Our class has made me more confident to talk about race and social issues. Although I haven’t learned a whole bunch of new facts and theories because of previously taking women studies classes, the fact that this class is primarily about race defiantly helped me become more sure of myself when talking about the inequalities and types of racism in this world. In women’s studies you only get to spend about two weeks talking about racial concerns and although I was able to have open conversations about it, I still didn’t feel 100% confident.
I still feel like I would like to take more classes focused on race. (I am looking into taking the black and white sexuality class on campus.) I still have some inner confrontation about feelings of guilt. I know that guilt will not help the race inequality and my white privilege needs to be confronted with responsibility to make inequality less prevalent.
A racial confrontation that I had over Thanksgiving was with an old friend that I used to play varsity soccer team with at Penn State Brandywine. It was 11:30 p.m. on the first Sunday of break when I realized I didn’t have my blog done. I raced against time and was frantically trying to finish my response. After I was done he asked me to read it.
We got to talking about this class and I talked a little about race, class, gender, sexuality, etc., along with other social problems that I observe in my media studies and women studies classes. When we talked about race, he stated, “there’s a difference between black people and n******”. I was shocked and taken aback with this comment. I have heard this said before when I was younger by older generations of people who grew up in racist and segregated times.
I talked with him about how this was very hurtful and sickening. There are a lot of issues that can arrive through this use of thought. Overall there is an ethnocentric vibe to it. If white people (or I guess any other culture) use this because they don’t like the culture or history of black people (whether in dress, music, speech, etc.), it is reinforcing that white is the norm, or that there is something wrong with the way black people are if they don’t conform to our culture.
This reminds me of when I talked about people using white black person and black white person. People shouldn’t be categorized necessarily because of what color they are and to only like other races because they act like yours. This is very close minded and self-damaging, not to mention you can’t generalize all people with the limited exposure you have to others cultures. You will never be exposed to the other great things about different people around the world.

I am not sure if I would want to say hate, but a group of people in society that I would say that I dislike the most are strict Christians. It is funny to me because the only reason I hate… I mean dislike them is because of the hate they create and promote. I know it is stereotyping because not all firm, complete Christians are this way, but typically the outspoken ones are. Being a member of the Queer society makes me very unaccepting of people who can sit there are say that the love of one person to another is sinful and wrong because someone is not the opposite sex is ridiculous. I feel like not only the fact that they think homosexuality is sinful, but that fact that they are so obnoxious and promotional with their beliefs (again I know not all are). I think trying to convince and advertise your religion to others is rude. This may be because I don’t like organized religion, but I think people should have their own ideas and morals and it should be something that is personal and discovered, not necessarily taught. Yes you can be taught manners and that certain acts (such as stealing) are wrong, but someone who is taught that won’t necessarily truly know what it means until they have a personal experience with it.
Another reason I don’t really like strict Christians is because their religion promotes sending people to hell. I don’t think a religion that punishes you from making mistakes is a very helpful tool in living a successful and happy life. If people fear making mistakes they won’t truly be living. It is bad enough religion takes away from the precious time you have on this earth talking about what will happen when you die. Like, we don’t know what will happen. I know it’s scary to think about but stop wasting the time you have alive worrying about it. Lastly, I think I don’t like a lot of the messages the bible has. I know we talked in our discussion group that people aren’t supposed to take everything literally but a lot of the verses are sexist, racist, and anti-homosexual. I know there are a lot of religions that are similar to this, but Christianity is so dominant here in the United States so I notice it the most. I think it is too involved in our politics and I am glad it is becoming less popular for people to be religious. It is good to be “spiritual” if you want to call it, but I just think it is something that should be less about your community.
Also some things I wanted to point out from discussions this week. On the topic of hate, Tim said he didn’t like people around him laughing during the sex talk because it took away from the lecture from him. I felt the same because I hated in class and in other classes that when we watched the videos of the little kids and the dolls, people laughed at the little boy saying that he picked the “good” doll because it was white. Every time I have ever watched that video people laugh at that specific moment. I don’t know if it’s just because of how blunt the boy is, but it’s because kids are extremely honest. The fact that he thinks that way is extremely problematic and concerning. I wish people would realize the harm in his response.

