Tuesday’s lecture about the devastating tragedy that recently occurred in Haiti was truly an eye opener for me. It’s one thing to hear about it on the news and read articles about it, but actually seeing the pictures and hearing the raw/personal stories from someone who went to the country and experienced the aftermath first hand, really put things in a totally new perspective for me. The moment that the picture was shown in which the man was standing on the pile of dead bodies in mourning, I was completely lost for words. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and my heart genuinely broke for the country and those who were affected by the natural disaster. It’s one of those things were I knew it was bad, but I didn’t realize HOW BAD it actually was; simply hearing the total death count sent chills up my body. Sitting in on that lecture really made me want to become more proactive and look into more ways in which I could do something to help. One thing that was brought up in lecture that I think the public needs to become much more aware of, is how the donations (texts donating money, water, food, etc.) can be counterproductive in getting the country to progress and move towards rebuilding their lives. If more people realized that this could ultimately make Haiti dependent/beggars, maybe they would better research organizations, which could lead to them actually learning more about the situation as opposed to sending a text message and forgetting about it the next day.

In lecture, someone brought up the fact that as soon as the earthquake in Chile occurred, the media’s focus on Haiti diminished little by little each day there after. Obviously, we live in the United States, so the vast majority of information we get about what’s going on in the world around us comes directly from the mass media. That being said, I think the part of the problem with this whole issue with regards to the public’s responsibility to Haiti, lies within the media and whether or not they are genuinely doing their job of informing and educating us on ALL of the important things going on in the world. I’m not saying that the media should take all the accountability in the situation, because I do think that society needs to take matters into their own hands and put forth additional effort. However, I can’t help but wonder where our priorities lie when the top headlines are Larry King’s divorce, Tiger Woods’ affairs, which celebrities broke up, etc. When the media stops covering these stories we seem to forget about their existence. We forget that even though the papers/news stops covering it, the situation still exists and people are still struggling.

I feel guilty admitting it, but previous to Tuesday’s class, I hadn’t thought about the earthquake in Haiti for a while. I’m not trying to make excuses for myself, but I have a busy schedule and have barely had time for myself this past semester. In addition to preparing for graduation in May and figuring out what I’m going to do come a month or so, I have a full class schedule, job applications/interviews, a part-time job, homework, studying, clubs, etc. to worry about. It’s not that I don’t care about Haiti, because I do. I get emotional even thinking about what these people are going through. I’m from Long Island and when 9/11 happened I knew many people that lost their lives. The experience was life changing and I struggled with the aftermath for a long time afterwards. Considering MANY more people died in Haiti, I can only imagine what life is like there right now. We all lead very different lives filled with very different responsibilities, and unfortunately, unless things directly affect us personally we tend to push them aside and treat them as less of a priority.

I agree completely with this video. I think it’s genuinely upsetting that women today seem to place so much time, effort, and energy focusing on the way they look that they forget that there’s truly more to life than that. It’s exhausting to incessantly worry about how others will perceive you based on looks alone, and I don’t believe it does anyone any good. I understand that every woman has their own insecurities, but we need to collectively come together and support one another before we become entirely consumed by this false standard of beauty. I think it’s extremely difficult for a woman in today’s society to look past the overall message of what the media ultimately thinks is beautiful. We don’t see average looking women on the cover of the popular magazines, on television, or in the movies we watch. We see tall, skinny, flawless skin/teeth, beautiful hair, and expensive clothing saturating the media, and it’s hard to look past that when we are constantly being bombarded by it. Hollywood’s perception of how women should strive to look is really disgusting in my opinion. I think about the millions of dollars that are spent on photoshopping these women’s pictures and it makes me sick to my stomach. What the readers of these magazines don’t realize is that the people in the magazines don’t even look like what we see. I remember I saw a picture of actress Jessica Alba in which her waist was made significantly smaller, her legs were airbrushed to be thinner, and they enhanced her breasts to make them look larger. Kim Kardashian also spoke to the public when images of her that were not yet altered where accidently released to the public, which exposed cellulite in her legs. She spoke about the importance of people knowing that she’s not perfect and that she’s proud of the way her body naturally looks. I think if more celebrities spoke up and refused to be photoshopped that this might help make some progress and improvement. Last year when Jessica Simpson gained 5-10 pounds it was on the cover of every gossip magazine for two weeks straight. What is the big deal? During and interview with the President that ran before the Super Bowl, the interviewer went as far to ask the President what he thought about her weight gain.

