First of all, I can’t believe that it has already been over 10 weeks since the disastrous earthquake hit Haiti. When the event took its place, people from all over the world got together to help Haitians in need. I remember when Sociology 119 students collected money for helping them also.
In our Tuesday class, I could still see the sadness from Haiti with Ian’s experiences and his photos. From tents without electricity or water to collapsed school and office buildings, those pictures captured the reality of Haiti very well. Until I watched this video, I thought that Haitians were in great pain after the disastrous event. However, very interestingly enough, I could see some Haitians who are trying to make money even during these painful days. At first, I wondered how they can be that positive in that kind of situation. In the video, entrepreneurs were trying their best to make some profits for their future. It was very impressive to see that. If I was in that situation, I might have just given up to live my life without thinking what kind of changes I can make.
There was another interesting part. Even though I admire those entrepreneurs’ efforts to make money by selling their stuffs, do they really think that they can sell electronics such as computers and TVs? As the narrator said in the video, even before the earthquake, most of the Haitians lived without electronics. Then, why are they trying to sell them at this time when no one has enough money to afford their foods? Maybe it tells that how desperate those people are for making money. For sure, they must know the reality. They must know that no one will buy their expensive stuffs. I guess they are relying on their little hopes for selling them one day when they get really lucky.
After hearing the stories from Ian and watching this video, I was a little bit confused about Haiti’s current situation. But I think now I understand a little about what is going on. My only hope for Haiti at this point is to become a country that runs normally as it was before the earthquake. Everyone knows that it will take few years to reconstruct everything. They have to start everything from scratch. However, Haiti is not alone. There are many people who are like Ian, who are willing to go to Haiti and help them. There are many aids coming from countries all over the world to sustain the innocent lives of Haitians. Thus, if they do not stop trying to dream, Haiti will stand up still again sooner than we imagined. I’m really glad to see those people who do not give up in this video.

For sure today’s lecture was the best among all Sam’s lectures this semester. It was so intense, powerful, convincing, and realistic. His lecture gave me a whole new perspective to see the terrorists, and Americans.
Firs of all, from this lecture, I realized how ethnocentrism is a terrible thing. Because of this concept, wars are occurring constantly and dissonances are everywhere. The surprising fact is that even so-called “peace-loving” Americans are fall into this conceptual error. We say that we are protecting weak people from evil forces that start wars. We say that we are the peace keepers of the world. However, when Sam showed videos of well-known politicians’ speeches about their thoughts on wars, especially about Iraq war, I could not stop rethink about the U.S.
At first, Sam showed us a very frightening video about Jihad; their goals, terrors, famous figures, etc. That video clip was extremely shocking to watch even when I knew how evil they are. All the blood, bombed places, and injured people’s pictures were very striking. I was shivering my body even after the video clip was done.
If you are an American, and a person who has watched news, you would know what the Middle Eastern terrorists are doing to the world. From suicide bombers to teaching children how to hold guns, they are “axes of evils” for sure. However, for those who just think that the U.S. is different from these Middle Eastern countries should have been in the lecture room today. After Sam was done with showing videos of radical Middle Easterners, he started to talk how similar we Americans are thinking and reacting toward this war situation.
Did you hear what George Bush said? Did you hear what Sarah Palin said? How about John McCain’s word on Iraq war? They all were referring God. Then what is the difference between radical Muslims and us? Iraqis believe they are fighting for their god. Americans also believe that we are fighting because it was God’s will. How about that summer camp training Christian children to be better armed soldiers? What is the difference between Muslims and us? I think Americans do not have rights to call themselves as peace makers because we are acting and thinking on the same line as they are. As Sam said, not all Americans think like this, and not all American soldiers destroy innocent people’s lives; the small numbers of radical American Christians are trying to mess up with our minds.
The last question Sam asked students in today’s lecture was very interesting too. He asked if we would like to join insurgence against Americans if we were Middle Easterners. Almost everyone voted for Yes to that question; including me. If I were an Iraqi, I would think that Americans as unwelcome guests to my country who are trying to disturb me under the name of their God and peace. I guess based on the vote results in class, most of us understand Iraqis’ sides pretty well. America needs more people like us who can understand the other side, and also Muslims should learn how to understand us in order to stop this inglorious war on oil, greed, and religion.