Personally I think I am in stage five. I have had a bunch of experience talking about race over the last two year. I have been an active and engaged women studies student and a huge section in the women studies department is race relations and conversations. In my classes we talk about how people of color have had harder struggles growing up, and how economically and socially they have been restricted from making great progress and success. In taking these classes I have learned about white privilege and the responsibility I need to take in acknowledging the in-justice in the world.

Although growing up I wasn't surrounded by a lot of race, I was best friends with the only black girl at Pickering Valley Elementary School. Later my schools became much more diverse by the time I got to high school and college.Then I had many friends from different backgrounds, but I still, for the most part, was friends with white kids. I didn't ever talk about race so I feel like when I was younger I would have been at around stage four. After all my experiences in women studies, being a teaching assistant where I would lead race discussions, and taking sociology 119, I feel confident in race.

Sometimes I have a hard time separating feeling guilty with taking responsibility. I feel guilty for what has happened and this is not the right step to fix the problems we have. Feeling guilty can lead to less open and honest discussion groups and having people avoid them. The people I most often find to be in the same race stage are the people I meet in women studies classes. They all have more background knowledge and respect for one another. They also don't make assumptions or for the most part generalize and stereotype about peoples races.

I think I will stay in this stage for the rest of my life. I can't picturing going back to a point of being closed minded or ignorant to the sensitivities to consider when talking about race. I wish more people in my family were in the same phase. I feel uncomfortable a lot with small comments people say sometimes and now a days I don't surround myself with people that offend me. This causes some problems with my dads side of the family, I when I date people that aren't white, but maybe with more help from me my family can learn to be more excepting. If not at least my kids won't have to deal with this problem from me when their growing up. Hopefully whoever they end up won't have close minded family.

I think being a homosexual is looked at as a more intense sin because it threatens Christianity the most. In order for the religion to survive and prosper it needs more people to follow it. If people accept gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people it threatens the continuation of faith. People sometimes don't realize that churches are like businesses. A business owner is not going to make choices that can hurt their sales and profits. I think it is also looked at more severely because unlike the other since you can't really turn being homosexual off or just stop doing. It's not a choice like the other sins. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony are all fine in moderation. I dislike organized religion. I think people should have their own personal beliefs and moral guidelines. To make religion and your spirituality public, to me, is the first way to create sin. I say this because I feel like people who stress religion almost come off as snobbish and seeming like they believe they are better than everyone else, trying to change other people when for the most part they most likely are living a very satisfying life.
I think this ties in with the other blog question about choice. People want homosexuality to be a choice because they want to put blame in people and make them conform to the Christian ways. This probably helps their conscious since if their beliefs make certain people spend all of eternity in hell, then it better be those peoples faults, not theirs.
It's funny reading people's posts because they keep saying being homosexual is a choice. I though about what Sam said in class that very morning. Why would people make a choice that socially, economically, and spiritually hurt you. Especially back when people would get killed for being gay. Why would somebody just choose to die over living a good life. I doubt people would pick to have a partner that they couldn't financially be benefited by.
People get afraid of things they don't understand. Women and men who are "heterosexual " tend to feel uncomfortable around people who are gay. I had a talk with a class mate who said she was uncomfortable about lesbians. She was afraid they would try and hit of her. I tried to explain that like in heterosexual encounters, not every man is attracted to every female and every female is not attracted to all males. Homosexuals often get a label of being over promiscuous.
People keep saying LGBT rights will happen but why aren't they here yet? It would benefit the world is so many ways. (And the more homosexual relations the better, we have too big of a population as it is.)

