posted by Sam and Michelle
Post your 450 word (minimum) comment and 100 word (minimum) response to a peer. You should be responding to the first lecture of the course, “Whad’ya Know?”. You can write anything you want about anything you heard in the lecture!
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the lesson one lecture. I was actually surprised at how much it intrigued me. It brought to my attention many facts and information that I would have never known. I thought that I would have done relatively well on the “what’d ya know” quiz and was surprised that I really did not know much of the information. It was interesting to me that Dr. Richards mentioned that white people censor our views and ourselves subconsciously in order to avoid being seen as politically incorrect. I found it fascinating that young Hispanic females are the mostly likely to attempt suicide, also. I would have thought that LGBT would be the ones to most likely attempt suicide. After watching the lecture a little further and thinking about it, it made more sense in the fact that young LGBT are not necessarily comfortable with themselves at that young age. They are not necessarily open to the public about their sexuality at that point. Another question that surprised me was that there are 562 Federally recognized tribes in the US. I had originally chosen the smallest number as my answer. When Dr. Richards asked the class if anyone could name ten tribes, no one was even able to. It was shocking that there are that many tribes in our country yet most citizens have no idea about them. Watching this lecture made me also really think about how lucky I am as a person. Now knowing that the poorest 10% of people in the US are actually “better off” then 2/3 of the words population allowed me to put things in my life in better perspective. Although I knew that many people are still living as slaves in the world today, I had no idea that the number was as high as 27 million. Even though the world has attempted to abolish slavery and all types of acts similar to slavery, there are still so many people in the world struggling for their right to not be involved as a slave. Furthermore, I did not really realize the extent to which items that every single person owns are actually made my slaves. Even though the majority of the population is against slavery, in a way we are all supporting it by continuing to buy items that are produced by them. In society today, the family has always been viewed as having the male figure in the household be the one to succeed in his career and earn money for the rest of the family. Although this is stereotypically true, it surprised me that really only 56% of white men feel that it is important to be successful in their career. This first lesson brought many important facts to my attention and made me think in a way that I have not really thought before.
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rmb5202 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 1:21 am
I was also surprised how terrible I did on the quiz. It is so crazy how a person can think they know alot about race and the world yet I barely knew anything. I also found it interesting how many tribes there were. I know when he asked the class if anyone could name ten I was thinking in my head I could barely name one (which is pretty bad I know). I too feel very lucky to live in America. When I cannot afford something I will not considered myself poor any longer because Dr. Richards proved to me I am not poor AT ALL. Instead I am so grateful for everything I have.
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I must admit that in taking this class, my sole purpose was to find a web course to satisfy the rest of my general education requirements. However, after the first lesson alone this course has already proved to seem very interesting and relevant to life. Unfortunately, I don’t consider myself to be very knowledgeable about culture diversity. But, after the first lecture, it really hit me how very little I do actually know. Needless to say, I was very far from passing the Whad’ya Know quiz. There were so many answers to those questions that I was truly shocked about – while there were others I had absolutely no idea of the correct answers. I’ll just mention a couple of the topics/questions mentioned that really seems surprising to me.
Question #4 is one that really shocked me. This was the question about which group is most likely to attempt suicide. Although I am not educated on this area, young Hispanic females probably would have been my last choice. When taking the quiz, I originally thought young white females; when reviewing it I probably would have chosen LGBT youth. I guess I just figured these groups would have the most issues that cause depression. I also didn’t really take into account that the word attempt was the key word within the question. Either way, this was surprising to me.
The next question that I was surprised by the answer was #6. I truly can’t believe that only 5% of men compared to the 14%of women between the ages of 20-24 have had sex with someone of the same gender. Initially, I never thought that the number or women would be higher for this statistic. I guess I just based solely off of my life experiences. Even as a student at Penn State, I feel that I see many more gay couples that lesbians. I know that this question was about having sex, but I still feel that society has many more male gays then lesbians – especially within this age group. I was interested to see that big of a difference within the percentages.
The last question that came as a surprise to be was question #8. This was the question about the how many native American tribes are recognized in the United States. I flip flopped back and forth between 17 and 104 for about 5 minutes. I even went back and changed it a few times until deciding 104 was my final answer. I never thought it was 282, nor did I even CONSIDER it the correct answer to be 562. Although it was a little comforting that the two answers I thought were correct were what the majority of the class thought as well, it is still awful to be that only 4% of the class considered the answer to be 562 – and most of those were probably guesses.
Overall, I am really disappointed with how little I actually am aware of the culture and diversity within the country I live in. I am definitely more excited to take this class then I was at first, as I hope to come out of this semester knowing a lot more about our society.
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I must admit that in taking this class, my sole purpose was to find a web course to satisfy the rest of my general education requirements. However, after the first lesson alone this course has already proved to seem very interesting and relevant to life. Unfortunately, I don’t consider myself to be very knowledgeable about culture diversity. But, after the first lecture, it really hit me how very little I do actually know. Needless to say, I was very far from passing the Whad’ya Know quiz. There were so many answers to those questions that I was truly shocked about – while there were others I had absolutely no idea of the correct answers. I’ll just mention a couple of the topics/questions mentioned that really seems surprising to me.
