I think that there is a big difference between thinking you are better than someone in a developing country and thinking your race is superior. Obviously if you are a student in America you are much better off than a poor individual in a developing country. You have food, water, clothing and several other needed supplies to survive while these other people in developing countries may not. So between people in developing countries and people in countries that are developed, there is an automatic line drawn. This line is not a line drawn according to race but it is based on development.
On the other hand, when someone thinks that his or her country is more developed based on the color of the citizens skin color or race, then the line needs to be drawn because of racism. To play the race card and think that one race can control a country better than another is crossing the line. No one can say that there is one superior race that can run a developed country better than another race can. This would be stepping into the racism portion of the question.
Now to answer the question that was presented, I think that there was nothing wrong with the way that this guy thought after visiting some underdeveloped countries. He came from America, so again; obviously he is going to be better off than someone who is living in these underdeveloped countries. He is more likely to go to school and get a job. His future is based on how America is set up and since America is a developed country he is going to have more opportunities to better his life. It’s just the facts of life really; it is not based on race at all. By saying that he thinks he has more of a chance to make a difference in the world is probably correct. He is not looking at the color of his skin or comparing the color of his skin to others while he is saying this. It is just a simple feeling of realizing you are much better off than these other people. It is just more of a realization then a comment about race.
I can say for myself, I have never visited an underdeveloped country, but I can guess that I would have much of the same reaction. Not based on race, just based on the actuality of America being more developed than his or her own country is. This is a natural feeling and should not be deemed as a racist comment. The line should be drawn when the comment comes down to the color of skin or the place of people of color in society.

I think that the peer pressure placed on men and women to conform to our societies social conformities is just about the same. Just as women have models that are extremely thin to look up to, men also have models with muscles and rock hard abs to look up to. Our society is based on having the “perfect” body, but what does the “perfect” body really consist of?
Even though we, as Americans, view the same images of the “perfect” body everyone has their own version of what that “perfect” body is. Some women want big boobs and a skinny waist and others have big boobs but want smaller ones. Some guys want big muscles and other guys want to have flat abs. It is all in how we, as Americans, perceive our “perfect” body image.
For women, this concept can be compared to the conflict among most siblings and friends. The conflict that I am talking about is the conflict of straight hair or curly hair, or big boobs or little boobs. Everyone wants what he or she does not have. It is just part of our natural being as humans. However, the media does have an impact and can increase the need to look like these models. Through the media, and by reflecting on ones own views of perfection, I think that women do have it a little tougher then men do.
Not by a huge gap, but I believe that women are affected by the image of the perfect body more than men. Not only that, but the way girls dress as well. Most guys do not follow the latest fashion trend as women do in this country. There is a pressure put on women to wear certain clothes or else you will be “looked down upon”. I’m not saying this is right, I actually think that this process is completely wrong, but this is the pressure that women face today. The pressure to wear fashionable clothes for women goes along with the pressure to have the “perfect” body because of the sizes that these clothes come in. Maybe the shirt that everyone thinks is cool, or that is seen as fashionable, is made for women with no chest. Then the women with big chests feel self-conscious and have to buy other clothes that fir them right, which are less fashionable. This is how people become self-conscious and surgery or starvation begins to seem like great solutions.
As time goes on, more and more of the women in our society fall under the pressure to be perfect. Men follow the same path, but do not have as much pressure about body image and fashionable clothing because they have the attitude of “I don’t care”. Maybe that is a better mentality to have in the first place so that these self-conscious issues do not occur.

This game is the most disturbing game I have ever heard of! The fact that anyone can play this game and perform these crimes of violating women is wrong. The Chinese government should have strict regulations on what a game can consist of. This might sound like a great solution to the problem in China, but we are struggling with a similar problem here in America. How can we tell the Chinese government to regulate their video games if we have violent video games as well. Not just any violent games, but ones that commit crimes. In America, video games consist of guns and blowing things up. There are also murder crimes that are committed in these games. I think Americans should take a step back and look at their own video games before they go telling other countries that theirs are inappropriate.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that games that include war scenes like Call of Duty should be banned, I think that other games that take shooting out of context should be banned. For example, video games directing shooting towards crimes like murder and robbery are using a gun for inappropriate reasons. We need to regulate what is appropriate and inappropriate when we use guns in video games. This problem relates to the problem with China’s video games. These games are committing crimes of sexual assault and rape. This crosses the line on the basis of what is inappropriate in a video game. In a crude way this can also relate to the porn industry, but on a more violent scale. Can America really tell China what they can and cannot put in video games?
It’s ok for Americans to think that these video games are bad and they can block these games from being viewed in America. So why are we making such a big deal about this use in China. China has a government of its own that can regulate video games how it wants to, so if we are able to kep these game out of Ameican then there should be no problem. Yes, I think its wrong and discusting, but it’s not our country. America does not make the laws in China. China can ban whatever it wants. When this game affects Americans is when we should have a say in if it should be banned or not.
The last comment I have on this blog is “Why would anyone even think about creating a game like this?” As I was reading peoples comments on the blog even people supporting video games were appalled by this game of rape. That is what this game perceives, that rape is just a game. Who in their right mind would ever want to create a game like this, and even worse who would buy it! It’s just not right!

