Race in America

Raising children can definitely be a hard task, especially raising them with the proper values and beliefs. This issue is explored in the article “Trying Not to Raise Racist Kids,” as it is described how parents face the tough task of explaining racism to their children in hopes of instilling the proper ideals in their lives. The first step to introducing children to diversity is the place that they live. Some people live in racially diverse neighborhoods, while other people live in very secluded and protected neighborhoods. Even when living in a racially diverse neighborhood, there is never a guarantee that there will actually be compliance or harmony amongst the citizens. The problem with talking to children and trying to get them to understand race and how society works can be a very difficult task because parents do not want to say the wrong thing or be culturally incorrect in the way that they address the topic with their children. In addition, many parents try to teach their children things that they wish were actually true, but in reality are not. For example, saying that “everyone is equal” may be something that we have been frequently told, but society has showed that this is not actually true and that it is just a fact of life that not everybody is treated equally. The article stated that although many people say that children are innocent and have no idea about racial discriminations, this is actually not true. Children are able to see the differences in races and can form their own conclusions and assumptions as little as the age of three. This made me think of Tim Wise’s article and the way in which he said that whites are often given the benefit of the doubt and receive too much lenience for doing the wrong thing. In Tim Wise’s article, there was a lot of commentary that whites are often given too much credit and are never closely looked at in the ways in which black people are. It is very common that a black person be instantly accused for something while a white person would have easily gotten away with it. This is similar to the way in which children function. Many people believe that children are innocent and that they have no ability to think for themselves and form their own conclusions. This is something that I think people are very unaware of and give too much credit to children. While children may not have as much life experience and knowledge as an adult does, children are usually still intelligent enough to form their own conclusions and to observe and fit in with the rest of society. Societal norms are that children have no say within the community and are usually just an afterthought, but children are actually much smarter than they are given credit for, something that I think could definitely be compared to Tim Wise’s article. 

In addition, I thought that the story of Chris Shurn was very similar to the excerpt that I read by Andrew Hacker about the way that blacks are treated in America. Chris Shurn is a black man who served 4 years in jail for crack cocaine. As a child, Chris had a very hard upbringing. His father left their family and his mother was a very big crack addict, which led to Chris’s drug use. After serving his time in jail, Chris realized that he needed to get his life back on track and became very determined to succeed. All that he wanted was to have a normal life with his family and to get a job that would allow him to support his family. This has become very difficult for Chris, as he feels that it is hard for him to find a good paying job with a good paycheck. I think that this is a very tough situation because I understand both sides of the argument. First off, I think that it is important to recognize that it is very hard for anyone to find a job, so with his background and his history, it makes sense that he has having an even harder time finding a job. In addition, his history of drug use and his arrest are a huge deterrent for potential employers, as many employers do not want convicted felons to be working for their companies. With that said, I feel bad for Chris because of the fact that he isn’t being given a chance to make up for his mistake and prove himself to the rest of society. While his actions were clearly bad and should be addressed, he has faced his consequence of jail time and could be a better person now. He had a very hard upbringing, and I think that this is something that shouldn’t be held against him. Andrew Hacker highlighted the fact that blacks are often not given the benefit of the doubt and are looked at poorly, and I feel that being black, Chris Shurn’s chance of being accepted by society and getting a good job are even worse. Many people probably think that since he is black, he didn’t actually learn from his first mistake and that it is going to happen again, regardless of whether or not this is actually a true statement. Andrew Hacker spoke about how these types of actions are often considered to be actions by the entire race and not an individual, and I think that this is true. People are most likely very discriminatory against blacks because they feel like all black people act in the way that Chris Shurn did, making it very hard for him to make up for his mistake and get a good paying job to support his family.