Question #4 is one that really shocked me. This was the question about which group is most likely to attempt suicide. Although I am not educated on this area, young Hispanic females probably would have been my last choice. When taking the quiz, I originally thought young white females; when reviewing it I probably would have chosen LGBT youth. I guess I just figured these groups would have the most issues that cause depression. I also didn’t really take into account that the word attempt was the key word within the question. Either way, this was surprising to me.
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The next question that I was surprised by the answer was #6. I truly can’t believe that only 5% of men compared to the 14%of women between the ages of 20-24 have had sex with someone of the same gender. Initially, I never thought that the number or women would be higher for this statistic. I guess I just based solely off of my life experiences. Even as a student at Penn State, I feel that I see many more gay couples that lesbians. I know that this question was about having sex, but I still feel that society has many more male gays then lesbians – especially within this age group. I was interested to see that big of a difference within the percentages.
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The last question that came as a surprise to be was question #8. This was the question about the how many native American tribes are recognized in the United States. I flip flopped back and forth between 17 and 104 for about 5 minutes. I even went back and changed it a few times until deciding 104 was my final answer. I never thought it was 282, nor did I even CONSIDER it the correct answer to be 562. Although it was a little comforting that the two answers I thought were correct were what the majority of the class thought as well, it is still awful to be that only 4% of the class considered the answer to be 562 – and most of those were probably guesses.
Overall, I am really disappointed with how little I actually am aware of the culture and diversity within the country I live in. I am definitely more excited to take this class then I was at first, as I hope to come out of this semester knowing a lot more about our society.
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I am an adult student who has returned to finish my Criminal Justice Degree. This is my third online class that I have taken. The format and teaching methods are significantly differed than what I have been used to. I feel that I have had a fair share of life experiences both personally and professionally. I would consider myself a pretty conservative person. I must admit that prior to this lesson; I thought that I would be completely opposed to the substance of the lessons. After viewing the first lesson. I am pleasantly surprised with the material of the lecture. While risking being looked at as “sucking up”, I enjoyed the methods and style used by Dr. Richards. The role reversal and “put yourself in their shoes” I felt was very effective.
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I found the slide show from Iraq very interesting. When I think of Iraq, I normally have visions much like the first set of slides presented. I was certainly surprised by the second set of slides showing a “different Iraq” or what Iraq looked like prior to the war. I would have to concur that many of these photos are not unlike pictures that could have been taken in the United States. I was also intrigued by the story of the Iraqi people approaching the American girl and asking her to take their photo so it could be taken back to her family as a gift to them.
The images of the militia member in Baghdad holding the rocket launcher in one hand and the Quran in the other as well as the children holding automatic weapons definitely grabbed my attention. It invokes a myriad of thoughts and feelings from within.
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The thought experiment was well done. Initially, I thought it would be difficult to separate myself from my current beliefs. After watching the lecture, Dr. Richards allowed me to assume the role of an Arab Muslim. It is unfortunate that the War is most certainly over oil. This fact is admitted by everyone up to and including the highest office, the presidency.
I must comment that I was at first skeptical when I saw all of the references to Republican politicians like Bush, McCain and Palin. I was slightly put at ease when the point was made that the Arab Muslims feel that Obama has expanded the war in Afghanistan for oil and to protect the interests of the United States, not to help the people of Afghanistan.
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I never really thought about Arab Muslims looking at U.S. soldiers as Christians first and possibly soldiers second. I was also troubled by the video of the soldiers who found the group that was stealing wood. Taking the video on its face, I found no legitimate reason for the soldiers to shoot up the car and subsequently crush it with their tank as the soldiers stood by and laughed.
In closing, I will reiterate that the teaching methods used in lesson one encourages students to have an open mind. I look forward the future lessons.
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After taking the “Whatd’ya Know Quiz,” I admit I felt very ignorant about the happenings of the world around me. It was almost comforting to see the mean score and to know that I was not the only person who had such a thought pattern. That said, I was truly enlightened by listening to the lecture, and was shocked by some of the true percentages. Before diving into that, however, I wanted to note how I found it interesting when Dr. Richards said that we have learned to be politically correct and how this had silenced people from speaking their minds. I could not agree with this statement more, as there have been many situations concerning race when I have wanted to say something, but refrained because I was afraid of offending others of different races than my own (which is white). I believe he said “white people learn to censor themselves,” of which I am guilty. Why do I do this? My simple answer is that I personally want to avoid conflict. If I truly spoke my mind, though, perhaps I would be more versed about other races and ethnicities and the answers to the quiz questions would not be so surprising.
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The first question result that I found interesting was that of suicide. I had to look at the results twice before it finally registered that young Hispanic women were most likely to commit suicide. I, like most of my peers, thought the majority would be young white females as the media has a strong influence on our behavior and is often blamed for a majority of female issues including weight and body image distortion (so, why not add suicide to the list?). My second thought was about LGBT youth, which Dr. Richards mentioned could indeed be the higher percentage. This makes more sense to me because the LGBT community is continuously battling society’s disapproval and LGBT youth are often bullied in school.
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When I think of why young Hispanic women may commit suicide more often than these groups, a couple of reasons come to mind: they have to fight the language barrier, they are often oppressed, they may live in poverty, they may feel that their hard work is not amounting to a better life, and they do not have strong social networks. Young Black women are least likely to attempt and commit suicide, the reason being they have strong social networks. I did not find this shocking at all, as many Black individuals I know are very close with their families.