Whether whites will become the minority in America or not is a debatable question. A lot of things have to be looked at outside of just the amount of minority children being born today. It goes a lot deeper than just the color of the skin that you are born with. Power is one aspect that needs to be looked at when we say that minorities today can potentially take over in the future. Will whites ever be kicked out of power? That is the real question. I guess you could potentially argue both ways on this issue.
First, to argue that minorities will eventually take over can be backed up by the amount of babies being born in the minority. When these babies grow up they might potentially be the most qualified for the jobs that hold power. They could potentially have a better chance of getting a job then white people because there are more of them. Also if we look at the fact that we now have the first black president today, we can see that minorities really are moving up in society and holding higher ranked jobs. So this process might actually be happening and at a faster rate than we think.
On the other hand, to argue that minorities will not take over white power in America can be backed by the belief that whites will always have an advantage. Even if there are more colored people in the world than white people white people will still have the better education system leading to better jobs. Some could argue that just as in the past as they found a way to discriminate against black people they could find a different reason all together to hold the colored race under the white supremacy. This process could go on and on but white people would still find a way to hold something against the colored race to keep them out of power.
My opinion includes a little bit of both of these arguments. I think that the white supremacy will always remain in American because the people in power will always make excuses to keep our system the way it is. The other part of my opinion involves the advancement of a lot of minorities in the upcoming years. Even if they don’t get all the way to the top and become the majority I think that we will see more people of color in positions of power. I also think it is going to happen sooner than most people expect. I also think that the school systems will improve for minority schools and they will be able to move up in our society easier. How much of the power that minorities are going to obtain? That is the question.

It’s hard to understand why Native Hawaiians have been disregarded for so long, but considering what we did with the Native American people in this country, I can believe it. Native Hawaiians have no reason not to have their own form of government if 564 Native American tribes and Native Alaskans have already developed their own form of government. We seem to be excluding these people but there is no good reason too. Avoiding the Native Hawaiians has lead to several problems within their state, such as homelessness. Many Native Hawaiians are homeless, and live in shelters with their families. What took the Unites States this long to decide to grant them permission to obtain their own government?
It is ridiculous how the United States waited until we got a Hawaiian born president to address these issues. Action should have been taken before. We are not giving everyone within our country an equal change to live if they are not even permitted to govern themselves and build up their nation. The CEO of the office of Hawaiian affairs even stated, "When you look very closely at the numbers - prison, health, wealth, education - we are not at the level that our colonizers are at”. He also stated, “They earn less money, live shorter lives, get sent to prison more often and are more likely to end up homeless than other ethnicities”. Allowing these people to have a form of government will not completely eliminate this problem, that the US has most likely caused, but it will allow them to rise up as a nation and make changes for the better.
These people are very connected and take care of their people, which is why it is likely that they would help each other build up their government and change their nation. Jade Danner, vice president for the Counsel for Native Hawaiian Advancement, stated, “When Native Hawaiians are truly empowered to make their own decisions, it's not that we'll make better decisions than anybody else. It's that we know our communities and we know what will work”. This shows that these people are willing and ready to take the risk of forming their own government; all they need is the permission.
Judging by the way these people make their decisions I think the money and land they receive will be used wisely. Their main focus right now is just to get the approval, but I am sure they will find a profitable way to deal with these new resources. The real question right now is, Can the Native Hawaiian government become a reality? It’s America! Doesn’t everyone deserve a chance to rise up in society? These people have been waiting a long time for this to happen and if it does I feel as though they are prepared to handle it.

