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!
While watching the lecture video for this week, I wrote down three/ four things I wanted to yell out in the middle of the lecture (after realizing I was behind a computer screen). The first thing I was really shocked at was the question and answer about which group is most likely to commit suicide. I was stuck in between two answers, young white females and the LGBT community. I even called my mother right after to see what would be the top two answers she would give. She said the same two that I did. My reason for the young white females was the exact reason the young lady said in the video. So many times, females as a whole compare themselves to celebrities or what is in magazines. For the LGBT community, there is a lot of pressure on them just because of who they are. For these reasons, I thought I would for sure be right. To find out that it was Hispanic females really shocked me. I spoke with my mother about it and we could not figure out how or what the reasons behind that group were (not that there are any reasons for suicide but certain circumstances bring a higher chance of suicide). I never hear in the news or on television shows about how Hispanics commit suicide. I don’t hear a lot about Hispanics period.
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samsmith119 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 3:43 am
I was on the same track you were, but the wording was "attempt" not commit. I had to go back and do some research after the quiz, on some of the points as I did not think I could have been that far off….well, I was LOL.
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kac5293 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 3:57 am
I agree with you with the suicide. I ruled out Hispanic women right away and narrowed it down to white female and LGBT. I have a lot of Hispanic friends, so I thought of them and did not think that could be a possibility. I guess I never would have pictured them attempting to commit suicide. I believe the LGBT community would have it the highest because of all of the pressure they would have to go through, a lot of people judging them and making fun of them, I’m sure it is not easy for them at all. A kid in my high school killed himself on the second day of school because he had so much stress and wanted to tell his parents that he was gay but couldn’t (he wrote it in his suicide letter). This was one of the more shocking questions for me too!
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lmbrown2006 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
I agree with you with the LGBT Community, I narrowed it down to the white female community but I believe the LGBT communtiy would be highest. I myself have a daughter that is bi and just recently had a baby although she still dates girls. I can remember her coming to me and coming out the closet to me. she was scared to death, not to tell me or my reaction but just admitting out loud hey this is me.She is accepted in both comunnities but it makes you wonder the pressure of hiding it and the pressure from the fear of coming out.
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aks5248 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 7:01 am
I actually asked my mom to about this exact question and she said the exact same thing as us. Kind of weird but I have the same response to young Hispanic women. My mom and I were mom both were baffled. I actually just posted my response to this lecture about 3 minutes ago and decided to reply to this one as well. The only thing that I can think would have young Hispanic women attempt suicide more is their traditional lifestyle paths. I think this traditional style involves finding a young successful man to marry and have a plethora of kids with while keeping a house clean and filled with all sorts of food to keep the man and the kids happy. Maybe some young Hispanic women feel too pressured by their mothers or friends to make sure they take all the necessary steps to embark on this traditional path of life. Or maybe some young Hispanic women refuse to follow this traditional path but don't have the support or money to break away from this destined path. This is the only reason that I can possible come up with right now, but I do hope to hear more thoughts on this particular question.
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jav5188 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more about the suicide question. I was thinking the same thing. I was between the white females and the LGBT youth as well. I feel that this is where Sam makes a good point about why it most likely isn’t LGBT youth. They most likely aren’t out of the closet because they are struggling with the issues that go along with being different than most people sexually. I also feel that media plays a huge part in they way we were to answer that question. You don’t hear on the news or read in People magazine about a little Hispanic girl going and attempting to commit suicide. You only hear about the little white girl that struggled with self esteem or was bullied in high school.
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sillyjuice Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:28 pm
I do agree with you on this one but I do think this raises more questions. If young Hispanic women are pressured to live more traditional lives, wouldn’t young Asians also feel that same pressure being that Asians are also subjected to traditional lives as well. And wouldn’t their attempt of suicide rate increase as well? I feel that this is a sad issue because there are many cultural issues that can lead to attempted suicide for young women. It is also sadder because these are the issues that do not get on television news or is in much of the media, not only Hispanics but for all minority groups. I feel that all I ever do see in the media for minorities are all negative. =[
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JessOver Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 2:34 am
I was initially on the same track as you were. I debated back and forth between white females and members of the LGBTA community. I finally went with LBGT youth and based my decision on the discrimination they endure. After learning that the answer was young Hispanic females though, I wasn’t shocked. I live in an area with a large Hispanic population and I have often observed the difficulties they endure on a day-to-day basis. When combining family difficulties with those of possible income struggles, difficulties fitting into an area where you may or may not be considered welcome or acceptable, and the inevitable difficulties of “fitting in” and being popular as a teenage girl, it did make a bit more sense. In the end, however, I would still say my instinct would be to go with the youth in the LGBT community.
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The second thing I wrote in my notes was about immigrants. Sam asked during lecture, why the negative feeling or stereotype towards immigrants. I came up with my own answer just based on my feelings sometimes towards immigrants and discussions I’ve had with friends and family about it. The first issue is, we, as Americans tend to group people in one category even though we know every single individual is not the stereotype. We are all aware that there are immigrants here illegally. Not all of them are, but we group, without knowing, all immigrants into the illegal category. Also, there are a lot of businesses that have foreigners, not necessarily immigrants running them. For instance, when I call a tow truck service, or any over the phone business and a person who does not speak good English picks up and I’m the one struggling to explain a problem, it makes me angry towards them.
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nrd5040 Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I also found the immigrant portion of the lecture interesing. In particular, the chart where it showed how many people prefer to speak another language other than english in the home. The chart showed that the majority of second generation immigrants prefer to speak english in the home. I think this shows that most immigrants do make a concerted effort to assimilate into American culture but still bring their culture with them. Isn't that what makes thiscountry so great? The diversity and culture that comes togther to form a nation like no other. Although, I agree that it is very frustrating to deal with someone who does not speak english and the barrier it creates in communication.
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AttemptedLife00 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Language itself seems to be among the greatest barriers seperating cultures. The fact that we have so many cultures packed together in one country certainly creates a plethora of potential problems. I think the anger which we so freely admit to feeling towards those who do not speak our language contributes to the stereo-types, categorizations, and animosity we feel towards individuals of other cultures. So in attempting to step back and look at the situation from all perspectives, we arrive at a problem. There really isn't anyway to get around the barriers which language set for us. If everyone living in our country was forced to learn english in order to successfully assimilate themselves into American society, we should equally expect all english speaking citizens in other countries to learn whatever language that country prefers. It is relatively easy for all of us, being American citizens, to brush this issue off as trivial. Yet assuming we lived in a different country, our oppinions might be different. It's that hypocrisy that Professor Richards spoke of becoming evident again.
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The feeling is very territorial I guess and it’s like if you can’t speak the native language then why put them at the head of the business to interact with a lot of people who may speak English. From the American standpoint, I see why they are viewed negatively but if I put myself in their shoes, I understand why they chose certain ways of life to make things better for them.
The third and final point I made in my notes made me mad. There was a statistic that said 76% of black males think it is good to be successful in their career. The thing that got me mad is why not 100? Some people plan to get a job and some people get careers. Going to college and choosing to get a career or working towards a career means that you want to try to be successful at it. If not, you would not go through the struggle, years and money of college. You would only get a job. So if we are headed to a career, why are only 76% of males trying to be successful?
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samsmith119 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 4:04 am
The percentage is not a surprise at all, as a mater of fact I was surprised that both white and black were as high as they are. People dont "get" a career, they build one. That means sticking your nose to the grind stone and pushing forward, and unfortunately there are a large number of lazy people out there. Also, beyond lazy there is also the sense of being defeated, that you will never be better than you are right now kind of thought. People get into a rut like that and they believe it, and once they do its over. Most people hate their jobs, but they have no choice if they want to eat and have shelter(and cable, and beer, and internet, and cars, and vacations etc etc etc) – or so they think, and that is what they are told to believe. It takes drive and the willingness to cast aside what others tell you the world is, and venture out and DO, not sit back and accept. To borrow a phrase, "Do or do not, there is no try" (Yoda/frank oz, Empire Strikes Back, 1980).
I am totally with you on the phone call thing. I get pretty ticked off when someone in customer service in this country can not understand or communicate clearly in English, however, I do travel to other countries and I have never been upset by someone not understanding my crap ass German, Norwegian, Spanish etc etc and I try to be as apologetic as I can, and if they are willing to accept my English in their country I am patient and very thankful. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect people living in a country to learn to speak the common language (and for now that is still English in the US), but please keep that in mind when traveling to Their country as well. I see so many blue hairs when I travel that are a total embarrassment to American, its like they want to see everything from home when they are abroad so really what the hell was the point in going abroad. But back to the phone call thing…I think the employer is to blame for that more than anything. At this point in our economy if you are offered a job you take it, its the employers responsibility to their customers to put the right person for the job in the position, so I do not lay that blame on them (but that does not mean I am not frustrated every time I call Dell tech support and want to pull my eye balls out with a grapefruit spoon). Whew, more poured out on that than I intended but I think Ill leave it as is for the next player. DING, fries are done.
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Week 1, lesson 1.
On being PC: Being conscious of other peoples feelings are one thing, but taking it to the extreme that it is now is just a way of homogenizing people to outwardly be the same. Im not homogenous, and I refuse to become such, and I hope others will maintain their points of view also. I like challenging dialogue, and that will be gone is a fully PC world.
Multiracial population: This one surprised me a bit. I guess people are still more averse to “mix-breeding” than I thought.
Suicide: I still just don’t get this, I do not understand what drives people to end their own life. Things can always get worse.
The lifespan thing: Totally makes sense. We in this country put more crap in our bodies from day 1 than most other places.
% of Arabs being muslims. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The media slaps negative “muslims” on the TV and print news all the time so we get bombarded with this as being the mainstay.
Native American tribes: Our ugly little history on our attempt at genocide and todays perception of it. I always wonder what would have happened if they had let the first major settlers just die, but they didn’t and it led to them being conquered and nearly exterminated. The bottom line is the spoils of war go to the victor, what ever was in the past is in the past, we do not owe something back but we do need to fully incorporate the NA into “American” society if they choose to join. ??What do the tribes near mexico do if Illegals come to their land??
$2/day or less. How else are we going to get things made for us so cheaply? Hmmm (what is that sarcasm font?).
Higher median income: Wow. ok this one totally blindsided me, but I suppose I should have been more economically aware than this.
Language: I served in the army with a guy we all thought came from Korea. He spoke almost no english and he was 20 years old. I asked him once how long he had been in the US, his reply : (paraphrased) I was born here, I am from New York city and have always lived there.
Slavery: So long as we go for the cheapest makers, we will continue to support slavery…..just not in the US. Hmmmm.
Again the media leads us down the path. the % of black men thinking problems are of their own creation does not surprise me. Its the media that spotlights certain things that we take on faith as being the normative.
Obama's faith has been misrepresented by so many bullshit emails its silly. People have not listened when he flat out said he is Christian.
TV and Movie rolls have opened up greatly to non-white in just my lifetime, and it makes for better TV.
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RRISTEEN Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
I can't agree with you more about the PC, it has gotten to the point of ridiculousness, where it is forbidden to act certain ways and say certain things. I too refuse to become Homogenous. And also, stemming from political correctness you have instances such as affirmative action which hinder the most qualified people from obtaining the job or getting into the right education institution, when does it stop? because it is becoming quite a problem. I have dealt with it first hand more than a few times trying to become a law enforcement officer.
As far as the native americans, yes, what is in the past is in the past and they need to be assimilated into our government and american society much more than they are today. TV and movie roles I do not think need to be all white at all however, taking classics like the Honeymooners 50 years ago and in the recent big budget movie remake casting the entire cast as african-american's is quite a bit ridiculous in my eyes. People wouldn't see a remake of Sanford and Son with someone like Kevin James and Will Ferrell playing the leading roles. Just an opinion. But a great post none the less! have a nice week!
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Buddyruse21 Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I agree with you about the idea of being Politically Correct. A lot of the people I’ve talked to get really frustrated when I struggle to find a PC term for whatever we’re trying to talk about. I think that it’s becoming an epidemic. If we’re constantly trying to baby each other, we’re just causing more harm than good. I like to push the boundaries a little bit. It just kills me that if I use the wrong word, then I’m instantly a racist, a bigot, or worse… a Republican. I just want to stand on a chair in front of the HUB and scream, “They’re just WORDS!! They can’t hurt you!” But I would probably just be put on the list with the Willard Preachers.