The second question result I found interesting concerned Arabs. I was completely ignorant that a majority of Arabs practiced Christianity. I find it fascinating that the media seems to focus only on those Arabs who identify with the Muslim religion. This could certainly have lent to my lack of knowledge on these individuals. Furthermore, because they may be a smaller minority group in the United States, professors may be less likely to speak of these people. Until this class, a mention of the Arab population was non-existent in previous classes I have taken.
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The most striking question results to me were that about fifty percent of the world’s population makes two dollars per day or less and that about twenty seven million people today are slaves. Here I was, just yesterday, complaining that twelve fifty an hour at my office job was too little. It is astonishing to think that I make more money in one hour than someone else makes in one day; and that someone else probably works one hundred times harder than me. Moreover, it is hard to comprehend how people could live on such a salary (and be perfectly content with their lives). How does one pay for food and shelter earning two dollars per day? This thought is truly mind-blowing. On a similar note, what an extraordinary number of individuals enslaved today! I am completely floored with this number. What is even worse than this statistic is that we own and market items produced by slaves. Worse than that is knowing a slave made some of the parts in my cell phone, yet I have no intention to stop using my cellular device.
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Two final questions I wanted to comment on were those of immigrant life spans and American men and women who have had sexual experiences with those of their same gender. I did not find these results astounding at all. The number one cause of death in the United States today is heart disease. Heart disease is linked, at the very least, to diet and exercise. It is no surprise that other cultures and countries eat healthier than us, so it would make sense that immigrants have longer life spans than U.S. born citizens. This is the first and only reason I think of when explaining that result. However, Dr. Richards brought up some other good reasons and a posed a very thought-provoking question. Immigrants are often go-getters who work hard and are smart. Why then, do we have such negative views of these individuals? I thought this question was extremely necessary to ask, and I must admit I am hesitant in coming up with an answer to this.
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Regarding sexual experiences, five percent of American men and fourteen percent of American women have had such encounters with those of the same sex for the twenty to twenty-four age group. Again, this was not unexpected, as I have learned about such situations in a human sexuality course. What I think is interesting to bring up is the idea that many women in their college years tend to experiment with other women; this could be why the number is higher for women. Also to think about is social acceptability. It may be more common for people to think of two women together as “hot” compared to two men. Thus, men may be more reluctant to report encounters with other men.
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One of the “take home” messages I received from this lecture was that a majority of my perceptions are formed by the media and personal experiences. Very little of the answers I gave were based off of actual data I have read prior to this course. Interestingly enough, the very little number of answers I did get right were those I had read in text books or journal articles (such as the ones about immigrant life spans). As we move forward, I am making a mental note to not let the media or society’s grand perception of an issue cloud my thinking and my personal opinions.
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This first lecture was really an eye opener to me and showed me how many different stereotypes there are within my peers and that come up in everyday life. Like many other students, I was shocked to see these statistics and to see how many questions I did not know the answer to. It was pretty much a guessing game for me. The question that really striked me was the amount of people living on $2 a day. Being a broke college student, I never thought myself as wealthy. It amazes me that 10% of Americans are better of than more than half of the world’s population. How do people manage to live on such a small amount? This makes me realize and appreciate how lucky I am to live where I do today. What also got my attention was that young Hispanic females were more likely to attempt suicide. Why is this rate so high? It makes me question: Is there something in Hispanic culture that causes these young women to attempt suicide? If so, wouldn’t young Asian Americans have a higher rate in attempted suicide also? Though it is a sad issue, I would think LGBT youth would more likely to attempt suicide more than any other category. It is also shocking to see that Asian American women over the age 65 are more likely to succeed in committing suicide. Question 14 definitely caught my eye also. Slavery seems so much of something in the past with the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln and I never realized how close slavery could be from home and how it is definitely happening all over the world today. The statistics say that 90 US cities have been found to harbor slavery and that a cost of a slave is about $90. There could be slaves right around the block from you and you won’t even know it. This issue really amazes me because rarely do you ever read or see in the news about issues of slavery in the US.
Another question that got me was question 17. Asian Americans are more likely to major in business and management. This question actually made me laugh because I am Asian and I am majoring in business! But I would think that this question reiterates people’s stereotype in Asians yet again. Asians are good in math and science; therefore they are more likely to major in math or science. Are all Asians only good enough for that specific stereotype besides martial arts?
From this lecture, I learned that I certainly do stereotype different kinds of people more than I realized. I don’t think I am racist but I sometimes believe in those racial stereotypes because it is around me everyday. Being this class will definitely open my eyes to different ways of thinking and different perspectives.
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I really enjoyed the first lesson and am very excited to have a teacher who is not concerned with being PC. I think it makes it a lot easier to openly discuss difficult topics and move past previous misconceptions that anyone may have had. I took notes during the lecture in order to allow myself to have free flowing thoughts so I apologize if they are not in complete sentences.
I would never have assumed that the majority of American’s would be German American. Political correctness is bullshit. I think it stifles individual’s perceptions and accelerates racist thoughts because personal views are not openly discussed and therefore cannot be debated and worked through. Racism in general is absurd because quite frankly if you live in America there is a large chance that much of your background is unknown. You could just as easily be insulting your own heritage and people should come to terms with cultural differences being the cause of personal variation instead of simply jumping to conclusions about individual races. Asians, for example, who were born and raised in America, could have an entirely different cultural belief and outlook on life than someone born in China, Japan, Taiwan, etc and because of this the generalization of racism is absurd.
