en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4254349 Comments by victoria_rossi http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-157/#IDComment345370935 I think that people, in general, look out for themselves first. It stands to reason that they would look out for their own people. It’s easier to be sympathetic and more understanding toward the misfortunes of people who are similar to you. For minorities it’s also probably more difficult to feel bad for poverty stricken white people rather than people of their own race. I think that a lot of minorities have the impression that white people can’t struggle as well or something. I don’t know, but either way it’s just easier to sympathize with people that are like you. There have been so many research studies done that have proved that people tend to go with things like them. That’s the only reason people are more concerned with their own groups of people in general. At the same time there are a lot of people who care about every person with misfortune, not just their own people. Individuals who are well off and enjoy volunteering will volunteer where help is needed. That demonstrates their concern for people, not the TYPE of people that they’re helping. Another reason minorities may not feel sympathy for underprivileged white people is because they feel like they’ve had hardships like that their entire life. The thought process is that white people have these things just handed to them – the amount of opportunities that a minority receives pales in comparison to the number of opportunities that a white person receives. The issue with that is that poverty has a cycle. Once poor, it is pretty difficult to come back out of that. Because equal opportunity laws passed only fairly recently, minorities have been stuck in this cycle of poverty. It is, however, becoming easier to break free from that. Basically, because of all of these factors together, it makes it very difficult for minorities to feel bad for anyone but themselves. I’ve seen this in my friends at school as well. A final reason that people are more likely to care for the hardships of people of their own race rather than the hardships of all people is because its biology. We are each biologically programmed to want to survive and thrive. If you see your own people suffering you’re going to innately feel bad because its people similar to you that aren’t thriving as they should be. There’s so many different things that play into this situation. The main reason though I’d say is that minorities have been wronged throughout history and they don’t see the reason to feel bad for people who have had the upper hand for so long throughout history. It makes perfect sense when you think about it, there’s still not 100% equality and that’s going to affect how people feel about others. Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:40:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-157/#IDComment345370935 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/26/the-hunger-games-and-race-relations-in-2012/#IDComment326511357 I read the book, I saw the movie. I am a huge Hunger Games fan. I feel that the people in this article who were making nasty, racist comments against the characters in the movie are not the majority of people. There are always going to be people who are less tolerant than others. Our society is unfortunately not at a point with race yet that we can all not discriminate. However, most people are at that point. When I went to the movies, I went with 7 other people and to be honest there was not even a talk about how Rue and Thresh were black. The only conversations regarding race were comments like “I didn’t expect Cinna to be black but that was perfect. Lenny Kravitz was awesome.” That was the extent of it. For the girl who tweeted something about sticking to the book – she’s obviously never read the book and she just made herself look stupid. That’s the thing. This article took many naïve, stupid people who like to voice their opinions even though they’re factually just off base. There is always going to be stupid people like that. However I don’t think that race is going to play a huge part in The Hunger Games besides the people in which race affects daily. By that I mean the only people who are going to be negatively commenting on the race of the characters and be upset that some characters are black, are the same individuals who practice racism throughout their daily lives. Granted, you could say that the actual book is racist. Where the characters Rue and Thresh are from – who are the two black people competing in the games – is called District 11. District 11 is the agricultural and farming district, and it’s supposed to be located in the post-apocalyptic south. This district is predominantly black. There is clearly a hint of racism there – south, farming, black people who are essentially slaves. That’s just the way the author puts things in this book. It’s very blunt, filled with many societal taboos. The general consensus of the people who watched the movie or read the book is STILL not “oh, this movie sucks because Rue’s black so her death is less sad.” I don’t know… maybe because I’m basing this all on my own perception of the movie and how race was not even a thought until I read this article, I’m assuming that everyone else is the same way. I’d really like to think that people are not going to dislike a good movie for the sole purpose that some of the main characters are black. It’s extremely unnecessary and it’s not something that people should be thinking of. The death of a little black girl is just as sad as the death of a little white girl. This twitter comments in the article are outrageous, but hopefully they’re just a small minority of racist people rather than the sentiment of the country as a whole. Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:48:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/26/the-hunger-games-and-race-relations-in-2012/#IDComment326511357 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/13/voices-from-the-classroom-119/#IDComment316198223 I think that people were getting so defensive over everything Sam was saying in class because the way he was wording everything made it appear as though people in the American army were trigger happy murderers, essentially. He also made it seem like Americans are the only ones who value their own people over others. Realistically, every single culture values their own people over other people. Any country would kill multiple other countries civilians if it meant protecting their own. Granted, I do not believe that innocent people should be killed at all. And I think war means that innocent people will die. However, when Sam was making it seem like the soldiers went into battle looking to kill whoever they can just for our own selfish needs, people got offended. Maybe the reasoning behind being in battle with other countries is so we can better ourselves, and live this luxurious life that we live as Americans. But that is the administration of our country. It is not an individual soldier’s choice to go into battle just to kill people and take their oil. For most people, when they sign up for the army they sign up for defending our country and our people. They don’t sign up for taking other people’s oil. In group today, we had a soldier who fought in Iraq and we also had a girl who is from the Middle East. The two different sides really put this situation into perspective. There is no right and wrong or fair and unfair in war. While, yes, the United States goes to war probably for selfish reason because we like living at the standards that we live at, everyone’s okay with living like this regardless. People are so quick to say how selfish we are, but try living in a third world country. No one would like it. That’s why we live in America. Yes we should help those who are less fortunate. But we also are always going to be looking at our best interests first. I’m not saying that I agree with it, but realistically that’s the way it is. Everyone in our country can say that they care about everything but first and foremost they will always care about our needs first. Its important to acknowledge that and that’s what Sam was trying to say. Sam was trying to say that war sucks and people die. But people got super offended because he focused on people dying in other countries. So it was a more radical end of the spectrum as a way to be looking at it. 9 out of 10 people who die in war are civilians. That’s a powerful number. And that number comes from both American soldiers AND other countries who we’re at war with. Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:27:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/13/voices-from-the-classroom-119/#IDComment316198223 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/02/the-kiss-seen-round-the-web/#IDComment312633250 Although some people may be uncomfortable with this picture, I think it's completely acceptable. Why shouldn't two individuals who love each other be able to display their affection for one another? If this scene was a man and a woman no one would question it at all - in fact it would probably be seen as cute or romantic. This man can defend our country and risk his life, but he can't kiss his boyfriend after coming home from doing so? That makes absolutely no sense that this even made the news. Also, it is probably more of a touchy topic with this picture because it is two men kissing as opposed to women. This would be seen as more acceptable if it were the same exact photo or situation just with two women. It at least wouldn't make the news and have debate over it. Extremely romantic public displays of affection, in general, are gross when anyone does it…. But the exception of that rule comes when a soldier returns home and is seeing their significant other for the first time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a man and a woman, a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. When someone returns from battle it is an extremely gratifying thing to be able to see your loved ones again. Who’s to say that just because you’re gay you can’t react the same way a straight person would? Romantic moments between a couple shouldn’t be caught in disgust and then publicized and debated on the news. That being said, society has come a long way on this topic. This made people very uncomfortable for a long time when it started to be made public. Today, it still makes people uncomfortable but not to the extent that it used to. If you ask your grandparents their opinion on homosexual relationships they’ll probably respond that it just isn’t natural. Then, if you ask your parents or someone in your parent’s generation they’ll probably tell you that they don’t necessarily love it, but to each his own and they’re coming to terms with it more. Lastly, ask the people in our generation. The majority of people think its acceptable, and probably normal. I am not shocked at all if I see two men holding hands or two women kissing. This is because there has been such an exposure recently with the gay pride movement. When people become aware of the trials and tribulations of these people, they begin to understand that being gay doesn’t make you that much different. The people of our generation see it all the time so its not weird. There is no reason that this picture should be seen as any different than a heterosexual couple. Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:01:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/02/the-kiss-seen-round-the-web/#IDComment312633250 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/22/voices-from-the-classroom-109/#IDComment299926821 I wouldn't necessarily say that class and race are interconnected... you're not poor because you're black and you're not rich because you're white. At this point, if you're a poor white person or a poor black person, it is going to be just as difficult to get yourself out of that rut regardless of race. That being said, I don't think that race and education are connected I think the biggest correlation lies within socioeconomic status and education. If you are from a bad area or an lower class neighborhood, your school system probably isn't as good. You have significantly less resources to work with therefore making getting a quality education more difficult. Now that being said, when you have a lower