Last semester in my social change class I had to do a project on plastic surgery and I was completely dumfounded by the stories I encountered about procedures I didn’t even knew existed. Billions of dollars are earned every year in this industry and the amount of procedures completed each year is on the rise. Lip injections, butt implants, eyebrow lifts, breast augmentations, cheek/chin implants, Botox, and the list goes on and on. People are risking their lives in order to alter themselves to conform to society’s definition of beauty, and it makes me wonder what it will really take for these people to realize it’s not worth it. People have become addicted to plastic surgery, getting as many as 10-12 procedures at a time, and then coming back for more later on in life. I even learned about a group of people who go on these journey’s called Safaris. They travel to foreign countries to get multiple procedures done at a time, for reduced prices, at very dangerous conditions. I just think it’s really sad that this is occurring and that we need to change our appearance in order to think we are beautiful.

If I had a dollar for every fad diet either a friend or myself has tried, I would have a decent chunk of change. I think this was especially relevant in high school, and I even knew several girls who were taking diet pills at the times. Boys in high school can be extreme cruel/shallow and many of them judge girls based on their looks alone, which can be a traumatizing experience. These girls didn’t realize the dangers of the pills they were taking, or that they could probably kill them, they instead wanted to lose weight to impress others and reach their goal of moving closer to a size zero. However, we need to be realistic and understand that not everyone is meant to be a size zero. Women are comprised of all different shapes and sizes and starving/harming your body to become a size that is unnatural just isn’t worth it in my eyes. Not only is it bad for your health, but the more people that do it, the more people will jump on board and think it’s normal to do so.

Wow, I was in complete disbelieve after watching this clip. I think this is an important video that NEEDS to be shown much more often, because I can almost guarantee the majority of viewers would be alarmed by the message embedded within. I genuinely found this video to be disturbing and was not at all expecting what was to come prior to watching it. I knew that Sam said it was going to be shocking and would most definitely touch a nerve with the majority of people in class, but I didn’t think it would spark such a vast/powerful reaction within myself. It’s truly devastating that these innocent children, at such young ages, are already being exposed to forms of racism. They shouldn’t have to worry about things of this nature, and should instead be enjoying their youth and living life carefree while they can. What’s even more upsetting, is that they are too young to understand where all this negativity and bigotry is coming from. One of the parts of the video that left me completely and utterly speechless was when one of the girls was asked which of the two dolls was bad. She pointed to the black doll and was immediately asked afterwards which doll looks most like her. It seemed as if she shamefully/slowly handed over the black doll to the person conducting the study, which absolutely broke my heart. I can’t even begin to imagine how traumatizing that experience would be for a young child. The whole concept of the white doll being “good” and the black doll being “bad” is completely ridiculous and it’s a stereotype that I am sickened by.

After thinking about my own situation, the majority of the dolls that I owned were white dolls. My parents always gave me the option of picking out whichever Barbie I wanted (and even encouraged me to get different raced dolls quite frequently), and although I had a few Native American and black dolls, I typically chose the white Barbie because it reminded me of myself. Another popular brand of dolls, The American Girl Doll, also had a standard line of about 5-6 dolls and a doll in which you could actually choose her features. I choose to create a doll that looked entirely like me (white, blonde hair, green eyes). It’s ironic to look back on it and knowing what I do now, that the media/society (at one point or another) probably influenced me into buying one of these dolls when I was too naïve to really comprehend the message they were sending.