Stereotypes are also interesting because they are often so far from accurate. I really enjoyed the discussion about black women being least likely to commit suicide, when it was very evident that the majority of the class clearly thought they would be the highest.
I would also never have thought that immigrants would have a longer life span than naturally born citizens, although after the discussion it makes complete sense as to why they may live longer. I would never have thought in depth about the healthier individuals from foreign countries being the ones who immigrate and that as Americans we tend to eat much more junk food products than those from foreign countries. On the same token, I did not take into consideration the large family living situations that many immigrants have which would essentially allow for their income to be pooled together and thus increase their total income to that greater than natural born Americans.
I find it interesting that so few Native American tribes are discussed openly in the U.S. Native Americans were here many years before we started our lives here as Americans and I feel like we are doing an injustice to Native Americans by not continuing the legacy they started. I feel that we should be taught in school about the tribes that are in existence. The past is the past and we can no longer take back the persecution that we enacted on the indigenous tribes here, but we can make the history a more prominent aspect of our education. It is sad that as a whole we have little knowledge of the number of tribes, the names of the tribes, the living situations of the Native American people who are in fact living within our borders. It’s appalling the way we treat them. They are American’s as well if they live here in the United States and we should treat them as equals within this country.
I think it is interesting that white male/black female sex did not have any guidelines whereas black male/white female sex absolutely had guidelines. It think this in itself perpeturates racism and the continuing impact it has on so many peoples lives. Based on these guidelines it makes it appear that the idea of white men having sex with black females is completely fine whereas the idea of a black man having sex with a white female is completely unacceptable.
Talking about Haiti makes me so completely grateful for all my family has been able to offer me through my life. I think everyone should be truly grateful for what they have. There are so many countries in the world, Haiti included whom, as you said literally live on $1-2 a day. I honestly believe that not one person in this class can have even the slightest idea what it would be like to live like that. We can all afford to be in this class while having food to eat and a bed to sleep in. That in itself is something to be grateful for—the opportunity to have a great education
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The lecture really brings to the surface what we should actually be discussing. Instead everyday we tip toe around issues that matter, around issues that if we could just talk about to another race there wouldn’t be a 26% percent median on racial statistics quiz and just possibly could actually make a differnce. Now by saying this, in no right, should give anyone the approval to do so in a negative manner, we are all people, all wanting basically the samethings out of our existence and all basically acting in the same manner as anyone if we found ourselves in their position.
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The lecture really brings to the surface what we should actually be discussing. Instead everyday we tip toe around issues that matter, around issues that if we could just talk about to another race there wouldn’t be a 26% percent median on racial statistics quiz and just possibly could actually make a differnce. Now by saying this, in no right, should give anyone the approval to do so in a negative manner, we are all people, all wanting basically the samethings out of our existence and all basically acting in the same manner as anyone if we found ourselves in their position. During the lecture professor Richards talked about stuff that would be very hard to go to a local store see someone of a different ethnicity and speak to them as blunt as he was during the lecture. Our world outside of the class room does not operate in that way but why should it not?
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He was understanding, comical, informative, but in no way was it to attack a race or bring any kind of negative light upon it. And when he would make a joke almost everybody laughed because everybody has heard the stereotype or whatever it may be before but unless it’s with a comfortable group of friends, not many people would speak of it. My basic view on race is first and foremost we are all people, and most of us are caring, loving and willing to help other people in need but we are nowhere near perfect, but I believe we genearlly do much more good than we do bad in this world. Most of us live a pretty sheltered life in this country. As was stated in class almost half the worlds population survives on two items off a fast food dollar menu, astonishing! Most of us could probably find more than that just looking through our couch cushions or through our cars.
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The two facts I found most astonishing were the need for four earths to be able to sustain life as we do. It is a balancing affect, we have it good so other people in the world have to have it bad. I don’t think this makes anyone a bad person or you should run to Haiti and give away your life’s savings but I do believe people should know this, understand it and at least care about it. How can a life cost 15 dollars? This is one thing I have never understood how people can act so malicious, so unbelievably heartless to perform deeds as sex trafficing, execution, persecution, etc…I mean I basically know why whether it is for money, power, ignorance, etc., but how as a person. I am a big believer in the golden rule and if maybe more people executed that principle into everyday life racism and everything else in this world that we find negative wouldn’t be so bad..
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Well that was fun! I am really appreciative that you choose to video tape your lectures because in no way could a student get the full enjoyment of it online, solely through text. It would be impossible to hear your tone, voice inflections, and so forth, which are imperative to helping a student fully understand what you mean without being misinterpreted. Anyways, I should have seen my 38% score coming because this world is much different that people like me—an upper class girl—perceive it to be. Because of my race and my parent’s money, I am blinded to the hardships that others have to endure because it’s something I rarely have to see. I know the lecture wasn’t all about the horrible things going on in the world but because those facts are loaded with drama, disgust, and disbelief that’s what was most memorable for me.