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Week 1, lesson 1.
On being PC: Being conscious of other peoples feelings are one thing, but taking it to the extreme that it is now is just a way of homogenizing people to outwardly be the same. Im not homogenous, and I refuse to become such, and I hope others will maintain their points of view also. I like challenging dialogue, and that will be gone is a fully PC world.
Multiracial population: This one surprised me a bit. I guess people are still more averse to “mix-breeding” than I thought.
Suicide: I still just don’t get this, I do not understand what drives people to end their own life. Things can always get worse.
The lifespan thing: Totally makes sense. We in this country put more crap in our bodies from day 1 than most other places.
% of Arabs being muslims. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The media slaps negative “muslims” on the TV and print news all the time so we get bombarded with this as being the mainstay.
Native American tribes: Our ugly little history on our attempt at genocide and todays perception of it. I always wonder what would have happened if they had let the first major settlers just die, but they didn’t and it led to them being conquered and nearly exterminated. The bottom line is the spoils of war go to the victor, what ever was in the past is in the past, we do not owe something back but we do need to fully incorporate the NA into “American” society if they choose to join. ??What do the tribes near mexico do if Illegals come to their land??
$2/day or less. How else are we going to get things made for us so cheaply? Hmmm (what is that sarcasm font?).
Higher median income: Wow. ok this one totally blindsided me, but I suppose I should have been more economically aware than this.
Language: I served in the army with a guy we all thought came from Korea. He spoke almost no english and he was 20 years old. I asked him once how long he had been in the US, his reply : (paraphrased) I was born here, I am from New York city and have always lived there.
Slavery: So long as we go for the cheapest makers, we will continue to support slavery…..just not in the US. Hmmmm.
Again the media leads us down the path. the % of black men thinking problems are of their own creation does not surprise me. Its the media that spotlights certain things that we take on faith as being the normative.
Obamas faith has been misrepresented by so many bullshit emails its silly. People have not listened when he flat out said he is Christian.
TV and Movie rolls have opened up greatly to non-white in just my lifetime, and it makes for better TV.
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Rockski Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 12:41 am
Well the media outlets that usually say such things about Obama are the conservative ones such as FOX, did you vote for Obama?
Also one thing that bothers me about the Native American stereotype is the gambling, how do they always manage to the short straw. Out of curiosity I looked up Native American athletes and not many came up and the only one that I could think off the top of my head was Kyle Loshe a pitcher. However as for supporting slavery I feel guilty every time I use my phone but I am not surprised every time I lace up my Jordans that it was probably made with the sweat of someone who does not even see anything close to the $125 profit made off a sneaker that cost a mere $10 to make.
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MDD1982 Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:57 am
Hi Sam. I liked reading your post. I couldn't agree more with it, too! I think this world we live in now is so PC it is almost sickening. I, too, was shocked by the low percentage of biracial people. It feels like I've met and known so many (not to mention my two children being biracial) biracial people…guess I just assumed that the number would be larger based off of my own personal experiences. But I also figured on that fact that in today's society (well, depending on the state you live in) it is perfectly fine and maybe the norm to have interracial dating/marriages.
It's interesting to me how we can't even dispute the facts and percentages the Professor provided. I am sure with his background he did his extensive research – there must be a reason the practice test was named what it was. It's just so hard to wrap my head around some of these facts…I am shocked.
We you correct or incorrect on the percentage of Arabs being Muslims? I shockingly got that one correct but it was only because of the Shadowboxing reading…other wise I would've had a very different answer!
On the language part of your blog, may I ask, where were you going with that? Are you frustrated at the fact he spoke poor English for having been born in the States? Ironically, I am currently in South Korea with my husband – and around a lot of Korean American Soldiers. I get pretty frustrated when people live in our country and can't speak the language.
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I really enjoyed this first lesson; I wish I was in the classroom instead of watching it online. I was surprised to the answer of number 7: “Of the population of “Arabs” living in the U.S. who identify as “religious,” about what percent are Muslims?” Being a Christian, I guess I never thought about the 1.3 million people of Arab ancestry living in the U.S. that over half of them do claim to be Christian. Even tough I know being Arab doesn’t mean the same thing as being Muslim, I guess I am guilty of jumping to that conclusion, like most people did on the quiz.
I was already familiar with the tenth question: “Of the world’s 6.7 billion people, about how many live on $2 a day or less?” I knew the answer was 3 billion people. I have friends that work with IJM and have heard them spea, so I knew the answer. However, I am still shocked that the percent is so high. I still do not understand how we (Americans) make so much money yet feel that we deserve more or that we’re not satisfied with the amount of money we make each year. I went to New Orleans twice after Hurricane Katrina to help out the victims and I felt like I was in a third world country. I was not prepared to see what I saw (cars through the roofs of homes, people breaking into stores for food, etc.). It made me realize how the people in other parts of the world live like this on a daily basis, and so do their children. I felt guilty even to walk out on the streets with clean clothes on, my hair done, and even wearing make-up on when I went out to eat.
Another question that I already knew, but that still shocked me was question 14: “Approximately how many people live as slaves in the world today?” The answer is 27 million. What shocked me was when Sam Richards asked a guy to pull out his cellphone and pretty much show that he supports slavery by buying products that are made by slaves. It made me feel guilty about even owning a cellphone, a computer, etc. I’m sure everything I own is made by a slave or at least part of what I own is made by a slave. I wonder how large of a percent of my things I own are made by slaves. I feel like I should start buying fewer products because they could be made by slaves from around the world. Question 18: What religion is Barack Obama?” even though I put that he is Christian because I knew that was what was going to be stated as the correct answer, I wanted to say that he is Muslim because he has said several times that he is Muslim, but flip flops back and forth saying that he is a Christian and then he is a Muslim. His father was a Muslim extremist, his middle name is Hussein, therefore I do not know why people are gullible and believe he is a Christian. How is it that he grew up Muslim (both parents-yes even his mom) and then out of nowhere became a Christian? He did it for politics, simple. But then again, only he knows what he believes in, no one else.
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SaraMae22 Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 1:48 am
I completely agree with you on everything that you stated above. I think that it was very eye opening when he asked for that student’s cell phone and told him that parts of it were made by slaves. It makes me really question the things that you should buy. I almost feel guilty spending hundreds of dollars on something that someone was forced to make. Another thing that I completely agree on with you is the fact that Obama converted to Christianity. I don't understand how it is that both your parents are Muslim and then you decide to run for president and now your Christian. It makes you question would as many Americans have supported him if they knew what his real religion was? Overall I think everything that you wrote I agreed with and makes you realized that were not all perfect and need to work on things are a whole.
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Blueskies21 Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I one completely agree with what you both had to say about President Obama and his religion. Both of his parents are indeed Muslim. How can you grow up your entire life as a Muslim then out of the blue become a Christian? That does not make any sense to me. By telling the public that he is a follower of Christianity he is able to gain popularity. He changed his faith solely for politics. He is a smart man though; he knew that if he entered the political campaign as a Muslim, he probably wouldn’t have made it as far as he did.
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DrCandle Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 8:06 am
I definitely agree about feeling like garbage during the part where he was holding the guys cell phone but that shouldn't be a time to look at ourselves and wonder should we start buying less things? we essentially can't it's not just the cell phones its countless other possessions and things we use everyday. Even if us, the upper elite of the world were to do this, what about the rest of the world? what about those in poverty, those who can't afford to search for products made by well paid workers, these people make up the majority of the population, are buying the majority of the products and they are essentially the most likely to be buying these slave made products without any knowledge of it. The entire system is unbalanced, Sam himself had a great quote "it would require four planet earths for everyone in the world to live like an average American”
For the point about Obama flip-flopping and claiming he is Christian as a way to garner support from voters who would not have voted otherwise…well that should say something about our country, people are afraid of things they are not familiar with, the truth of the matter is he shouldn't have had to have changed his publicized religion from what he originally grew up believing, maybe Americans should be more accepting of different views.
Just my two-cents
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pennstategirl5 Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 5:18 pm
I am drawn to comment on your post because I feel that I hold the same opinions as you with the topics you discussed above. I never really thought about Arabs being Christians. I am a Christian and out of all of the churches I have attended in my life I don't normally see Arab people there so I just must not have put two and two together. (This could also have to do with the fact that my hometown doesn't have a large Arab population). I also agree with your opinion on Barack Obama. When he was running for President I was utterly confused as to why a man who had an upbringing on a Muslim would convert to Christianity and I came to the conclusion that it was probably for politics as well. Like you said, only he knows his beliefs I just found it to be a little bit of a head scratcher.
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kac5293 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 2:28 am
yeah it doesnt make sense… muslims that i know that convert to christianity often are shunned from their religion && family. I live in nyc so im used to seeing just about every race && religion. I'm sure Obama still practices islam, he just lies and covers it up so americans will still like him…even though there arent many who like him anymore, go figure.
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So for the first online lecture I had a few comments about several of the questions that appeared on the lecture quiz. For question about the 2000 census, I, as well as the majority, said the largest self-identified ethnic group was Mexican American. The only reason to why I picked Mexican American was that I hear about Mexican Americans are going to pass the white people for the majority in the United States within the next fifty years or so. I heard this from some of my teachers back in high school and the news also stated this. I guess after thinking about it some more, Mexican Americans have not passed white people because all we know is that Mexican Americans will pass white people as the majority in the US. But for some reason I said Mexican American in the quiz. I guess I don’t understand why I choose Mexican American.
Question four also got my attention. Of all the groups that are likely to attempt suicide, young Hispanic females are most likely. I was one of the 48% of people who stated that LGBT youth are most likely to commit suicide. When I answered this particular question, I kept in mind that all of these groups are most likely in a school environment and enduring the struggles of the adolescent world. Much like minorities and women fighting for equal rights and fighting off discrimination, I thought that LGBT youth would be more likely to commit suicide because they go against the “normal” morals more so than young black males, young white females and young Asian immigrants. As a society I feel like we prosecute towards the LGBT community and pressure them to change the way they are because a lot of people have the impression that being gay or lesbian bi or transgender is a choice and not a part of the personality. So yea, this is the thought process to why I assumed LGBT would be likely to commit suicide. But I, as many other people, were probably shocked to see why young Hispanic females have the most attempts at suicide. My best guess to why is because of the pressures of the family ties and expectations involved with a traditional Hispanic family. I could be wrong (please tell me if I am), but maybe having a young Hispanic female pressured to being a housewife and mother while enduring the fast pace of the changing world is too much and maybe they don’t get the attention they deserve from their elders or spouses of friends.
Okay, last question. Question 10 asked how many people on the earth lived on $2 a day or less. I understand that everyone who is in the United States is amazingly wealthy compared to pretty much everyone else in the world. But what I was surprised to hear that it would take four earths to fuel the 6.7 billion people who would live at the US standards. My question is how long would those resources last before being depleted. Another question is what can we (the rich) do about it? Keep giving our wealth away until we don’t have any left? It’s awful that the poor don’t have what we do, but we do have to be thankful for the opportunities given to us and take advantage of them.
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jjlayton Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 9:14 am
I agree that LGBT youth are extremely more susceptible to suicide. I'm a young Hispanic female, well I'm mixed but I live in a pretty much all Hispanic town and I still believe LGBT youth are more likely to commit or attempt suicide. I do know a lot of traditional parents who expect their daughters to live a certain way and maintain the cultural responsibilities of a Hispanic female but nowadays most of them understand that their children are "Americanized" and allow them more leeway and to choose their own path in life to a certain degree. Also, I want to say that homosexual youth don't learn to be gay or decide to be homosexual; it's not a lifestyle choice. It's not an orientation either it's an ingrained preference, some say biological, precursor just like being heterosexual. In other words, you just know you're homosexual or heterosexual very young in age. Coming to terms with that is another story.
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iunlearn Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
People of color will surpass white people in the next 30 years or so — that is, ALL non white people combined. Mexicans will still lag far behind.
