This video was very interesting to me because it was not what I expected to see. The Haitians created an innovative town in their time of despair. It’s amazing that they appear to be content with their situation and they seem to be making the best of what they have. After only three months, they are holding each other together with their limited resources. I never would have thought about the businesses they set up. They had businesses that you would see in the United States such as a salon and a place to view movies, but a cell phone charging station was a new concept to me. Charging my cell phone is something that I take for granted because it is easy, convenient, and free for me to do. I never have to worry about having power to charge it.

I was very surprised that the salon was actually getting business. Even in the United States some people think of getting their nails done as a luxury and prefer to do it themselves for free. It’s interesting that people who were left with only the money they had in their pockets at the time of the earthquake will still pay for a pedicure. It seems like it is a way to escape, just like the purpose of the movie “theaters” set up there. The women can still take time for themselves and feel beautiful even though they were left with almost nothing.

I especially thought that showing movies was a great idea. Each movie provides about two hours of time to escape for them, especially the children who really need an outlet in their current situation. They can be preoccupied with the stories instead of what is happening in their tent city. In turn, it is also a good business for the people who are running it.

Also, I enjoyed the lecture in class today about Haiti. I have not heard as much about it lately, either in the media or just in general and it is important to be reminded about it. It was good to see pictures directly from someone who has actually been there and seen the devastation first-hand. The answer given to the question “why should I care” especially made me think. I can’t imagine what I would feel like while driving by the ashes of 300,000 people. I also thought that the fact that 100 times more people died in the earthquake in Haiti compared to September 11th was incredible. Since September 11th was one of the greatest tragedies in the United State’s history, many people that live here have most likely never compared the extent of the two tragedies in that way. It is a very eye-opening fact.

I really don’t understand how this is a video game that is sold to the pubic. It’s such a perverted idea that I can’t even believe it caught on or that someone came up with the idea in the first place. I felt uncomfortable watching the CNN broadcast about it and couldn’t believe some of the scenes shown from the game. It makes it seem like it is fun to rape girls and do things such as make wind blow up their skirts. The girls even make noises as if they are embarrassed, terrified, or worse, in pain. I’m sure girls who have been raped in the past would take extreme offense to these games.

Personally I don’t understand how things like this are used as entertainment. I like horror movies, but not when they get so graphic that people are getting tortured and cut up. It definitely doesn’t make me happier to watch these things, and usually it just depresses me, so I don’t get any enjoyment from it. This game is the same way. Why would you want to watch women get raped, let alone rape them yourself in a game? It almost justifies the fact that real women are raped every day, just in the game there are no consequences from it.

I get that there could be an argument that rapists will have an outlet, but what about the argument that the game could create new rapists? Plus, I really don’t think the majority of rapists will stop raping women once they start playing this game. They aren’t getting the physical contact that they may have been seeking in the first place. I mean, maybe it would work for a select few but I doubt it would help with the problem. There are so many arguments that video games that include violence can lead to violent behaviors in kids, so this same argument can be used against these games. Some violent video games are okay, since I don’t think every person who plays them is going to go out and hurt someone, but very realistic games that display violence, especially rape, can be very dangerous. Can just anyone buy these games? If children or younger teenagers are playing this game it can’t possibly have a good outcome on their future behavior.

I really hope that the Japanese government gets more involved and puts a stop to these games. They should not be sold to the public, or even created. The fact that CNN could not even show most of the things that can be done in the game, even while putting up a warning that the broadcast displays graphic material, is proof that the game is extremely inappropriate and offensive.

I have seen this video before in some of my other classes, but it is still upsetting to watch because it makes you realize that even at such a young age, certain skin colors are still seen as more beautiful than others. One of most shocking parts was when the white doll was chosen when asked which was “the nice doll” and the black doll was chosen when asked which was “the bad doll”. The fact that this message is engrained in young children’s minds is terrible. It is amazing that such distinctions between races are already learned at four years of age.

I am a white female and when I was younger and owned Barbie dolls, I remember that my first one was white but I quickly added all the different races to my collection. I think my favorite one was meant to be Hispanic. I didn’t consider any of them to be “bad” and it’s so sad that some children think this way. I would have thought that more black children would have picked the black doll just because it looks more like them and children tend to lean towards things that are familiar to them. Everyone has his or her own opinion on what is beautiful and what is not, and I feel that skin color should not be a part of this. If you look at the kind of dolls that were used in the video, their facial features usually don’t even differ from one another, which means they are basically identical aside from the color of their skin. And the children still chose the white doll as being nicer and prettier?

