Education, Education, Education! As consumers we are very powerful and we become even more powerful as we grow in numbers. We grow in numbers by spreading the word or educating consumers. I believe there are many consumers who just do not really understand where and how their products are made. I also believe that once consumers have the knowledge, they will respond empathetically and chose to purchase products from companies whom conduct business in ethical ways. Once we have the knowledge we are more likely to purchase products that have the “Fair Trade” logo. As the businesses that participate in the Fair Trade program become more successful the more they will market the idea (which spreads the education – what an excellent idea for those of us who are majoring in Marketing). Hopefully, these businesses become more successful than those businesses that purchase their supplies through slave trade organizations. This will force these businesses to compete and change their ways.

Secondly, as the consumers (United States tax payers) become more educated, taxpayers will begin to advocate more for public policies that demand businesses to operate ethically. This will likely spread like wildfire through the other nations. It will also serve as a strong warning to the slave trade organizations that if they do not change their ways, they will lose a lot of their profits making slavery a thing of the past.

Education in nations where slavery is encouraged or supported is also important. This helps individual people to make wiser decisions. Hopefully with education, those who are tricked in to slavery will diminish – they will be wise to it and not allow themselves to be “tricked”. Unfortunately, as we read in “Disposable People” some people are born into slavery and sometimes they are kidnapped into slavery. It is these people who need help from us the consumers making slave made products less profitable. With the help of sociologists, counselors and humanitarian aid organizations we should be able to help with new ways of producing the same products in a more healthy way.

I see at least two problems with this theory. First, for us as consumers it will be difficult to stick to our guns in buying all the products we need from Fair Trade participating manufactures and resist the temptation of buying what is cheap. Secondly, this all will take a lot of time and time is not something slaves have to give while we wise up. How many lives will be loss and/or destroyed before we solve a problem that has existed since the beginning of time.

We cannot shut down the welfare program all together. There are legitimate issues with children and families that must be addressed. The problem is that we have people on the welfare system who exploit it. They only work as hard as they need to in order to keep the free government handouts coming.

As a young mother, I had to use the benefits of the welfare system. WIC, and medical assistance especially, but personally I did every thing I could to use the taxpayer money to get myself on my feet to where I could support myself independently. This is what the system is designed to do and this is what we want it to do. What we must do, is put policy in place that makes it harder to exploit the system. So that people use the help when they need it but use it responsibly.

There are times people NEED welfare and there are time people abuse the system. It is the abuse that is killing us. Personally, I have no problem helping someone in dire straights … my problem is paying for people to be couch potatoes when they could be out there doing something to help themselves and their families!

In a totally fair world the most qualify candidate would be hired for a job, but this is not a fair world.

You hear all the time, “It is not what you know it’s who you know”. An executive’s son, daughter, niece, etc. will almost always get the job before you do whether you are more qualified or not. Nepotism has been the name of the game for centuries and I do not see how you can change that. Like Sam says, each and every one of us would favor our own son or daughter over anyone and we would likely step on whom ever we need to in order to ensure the success of our child. In the medical field a person must be state licensed to be able to practice medicine. Let’s say my dad is a surgeon. I can go to the finest school to get my degree and pass my tests to become a doctor with mediocre grades. (He may have coached me the entire way through.) And let’s say you go to the same school, pass all your tests and have straight A’s and are totally excellent. I will still get the job before you … cause my daddy will see to it! You are likely to be the best candidate medically …. But I win.

From the Affirmative Action side of the story, there is another little perk that was not discussed in class. You see … The businesses whom hire “minorities” and can prove that (let’s say) 20% of their workforce is “a” minority, they get little tax perks and incentives. Here is just one example of a “perk”. You and I are software engineers. You and I are competing for a state contract to develop some software. Your price and my price are exactly the same. I quote the same number of hours as you. You have a master’s degree and I do not even have a bachelor’s. I am female you are male … I will get the job. Head to head price wise we are the same … But affirmative action in some state bidding processes win every time! Who is the better candidate … probably you with more education? This is not right. It is not fair. Affirmative action does not help the right person get a job. Companies also get tax incentives for hiring a certain number of minorities. This make hiring black, brown, female, white female, veteran .. more attractive to the business.