As a person who did not fill out the census yet, I did not know how the census questions were confusing. As a 100% Asian, and Korean, I have never had any difficulties when I define my race. I just put a check mark next to Asian or Korean. However, after I watched this CNN video, I started to admit that some questions on census are confusing for certain group of people. As the Asian woman said, when one is half Vietnamese and half Chinese, how is one going to answer? Chinese or Vietnamese? At the same time, how about Latinos and Hispanics? As the Puerto Rican woman said, she defines herself as a white person even when all of her family members are from Cuba. The difference between Hispanics and Latinos are not explained enough either. Some people might get confused when these two terms are put in front of them. Even for students who had lectures about these topics, just like us SOC 119 students, the differences are often hard to see and tell.
I think the most controversial category is for blacks. As the clip showed, the question box for African Americans includes blacks and Negroes. It was interesting to see that the three interviewed black people got mad about the term Negroes. As the news anchor and Sam said in his blog, the term does not offend to some of the black people; for example, old black people who used to use the word for themselves long time ago. People should not forget that census is not only for young people from modern society. It is for EVERY American from everywhere. Do you think that the census makers did not consider about offending some blacks when they included the term “Negro?” They are all well-educated people who know what to do gather concise results from everyone. Thus, I do not think that those African Americans should be too flipped out at the census because of the N term.
Also, I want to say to people who are confused which term they should pick when they define their selves that “You are the one who knows you the best.” As Sam once said in the class, race and ethnicity cannot be defined by other people. If you think yourself as a White, go ahead and place a check mark next to “White.” When you are a multicultural person, pick whatever you think that you belong to. Ethnicity or races are not easy things to be comprehended. They can be very confusing just as we saw in census questions and consequent rages. The one thing that I want to say in my response is that whatever you believe makes and defines your race and ethnicity.

First of all, thank you so much for bringing up this topic! I have been wondering about why Sam is skipping mentioning about Asians most of the time. It is true that he talks lots about Whites, Blacks, and Browns, but not Asians necessarily. At first, I was kind of confused when he used the term “brown people.” Do Asians included in brown people criterion? As an Asian, I have never thought my skin color as brown though. I guess that was why I was not sure which skin color group I am included. Or is he just keeps forgetting mentioning about Asians…

I think one of the reasons why Asians often excluded from the racial topic is because our problems are not highlighted most of the time. Racial tensions between Whites and Blacks are always considered as serious societal issues; but how about relationships between Asians and other racial groups?

In early 1990s, many Asians who lived in LA had to be harmed by Black rioters. Many stores were robbed and so many people were killed by gun shots and fires. At that time, it was a serious issue what everyone was talking about. However, I doubt there would be many people who still remember this incident. On the other hand, I am sure that many people still remember the Black guy who was beaten up by a bunch of policemen. As one can see, racism against blacks is considered by many people. Even brown people are considered as minorities who face lots of discriminations. What about Asians? Even though we are also the people of color, it seems like not that many people care about us.
Maybe the reason behind this is because discriminations against Asians are not as severe as they are against other people of color. Also, I think it is because there are more numbers of Black and Brown people than Asians are. People tend to be focused on majorities than on minorities. Among all the colored people, Blacks are definitely the majority. They take the greatest number among us.