State of the Union Response

Well, for some reason it appears as if this post didn’t actually get posted to the blog the first time, so here goes for round two…

While the State of the Union address may have already been a little over a month ago, the issues and topics discussed are still extremely relevant and open for discussion. Many people seem to be thinking that the USA is on a slow decline and that everything in our country seems to be failing. This seems to be the general feel across the nation, but President Obama used his State of the Union address to help assure that this was not the case and that the United States was still the strong country that we have always been. While his speech was not focused on one main topic, there were definitely a few topics that he seemed to direct the majority of his time to, the first being on American innovation. I really liked his ideas on American innovation and his viewpoints on how America needs to be at the forefront of creating the world’s most advanced technology over a vast range of different fields. He declared that he would be sending a budget to Congress to invest in biomedical research, information technology, and clean energy technology. Being at the forefront of these fields will give the United States a large advantage amongst other nations and can cause for other nations to rely on us to get their information from the projects we create. President Obama compared American innovation to the space race. Obama said that we needed another “Sputnik moment,” referring to the time in history when the United States won the space race due to increased education and technology. I really liked this comparison that he made because it reminded listeners that the United States has gotten through similar situations before in which we have been behind in technology compared to other countries but have come back and used our knowledge and education to create bigger and better technology and succeed in out-smarting our competitors. Clean energy is something that is becoming extremely popular throughout the country, so hearing President Obama address it in his speech was not surprising at all. President Obama did something very interesting in his speech; he made a challenge to engineers and scientists across the nation to assemble their best teams to find better energy and said that the government would fund their projects. Not only does this help our country in having many people working to find better energy, but it is also giving many people a job and something to work towards. His goal was that by 2035, 80% of our country’s electricity will come from clean energy sources. While this may seem to be a hard goal to reach, if we are able to succeed in reaching it, I am very confident that the future of our country looks very bright. The last topic that President Obama talked about that he seemed to have an extremely large passion for was education. Although some people fail to recognize it, education is what runs this country. Without education, people wouldn’t have advanced degrees in their respective fields and wouldn’t be able to design and implement some of the technology that our country uses on a daily basis. Over the next 10 years, half of the jobs in the United States will require education beyond high school. This is a scary thing to think about because currently ¼ of students in America don’t graduate from high school, causing America to fall to 9^th in the world in the proportion of young people with a college degree. President Obama stressed the fact that success begins at home and that it is the parents’ responsibility to be on top of their kid’s schoolwork and to be encouraging them to be doing their homework and to focus on the “science fair vs. the super bowl.” Lastly, President Obama stressed the fact that our nation needs teachers. None of these educational improvements can be made without good teachers. Teachers deserve so much more respect than they are given because they really are the heroes of our society. Without teachers, children wouldn’t be able to learn and further succeed in their lives. My sister, Marissa, is studying to become a teacher, and I have been able to see through her experiences how difficult being a teacher actually is. In an ideal world, every student would be smart and not need any help from the teacher, but this is obviously not the case. Teachers have to be so patient and have so much compassion for their students and for their jobs that it is truly remarkable. Teachers truly make a difference in the life of a child, and it is because of that that I am in agreement with President Obama that our country needs good teachers. Rather than hearing a bunch of negatives and coming away from his speech thinking that our country is doomed, I came away from the State of the Union with a sense of optimism and hope. While our country does have a lot of things we need to improve upon, these improvements give me hope as to the nation we could become. By implementing these plans and making intelligent decisions, we can change America for the better, and therefore change the lives of all Americans.

