I find this blog post both hard and easy to write. I find it hard to write because I personally believe that this issue is being blown completely out of proportion and people are taking something that I don’t feel is as big a deal and making it huge. On the other hand, I see how people can see this issue as incredibly offensive and why people are have problems witht his photo.

At the very base of this I believe that people, especially Latino people, are offended because Latino people are being degraded through the signs. The costumes that the girls are wearing are not intrinsically offensive. Yes, they stereotype Latino (or Hispanic, I’m not sure which is the proper one to use in this situation) to all wear ponchos and sombreros, but that doesn’t really degrade Latino people in any way. It is that the girls brought those signs in to the picture that made it offensive. The comments made on the signs degrade Latino people to all be lazy, marijuana smokers. Grouping them all together in such a way is incredibly offensive and really attacks them as a people. Because they are being degraded as a stereotyped group, people don’t like that. To relate this to class, people in stage 3, those who want to champion ethnic equality, may also be offended.

It also doesn’t help that these girls are coming from Penn State. Some may also view this reason as a cop out excuse, but I fully believe that this is a legitimate part of why the Chi Omega girls are in the national spotlight. After last year’s scandal, I think that the media more or less “has it out” for PSU and likes to make an example out of us. As a school that focuses on honor and doing right (I mean it’s in our alma mater “May no act of ours bring shame;”), it is really easy to pick on us when issues like this come to surface. Obviously issues such as this should not happen in the first place anywhere, much less some to surface, but when they do, Penn State is the last place you want them to be. Penn State, a school which we as members of its community, know is a genuinely good place, has a poor reputation in the public spotlight and the media likes to emphasize and focus on. These girls being photographed doing stupid things like dressing like that and posting that picture online is exactly what the media likes to use to show PSU in a bad light. Don’t get me wrong, these girls messed up. Bad. On the other hand they messed up “worse” because they come from Penn State. I’m not without fault and have done things like this too, so I don’t speak from a judgmental point, but then again, I’m also not the one who got caught doing it.

I think this is one of the simplest questions to answer for me to answer so far this semester. I could easily talk about this question for well over 450 words, but I feel the answer stems from one thing, tradition. It has been a longstanding sentiment in the American public that it is taboo for people of different races to date. I don’t even think this sentiment is exclusively for white and black dating. I believe it holds true for a white guy dating an Asian girl, or a black girl dating a latino guy. This taboo applies across all different races, genders, and even sexual orientations. People like one type of dating, homogeneous dating. It is acceptable to date only your race and of someone within a relatively close age of you. There is a generalized “perfect couple” and what they should look like an how they should act. White guy with white girl. Black guy with black girl, latino guy with latino girl, the world has said is “normal.” A “normal” relationship doesn’t cross lines or boundaries. It doesn’t challenge the status quo. It is simple and for lack of a better word, standard. It’s what you think of when you think normal.

And where does that stem from? Years of tradition in the United States and even the entire world have said that people who date outside their race are taboo. My grandparents thought it was weird. Their grandparents thought it was weird. Even their grandparents probably did. I’m not basing this off solid facts. No empirical proof lies behind my words, just observations of my very basic knowledge of the past. When people from Europe moved to the New World, occasionally Europeans would fall in love with the native Indians and that was taboo. Black people were slaves in the United States for a long time during the late 1700’s and 1800’s and when wealthy plantation owners fell in love with their black slaves, that was taboo. Throughout the late 1800’s and early to mid-1900’s, jim crow was in effect in the south where it was actually illegal for a white girl and a black man to have a relationship. It was not until the late 20th century that black people even gained civil rights. Interracial relationships have been taboo for many, many generations. There is so much tradition that stands against interracial relationships for them to, within 40 years since civil rights, become completely acceptable. I honestly believe they will never be as socially acceptable as same race relationships, not because of personal reasons, but that society as a whole will take a very long time to adjust to finding interracial relationships as acceptable.

I loved Sam’s lecture on Thursday. Although I really wish I could have had him do the lecture in person, I felt that the basic point of the message was still conveyed very well and still had the punch that it was going for.

The lecture really hit home with me though. I personally am not a very religious person, although I used to be. My parents are devout Catholics, not to the level shown in the video but they attend church weekly and we say grace at the dinner table and thank god, etc. I grew up in a religious household and as a result was pretty religious for much of my grade school years and even beyond. Around age 13 I began to question my religion. I quickly lost it entirely and even faster gained it back with stronger conviction because of a youth group I attended that taught the bible. That was around 14 or 15. I attended this youth group for about 2 years until I was 16 when I stopped going. I didn’t stop because I was lazy or didn’t have time. I consciously stopped attending and said I wouldn’t go back. Why you might ask? Because it made me feel bad.

