Like so many others posting about this topic here, I do not find the picture to be in any way, shape, or form, to be offensive. You can not attend one large scale Halloween party and not find at least one person dressed to be a Mexican. It just happens. Similarly, it is no secret that Mexicans are stereotyped to be pot-smoking lawn-workers. This is nothing new. I find there to be nothing wrong with any aspect of this picture whatsoever, but for argument’s sake, I will attempt to play devil’s advocate and explain why some people get their panties in a bunch over this picture: the signs (duh), and because it’s at penn state.

Without the two signs, this picture would be nothing but a bunch of girls dressed up as Mexicans. However, some wanted to differentiate themselves. Many people hold up signs as part of their Halloween costumes, to get laughs if nothing else. And the vast majority of people at that party probably laughed at that sign when they saw it. The plays on words are almost clever. But the signs 1) portray something that is illegal (pot smoking) and 2) reinforce the stereotype. But what’s odd to think about is this: if the two girls didn’t have signs in their hands but instead each had a blunt in their mouth and were holding shovels and rakes, would it be as offensive? I do not think that it would be at all. That would just be two girls among many dressing up for Halloween as Mexicans. But the signs, and the fact that these two girls were in the center of the group, almost make it seem that it is the sorority’s official stance on Mexicans, if such a thing exists (it does not). If it was simply dressing up and portraying these stereotypes, it would not be bad, since that is showing it…the signs tell it. A similar situation would be a comedian saying “All Mexicans are dirty yardworkers.” This is not funny…but when told in the context of a joke it is. Same concept, they are telling to reinforce the stereotype rather than showing.

The other reason people believe that the picture is so offense is frankly because it is just another way to demonize Penn State. The media and various people on the internet seem like they have nothing better to do than demonize a school that’s already been brought to shit. If this were to come out of Bloomsburg or Millersville or Kutztown or a school like that, no one would care at all. It probably wouldn’t even make the newspaper on that campus. But since it’s Penn State and lord knows we are all pieces of shit, why not blow this out of proportion and make our student body seem racially insensitive?

I think that the two main reasons people have a hard time with interracial couples, which is incredibly obvious, is that the person does not want a social stigma to be attached to him or her, and second that they just legitimately don’t want to do it. I also think that depending on the individual, some people will weigh one of these factors more importantly than the other. For instance, I would not mind the social stigma as much because we have progressed as a society (more or less) to the point where interracial relationships are being more and more accepted, while not entirely so. There are a lot of interracial celebrity relationships out there (for example, Seal and Heidi Klum, Venus Williams and Hank Kuehne, Roger Ebert and Chaz Ebert, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Rick Fox and Eliza Dushku, Paul Wall and Crystal Slayton, Naomi Campbell and Vladimir Doronin, Matt Stone and Angela Howard, Lewis Hamilton and Nicole Scherzinger, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Brittany Daniel, etc) and these interracial celebrity couples who are always in the spotlight rarely if ever get any shit for their relationship. So I don’t really think it’s a big deal if it were me. But a lot of people do have an issue with it if it’s a white girl and a black guy. Some people will think that the black dude is “corrupting” her or swooned her by using his ebon charm, and of course, there is the prevailing notion of “once you go black…” But to cut to the chase, if it were me, I would not have a problem with society’s views of it. More pertinent to me, however, is just that I do not find myself attracted in the least bit to black girls or really anything other than white girls. As such, I would be hard-pressed to engage in a relationship with a black girl. I’m assuming the reason that most people tend to date within their race has to do with societal impressions when growing up, and the atmosphere you were exposed to. And while I am the furthest thing from a scientist, another hypothesis about this issue is one of evolutionary necessity. Interracial relationships and contact did not happen on a large scale until recently, when looking at it on a evolutionary time scale. For the first however many years of human existence, all people stayed with their group and didn’t have the means nor the reason to migrate about. But, what evolutionary sense would it make to breed with someone of a different race? Blacks are well-equipped for hot arid enviornments, whites for cold temperatures. Mixing the two would not benefit one or the other and would just be silly, evolutionarily. I’m not saying it’s bad, because we’ve outgrown the need for it by and large, but in a strictly primal way it kind of makes sense.