I think there is an effect to every choice you make. By not purchasing a new phone you are creating less demand for phones which is going to mean less use of slave labor. Whether this is completely a positive thing is another question. I had a debate in my Women's Studies class about the use of sweatshop labor in Wal-mart and Nike's companies. We learned they participated in sweatshops and agreed we should not buy from them. Someone then pointed out that, that was the laborers source of income and we didn't know what would happen if they couldn't get the few dollars they earn each week. Same possible consequences to the people who make the parts in cell phones.
Back to the point of demand, your dilemma is similar to my vegetarianism. I don't purchase meat, I would however eat it if it were going to be wasted. People say there is no point of not purchasing meat because it is never going to stop getting produced. This may be true but if everyone (or a large number of people) stopped purchasing meat, then the demand would shrink and they wouldn't kill so many animals, which would largely decrease the amount of pollution in the world.
Also by your statement that you do not want to purchase a new phone because of the use of slave labor is going to get some attention and awareness. Many people, including most of our class before Sam enlightened us, don't know phone parts are made by slaves. Your choice to not get a new phone (which I must say is pure talent because I've gotten at least six new phones in the last two years because I always lose them), is going to probably work in a domino effect, and make some people cautious in their phone selection. My choice not to purchase meat has only changed one friend to follow foot, but each person who turns vegetarian is estimated to save fifty animals each year so it all makes a difference.
One big problem that people have in making sacrifices for a cause or good charity is they lack to see the direct effects and accomplishments from their actions. If people don't see change they are less likely to stop doing the harmful things they enjoy. We need to work on learning empathy. Also overall affects on the global market show that as Americans, the United States as a whole has a lot of control in the worlds market so we do have a lot of control in the purchases we make. In the economics article we had to read for quiz two it shows the United States has the highest Gross National Income so since we have so much market power, we could definitely see change.

Man this is going to be bad after I had just said in my discussion group two weeks ago that I didn't like stereotypes and that people shouldn't judge others off what they look like. So for the first black male with dreads I am going to make a judgment that he is very laid back and easy going. Not from this video, but when I see him in class he is always leaning back and looking very comfortable. From his, "life is good" shirt he not only seems to be positive, but open for some silliness in his life. Not that anyone in the world is not big into music, but the presence of the beats makes me think it is an important part of his life and that he is almost never without some beats. Since he's wearing a sports hat I assume he watches sports. I asked my roommate what sport the team is and she thinks its most likely a basketball team. At first I thought this was just because she could see he was black, but she said it was because basketball had a lot more teams that she doesn't know the name of. That or baseball. The next guy also seems to have a lot of passion for music. His shirt tells me he is probably very goofy and silly when you get to know him. Random assumption but maybe because he is chewing on something he could be quitting smoking or trying to kill an oral fixation (or he just likes to chew on things). Both the first two guys didn't smile so that makes me feel like they are maybe trying to seem tough, feel awkward, or are possibly shy. The only girl in the video was very smiley and she looked on the preppy side. Maybe not preppy, but she looks like she dresses very nicely. The white male in the video looks like he's shy. I have no idea what about him makes me think that, but I see it. Also his sweatshirt makes me think that he has had it for a very long time because I can't see college guys shopping at Aeropostale. Maybe this means he doesn't really care what he wears as long as its comfortable. Also I could assume he's not materialistic. He doesn't come off as being tough, but maybe because he seems to look a little sad. The black male in the red looks like a strong guy. Not only does he seem strong, but he has a swag about him that makes him seem like a bad ass. He is wearing a sports shirt which makes he picture him definitely playing some sport. The guy in the black shirt next to him was hard to judge. He wasn't wearing anything that really revealed much details about his personality, but he looked nice. Lastly, Sam's wife looked very happy. Sam and her ride the HP bus with me sometimes and my roommates and I have discussed that she looks very healthy. She looks like she takes care of herself and that she is happy to be helping out with our sociology 119 class. Really I will never know what any of these individuals are like unless I talk and get to know them. I guess people can never re-frame from making judgments or assumptions about others. That is what helps us make life simpler. I guess when I was in my group and I said I didn't like or think there had to be stereotypes I was just thinking of the bad ones.