I do not know the exact reason why Asians are usually off the topic. Actually, I do not want to know the exact reason either. The only thing I wish to happen is that Whites give more attention to our difficulties. Even though it is kind of hard to see the difficulties we face everyday as colored people, I hope more people talk about us. Also, I hope Sam gives more attention to Asians. As everyone saw in the class today, in some metropolitan cities, Asians take more percentages than Brown people do. Well…. I am sure Sam will talk more about Asians in his class at some point. :)

I was wondering about the same question. Why people were booing at whites and not to people of colors when they said the same rude stuffs through texts? Actually, when I saw the rude comments on the board, I thought that whites were the ones who posted them. I guess it was because of my stereotypes about whites; most of the time in comic movies, whites are depicted as immature people. Think about American Pie. The protagonists are all whites and all they think about is sex. Since most of the rude texts were about sexual things, I thought that whites were posting them just to make other fellow students laugh. At first, I was laughing at those texts, but it got old so fast and I got offended at them after laughing at about ten rude text messages.
However, I soon realized that whites were not the main ones who posted those rude messages. When Sam asked students questions separately to whites and non-white, white side was fuller with mature answers. The question was “What do you think being white means?” White students answered quite reasonably to the question. On the other hand, when it was the turn for colored students, the message board started be full with immature texts; especially about sex. Come on people. Really? As a person who was on the side of students with colors, I was so ashamed about what was going on.
The strange thing was, nobody booed at those texts. It was true that people booed at whites’ rude texts; but not to those of students of colors. Maybe it was because that most of the white students did not want to look as racists by booing at them. People of our society are scared of being called as racists very much. Even though they know colored people are doing or saying something wrong, they tend not to offend them by using politically correct languages. They try not to step up to point out the wrong things. At the same time, I am pretty sure that there were many students of colors thought that whites were the main source who came up with rude texts; however, it turned out that it was us. Thus, as being one of them, we could not say anything about it. I do not know the real reason why the students in SOC 119 class acted so, but I am pretty sure that the reasons I assumed are right.
I cannot wait to see the next text voting in our class. I cannot wait to see if we are going to get those rude texts again. No matter one is white or person of color, sending sexual and rude texts are not cool anymore. It is not funny anymore either. As college students, who are learning about racial relations, we should be more responsible to the acts that we do; even texting votes in a class. I really want to say thanks to this white guy who came up with this question.

I don’t think this issue is limited just to Whites. Since the appearance of MTV Real World, the U.S. got hooked with reality TV programs. In these programs, the casts look like they are acting as they wish without any planned scenarios. People love these shows because they make us feel like we are sneaking into someone else’s lives without feeling guilty. We also love these shows because we would like to see their crazy behaviors without censors.

A few reasons that I listed above are why almost every TV station has at least one kind of reality shows. Among them, dating shows are one of the most popular formats in reality TV world. Dating is something that everyone does during their life time. Thus, people tend to sympathize with the contestants and the casts. Obviously, ABC’s The Bachelor is the most well-known dating show in the U.S. Even after the finale of this year’s new season, people, tabloid magazines, and entertainment news are still talking about the show. As one could have felt, the power of this dating show is phenomenal. But, why is this show the most popular when there are many other dating shows out there?
For example, when Flavor Flav’s Flavor of Love was aired, this much of attention was not engendered. For sure, much entertainment news talked about his show and how outrageous they were, but not this big. I think it is because of the casts’ skin colors. I’m not saying that the U.S. is full of racists. However, it is undeniable that a show full of whites has more chance to be popular than full of blacks, browns, or Asians. Just like in Hollywood, TV stations are still prone to make shows with whites. Even though the U.S. is a melting pot of every kind of races and rationalities, whites are still taking the majority of population. Even though most of us are not racists, we tend to feel more comfortable and find it easier to sympathize with people who have same skin colors as oneself.

I don’t think that whites are the only people who are making themselves laughing stocks by appearing in dating shows because other races do the same thing. I think people tend to think that whites are more likely to do so because white shows become more popular than others. Also, because of the majority of the viewers, producers tend to make more TV shows with whites. When we see this issue in a broader view point, we can realize that whites are not the only ones. We also can’t blame the “whiteness” of these dating shows because producers are doing so to make more profits by gaining more viewers.