The most disturbing part of the video was at the end of the doll segment when the little girl was asked which doll looked like her. It was right after she held up the black doll when asked which one was “bad”. Then when answering the request to choose which doll resembled her, she slowly pushed forward the black doll. She looked ashamed and at first, and almost picked up the white doll as if she wished that could have been her response. This just doesn’t make sense to me. Young children are supposed to be carefree and comfortable in their own skin, and this video shows that that may not be the case. At four years old, popularity and comparisons based on looks generally don’t exist yet so the fact that these children recognize the white dolls as being prettier than the doll they look like is surprising to me. In order for a young child to pick up on a stereotype like this one it must be very prevalent in the media, which is also disturbing.

I like the idea of texting responses and putting them on the screen because it is a quick way to get many opinions expressed without taking up too much class time. It is also interesting to read all the responses so I find myself paying more attention to the lecture. On the other hand, it is also an opportunity for people to put up immature responses in order to make the class laugh. While these responses can be rude, they can also just be stupid, which is what I think most of the ones written about white people are taken as. I agree that the rude responses written about black people created more of an “uproar” and many of the responses about white people were laughed at. At the same time, a couple of the responses about black people were clearly more offensive and deserved a negative response from the class. Like Sam said “if you can’t stand up right now and say in to the class then don’t text it to the screen”. This class is about race relations so there’s no room for offensive comments to be used as a joke.

This does make me think about things I have said in the past or things that my friends have said. At the time no one thought any of these statements were offensive, and some were laughed about. But when I was reading them on the screen I found myself realizing how many things were rude and wondered if I had laughed at something similar said in the past.

Another thing to think about is that many people don’t realize they are being offensive or rude. They gave their honest opinion about what they think it means to be black or white based off of stereotypes they hold or situations they have witnessed. While there were some things that were said about what it means to be white that were rude and may not have been called out, there were others that were just stereotypes that are partly true. An example was that white girls wear north faces and uggs. I can’t disagree with this because as a white woman, I wear north faces and uggs all the time in the winter. I do this mostly because they are warm and comfortable, but also because it’s a trend that it is not exclusive to white people.

I’m not sure if this hits the point of the video, but I think that many of the comments posted to the screen were interesting to read and not meant to be offensive. If these are the posts that are focused on then this new addition to class could be very beneficial because it gives us an opportunity to hear diverse opinions. Silly posts should be disregarded and rude or offensive posts should be called out no matter the race of the person who posted it or what race the post targeted.

I think this ban is ridiculous. At an institution where students are supposed to begin finding out and embracing who they are, the ban promotes the opposite. Same-sex couples still have every right to go to prom together…there is no law stating that they can’t. Cancelling the prom singled out one student and put her in a negative light. It gives the other students an excuse to discriminate against her or other gay or lesbian couples for that matter. The excuse that “it interfered with schoolwork” is not justified at all. A same-sex couple going to prom together has nothing to do with schoolwork, and for the school to make up an excuse like that just to keep them from going to prom is unacceptable.

Given that discrimination towards same-sex couples has gotten better but has not come to an end, I can imagine this kind of thing happens in many schools. I know that it happened in one of my friend’s school because two friends (who are both girls) wanted to go to prom together and were not allowed to. One was a senior and the other was a junior, and after the senior’s date became sick she wanted to take her friend. If a school is even too afraid to let two friends go to prom together, there is clearly discrimination behind their rules. It’s just so silly to me that the school even needs to worry about it; two girls going to prom together is not going to hurt anyone.

I’m not sure what gay and lesbian couples are supposed to do if they can’t take their boyfriend or girlfriend to the prom. It is an important time in high school and you should be able to share it with whoever is important to you. Also cancelling the entire prom because of this is a little crazy. Not only did the school take away a memory for Candace but also for all the other students. When I read in the article that Candace said that a bunch of students would hate her for it, it made it even sadder for me. She must already face discrimination and she shouldn’t have to deal with any more.

One of the biggest issues that schools advocate against is discrimination so this seems very hypocritical to me. I know in my high school there were always posters around the school about discriminating against others, and most schools have LGBT groups. I don’t understand why schools are allowed to make the decision of who can go to prom together, no matter what their sexual orientation is. Society has been slowly opening up to gay and lesbian couples and this just pushes those efforts back a few years.