I really enjoyed the speaker we had come in. I thought it was really brave of him to come and speak to our huge class. One question I was concerned with was his comment about the role of women. My basic understanding of what he said was that women needed to wake up, get a plan to get together and get the men to talk things out and make things happen. He described them as being warriors and having such great powers (with his use of describing the sweat lodges and how they give men subsistence and make them reborn), but then it sounds as if their roles are just to stand by and not have any social, political, or physical power or value. I understand being supportive and supporting your loved ones and family members (whether it be a women supporting the husband, brother, or father), but it just seemed like they should have more influence and be included in important decisions and change. At one point Sam mentioned that Native American women are among the most sexually abused. I feel like this statistic shows women should have just as much support from men to start support groups, abuse hotlines or counseling, and overall they need to take initiative to make changes they want to see. Besides domestic changes I don't understand why the women wouldn't be included in community decisions that affect them and their families. Maybe I just understood wrong, but this is how it seemed. I talked to a girl sitting next to me and she has worked and stayed at reservations for over a month at a time and when I mentioned this concern she assured me that women were highly respected and cherished. I guess my question is.. does he feel there is more than what he mentioned in class to the roles of women in his community? I don't mean to sound rude or insensitive because I've been informed of just some of the pain and suffering that his people have been through and I could not even begin to understand or relate to it...and I don't know if his comment is just tradition and culture shadowing the roles that women play in his community.. but there seems to be a need to empower and give more important duties to women that are unrelated to domestic work.

This also makes me think of an interesting connection I made with some friends about the oppression of women and the Christian religion. Here are some quotes I gathered..

"I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan." —1st Timothy 5:14

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." —Ephesians 5:22

"Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." —1st Corinthians 11:9

"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." —Titus 2:4,5

"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." —1st Corinthians 11:3

"She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life." —Proverb 31:12

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” This verse -- Deuteronomy 22: (Can't wear pants).

I know people say not to take bible verses literally.. but what is the message here about women. I want to sign up for a religion class and maybe I will get the understanding of this nonsense.

I think we do have to take responsibility for those less fortunate. I think most people don't agree with this because we are taught to want to strive, succeed and live the American dream which includes having a lot of money. (From reading some other posts some people think they do need to take responsibility too. Of those who will actually within their life times? I don't know.) I wonder if I myself will even. From taking women studies, sociology, and different media classes, I am taught there is so much injustice in the world. I learn something as simple as being white gives me advantages and sets me ahead of other people. I was able to grow up in a nice area, where I was able to play sports, get a really good creditable education, and have parents there for me when I needed them. I always had plenty of good healthy food and almost everything I needed and wanted. I did realize this then because I grew up in Chester Springs where there is a huge amount of the nations wealth. I always thought I was poor compared to my friends and I always wished my parents would make more. Now I feel embarrassed because I realize how good I had it. Would I have gave what I had up then? No. Would I now? it is really hard to say. I realize I am selfish and that is human nature, but it is really challenging to act without having your self interest at hand. Well we can only see in the future whether or not we all truly give to the less fortunate. I think one of my biggest attempts to give back is by not having a kid. I think having kids.. or at least more than one kid is kind of selfish because we have a problem with over population. This adds to the lack of resources and takes away the quality of life for other species and makes it harder for the most needing people to get the basic things they need such as water. Some of the main problems we have come from the way we package products and foods, the foods we eat and how we centralize our meals on meat (meat production is one of the worst pollutions there is on earth. To help with this I have become a "vegetarian". I don't purchase meat, although I would consume it if someone was about to throw it away and I was hungry or could save it for later.) We would all be dead if the rest of the world lived how a typical American lives. That has to say a lot about how we live our lives.

Lastly, I wanted to share something we talked about in my world-in-conversation that I was going to ask our discussion group, but we ran out of time. So some people were using the term "white-black guy" and almost everyone knew the term and used it. Our group facilitator asked about it and I gave my opinion that I thought it was a bad term to use. People call black people "white" when they use nice grammar, dress in a very socially acceptable way (not wearing over sized baggy pants or "ghetto" wear) and they mean it as a compliment. I think it is problematic because you are crediting a black persons acceptance from you based on their ability to act like you, or "white". It also reverses when people use the terms black-white guy. Often I see this as being negative toward white "wiggers" because they are "acting black". I just think the terms shouldn't be used and I am looking forward to asking my discussion group what they think of the terms. :-)

Most of the ideas I had that explained why there are such differences in salaries among races were discussed in class. (So I will not only comment on my similarities, but my differences.) Other than Asians just being “naturally” smart, I think it has more to do with their educational structure. I have made a close friend this semester that is from China and she told me how school was for her. Each week/month all the grades of every student were posted publicly with each individual’s name. She said if you were in the bottom or top rankings two or three times in a row, you were moved to a higher or lower class. The classes were separated into A, B, and C. This competitiveness symbolizes the structure of our economic income variances.