With that being said, the most disturbing fact in the lecture was American’s pure neglect of the wellbeing of Native Americans, or “red niggers”. I saw that most of the class agreed with my belief that very few Native American tribes remained but in reality there are a TON! To repent for our ancestor’s cruelty upon the Native American’s, those families that survived should be treated like King’s and Queen’s not used as a garbage disposal for deadly “housing”. I am aware of the specifics of the genocide of the Native Americans—trails of tears still makes me cry after reading it over 10 times—which is why I am disgusted that we are all livin’ large over in suburbiaville and these Native American’s who were brutalized in the past currently are the race in the greatest amount of poverty. I don’t believe the worst part about the Native American’s situation is the elementary school textbooks failing to mention the real horror of thanksgiving, because it is inevitable of any nation to make their mistakes hush hush (or maybe just America’s). I think the worst part is the governments neglect of their current situation while looking at their past.
I think the “main theme” of this lecture, was to help people open their eyes and become more knowledgeable about the world around them. From the group of people most likely to commit suicide to the amount of slaves in the world to something as trivial as the most common major of Asian Americans—these questions all related back to each other because most people don’t know the right answer! And we should know the right answer because these questions are about the world we live in, a world outside of Happy Valley.
Once all people recognize the struggles, misconceptions, etc. of people outside of their own comfort zone, they gain the power to help lives. Maybe even just one life, who knows! For example, if more people were aware of the amount of Hispanic women who attempt suicide, perhaps people would be more cognizant of the way they treat these women on a daily basis or become more accepting of immigration
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As far as the suicide question goes I chose white females. Not really sure why but it seemed the most logical…to me that is. I know these responses are to find out a bit about ourselves and how we live and think more importantly. I moved to Southern California 2 years ago and live near a large Hispanic population. Each one that I know seems to be always in a great mood, friendly and polite. Life, I guess, seems to be good. Then after the lecture I think a bit more about who I know and hang around with in general. I have surrounded myself with positive people and realized that I don't travel in "bad areas" or poverty stricken areas. What the hell do I really know? The people around me whether white, black, asian, mexican etc. all do the same things I do. We carry on the same lifestyle. It doesn't matter at all what race we are; we have common interests and lead similar lives. That question woke me up a bit. I was stereotyping. I guess it is the fact that most of the people I associate with are white so I see more of the good and the bad so I was putting "white female" as my answer. As far as the quiz went I feel that I probably didn't take my time. I wanted to answer with my gut so to find out how I was thinking and be totally honest with myself. A few questions I got lucky on for sure with guesses. With that being said I am sure that my score should be lower than it was. Also though, it makes me more excited about this course to wake myself up and stretch my mind to think like I normally wouldn't think.
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Wow, there are so many thoughts going through my mind about this lecture. I too wish I was in the room, instead of just watching. This class is going to be interested! I guess one of the things, that really struck something inside of me, was the numbers for the suicide rate. I couldn't believe LBGT, suicide rate is not higher. People are so cruel these days, I would have thought this group would be on top. I also thought, white males would have been higher than what it was.
Also, the name sterotype. I think all people create unique names. People of color a tad more creative. I don't think their parents think about the long term effects it has on their children, being selected for certain jobs, etc.
The one question, which I really didn't care about was President Obama's religion. WHO CARES.. Is the country being run based on the religions selected by our presidents. Do we only care what his religion is because of his name, 9/11, his father was a Muslim extremist. So now we're basing our opinions on what someones father was. Who's running the country, him or his father. We are so focused on personal matters(which is none of our business) that whats important gets clouded. Pathetic, in my opinion. The thing that really ticks me off, this man is our president, and reagrdless if you voted for him, you like him, you thin he;s doing a good or bad job….we should still respect him as our president and address him as president obama. My italian, republican grandfather taught me that. He did not like president regan, however when he spoke of him(mostly bad) he still said president regan, out of respect. MANNERS COST NOTHING!
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After watching the lecture video and taking the quiz, I realized that I do not know quite as much as I had previously thought. I always considered myself to be a very rounded and accepting person who knew most of the workings within different groups, but I was clearly wrong. My absolute favorite part about this lecture was when Sam made the comments about being politically correct. There are often thoughts or questions that a person has, but they are afraid to say or ask them because they are afraid of being "politically incorrect." The freedom to ask, or speak your mind in this class is a huge refreshment for me personally. I have several friends who are very active in the LGBT community. One of them is actually is actually the president. From knowing about all of their hardships and statistics they have, I was almost positive they had the highest suicide rate among teens. The answer being females of Latino decent caught me off guard. I was glad to hear the professor recognize the fact that most of the people who committed suicide were in the closet, or just weren't sure. Every group was recognized in the first class. The distinction between "black" and "African American" American that was pointed out is a distinction that I feel is often over looked by all other races. I am so interested to hear what else we will bring into light and what other false truths that will be revealed to us!
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The Whadya Know lecture was very intriguing and mind boggling at some instances. I did not know a lot of the things that were in the lecture or I just thought the answer was something else. I liked what Sam was saying about how white people always seem so politically correct especially speaking about the question regarding what percentage of White people agree with the statement that Asians are unscrupulous… and how the percentage was so much less than that of African Americans and Latinos. I find it so funny that people in general are so worried about this thing called “political correctness” that they sometimes will lose what they actually think and become conformists to the words of political correctness. Another thing in the lecture that really caught my eye was about immigrants. People are so funny to me because practically everyone in America had to come from another country to get here meaning we all come from immigrants. People are so quick to stereotype myself included at times because they seem to fear what they do not know. However most of us will not even try to understand another culture and just call the immigrants ignorant instead of looking at our own ignorance and try to understand.