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There are so many things in the lecture I could talk about. I usually have strong opinions about certain things and I tend to get pretty passionate about them. The one thing that made an impression on me was the question on poverty and how many people make less than $2 a day. I have never considered myself wealthy or well off in respect to others around me. I live in a Hispanic ghetto, I guess you can call it that, and I do live in housing projects. In America, people tend to look down at people who live in so called ghettos and in housing projects. What I have come to realize over my years is that I have it pretty good compared to other people in the world. I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food on my table each day. I know many people who do not have this and many more that I don't know that have way less.
I volunteer at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, foster care facilities etc and I see what these people go through, which breaks my heart, and they have people who care and try to help them. I wonder how people in other countries survive with little to no help and no money to support or feed their family. When I see my friends and other people complaining about not having the latest technology or fashion it shocks me that we could be so ignorant and blatantly blinded. To think about people surviving on less than $2 a day is deplorable. I wish I could do something that could change things but for now I guess what I'm doing now will have to be enough.
I'm a young Hispanic female so the question about suicide rates really took me by surprise also. I know people who have tried to commit suicide who are young Hispanic females and personally dealt with feelings of this kind. I guess the "attempt" statistics were more accurate for young Hispanic females. I would think in today's society young gay individuals would be more prone to suicide than any other group. Homosexuality is a controversial subject and many young gay people are suffering from the stigma of being homosexual. The pressure of coming out can lead these individuals to rash decisions. So it's no wonder, to me, that homosexual and transgendered individuals would be on the top of the list for suicide. I wasn't surprised that young black females are less likely to commit suicide. Besides the professor's statement, I think it might have to do with religious reasons as well. Suicide is the ultimate unforgivable sin in God's eyes, according to the Christian beliefs.So maybe their belief system also has something to do with it, just a thought.
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ViciousVirgo Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Hey! I am very glad I read your post for more than one reason. First, You mentioned one of the other facts that blew my mind when hearing about it. I could never imagine living off of $2 a day. I get a certain amount of money every week from my dad just as extra spending cash and it is well over $2 but at the same time, to do things that are NEEDED in my life, the money he sends is not enough. It started off being $75 dollars a week and went down to $50 a week. That, compared to $2 dollars a day (or $14 dollars a week in comparison to my weekly money) is alot more than what others are living off of. That really made me think and do some math. While I get $200 a month just for spending cash, others get $56 dollars a month which is only 6 dollars over what I get in a week and that's if they even get the full 2 dollars. I could go on and on but it just put ALOT in perspective for me.
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ViciousVirgo Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
The second reason I am glad I read your post was because when i wrote my blog, i commented on how the Hispanic girls being the most likely to attempt suicide was very shocking. It was good to find another Hispanic who was taken back by the results and statistics of that question. Another student gave a possible explanation for it saying how their traditional views conflicted with their daily life and made things harder and that may be the case but even still, I find it hard to believe. I, like you, am very passionate on many issues and when it comes to what i believe, i stick by it. I am the type where I need solid evidence to change or alter my opinion and I still don't have enugh for this situation to make me think Hispanics are at the top of the list. It was good hearing your opinion on the issue as a Hispanic.
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Mycouchpullsout Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
I am wondering that if this attempt of suicides in young Hispanic females has anything to do with the culture. I think that if I remember correctly that Hispanic culture is very close to their family and friends. As one grows up and maybe moves to another country or state or something dramatic in the family happen could this cause a young female to attempt the suicide to put the attention on them as a way of dealing with a situation? I have no clue because I am not Hispanic and I can only speak from what I have learned from classes and books. Does anybody else have any ideas?
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iunlearn Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
So the "fact" that even the poorest ten percent of Americans are still "better off" than two-thirds of the world's population hits home with you…or "should" hit home with you. A full TWO-THIRDS!!!! That just says something about how we don't readily see or understand the lives of the world's poorest people.
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Anonymous Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
I spent some time homeless and truly hungry and cold, that has always driven me on to never have that happen again in my life no mater what. so it shocked me when I heard someone complain about being poor in the US and how they could not afford to eat all the time etc etc… the sad part is they were complaining online from their computer at home. awesome! so we may have poor here but they are not seriously destitute until they can’t get online to complain about being poor? really? I think their reality check bounced LOL.
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crr171 Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Hi! First of all I think that it is really great that you volunteer at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other things like that. I also never thought of myself as a wealthy person until it was put into the perspective of the whole world. I could not imagine living on $2 a day in the area where I live, which is a mostly white suburb of Philly. I find that it is hard to live on anything less than $100 a week and I don’t even pay for food or shelter. This statistic just put a lot of things in my life into perspective for me and I need to learn to not get caught up in so many material things because 2/3 of the world lives with a lot less than what I have.
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cym5201 Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:34 am
Wow after reading your post and really think about people living off of $2 a day. It really makes me want to smack myself!!!! Just the thought of being so wasteful, really makes me sick. I by no means think I am wealthy, but the way I spend money, you would think I was. I also thought about how at the drop of a dime that could be me. That totally freaks me out!!! So with this said, I will definetly begin to watch my spending habits. Especially eating out everyday for lunch(just ridiculous)!
I like totally agree with you regarding the suicide rate for homosexuals. People are so very cruel and regardless of how strong you may be, if you keep hearing derogatory statements that just may push you over the edge.
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Wow, All I have to say is what an interesting lecture! It definitely had me thinking and re-analyzing my previous thought process. The three issues that shook me to the core were the prevalence of slavery still existing throughout the planet, the oppression and hardships that native american indians still face, and the staggering facts that Dr. Richards presented about poverty throughout the world. I myself after watching the lecture never really took a second to stop and realize how truly lucky I am. Now, I feel as if there is no way I could possibly complain about anything. Regarding the slavery still present throughout the world I thought the example that the Doctor used really hit home (the cell phone and products we own). I knew that there was forced labor still existing today, but I did not realize it was to the extent of 27 million people and that the worth that is placed on a single human's life could be as little as 15 dollars. I remember when I was very young Kathy Lee Gifford found herself in a world of trouble because child slaves were being used to create her clothing line, without her knowledge (according to her) but I thought that was the extent of it. I had no idea it was so far reaching. That number is more than three times the population of the entirity of New York City. The second issue, dealing with the native americans I actually knew much about, I knew about their right to vote in 1924 as well as other issues. The way that the "Red Man" was treated has always been something that has irked me about American History. I consider myself a history buff and the atrocities our government committed to their race is inexcusable. I know a great deal about the trail of tears, Geronimo, as well as the seminole tribe, having lived in Florida for a few years. However, I was shocked to learn that Native Americans were still treated the worst. The reason for this is where I grew up in Connecticut, and where I was first an Undergrad in Florida all you see are these monstrous shining billion dollar making casinos now belonging to many tribes on indian land. The seminoles in Florida own about 3 very nice Hard Rock Casino's, In Connecticut there is the Mohegun Sun as well as Foxwoods. So, from my experience I had seen it as they were treated horribly for years and now after building casinos on their land were taking the "white man" for billions and rightly so. I really had no idea how bad they had it to this day. The Fema trailers, The representation of only one native american in government, and the right to state voting given to them as little as 60 years ago. The Doctor's point of Contradiction really hit home for me, and made me think about ways I have been contradicting values. Finally, there was the poverty. I was floored to hear that the poorest ten percent of the United States is richer than 2/3 of the entire world. I would always tell myself when things got bad they "hey, they could always be worse" but until yesterday I truly had no idea until I watched the lecture. I really cannot complain about anything at all anymore especially after hearing how many people in the world live on 2 dollars or less a day. And the part that really disgusted me was when the Doctor made it known how much resources would be needed for the entire world to live like Americans, 4 planet earths. Now wonder the rest of the world hates us, it gives the impression we are a bunch of lazy, gluttonous, slugs simply consuming everything in our paths and taking everyday life for granted. After the first lecture, I can honestly say I view alot of things differently already after only one lecture, I can't even imagine what I will know in 8 weeks and for that I am very excited. It reminds me of a movie line from "Men in Black" (sorry to use it as an example I know it's a horrible film) Tommy Lee Jones turns to Will Smith when he is trying to recruit him and says "Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody KNEW that the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody KNEW that the Earth was flat. And fifteen minutes ago, you KNEW that humans were alone on this planet. IMAGINE WHAT YOU'LL KNOW TOMORROW!"
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Easygoing96 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:00 pm
I definitely agree with a lot of what you said and I share many of the feeling and thoughts you do on the topics discussed in the first lecture. Like you, one of the biggest things that stood out to me was the facts about Native Americans in the United States. What struck me about this topic was when Sam said "The most extensive, longest, lasting, most people died event in human history took place right here [U.S.]. And we never hear about it!" This is so true, and I know that you know some history about Native Americans and new about this massacre before this course; but I did not really start thinking about it until maybe a couple of years ago. One of the things that makes me particularly angry is Columbus Day, and the fact that some schools in the U.S. still recognize this as a "holiday" for their students. Yet another example as to how our government tries to hide the atrocities it has committed in the name of "Freedom". I also partly agree with the quote you used at the end. I think in order for people to know anything tomorrow, they need to educated themselves and each other, or nothing can really change.
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brisnug Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I, like you, had thought that I knew a bit more about Native Americans than the average American. My answer to the question concerning the number of tribes in the United States was in the one hundreds. However, I was also shocked to hear about how poor this group of people really is. Though what was done to them by the explorers of the New World was terrible, our government has not tried to make it up to them in any way. I find this shocking. I also agree with your quote. This class will teach us all so much. But Men In Black isn’t such a bad movie.
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psurevelry Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 4:00 am
I love your quote at the end saying imagine what you will know tomorrow. I totally agree with you on how this lecture started chaning your thought proceeses. It really made me think as well about my life and how truly blessed we are to live in America. I definately wonder how the rest of the world perceives us at times because I dont want them to think that we dont care and it seems worse if we are obliviious.
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Week 1 Lesson 1
After taking the what’d ya know quiz and especially after watching the lecture, I learned a few things about myself. One, I stereotype way too much. I the majority of the questions wrong, and it was because I have these stereotype which are holding me back. There were also many questions where I found myself saying wow. Almost half of all African Americans and Latinos agree with the statement that Asians are unscrupulous, crafty, and devious in business." What percentage of white people agree with this statement? I am one of those white guys who will be politically correct in public, but my overall feeling about this subject is that I thought 75% of white people would agree with this. Then when I found out the real answer 25%, I was not only baffled, but I realized how many people could have my overall opinion about being politically correct about these subjects and how many people just wear their feelings on their sleeves. The next question that really surprised me was the question about the percentage of the US population is multiracial? I figured that it can’t be that low, there are larger amounts of multiracial couples now then say 20 years ago because it is becoming more socially acceptable. I then, like the last question was perplexed by the fact that it is only 2.4%. I feel that once the statistics come out for the 2010 census, this number will rise dramatically. Another part of the lecture that Dr. Richards really had me thinking was when he mentioned the fact that we stole this land from Native Americans. This was their land and we just took it. Now, also like he mentioned, we are not letting immigrants come in as well. I feel that his statement is partly right. If these immigrants are willing to come over legally then I have no problem whatsoever, but if they are doing it illegally then that is where I have to draw the line. This is one of the biggest issues in today’s society. I have no problem with the immigrants that want to pick up everything about become an American LEGALLY. A different question that truly got me thinking was the question about how many people live on $2 or less a day. This truly made me realize how fortunate I am to being living in America today. When I am in one of the top classes in the world, when I am going to one of the top (and most expensive) universities in the world and I sometimes complain about not having enough money for beer when people don’t even have enough money for food. The last question that had me really thinking was the number of people that live in the world today as slaves. I knew that it still went on, but not as much as 27 million people still are slaves. Also, the term person doesn’t just include adults; it also includes children and probably a lot of people my age. Overall, I though I feel that this lesson helped me open my eyes to the sorts of things that are still going on today and the stereotyping that is still very prevalent in today’s society.