I definitely do believe that some of the stages of racial identification are better or worse than others. Stage 1 to me is perhaps the most positive, as its people who are in it are very naïve and have not been “corrupted” by society yet. I believe that if everyone was in this stage, people would get along a lot better, as everyone wouldn’t even really realize that there are different races or whatever. Stage 2 is not necessarily bad in and of itself, but it is the start of something bad. People in stage two are beginning to question things and the seeds for dissonance and rebellion are forming, but not yet totally formed yet. So it is still technically not too bad, but inevitably will. Stage three is by far the worst one. People in this stage are very annoying to be around, that I know from experience. Black people in this stage will blame everything on racism and the white man. It really sucks and if I were black I would probably find it just as annoying. The fact is that they live in society with us and have to get used to it; some things are just not fair. But it is not the fault of every white person, talk to the politicians and the ones in power if you want to blame somebody. Stage 4 is really good, since the person is out of the third stage and begins to realize that their old antics were not exactly good. I can really respect people in this stage, because even if they were a black panther or whatever, they realize that they were at one point pretty ridiculous and have since grown out of that and dislike others who are in it. Then stage 5 is also good, as they appreciate everybody for who they are and want to get rid of the racism and problem entirely, instead of just getting rid of the racists and people who make life unfair. This phase is basically just the knowledgable form of a stage 1’er. I like to think of these stages similar to adolescence, in terms of how annoying someone is to be around. Stage 1 is like an infant. Almost everybody likes babies, except for when they cry. Stage 2 is someone who is older than an infant but not yet a teenager. They can still be brats, but for the most part its pretty innocent. Stage three is the rebellios teenager and they really are frustrating to be around. Stage 4 is when the person has gotten out of that phrase and is an adult, perhaps late high school or college. And stage 5 is a “grown up”, who are mostly pretty pleasant, when compared to rebellious teenagers. It goes from good to shit and then to good again, and I think that these two things parallel eachother very appropriately.

The issue of immigration and how we should deal with it is a perplexing one. On the one hand, it seems a bit unnatural for one human to tell another human where he or she can and can not live. After all, in the beginning of humanity, there were no “boundaries” that you couldn’t cross. Tribes have always held their ground, but until recently, there wasn’t a concrete rule that you can not live here. As such, I propose a solution that will benefit those illegal aliens who have been here for a while, while still keeping our borders secure and illegals out. First thing first, I think that illegal aliens that get caught trying to cross the border, or who have moved here recently, should be promptly rounded up and sent back to Mexico. That is not to say that the government conduct witch hunts or patrols looking for illegals, but if they happen to get caught or end up in the hands of law enforcement, then they should be sent back, as they are here illegally. However, I do think that there should be a caveat to this. That caveat would be to allow ones who have “substantially settled” in the country. I do not know exactly what I mean by this, but it would be something along the lines of Mexicans who have successfully assimilated and been here for a while, and deporting them would be actually beneficial to their community. This is not to say that every Mexican coming over here that gives to charity or acts nice should be granted amnesty…not at all. But certain ones that have proven to be exceptional should be allowed to stay. In addition, children aged 4-18 should be allowed to stay with both parents. However, the child must have been born in the United States, and it is up to the parents to prove that, if they get caught. That way, a parent can not just bring a kid with them so they have the right to stay. If the child is under 4, then he or she, along with the parents, is going right back to Mexico. If the child is over 4 and not born in the United States, then the parents can either put the child up for adoption, or everyone can go back to Mexico, insert 25 cents, and try again. But of course, if the parents are “substantially settled,” then everyone can stay. Back to this point, I’m thinking that they would have to have at least 10 US Citizens vouch for them to be allowed to stay, hold hearings with appropriate officials, and go through the entire naturalization process, and pay a very hefty fine.