That sounds like a crappy reason, but it is true. I would attend youth group every week and would leave feeling crappier about myself than when I went in. Is that what religion is about? I don’t think so. The way they taught actually made me feel worse about my faith than better. It was not because they taught poorly either, it what they taught. The bible has been a tool or empowering people for over a thousand years now, but it has also been a tool for disempowering them, and that’s how I felt leaving. I felt like I was a bad person, a bad Christian, because I was unable to follow the stringent guidelines laid down by the bible.

This may sound like a total tangent but this youth group, the one that actually cause me to LOSE my religion, was exactly like the ones portrayed in the videos Sam showed. It was too much. Too much God. Some people far more devout than I would probably say that I wasn’t strong enough to handle all of it, but I don’t think so. Yeah I didn’t stick around, but not because I couldn’t handle it; it was because I didn’t want to handle it. Religion should be a tool for good, should be a tool to bring people together and make them feel better, not tear them apart and disempower them like this one did. I can personally speak to the “holy war” aspect of the Christian religion that was portrayed because I lived it and its horrible that people from other religions are stereotyped as “fanatics” for doing the same or even less bad things than the Christians which are stereotyped as “just fine”.

I find it funny that this question is being posed on World in Conversation because I had spoken almost directly about this topic in my last recitation class. I believe putting myself in the shoes of the Native Americans as the “rightful owners” of this land is not fair position to put myself in because as an American today, my actions in dealing with or speaking on immigration today should not be influenced by the actions of my ancestors hundreds of years ago and their interactions with Native Americans.

I feel like the quote “You don’t know someone until you walk a day in their shoes” (or whatever the quote is. its close enough) is a perfect example of what Sam is talking about in this post. Until you’re around someone, socialized with someone, done what they do, you will never have a full understanding of that person. Any judgment that you have about that person or group is simply conjecture, not substantiated by any real facts or experience. I can think of two prime examples of experiences I’ve had that relate directly to a change in my mentality about a person our group after contact.

One example that readily comes to mind for me brings me back to my sophomore year of high school. All four years of high school I played football and was heavily involved with our team during the off season lifting weights and other football related things. I had always been interested in theatre but never really understood it, much less had the confidence to do it. I had always thought the theatre kids in my high school to be talented but snobby and generally not people that I would want to be around. They seemed weird to me. Boy, was I dead wrong. There is a type of acting known as method acting, which essentially says you can’t effectively act a character until you’ve experienced the things that character has. That idea is exactly what I was missing about these people. I didn’t understand them because I hadn’t been them. Sophomore year of high school, I auditioned for the school’s spring musical and haven’t looked back since. Theatre has not only become an integral part of my life, but the people who I had once looked at as snobby and not nice, are now some of my closest friends in the entire world. This example doesn’t really speak to a race issue though.

Again in high school, one of my best friends played football with me. My friend, Bruce, and I are still very close but around junior/senior year, he developed a close friendship with the only black kid on our team, PJ. Although we were teammates, I had never really talked to him. We went to an almost exclusively white school and I wasn’t really all that excited about branching out my friend group to include PJ. I don’t believe it was much about race, but I guess it probably did play a part. Time passed and Bruce and PJ, became closer friends. As they became closer, PJ and I were just around each other more and more by coincidence. I had never really understood why people liked PJ that much until we were thrown in the same circles and realized he was actually a really cool kid. Looking back I’m almost regretful that I hadn’t gotten to know him earlier because he is a friend of mine now and a very interesting person to be around and would never have realized it if chance hadn’t put us in the same groups.

As usual I am going to post a two sided response to this post. Like almost all of my posts, it’s two sided because I feel my opinions might differ greatly from the general consensus. I am also posting this way mainly because of what sam has been saying in class about taking myself outside of the situation and not letting my personal opinions influence what society as a whole would likely believe.

As usual I feel society’s beliefs would differ greatly from mine. I view myself as a very open person. I am not consciously prejudiced; I don’t have issues with people of different races or genders or anything like that. I do my best to be as open to any lifestyle as I can be and as a result feel that I’m not a very judgmental person. In terms of the question I feel that I would be very open to the guy in the video. I wouldn’t afraid walking past him, wouldn’t be afraid to talk to him, wouldn’t even have a second thought about his race. I don’t believe his appearance would have any effect on his approachability. In fact the only real characteristic of his that really distinguishes him from being a “normal approachable person” is his hair. The fact that he has longer hair is the first thing I noticed about him every day in class and although it wouldn’t be off-putting, it is a different characteristic about him that really set him apart and makes you double take about him. Beyond that, there is nothing about him that really makes me even think twice about talking to him. Yeah I’m not going to walk up to him randomly just to say hi, but I wouldn’t just randomly say hi to anyone. If I had a legitimate reason to talk to him, I would. Plain and simple.