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dancediva2191 Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
After taking the quiz, I, just like you, became aware of how much I stereotype and realized that the reasons I did so poorly on the quiz is because of me stereotyping. The multiracial question surprised me as well because we do see in our society a larger amount of multiracial couples and marriages and I do think it is becoming more socially acceptable. Because multiracial couples and marriages are becoming more socially acceptable, I do hope that this percentage will rise with the release of the 2010 census. However, as much as multiracial couples are becoming socially acceptable, so may people still frown upon these relationships. It will be interesting to see the statistics outlined in the census! The part you touched on about immigrants is also compelling and I agree with you belief that you do not have a problem with immigrants coming to the country if it is happening legally. I was also shocked with the amount of people that are still slaves and you opened my eyes to fact that the question stated people, which includes adults and children. It makes me wonder how young some of the slaves are and made me realize how fortunate I am to live in a place where I have my freedom and I was able to have a "normal" childhood.
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While watching the lecture video for this weeks lesson many things were brought to my attention, I am one who has been around the world ( I say) , being in the United States Army and having lived up and down the east coast, mainly the southern states, I have been around many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. But in my notes the things That caught my eye were, black females less likely to attempt or commit suicide. I know a few females who have committed suicide and I thought they had everything to live for. And to me women are the strong hold in everything.. But for me the LGBT community stood out to me, my second chose of most likely to commit suicide, white female being first, because of the pressure to hide it from family and friends and also the pressure of the fear of coming out and not being accepted regardless of your background.
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iunlearn Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Suicide is less likely when we are deeply connected into a network of other people. "It's tough to leave a party that's still happening and lively and where all of the party-goers are still having a good time." Black women tend to be extremely connected to others around them — largely as a survival tool that is rooted in centuries or racism. Hence, lower suicide rates.
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kam5154 Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:26 am
I completely understand and agree with you. I was very surprised with LBGT community as well. Committing suicide is a very serious issue and to my ignorance i thought it was only for white people. While watching the lecture for this weeks lesson many issues were brought to my attention. I have also been around many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds and i believe that has made me into the man i am today. I know a few females who have committed suicide in Brooklyn when I was in high school and I thought they where good people no need for that non sense. To me women are the strong hold in family and should be given more credit than they get. I also agree that the LGBT community would have to hide it from family and friends and also the pressure of the fear of coming out and not being accepted would force them more to suicide.
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Once again I know many LGBT, Some who are out and some who are not, the ones who are not out have built such a fake fantasy around themselves I don’t know how they live day to day being in there shoes, it would drive me crazy. My daughter is BI and she is a very social, outspoken person, she didn’t care who accepted her also long as she know I still loved her and accepted her for who she is, my child! But don’t everyone has it that easy. But the slavery today issue is something for I have ancestors who owned the slaves and lived in the BIG HOUSE and they are Irish American and being a black female, I have a problem with that. My great-grandmother was Irish/black my great-great grandmother was pure Irish, who’s family owned slaves. It bothers me that I have people in my family that treated others poorly or made money off another human being. Germany and the German culture, I loved. I lived in Germany for 3 years and I tell you I could have stayed forever, it’s like a whole different world there
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bsa5057 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I feel I can relate to what you said regarding slavery. My maternal grandfather bought a female slave (slavery wasn't abolished in my country until the 1960s) and when his wife died he was left with five children. My maternal grandmother wrote in her will that she wanted that slave to raise her children, so my paternal grandfather freed the slave and her husband (slaves were allowed to marry in Saudi) and they raised the five kids as their own kids, and it was the reason why they did not have any biological kids because they did not know how to read or write and they thought five was more than enough. So I counted them as my grandparents, and I had the opportunity to hear from the people who once were slaves many stories about slavery and how terrible it is. This makes it difficult for me to accept that I am supporting slavery when I'm using my cell phone or many other goods that are made by slaves.
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Jsiminitus Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 3:57 am
I agree with your comment regarding the LGBT. I know many people who are active in the community as well. I also know some who are not fully out. The hard ship and pain I see these people go through day to day is an unbelievable thing to grasp. Having to deal with the problems of acceptance by people, even those who are in their own family is something I can never fully understand. I hope that people can be as accepting as I am, or as you clearly are.
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. But in all I think this class will be very interesting to me simply because I love people, there is so much you can learn just by watching people. People from all walks of life, all different culture and backgrounds have something to offer from A to Z. People in their own right are so amazing, because of my background I was raised not to see color or ethnic backgrounds and I am raising my children the same way, I also have a daughter who dates a white guy and I have many friends who have a problem with this, needless to say they don’t come around to often anymore even my mother acts like she doesn’t have a problem with it but on the DL she does. But First thing I said while watching the lecture video was I like this class and glad I took it.
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on slavery: that is a very very tiny portion of the population, not that that is excusing it by any means. I am betting the vast majority of your goods are legitimately made and not by “slaves”. piss poor payed workers, absolutely, but don’t forget to put that into the local economy they work in. this is a far more in depth topic and much more intricate than a simple 2 minutes will do justice to.
Obama: why does it mater what religion he is? I have no religion yet I am force to swallow all these lame ideals that when you scratch, the gilding seems to fall away. the wasington post wrote about his slip, and his immediate correcting said slip about being Muslim. my moth was born and raised baptist but she wanted to marry a catholic man, so she had to convert. talk about a fallacy of beliefs, if you force someone to convert for material or earthly reasons that how can any church expect to have a true convert?
try putting yourself in the shoes of a person that does not accept any religious dogma, then think about the way religion is pushed in every single facet of our (separated church and state) country. sorry for the tirade, but think for a bit how someone like me feels every election and with every president we have about none of them ever holding the spiritual beliefs I might have, and then you (when I say you I mean in the general sense of the you as a whole not you specifically) might not focus on the religion as much as you should the civics. Ding, fries are done!
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So the lecture was a very interesting introduction to this course. Now for my blog about some thoughts I had on my mind watching the lecture. First, I thought that the issue of slavery during the lecture was a great example. I mean how many times does slavery revert back to just black vs. whites and that the white man caused slavery when today we all contribute to slavery by buying products made by slaves. In my eyes we all support slavery because we all buy items from companies that promote slavery in other countries. It is time to drop the affirmative action lawsuits and just realize that we all have been a promoter of slavery whether or not you support slavery.
My second thought is about Obama. He identifies himself as Christian but he could be a closet Muslim. I mean if we do not look at religion then we look at color of his skin and the color of his skin is black or brown (depending on how you color people). Well I mean if you are making the race argument and do not think Obama should be in the White House because he “black” then some research needs to be done. He came out of a white woman’s womb so technically he is considered white. But wait how can that be? Just because the color of the skin does not mean what racial ethnic a person is considered. I have a best friend that is as white as Casper but he is half black! My main point here is that if we do get past the color of a person’s skin then we just look for something else to distance ourselves from that person because they seem different.
Another thought I have is about the increase of English in immigrant’s home depending on the generation of the family. What the heck is happening? I know the saying “If you can’t speak English then get the hell out of the country,” but I have a question for these people: If Americans cannot speak proper English should we get the heck out of the country too? Watch people scramble for a response for that. We as Americans should push for our native language to be practiced at home to better knowledge of our heritage. I grew up in an Italian family and my great grandparents spoke almost all the time in Italian and my grandfather could speak it fluently as well but when they died the language died with them. I would have loved to have learned to speak the language and dialect of my ancestors but with the push of just learning English it was very difficult for the language to live in the family when it dies at the source.
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cosuji Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 6:05 am
Although we all do support slavery indirectly, it is not the same thing as getting a ship sailing it half way around the world picking up people and cruely forcing them to another country. We all know the bigger issues with slavery it is not the same thing as buying a pair of nikes for your little brothers birthday. And even if it was that isnt any justification for anything because two wrongs never make a right. Why would Obama be a closet muslim, because his last name is Obama? Please fill me in, my last name is Osuji which is a Japanese word but I am an African, and my cousins last name is Peter and she is also an African. My mother is a Jew and shes an African American my father is an African and he is a Catholic, I do not understand what you think the correlation is between race and religion. Also technically you are what your father is so Obama isnt "white". I think that if we do not look at religion or color we may be able to focus on the character of the person which is what people should be focused on from the beginning.
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macwpsu429 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:00 am
Pointing out your views on the Obama situation, I have to say this is one that bother me very much. People are spending so much time trying to figure out "who he is," they aren't worrying about our country! Who cares if the man is a Christian, Catholic, Budhhist, or Menonite, as long as he runs our country accordingly and is looking out for the greater good of the American public, what does it matter? Like you said, what does their skin color, as well as religion have anything to do with who they are as a person. I think it is pretty safe to say Obama isn't a closet terrorist who won a Presidential election only to have his hidden terrorist friends come destory our country…hey if that happens, I guess I was wrong? Until then, who cares if he is purple, if he runs our country effectively, more power to him!
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kac5293 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 2:30 am
i agree with your opinion on obama's skin color, well stated!
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So like many of us experienced, I was shocked to see my quiz results. Many of the answers to the questions surprised me. Even the first question surprised me because many of us thought that Mexican Americans were the largest self identified group and I think that is just because many of us think there are a lot of Mexican Americans. I think the media plays a huge role in this, especially in the news because we hear all the time about illegal immigration, especially those coming from Mexico. I do not think many of us took into consideration that these illegal immigrants are not accounted for in the census, which is firstly why they are illegal because they are not citizens, and secondly, why so many of us got this question wrong. I would not have guessed that young Hispanic females is the group that is most likely to attempt suicide. I chose LGBT as my answer because it is often portrayed that this group has a lot of “problems” and many turn to suicide. But Dr. Richards is absolutely correct when he said 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? We don’t. So even though this group’s statistics may not show that they are most likely to attempt suicide, I will definitely agree with Dr. Richards when he says that the LGBT group is probably the correct answer, but unidentifiable. Question 8 also struck me as interesting because I realized that there were a couple hundred Native American tribes in the US, but I did not realize there was over 500 tribes in the US and that is just out of ignorance and also not knowing the religion of the president is ignorant as well. Question 10 I also found very surprising. I did not realize that about half of the worlds population lives on two dollars or less. I couldn’t imagine surviving on two dollars every day. Just knowing how many people in the world do survive on this little bit of money really does put into perspective how lucky we truly are as Penn State students. Dr. Richards comment in his lecture that the poorest ten percent of Americans are better of the two thirds of the world’s population is pretty absurd when you think about it. And what I think is the most absurd is that little to nothing is being done to help these people who have nothing. I finished dinner about 20 minutes ago, and 800 million people will go to bed without a meal. This truly makes me realize how lucky I am. I think at one point in our lives, we have all stereotyped a person or a group of people. I know that this class will open our eyes and make us think differently and look at others perspectives. We do not live in an egocentric world; we must see each others perspectives and differences and embrace them.
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I thought that lecture number one was very interesting and made me really think about what type of person I really am. As you were going along through the questions I kept thinking to myself what answer did I put and after hearing your lecture I began to internalize the right answer and how it got to be that way.
Throughout I found a couple pieces of information very interesting. The first piece was about how there are three billion people on the world that are living on two dollars day. Wow if that number isn’t shocking I don’t know what is. To think about how we complain about not having money and then realizing that there is someone out there who lives on two dollars a day is just amazing. Really if you think about that its 8 quarters, most of us spend that at the laundry mat in one wash. Now imagine that with trying to feed a family on that, it’s virtually impossible. However, when you told us that we were rich I didn’t understand what you were saying because I thought I’m poor, I’m in college. To understand it people need to stop comparing themselves to billionaires and appreciate what you have because there is someone out there who has it way worse off.
The second thing that I found very interesting was about self identified ethnic groups ,with most being German American. I would have never guessed that because I chose Hispanics. I think it’s amazing that we really don’t know our true heritage, I mean I’m a white girl but I have no clue exactly what my heritage make up is. For all I know I could have some black in me and never knew it. There are a lot of people in this world are racists and it makes you stop and think are you bashing on a ethnic group that you may be a part of?
The third thing that I found interesting was the suicide rate. Myself I would have thought it would have been young white girls because of the social stigma to look and be a certain way but I guess that majority answer is young Hispanic girls. I just found that interesting, it’s sad to think that anyone would take their own life but what makes a person, especially that ethic group decide to kill themselves? I would have also thought that lesbian gays would be higher because in today society it’s just becoming socially excitable for them. So I would have thought that would have more stress about coming out of the closet to family and friends.