Wow! I am pretty much speechless after reading this article. Just because this girl asked another girl to go to prom with her all hell breaks loose and prom is cancelled? That is completely ridiculous. It is one thing to not allow Ms McMillen to attend prom, but to not allow any one else to prom is not necessary. Don’t get me wrong I completely disagree with not letting this girl go to prom either, but I am just trying to wrap my head around this extreme action taken by the school.
What if these girls were not lesbians, but just friends? Would they still be aloud to take each other to the prom? If these girls said that they were just friends I bet their would be a completely different reaction. This should not be the case. Having two people of the same sex going to the prom together is just the same as having two people of the opposite sex attend prom together. There is NO difference, well besides physically of course. It should be up to the students to choice who should be able to attend prom together. They should conduct a poll or a survey asking the students to vote on whether two people of the same sex should be aloud to go to prom together or not. This will let the school know what really should be done and in this century most students would not care if this was allowed. So if the students don’t care what is the big deal?
In high school I remember how stressful it was for all the girls who were trying to find dates for prom. Fights between girls broke out when they found out that they wanted to go with the same guy and some people were depressed altogether because they could not find a date. My high school required that you could only go if you had a date, and that is why they sold the tickets in twos. Without this stress of having to find a date I bet my prom and many other of my friend’s proms would have been a lot more fun. I think you should be able to go to prom with whoever you want girlfriends, boyfriends, friends in general, etc.
This girl was 18 years old and free to make her own decisions as an adult, so she should not be questioned. Besides what is this school trying to prevent? Its not like the outside world does not have any same sex couples. They are everywhere! So maybe it would be a good thing to prepare other straight high school students to be exposed to this or allow other gay or lesbian students to feel comfortable about coming out. Plus these two girls are most likely seen together in school all the time, maybe even kissing, so how is prom different?

This article was very interesting to me and definitely made me think. As I looked at other people’s comments about this post I started to see the same trend forming. Almost everyone said that they had not noticed until now that almost all of the participants on the bachelor (or bachelorette) were white. This may be because only white people watch this show. I am a white person do I don’t know if this statement is true towards people of color, but it is just my guess. I don’t think that ABC is trying to be racist I just think they are trying to please their audience.
In the video posted, the girl states that ABC started somewhere around 67 years ago. This could be one reason why the show The Bachelor is sticking to an all white cast. Many older people in America most likely tune into ABC from time to time because it is familiar to them and has been around for a long time. These older people are the people that are still set in their ethnocentric ways, meaning they would rather see white people on TV. With that being said, ABC wants to adapt to their viewers liking as much as they can so that these people will keep watching.
It seems to be a trend in these types of dating shows to keep people of the same race together. Examples include Tila Tequila or Flavor Flav, which are both similar to the bachelor except there are more colored people than white people. Again, there are a few white people, but not many. The bachelor is the same way. Also, if you look at the channel that Tila Tequila and Flavor Flav are on the audience is most likely black. The people who produce these shows try and manipulate the qualities of their show in order to increase their ratings in whatever way they can. This can be a huge factor when creating a TV show and expecting positive results.
So the answer to the question “Are whites the only people willing to humiliate themselves?” the answer is no. Other races are also participating in these shows just on different channels trying to catch the attention of different people. I think that TV shows should not be set up this way, but if this is the way that makes the networks money then it is very unlikely that they are going to change it. Some entire networks can be based on one race alone, for example BET (Black Entertainment Television). Since an entire channel is devoted to people of color I guess we just don’t see the scene of the Bachelor as a big deal or a controversial issue today.

I think this woman’s story is inspiring and it displays the great amount of intelligence she has. Yvrose Jean Baptiste made an incredible accomplishment by creating her own business in order to support her children. Not many people in Haiti, or any other country like it, can say that they have developed a thriving business that keeps their children fed. She is an inspiration to all American’s who think that moving up in the world, in order to gain social status, is the only reason to start a business. Yvrose uses her intelligence in the world of business, not to gain social acceptance, but to support her kids and create a better life for the ones she loves. That is how Yvrose business differs from the American way of business.
When I say “American Business” I am talking about making deals in order to bring in the money. In the book “Disposable people”, that we have to read for class they talk about how businessmen in America just make deals without thinking about or wanting to know about what goes on behind those deals. For example, all businessmen care about is making money in a deal, so they don’t think about the sweatshops that housed the slaves in other countries in order to make those products. They don’t notice how the product is getting made or being transported when there is money involved in their favor. However, Yvrose is not operating her business for those reasons. She is an intelligent women who worked her way up to make a profit for her family and helped others along the way too. She is an incredible young woman and deserves to be recognized, but should we help her?
I would love to answer this question by saying “yes” and I would love to say “yes” to help all of the people over in Haiti, but the fact is we can’t. We can’t help everyone. I don’t think we should focus on helping one person and ignore others. Yvrose made an incredible achievement, but I am sure there are other people living in Haiti with just as incredible stories as hers. We cannot focus on helping individuals in this situation because we will start excluding people. It is better to just let the Haiti people work out their individual problems and help the country as a whole.
This is situation is almost comparable to the times during the great depression. Everyone was poor and had to start up their own business or find a job in order to survive, but individuals themselves were not helped separately. We tackled the economy as a whole rather than focusing on individual crisis. That is how a crisis should be handled. The events in Haiti were tragic leaving almost everything destroyed; we need to find a way to restore the lives of these people.

