My favorite ad of this campaign was Obama’s “Yes We Can” ad. I thought it was very clever how they turned his speech into a catchy song> Plus, the use of famous artists and actors endorsing him in the video spoke volumes for people because a lot of people idolize these celebrities. I also think the actual message of what he was saying was inspiring and moving

Link to ad:http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/yes-we-can-web#4414

Another ad that I found to be very interesting is the “Country I Love ad”. I understand that Obama had to appeal to the white audience as well so I took this commercial to be one of those kinds of ads. He is surrounded by white people throughout the entire video, he even only shows his white family members. He also speaks about values and growing up in the midwest. These things seem to me like he was trying to resonate with white families and gain their votes. There wasn’t much talk about the black community at all.

Link to ad: http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/country-i-love#4420

Personally, this reading made me upset. It’s really sad to read about all the horrific things that were done to the natives. The natives were nothing but nice to the colonizers and they took completely took advantage of them. To see that they murdered millions of people and destroyed cultures all because they wanted to is disgusting. It makes me wonder a lot about the nature of white people. It also makes me wonder about religion. Colonizers use religion to justify almost every genocide that they commit which makes me question the purpose of religion. I also thought about how today the media calls certain Muslim groups terrorists for simply doing what the colonizers did. I think religion can be very dangerous and is used when people have no real answer for the terrible crimes they commit.

I think the second article was really interesting. I had no idea that the African Americans were so present in the government during this time. Although, I’m not surprised. History hs a tendency to be whitewashed but I think It’s very important that children are taught this so those little black children aren’t discouraged. It is beneficial to have role models that look like you.

I found this reading to be super interesting. It’s crazy how the human mind has such a strong desire to know what something is or why it is that it will come up with things to make it feel better. This made me think of how important first impressions are. I think I am a very observant person, so when I first meet someone I watch the way they talk, the way they walk, and even their mannerisms until I think I have a good understanding of them. I’ve noticed that quiet people attract a lot of people whether they realize it or not because they are a mystery for other people to solve. This also made me realize how important stereotypes are. Stereotypes are very dangerous and play a part in this. If we think someone is a mystery, we may use the stereotypes we have or a bias we have to help solve this mystery. This can cause people to be misgendered or someone to be highly offended.

I’ve learned about the Stanford prison experiment but it still scares me every time. It makes me really think about power and what that means. I’ve read something about Foucault that makes me question power. Power dynamics affect our lives from the time we are born to the time we die. The people in this experiment were regular people who were given power and turned evil. I also wonder if this a white male thing. Throughout history, we see that white men can be rather evil and crave power. I wonder if their race or gender was different if the results would have been different.

Game theory was first introduced to me my freshman year when I took a leadership class with Dr.Harwell. We played a game where the object of the game was to optimize how much money you had. In order to so that, the logical way would be to donate everything so that it could be multiplied and then given back. The game required trust and many people would break this trust. Playing the game made me very skeptical of others because it’s so easy to betray someone. I think this is true in everyday life. A lot of the theories can be applicable to everyday life but require trust. Another one that I found interesting was the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This one requires trust as well. I think trust can be a very tricky thing because I personally feel as though humans are naturally greedy. If we are naturally this way, then it would be hard to trust someone or to stay honest.

I took the skin preference test which tests if you have a bias towards light-skinned or dark-skinned people. I thought that mine would be biased towards dark-skinned people since I consider myself to be dark and I prefer dark- skin aesthetically. However, my results say that I have a slight automatic preference for Light Skinned People over Dark Skinned People.