Yesterday’s class burned. It burned deep. I guess that’s what Sam wanted when he said he wanted us to feel something. So I’ve gotten that part down. And then I decided just knowing about this wasn’t my last step. I’ve known about a lot of unjust things happening in the world, but they were too ugly, so I ignored them. One time I told a friend I wouldn’t work for Phillip Morris because they had to be heartless to see such a terrible product as tobacco. Then my friend said, “You eat M&Ms right? You know Mars? Well they use child labor. That’s pretty bad too.” I had heard the words but it didn’t register or invoke a response to change. But this time, I just couldn’t ignore what I had seen. And I’m at a much different stage in my life. I have to do something more. So I decided to look at what other people were doing. This blog entry summarized my sentiments almost exactly. So I decided to share, and maybe someone else will be inspired to do more research, and become a better world citizen.
I confess: I have a chocolate addiction. The idea of living without chocolate is abhorrent to me.
I’ve also known about the involvement of abusive child labor in chocolate production for a few years, and I’m going to admit for the first time that I flat out ignored it because I didn’t want to stop eating chocolate. But there’s something about knowing that children are being beaten and abused just so that I can satisfying a caffeine-craving that seems morally off to me.
I wanted to write about whether avoiding this is something I can realistically ask of other people and realistically ask of myself. Because I know I am not going to stop eating chocolate.
The first bit of research I did was not encouraging. The chocolate companies that were listed as fair trade and slave-free were all companies that I had never heard of before. I’m sure they make delicious chocolate, but there is something about a familiar chocolate bar that really satisfies my cravings.
Furthermore, how can I possibly suggest to you that you should make out a list of names of these chocolate bars so that the next time you have a desire for chocolate, you can pull it out and spend hours looking for these uncommon names? There is nothing satisfying about that scenario.
And ask you to remember the names without a list? Don’t worry – I’m not that crazy. We all have enough important things to remember, without unfamiliar chocolate bars added on.
So I looked some more. What I found was a website called Better World Shopper that has listings of companies that make all kinds of products and ranks them according to five key issues: the environment, human rights, animal protection, community involvement and social justice.
I looked up the chocolate companies for you and some of the companies they rate are quite well-known. I list the ratings at the end of the article.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that Fair Trade certified chocolate – which is different than the ratings by Better World Shopper – is widely available.
In order to get Fair Trade certification, the producer has to meet rigorous production and trade standards and commit to them long-term. The specifics of these standards can be found athttp://transfair.ca/ andhttp://www.transfairusa.org. You can look up local stores that sell Fair Trade certified chocolate on the Fair Trade websites with your zip or postal code.
Also, some large corporations that are known for carrying Fair Trade products at some, if not all locations include: Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops (chocolate ice cream), Costco, Loblaws, Price Chopper, Sam’s Club, Ten Thousand Villages and Wal-Mart.
So, there are a lot of options for buying chocolate without supporting a system of child slavery. There’s no reason for us to turn our heads when we hear about the horrors of cocoa production, and it isn’t necessary to compile lists of strange, unheard-of chocolates just to satisfy that chocolate-y urge.