This video also had me thinking about the media and advertisements (television, magazines, movies, etc.) in general. I can’t remember a time (now or even when I was younger) that a commercial for Barbie, or any doll/toy for that matter, featured a black individual as the focus of the ad. All the princesses and main characters of the Disney movies I was obsessed with as a child featured white females. I also think about how we learned earlier in the semester that skin-whitening creams are one of the top beauty products in the cosmetic industry. The media has seemed to grow obsessed with saturating society with the idea that white is the most beautiful race, and unless some drastic changes are made, I don’t see this trend going away in the near future. Why can’t we seem to move past this already? What is it really going to take? Yes, we’ve gotten better at including other races in the mainstream media, but in my eyes, we still have A LOT of work to do to really attack this stereotype and make it disappear. This whole situation really scares me, especially since the way our generation grew up is drastically different to how the current generation of young children are being raised. I feel as if our generation was one of the last that wasn’t completely consumed by technology. I remember barely watching television, playing outside every day, reading books, making up games with other kids in the neighborhood, and using my imagination constantly. Nowadays, kids are playing video games, watching television for countless hours, surfing the Internet, etc. Little kids are like sponges and practically soak up every piece of information that they hear/see, whether it be through others in society, their parents, the media, etc. When the media is bombarding society with the false message of “white being the most beautiful race,” it’s no wonder that children will pick up on this and actually believe there is truth behind it.

This particular topic reminds me of an incident that happened over spring break while I was on vacation with some friends from here at school. My roommate realized she had gotten her period while we were out to dinner and quietly asked me if I had a tampon she could use. Well, apparently her voice carried towards the opposite side of the table, because one of our guy friends was completely grossed out and responded by saying, “Ew not at the dinner table, that’s so disgusting.” Then followed that remark with something along the lines of him needing to be cautious later on because she’s going to be in “bitch mode.” Later that night we stopped at CVS for her to buy tampons and the guys even refused to come into the store with us because they claimed it would be too embarrassing for them.

Also, I noticed that whenever someone has asked me for a tampon in a state of emergency, whether it is in class, out dinner, etc., they almost seemed mortified, ashamed, or try to make the transfer of the actual tampon by hiding it in their sleeve or in a pocket. It reminds me of those commercials for the tampons that are wrapped in a way that could be mistaken for candy, where the applicator contracts to make the tampon compact enough to fit in your hand without being visible to others. It just seems so ridiculous to me that this is what things have come to.

In response to what some other people have posted on their blogs, I don’t think it’s fair to say that ALL girls use their period as an easy “excuse” or as an advantage to get out of certain situations. This statement actually made me really angry and pissed me off beyond belief, because males don’t get their period and don’t understand what it’s like whatsoever, so who are they to make judgments like this? I would LOVE for any guy to get to experience a period for as little as a day and see how they feel. I think some males tend to forget that getting your period is, for the most part, a nuisance. Many females get excruciating cramps, bloating, mood swings, and some even experience extreme nausea for as long as a week straight. It’s not the type of thing that just goes away after you pop a few ibuprofens, although I’m sure that’s the assumption that many males have.

Sam’s comment about bleeding was definitely one that I did not expect whatsoever, but I think it calls for interesting discussion. I undeniably think it’s safe to say that most males, and females for that matter, typically don’t enjoy discussing the female menstrual cycle with others. As a whole, going through the menstrual cycle is a private experience. In fact, I remember being afraid to talk to it about my mom in middle school when I had first got my period. I even went to the store by myself to pick up feminine products because I was SO uncomfortable bringing it up for the first time (even with someone as close to me as my own mother). It’s not the type of thing that comes up in normal conversation. In fact, I would probably be kind of freaked out if a random stranger (male or female) came up to me and was like, “hey are you on your period today?” However, I’m really puzzled as to where this taboo came from and why it still exists when people in today’s society seem to be much more open about their sexuality. Personally, I find it to be rather ironic that something completely natural, healthy, and necessary for reproduction could make people so uncomfortable. I wouldn’t shout it out to the world and tell everyone that I was bleeding right this second like the girl in this video did, but I am grateful for the fact that I will one day be able to have children and appreciate the overall process.