My initial reactions after seeing this video and the people in it are as follows. Take everything in this blog post with a grain of salt as I am just doing as instructed:
Black guy #1: Black but acts very white for a black person. Probably has a lot of black friends who also act very white, and a few white friends who are proud to have a black friend. Not “thug” or stereotypical black person at all for many reasons. One, his hat. Not sure what it says but he doesn’t rock it like a G would, nor is the text the same as a G would have. His shirt has humor and a banana on it, neither of which a true g would be caught dead wearing. His glasses also do not fit the thug profile. At first gives off the appearance of a thuggish black dude, but clearly is not.
Black guy #2: Goofy black dude, probably likes skateboarding and Tyler, the Creator. Has nicer Beats headphones than black guy #1, but that’s not saying much because Beats suck and are tremendously overpriced. Dreads give off an impression of non-conformity, and whatever he’s chewing on looks tasty. Would definitely be friends with black guy #2. White people probably always want to be friends with black guys 1 and 2 so they can say they have black friends, even though these are not stereotypical black people.
White girl: Comes from an upper-middle class family. Parties a LOT, a lot more than she did in high school. And parties more than she admits, regardless of what she will confess to. Gets very good grades; GPA is between 3.5-3.8. Looks like a “good girl” but drinks to excess pretty often.
White boy: Middle class. Was a bit of a nerd in middle/high school, but is fun to be around now. Has an off-the-wall sense of humor, but so much so that he has a good solid group of friends and is generally pretty funny. Doesn’t give a shit about appearance but that’s cool cause he’s just doing what works for him. Quiet at first but talkative around his friends.
Black guy #3: Gets a lot of girls and gives several shits about his appearance. This is immpediately apparent due to the fact that his hat and shirt match, his hat is tilted at a perfect angle, his fake diamond earrings, impeccably shaved beard, “don’t give a fuck” facial expression, and probably a pretty husky dude. He acts thug and wants people to think he’s thug, but let’s face it…he’s really not. I’m sure he’s a super cool guy and all but isn’t 50 Cent or whoever he’s trying to look like.
Sorry that all of these are completely ignorant and rude, but you asked for my first impressions, and here they are.

When I saw the first couple seconds of the video, I knew exactly the direction that it was going in. I saw the white dude trying to take the bike off of the pole and knew that there would of course be a black dude after him and everyone that passed by would assume he was stealing it and try to confront him about it. I wasn’t really too thrilled with the girl that tried to do it, because that doesn’t really have to do with underlying racial attitudes but just overall sex appeal and things like that. So even though that last part wasn’t exactly the most thought provoking thing in the world, the experiment as a whole was really cool. It’s one thing to learn that people have these underlying associations that make them jump to certain conclusions, but it’s another thing to see a video of people actually doing it. However, there was something else about that video that really got me thinking. How come even when the white guy straight up admitted that he was stealing it, everybody was still pretty cool with it? Granted, there was the one older guy who had beef with that and everyone got a laugh out of his reaction, but by and large everyone just turned the other cheek when someone told them that he was stealing it. But the black dude, he drew so much attention and he became a public spectacle that everyone had to see and be a part of. I’m pretty sure one person actually snapped a picture of him with her phone. But what is going through the peoples’ minds when the white one blatantly admits to stealing someone else’s property? I thought it was also somewhat interesting the rationale that the guys used for stealing it. Both claimed that the bike was there forever and it was clear that the person to whom the bike belongs was not about to come back to pick it up anytime soon. This whole experiment and video was the kind of thing that I feel like could really be expanded upon. Granted, it was really cool and thought provoking as it was, but the fact that it was taped for a TV show made it not entirely controlled and accurate. If some university or group of researchers were to do this experiment in some more controlled capacity, it would be even more interesting. There are also myriad factors that can be controlled and tested against each other. It would be interesting to see how other factors influence people’s attitudes. Gender, other races, different items being stolen, different location, time of day, clothing, et cetera could all be tested and accounted for. That would be really cool.