socioeconomic status, it is much tougher to get out of for a number of reasons. These people cannot afford college, and even if they receive a scholarship to a college they may have to stay home and work in order to support their family. Even getting a college scholarship will be tougher because at schools that do not give a quality education will produce students who do not do well on standardized tests, therefore making it difficult to get a scholarship. At this point, without a college education it is much more difficult to get a job that pays well. Given all of this information, its clear that education level has more to do with SES rather than race. If there are more minority races that have a lower SES than that's that, but that doesn't mean they have less money BECAUSE they are a minority. If we took the conversation about race and social class seriously, it gets really sensitive. People are easily offended and people are nervous to offend others. However, there is no reason for that if we are just discussing facts. Even so I'd still be nervous to make certain claims out of fear for offending someone else. People should really try and be more open minded about that because conversations get no where when everyone is close minded or nervous to offend others. I agree with a lot of these blog posts that its difficult a lot of the times to discuss race because it is such a sensitive issue. It gets to the point where it's almost not even worth discussing if people aren't going to be open about it and if people are going to take comments personally even if these comments are facts. Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:28:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/22/voices-from-the-classroom-109/#IDComment299926821 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/08/voices-from-the-classroom-100/#IDComment289021852 By saying that if you believe in God and don't like yourself you're giving God a big "F-U," you're implying that everyone has to love themselves 100% in order to be a good follower of God. I strongly disagree with this. If God created us in his image, in a way that he wanted us to be, he created us with free will. And this free will and freedom of choice allows us to have feelings, opinions, thoughts, etc. because you can choose how you feel and react to things. This means that he created us, knowing that we can choose to not like ourselves and the way we look. With such a materialistic society, can you really find anyone who isn't self conscious about some aspect of themselves? It's highly unlikely. And even so, this drive to look good and be accepted has health benefits as well. If you gain to much weight and don't eat well you're more likely to have health problems. And if you're bigger than other people you're more likely to be self conscious about that, causing you to maybe eat better and go to the gym. Then you will have decreased health risks. If you were completely happy with how you looked always you'd never care if you were gaining weight and then you might have a heart attack. Essentially what I'm saying is that if God did create us with free will, he would never expect people to be completely happy with themselves. We were made that way. By having feelings of self consciousness you are in no way insulting God, otherwise we would not have been born with the ability to feel self conscious about ourselves. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:15:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/08/voices-from-the-classroom-100/#IDComment289021852 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/20/questions-from-class/#IDComment271695655 I disagree that the American Dream has a higher value in the lives of immigrants. However, the American Dream is valued highest by those individuals who are not living it. But what is the American Dream anyways? It's a completely subjective. For a poor immigrant it might be that if they come to America they can work their way out of poverty. Their American Dream is having the house and the kids and the white picket fence. For an American citizen living in poverty it would be similar. For a middle class American born citizen, it would be to make MORE money and be able to buy more things. The fact of the matter is, it is human nature to always want more. No matter how much you have, for the majority of individuals, how much you have wouldn't be enough. People put a label on this "American Dream" but in actuality it doesn't really exist. There isn't and can never be a clear cut definition of it. It takes a certain kind of maturity to look at what you have and realize that it IS enough. So maybe this ideal is valued higher in other countries because although the poor of America do suffer, its nothing compared to the poor people of other countries, especially third world nations. That being said, if someone from another country was living in poverty and came to America to work and hopefully get a better life, they probably will. But they're probably always going to want more. They might not even necessarily realize that they ARE living what they originally thought was the American Dream. Because this idea is completely subjective, it means it's pretty much always changing. I'm not saying that there's not good, humble people out there. There are plenty. But at the same time who really appreciates everything they have all the time? People take things for granted more often then not. Because of this, the American Dream cannot be defined and for most people it can't be reached... nothing that people have will ever be good enough. Looking back, how many times have you thought, "I need a job i'm so broke." I personally feel that way all the time. But think about a homeless person in NYC who would probably kill to have as much as you do right now. And then think about a person living in poverty in Ghana or something.... they would probably kill to have as much as that homeless man in NYC. The point is, there is no point in defining the American Dream because you can't define something that doesn't exist. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:21:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/20/questions-from-class/#IDComment271695655