squirrelsrevil

squirrelsrevil

30p

31 comments posted · 1 followers · following 0

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - Isn't migration c... · 0 replies · +1 points

That video Sam showed that compared the pilgrims to immigrants of today did put things in an interesting perspective. But think about it the "natives" now would be the actual Native Americans then and I'm sure you would be feeling the same way about immigrants. But if you think about it from the point of being a descendant of the pilgrims, then you would be the immigrant and you would want people to let you into their land so you can have the same opportunities for a better life. It is all just a matter of which perspective you use. I agree with the guy making this comment about the fact that they are not identical situations, but I think that the reasons are different, not because we went to war.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - South Park...off the h... · 0 replies · +1 points

Okay, as an avid South Park enthusiast, I was extremely pissed off at the editing Comedy Central used. I understand that Matt and Treys' lives were indirectly threatened but the Muslim prophet was never shown and he said maybe three words in an episode. The news report said the extremist group was angered by Muhammad being put into a mascot costume, but it turned out to be Santa in the costume. They had no reason to be angry and especially to go as far as to threaten their lives. Plus as other big South Park fans may know, Matt and Trey have used images of Muhammad on their show previously, when they used the Super Best Friends before. No one seemed to be offended then, so why the big change now, when even less about him was used?

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - Letter from an Inmate · 0 replies · +1 points

At first glance, an automatic act of compassion coming from men who were convicted of murder seems really strange and almost unbelievable to me. When I think of someone in prison for murder, I imagine hardened deranged men with blood stained hands, who are almost proud of what they have done. But then I read the letter again and thought about it a little more. Then I realized that I was not all that surprised to hear about these men, who are locked away for life, being open emotionally and being compassionate. Think about it, most crimes, especially murder, are crimes of passion; emotional impulses to take action. If anything, it should be surprising to not see things like this from this kind of person. I don't think these men are emotionally repressed and closed off, I think that they are overly emotional and are many times more open with their feelings than most of us in the outside world. I mean, I'm not an emotional person whatsoever. I keep almost everything to myself and only share if its something big primarily. And most of my friends are the same way, guys and girls alike. I guess that if you're in prison for life, then there really is no reason to be closed off, because what more do you have to lose? On that note, I kinda think that might make people in prison more free to be themselves and be free than most of us living in the outside world. There shouldn't be very much pressure to fit in with everyone and act a certain way. I think that it'd be a completely different society in there with completely different rules to follow. I think that something interesting to think about is what kind of person or who do you think you would be if you grew up in a different society? I don't think I would be anywhere near the same person, and I do not think anyone else would be either.

On a side note, I'm pretty impressed at this man's writing abilities and grammar skills. I mean when I think of people who didn't graduate high school, I think of people with poor grammatical skills and probably don't have the best in the ways of writing abilities. I am sure that he's gotten some sort of formal learning during his time in prison, but thinking about people that I know, if you grow up speak with bad grammar, then it usually sticks no matter how much education you get. Especially in prison, where I wouldn't really think that something like writing skills would be something all that important to inmates. Well since taking this class a lot of my viewpoints have changed, I guess this is one I should consider changing too.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - The tyranny of radical... · 0 replies · +1 points

I can understand why her husband dies a little inside whenever he sees someone of his faith doing things that are terrible like Osama Bin Laden. Its the same way for me when I see someone that I could identify with, or someone that other people identify with me, that does something wrong and is shunned by the world. It is probably to a much greater degree than me because not much is known about Muslim culture by most Americans. I know it's not right but when most Americans hear the words Islam or Muslim, they immediately think about terrorists. It is a big problem, and it's a shame that a lot of good people are unfairly treated because of a few radicals, but I don't really know what can be done to fix it. I mean if it were possible for a world wide PR campaign to make everyone understand what Islam is really all about, then I'd suggest doing it. But who has the resources for something like that? Bottom line is the Islamic radicals and terrorists have ruined the image of Muslims everywhere and people need to know that its not true of everyone.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - What might be the seco... · 0 replies · +1 points

I feel like the next step after feeling some way about slavery and consuming products made by slaves would be to make the personal choice to not use those products. And I agree with what Sam said about how you can't just pick and choose between the products that you want to stop using and keep using. If you really feel some way about slavery then stop using all of them or none of them. I also think that thats the reason why Sam stopped before getting to the second step in the process. Almost everything we use on a daily basis was made using some sort of slave labor and it would be virtually impossible to stop using all products like that. But I still think that if you feel strongly enough then giving up slave made products is worth a shot.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - What about the men? · 0 replies · +1 points

