First of all seeing this video was just so sad to me. My sister was the same when she was a child. She always choose the white dolls in comparison to the black dolls and I am obviously a black girl and so is my sister and me and my parents never really realized why she was always trying to play with the white dolls and would always throw the black dolls away and get mad at my parents if they got her a black doll and would refuse to play with the doll if it were not a white doll. Seeing the thing in class just made me think that it is terrible that young kids only think that white is pretty whether they are white or black and that is sad. The dolls looked exactly the same from their features to there outfit to the style of there hair and everything and the kids only wanted to play with the doll that was white. I couldnt believe that but that is what society does to people and for that to be a kid at such a young age thinking that white is better than black is very depressing. Society puts this thing on people that says lighter skin is beautiful and darker skin is less attractive and it sucks to think that is what young kids believe because that is not true.

All people are not the same. there are some people who are diagnosed with clinical depression because they feed into all the mishaps in the world. people dying, killing each other etc. lets not forget all the natural disasters that are occurring all over the worlds. It seem abnormal for someone to be so concerned about what is going on in the world today to the point they are depressed.
Most people are only concerned when it effects he/she directly. If your mother/father/sister/brother/aunt/grandfather, etc were killed in Iraq or the world trade center bombing, your reaction would be different. it is okay to feel sad for a while and thoughts of it happening to you, one of your family members or friends will occur but there is only so much time you can spend thinking about people you do not know.
I experienced this same feeling when the earthquake happened in Haiti or seeing documentaries about the genocide in Dalfur. I could not really understand if I was just being selfish or just plain ignorant. Thoughts of my people in my country of birth ( Liberia) suddenly rushed into my head. and i start thinking "what about my people in Liberia?" We have been recovering from a 14 year war and a corrupt political system, why are people not sending us money? And what are these funds to Haiti are receiving doing for them? thoughts kept going..running through my head. I could not shake this feeling of complete ignorance. i felt sorry for Haiti, being that they were the poorest country in the world, and now to add insult to injury they have to rebuild their country all over again. It bothered me, but not to the same extent as it would if my country was in the same position.
When you loose somebody you are close to , a part of your life is missing. you must go everyday without seeing that person and feel a sense of resentment. otherwise..we do not care. Thats the real problem. If something isn't effecting us, we are far more likely to not care about it as much as we should. I think that when we hear about 300,000 people dieing and compare that to the 3,000 that died on September 11, we really need to consider the extent of this crisis. If a crisis like what happened in Haiti, happened in New York City, how different would it be. The entire state, and everyone who has relatives that live in New York would be working to help, because it effects them. People from other states would help because it is fellow Americans, but not to the extent that people who are personally by the tragedy would.

As human beings we are all born with the innate nature to be empathetic. Just like the prisoner explained in the introduction of his paper:

'it wasn’t something that I didn’t already know; I just didn’t realize that I knew it. Nor was it something that I didn’t already do; I just didn’t realize how natural it was for me to do it."

Society does a good job at ignoring empathy to the extent that it is not valued. I am sure as a prisoner, he is trying to change his life around for the better. it is quite apparent that he is accepting of his fate now. I mean, what else is one to do when you are confined to the four walls of a jail cell. it is sad to hear stories like this. I feel resentment and apologetic at the same time. I feel resentment mainly because he killed another person and with that being said, if given enough freedom i think he would do so again. People like him are not mentally stable and are dangerous to society.
On the other hand, I feel sad because we all deserve a second chance, but will giving him a second chance result in another dead body?

It is who you are darling! You are still ignorant to the world and issues happening in the world. Nobody said you must change your daily lifestyle and go around advocating for slaves. He is just telling you these things to introduce you to social issues. You are missing the whole point of taking this class..What do you want to walk out of Soc 119 an expert of race and relations? Seriously the late drop period has passed and you claim you are not learning anything important and it is a waste of time... uumm okay so here is a thought..Why did you not drop the class? The school presented you two chances to drop the class. But somehow you chose to sit in the classroom and say negative things. Like who does that?

You probably so caught up with your own culture, you do not see the essence of learning about others. Sam is teaching us, forcing us to think outside the box, make us immune to what is going on in the world! I urge you to stop being ignorant..It well get you nowhere in life.

Believe it or not, males experience the same emotions females do! You see men trying to be everything their favorite bodybuilder is. They exercise excessively and lift weights as if their life depends on it! They go on protein diets, drink those powder drinks to suppress their appetite. People like this guy from Jersey shore..Mike "The situation” he is set on his physical appearance. Not only him, but the other guys in the house have the same mindset! They spend hours doing their hair in the mirror and i have not stood next to them but I believe if I do they will smell as if they poured a bottle of cologne on their body. So yeah, guys get carried away with the whole self image thing.

Yes! she could not have said this any better. I think girls who are taken away by society's definition of beauty need to reevaluate theirselves. Something is seriously wrong with their conception of beauty. They forget to understand that people in Hollywood have money! Plenty of money, enough to fix their imperfections. there are numerous Hollywood starts who do cosmetic surgery to add on/take away hips, buttocks, excess fat around the stomach, etc. on a normal day they will look like the average Joe or 10x worst! As women and or human beings we must embrace the skin we are in, fat, skinny, short, tall, muscular,etc. That is why I do not understand how people who have eating disorders do it! They must accept who they are because you can change it regardless of how many operations you undergo!