Overall, this lecture was very interesting, it allowed me to see how others thing and to realize that maybe I need to do a little culture searching. I need to not judge someone and understand that facts before jumping to conclusions.
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ChelAmelia Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 9:50 pm
It’s great that you brought up thinking of the $2 as eight quarters. That makes it even more “real” to me. I have change sitting all around my apartment that probably equals up to more than two dollars. I use at least 12 quarters to do my laundry each week. $2 is so accessible to me that I can’t imagine what it would be like to have only that much to live on per day. I used to pay $2 for a school lunch. If I were one of the people who had to live on $2 a day, that would give me one meal. Not to mention trying to feed the other people in my family. I found your blog very interesting and liked reading about the different perspective you took away from the lecture.
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I took the quiz and totally failed it on what I know. Which I find to be funny considering I try to learn about as much as I can about any topic that interests me. I honestly thought that youths of the LGBT community were more likely to attempt considering all the issues that are involved in simply letting someone close to them know their true identity. The backlash from family and friends that could occur would more than likely prevent them from talking about it and maybe the person would become more introverted and attempt suicide. I was completely surprised that the result was young Hispanic women would be more likely to commit suicide and that young black females were less likely to succeed in suicide. I was unaware that the more social networks you have, the less likely one is to attempt or commit suicide. But it makes sense. the more interaction a person has with others, the less likely they are to feel that they are worthless and depressed.
I had no idea that the poorest population in the nation was the Native Americans. I did know that they did have a high rate of alcoholism within the population. It is beyond my comprehension that our government would send the trailers from the Hurricane Katrina to Native American reservations knowing that they were causing harm and death to people. HOW ON EARTH WAS THAT ALLOWED? No one gave an uproar about Native Americans, but God forbid it’s any other population, the media would be in a frenzy.
The fact mentioned of 800 million people will go to bed hungry was similarly mentioned in my cultural anthropology course that I had taken this past fall. The major problem is the way the food wealth is distributed to the population. The world has more than enough food to feed the population of the world. The major problem is how the food is distributed. If the world could come to a consensus on how to distribute the food wealth, no one in the world would go to bed hungry. But that will never happen because of the world’s economy, people that feel entitled to be the ones to decide who gets what and what amount, and the simple communication between nations. It’s the same with simple clean water. There are various technologies that can help change dirty water to clean, healthy drinking water, but it’s the distribution of these technologies that prevents everyone in the world from having clean, healthy drinking water.
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iunlearn Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Again, it's likely that suicide is highest among LGBTs. However, many youth are not "out" when they commit suicide and so nobody counts them as LGBT!
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After taking the "Whatd'ya Know" quiz, I, probably like the majority of the class, being that the class average was a 26% realized that I do not know nearly as much as I thought I did. I figured I would be able to get maybe half the answers correct but I instead fell in perfectly with the class average. Some of the answers were really surprising to me. The one that I remember particularly was the question about attempted suicide. Hispanic women was the first choice that i eliminated when I looked at the question and it turned out to be the correct answer. I was pretty confident that the answer to that question would be the LGBT group based on the thinking that out of the choices given they would be the most distressed and most likely to attempt to take their life. After taking the quiz and watching the lecture, I reflected about why I chose the answers that I did on the quiz. When I came to the question about attempted suicide I realized that my choice point he quiz was largely if not solely based on stereotypes and what I thought I knew. Sam brought up an interesting point during the lecture when he was discussing the question about how black men view their problems, that many white people would have based their answer in a similar way I did. He asked how many of us have spoken with a black male about how they really feel about the issue. Well, I have a few gay friends but we have never had a real conversation about what it is like to be gay and how they deal with it. Even further, I have even fewer Hispanic females that I am close with, so I have not had a conversation like that with any of them. The question really confronted my ignorance, even though I like to think of myself as someone who is "enlightened", I really did not know shit. At first I was disappointed in my own ignorance but then i realized that this class is an opportunity to grow, learn, and come out the better. I think that a large part of the problem with race relations is that people are too afraid to offend, therefore they never even begin a real conversation with some who is different than themselves. Nobody wants to step on someone else toes so instead of having an open dialogue people live with their ignorance because its more comfortable. I look forward to stepping out of my comfort zone in this class and discussing issues in an open forum with a wide range of people from all ethnicity and social backgrounds.
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While taking the Whad’ya Know Quiz, I had to take a moment to think about question number three – “What percentage of the U.S. population is multiracial?” I was a little surprised to see that the highest number was only 20.9%; I expected the numbers to be much higher. When I initially saw the low numbers I thought I had read the question wrong. After hearing that only 2.4% of the population is multiracial I was definitely surprised. My classes have always been largely diverse, and I have heard many classmates discuss their background and how multiracial they claim to be, so I thought the answer would be a much larger number. Another thing that I wanted to comment on was the question about the religion of Barack Obama. I remember talking about this topic in one of my classes in high school, so I knew that the correct answer was Christian. My teacher asked the class as a whole what religion Obama was. Without even thinking everyone shouted out “Muslim”. His father was a Muslim extremist and his mother was a Muslim as well. If he grew up with Muslim parents and experienced Muslim traditions why wouldn’t he continue to keep the faith of Muslim? Maybe his skin color or the fact that his middle name is Hussein adds to the strong belief that he is Muslim. Our teacher proceeded to show us clips of Obama repeatedly stating that he is in fact a Christian. Its seems that no matter how many times this man flat out says he is Christian, the public will not seem him that way. However, it makes me wonder if he changed his religion solely for the purpose of politics and achieving the public’s votes. It sure makes sense to me. The topic of suicide also made me think. I also remember hearing that white males have the largest success rate in committing suicide, but I was unsure of who would be most likely to attempt suicide. When I was in high school I lost two classmates to suicide, both of which were white males, and all the suicides I read about in the paper or heard about in neighboring school districts all had the same results – white males. I narrowed my choices down to the young white females and the LGBT youth. Both groups certainly deal with a large about of pressure. The young white females are pressured to look a certain way thanks to the media, and the LGBT youth without a doubt have the added pressure of trying to fit it and being comfortable with their sexuality. The fact that young Hispanic females are the most likely to attempt suicide was a shock to me. I do agree with what Dr. Richards said about LGBT youth being the correct answer, but since many of the LGBT youth are not actually “out”, we cannot count those numbers.
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During this weeks lecture I was really shocked to hear that young Hispanic females are the most likely to attempt suicide. When I was answering this question during the “Whad’ya Know” Quiz I was decided between two answers, LGBT youth and young white females. I chose LGBT as my answer because I thought that many of them have a harder time dealing with their differences. This group of people has a lot of pressure on them because of their nontraditional views and feelings. I also thought that young white females are most likely to attempt suicide because of how the media portrays young white women. Famous celebrities, in the media, are generally thin, beautiful, and trendy. Many young women feel that they need to be just like them which places a lot of pressure of young white females. I never would have thought that young Hispanic females would have the highest attempted suicide rates. But I also agree with what was said about LGBT probably being the highest but it is not as well stated. Sometimes LGBT youth are not out of the closet and even if they are their parents could be in denial about their child’s sexual orientation. So parents may never say that their child, who attempted suicide, identifies themselves as LGBT youth. I also found it interesting that young black females are the least likely to attempt suicide because they have a large social network.
I also found it interesting that 3 billion people, half of the world, lives on less than $2 a day. I also found it interesting to hear that the poorest 10% of people living in the United States are still better off than 2/3 of the world’s population. I think that the reason for this has to do with the high standard of living in the United States compared to the rest of the world. In America the high standard of living is associated with buying a home, a car, food, and material things. And Americans like to have material things, like cell phones and fancy cars. Material things are not necessary for living yet almost all Americans have cell phones. But in other countries it is not “standard” to own a cell phone. Most of the world doesn’t have this high of a standard of living, for example they don’t have to buy a home or food because they build a house and grow their own food. I could never imagine living on $2 a day or less. I have a hard time living on $100 a week. And I also never considered myself a wealthy person until people in the United States were compared to the whole world. The thought of 800 million people going to bed hungry is crazy, especially when I think about all of the food that gets wasted in my house and the rest of the United States.
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lovinglife1126 Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 2:09 am
I said the same thing. As a young Hispanic female myself, I was completely shocked, but the more I think about it, the more it does make sense. As you were saying, women are pressured to look and act a certain way, and I had guessed that young white females were the main ones to do this. To me, I think it has allot to do with more pressure from the family versus the media. Hispanic cultures are more grounded and strict in a sense, and coming from a personal experience, I have witnessed young family members fall into the trap that they must succeed the way that their "old-school" parents want them to. It becomes extremely difficult, and therefore I think that has allot to do with suicidal tendencies. There are obviously other reasons out there of course. You had many great points and interests!
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I was shocked at how much I did not know but I was equally surprised at the questions I did get correct, though they were few in numbers. I was really taken back by the suicide part. However, I am not sure if it is the actual statistic that shocks me or that some people's reasoning for choosing white females is because they want to be thin and be like celebrities. Is that really what people think of young white women? As I recall a young girl just committed suicide because of the intense bullying she received, and another committed suicide because some mother got on myspace and pretended to be someone else so she could terrorize this young girl…why are those not factors? Are people really under the assumption white women are the only women and only race that care about being a certain size or a certain weight or being attractive to a certain group? That really boiled my blood. I was really surprised to see that 1.3 million people in the US are of Arab descent and that 42 percent are Roman Catholic. I am so guilty of assuming Arabs are all Muslims….never would've guessed they'd be Roman Catholic. Another thing I thought was interesting was the slide that showed the median income for families in 2005…almost every ethnicity/race was captured…down to Hmong (which I don't even know what that is) but African American/Black was not on there, why? I was not shocked but I was taken back by the Native American part of the quiz.. I didn't know squat about recognized tribes…I believe I picked the lowest number. I did like the Professor making the observation that all of this land was once occupied – that Europeans didn't just come over and happen upon uninhabited land – they stole it. That also makes me wonder…the Native Americans, I never see them in the news pitching any stink fits about anything…I wonder why they are content because they seem to have received the worse deal of anyone. I also have to agree with the Professor on how the white population has been forced to become so PC in all their dealings…so much it is to the point of vomiting for me. I have never been one to be PC and I doubt I ever will. I just find it interesting how it seems in today's society it is socially acceptable to be racists towards whites – any race and ethnicity can speak lowly of that race. I think White people have now been brought up to feel like they need to walk on egg shells because of slavery. I don't feel that way but I know SO many that do…I just commend the Professor for saying it. I realized in that lecture he said a lot of things that probably a lot of people have wanted to but feared repercussions for doing so!
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macwpsu429 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:55 am
I have to say I agree with you about the professor being able to say things that normally people would not say, not in public at least. It seems many of these topics are things that no one would ever think to say out loud or around anyone other than a close trusted person where their opinions are shared or greatly protected. I have never been a shy person and I tend to say things without thinking, with that being said, I think I have made comments or statements and then thought "will they think I am racist," "did that come out right?" Sometimes I AM that person who speaks up, and I get treated and looked at differantly afterwards. As you mentioned from the lecture, the Natives stole this land! In our history books, those who began on this country are viewed as wonderful and explorers, off the Mayflower, I believe the Indians and Pilgrims ate together, it sounds Elementary and childish, but, they got along back in the day regardless of color or belief, why can't we do the same now?
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MDD1982 Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:03 am
Ha Ha Ha…very true. We do tend to gravitate to those who share our thoughts and opinions just so we can openly express them and have them validated. I do that, to some degree, but I also like a challenge. I can argue to the death about a topic I am passionate about and I usually will. I can't imagine me ever caring more about other people than I do about my right to have free speech…I think a lot of people, myself included, are just afraid to hear the "other side" because we worry that it may be logical and sometimes we want to believe what we want to believe…not what may be right or sound or whatever word you want to use there.