Men have just as much pressure to conform to a certain image as women do. The only thing is there are a lot of different stereotypes a man can be, not just the one or two that most women feel pressure to be like. There's the tough guy emotionally stoic man, the frat boy image, pretty boy,..etc. So the focus for men isn't just based on one way a man has to be unlike the way it is for women. The female stereotype of the thin blonde hair and such is really the only stereotype you hear about for women, so that one body image is focused in on more. I think the pressure for men comes from a different place than it does for women too. I think the pressure to conform comes from the people closer to them, like their friends and family, especially their male friends. If a guy wants to have guy friends, he'll look and act like the people he wants to be around. Also, a big influence comes from family. My dad is a pretty quiet guy who doesn't really talk about emotions or feelings and he raised me to be kind of the same way. I'm not trying to be offensive but he thinks that guys who are really emotional and "pretty boys" are gay. So there is pressure for me to be the kind of man that he would accept. The pressure from women comes from society in general I think. All the media images and external influences that are telling them that they have to be beautiful and what beautiful is, thats what the female pressure is. It is completely different than the things that men face, but I feel like the pressure to conform is about equal amounts. It really just depends on how much each individual person pays attention to these forces and how much they care about what other people think of them. Because in reality, if a person does not care whether or not they belong to some group and doesn't care what people think about them, then why would they try to follow the stereotypes and "requirements" to belong here? There's always going to be pressure to conform to the mainstream image of men and women. Its up to the people to decide that they want to maintain their individuality if they want to do away with the stereotypes and the pressure to conform to them. It is up to people to create their own identity and not pay attention to who the media is telling them to be. If people don't like all the pressure, then there's two choices, either just give up and follow it or ignore it and live your own life.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - This is totally off th... · 0 replies · +1 points

The first thing I have to ask about this is, what kind of person would create this game? What happened in that man's life to even come up with a game that solely revolves around stalking and raping women? Also what kind of system would allow this game to be passed on to the public, and even world wide? I know Japan is extremely different from the United States and they have some customs that seem strange to me, but I always thought rape was basically a taboo in modern cultures. Furthermore, how disturbed are the people who actually buy and play these games? I know that video games are supposed to be a way to escape from real life for a little while, but I think rape is a place people shouldn't want to escape to.

Video games are intended to be for recreation and as a small escape from reality. You can be anyone, someone completely different from yourself and do things that only could happen in your imagination. And games continually are pushing the envelope more and more to the edges of what a human mind should grasp. In the entire Grand Theft Auto series, you play as various characters who roam around cities killing, stealing from and beating people. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding those games, but so far have not been banned. Another controversial video game series is Mortal Kombat. There have always been complaints from parents saying that the games are too violent and gory for people to play, but that hasn't stopped the series from being highly successful and having a huge following. In fact, the last game in the series, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics, there were complaints from fans about the lack of gore involved. So for the next release in the series the game designers have said that they are going all out with every violent bloody move each character makes. Games like these are also heavily steeped in activities and sights that no one would ever think of doing in real life, yet we Americans have supported multiple releases of each of the series.

Though these rape games and their creators are disturbing, as well as the people who play these games, we have to keep in mind that they are just games. I think that there should be people speaking out against these kinds of games because of the unacceptable behavior in them, but they still are only games. There are no studies that show that violent behavior in video games makes people more violent in real life. So I don't think that anyone who plays these video games will become any more disturbed than they already are.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - Isn't a person's quali... · 1 reply · +1 points

Affirmative action doesn't really work that way. Just because someone is a minority in some way doesn't mean they automatically get the job. In the case of a hospital, it won't just hire someone because he or she is black, brown, or whatever. You still have to have the right qualifications and skill set to even be considered for the job. Maybe there's a white doctor out there whose a little more qualified than a black one and the black one gets hired, well I'm sure that better qualified white doctor won't have an issue finding a job if he's that much better than the rest of the pack. If used the wrong way affirmative action can be a huge problem in places like hospitals, but you have to think that the people running those places aren't dumb enough to use it in such a bad way.

13 years ago @ Race Relations Project - The White Minorities · 0 replies · +1 points

I really do not see this as that big of a deal. The amount of minorities in this country has been increasing for years and I don't think thats been a big deal. If anything I think this could bring about better race relations in the United States. People would be forced to be around more people of different ethnic groups and have the opportunity to change some stereotypes and make things better for everyone. I really do not think that much as far as the politics will change either, well not right away anyway. A majority of those in power are still white and as long as that's the case then not much will change. If this trend does keep going in the way these people are predicting then I'm sure a point in time will come where people the people in power will reflect the population, but I don't think that time will come until the race relations in the public improve. Maybe that will spark a world wide change in race relations, but hey thats most likely just wishful thinking for world peace that'll probably never come close to happening.

There is a downside of this happening is people don't like change. There's a lot of white people who would be pretty upset if the norms and customs they were used to changed. And that might cause a large amount of backlash and possible civil unrest. This change could take longer than the 2050 that is being predicted. Just because the birth rate could change doesn't mean that white people won't be in power and in charge of the policies that govern us will change. Even then it'll probably take years of protests and equality movements to change things anyway. So things changing all of a sudden in 2050 is kind of a joke to me.

The birth rates changing isn't necessarily going to continue on this pattern anyway. Birth rates for whites could increase to match or even over take minorities again and this report won't even matter. All of this seems to be based on assumptions and patterns that could change at any time. There's a number of reasons why they're changing now, but there's also any number of reasons that it could change and turn back the other way.

Well even if this does actually happen, I don't think that it'd be very noticeable on the small scale. In smaller communities I don't think most people would realize that anything happened. Sure on a nationwide large scale people will see the differences, but little communities especially rural ones probably won't have that much of a change. Daily life for most will probably remain the same.

14 years ago @ Race Relations Project - Is this just a few bad... · 0 replies · +1 points

There's no reason to resort to violence for these protests. I mean seriously, what elected official has actually come in and done what they said they were going to do? Besides the governmental process isn't as easy as getting elected and just changing everything. There's huge road blocks at every level of delegation. But back to the violence, I think peaceful protest is the only thing thats protected by the constitution. So threats and talks of violence are not allowed. There's ways to go about getting your message through to the politicians, but threatening their lives and livelihoods is not it.