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Native American history always has shocked me because of the stories that have come from those times. The truth is most people tend to forget about the past because it is the past. I don’t believe that is true, the Native American genocide due to the hands of Americans is so unimaginable because of how horrible the roots of our country are founded on. Also I had no idea that there are still over 500 recognized tribes in the United States. I knew there are a lot of tribes however the number 500 just seems so out of reach in my mind.
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In the world today 27 million people live as slaves. The statement is probably so shocking to so many people. I was aware of slavery still being around in the world but I did not know the number was so large. A slave is on average only $90 this is so absolutely heartbreaking. I think it is weird to think you could own a person for that little amount of money. It is crazy that people have so little worth in some areas of the world. To own somebody, the thought seems absurd to me because I feel that I could never be owned. How people can just be so recycled and thrown away like garbage. In this lecture that was probably the most shocking to me that there are that many slaves in the world and how people just live their lives so oblivious to the realities of the world.
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Chills went down my spine when I heard that the trailers in New Orleans were provided to the Native Americans, I guess the Trail of Tears was not enough. This was not major news coverage because the media is too focused on topics such as Michelle Obama wearing sleeveless dresses.
Lastly, I understand that there are slaves in the world today, but I will not downplay the African slavery system of America. Not that anyone did. If we include the slaves of today, no other race of people was stripped like the Africans that arrived in this country via the Columbian Exchange. They were stripped from their country, their heritage, their culture, their language, and even their children. What society considers as the African-American race should just be renamed simply as “American” as this was the first surviving race made in America. I could go on forever, because the lecture was great, but I will conclude with this…”We may have all come on different boats, but now we are in the same boat.” Anyone have a paddle?
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sioux2010 Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
I am in the same boat as you haha, I HATED hearing this about how trailers making people sick were just given to Native American Reservations. Its obsurred and I just dont understand how our Government after everything our country has been through can still go and do such things as this. It just makes no sense to me. And I liked how you brought up the Trail of Tears, after that they shouldnt be put through anything else. I also have to comment on the quote, well said and it couldnt be put any better than that. We should have learned from our mistakes before hand, opressing African-American people led to a Civil War, im worried about what could happen next after opressing Native Americans.
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I found it so very interesting that professor Richards implies that white people are the only ethnic group to be politically correct. Not only do I seriously doubt that most have learned to be politically correct, as our textbook points out, political correctness is such a general and overly used term that I find it difficult to believe that most white people have learned to be politically correct, as that correctness changes depending on the situation. Moreover, working in an immigration law firm I have learned to be politically correct in regards to a number of race and cultures. By the way, although the term “red nigger” may be an educational talking point to educate us about Native American discrimination, I doubt it’s political correctness (repeated several times over) in this forum. I was also very interested to hear the term “we”, as in all Americans other than them, used in discourse regarding the tragic history of raping the Native American peoples of their land and lives, for black people had very little part of this as far as I knew. Tyrone, Sheniqua? Really? Reinforce stereotypes much (?), was the first question to come to mind when that comment was made by Professor Richards. Why if all cultures creatively name their children, as so shortly noted by the Professor, are the names that black people bestow upon their children “more creative”? Hmmm. I also found it interesting to hear the young lady comment that she that mostly white girls attempted suicide because they mostly want to be perfect and thin. In my experience as someone with a fashion background & myriad of girlfriends, society as well as women themselves, places high demands on women of all races to be perfect an thin – even “angry black women”. One of the statistics that I was most intrigued to discover to be true was that 75% of Arabs are Christian. I can’t wait to throw that back at the next Arab-hating zealot that I come across in polite conversation down here in the good ol’ South! I was definitely glad to hear about the immigrant breakdown of health and economic power. These are things that a lot of Americans could learn from immigrants while they are busy with their xenophobic rants about sending them back home. And I am not surprised to see that the number of people speaking another language other than English at home is growing, because it’s more accepted. For example, although my grandparents are from Panama they immigrated here during a time when assimilation was demanded, so as opposed to learning Spanish at home I had to wait until I was in high school and travel God knows how many miles to Spain to learn our language.
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What really ticked me off and threw me for a loop in the whad'ya know lecture was hearing about how the federal government does not give a rats ass about Native Americans. It was unbelievable to hear that the trailers that were given to help people in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, which made people extremely sick, were just given to the Native American reservations because they are the lowest of the low when it comes to economic status and whatever else. Were basically saying that these people are so poor and pathetic that no matter what disease infected or harmful objects we give them they will take with oipen arms. This just isnt true. I have been on American Indian ground and on reservations in North Dakota, on Sioux land, and it is unbelievable that these people have been oppressed the way they have been for so many years. They are no different than anyone else except for what they believe in. Like Sam said in one of the lectures, race is man made, and they should not be considered the lowest of the low and oppressed when their cultures were here before anyone elses, and their ancestory dates back farther than any of ours.