As thrilled as I am that this woman has gained a position in society that is typically dominated by males, I can’t help but wonder what the entire process/end result will ultimately be. I’m also extremely curious as to how her players feel about the situation, because I would image there would be some hesitation coming from their direction. It saddens me to admit this, but I’m fairly certain there will be countless people that judge this individual and her capabilities simply because she’s a female. Who is to say that she isn’t qualified simply because of her gender? In my high school there were two females that were actually recognized (and listed as a part of the official team roster) as part of my school’s football team. I remember it being a HUGE controversy not just in my school, but also neighboring schools. Coaches were furious that our team consisted of females and it was constantly an issue as to whether or not the females should get special treatment. Let’s just say I really hope she has thick skin, because I fear that the frustration of the reality of the situation might get the best of her in long run. I hope she can prove all these narrow-minded people wrong and demonstrate her love for the sport, while also achieving success.

First off, let me start by saying that I couldn’t be more ecstatic after watching this video. I think the fact that a woman (which is practically unheard of in the world of football) has gained a position of this caliber is absolutely incredible and it gives me a glimmer of optimism as far as what’s to come in the near future for women in athletics (and the world in general for that matter). This video genuinely made me feel that we’re actually continuing to make some sort of progress in terms of gender equality and women’s status in society. Maybe nothing really is impossible. In a strange way it made me feel empowered to be a woman and proud of this individual that is, in fact, a complete stranger to me. I admire her strength and willingness to go against the odds and wish nothing but success upon her and hope that her situation helps in opening doors for other females. Although it’s a relatively small step in moving closer towards overall equality between males and females, I definitely think it’s still deserving of being acknowledged. Not only in athletics, but also in numerous aspects of everyday life, women have increasingly been taken more seriously in society and the numbers of opportunities we have today don’t even come close in comparison to as little as even twenty years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’m entirely grateful for the women who have paved the way and brought about these opportunities to me (such as attending college) that would have once been deemed impossible, but I think there is SO much more work that needs to be done in terms of equality between males and females.

Personally, I think this particular story struck a nerve for me due to both my own situation and that of my mother while growing up. My mom was a hedge fund manager for a relatively large corporation in New York City an absolutely busted her ass to get to where she was. She paid her way through college all by herself and raised two kids practically on her own only to be repeatedly rejected and doubted by countless individuals in the business world simply because she was a female. I was first hand able to witness her deal with the struggles of making a name for herself in a male dominated industry and it was truly inspiring. It was difficult to watch her frustration escalate as she was rarely taken seriously and had to work extra hard (and extra hours) to prove she was deserving of her job. It just really disgusts me that in so many aspects of our current every day life people still seem to have reservations when it comes to the capabilities of women. I don’t really understand why we can’t seem to get past this. Why is it that women can’t seem to thoroughly break through these barriers? Why are we still (on average) paid less in comparison to men in the same jobs? Why are we, in general, underrepresented in certain job sectors? It just seems so pointless to me to be sitting and dwelling on the whole male/female issue. Why does it matter? The person who gets the job should be the person who is MOST qualified and BEST fit for the position; plain and simple.

Additionally, I feel like I can relate to the woman in this video because I grew up in a similar situation. I was very athletic, loved sports, and wasn’t typically interesting in playing dress-up or with dolls like most little girls were. In fact, I even was the only girl on an intramural boy’s baseball team for three years in middle school. Although I tried my hardest not to let it affect me, I was constantly scrutinized by peers, parents, coaches, etc. simply because I was a girl. No matter how hard I tried not to let it get the best of me, it was inevitable that at one point or another I would have to face this issue head on. I vividly remember one of my teammate’s father complained to the coach that I was getting more playing time and that I shouldn’t even be allowed to be a part of the team, which absolutely broke my heart. I didn’t understand why other people cared so much. All I was trying to do was play a sport that I loved and made me happy. Looking back on it, I just think it’s so pathetic that people waste their time and energy trying to put other people down regardless of whether it has to do with race, gender, sexuality, etc.

