar}
Branch