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And then the NCAA tries to redeem the government and be politically correct in having certain universities change their names because it is offensive to some native cultures. And this is a good start to try to redeem ourselves from what we have done for hundreds of years. This may be true for some colleges and universities but in reality some universities have the name of Native American tribes because they are so respected and are so much a part of the culture of the area. For universities such as the University of North Dakota, who have the name of "The Fighting Sioux" it is almost disrespectful to change the name. There are several Native American buildings on the campus where they teach students the ways of the Sioux peoples and they teach their heritige.
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There are also several monuments all over campus that are designed by peoples of the Sioux tribe and are beautiful pieces of art. Even the school logo was designed by a member of the Sioux tribe. They have no mascot who runs around chanting and wearing war paint like florida State University does, who is actually a white, non-Native American, and that is degrading to the Native Americans. The givernment and other Universities or colleges need to embrace these people and not continue to opress them, especially if your school has the mascot and bears the name of a Native American tribe. Calling them the lowest of the low is an unbelievable thing to say, especially to a culture that has been here longer than we have.
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I was surprised that young Hispanic females are the group that is most likely to attempt suicide. I actually thought that they would be the least likely to commit suicide. I chose LGBT as my answer because of the assumed hardships they encounter. I remember a few years ago, the LGBT club put sticks all over the HUB lawn that had pictures of LGBT people along with the stories of how they died. Many were murdered in horrible ways and some committed suicide after torture. Either way, it really stuck out in my mind. It was shocking which I believe was that point of it, shocking awareness. Dr. Richards had said in the lecture that many of the LGBT that commit suicide are not out of the closet so how would we ever know if that person was a homosexual? He is right, how would we know? I have a best friend who is gay. It kills me that his family is not very supportive of his sexuality. He had told me he tried to come out of the closet finally in the being of college, but his parents did not take well, especially his dad. So after they freaked about it, he just kind of brushed it off of “oh it was just a phase” and he has kept his relationship with his partner a secret from them ever since. I can’t really think of how that truly feels. Keeping that part of your life, hidden from your family because they don’t know how to accept the fact that their son is gay. He recently just moved to another state with his partner and their dogs and it was pretty stressful. Any move is stressful in the first place, but he could not even have his parents come help with the move and see his new place. In fact, they have never really visited PSU when I come to think of it. It just really makes me upset. I cannot imagine not being able to talk to my family about life and what is going on it or asking opinions. I really look up to my friend. The crap he has to deal with on a daily basis and he is so strong and so sure of himself. But he has really made a difference in me and shed light on the lifestyle of LGBT. I have a very high respect for him. I remember one day we were walking down the street and he saw me checking out this guy walking by. Tall, dark, handsome and had a nice muscular body! After he passed us my friend turns to me and told me that he got with that guy walking by and now he acts like nothing happened and is straight for the most part. But I was shocked; I would have never guessed that he was gay. But then again what was I looking for? Light pants? Feminine mannerisms? Not all gay guys act feminine. So I was stereotyping at the time, but now I am more cautious to assume someone’s sexuality.
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Late Submission Re-post 6/2/10:
After watching the lecture video and taking the quiz, I realized that I do not know quite as much as I had previously thought. I always considered myself to be a very rounded and accepting person who knew most of the workings within different groups, but I was clearly wrong. My absolute favorite part about this lecture was when Sam made the comments about being politically correct. There are often thoughts or questions that a person has, but they are afraid to say or ask them because they are afraid of being "politically incorrect." The freedom to ask, or speak your mind in this class is a huge refreshment for me personally. I have several friends who are very active in the LGBT community. One of them is actually is actually the president. From knowing about all of their hardships and statistics they have, I was almost positive they had the highest suicide rate among teens. The answer being females of Latino decent caught me off guard. I was glad to hear the professor recognize the fact that most of the people who committed suicide were in the closet, or just weren't sure. Every group was recognized in the first class. The distinction between "black" and "African American" American that was pointed out is a distinction that I feel is often over looked by all other races. I am so interested to hear what else we will bring into light and what other false truths that will be revealed to us. I think that certain boundaries will probably be pushed, but I am very okay with that. The only way to broaden yourself is to push your limits. You need to stretch your views and test yourself. I know that Sam is going to push all of these boundaries. I like to be made to think about things, especially when there is no particular answer. I think that there will be some people who will get mad or think that people are being racist, but I think it will all fade in time. Some things that people consider to be “racist” actually, in all honesty, is just caused by lack of knowledge on one side. If someone hears facts about something for the first time, that’s what they use to make an opinion. Often the first thing they here is biased, and causes that person to take their side. By shedding light on issues like this, I feel this class as a whole, including myself, will benefit tremendously. Even though it is online, we are all getting to know each other better as people and as a whole. It is something I look forward to. I can’t wait to experience more, learn more, and grow more by taking this class. I can’t wait to see what Sam will discuss over the course entirety.
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I completely understand and agree with what Professor Richard's is saying. I was
surprised that the largest group of Americans identified themselves as Mexicans.
Also political correctness as taught or trained people to be tolerate and
moderate. Political correctness is a very sensitive issue and is taught to
connect and have a common ground with people of different cultures. Also white
people agree with the opinion that Asian are crafty and devious in business. I
found it very interesting that immigrants who came to the U.S have longer life
spans than native born Americans. The way the professor explained and open our
eyes to these truths, for example I was not aware of how many native american
tribes still exist in the U.S today which is 562. Basically thoughts and "norms"
that we think of as people in the United States are questions and examined in
this class and I found that very compelling. I was also very happy when he
stated that the people that do immigrate to the U.S are the hard working go
getters type people. The lazy ones with no dreams and aspirations believe that
they can't make it here do not succeed. I found that to be such an amazing
statement because that is exactly what my family did and is the main reason I am
alive today.