It hurts a bit to see these children think the way they do. At the same time however, I know that there is only so much they comprehend about the world around them at that stage in their life, and unfortunately they have been taught that to be black is to be bad. To be white, is to be good. Thankfully though, we all grow up. And hopefully there will be someone there to teach us better than we have been taught when we were 3 years old. What hurt most about this video was the fact that some people really have not truly gotten past and worked through the pain and anguish they may have felt at some point in life. I believe that for the most part, I have reached a level of understanding that character traits do not come to a person because they are a certain race. And not everyone who is a particular color is beautiful. But going back the point of certain color people having some characteristic traits, I think that reminds me of people who say, "Oh you are such an Oreo. You know, you are black but you act so white." Maybe that was the biggest struggle that I had to overcome. A friend of mine jokingly made the comment, "Hey maybe you truly are white with w big black birthmark." Yeah....not. I remember laughing about it then but some how now it almost seems wrong. The crazier part was that she was Pakistani. She's not white. I'm not white. But still we got along quite well with our white peers. But again I think my high school was very different than most public high schools in Philadelphia. And the opportunities awarded to me in my lifetime were different than the average black girl's in Philadelphia. And to go even further, Philadelphia is considerably different than the rest of Pennsylvania and the rest of the nation. There is much about me that cannot be categorized into a demographic group based on my race. There is also a few things that can be determined about me, just based off of what color I am. I think that I've accepted it. And the other things that people want to believe about me because I am a proud Black woman, if I don't like them, well I'll either have to ignore them or prove/persuade them so wrong that they would refuse to believe the lie any more. Never, never, never, should we internalize and let fester those evil emotions of hate, denial, rejection, or any other negative sentiment that can be thrown our way just because of how we look. There is so much more to us than what meets the eye, that it would be a shame if we lived our lives in a self-fulfilled prophecy of destruction.

This is not the first time I've seen something like this happen. In high school, my best friend was a Muslim girl from Pakistan. She loved roller coasters. She had ridden almost every roller coaster in the United States and I think she'd even been to a few abroad. But we decided to go to Six Flags in New Jersey. She had ridden this one roller coaster, Kingda Ka, at least nine times before she brought me to the amusement park. Anyways, we waited in line and finally got up to the gates and they told her that she could not ride the ride because of her hijab. It was considered a "long scarf" apparently and was not permitted. I remind you again that she has been riding roller coasters since she was tall enough to do so but this one day the clerk at the ride register decided to make this rule. I was scared senseless and I did not want to ride it by myself but we had waited so long that she refused to let me wimp out now even though she had to sit on the sideline and watch me. So ultimately I rode the roller coaster. However, I was sad, scared, and even a bit frustrated because she could not ride with me. Afterward, we went to some sort of customer service booth where we made a formal complaint and she ended up getting five exit entrance passes but no apology or anything more. She rode lots of other roller coasters that day but not Kingda Ka. I thought it was quite suspicious and stupid that they decided to enforce some kind of new rule that had never been enforced before that day.

I have told that entire story because I just felt the exact same way after hearing the story about this woman being fired from her job. I agree with one of the earlier comments made that the woman should not have been hired if her head covering did not fit with their "look policy". It is very unfair that she was fired for no apparent reason. Although I think the disconnect between the local and higher up management might have been the cause for her termination. I feel like there's always someone from headquarters who doesn't know how anything works on a small scale level but they come in establishing new rules and policies. But that's a topic for another day. Still, had they said right in the beginning, we're sorry your head covering does not fit with our "look policy" this would not have been a problem. Sure that's discriminatory, but it's their store. If Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostale, American Eagle or any other selective hiring clothing retailer decides that they don't want a certain look in their store then that's their choice. If you don't support their choice the best way to show that is don't shop there. Don't apply there. Don't recommend your friends to shop there. They will soon feel the hit to their wallets. It's the inconsistency amongst the retailers and their patrons that bothers me.