I thought that it was not all that surprising the way the race/salary relationship worked out. I’ll explain the first thing that came to my mind by applying typical racial stereotypes, then I’ll give a more serious answer: The Asians are at the top because they’re all super smart and get good jobs. Asian parents are very demanding and the Asian kids are all going to be smart and rich and better than white people. The Whites are second because while we are at the top of the food chain socially, we can’t compete with the amount of Asian doctors, engineers, and physicists. There are a ton of white people that work shit jobs to counterbalance those that make millions. The Hispanics are below Whites because they all work, but for barely any money. They are willing to work hard for not much pay, and that’s cool with them. If they can make $40 to mow a lawn or $500 to lay shingles on a roof, they’re happy to do it. They really haven’t entered into the “profitable” side of the workforce, as a whole. And the Blacks are on the bottom because many don’t work or have legitimate, legal income. But hey, that’s what welfare is for, right? Now, please don’t take this as representative of my real opinion; it is entirely dark humor mixed with racist stereotypes. That’s just the first thing that came to mind. But in all seriousness, the Asian girl with parents who are engineers brought up a very valid point. The Asians that come here all come from good backgrounds…that’s how they are able to afford moving here. So, they start off ahead already. Because of this, they are able to get a good education (if they don’t already have one), which pays off when they look for a job. Us white people, it makes sense that we are where we are. Like I said before, we are kings of the country in terms of holding power and influence. But, we have not reached the Asian level of realizing our aspirations. The fact is, while there are many rich white people, there are a LOT of poor white people. Hispanics, unlike Asians, do not have to be particularly rich to come to this country. And what they do make, many of it gets sent back to their family, wherever they are. They are stereotyped to be inferior, so naturally they won’t get the good jobs; they’re stuck. And finally, the blacks always have been, and still are, significantly discriminated against in this country. There are unfortunate stigmas that are very damaging to black people as a race. It’s a shame that a black person can have all the credentials needed and be a better candidate than all of his competition for a job, but statistically, the white person will be hired more often.

I thought that the exercise that was done in class was very eye opening (no pun intended). I myself have always wondered how to tell the difference between the people of the various countries in Asia. I can somewhat group Asians into different “regions” and tell the difference between them. For instance, I can group Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans together; Vietnamese and Cambodians; Indians and Bangladesh; and Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan. I know these groups are really easy to tell apart, but I would like to be able to differentiate among the groups (telling apart a Chinese person from a Japanese from a Korean). Sam seems to be able to do this very well with a high degree of accuracy.

I thought the students doing this exercise at the front of the room was interesting, but it would have been cool to see how Asians do that have pretty much only been exposed to other Asians. By using an Asian who grew up with mostly white people, or someone who has a 4.0 GPA (which has no reflection at all on how they can tell people of different nationalities apart…if anything it levels both people to the same “skill”), we know that both people are going to fail at this. It would be really interesting to see how an Asian from Asia would do.

Another cool exercise would be to see how we can tell the difference between different white people. Obviously Canadians and Americans don’t look too much difference, but there certainly is a marked difference between Americans, Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans, and everyone inbetween. Hair color and eye color have a lot to do with this, but it would be really neat to see how we do at rating this group. I, for one, think I could do quite well. It would also be cool to do the same exercise with black people. They live in many different places as we have discussed in class. And the Jamaicans, the haitains, the west Africans, south Africans, north Africans, etc all look dramatically different.

Basically, I feel that this experiment could really be expanded upon and turned into something really cool. Sam has a good framework to base future studies on. By comparing the different nationalities of the participants, to the nationality of the person trying to guess, to different other factors (such as GPA, part of the country where they live, exposure to other racial groups etc), you could really get a lot of interesting information. I really hope Sam does expand upon this concept, as I would be really interested in participating. It really is amazing how a couple hundred or thousand miles can make a difference in how someone looks.

