I mean I do not think you’re a racist, obviously. In our lives, we all get like that. We all get a little cocky. I know there have been many times where I have thought I was better than someone (bad, I know, oh well)—but we all do it. In your case, you were in lesser developed countries, so, of course, you would think you have more of a shot at life than they do…..because you do. But I see what you’re saying, there is a fine line between thinking you’re superior and acting superior (with actions/word etc.) I guess the line between the superiority feelings is basically if you would actually want to help these people develop and reach a level where they have a fighting chance (which I’m thinking if you were in a lesser developed country in the first place, then yea, you are empathetic). I don’t know, I think it’s mostly a thing everyone does--- a lot of people try to be better than someone else: whether it is at sports, dress better, think you’re prettier, better looking, skinnier, cooler etc. It’s not one of our best traits, clearly, but as long we know the line between competitive and actually suppressing another type of person with our actions or words—then I think we are all going to be just fine.

I would never have even thought he was in prison, if he hadn’t said (or I hadn’t previously known about Sam’s visits with the “lifers”). That was really amazing, and I thank you so much for sharing. Honestly. That letter (?) really opened my eyes, and, in a way, warmed my heart. His words really do ring true—no matter where we are, who we are, what we are—when we see human suffering, all hatred or ill sentiment is, mostly, erased. Usually replaced with raw emotion—the vulnerable, sometimes scary feeling of real human empathy. We are all human and we all go through our own battles each and every day. The person you smile at who smiles back, may have just found out her grandma died. The person you wave at, may be feeling lonelier than anyone could ever really understand. But this letter… it really kind of refreshes (and in a way restores) my faith in human kind. Sometimes I feel like the whole world is one really, truly messed up place with all the wars, murders, sadness, and loneliness.
I guess you don’t have a lot of chances to get inside someone’s head, like we just got to do with this enlightened man. I am kind of at a loss of words about this—I don’t know I just feel like if people in prison--where many have committed the cruelest act a human can do--- can find a brighter day and understand the true emotion of suffering but the power of a gesture to lessen someone’s suffering, then this world is going to be A.OK.

Unfortunately, that’s the way we are…. As a nation, and as humans. It is human nature to try and forget the rough times (and that includes sad incidents or memories). I agree with you completely. I actually think about that a lot. I know I would absolutely be a mess if anything at all happened to my family or a friend. But somehow, when these HUGE tragedies happens in a land far, far away—it’s easier to just forget and let go. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to think about it? Or feel guilty, or feel obligated to do something. I know sometimes I feel really terrible when I start thinking about the world and the numerous horrible things going on. I feel almost trapped—like I can’t do anything. So I find it easier not to think about it as much, unfortunately. However, there’s the occasional times when something really does hit me --- like the book we read about slave trade. I am absolutely REPULSED by the slave trade industry and I have really been making a truly conscious effort to watch what I buy, where I buy it etc. When I see wal-mart and K-mart and all those other little chain stores, all I can think of is the poor children’s faces, the bodies that were literally ripped apart and beaten. I feel the older we get, the more we try to forget things. We get caught up in our own life, our schoolwork, our relationships, our social life— most of us are in our own bubble. I know I am. I am happily living in this little bubble we call Penn State—where the majority of what I think about is my dwindling meal points, my lion cash, what party I’m going to this weekend, what homework I have. It is unfortunate, yes, but I do not think we can completely blame ourselves for not thinking about it. We are in such a whirlwind time of our life where everything is happening at once—whether we’re figuring out what we want to do with our lives, or simply just trying to get through the day. In high school, I was pretty aware of everything that was going on—but that’s because we were being tested on it in different ways. In some ways, I kind of hope that when I get older and get a job, I will be more aware and conscientious to all the tragedies, and do the best I can to bring help (as well as awareness). What you said is true, we are all people—and though these things happen on the other side of the world, they are real. They are real people’s lives, real people’s brothers/sisters/moms/dads/aunts/uncles/friends etc. I hope that I can find a balance between feeling terribly guilty and sad, with being aware and trying to help as much I can.