I think this is very sad. There are equality issues wherever you look and discrimination against same-sex marriage is a very prominent one. Not only is the couple featured in this video faced with such a major problem, but their two children have to witness it too. When you think of all the children who are in need of a home, these children who were placed in a loving family environment should not have to deal with these kinds of issues. To see your parent being taken away in handcuffs partially because of a family structure in which you have been raised your whole life would be a detrimental experience. The United State is basically taking away these children’s support system just because their parents are not afforded the same rights as a traditional married couple would be.

I related this video to one of the points Sam made in class, that all sins are equal. So if you think about it that way, getting drunk and same-sex marriages are equal sins. Why is it then that being gay is the reason that families are being torn apart? I understand that religious reasons can be used to answer this question, but I truly believe that God loves everyone and wants us to be accepting of others.

I think that tolerance is such a big issue here. Gay marriage can’t be banned forever because as time goes on, more and more people become accepting of it. There are so many different types of families, and this just happens to be one of them. I don’t understand how the government can decide if they are allowed to be a family or not, especially if homosexuality does not affect them personally. It just makes me sad that these children are basically being told that their family is not acceptable. I’m sure that they face negative judgments in many other places too. At school they might be teased for having two moms, and they may even lose friendships over it. It must be so difficult to adjust to hearing these judgments when they are towards the family that you have grown to accept and love.

Overall, I don’t think that people should be told how their family should be structured, or that it is wrong to love the person they love most. I do not think that it is anyone else’s business. It is such an invasion of privacy to interfere with a family’s life in this way. It is still considered discrimination, which I don’t think is right. You should be able to love who you want to love no matter if other people (who are involved in your life or not) agree with it.

The idea of a 7,000 dollar sex robot is very strange to me. I mean, I understand why there is a market for it because so much of culture is sex-driven, but paying 7,000 dollars for a sex toy designed to replace real companionship is too much. 7,000 dollars is a lot of money and it makes me wonder who would spend that much on a sex toy. Imagine the kinds of more important things that money could go towards. A silicone woman can’t possibly replace a real woman on levels of intimacy. There are other things besides sex that make you feel close to a person. As for the comment that many women would want Roxxxy to “take over the bedroom chores when the begging got ugly,” I don’t think this is true. I wouldn’t want the person I’m with to use a talking sex doll in place of me, and I’m sure many other women would agree that it would be weird. It brings me to the question that if you can’t have sex with a real person, who has a real body and real emotions, is it really worth it to spend 7,000 dollars on a doll to use in their place?

While reading the article, some things made sense to me and others did not. One quote that I did not understand by the creator, Douglas Hines, referred to potential customers of Roxxxy. "They're like, 'I can't wait to meet her,' " Hines said. "It's almost like the anticipation of a first date." I laughed and was creeped out at the same time after reading this. I really don’t see how purchasing this doll and waiting to receive it can be compared to the anticipation of a first date. I continued to be creeped out throughout reading the article, such as when Hines said his customer base is “Shy, awkward or older men who "have trouble meeting girls."’ That makes them seem incredibly desperate. What will happen if a man develops an emotional dependency on Roxxxy? It could lead to some very confusing and disturbing situations. Also, the last line was concerning: "Whenever she's out in public, everyone wants to talk to her and pose for pictures. It's so cute." That is not cute.

I do give Hines some credit though because Roxxxy is very complex. The fact that she can respond to someone talking to her with appropriate responses in real-time is impressive, and so is the idea to make her “skin” heated. And of course, he will make money off of this product. Although, I do think he could have used his knowledge and time to create something much more important and less creepy. I also wonder what his wife thinks of all this.

This is a topic that most people do not give much though, especially Americans I’m sure, because we are wrapped up in our own language and usually assume that everyone around us can understand what we are saying. We also don’t spend time worrying that the English language will go extinct any time soon. I was drawn to reading about it because of this, and was surprised to read that there are about 7,000 languages that are spoken around the world today and that half will begin to disappear. Language is one of the most important things in our daily lives and I can’t imagine losing mine.