I can so relate to many statements made by Laurie Mulvey in her book. I am, by nature, I believe a friendly openhearted person. I really do not care what color or sexuality you are. I just want to be friends with everyone. As a white person, I will smile at you (all) as you walk by. I do see the returned exchange from you wondering whether my smile is genuine. I work in retail part-time and I run across all cultures, especially in this town. And all look at me and wonder, “Is she smiling because she is required to? Is she smiling because she is patronizing me?” I see those type responses that wonder whether I truly care. The answer is that I do. I have already gone through (and at times still) feeling guilt. The only way I can correct the wrong done is to reach out and genuinely love all. I am by no means saying though that I know how to communicate totally with you without offending you. I don’t think I have enough practice yet. I smile with sincerity, but not one of you have stopped and said hello. I say hello to you in the store, but it goes over your head without acknowledgement really. Oh, you will be polite and maybe give me a half smile back … but no one yet has stopped and said hello. What does it take to start open communication? Are we both too afraid? Too shy? I cant believe that … is there something else?

You cannot possibly, in a lesson, refer to every possible racial identity that exists when teaching a race relations class. It would take all class to get out all possible scenarios to appeal to an audience of over 300 at a University like Penn State. You must be able to apply what you are learning to your own situation … translate if you will. It is not a matter of excluding once race. This person does have an excellent question, how do you apply it when you are half this and half that?

You are your own person and it is up to you to decide where you personally are in reference to racial questions. The point of the lesson was to identify with the different race identity stages. The lesson covered the awakening and revisioning stages, understand what they are and hopefully eventually identify where you are personally are in your own racial journey. It is up to each individual no matter what their background or heritage is, to decide where you are in these stages. My guess is that it applies whether you are black, white, or part white/part Hispanic. It is meant to help you decide where you are now and where you want to be in the end … and how to work toward that goal. Hopefully, now matter what your race is that is what you are here to hear and learn. It may just be a grade you are trying to get.

Recently, I watch the new Star Trek movie again; yes I am a “trekkie” (if that is how you spell it). In the new Star Trek movie you see Spock struggle with his being part human part Vulcan. If you are a “Trekkie” you see Spock in the original version grow more human over time but never loses his Vulcan roots totally. It is almost like he becomes the best of both worlds. He possesses the “good” of both cultures. It is interesting how this whole thing transpires and addresses interracial relations. In Star Trek it happens all the time only it happens with people from different planets … how is that so different. I guess that is what I like most of the whole Star Trek series. Yes, it is science fiction, but when you consider when the original Star Trek series first aired on television, in 1966, it was beyond it’s time with respect to racial relations. I don’t think many people looked at it in this way, but I do.

With respect to being part of two cultures, you must take the best of both worlds and be yourself. You learn in this class about racial relations and it applies to all races and not just black and white or brown. It is just that those are most common maybe.

I too think that it does not matter whether a white person or person of color hung the noose. Either would be despicable behavior. However, I do feel that if a white person was found to be responsible for this that there would be a lot more yelling and screaming and more civil rights leaders would be plastered all over out tv sets. It would have been the civil rights leaders that were being interviewed in place of the two people they had.

I love the fact that the host”ess” felt as though she was really going to get down to the bottom of this whole issue. Like those two people are really able to discuss how a white person feels about the noose. How does it feel for people of color to automatically assume that it was a white person that hung it in the first place?

I agree. I have never met an African Jew and did not know that this existed, but I guess I am not sure why I never considered the possibility. People in that time were wanderers. However, it does make me wonder about a couple of things.