This is funny because I was just having this conversation with my friend. Just on this campus (but definitely not limited to- I see this phenomena everywhere) I see so many pretty girls with not so good looking guys. There have been so many times where I will see a great girl—good personality, body, looks etc. with a chubby guy or a really different looking guy that does not fit the “pretty boy” stereotype. I think a lot of it is based off of the fact that girls really take personality into consideration. If a guy isn’t good-looking, but he is funny—automatic in. If a guy isn’t muscular, but he’s sweet—automatic in. There are so many things that girls look for, and being “hot” is but a small, minor aspect. When I talk to guys, they say , hands down, looks are the majority of what they look for. Let’s be serious, if a girl is chubby and not very attractive (in the cookie cutter “beautiful” stereotype) is a guy even going to take a second look at her? No. Maybe she will be put in the friend category, but that is as far as it will go. Perhaps a certain type of guy tries to fit these impossible standards that magazines/Hollywood gives—by getting “big” or being tan or wearing nice clothes, but there is no way it even levels to the amount that girls put into their appearance and body image.

I agree, we are all women and we are all beautiful. Unfortunately, nowadays—we don’t think so. I know I have battled with body issues for probably my entire life. I’ve never been overweight—I’ve just never been skinny enough (in my mind). In college, my body loathing has unfortunately only gotten worse. Guys base everything on looks -99% of the time. One of my friends told me to go that STUPID website “College ACB” –BAD DECISION. These poor girls are getting torn apart. Some of my friends who have been posted about on that website have been so beaten down by these comments. People call them ugly, or chubby—which when I look at them, they are skinnier than me, so I’m like “damn, I need to lose weight.” I hate that this is what our world has come to. Women are getting increasing more conscientious about our body image. I have had many anorexic and bulimic friends—isn’t that saying something? These Hollywood images of beautiful people give us impossible standards. I wish I could say that we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to this, but I can’t—because I still am. I have not grown enough as a person, and looked inside myself to find a good medium yet. I know I am still on this journey, as many, if not most, women are. It is one of the hardest things I have had to deal with but maybe someday it will get easier to truly see that we are all beautiful people.

Today’s class was by far the best class I have come to thus far. I have been waiting for someone to come out and say all of this stuff for quite some time now and I am so unbelievably happy that Sam did. Honestly, while he was talking, I really connected to every word he was saying. How could we, as people, be so dumb to believe that we WOULDN’T fight if people were doing this? We are a warring nation and if anyone, ANYONE at all even tried to pull half the stuff we do (including this manifest destiny garbage)---we would be up in arms, literally. We, as a country, would be freaking out and assembling troops, hate groups, militia, etc. anything at all to take these “enemies” down. The United States would, in my opinion, be doing much, much worse than what the middle eastern nations are doing to us. Now, I am not about fighting—I voted that I’m against wars and I stand by that. In 2003, I went to the largest peace demonstration in Washington D.C. because I truly hope and believe in a calmer and a more peaceful tomorrow. Obviously in the past few years, this hope has been dwindling. As time goes on, this war we are in gets more and more confusing. Why are we there? Didn’t President George W. Bush say we we’re “going in” because there were weapons of “mass destruction?” That is the excuse he gave to the American people, so how come when people (like John McCain) say it is a war for oil, no one is outraged? We have gone into a nation- destroyed their homes, killed their families, pillaged their cities, mocked their culture, and that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that some people still believe we are doing GOOD. Please tell me how in the WORLD we are making for a better tomorrow? If anything, we are contributing—no actually, we are CAUSING—the hate that will be directed toward us in the future. I am disgusted. I have grown up traveling the world and I absolutely hate the fact that it’s a different world now—when I travel nowadays, I have had such animosity toward the word “American.” Why? Because we meddle in things that we should not be meddling in. It truly breaks my heart. Don’t get me wrong, I love my country, and we have truly done some great things—but we have let the “fame” and pride get to our heads. We are not the policemen of the world. It’s sad when you see a Muslim or Arab and you automatically think terrorist—we have waged a war on an entire nation, when really it was an extremist group that we should be worried about. Just because we have the KKK, does that mean other countries should base their entire image of America on these extremists? HECK no. So why are we doing it?!?! We don’t want future generations to hate us for what our country did; we don’t want children growing up asking why America is, essentially, a terror to the world, and we don’t want our children cleaning up OUR mess. Sam really touched a sensitive topic with me and I am so happy he did. More people need to get this into their heads—and I think he did get through to people by the results of joining the fight against “enemies” who are doing what AMERICA is doing. We have the power to change this—and work for a better image, a better reputation, and a better tomorrow.

