AMETH 300 Blog

 This week I sat down and talked with my girlfriend to learn more about her childhood/background. I knew that she was white, from Nebraska, likes cats, is nonreligious, but I wanted to see how she got to the place she is today. Here is what I gathered from our conversation. I asked her about where her values came from. She said that most of her values and beliefs come from her family-her mom and dad, older sisters, grandparents and close friends. As she's grown up, she's heard certain things from society and has had to choose whether or not to adopt them or not. I can understand how some of where your values come from is a combination of people close to you, society, and your own thoughts and opinions. When I asked how important her values were to her, she stated that the things she cares about are extremely important. Knowing that she is a very intelligent individual, she normally likes doing things her way because she thinks it's the best way. Many times I feel this way t...

 This past week I've been studying conflict styles and learned about the one I usually use to confront conflict in my life. As I learned more about the different ways to engage and deal with conflict, I decided it would be interesting to go talk to someone close to me, but about something we don't see eye-to-eye about.  I picked my girlfriend because we know each other, probably better than anyone else, and yet we have disagreements about certain things and like to talk about them. We hang out all the time, so these topics naturally come up in our conversations. One particular thing that we have disagreements about is the fact that she cares a lot about animals and could never kill an animal. She believes that all life is important and I on the other hand don't really mind animal deaths. I told her once I would let a hundred dogs and cats die just to save one person, because I think humans inherently hold more value than other animals. It's difficult to talk about becau...

 This last week I discovered what my predominant conflict style is. I am primarily competitive, meaning I normally look to see what would benefit me most in a situation and work towards a resolution based on that. I would say that is usually accurate, as I typically have my own interests in mind first. However, there were two other conflict styles that were right behind competition, those being collaboration and accommodation. I would say this is true too, because I often find myself thinking of others during conflict as well and trying to make sure everyone wins if possible. I guess if it came down to myself or others I would have to be swayed or make a conscious decision to put others first, since I naturally put myself first. As I move into my future careers, I think this will benefit me for competitive reasons. I may be able to obtain better positions or have my voice be heard over others, but that means that I may be seen as a little more distant or selfish since I'm not a rea...

 This week I watched a show called "We Are The Champions" on Netflix. It's a show about various types of people with weird talents and it basically covers different competitions between these people in a documentary style. This particular episode followed spicy pepper eaters, who flew in from all around the world to compete in a head-to-head pepper eating competition hosted in South Carolina. Most of the people who attended this event looked like mostly white, lower to middle class southern families.  However, in terms of the competitors are concerned, there was an equal representation of men, women, orientations, and cultural backgrounds in this competition. There were a few key celebrities in the pepper eating community; one being a white man who is a self-described daredevil and spicy food enthusiast. He owns a Youtube channel and has a relatively high following. Another character is a transgender woman with an Asian wife who took all of the hate and discrimination she...

 Conflict comes in many different forms but it always stems from the same thing. I would say that conflict always arises from a disagreement between two things. It could be a difference in opinion, values, or beliefs between two people or an internal struggle within yourself. If I were to have a conflict, it comes in one of those two forms, either I have a conflict with another individual or I struggle with an internal conflict.  Growing up my family addressed conflict in a calm and rational manner and we had both parties explain their individual opinions and concerns so we could reach a point of understanding. It was never outright stated how to deal with conflict but we always went about it this way when we had sibling fights or arguments with our parents. I personally don't mind conflict and I enjoy being exposed to conflict between others so I can analyze the situation for myself and hopefully learn something. I think there is a difference, however in healthy conflict and ...

 I have biases. Like a lot of biases. And I don't realize them all the time. Most of the time they don't have huge impacts on my life but I feel like they affect the people around me. I ever used to notice the ways that I made snap assumptions about people without even knowing them but after learning more about race and culture I realized that I am just as bit judgmental as I am perceptive. Being the person that I am I try to make judgments to make sense of the world around me and I always thought my judgments were correct. I think muscular guys are stupid, I hate most Frat guys, I think people who watch anime are weird, etc. I have always thought all of these things to be true, and to be honest these ideas have caused me to be needlessly hostile towards people I don't know. I have categorized people before I even knew them and I feel now more than ever that I should stop being so biased towards others for no reason.  But how am I supposed to fight against it? I think there...

I watched the Disney movie Soul last week. It popped up on the main page of Disney+ and I thought it looked fun because I love how Disney is always able to make family-friendly shows that have significant underlying messages to them. I didn't have to do much looking for interesting movies because most of the movies coming out today have diverse casts from many different backgrounds. I don't watch many movies, and when I do usually the cast is very diverse. The only exception is that lots of older movies have predominantly white characters, both animation and live actors. I have never chosen movies based on this criteria but movies I hear about are part of American culture and older movies with a white cast are more commonly part of American culture. I chose to watch this movie because it is about a black man in his thirties who is trying to make it big as a jazz performer. He thinks he knows what he wants in life but throughout the movie he learns what is really important in li...