Well, I can't tell you how you should feel about it. But I can tell you how I feel. First of all, equality will never exist. I don't understand why people think that would be the ideal world. I don't even understand why people strive to be equal in the United States of America. We live in a capitalist society! The whole principle is that someone will be on the top and someone will always be on the bottom. Being African-American (according to Sam's definition) myself, I belong in a race that is technically on the bottom. And I've seen first hand how disadvantaged many black /African-American communities are. But it's not as though I'm living a life trying to "catch up to the white man" and be "equal" with him. Actually, that thought kind of cracks me up, because that kind of lifestyle is meaningless. But this is more than a black and white issue. You focused on the fact that you didn't want to step on the memory, struggle, and trials of the American Indians. I think that acknowledging the history, the facts, the reality of what has happened in America is the first step to reconciling this problem. Second, is realizing that the people who are on top are not necessarily deserving of the place and status that they have. Like Sam illustrated, it was a matter of who got on top of the mountain first and then they change the the rules to the game so that no one else can get on top. But by some chance somethings causes the stability of the person (people) on top of the mountain to shift, then there is a new reality. That is the third thing I think many people should realize is that at any time the people one top can be on the bottom and the people on the bottom can come to the top. All things can change. For me that offers hope that maybe the American Indian people may not always be the most disadvantaged race of people in the United States.Still, I hold out hope that maybe one day anyone who is not as privileged as the white man in America would not want to enter into the rat race for scrounging up stolen jewels. A friend of mine gave an analogy of a robber and stolen jewels to try and conceptualize the idea of people separating and owning stolen red land. Although the jewels still have value, the way that the jewels were obtained should cause a person with a heart to devalue and maybe even rebel against the improper way that the jewels were taken. Now ideally, I'd like to think that the jewels would be returned but that's not the society that we live in either.

Well, this question was kind of a ramble. But what I think I got from it was that this gentleman wanted to fix the broken system that is "marriage". I put the word in quotation marks because I do believe that many people have made a disgrace of the real meaning and symbolism of what marriage should be. Yes, even heterosexual couples. So in that sense, I do agree. I want to fix the broken practice too.

I personally believe that when I'm married to my husband (if I'm supposed to be married) that I will become "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh" (and not necessarily only in the kind of way that Sam was trying to get at in an earlier blog entry he had made). We are therefore one. Yes, I am the "religious" one. Although I don't like using that term because I'm not religious, I'm relational. I have a relationship with the living and true God, my living and true God. Yes a relationship is personal. And from his word it says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. " I mean there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There was no man will join his husband or woman will join her wife. To me it's that simple.

But, I believe that there are different things gone wrong in both those situations. Marriage is a sacred union. Those who don't treat it that way are kind of denying the special link God created for man and woman. There are a few couples I know that have been together for a lifetime almost and were never even married. Shock the mess out of me. But I think that there could be even greater strength in that bond were it sealed with God. It's just not the same as the life God has for people to live. Yet people prefer ho-hum lives. It's okay.

In the homosexual situation though, I believe there is an unnatural lusty attraction toward the same sex. I know that God didn't create man and man, woman and woman to burn for each other. But the world is so fallen that people have just gone astray. So yes, I do believe people are born into the world with a fleshly desire for the same sex sometimes. It's the sin in the world. But when they choose to act one those desires they are in direct control of their actions. So I think to live a homosexual lifestyle is a choice. And marriage was never meant for that type of direct disrespect of God's word.

And in the beginning of this country, I know that the people said that there was going to be freedom of religion, but in all honesty I think they just wanted to be free from the religious oppression that they were facing in the country they came from. In all actuality, I believe that all had the same mindset and reverence for God's word and began to establish a system that would exemplify a lifestyle like God would have wanted. So, without saying it, they all agreed marriage was between man and woman who were in accordance with the will of God in their lives. Sadly, the world in general has strayed far from that way of life. But altering the entire system to fit a lifestyle completely different from the original portrait of marriage would just make it harder to bring it back to its true meaning. Let's not.