Mock Trial Recap

In the first trial, the case of Elise Roberts vs. Kevin Murphy, Elise Roberts accused Kevin Murphy of sexually harassing her and causing her to poorly perform at her job as a lawyer. In my opinion, after hearing the facts of the case and hearing each side’s arguments, it was clear that Kevin Murphy was guilty of sexually harassing Elise Roberts. In the office, Kevin Murphy would often make rude and diminishing comments to Elise Roberts regarding her sexuality and her looks. While Murphy claimed that he simply joked around with Elise Roberts, this was not the case as she complained to her supervisors multiple times and nothing was done to reprimand Kevin Murphy and stop the harassment. To me, the most compelling piece of testimony was that after being told that Elise Roberts was uncomfortable with his comments, Kevin Murphy continued to make them and continued to make her feel uncomfortable. This perfectly fits the definition of sexual harassment because Murphy was making unwelcomed, sexual comments, despite the fact that he knew that Elise Roberts was uncomfortable with the comments he made. Knowing that he was aware that what he was doing was wrong and that Elise was uncomfortable with it, he still continued his actions, showing his lack of a soul and his rage. These characteristics make me think that he is not an innocent bystander being blamed for something he did not do. It is because of this information that it was easy for me to determine my views on the case and to decide that I strongly felt that Kevin Murphy was guilty of sexually harassing Elise Roberts. In order for me to have thought that he was not guilty, some of the facts in the case would have needed to be different. First off, Kevin Murphy would have had to been actually reprimanded and actions needed to have been taken against him in an attempt to remedy the situation. In addition, after being informed that he was bothering Elise Roberts and that she didn’t like the comments that he made, he needed to have stopped and not made any more comments. This evidence, as well as the testimony from his friends that he could cross the line at times, made me realize that this was definitely not a one-time incidence and it has become to the point where Kevin Murphy needs to face consequences for his actions so that he can realize that this is a serious situation and not a joking matter.

In the case of the United States vs. David Jones, I was very happy with the outcome and the verdict of not guilty. Susan Williams, a senior in college, accused her ex-boyfriend of raping her, but it became clear to me that this was not the case and that it seemed as if Susan was jealous of David and regretted her actions, therefore wanting to put the blame on someone else so she didn’t feel guilty of having sex with him anymore. While there were definitely some facts and testimonies that mitigated David Jones’ case, ultimately, I feel as if he is innocent and was happy that he was not charged with rape. Susan Williams’ main argument was that when David Jones began to take her clothes off and attempt to have sex with her, she said, “no,” indicating her lack of desire to continue and have sex. While she may have actually said the word, “no,” it was my opinion that, from the testimonies, she did not actually want Jones to stop. Right after telling Jones to stop and that she didn’t want to go further, Williams continued to seduce Jones by kissing him. Had she firmly not wanted to move any further and have the evening turn into a sexual relationship, she should have displayed this in a better way by firmly displaying her desire to stop or even getting up. By staying in bed with Jones and continuing to kiss and seduce him, Jones had no clear message that she did not want him to continue. After they had sex, Susan did not cry, she did not yell, she did not say a word. Had she thought that she was raped by Jones, she would have specifically said something to him before, during, or after the intercourse took place, but she did none of these. After having sex with Jones, she sat at his desk, say a note written to him by another girl, and then stormed out of his apartment.  If she had actually been upset and thought that she was raped, she would have said something right then and there to display her discomfort and her thoughts that he had raped her. In my opinion, the most compelling fact arose during the re-cross examination that one of our lawyers did against Randy Miller, a rape counselor at the health clinic at the university that Susan and David attended. During the meetings that Mr. Miller had with Susan Williams, he told him how she regretted her decision to have sex with David and how she thought it was a bad idea. Not once did she mention the word “rape” to him because it had never crossed her mind that she was raped. It was not until Miller suggested to Williams that she may have been raped and encouraged her to press charges. This was extremely compelling information that Jones was not guilty because Susan Williams hadn’t even thought that he had raped her until after speaking to the rape counselor who encouraged that she may have been raped. In order to have thought that David Jones was guilty, it would have needed to be much more obvious that Susan Williams was opposed to the sex. Rather than simply saying the word “no” and then continuing to seduce Jones, she would have needed to get angry and possibly get off of the bed to display her discomfort and desire to leave. This didn’t actually happen, and it is because of this that I felt that David Jones should be found not guilty of raping Susan Williams.