Honestly, I have no idea what the second step is. I left class on Thursday feeling the exact same way. I know we can just stop eating chocolate, but will that ever be enough? There has to be something else, but perhaps it comes with time—a world movement that causes a large scale change to be made. People should never have to work in slavery—those children worked for their “master” because they thought they were going to be paid, and then they weren’t---that should never happen. In a world like ours (and country like ours) unfortunately we are based off of a constantly consuming way of life. It will be hard to change the ways that American’s live their daily lives, truthfully, I think it might be impossible unless there is more awareness. Somehow, there needs to be an incident that is made very public, or a campaign or something (anything) that really gets to the hearts of everyone. I wish it was mandatory for every single person to take SOC119, because then maybe their views might be a little different. Step two will be hard to find, but hopefully in time, it will become clearer to see.

This is disgusting. I am appalled. Watching this video made me realize how far people think we’ve come where in reality, we have not made that big of leaps in rights/freedom/thinking etc--- but now the horrid things that used to be out in the open are either swept under the rug or come out in different ways: like this game. This “rape” game just once again highlights what is wrong with our world—they are making something that should be a very, very uncommon and looked down upon thing, seem very normal and common. It even shows a game where it is revenge on a woman—where they stalk her and rape her multiple times. How is this possible that people could make this game? I am at a loss for words—other than it just makes me really sad to see that. How NOT far we’ve come. This just breeds a society and culture that is bound for bad things. When kids can play a game where they physically take advantage of a woman, something is wrong—and it shows the people playing it that it is not a big deal. In a way, I feel as though many would become numb to it, just like Americans are sometimes numb to killing people in video games (which, I don’t see much difference in ours vs. the rape game). Either way, these people need to see the detrimental damage they are doing to this world. It is not okay.

Honestly, you can never really “win,” when you say one thing, there will always be someone saying the exact opposite. However, with these L L bean photos, I agree with Sam. Diversity (in color) is added to these catalogues but only in a sideways kind of way. Many people see these pictures and they may not allocate the black people into a category right away—simply because they are, in a way, made to be white. They have the typical yacht shorts on, a cardigan, loafers. Seriously, I have seen very few black people ever wearing an outfit like that. Now, I’m not saying there aren’t plenty who do, but it’s just not the uniformly accepted stereotype or image we, as people, have. When Sam said he looked for a black person wearing shorts and could only find his own TA—that says something. Truthfully, if you’re really that offended by some of the stuff that he said then maybe you haven’t opened your mind enough yet to get to the next stage—understanding things a little bit clearer. I think that is the main point he is trying to make with these different arguments: we are all in different stages and, depending on our understanding and stage, we see things a little bit different from the person sitting next to us.

This video honestly made me tear up in class. Our society and even some of the world, has such a messed up and skewed view of beauty. How dare majority propaganda make these girls, much less anyone, feel inferior. It is yet another problem with the blind eye for diversity. No one really wants to accommodate all these different types of people---they cater to only those that will make them money. This vision of beauty being only white is going to cause these girls detrimental harm in the future. Self-loathing is especially prevalent in women---and nowadays, it is not just the color of your skin that makes you feel ugly or bad. It’s how your body looks or hair or skin---why aren’t you 20 pounds less? Why don’t your thighs look like sticks? Why isn’t your hair straightened everyday? It’s disgusting. This society is really destroying women and their perceptions of themselves. I cannot even tell you how many of my friends have eating disorders—in high school, one of my friends burst out crying after eating ONE grape during the day. ONE. GRAPE. Mind you, she is one of the prettiest girls I know (and I’m not just saying that). She views herself as ugly, just like these black children are going to do. It is not right and it needs to be changed.