"The most important class ever." I think not, however, I do believe that Sam's 75 minute lectures are a time for many people to think. At first, I found it hard to believe that he had to even caution people about staying in the middle of the two extremes: Freedom and Determinism. In the back of my mind I just kept repeating over and over again, "You can't be serious?! 75 minutes of reasoning as to why the world cannot be fully made up of fully man made effort or fully insurmountable obstacles. But then I came to the realization that some people actually live their lives in one extreme or the other. And I thought, what nonsense! But if I were to say that to someone, he or she would probably have a real hissy fit because of my insensitivity. So I decided to explain my situation.
I am black. African-American according to Sam's definition because truly, I can only trace my ancestry back to slavery. It's a sad fact but I've gotten over it. Continuing on that path, if we trace my history back to slavery, there really has not been much opportunity in my family lineage for us to be particularly advantaged. However, would I say that we've been particularly successful in life? It depends on your definition of success. Financially, no. We're not very well to do financially. Actually that's making it sound to nice. We're poor. According to national standards and such, we're in poverty.But are we homeless, in dire need of medical attention, starving, or worse? No, we're not that bad. Can we live a cushy little life full of advantages that people with more money have? Nope, we can't do that either. But still we're poor. Yet, here I am a college student second year and doing fairly well academically, socially and otherwise. And when Sam asked the question, how many people are going to college with "0" help from their parents back at home, yes, I raised my hands. I don't know if I should have seeing as though they do provide me a place to stay when I get home and they send me care packages every now and again from home just to show me they're thinking of me. They just have not contributed one red cent to my college funding or extracurricular endeavors. And after sixth grade they couldn't really help me much academically because they both only attained High School level education and forgot about all the stuff they learned a long time ago. Somehow though I managed to come to Penn State on full scholarship and am working my way through college for all other expenses. I've had a couple unique experiences with internships and networking opportunities and I've worked pretty hard for a lot of the things that I have achieved in life. But some things, like being awarded a full academic scholarship, are just inconceivable to think that I completely earned that with just effort. (I'm not saying I got it because I'm black and it was given to me, I'm saying that there are tons of other very smart, community service oriented, talented people who are just as deserving of a scholarship as well, so I'm thankful that I got it.) That was just a simple example. A very typical example of a college student. But it allows me to see even there that everything that happens in life isn't just a matter of "my own efforts and choices" or "all the circumstances of the world working for or against me". Still there are many of my peers who don't understand that concept and still want to hold steadfast to one of the extremes. I don't get their mentalities, but I finally understand why Sam has to still teach that class.

When I heard about this change that the Census was trying to impose, I had to admit, I never truly met anyone who identified as Negro. But then again I grew up in a totally different time and so did my parents. They are both fairly young (40 and 39) and I would not doubt that they would not be in a demographic where many of their peers identify as Negro either. Still, I think I can figure out why older black people of color would like to identify as Negro. The word had a more positive connotation than many of the other terms they could have been labeled in their lifetime. But I can not wrap my head around the differences between black and Negro because to me they are the same. Negro in Spanish means black in English. And vice versa. From what I learned from somewhere else, the term Negro grew out of the mispronunciation of the Spanish word negro. So if anything, I would think that a misunderstanding created the word and some how it found its way into our language. Label me what you want I say.

In the article it said that the Census helped marketing ploys, neighborhood planning, and many other processes. And it obviously must be working because there are many companies who are clearly making their targets in key demographics. There are neighborhoods that set up different programs and they are either a hit or miss because of the dynamic of the people living there. Of course they will not be able to target everyone, because everyone in different but to concentrate on the group as a whole is a pretty successful tool.

It kind of relates to the demonstration that we performed in class on Thursday. Our classmates individually could have come from all types of socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds in life, but just based on a skin color they would be categorized in a less powerful or more powerful and wealthy in the larger group. It's a shame but it's the society that we live in. I am not very fond of making people change the way they address people, but making them aware that the issue of race is completely arbitrary would make life a little more bearable I believe.

I personally do not really know what category I would fit into. And I do not want to force myself into one. But people can think whatever they want about me. The people who want information about me just because of the skin color I am will be very disappointed when they come to realize I am not like the average person of my "racial grouping". However, I do not plan to stop them either. There may actually be a social science behind race, but I do not know. I just think that the Census may do a good job of helping more people identify as well as creating molds for people. They are doing their jobs though. It is our culture that feeds into it.