This is a really interesting question that truly does need some kind of answer (and soon for that matter). It’s hard to say what the CORRECT answer is to this question, as many people have their own diverse opinions/ideas about when/how much information we should be teaching the youth. Honestly, I think that there are countless topics/issues that aren’t fully discussed in the education programs across the nation that ultimately should be. This particular subject’s lack of education reminds me of my school’s lack of education of African Americans. I grew up in a predominantly white area and out of my entire graduating class of over 710 students there was a mere three black students. Every February we had an assembly on Black History Month, but I really saw no genuine effort made by my teachers to really dig deep into the topic and really teach us about the real history (such as things like discrimination, segregation laws, and the achievements of African Americans to name a few). Moreover, I think our lack of knowledge with regards to all of these issues (including Native Americans) and how naïve we seem to be in this sense really shines a negative light on Americans. It’s truly disheartening that not only the younger generations of society, but all generations for that matter, seem to be so uninformed about so many things that have and are happening in the world around us and I don’t really know what it will actually take to change this.

Growing up I don’t really remember any of my classes really spending the necessary time/effort to educate us on the history/culture of Native Americans. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I have probably learned more valuable information about Native American’s from Sam’s most recent hour-and-fifteen-minute long lectures than I have throughout my entire elementary, middle, and high school career. I honestly wasn’t too surprised to learn about the results that the person in this video shared about the experiment of young children drawing a Native American/Indian. I definitely would have responded the same way those children had and I’m sure the majority of our class would have as well. I feel as if the only time we talked about Native Americans was when we talked about the Pilgrims and Indians around Thanksgiving time and would make little pictures in art class. I don’t know if any of you remember the game “Indian Chief,” but this was an activity I remember playing a lot while growing up. I remember because I would always look forward to it because my kindergarten teacher made this huge headdress of feathers and the person who was chosen to be the Indian Chief would always get to wear it at the conclusion of the game (and we wonder why this is the only perception that children have of Native Americans). We associated the game with fun and saw no harm in taking part of it, yet I think if kids were actually taught about Native American’s and all the hardship and tragedy they endured maybe we wouldn’t play games like this. Maybe we would actually come to our senses and realize how disrespectful it is that we so lightly take to heart the lives of Native Americans. Why is it that we can sit and play games referencing their existence, but we can’t seem to sit and actually LEARN/TALK about them?

In my opinion, it’s really sad that the only interpretation we have of Native Americans comes from what we see in movies, television, and sports. For example, another rather public story that comes to my mind is that of the recent controversy with regards to teams/schools having Native American mascots. I remember reading about a story in which the University of Illinois was forced to retire their Indian mascot because many people found it offensive and demeaning to the lives of Native Americans. I can completely understand this, because when this is the only exposure children are getting to Native Americans it can bring about a negative/false stereotype that can be extremely hurtful and disrespectful. Most of these mascots seem to mock their lives and send the message that Native Americans were soulless killers who run around wearing feathers and murdering people. How wouldn’t you find this offensive?

Now that I went off on a tangent, I really do think that we need to start educating our children earlier on in their lives. Currently, schools are pretty much treating the history as if the Native Americans experiencing the genocide and losing their land never happened. I understand that the history is brutal in certain aspects, but I think that in order to pay full tribute and respect as to how much these people have been through that we need to teach ALL of the facts. I’m not saying we need to bombard preschoolers and kindergarteners with all these horrific genocide facts, but I do believe that we should gradually ease into this education from elementary school and onwards into high school. I think we worry too much about how this information will affect the people it’s taught to, instead of worrying how their lives WON’T be affected if we aren’t taught the real facts.