This $7,000 sex toy is probably one of strangest things I have seen in a long time. I mean using sex toys is one thing but an entire fake person who can talk back to you is a whole different story. The man who invented this was a smart man tackling a new product in the porn industry, which is one of the largest industries in our country, however; this is not right! What do you think this product will lead to? People use sex toys for pleasure, but what if people started using these dolls as actual companions? This may be a stretch, but if this product gets big in our country then it might affect the amount of people getting married, or having children. I think this product says that our culture will do anything for sexual pleasure. How does that make our country look. Does it say that we don’t care about intimate relationships as much as a plastic doll that gets the job done? Other countries generalize that Americans tend to rush through the day and get things done as fast as possible so that they can move on to something else, so does this new sex toy support that theory. Are we just resorting to plastic people to do our dirty work so we don’t have to spend time finding a relationship and working out problems. Some people want the sex because they love their partners and others just want the pleasure without intimacy. This is where I believe men and women differ within their own personal sexual needs.
It is clear in this article that they only talk about men ordering this new doll, not women. This is because men like the sexual pleasure more than the intimacy that should come with it. That is why it does not matter for men if the women is real or plastic. They don’t care! Now, I can’t say this is true for all men, but by looking at how many men are ordering these dolls I can generalize that this applies to most men. Women on the other hand favor intimacy and passion over just the sexual pleasure that they get while having sex. This is why most women would not be ok with having sex with a plastic doll, but again I can’t say this is true for all women.
This plastic toy can also play with people’s physiological and emotional needs. People may buy one of these dolls because they have social problems and they have trouble talking to people on their own. However, these toys are not going to help at all and may even allow people to avoid social conversations and become even more socially awkward then they were before. After these plastic people come out are people going to take them around in public? Are they going to treat them like their real girlfriends and form a relationship with them? If this does happen, how would that make the surrounding public feel? These dolls are not necessary and would potentially cause more problems then they are worth.

The dying languages of the world need to be carefully watched. The fact that we are allowing these languages to slip away explains the reason why we do not have knowledge of 80% of plant and animal species, and 80% of languages. The origin of these languages could lead to these discoveries. We can’t keep watching these languages die! Languages can tell a lot about our history and the people of the past. Without this information we are limiting ourselves to know only half of our history. I am not saying that everything we know about history has come from language, but it is defiantly a key element to examine when looking at the past.
According to this article, the problem with spreading languages today is the fact that people want to learn the language, but do not put forth the time and effort to do so. It is mainly up to the people to save their own language because if they don’t then no one else will. So, these people need to respect their ancestors and put in the effort needed to keep their language alive. The article also says that these people do not want to hoard their language but they want everyone to recognize it. However, if these people work really hard to keep their language alive, who is going to notice? This leads to another problem that we see today.
Passing the language down from generation to generation might be easy for some people, but what if your culture and language is unknown to the world. How are people supposed to let their language be known? This question explains why so many languages go unnoticed and eventually die. A lot of these languages are not up to date with, for example English, so it is hard to translate and decode exactly what is being said. In the article an Australian said, "Our language is standing still, we need to make it relevant to today's society. We need to create new words, because right now we can't say 'computer'." It is hard to decode the past of some cultures that have such outdated languages. Our language changes so much and so frequently that it might be impossible for all of the languages of the world to keep up.
There is so much for the world to learn about these languages, but it is hard to do so. We could send more researchers to record and learn about the small languages of the world that go unnoticed, but will that even really solve the problem? Our world has a lot that is not known to mankind, but may never be known. We can only do our best to learn about as many other cultures as possible to keep them from dying.