I am very unaware of a lot of cultural differences around the world. I am not proud of that fact, but at least I know where I stand. And I know why as well. Although I've interacted with a plethora of varying people in my relatively short life, I've still only lived in the United States of America. I've only traveled out of this country once and the furthest west I've gone in the United States is probably State College. So I just have not been exposed to certain things. But I reiterate, I am not proud of those facts but I'm aware of them. Therefore I ask a lot of questions. This one article didn't make sense to me because although they did take the first step in asking the young man what he was doing, it didn't seem like they asked for any further explanation. He said he was praying. The article never mentions that he explained what the tefillin was or why he wore it. Now, maybe it's rude to interrupt someone's prayers and ask questions, but I believe if that were me, I'd rather be interrupted in my prayer and given an opportunity to explain an aspect of my faith rather than having my flight diverted, me myself being put in handcuffs, and then becoming a spectacle for a few hours. What he was doing may have seemed weird, but the term "ominous" just cracks me up inside. Like Lt. Frank Vanore, the spokesman for the Philadelphia police said, “It was unfamiliarity that caused this." The only way to stop ignorance is to inform. That is just my thought anyways.

I really like the way in which the Jewish people involved with and interviewed in this article responded.
I think it's easier for me to like what they said because I agree. I especially like the response the boy's rabbi gave. “He didn’t think of the ramifications, I guess,” Rabbi Greenberg said. “You can’t expect the whole world to know what this ritual is all about.” Like Sam wrote, "they were very nonchalant and understanding" In the end I think that is the only way to respond. Sam also went on to write this, "It’s a very rational response to what could otherwise be seen as a mistake made by a rather provincial and unworldly airline employee." Just that sentence alone makes the very uninformed flight crew seem almost simple and the people who clearly could have become irate and upset at the delay and miscommunication thoughtful and wise. And that's probably what the young man needs to develop his sense of wisdom. It seems as if he is in a environment where he can do that as well. The first sound words of advice. “I would suggest, pray on the plane and put the tefillin on later on,” he said. “Pray, and fulfill the ritual later.” Although it isn't likely that that sequence of action will encourage understanding of another culture, it will help him to assuage some of the fears that a lot of people have nowadays.

Word

I can never really say that I have experienced such a traumatic ordeal as Haiti's calamity in my relatively short life thus far. Nor can I say that I know the pain, agony, grief, despair, confusion, worry or anxiety that the people there have to endure during this tragic time of rescues and relief. I can however sat that i have been able to witness a remarkable, sweeping tide off activism and altruism across the United States. It brings a smile to my heart to see such action. I just with it were always like this an not only in the face of disaster.

Of course there have always been people, projects, and organization specifically with the goal and aim of helping someone else out in need. But because of the overwhelming amount of media coverage and published images of this ghastly tribulation Haiti is dealing with, the average American cannot help but be exposed to this unimaginable horror. It is in their face. They cannot say that they didn't know about it. I feel as though that is why more people are filled with a great compassion to show kindness and goodwill to their fellow man. To me, that is a good thing. I do not mean that seeing someone else suffer is a good thing. I mean that this jolt to the world was a good thing because it cause people not to focus so much on themselves but on the suffering of someone else. In spite of the fact that this earthquake has caused more damage of a greater magnitude than any amount of aid can solve, I still feel like many people want, wish, hope, and pray that the people of Haiti not have to struggle anymore.

Now, I must admit, I have given to and I want to do more for the people of Haiti. However, I am no where near the place where I am willing to offer all that I have (including my life) to restore Haiti. But I know a savior who did. Yes, I have faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I do not believe that he died just so that we could all not focus on our "sins". Actually he came to overcome the power that sin had and to free us from that sin. We must first face our sins. So although the image of Jesus in complete anguish on the cross is one that can cause transformation, I think the real transformation begins where we realize that he was in ruin because of our sins. In the end, I understand the point that looking at someone else's sorrow causes you to stop focusing on your own selfishness, but I believe Jesus' crucifixion was to do more than just make you look at his agony. he want you to see all sin was taken upon him and that we could live a greater life because of him. That's transformation!