I thought that the exercise that was done in class was very eye opening (no pun intended). I myself have always wondered how to tell the difference between the people of the various countries in Asia. I can somewhat group Asians into different “regions” and tell the difference between them. For instance, I can group Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans together; Vietnamese and Cambodians; Indians and Bangladesh; and Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan. I know these groups are really easy to tell apart, but I would like to be able to differentiate among the groups (telling apart a Chinese person from a Japanese from a Korean). Sam seems to be able to do this very well with a high degree of accuracy.

I thought the students doing this exercise at the front of the room was interesting, but it would have been cool to see how Asians do that have pretty much only been exposed to other Asians. By using an Asian who grew up with mostly white people, or someone who has a 4.0 GPA (which has no reflection at all on how they can tell people of different nationalities apart…if anything it levels both people to the same “skill”), we know that both people are going to fail at this. It would be really interesting to see how an Asian from Asia would do.

Another cool exercise would be to see how we can tell the difference between different white people. Obviously Canadians and Americans don’t look too much difference, but there certainly is a marked difference between Americans, Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans, and everyone inbetween. Hair color and eye color have a lot to do with this, but it would be really neat to see how we do at rating this group. I, for one, think I could do quite well. It would also be cool to do the same exercise with black people. They live in many different places as we have discussed in class. And the Jamaicans, the haitains, the west Africans, south Africans, north Africans, etc all look dramatically different.

Basically, I feel that this experiment could really be expanded upon and turned into something really cool. Sam has a good framework to base future studies on. By comparing the different nationalities of the participants, to the nationality of the person trying to guess, to different other factors (such as GPA, part of the country where they live, exposure to other racial groups etc), you could really get a lot of interesting information. I really hope Sam does expand upon this concept, as I would be really interested in participating. It really is amazing how a couple hundred or thousand miles can make a difference in how someone looks.

I think the quote is shocking to be honest. Given that Franklin Graham was so close to Bush for so long, and how important religion is in some peoples’ lives, one has to wonder how much of an impact his ridiculous statements and ill-guided pseudo-advise had on Bush’s presidency, particularly regarding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyone who has a professional relationship with the president of the United States should not be so brash and scathing with his words. What Graham said reflects what naïve and ignorant Americans believe…not someone who is an advisor (of sorts) to the president.

Whatever Bush and Graham talk(ed) about in private is one thing. For all I care, they can talk about how much they hate every religion all day long, sobeit a private conversation. But when he made that statement, through whatever channel it was, that is just asking for the media to scoop it up and make a huge story out of it. One thing I am really surprised about is that I’ve never heard of his views on Islam, much less that quote, until Thursday. Maybe I heard about it in 2001 and forgot since then, but it doesn’t ring any bells at all.

Another thing I thought was cool that Sam did was first make it about Christianity, in the supposed words of Ahmadinejad’s spiritual advisor. When I read that I thought to myself “that seems rather extreme for a spiritual advisor to a country’s leader to say, but then again, it is Iran. Who knows how they feel about us.” And then I thought about how many people speculate about us entering Iran in the very near future, and everything seemed to come full-circle. But then out of nowhere, Sam advanced the Powerpoint to the next slide, and it was an advisor to Bush.

My first reaction is that this guy should not have a job. He’s a complete nut. If he were running for any governmental office in this upcoming election, this quote would negate any shot at winning he had, and condemn him as a public person.

What’s also weird to think about is that we often think about Islam and some people who practice it as radical and ‘America haters,’ but some of the people we have as religious leaders are just as insane. Three examples come to mind: The pastor/priest who wanted to have a Koran burning session, Franklin Graham, and of course, all of Westboro Baptist Church. To date, these people/groups have remained entirely benign and non-violent, but the concept is the same: lunatics exist that cast a bad shadow on their religion as a whole. That whole exercise of showing us an anti-Christianity quote then showing us the real quote was quite eye opening.