That’s me though. In reality, people aren’t as open and non-judgmental as I am. This dude is black. He has long hair. He isn’t exactly your clean cut white guy. To me it doesn’t matter, but to the rest of the world, it might. Maybe it wouldn’t even be an conscious issue for everyone. Like sam has been talking about in class, maybe it would be an unconscious issue for people. Just like people are unconsciously prejudiced, the outward appearance of this dude might be an issue for people. People tend to gravitate toward what is most comfortable with them and what is most similar to them, and as much as I hate to say it, the guy from the video, isn’t exactly your run of the mill person. Even for a black guy, his long hair differentiates him from the pack of the “normal black person.” Between being black and his hair and general outward appearance, he doesn’t look “normal” but I personally believe there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s something I’d notice, but it wouldn’t bother me any.

The Native Americans have not had it easy. They’re not exactly in the best situation right now. People long before you or I existed were very mean to the Native Americans and as a result the Native Americans are now unfortunately, statistically some of the poorest people in the United States. I recognize that. Although, I do think another way to essentially sum up what I just said is somebody else (pardon my language) screwed the Native Americans, and as a result I shouldn’t really feel that bad about where they.

I feel for the Native Americans. Don’t get me wrong. The atrocities committed against them are horrible. They have been dealt the worst situation possible. Poverty stricken, and generally not very wealthy, Native Americans are a demographic are really suffering, and why are they suffering? Hundreds of years ago explorers from Europe came here, settle as Americans, detached from England and were then very mean to the Native Indians for many years taking their land, resources, and general livelihood. They were wrong ones. My ancestors wronged the Indians. Not even. Technically my ancestors didn’t wrong the Indians, considering I’m from Italy and my family came to the United States from Italy in the early 20th. Someone else’s angry, power hungry ancestors drove the Indians out of their homeland, not my ancestors.

There is very little placing any fault of what happened on me. Then if I didn’t do anything wrong should I really truly feel bad for the Indians? I don’t believe so. There is no reason for me to feel bad about something I didn’t do. I feel for the Native Americans now. I know that they were oppressed in the past and that is the reason they are now in the very unfortunate situation. If American settlers had not been so horribly mean to the Indians in just about every way, current Native Americans would likely not be statistically some of the poorest people in America. They have had a crappy history. But (I’m sorry) it’s not my fault.

This all has been building toward something more directly related to the blog though. Native Americans are very poor and, compared to white people, are relatively not getting much wealthier. White people are statistically far wealthier and getting even wealthier as time passes. How are my white people (my ethnic group) going to go from the top to the bottom? Realistically I’m talking about. Top to the bottom is a very long fall in America. It is going to take a massive upheaval to flip white people from the top. My discussion group Friday actually touched on this idea Friday very briefly, but the only logical and realistic way that will happen is a revolution of the working class, kind of a Soviet Russia Marxist revolution idea. That is the only logical way I can think of. I can’t accurately put myself in this situation because it is unfathomably improbable. I’m sorry Native Americans but White people are here and likely here to stay, or probably relatively close.

I am a strong believer and have been even before this class (although I didn’t know what to call it before). When I sit in class and think about the events in my life is somewhat disheartening to think how little of a say I have had in the major events in my life. As someone who has moved seven times since I was born, I believe I can speak to major life events as well as anyone and I am coming to realize the largest ones are almost entirely out of my control.

I think back primarily to my first serious move that I can remember. My memory is very hazy of the first few times I moved, but I can pinpoint the first and possible most important of my seven moves. At this point in my life I was maybe eight or nine, I was going into second grade. At the end of my first grade year, my dad had lost his job and my family was forced to move about 5 hours away from where we currently lived in Rhode Island. At this point I was eight so I had very little say in the matter. My family was moving and I was going to go to a new school. This moment was the epitome of my lack of free will and probably one of the moments that shaped me most into who I am. If I had never moved I would never have gained many of the personality traits that I possess today that are crucial to who I am.