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macwpsu429 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:55 am
I also wanted to comment with the suicide post, I too would have thought that young white girls would be the number one target, young white males as well. However, you pointed out something I didn't think much of, young girls have so much pressure to look a certain way or be a certain way and sometimes can't deal with the pressure. I think a lot of it may not even be with race or ethnicity relating to suicide, I think age overpowers anything else in this situation. I would have guessed any race or group that is a TEEN is more subject to suicide, I would not have guessed race had anything to do with it!
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I don't even know where to begin. I have a feeling that this is going to be an amazing course! Just by Iooking at the first lesson live, I can tell that there are going to be a ton of opinions in the course. It's not about getting our feelings hurt, it's the fact that everyone has a voice, and a right to their own feelings and opinions on how they perceive others. As a Hispanic female (Puerto-Rican, but I'm sure if I did that DNA thing to trace back to my roots, I would find a whole lot more) I was pretty shocked at how other Hispanic females are the ones that attempt suicide the most. As a psychology major, I guess I should have known that. I actually knew before this course that many women than men attempt suicide more, but men are the ones that actually do it.
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If I wanted to, we could get into the discussion of feminism and how women are taught to be a certain way in today's society. I have numerous Hispanic female friends that say they are unhappy with their lives and how they are forced into their parent's religious beliefs (usually Catholic). I would say that issues such as these are enough to make a woman, or anyone go crazy and want to end it. My guess was for the White females, but like most of the questions I answered on the quiz, I got it completely wrong. Some other facts I found interesting involved the idea that whites are the ones that tend to keep their mouths shut in most cases when it comes to race. I honestly think that many of us fear saying something wrong and turn the other way when it comes to speaking our minds. I don't think it should be that way. Everyone is going to say something offensive to someone, but maybe it's not like that at all.
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maripoistanegra Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 4:06 am
I would have to agree that I many women of many races deal with self-esteem issues. I also think that statistics are often overrated and faulty. For example, Professor Richards pointed out that black women are the least likely group to attempt suicide, but I think that although that may be true, there are probably also a host of women of color that are never counted as suicides due to the overwhelming discrepancy in violence in their communities, and are often undiscovered, unreported, or mis-categorized deaths. I would also have to agree that white people are not the only group to feel discomfort about racial discourse. Nor are they the only group forced to be politically correct. It saddens me to see this stereotype in particular (along with the name thing) propagated here.
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I think the professor pretty much summed it all up for us with being "politically correct.” The whole slavery thing still being an issue today shocked me the most. When I think of slavery, the first thing I think about is slavery back in the day. I honestly had no idea that people are still going through this today. Not once did I think about sex-slavery or other forms of slavery that still exist. The thought of people only making a living out of only 2 dollars a day makes me stop and think about how I handle my financial situations. We tend to complain and think about how we can't purchase those pair of shoes because they don't have our size, when there are people that don't know what they are going to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's just shocking and depressing to think this way, but the truth hurts.
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I was surprised by the score I had gotten on my quiz, I thought I knew alot more than I really had and it was funny that you had stated that we would probably only get about 25% of the answers right and I had about 26%. Many people are mis-informed about many thing going on in the world around us and I am glad that there arent many limits to what can be said in the lectures. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that about 53% of white males though it was important to excel in their careers. That is a very low number for any race, and I was wondering if that was because some might have the mentality that they will be able to succeed regardless of their performance at work. Black and brown people were in the 70 percentile and maybe that is because they feel as if they have to push themselves harder to gain the amount of success that white people are thought to have.
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Another thing that stood out to me in the lecture was the the part about immagrants refusing to conform to American society. It is not a crime to want to keep traditions from where you are from because that makes who your are, and it is not fair to say that immagrants are refusing to become apart of the society especially when American people arent trying to help these people become apart of society. There are many immagrant that I know who try to learn english but arent able to because they do not have the resources or the money to pay for things like english classes or higher education. throughout the course I hope that everyone is able to open up more and actually say exactly how they are feeling, many people are afraid to say certain things because they do not want to offend people, but with issues regarding race relations you must touch the hardest issues to be able to learn and better understand different issues. From the results of the questions in the slides it is easy to see that many of us are very ignorant to many issues that are around us today.
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It is very easy to blame a white person for slavery that really has nothing to do with them directly, but not as easy to realize what wrong we are all doing when we do things such as buying Nikes or Blackberrys. The truth is that most people do not care about things when it doesnt effect them. In my LER 100 class our professor brought up the same topic about slavery that still exists in the world and as much as everyone felt bad no one was able to say that they wouldnt buy anymore things made from countries that have slaves. Building awareness is the key factor with these issues. No one is expected to change their life after they have taken this class, but as long as we do not remain blind to the issues effecting us today directly and indirectly then we are going to get a lot out of this class.
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xforeveryoung Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 5:56 am
I do have to admit that I thought that there was a very low percent of black men who thought that there problems were from something that they did to themselves and not what others did to them. I agree with your statements about slavery in the world today. Many people don’t care about things when it doesn’t affect them. This ties into Professor Richards statement about the poorest 10% of the United States citizens are richer than 2/3 of the people in the world. We don’t realize this and often compare our self to people around us who seem better off then we are. I know that I do this more than I would like to admit.
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Wow that was a great lecture to start off the course with! I really liked how Sam kept bringing up the really important point that this class is not just about black and white relations but how all races and their respective cultures interact with each other and how the forces of society shape our interactions without our knowledge. Even before the course started we were asked to take a quiz and the lecture was about the results and what percentage of people chose which answer. I found this very intriguing as this itself is a sociological experiment, for the most part people chose answers to questions even when they had no idea what the correct answer was. The key was that most people picked the answer that they thought seemed right. What we are doing is letting our stereotypes and the feelings we believe we should be feeling answer the question (Sam mentioned “white guilt” being one of these deciding factors in how people will answer these questions).I like how Sam used the example of making a point to people that our own ancestors, many of whom can trace their descendants back to countries other than England, were immigrants too and that we were once in the exact same position immigrants today are in. If only the people in our country who defend their racism by saying that immigrants are not assimilating to our culture and not learning English could simply comprehend this. It’s not the fault of the immigrants because of their race, it’s simply a result of people from one culture being immersed in the culture of another, and it really is not easy to instantly assimilate. When the cultures have very different ideals of how one should act it could lead to alienation as teenagers scramble to try and embrace the new culture of America while somehow also clinging to old world traditions. I feel this is definitely the main alienating factor in groups of young Hispanic women which would lead to their higher suicide rates. Twenty seven million people live as slaves in the world today, and not only that but the conditions of which are worse than they were than in the days of slavery in the United States. Two Haitian slaves were bought for fifteen dollars. I found this to be a very disturbing thought. How could we possibly be brought up in a society that we like to pretend is so morally righteous while facts like these are never explained in public schools? The products that we own are made by slaves…how could things like this be so glossed over in the mainstream culture of our supposed democratic country? Here’s the really scary thing, how many Americans today would really care?
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Wow that was a great lecture to start off the course with! I really liked how Sam kept bringing up the really important point that this class is not just about black and white relations but how all races and their respective cultures interact with each other and how the forces of society shape our interactions without our knowledge. Even before the course started we were asked to take a quiz and the lecture was about the results and what percentage of people chose which answer. I found this very intriguing as this itself is a sociological experiment, for the most part people chose answers to questions even when they had no idea what the correct answer was. The key was that most people picked the answer that they thought seemed right. What we are doing is letting our stereotypes and the feelings we believe we should be feeling answer the question (Sam mentioned white guilt being one of these deciding factors in how people will answer these questions).I like how Sam used the example of making a point to people that our own ancestors, many of whom can trace their descendants back to countries other than England, were immigrants too and that we were once in the exact same position immigrants today are in. If only the people in our country who defend their racism by saying that immigrants are not assimilating to our culture and not learning English could simply comprehend this. Its not the fault of the immigrants because of their race, its simply a result of people from one culture being immersed in the culture of another, and it really is not easy to instantly assimilate. When the cultures have very different ideals of how one should act it could lead to alienation as teenagers scramble to try and embrace the new culture of America while somehow also clinging to old world traditions. I feel this is definitely the main alienating factor in groups of young Hispanic women which would lead to their higher suicide rates. Twenty seven million people live as slaves in the world today, and not only that but the conditions of which are worse than they were than in the days of slavery in the United States. Two Haitian slaves were bought for fifteen dollars. I found this to be a very disturbing thought. How could we possibly be brought up in a society that we like to pretend is so morally righteous while facts like these are never explained in public schools? The products that we own are made by slaves&how could things like this be so glossed over in the mainstream culture of our supposed democratic country? Heres the really scary thing, how many Americans today would really care?
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While listening to the Lesson One lecture I loved the fact that you let us know about how lucky we are to live in the United States. No matter our money situation that we have, we are still better off than two thirds of the rest of the WORLD. Just knowing that makes me feel like I take so much for granted living here and it makes me feel so blessed that I have been given the opportunity to live in a country like the United States. One of my very good friends at Penn State, on a regular basis, will call my roommate and me rich (my roommate and I come from the same home town). She will say it randomly and imply that she works harder for her money than we do. I always take offense to this because she is quick to judge and not realize how lucky she is. I am in no way rich, my parents have worked their butts off to provide us with the lifestyle that I was lucky enough to grow up in. I understand that it is hard not to compare yourself to others, but I found it so eye opening that even if you live a “rough” life in the United States you are still living a lifestyle that millions of people would gladly trade you in a second. I also found it baffling that there are 562 Native American tribes in the United States. I would never have guessed that in a million years. As it showed in the lecture video, not one person could even name 10 tribes in the United States. That is crazy. I thought there would only be 104 because I don’t usually hear about Native Americans. It also made me curious about how when we came to the United States we had the biggest genocide in human history but it is never discussed. Another thing I found crazy was that there are still 27 million slaves in the world today. I mentioned this to my friend and she told me to read the book Disposable People (she took your class last semester). I began to read the first chapter and was absolutely horrified after reading it. I felt like an idiot for not even being aware that this still goes on. To some extent I had an idea that in other countries there were still slaves, but to learn that there were slaves in our country. In New York for example, I was speechless. I am excited to continue in this class and for it to open up my eyes further after each lesson to a new view of the world I live in.
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The first thing I learned before even watching the lecture is that I don’t really know that much. After taking the “Whad’ya Know” quiz, I learned that I knew a lot less than I thought I did. This caught my interest and made me want to watch the lecture right away. Many things caught my attention in the lecture but there were a few that really stood out to me. The number one thing that really caught my attention was the part of the lecture that discussed the number of federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States. I answered only 17 and found out the correct answer was 562. That was my first shock. The second was when Dr. Richards started to discuss the genocide that took place in the United States that no one talks about. Genocide is a major issue that needs to be talked about. And we are living on the land where the longest lasting genocide occurred. I realize that this has always been an issue, but not one that had been swept under the rug so frequently. I also found it to be surprising that no one in the class, including myself, could name 10 Native American tribes. Native Americans have lived on this land longer than anyone and are the poorest people. The worst part is knowing the government doesn’t treat them any better seeing as they gave them the toxic trailers that couldn’t be used after Hurricane Katrina.
Another issue brought to my attention was that about half of the world’s population lives on about $2 a day. I can’t imagine what this would be like. I also cannot believe that the poorest 10% of the United States population is better off than 2/3 of the world’s population. This just blows my mind. The United States is very materialistic. Kids as young as 6 years old are now getting cell phones and iPods. When I was 6 years old the only thing I was concerned about was the weather because if it rained my day was ruined because I couldn’t go outside and play. In the world we live in today, there should not be anyone living on $2 a day. In high school, our school lunches were $2. If I were one of the people living on $2 a day, it would have bought me one meal. That was four years ago, I doubt today $2 would even buy me that.
The last thing that really caught my attention was the question about the “Arabs” who identify as “religious.” I thought that most identified as Muslim so I was very surprised when most identified as Christian. I was raised Christian and raised with the beliefs that Dr. Richards discussed in the lecture. If it wasn’t for this lecture I would have never known that 42% of “Arabs” identify themselves Roman Catholic. This lecture was very interesting for me and made me think. I’m glad I signed up for this class and can’t wait to see what else I can learn throughout the weeks.