Next, I agreed with the girl in the back of the room that stated “white people are ahead because they have more time to establish themselves”. To support that I would tell you to look at the amounts of people who own their homes and the amounts of money that are left in inheritance. There are very few people of color who own their homes. Sam said “white privilege” wasn’t enough to explain the differences but at the root, I think it is. Think about the majority of people running corporations, having their own businesses, in higher education. Even fake portrayals in the media show a majority of the financially better off people to be white. Having role models and a sense that you can be something is important when you’re trying to succeed. I have read studies that are done when three actors are hired to go to a job interview and they all have the same background and resume and the white guys always get hired over others races. There is internal racism all over and it makes me come back to the quote by Upton Sinclair, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it”. (I think I said the quote was by someone else last time). Why would whites recognize and try to change the system when it is benefitting them?

To continue I also firmly agreed with the two students who were from bad neighborhoods with single parent households. When people are living pay checks to pay check it is impossible to invest and develop wealth. When you are surrounded by drugs, violence, and an education that doesn’t offer you the individual attention you need it is hard to find an inner force to tell you to push on and succeed.

Something that ties into this is the topic of reparations for slavery. I sometimes get into heated discussions about how I agree and think reparations should be given for people who have ancestors that were forced into unpaid labor. Most people say it’s not fair and they didn’t contribute to slavery so why should others get advantages. My argument back is that Sam’s activity in class showed you your advantages. One white middle class male tried to argue with me and I asked him: did you have a safe neighborhood to grow up in, did you have a parent to watch you, cook for you, take you to sports practices and games, have parents that could lend you money to experience things growing up, did your school or neighborhood even have opportunities like this to help you grow. Little things like this are privilege because a lot of people, minorities especially, don’t have the time and opportunities to give this to their kids or themselves.

Ah where to start. So I don't shave and in general I am discouraged and "punished" for this in my everyday routines. My reasons for not shaving started in my Women’s Studies class (oh no, the stereotypes of angry, hairy, feminists continues), and I continue to not do so for three main reasons. First, a statistic was done and a woman who shaves will spend more than a year of her life shaving and it will cost about $10,000 to buy razors and shaving creams/lotions. Second, I choose not to shave because I feel that it is an unfair beauty standard and since I've stopped I feel as though my hair has become sexy and beautiful to me. Most people don't agree but both female and male partners I've had don't mind the hair and still cared about me regardless. Finally, I choose not to shave because I like to be different. As I said in class it is really hard to not shave and I am proud to be strong enough to resist conformity. Granted it is still horrifying (I feel like I blacked out when I was talking to Sam. I probably repeated myself and said um 30 times..) I think the message that I get from men (actually mostly the media) saying I have to shave makes me just not want to even more. Like when your parents tell you not to do something, you just want to do it even more. Everyone always asks me if I'll shave again and I really feel like I won't. I am discovering myself right now and this might be a just a phase I'm going through but hey, it is what
I want.
I hate gender norms and I am always fighting them in my life. Whether its defending my nephew from my brother when he wants to play with his sisters toys, or friends saying some guy is acting like a girl because whatever.. I am always making people explain why they think something is masculine or feminine.
I hate it because I feel like people always say you should do what you want and make yourself happy first. Like no, you’re not doing that. Even a lot of girls will talk with me and say oh I wish I could do that and not shave but I just really like having smooth legs.
Even talking in our discussion groups everyone kept being like do what you want, but then would enforce stereotypes and false parallels. We need to work on this my friends and one of the ways to start is by acknowledging the problem. We don’t do what we want. It is hard to fix problems like this when you get rewarded for following the norms and rules. I understand why girls shave, you’re told you’re sexy, smooth, and get more positive attention then I get. (The “Oh, that’s cool”.. awkward silence).