Looking at something that is again an immensely personal decision, I come to realize that my attending Penn State is not necessarily the major personal choice I had thought it was. Prior to even applying to college, my list of colleges was narrowed slightly because I had not received good enough scores on my SAT and in high school to qualify for their programs. Beyond that my list was again narrowed because of personal issues senior year that caused me to only consider four schools. Penn State was actually not even a school I was considering until right around the application deadline when my parents forced me to fill out the application. Again, my personal decision was set up from the beginning. From those four schools I then narrowed them down to two schools, Penn State and Rutgers, because of further personal issues that were beyond my control. The final moment that truly shows how little free will I exerted on an immensely personal and life shaping choice is when I finally decided I was going to come to PSU, or rather was told that PSU was my final option. I had missed the Rutgers acceptance deadline for the fall so my list of college choices was substantially limited to Penn State or nothing. Obviously I chose Penn State and absolutely love my “choice” but looking back I now realize how little of a choice I actually made and how much was already stacked in favor of my going to Penn State.

I think this blog post poses one of the most interesting issues with America. The fact that people don’t want to own up to being rich comes from an part of American culture that is engrained in us by our parents from day one, a term that I steal from a Sam Richards from last year. It’s called the nation of fear and I think it’s self-explanatory. People are afraid of things that they really shouldn’t be.

Is it wrong to be rich? Some people might say yes. I know in my discussion group Friday we discussed this point in depth for quite a while. We didn’t necessarily discuss the political aspect but the social side of “should we feel bad that we, as Americans, are rich while people from other countries are so poor?” I personally believe that we shouldn’t. While it may not be the most politically correct way of saying it, I’m not ashamed my parents are well off. I don’t care that people in other countries are poor and I’m rich by comparison. In fact I am quite proud of being rich. My dad worked incredibly hard to get us where we are. He is truly a rags to riches story and I am more than proud to share that story with anyone who wants to know, but that is not why I didn’t speak up during class. Beyond the fact that my family is not incredibly rich, but simply well off, I didn’t speak because my parents have taught me that it is not smart to boast about my wealth in front of large groups of people.

I need to explain that further though. It has nothing to do with being boastful. I am very proud of my wealth and the things my family has afforded me. On the other hand my parents have instilled in me a sense of fear about being too vocal about the money my family has. They have essentially scared me into thinking that simply talking about my wealth will then cause someone to track me down, break into my apartment, steal all of my stuff, and leave me with nothing, simply because I spoke up in class and non-decrepitly said that I am wealthy. I believe I’m not the only one with this sentiment. As I mentioned earlier, the wealthy people in the class didn’t speak up, not because they were ashamed of their wealth, they were scared for it. Maybe it is a sentiment in the upper and upper middle classes but we, as people with assets want to keep our wealth. By letting everyone know that we have, we put the spotlight not on us, but on our wealth, and that is a scary thought, because it is our wealth to look at and keep, not for everyone else.

Do what you want. These four words have been a guiding mantra for me for a long time. Even though this statement constantly reminds me to do what I want, it also reminds me how I interact with other people. Let other people do what they want. I am only a single man with a finite influence I can exert on the people around me. Especially when dealing with major things, my influence is so minor that it doesn’t even warrant me a reason to try telling people what to do. Correlate that to the question posed online and the same statement applies; let people do what they want. It simply doesn’t make sense to me why people, particularly men, find that it is within their realm of influence to tell women what to do and how to manage their bodies, just as a woman should not do the same to a man. To think that I completely understand how to appropriately manage someone else’s body is completely absurd, especially considering I don’t always manage mine as best as I can. I’d be willing to say I’m not the only man either. I forget to put on deodorant some days. I don’t shave every morning or clip my nails when I probably should and I’m definitely not alone. I’m imperfect. We all are. Why then should we, as men, then be telling other people how to run their lives? If a woman doesn’t want to shave she shouldn’t have to. If she never wants to brush her hair or put on make-up or any of the other girl stuff that I’m not entirely informed on, the she shouldn’t. A man saying that a woman has to shave is essentially saying, “I can run your body better than you, so let me.” Beyond that it is saying that women can’t be themselves if they want to. Obviously society has “norms” that are generally adhered, but these “norms” are guidelines, not rules. Like I just said, if you don’t want to shave, don’t. If you don’t want to adhere to norms, don’t. If society says what you want to do is against the “norms”, it doesn’t necessarily mean that what someone wants to do, for instance shaving their body hair, is wrong, it just means that it isn’t the common methodology. If a woman wants to be herself by not shaving she should be able to. If a woman wants to be herself, she should be able to, although society does say it is not “normal.” Being different doesn’t mean being wrong, it just means that people don’t agree with you and if a woman, or anyone for that matter, wants to stand up against the consensus it means they are strong, not wrong.