Take Heidi Montag for example, I see her as a perfectly beautiful Caucasian girl. She has perfect hair, a nice smile, body, etc. Now she has undergone so much surgery I would barely recognize her in a public place. Upon first seeing the video clip of her interview explaining what cosmetic surgery she got, I had to pinch myself. I could not believe this girl, who looks very much self confident have done this to herself. I asked myself why? I would like to ask her why? I am sure Spencer ( her husband) loves her just the way she is mainly because he married her. Like seriously 10 procedures in one day? How crazy can u be?

For me personally, I know there are some things I can work on in terms of improving my body image, but at the same time I know obtaining a body type of an extremely hot Hollywood star is not possible. Firstly, stars can afford that lifestyle. As a result, they are able to keep up their image. I do not have thousands or millions of dollars to spend I have enough confidence within myself. This world will never change people worry about unnecessary things like body image. What happened to just being healthy? I think that is what is most important, being a healthy person. Society has something to say about everything that goes on in the world. But where did this stuff come from? Who said? who said we must be perfect in every sense?

I like the play that was acted out Tuesday's class. if was very enlightening to be taught the information in another way besides reading power point slides. Well, it was more of an example of what Sam discussed prior to the play. But I was perplexed, why would the girl want a breast reduction. People with small breasts are dying to get an enlargement! Males love breast! But it I guess we are not the same, and do not hold the same opinions.

If there was no welfare available all the lazy people who find an excuse not to get up and go to work would be forced to make ends meet or else live on the street. I think welfare should only be given to certain people for a limited time. For examplle young females who have babies and are enrolled in school, etc. people who actually NEED assistence should be given cash. It is not fair that taxes should be taken out of my check to provide lazy people with money. It makes no sense, sometimes I do not understand this country and their methods of finding soultions to problems. In order for the discontinuation of welfare to take place jobs must be found for people who are capable of working. young people should be urged to attend school, any school whether it is a tech, trade, or 2year, or university. instead of giving them pocket money and money fo food require that they attend school and pay for childcare. that would be much better. the requirements should be limited. The government is just taking money out of our pockets for lazy people, who had the choice to make a better life for themselves but did not. Do not be comfortable on government assistence.

Wow! What a lovely topic for me to express my thoughts on this week! I must admit as a dark-skinned black girl I was so amazed when I seen this video. I mean for these children to choose the white doll over the black doll was astonishing to me! I guess I was so shocked by the responses because I never really sat down and thought about a child's view on race. By no means do I think these children understood their remarks they were saying. Because when each participant were asked "why do you like that one" their response was "because this one is white". the most crazy part was at 4:27, when the little already identified the black doll as bad and she was asked "which one looks like you" she hesitated, because she reached for the white doll first ( the good doll).and later pushed the black doll forward. the look on her face was shameful because in instance she was saying she is bad. I think she was alittle confused after that and unfortunately she was unable to comprehend what exactly was going on. I wonder if I was there at the time, what my choice would have been.

Its funny because in Africa, where I am from we have the same negative views about African Americans they are seen as loud, ghetto, unreasonable, uncultured, etc. Movies portray African Americans to be this way too, but it is concealed by comedy. We tend not to pay attention to it but stereotypes exists in movies. For example in the movie Rush Hour, Chris Tucker was lazy, talkative, loud and a screw up. so it is things like that on main stream media that was constantly forcing these views upon the audience. We later find ourselves believing these things, turning them into our own beliefs. And I do see these difference between my Black American friends and I. Some things I value, or traditions that I follow do not apply to them. For instance seeing your friend to the door upon their departure, having respect for your elders, bending one knee to greet older people, etc.

I am saying these things and it does not mean that African Americans do not have their own views on Africans. That is another discussion for another time. Going back to this topic about the white dolls being favored. Children watch Disney movies and all they see are white princesses for example Snow white, Cinderella, Beauty from Beauty and the Beast, etc. that is why these children feel the white dolls are prettier, or nicer because they constantly see their favorite princess on television looking similar to the white dolls placed before them.

This whole census thing is ridiculous.what is this whole thing about labeling people in society. Like Sam would say "we are al lgoing to die anyways" why are the people complaining giving themselves a headache. The researchers are saying that older Black people identify with the term "Nergo" and until all those people die and the later generations who do not like to use the term over rule nothing will change. The researchers are only respecting the wishes of the majority and they elders. Look if these people have directly been effected by slavery and identify with the label "nergo" why should there be any complains? Everybody can not be pleased.

I think this is awake up call for racist white people. I am sure their daughter or son will marry a person of another race, and they will be extremely unhappy. The white race will no longer be consider "majority" or "superior". This will awake some evil spirit within the white race and i hope it will not lead to more white people abusing blacks, taking away our freedom,etc.I pray that this does not happen, besides we have come too far for that to occur. I am sure that minorities in America will not lead and allow for such a thing to happen. But I like this blog entry it gives the cloesd minded people something to think about for future references.