This last week I got to talk to a professor at Kansas State University, and we had an interesting discussion about both of our experiences when it comes to race and intersectionality. Her name is Professor Keisha Clark. She currently teaches classes pertaining to American Ethnic Studies and I am really glad I got to sit down and talk with her for a little while! She told me about her experience as a black woman living and teaching at K-State. She said that thankfully she has never had to worry about her personal safety while on campus--something many others in similar positions cannot say. While this is true, she has had to face the numerous negative assumptions that people make about her because she is a woman of color. People always approach her like she's at a deficit to them. This could be that they assume she is not as educated as she really is or she doesn't hold a prestigious/respectable job. Race has always affected her life, but she didn't always know it. It really...

 Over the years I have met lots of different types of people. Most of them are white, straight, middle class, and some form of Christian. This isn't entirely the case though as some of the people in my social groups don't fit into these categories. Here are a few examples of diversity I find that are different. My Uncle's family is Catholic.  Some of my friends are conservative and others are liberal.  Some of my friends are less fortunate than me and have to pay their own rent, buy their own cars, and/or pay for their tuition. Some of my friends have a trust fund. I know some mixed race people and some Hispanic people. I have some gay/bisexual friends. I'm not super close with everyone I just referred to above, but I would say that some of my closest friends don't hold some of the same values and preferences I do. For instance, One of my close friends leans really far left politically even though I find myself more in the middle. Another one of my friends is gay an...

 Last week kicked my butt. I was dealing with a lot of school, extracurricular activities and small social events here and there. Covid-19 has changed my life quite a bit but things definitely aren't any slower. Sometimes, it's hard for me to sit down and think for a minute. I'm so distracted all the time and any down time I have I devote to my phone, a Netflix series or a video game. Recently, I started talking to a friend again who I hadn't talked to in almost two years. She's Vietnamese like me and can speak the language really well. We relate in some ways and differ in others but it was fun comparing her experience as a young Vietnamese woman to mine, a young half-Vietnamese man. It got me thinking about some of the identities that affect me most--I am a straight, biracial, middle class, able-bodied Christian male.  In many ways I am privileged. Being a male has its perks and I support other men. My sex affects almost every single aspect of my life from the way ...

 I want to to take some time to talk about the neighborhood I grew up in. I lived in the suburbs in Olathe, Kansas for my whole adolescent life. I went to the local elementary school right smack in the middle of the neighborhood, so I got to know many of the kids from the area. A new middle school was built less than three minutes from my house the year I was going into 6th grade, so I also went to the local middle school as well for all three years. Most families were middle class white families with jobs in the Kansas City area, and I always felt like at least on my street there were not many other kids my age. Most of my neighbors on my street were old people or had kids in high school or college. I don't remember any minority families on my street and very few kids at my school. When I go back home, I see how things have changed a little bit. There are a lot more businesses in the area and the demographic is still largely the same; there are a lot of white people, but on my str...

There is a lot of diversity in the world. Everyone comes from a different place and for the next few months I would like to learn what makes myself and others so diverse.  I have been learning about how every single connection I have in my life has affected me in different ways. My family, my school, my city, my friends, my church, the list goes on and on. These are the social groups I've been put in throughout my life and my personal experience is unique from anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I love talking about my self, but I believe you don't get anywhere just telling others about you. It's much more productive to inquire about others' lives. I want to learn about the experiences and struggles others go through that are different than me so I can become more aware and educated. I am concerned that this journey may cause me to face my assumptions and biases that I have towards certain people. Some examples include poor people, immigrants, and people who grew up in...

 Welcome to my blog. I don't know how you stumbled across it but I'm glad you're here. My name is Joshua Habiger, but I normally go by Josh. I am a junior studying Chemical Engineering at Kansas State University amidst the pandemic. I don't find myself going on campus much at all anymore since all of my classes are remote now. However, I still live in Manhattan by campus. My major keeps my life pretty busy a lot of the time, but I still have some other hobbies when I'm not doing labs and solving problems.  I love music, but only a certain type of music, an EDM subgenre called House music. It's pretty much the only thing I listen to and I get lots of confused reactions from people. I also beatbox for an acapella group and arrange music for our group when I can find the time. I'm also part of an Esports team and play the support role for a game called Overwatch. We compete in tournaments against other collegiate teams. Through these groups I've met quite a...