Some cultural differences and language barriers among different ethnic groups
have frequently given rise to problems between them. Also sometimes immigrants
are unable to quickly assimilate themselves to the rest of America social life.
This sometimes have often prevented them from attain the income and standard of
living that they hope to get when they left their county. Furthermore the
Professor follows by saying that people from all parts of the world look down on
immigrants especially Americans. I am now understanding through this class that
American was built on immigrants and I find it to be quiet ironic and comical
that they do not like immigrants. Immigrants have made a lot economic, social
and cultural contributions to the United States. Another surprising fact that I
learned in this lesson that 27 million people are still enslave today. I always
thought that slave was a thing of the past and would never happen again and to
my surprise that is not true. Also he touched on that some Arabs that are in
this country are Christians and are family in Christ. Although most American
have bad views of Arabs or muslims and share a common religion.
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This class looks really cool. I knew that the test was going to be tricky when I took it, and I guessed that the answer would most likely be the one I least suspected, but I still answered them with my gut so I could see just how much I really knew, rather than just how well I can figure out the test. The answers surprised me. I was right in thinking that the answers would be the opposite of what I thought they should be, but they seemed so far from the “correct” one. The first answer was tricky. I assumed that it would be Irish American, mainly because many of the Americans who’ve ever told me their heritage has used the phrase “Scotch-Irish” to explain the leftover percentages after their main heritage, which was usually English, French, or German. Myself, I know I’m primarily German-American because my family has only been in America for three generations and my mom is the only member of my past who wasn’t straight from the Fatherland. I should have known that the answer would have been German-American, because my grandfather used to always say that you can tell how many Germans are in America by how strong its economy was. Everyone in my hometown is descended from a mix of old German and Irish families.
The second thing that caught my attention was what Sam said about suicide. My answer was LGBT youth, mainly because that’s what we’re taught nowadays. What he said about them being “closeted” when it happens makes sense, but I still think its weird that it was Hispanic young women. That really blew me away. I mean, I don’t know many Hispanic people, being from a small rural town just north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but they just don’t seem like a demographic that would show the signs. I really understand what Sam said about social networking. My sister always looks down on people who attempt or commit suicide because they “obviously have no love for their parents or any of their friends or family”, but she never quite grasped this idea. If you have a network of friends and you feel connected to your family, then you won’t do it because of that “love” that she accuses of them not having. In a way, they really don’t have that love at all, because in their mind they don’t feel connected to their families at all.
The last thing that I want to note is Sam’s mini-tangent on Native Americans. That blew my mind. I’ve often thought about this idea that we’re living on stolen land. How do we make up for it? We can’t give the land back, unless we gave up our entire country. But if that was the case, then Britain would go back to the Celts and the Britons, France would be Gaul-land and the rest of the world would belong to the descendants of small groups. Life goes on. We can’t be held fully accountable for our ancestors’ wrongs. I mean, I’m German, and my family left during the beginnings of Nazi power in Germany, so should I be held responsible for the First World War and the Holocaust? My grandfather voted for the Nazis. Should I have to pay for his decision? I don’t think so. I think we can find a better way to pay them back.
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I found it so very interesting that professor Richards implies that white people are the only ethnic group to be politically correct. Not only do I seriously doubt that most have learned to be politically correct, as our textbook points out, political correctness is such a general and overly used term that I find it difficult to believe that most white people have learned to be politically correct, as that correctness changes depending on the situation. Moreover, working in an immigration law firm I have learned to be politically correct in regards to a number of race and cultures. By the way, although the term “red nigger” may be an educational talking point to educate us about Native American discrimination, I doubt it’s political correctness (repeated several times over) in this forum. I was also very interested to hear the term “we”, as in all Americans other than them, used in discourse regarding the tragic history of raping the Native American peoples of their land and lives, for black people had very little part of this as far as I knew. Tyrone, Sheniqua? Really? Reinforce stereotypes much (?), was the first question to come to mind when that comment was made by Professor Richards. Why if all cultures creatively name their children, as so shortly noted by the Professor, are the names that black people bestow upon their children “more creative”? Hmmm. I also found it interesting to hear the young lady comment that she that mostly white girls attempted suicide because they mostly want to be perfect and thin. In my experience as someone with a fashion background & myriad of girlfriends, society as well as women themselves, places high demands on women of all races to be perfect an thin – even “angry black women”. One of the statistics that I was most intrigued to discover to be true was that 75% of Arabs are Christian. I can’t wait to throw that back at the next Arab-hating zealot that I come across in polite conversation down here in the good ol’ South! I was definitely glad to hear about the immigrant breakdown of health and economic power. These are things that a lot of Americans could learn from immigrants while they are busy with their xenophobic rants about sending them back home. And I am not surprised to see that the number of people speaking another language other than English at home is growing, because it’s more accepted. For example, although my grandparents are from Panama they immigrated here during a time when assimilation was demanded, so as opposed to learning Spanish at home I had to wait until I was in high school and travel God knows how many miles to Spain to learn our language.
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