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The first thing I learned before even watching the lecture is that I don’t really know that much. After taking the “Whad’ya Know” quiz, I learned that I knew a lot less than I thought I did. This caught my interest and made me want to watch the lecture right away. Many things caught my attention in the lecture but there were a few that really stood out to me. The number one thing that really caught my attention was the part of the lecture that discussed the number of federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States. I answered only 17 and found out the correct answer was 562. That was my first shock. The second was when Dr. Richards started to discuss the genocide that took place in the United States that no one talks about. Genocide is a major issue that needs to be talked about. And we are living on the land where the longest lasting genocide occurred. I realize that this has always been an issue, but not one that had been swept under the rug so frequently. I also found it to be surprising that no one in the class, including myself, could name 10 Native American tribes. Native Americans have lived on this land longer than anyone and are the poorest people. The worst part is knowing the government doesn’t treat them any better seeing as they gave them the toxic trailers that couldn’t be used after Hurricane Katrina.
Another issue brought to my attention was that about half of the world’s population lives on about $2 a day. I can’t imagine what this would be like. I also cannot believe that the poorest 10% of the United States population is better off than 2/3 of the world’s population. This just blows my mind. The United States is very materialistic. Kids as young as 6 years old are now getting cell phones and iPods. When I was 6 years old the only thing I was concerned about was the weather because if it rained my day was ruined because I couldn’t go outside and play. In the world we live in today, there should not be anyone living on $2 a day. In high school, our school lunches were $2. If I were one of the people living on $2 a day, it would have bought me one meal. That was four years ago, I doubt today $2 would even buy me that.
The last thing that really caught my attention was the question about the “Arabs” who identify as “religious.” I thought that most identified as Muslim so I was very surprised when most identified as Christian. I was raised Christian and raised with the beliefs that Dr. Richards discussed in the lecture. If it wasn’t for this lecture I would have never known that 42% of “Arabs” identify themselves Roman Catholic. This lecture was very interesting for me and made me think. I’m glad I signed up for this class and can’t wait to see what else I can learn throughout the weeks.
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One of the many things that caught my attention during the lecture was concerning the DNA testing results. If a person is convinced that what they know about their race and family history is correct, but the results of the test show them that they have a few percent of traits from a region that was thought to be unconnected to them, is it possible for these few percent to be the result of random error in the testing? I could be wrong, but I was just wondering how accurate these tests are? I have also been thinking about the quiz question concerning the number of Native American tribes in the United States. I feel like most Americans, when asked about tribes, think of names like: Algonquin, Apache, or Navajo. However, aren’t these not names of tribes, but names of broader categories or regions contains many individual tribes?
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If this is true, then perhaps this explains the high number of wrong answers for this question. I was also wondering about the high failure rate for African American males when attempting suicide. How wide is this margin when compared to other groups? And if it is substantial, what could be the reason? Perhaps it could be that deep down they really do not want to end their lives. One thing that opened my eyes was the fact that immigrants have higher life expectancies than home-born Americans. I never thought about how these people are the go getters and generally live healthier lives. I agree with the facts stating that second generation immigrants have a strong desire to learn and speak English. However, I feel like, at least in my home town, we are more exposed to the first generation of Mexican immigrants who do not have that same desire. This could be the cause for the general negative feelings toward immigrants.
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I had chosen the correct answer for the question concerning the percentage of young adults would have had sexual experiences with a member of the same sex. The percentage of women is far higher than it is for men. In the news, I think it is much more common for one to hear about a lesbian coming out that a gay man coming out. This might be the cause for more women than males to be willing to experiment being gay. The fact that most Arabs living in the US are Christian did surprise me. However, being Jewish myself, this does not change my feelings toward Arabs. No matter what their religion, non-Jewish Arabs in the Middle East are constantly trying to weaken Israel either from outside its boarders or from within. Overall, I think the results of the quiz prove that most people do not know as much as they think they do about race.
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I first wanted to start by pointing out how shocked yet saddened I was during the lecture to discover that 3,000,000,000 people live on less than $2.00 a day! That is crazy! With our economy the way it is it baffles me that our government is concerned about anything else besides the well being and well fair of our fellow Americans. Sure, there are those who choose to be unemployed for whatever lazy reason, but what about the other American’s who are scrambling to find a job to feed their families. This is a sad situation. I was also shocked to the fact that young Hispanic females are more likely to commit suicide. I personally thought it was young Caucasian males who would be number one. I think this is just a prime example of how uneducated I am when it comes to other ethnicities and facts regarding others rather than just knowing about “white people.”
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itsthatguy10 Reply:
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I agree it can be shocking when you first here about it. But you shouldn’t let it upset you too much. If you ask people all around the world how happy they are you will find that money does not make people happier. This does not mean that poverty is not bad but it’s a reality of the world we live in that it is impossible to eradicate poverty. Our world consist of limited resources and there will always be people who have and those who have not. I agree that this information should help us look at our own problems and realize they aren’t as bad as we think.
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One fact presented in the lecture that did not shock me however was the fact that 17% of families speak a language other than English in their homes; I actually thought it would be higher. Sadly, I am one of those people who believe to be in America you should speak clear English. It is frustrating when you are calling a 1-800 customer service line and are constantly saying “excuse me” “can you repeat that” …frustratingly at the end “what???” This is just one example where the American public needs to be able to communicate in the same language. I do not believe it is my responsibility to learn Spanish, Arabian, Iranian, Italian, or any other language. As rude as it may sound, having to be forced into a situation where no one speaks English can make an already frustrating situation worse! I am in no way prejudice towards any language, one of my best friends is Mexican, and it drives me crazy to go to her house and only hear Spanish! I simply believe that in this country, English should be a main focus.
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kdh151 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 3:01 am
This country is huge though. Yes, speaking English is our initial thought but America is still young and growing. We offered to be a melting pot of sorts to the rest of the world so embracing that should become the American way. I live near 2 areas of Southern California that are predominantly Mexican and Vietnamese. Going into those areas I am the minority. Growing up in the Midwest I was surrounded by white people. Hearing someone speak a foreign language was ear-catching. My head would turn as if intrigued. Traveling around the US has shown me that there is no specific language here. Next time you are in a major airport just do a little people watching. It opened my eyes to see in an hour how many people of different cultures and background were walking through 1 terminal in 1 airport. Try to imagine every airport in the US and then every city, town etc. It's mind blowing.
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One fact I necessarily did not care about regardless of the answer was what religion is Barack Obama. I am neither all Democrat nor all Republican, I believe in a mixture of things. When Obama was becoming president, I was not worried if he was Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, or Atheist for that matter, I was worried is this guy going to raise my taxes, make me unemployed, or take my rights away from me. Obama is no different than any other American who has his right to Freedom of Religion, I personally don’t care. Even though the lecture says Obama is Christian, people still debate about his Muslim roots and Muslim family does it matter?
Just about all of the facts presented in Lesson 1 lecture, I had no idea to the answer. Some of the questions/answers I felt shocked to hear the answers, proud to be educated to hear the answers, ashamed at the answers I thought were true but weren’t. Regardless, I was educated throughout this lesson on topics I never knew about before and I feel like I came out of this lesson a bit smarter than when I came in.
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I was very surprised to learn that so many individuals live on so little. I really wish that there would be some way to help these countries with citizens in such trying situations, possibly by getting more involved with the “aid” programs on an international scale. Unfortunately I feel as though this thought is very idealistic. At no point in the future do I predict the American government, or any other government for that matter becoming substantially more involved in direct aid to some of these countries with people who are so poorly off. The logic behind this lies in our government not being able to reap any return of capital by putting money into aid programs. So from the ethical standpoint of our government, we must be most concerned with the wellbeing of our own country. Morality seldom plays into politics it seems beyond what is beneficial to any particular regime, or helps win votes. (Most of the latter appears to be done only on the surface level though: words and not actions).
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I’m rather curious about the question regarding the pornographic industry anticipating lawsuits from the Bush Administration. To think that the one area of the industry which caused for the most alarm was white males with black females… it’s rather odd. If anything I would have thought that if there was an issue in pornography with interracial sex, it would be with black males and white females. This concept seems to be more widely looked down upon, such as in the pre-civil rights period of the United States. If a white man was to sleep with a black woman for whatever reason, it wasn’t really the end of the world. People might question his motivation behind doing so, and he might receive some level of scrutiny from those around him, but it wouldn’t entail any serious ramifications. That being said, if a black man was to sleep with a white woman, there were some serious issues. So I question the origin of this act made by the pornography industry, and if anyone would shed some light into it for me I would appreciate it.
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Lastly, I would just like to mention what Professor Richards talked about as his goal for this course. I can imagine that if any teaching style/content is controversial, it is that which breaks the barriers of typical social norms. Obviously this course does so nicely, being a sociology class and all. Additionally, I look forward to having my normal thought process altered, not necessarily in any particular direction, so long as it’s different from the way in which I see the world now. There’s so much that we take for granted, and even more that we don’t know. As our instructor said, “being comfortable with our ignorance” (and aware of it for that matter) is very important.
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What I got out of the lecture was I really do not know a lot. For the quiz I got a 26% which is right with the mean. But what really hit me was how we push this information out of our minds and ignore it. For example there are about 27 million slaves in the world. We tend to think slavery is a thing of the past but it really is not. We are all profiting from products made by slaves or by people working in horrible conditions. But despite knowing this none of us are really going to do anything. We are all still going to buy cell phones, we are still going to buy the same clothes. But we push this fact out of our minds until we are confronted with it. But even if you stop buying a single product made with questionable labor the problem will still exist.
I find it interesting that so many stereotypes are not just a little bit wrong, but the complete opposite of the actual truth. For example there is question 16 from the quiz. It ask what percentage of black men blame themselves for their problems. Most people thought only 6% blamed themselves. In this answer we see how many people buy into the stereotype that black men are unwilling to take responsibility for themselves and will always blame someone else before themselves. The data shows that a majority, 59%, of black men do hold themselves responsible for their problems, but only 5% of people taking the quiz chose answer E. So despite a majority of black men taking
One thing that is bothering me about the comments I have read is the issue with political correctness. Everyone seems to be making a very big deal out of it and blowing it out of proportion. Political correctness is not a law; you will not go to jail or be fined if you do not follow it. In many comments people are making statements about how political correctness is controlling how people think or what they say. If you want to say something that is not politically correct, go ahead and do it. It may not be considered polite and it may make some people angry but that’s what we get with freedom of speech. Now if you are at work then you do have to be careful because you could get fired but outside of the workplace or other delicate situations you can say whatever you want.
When it comes to semantics, I agree with the commenter in the video. We can look at a question that is not worded perfectly and try to draw conclusions from it, but it’s just semantics. We should take care to pay attention to how a question is worded and how that can shape peoples answers.
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liz_11o Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 5:12 pm
In regards that from taking the quiz you realized that you don’t know very much – I am in the same boat. I got just around a 20% on the quiz, and frankly, I wasn’t even expecting it to be that high. “But what really hit me was how we push this information out of our minds and ignore it”. You hit the nail on the head with that statement. it is terrible to admit that I think I am with the majority when I say that I push this information right out of my head too. It’s honestly a shame how little educated we are on these issues. I think this class is really going to prove to be an eye opening experience.
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liz_11o Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 5:16 pm
In regards that from taking the quiz, you realized that you don’t know very much – I am in the same boat. I got just around a 20% on the quiz, and frankly, I wasn’t even expecting it to be that high. “But what really hit me was how we push this information out of our minds and ignore it”. You hit the nail on the head with that statement. it is terrible to admit that I think I am with the majority when I say that I push this information right out of my head too. It’s honestly a shame how little educated we are on these issues. I think this class is really going to prove to be an eye opening experience.
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charlan10 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 2:58 am
I absolutely believe also that political correctness is a big problem. It puts a boundary on the way and how much a person can educate themselves on race relations. It's hard to actually talk about issues when you have to be careful of someone becoming offended or angry. The amount of slaves still being used to perform tasks blew my mind. Of course nobody would say that slavery doesnt exist after endless companies being caught in child labor incedents and so on but 27 million! 27 million is a bigger population than the entire state of pennsylvania. I have heard good things about this class, and the first lecture did not disappoint.