When I was watching the video and noticing that Boa Sr. was surrounded by people who appeared to be her family, I wondered why they weren’t taught the language. Then when I read the statement in the BBC News article that no one in Johnny Hill Jr’s family wanted to actually put in the work and learn the other language I understood. It made me think of my mom and her father, who spoke fluent Italian. He had six children and did not teach any of them his native language. They all had an interest in learning it, but for his parents, becoming part of the American culture, and leaving behind their Italian roots was more important. After growing up around that mindset, he did not think he should pass down the language. My mom’s situation was the opposite of Johnny Hill Jr., because it was my grandfather who did not want to teach the language not the children who did not want to learn it, but it still makes me think about the importance of the culture that comes through language.

I also thought about how lonely I would feel if the people around me didn’t know the language I spoke. This quote by Johnny Hill Jr. in the BBC News article caught my attention: “I have to talk to myself. There’s nobody left to talk to, all the elders have passed on, so I talk to myself…that’s just how it is.” Boa Sr. may have known another or multiple other languages in order to communicate, but she still must have felt very isolated. Everything that is stored in our minds, whether that be trivial thoughts or important parts of our culture, has to be transferred to other people through speech or writing. Without language this is not possible and so much would be lost without it. We don’t think about the fact that these people have a lot to say that could potentially be very important to learning about previous cultures and facts, and when the language dies, so does that valuable information.

I was drawn to reading this blog entry because I do not know much about the full veil outfits and was always just under the impression that it was unfair to women if they were forced to wear them. I knew that it was by choice for many but I had not taken the time to understand this custom. The video clip gave me a different perspective on it, mostly by listening to the women who said that they were going to wear the veils even if a law saying that they are not allowed to was enforced.

I had not heard about the ban that France was contemplating to use against women wearing burqas before watching the clip. I do not agree with this ban, especially the quote from the clip by Jean-Francois Cope saying, “It is a choice that is not compatible with the rules of the Republic”. Who decided this? If France is trying to help women who feel forced to dress this way, this ban is not the right way to do so. Women who wear the burqas because it is what they feel is right for them should be able to without interference from the government. Are they directly harming anyone by wearing these burqas? There are so many important things that the government needs to be involved with and it seems to me that focusing on this topic is a waste of their time and resources. This ban would be so hard to enforce because if women believe that this is what they should be wearing, they are not going to change that.

Even with this different perspective, I still do not fully understand the custom. I cannot imagine having to wear a full veil every day, but of course I grew up surrounded by a completely different culture. I still think that it is slightly unfair because it takes away the individuality of each woman because her facial features are hidden at all times. Their only identifiable characteristic is that they are a woman. There is no other way to distinguish them from others. I think this is sad because I am used to seeing such diversity around me every day and it would be a shame to take that away by covering every woman with a veil. With this being said, I still take into consideration that I have very little information regarding this subject and am not really in a place to pass judgment on it. I think that it is not the responsibility of the government in France to pass a law making the veils illegal, nor is it their place. It is a personal choice that should stay with the person who makes the decision to wear them.

When I think of a fan of a sports team, I can’t imagine them being so racist to a member of that same team. The first thing that came to mind was: It’s your team; you root for and accept them as a whole. No matter where they came from originally, they are part of your team today.

One part of the video that I especially reacted to was when the coach, Luis Aragones defended what he said by saying it was done to bother the other player, just like calling someone fat. These two things are not the same. Both are offensive, but one is racist and cannot be justified.

At the same time this video makes me grateful that this kind of thing is not happening in the United States. Yes, I realize that there is still plenty of racism, but like the video said, the kinds of things that were happening in the stands in Europe would be considered taboo here. Athletes of all races are considered idols and are looked up to by many aspiring athletes. I would never expect to witness the kinds of things seen in the video while attending a sports game. The only discrimination I have seen is to fans of the other team, and while those comments may be rude they are never racist or highly insulting. I agree that this shows that we have come a long way with dealing with racism even though it is still prevalent.

When looking at this issue from the perspective that the rage coming from the sports fan is stemming from a fear that “white people are afraid they’re losing their hold on their culture,” it still does not make much sense to me. I agree that this is not an excuse at all for their behavior. These people are on your country’s team; therefore they are a part of your culture even if they did not originate there, and discriminating against them is not bringing your people closer together. How can you say to someone who is playing for your team: “You are garbage”? To me, that would be considered tearing the team apart.

It is interesting to watch this video because of the differences it points out between American and European culture. It talked about how there are so few black Europeans, which is one of the reasons why there is hatred towards the black European athletes. In the United States, people are so diverse and it is not uncommon at all for there to be black people on sports teams, in fact it is very common. This is a reason why it is hard to me to believe there is racism towards those athletes when they are idols here.