I completely agree that we need to “fix things and not continue to break them.” I think as a nation we have taken some small steps in the right direction. For example, several states (but not all) have legalized gay marriage and we seem to be more open as a country to the LGBT world as compared to the past. However, I think we still have a LONG, I repeat LONG, way to go. I took another sociology class last year in which we focused on dissecting gender. We watched several movies about LGBT issues and I can’t even begin to describe some of the stories of hate crimes and discrimination that these innocent individuals had to endure (many even leading to death). It’s absolutely horrific to think that someone could be harassed simply for his or her relationship preference. I can’t help but think: how did we get here and why are we still here? We live in one of the most diverse countries and we always seem to promote freedom and equality, but does it really actually exist? With regards to religion, I myself am not a very religious person, but I do understand that religion plays a major role in how people feel about the rights of gays. On the other hand, I think we really need to look past religion and remember that these are people’s real lives. It’s like how Sam told “God” to leave the room during class on Tuesday. Nothing will ever get accomplished if we keep referring back to religion. There is church near my hometown that actually holds LGBT meetings and they encourage gays to attend mass. In my opinion, I think we need to move past using religion as an “excuse” and realize that our culture and way of life has drastically evolved throughout time and is much different than ever before (and by no means are things going to get any easier).

I fully believe with all my heart that gay marriages should be legalized and that homosexual couples should be granted the same rights as heterosexual couples. I think about how many heterosexual couples marry for the wrong reasons, that don’t really love each other, and then end up in divorce. Someone in an earlier blog mentioned drunken marriages occurring in Vegas. It truly boggles my mind that we don’t question this nearly as much as we do gay marriage (of people who genuinely love and cherish each other). It’s like Sam said in class, you DON’T choose to be gay, nor do you choose who you love. I really liked the statement given in class, which was why would someone wake up and choose to be gay when they know it’s one of the most negatively controversial groups in society? Gay people are normal people and think it’s disgraceful that some people treat them otherwise. I think that sometimes people really need to take a step back and put themselves in the situation. For example, think about what it would feel like if someone denied you and the person you love access to be legally joined as a couple? How would you feel if you were stared at and whispered at for walking in the streets holding hands with the person you care about? Personally, I don’t understand why society can’t seem to just let gays live their lives in peace and happiness. Who cares if two people of the same sex want to be together? What is the big deal? It really annoys me that there are people in society who seem to think it’s their business who other people want to love and/or be in a relationship with. I wonder how heterosexual couples would respond if their relationships were under the same scrutiny. Think about how it would feel to have someone tell you that can’t/shouldn’t be with someone? Maybe if people spent more of their time focusing on their own relationships we wouldn’t have such a high rate of divorce in this country. I want to believe that things will change for the better in the near future (because it’s inevitable that they HAVE to), but it saddens me to say that I don’t know when or if this will ever happen.

I just spent the entire summer studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. Throughout the course of time in Europe I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to several other countries, such as Italy, The Czech Republic, The Netherlands, England, Ireland, and France. Throughout my life I’ve also been able to visit the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Mexico as well. I can honestly say that every time I have traveled to a new destination it was a complete culture shock. I never knew what to expect and it has always been exciting for me to learn about different people, their languages, and the ways they go about living their lives. I remember my visit to Prague where my friends and got a lesson in Czech from our bicycle tour guide. We sat with him for about an hour after our tour was over because we couldn’t get enough of how different and complex the language was. It’s truly fascinating to think about how many different languages are spoken in the world. I’ve been lucky enough to get a taste of quite a few and it’s really made me more eager to learn new languages other than the “Americanized Spanish” I was taught throughout high school.

This blog post really saddened me and got me thinking about a lot of things. I think the saying is true, that we don’t realize the value of things we have until they are gone. I think something that people really need to take away from this blog, which I think we often forget/don’t realize, is than language is more than just the words that are spoken. Yes, language is how we ultimately communicate with one another, but it’s also a way of life and it ties people together in a very meaningful way that has tremendous importance (that we often take for granted). Our language is one of the defining characteristics that makes us who we are and like many others have said in their blog posts, as languages continue to fade away so will the facts, traditions, history, values, way of life, and culture that they hold. I had to put myself in this situation, so I thought about how I would feel if the English language slowly became nonexistent and if I was left as the last person standing in the same sense that this woman was. I would be terrified, uncomfortable, depressed, and most importantly alone. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to have no one understand me or how difficult it would be to even live life in general.