I think that it is definitely important that people, especially high school students, are aware of both of these problems, sexual harassment and rape. Unfortunately, I think that it is way too possible that a situation like one of the ones in these cases were to arise, especially at a place like DHS. While there may not actually be a significant problem of people reporting rapes and sexual harassment to the police, I definitely think that there are probably many situations in which this could be possible and people could get in serious trouble for the things that they say or do to other people. I think that there are definitely many situations in which a relationship between a girl and guy can escalate to a point where it is questionable if sexual harassment has taken place. Thankfully, I think that sexual harassment is a much more possible situation at DHS and not rape. Many people cross the line as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable by making rude jokes and comments to people of the other sex, similar at the situation between Elise Roberts and Kevin Murphy. Many people believe that when they say things like this that it is just a joke and should be taken as such, but these comments can actually be hurtful to the person in which they are being directed to. I think that the DHS culture adds to these problems because it is a common mentality that there isn’t a problem and that people overreact. I think that the common culture at DHS is that people should be able to take jokes and that nobody would actually intentionally sexually harass someone else, but the reality is that whether it is intended or not, sexual harassment occurs. In order to help remedy this situation, I think it is important to educate the students about these issues and what the difference is between telling a joke and sexual harassment, or between seductively saying no to someone, or actually meaning no and being raped. This is something that should be taught to all students, because after these two trials, I definitely learned a lot and started to question some of my past actions and wondered if there were times that I, for instance, took a joke too far to a point where someone felt uncomfortable. By educating and informing people, they will be aware of the impact of their actions and will therefore change them if it is at a point where sexual harassment or rape is being questioned.

What's Going on in the World?-- Egypt Protests

Since the unruly and violent protests throughout Egypt have ended, their effects are still resonating throughout the country. After almost 30 years in control on Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak finally gave into the protesters and stepped down from office on February 11. While the protests may have ended and the streets are currently not filled with violent protesters wanting a change in society, the effects of the protests are still visible and people are curious as to what is going to change in Egypt and when this change will be seen. According to the article, “Egypt Delays Expected Reopening of Stock Market” in The Seattle Times, Egypt’s stock market closed after the business day on January 27 and still has yet to reopen. While the initial plans were for the stock market to reopen today, March 1, it was decided to delay this reopening, yet again, to March 6. Many people are worried that The Egyptian Exchange is going to greatly suffer from being closed for such a long time, but due to the labor strikes and closing of the banks after President Mubarak stepped down, the country simply could not safely reopen the market. While many brokers throughout the country are suffering from the closing of Egypt’s stock exchange, they are not the only ones that are beginning to run into financial pitfalls. According to the article, “Hosni Mubarak: Egypt's Former Leader Given Travel Ban” by BBC News, President Mubarak is also running into financial issues as the assets of his entire family have been frozen. President Mubarak, his wife, their two sons, and their wives, have all been issued a travel ban and asset freeze so that complaints that have been made against the family can be investigated. Since February 11, when Mubarak stepped down from office, he has not been publically seen or heard from, and it is believed that he is at his villa in Sharm el-Sheikh but is in poor health.

This situation in Egypt has not only affected Egyptians, but it has also affected the lives of the people living in nearby countries such as the Israelis and Palestinians. In the video, “Egypt’s Impact,” by Jaron Gilinsky for the New York Times, many interviews take place and it is explained how Israelis and Palestinians are reacting to the events that have unfolded in Egypt. Throughout the Egyptian protests, Palestinian authority repressed several attempts to rally and support of the Egyptian revolution in the West Bank by arresting and assaulting protesters. Many people are worried that currently it is still not safe to go and visit Egypt because although the protests may have ended, the country is still very “fragile” and anything could happen on a whim. One thing that a student who studied at Stanford University mentioned was that the Egyptian military and government needs to be wise about who is chosen to be the next leader of Egypt. If whoever takes control of Egypt does not remove the corruption within the government and the bureaucracy, it is likely that the same thing will occur and another revolution will take place in another 5 years. Although the actual protests in Egypt have ended, Egypt has a long road ahead of them in order to ensure the citizens that they have a stable country without any more corruption within the government.