Education is one of the most important things when someone tries to change some phenomena, trend, social norms, etc. Nobody can stress enough how education is crucial especially young children learn about the world and how it goes.
When human beings are young, we tend to be vulnerable to every kind of information. We listen, we taste, we hear, and we see. By doing so, we learn what is wrong it what is right; we learn how we should think; we learn how to develop ideas. This is why teaching correctly and learning in a right way is so important.
In my opinion, schools and parents should start teaching their children about historical truths about Native Americans from their young age. When I was young, I used to think Native Americans were uncivilized people who wear feathers in their heads, bring stone-made weapons, and live in tents made in animal leathers. I used to sing “Ten Little Indians” in my pre-school. I did not know what was wrong about it when I was little, because that was what my teachers taught me.
Actually, even until I came to the U.S., I did not think about Native American discrimination issues that seriously. I thought blacks were the most discriminated people in the U.S. However, Sam’s lecture made me open my eyes again. Highest suicide rate? Highest poverty level? These are the real situation what Native Americans are facing until now. From the time when Europeans stole their Red Land, their territories to stand strong together also got stolen. Furthermore, wrong educational system is misleading many innocent children. As the girl said in the video, I am pretty sure that not many kids would understand what Native Americans are. I am sure that still many children would imagine red-faced people in feather head bands when they hear the term, “Indians.” Even Disney’s Peter Pan depicts Native Americans like that. When the situations are like these, what can our future generation learn? They will only get wrong images about Native Americans. As a consequence, future Native Americans generations will suffer from same problems that come from misunderstandings and discriminations.
In order to disconnect the chains of suffrage, the U.S. education system should be changed. We should not try hard to hide the facts; instead, we should teach our children to see the horrible truths, and how to see them in a clear way. Only in this way, they would feel for Native Americans more easily, and they would try to solve the sociological problems. I know it is getting better, but we should try harder to help Native Americans to get away from the shackles named discrimination by erasing the words selfishness and ignorance in our children’s minds.

This is really true that the discussion about race is always about the tension between black and white. Even when there are several other races and other colors, people tend to pay more attention on discrimination against black people. Actually, I have never contemplated why it is so before until I read this blog post. I guess I was just so used to see discussions only about whites and blacks.
To give the conclusion, I agree with Laurie’s opinion. I think we are concentrating only on blacks because we always have been facing their problems for a long time. Since the starting point of the U.S., whites had inglorious history against blacks. With slavery system, white people showed their animal sides; they did not care about blacks’ rights as human beings. Just because of their facial colors, blacks had to be discriminated, treated like animals or life stocks. They were not human beings, but part of whites’ possessions.
Not only slavery, but blacks’ campaigns and marches against racial discrimination are also engraved in our minds so strongly. Especially in southern parts of the U.S., many black people had to shed their blood for their equal rights. Innocent black people had to be sent to prisons just because they participated in demonstrations for keeping their freedom.
After many years, blacks finally got their firm positions in today’s society. In entertainment market, without black singers, actors, and comedians, nothing can be done. Even in politics, a black guy became a president of white America. These phenomena are pretty different from the scenes that we have been watching since we were young. In schools, we watched documentaries or movies about how black people were treated unequally and how white people were harsh to them. In them, blacks were always the weak ones who did not have enough power to stand strong against the whites. But see what is going on now; without blacks, whites cannot do anything. I guess this is why the discussion is putting all the focuses on blacks; because their images from the past and the present got so much different.
Also, blacks always have been the center of the issue in terms of racial discrimination. It is true that other races or people with other facial colors such as brown or yellow have never been majority of the discriminated groups. More brown and yellow people just became part of the U.S. comparing to blacks. From the slavery years, blacks have suffered; however, in case of Asians, they did not take that much of influence in American society when blacks were used as slaves because there were only a few of them. This is applied to brown people too.
I think as long as blacks are the majority of minorities, racial discussions will still focus on the tension between black and white.