It’s strange to think that languages are slowly disappearing across the world. To be honest, I never really thought about this happening prior to this blog post by Sam. As places become more and more diverse across the world, it’s inevitable that cultures will change and languages will somehow evolve/transform/vanish. I’m not necessarily sure if there’s a definite way to prevent this from occurring completely, but I do think we need to make more of an effort to preserve languages. I think universities have done a fairly decent job at this in the sense that they offer many different language courses as options to students. For example, I know Penn State offers Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Japanese, Hebrew, Korean, etc. However, high schools could branch out and give students more/different language alternatives. I remember my high school only gave us the option of Italian, French, or Spanish and after we passed the regents exam in tenth grade we no longer had to continue on. I think schools should require students to take a language starting in middle school and to continue to take a class each quarter/semester until college graduation. This would make us more culturally aware and more educated. As far as ancient languages go, I think schools should make time to teach students about them. They have helped in shaping the most common languages today, so it’s just as important, if not more, to learn the history behind them as well.

Let me start off by saying that I don’t quite fully, nor do I think I will ever, understand why we must put labels on race and why we care so much about who wants to be called what. Anyways, this was a really interesting article and it shows how as a society our culture and ways of thinking/identifying with one each other really do change over time. It’s clearly apparent that by making subtle changes to the census it can drastically affect the results, so I can see why this particular situation (deleting the Negro category) is of critical importance to the Census. Considering that the Census only comes out once every ten years, it’s understandable that there is speculation over how the slight changes will/will not alter the results. I have nothing but respect for the Census as it seems that they truly care about how the public and how they will generally perceive the choices and questions they are provided with, and how they don’t want to offend anyone in the process. Race is a contentious subject that has continued to be the source of heated debate throughout history, so I can see why the Census has been careful in making their choices with regards to the survey.

I think that the racial category on the census will always be somewhat confusing and/or controversial, because like Sam has said in class there are an infinite number of races and different people classify themselves differently compared to others. It’s a matter of personal choice and there is no right or wrong answer. For many people it’s a complicated task to have to commit to just one, or now two, race(s). We live in one of the most diverse countries in terms of race, religion, culture, etc., so I think things are going to get any easier for the Census as time goes on and there will be more debates on issues like these in the future. Allowing individuals to check off more than one box in the racial category is for the better in my opinion. There’s no doubt about it that we’ve evolved past the point of given the choice to respond as black or white. People aren’t just one or the other and countless people consider themselves to be of a “mixed” background. I believe this is ultimately why people have had so much trouble in the past picking their race in the Census. I’m sure that some people take the experience of completing the Census much more seriously than others (which is a problem), but I think that for those who genuinely care about the results and feel underrepresented that they will find this change a positive one.

In class, when Sam proposed the question of how many black people refer to themselves as Negro, very few raised their hands. I too proposed this question to my friends who are black and they all either said black or African American. However, many said that their older relatives (parent, grandparents, etc.) still classify themselves as Negro. It’s quite clear that the usage of the word is far less common in the younger generations. However, when thinking about the situation in terms of the Census, we can’t forget that the proportion of elderly people in the United States is large (apparent by the current debate going on about Social Security) and they represent a vast segment of the Census. We also can’t forget that 56,000 people in the previous Census referred to themselves as Negro. In this sense, deleting the word altogether could propose some serious issues and make results far less accurate. Personally, I do believe that usage of the word will continue to dwindle away as the older generations disappear, but I don’t think anyone can be sure of exactly when this is going to happen. In this sense, it will be hard for the Census to permanently remove the Negro option, because nobody can be sure what the best timing will be to do so.