First, if we only know Jews to be white then does this mean there was some sort of interracial marriages going on back then? What this why seven men fled the Holy Land? Could it be that they fled because interracial marriages were not tolerated and they left to start their own land in which this would be tolerated? Were these seven men excommunicated of banned from the culture all together? Did these seven men just leave the Holy Land voluntarily to seek a better land? I don’t know the oral belief uses the word “FLED”. Why did they flee? Just curious.

You are right to think this is crazy and you are right to question what century these people live in and I totally agree with you.

I really do not know what more to say about this topic that is acceptable. What I want to say is this …

From living down south at different points in my life, I have felt like people living in the south are a strange breed (at least to me). They come across as devout Christians who live and die by the Bible to an extreme that is viewed as FORCEFUL. When I lived down there I felt like I was fighting the Civil War because many white people still treat people of color horribly. If I felt like I was fighting the Civil War then they are certainly not even close to the century that is learning to be tolerant of same sex relationships. Because of their extreme “Bible Belt” beliefs, there is no way on this earth that they would tolerate a gay or lesbian couples attend a prom in their community. They would rather see this girl suffer. They would rather let this girl face what could turn out to be a dangerous situation without any sort of protection for her safety. Meaning, what will the other kids in her school do to this poor girl because now their prom is cancelled. Will they torture her verbally? Will they cause any sort of physical harm to this girl? Can the ACLU help protect her for the remaining days left in school? They would rather force this girl to see her sinful ways and repent! I have a relative in my family who is a “devout Christian” and she goes as far as refuses to watch Harry Potter (because of witchcraft) or even watch American Idol because of Ellen Degeneres (whom she calls Ellen Degenerate). She will leave the room even if a commercial comes on about either of these topics. As far as I am concerned they are nothing but cultist hypocrites!

Based on what I know about the Bible … they are just wrong to FORCE Christianity down the throats of nonbelievers. Why do Christians lump gay and lesbians in with nonbelievers … maybe they are believers? While they are called to spread the Word of Christ, it is not their calling to FORCE it on others. This does not save these people. For a Christian to enter into the gates of heaven, they must TRULY believe in Christ. FORCED Christianity doesn’t work. The responsibility of judgment does not fall on Christians … this is a job for Christ. I would like to know how many sins these people have committed in the last hour.

Now here is why I am not allowed to say what I have just said. I am stereotyping people in the south to be “Bible Belt” extreme Christians. I am stereotyping all Christians to be against Gay and Lesbian behavior. I am assuming that Mississippi residents are part of this “Bible Belt” stereotype. And this makes me as wrong as the people who cancelled the prom. As wrong as the community that is not backing up and protecting this girl. Maybe I am wrong and there is a different reason all-together why this community has so much hate to treat another person in this way. I am just making an educated guess based on my living experience down in the south. But I am just not allowed to say this … am I?

Every citizen of the United States shares in the responsibly to help those in need. Some of our tax dollars (albeit, not enough) goes to helping those who are in need of a lift. We share in the blame in how Native Americans are treated. We make the laws of the country, we hire people to enforce those laws, we vote for people who lead this nation and we are members of this society that need to fix this problem. The issue is that there is a racial group in our society that is currently suffering discrimination and abuse and it is up to us to stand up for their rights. Every citizen who is eligible to vote in this country shares in the responsibility of the treatment of Native Americans or any other race whom is discriminated against!

I think that all of the racial groups have members of their “team” whom have dug huge holes for themselves. It is not the racial group itself that are in the hole, it’s the individual members. They do not represent your race as a whole. White “team” members have dug holes for themselves as well. My uncle spent many years in federal prison for drug trafficking. It seems to me that you and your family are climbing out of a hole of your own. (You said you have family members that have been in and out of jail.) You are digging yourselves out … you are here. You are here getting an education that will take you much farther in life and put yourself (and your family) in a better situation. So it is not impossible to dig out; it may be hard, but not impossible, because you are doing it!