As a speaker who can speak Korean, which is a language that most of the people in the world do not know how to speak, I kind of feel for Sam. To tell you the truth, I do not feel sad or something about the last speaker as much as Sam does. However, it is for sure that I do not feel OK either. The word “last” always means something in every situation. In relationships, friendships, or even in these kinds of sociological situations, the word “last” make us think deeper and more sentimentally. Maybe that is why I do not feel OK when I read this blog and BBC News article.
Last night, I happen to watch a documentary about Amazon. It was an award-winning Korean documentary and it pictured the lives of people who live in Amazon in traditional ways. It was kind of shocking to watch them hunt, make pots with clay from river, walk in no shoes, etc. To people who live in very developed societies, their life styles might seem less articulated. However, their lives looked so fascinating to me. Especially, their languages made me have some kind of emotional sensations in my heart. Also, it was kind of surprising that the documentary had subtitles for their traditional languages. It seemed like language was one of the components that tied those tribes to stay strong together. Let’s think in this way. We, the outsiders, can try to understand and study their traditions and life styles; however, we will never be a part of them unless we speak their languages. As one can see, language is a crucial part of every society.
I not only read Sam’s blog post, but also watched the Youtube clip about the last Bo tribe language speaker. The video was definitely made me contemplate what this event means. Evaporated language means evaporated tribe. I do not think that Bo tribe can hold themselves as strong as they did when this last speaker was alive, or when they only knew their language. It is really sad to see one of the oldest tribes in this world is facing its final years with the death of Boa Sr.
Actually, I do not think there is something we can do about this phenomenon. More tribes are now adapting convenient life styles from outside. More tribes are now moving out to the world where they cannot be themselves anymore. And the vanishment of languages clearly explains this. I hope at least my language, Korean, stays long. After I read this post, I imagined myself being the last Korean speaker. What will happen if I am the last one? I wish these tribes stay as long as they can with keeping their languages.

As soon as I saw Sam's post about this famous movie Avatar, I started to wonder why a post about this movie is on this blog. I thought it was just a film that almost every movie goers in the world have already watched. I thought it was nothing more than a movie. What could Sam talk about this in a sociological perspective? Even though I did not watch the movie Avatar, I know the fact that it is yet another film full of special effects and computer graphics. I know it is made by a hit movie director James Cameron. But what is it about races?
After I read Brooks' New York Times article, I got a brief storyline of this movie and started to think in what he pointed out: why is it always whites who save the world? It is true that most of the hit movies that we have seen are about white people in New York City saving the world and uncivilized people. This trend is not only presented by Avatar. Think about the movies, Deep Impact or Armageddon. Who save the world? Who are the people affected by disastrous phenomena? The answer for the first question always has been whites; and the answer for the latter always have been people who are not whites. In both of these movies, whites are the ones who find out the upcoming disaster, and the ones who com come up with solutions. There is no black, brown, or Asians. It has always been whites. Actually, as a Asian, I used to answer the question why is it always like this for several times. Every time I asked this to myself, the only conclusion I could draw out was that whites have dominated the world since long time ago and people are so used to this fact. The sad thing is that even though many movies feature the White Messiah fable, we do not even realize it. After many contemplations about this matter, and after failures to reach to plausible answers, I think I just made myself get used to this fable. Now, I do not even question why it always goes like this. I just accept White Messiah fables as they were the rules for hit movies. Just like I did for Avatar. I did not even tried to think in critical ways. It is really amazing how popular culture can make people blind most of the times. I cannot believe that I did not see the fact clearly and does not ask myself about this phenomenon anymore.
I hope Hollywood makes more movies with Black, Brown, or Asian protagonists who save the world. I think that if more people question about White Messiah fables, Hollywood would change also.