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First off, after reading the first article and watching the first video for this course, there were a hundred thoughts and questions going through my mind. After trying to sort through them, one of the main points I found intertwined throughout the entire lesson was this idea of “white guilt”. I have encountered this first hand, as I’m sure many of you have. As a “minority” I see how white people interact with me on a daily basis, most of the time tip-toeing around comments of race I may have made or other people may have made; always changing the subject and not wanting to offend me by saying the wrong thing. I also see the difference in how my other minority friends approach the topic of race and cultural. Most of the time bluntly stating their generalizations out loud, not worried at all about offending anyone. One time in particular stood out to me, from this past summer when I had an internship with a white male from Penn State. He was a nice enough guy, but whenever I would mention something about being a minority or my friends being a minority (i.e. mostly cultural differences that I found interesting), he would shy away from the conversation and redirect to a “safer topic” of what happened at work that day. It took me a little while to catch on to this, and I could have taken offense to it; thinking he didn’t care or had already formed his own racist opinions; but after giving it some thought, it was clear that he was unsure of what he could or could not say to me as a “minority”. I am also aware of how much easier it is for me to talk about race and cultural differences than it would be for a white person. So I understand why he would be afraid of me snapping at something he says out of curiosity. After figuring this out, I was able to talk to him about it and make sure he understood that he was allowed to have questions about other cultures and races and to not be afraid to ask. We were also both aware that not everyone was like me, and he could very well offend someone with his questions; which opened a whole new set of discussions about “white guilt”. In the end, we had all summer to discuss these issues and it ended up being a really great way experience for us both. We definitely had our disagreements, but we were pretty open with each other and were able to gain a new perspective on topics of culture and race.
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cym5201 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 3:34 am
I really enjoyed your post. I also, like your explanation of the tattoo. It kind of put things into prospective. It's good to continue to come across people who are comfortable in their skin. I didnt think there were many out here.
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All of the questions discussed in the lecture were interesting, but some were more interesting than the others. There was something that did not make sense to me regarding the stigma that immigration carries, and I come from a country where immigrants are a majority in some regions, and it still happens there, so I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to dump on Americans. What I want to point out is that people who immigrate to the United States became Americans not because of an incident of birth, but because they wanted to be Americans. If we exclude some cases like the recent case of Faisal Shahzad, we can see that immigrants were willing to leave their home, friends, relatives, and their identity and everything they once had back in their home country for America and the American values they are seeking. Cenk Uygur, a Turkish-American radio host took it further when he was defending many who immigrated like his parents and said that immigrants are more American than the people who are American because of the ‘jus soli’ law. I disagree with Uyugur on that point, but his words were the first thing I thought about when Professor Richards was talking about immigration.
I also found the Thomas Jefferson cartoon interesting. I am a great admirer of the founding fathers, and especially Thomas Jefferson. For a while he was an idol to me because of the brilliance of his writings about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and equality, but I was trying to deny many facts about his life, like what is mentioned in class about the number of slaves he had, and whether he was the father of one of those slaves or not. I was thrilled that it was mentioned in class because I really I wanted to know how can he write about equality and yet have slaves. I hope we cover this subject later in class.
As for the comments about how the US committed the biggest genocide known in human history. I know I may need to check my information again, but almost every country was built on a land that they fought for, whether it defending it or trying to occupy it, but I think that’s the way the world is. It is not fair, but that’s the way it is. Even in my area, the Egyptians were forced out of the western area of the Arabian Peninsula. Many tribes were forced to leave their lands when they refused to be under the reign of the al-Saud family, which is the ruling family in Saudi Arabia.
One last thing I wanted to comment is the percentage of people who thought President Barack Obama wasn’t Christian. I was disappointed. I thought that college campuses are immune to the Fox News propaganda. I don’t see why some may think he is Muslim.
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BellaBoo54 Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:01 am
I was also a little baffled about the percentage of people who did not think that president Obama was Christian. It is funny how much people stereotype religions based on skin color. They took one look at Obama and was like oh yeah he must be muslim. That is a little offensive. Well why couldn’t he be Christian? People need to stop assuming so much. But I guess if you are not sure, you are more likely to stereotype to make a guess. So inevitably ignorance is bliss.
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Getting the majority of the answers in the slides wrong really surprised me. To start off growing up in Philly the majority of the white people I’ve met are Italian-Americans and I blame my own ignorance for forgetting the size of the United States. When you mentioned the ancestral testing about how people are often surprised about the percentages from their origins and mentioned talking to an Uncle Tyrone about a person’s race findings bought me back to a time when I was in high school. Our class was having a race discussion and my white friend Ronnie mentioned how he has no problem making friends with anyone, and he “didn’t care if your name was ‘Tyrone’ either, and it’s funny how two white guys chose that name to signify that “same” black guy, and both times everyone in the class laughed. And now that I think about it, I only know one black Tyrone and I wonder how is it so easy for it that name to be easily identified with a black person . The irony that black people can’t even succeed at killing themselves is not lost on me. I’ve always been under the impression that people of color rarely chose to commit suicide as well. When you were speaking about Native Americans and referred to them as “Red niggers” that resonated pretty well seeing as that’s a taboo term. The name of the Redskins NFL team has been something that have I wanted to see changed for a few years. Considering how derogatory that is, while I don’t consider myself overly PC I do believe in giving people proper respect. Anytime someone refers to people as an Eskimo I kindly tell them how that term is derogatory as well. One random question I’ve had was are there any other slurs of Native Americans?
Realizing how wealthy I am, is something that I actually make sure not to take for granted. I got a tattoo right below my collarbone that says “If They Only Knew.” The main reason I endured the needle was because of the saying “you never know what you have until its gone” I make sure to remind myself of everything ever bestowed upon me. The several other reasons I chose that tattoo phrase was, if you only knew who hated you, you loves you, who cares, who wants nothing but the best for you, how different life would be. Who the person is past the clothes they wear, their piercings and other things, because often time you never really get the chance to know anyone unless you ask and a lot of people are afraid to simply ask questions about others. The slavery part of the lecture was very serious as it should have been. Well no I’m wondering who dictates the social scale of who is lower than another why that person should be and is a slave. I wonder how success gets mistranslated through race and why it matters so much to most people. There are so many underlying factors into how a person perceives others. A lot of people for instance tell me that I act white because the majority of my friends are different than what they expect, but I find it funny how not many black people will call Barack Obama an Uncle Tom while they will call a black guy that becomes a cop a sellout. Thoughts on different professions will be something that will never make much sense to me.
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mcbell317 Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:15 am
I totally get where you are coming from. I currently live in Philadelphia although I grew up primarily in the Bucks county. In my group of friends I was the token "black girl" even though I am biracial. It became a running joke that I was an oreo cookie. Black on the outside and white on the inside because according to my friends I acted "too white" to be a black girl. As I look back on this now, I realize it was very racist and judgmental of them to assume that I simply wasn't "black" enough because I didn't dress the part, talk the part or act the part.
I am a huge proponent of letting one act how they feel. Not what their ethnicity it. It is sad that if you don't "act the part", you are not accepted into the group. Guess why that is why they are not my friends anymore.
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Highway308 Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:08 pm
I really enjoyed reading your post. The beginning reminded me of a point that I failed to cover in my blog. I did poorly on the quiz as well. It seems all of us are a little naïve on this particular subject. I liked your references to your personal experiences on this subject. I have to admit that I chuckled in agreement with you when I realized that, like you, I only know one black guy named “Tyrone”. You certainly seem to be very aware of who you really are. I am sure that you are not overly concerned that you did not act black enough to be considered black among your peers.
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ktb5071 Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 2:57 am
I really enjoyed your post Rockski especially the part about your tattoo, "If they only knew". It's a beautiful tattoo because it is sooo true for so many people. I don't mean to be insensitive but the things half my girlfriends cry about is RIDICULOUS, they fail to open their eyes are see how amazing they have it, how amazing it is they have nice soft tissues to dry their tears with, and despite their superficial lifestyle that they are suffocating in, I am sure that 2/3 of people living with under $2 or less would do anything to trade places with them. If someone has someone who loves them, cares about them, they should consider themselves blessed because some people don't have that and love is the most precious thing life has to offer. And like you said people are afraid to ask questions about other people which means they're robbing themselves from the opportunity to have a great friend, a soul mate, or even a person to look out for.
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I really enjoyed watching the first class lecture. I wasn’t sure what to expect but after watching the lecture, I really wish I was sitting in that classroom instead of behind a computer screen. After taking the “Whad’ya know?” quiz and receiving a 38% I realized that my guessing skills aren’t as good as I thought they were and many of my preconceived notions were way off. As soon as I saw the class average from spring semester, I felt a little better about myself. After watching the lecture and seeing the answers I found that I want to change my preconceived notions. The question that really surprised me was the question about the group with the highest attempted suicide rate. I really thought that LGBT youth would have the highest attempts. After hearing that young Hispanic females have the highest attempts, it surprised me at first but after I really thought about it I could understand why. I know that young Hispanic women seem to have a lot of pressure on them and many have children at a very young age. This could be why the attempts are so high. I do agree with Professor Richards statement about LGBT youth is probably higher than reported. Many LGBT youth may not come out of the closet and committed suicide and no one knows if they were LGBT for sure.
Another question answer that surprised me was the question about the number of slaves who live in the world today. I really can’t believe that 27 million people in this world, in the year 2010, are slaves. I know that many people think that when slavery ended in this country that slavery ended everywhere else as well. Many people don’t realize that slavery is still going on today.
The fact that only 23% of Arabs who live in the United States identify themselves as Muslims really surprised me. I am ashamed of my stereotype that all Arabs are Muslims. I was pleasantly surprised that 42 present of Arabs are Roman Catholics. I hope that I can take this statistic with me and stop seeing all Arabs as Muslims.
I’m more surprised about how many answers didn’t really surprise me but opened my eyes about race and racism. The percentage of actors in roles who are white is 72%, this was actually lower than I originally thought, I guessed that the percentage would be 84%. The percentage of US citizens that are Hispanic is 15% however the percent of actors is only 6.3%. This is not a fair representation for the Hispanic community in Hollywood. I really liked the way Professor Richards ran his lecture. I’m glad that he isn’t being politically correct. I feel like this class would be hard to appreciate with a professor being politically correct.
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Jevit335 Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:44 pm
I was struck by mainly the exact same questions that you were. I found it surprising as well that young Hispanic females have the highest rate of attempting suicide. I agreed with your reasoning behind why they are in fact the group with the highest rate to attempt suicide. I was also surprised at the number of slaves that still exist in the world today, even though there has been many attempts in the past to end slavery completely. I find myself with the same stereotype about Arabs being Muslims, and I am going to attempt to end my stereotype regarding Arabs and their religions.
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When I found out that only 2.4% (3%) of the people in the United States are multi-cultural, I thought there was a mistake. Throughout these years, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of international students coming to the United States to attend high school/obtain their college degree. I’ve also learned in the past that the United States is one of the best countries to live in … for many reasons. A few are them are: increase in technology, development in security for the protection of citizens’, etc. Of course, we all know that the economy isn’t the best right now; however, every country has their downfalls at some point. In my opinion, I don’t think that the country’s struggle should stop you from believing that the United States is one of the best countries to live in.
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My response as to why some people may get a negative feeling or stereotype towards immigrants is because people may think that they are not trustworthy or they are not capable of getting the job done. In general, it can be one of many things. Of course, if you’re a foreigner – the chances are, you were taught to things differently (similar to how every country/religion has their own rules they need to follow or live by). Just because they are raised differently does not give them the right automatically judge them without giving them a chance. Think about it. What if the way they were taught to do something was faster than the way you learned? That would save time and effort … even money.
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This topic reminds me of sexism in some ways. Remember when women were limited to certain jobs? Women were underpaid or not paid at all? Women had no health benefits? Men believed that women were better off at home doing housework? I believe these two can relate together because it all comes down to – whatever men can do, women can do the same thing (except in a different way) and the quality of the finished product can be just as good … if not, better. Well, in this case – there is a chance immigrants are able to do the same thing we can, except in a different way. The quality can be just as good, if not … better.
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