Humans of the United States

While I was scrolling through my news feed on Facebook, I saw that a lot of my friends were liking pictures from the "Humans of New York" Facebook page. I checked out the page and was presently surprised with what I came across. "Humans of New York" is a catalogue of pictures of people who live in NYC. Not only are there pictures in the catalogue, but there are short stories or quotes beside the photo from the people in the scene. Some of the things said by the inhabitants are not what you would expect after looking at the photo, making the blog so interesting to read. The honesty of the quotes and the expressions of the everyday people remind the audience that their story is real life. 

I recommend liking the "Humans of New York" page on Facebook by clicking on this link, following their blog by clicking here, or picking up the catalogue, created by Brandon Stanton.

After looking through the HONY blog, I realized that each post was unique. The quotes under each picture share a piece of the story of the person in that photo. I felt a sense of unity with the people in the blog. Although I have never met the people in the blog and are our stories aren't the same, I realized that we all live through different hardships. There is definitely unity in the U.S. when we need each other. We mourn together when we see suffering or loss in one part of the country and commend others when we see nobility or progress in another. The events that happen in our lives make us who we are today, and I believe that each person in the United States, with their stories, make up our nation's story. 

So my question is: What is America's story? If there was a picture of the U.S., what would be the snippet under the photo? Looking back at the past, what do you think made up America's history, and how do the lives of the American people affect the history that is being made right now?

Man and Wife, Black and White

My uncle, Peter, got married over the weekend to his new wife, Anna, and although Peter and Anna are both Asian, their wedding led me to think about interracial marriage. Some questions that posed in my mind were: What if Anna was Caucasian? Is interracial marriage more common than marriage between people of the same race? 

I did a little research and found that the Pew Research Center did a study of interracial marriages in 2010. Of the 2,096,000 marriages in 2010, about 275,500 were interracial, and 192,850 of those interracial marriages had a Caucasian partner. I found it interesting when The New Observer stated "White Americans are statistically the least likely to marry outside of their race, although because of their numbers, are involved in...interracial marriages more than any other group." Why are White Americans "least likely" to marry outside of their race? 

Most people would agree that interracial marriage has increased tremendously throughout history. A 2013 GALLUP poll says that 87% of the 4,373 Americans surveyed approve of interracial marriage. This is a huge jump from the 4% that approved in 1958. 

A sociology professor at Cornell University says that "The rise in interracial marriage indicates that race relations have improved over the past quarter century."

What are your thoughts on this quote? Do you think that relations between different races in the U.S. have really improved? Why or why not? What do you think about interracial marriage in general? Approve or disapprove? 

Links to all the articles can be found here:
The New Observer, GALLUP, NY Daily News

Digging Deeper into History

Figure 1: A photo of the 400,000-year-old thigh bone.

Taken by Javier Trueba, Madrid Scientific Films

Scientists recently discovered a 400,000-year-old thigh bone in Spain that has brought up new questions of the origin of humans. A cave that scientists have discovered multiple fossils from called “Sima de los Huesos”, was where the fossil was found. It was assumed the DNA found in the bone would be related to the Neanderthals, but the DNA turned out to be similar to that of the Denisovans. Read more about the discovery by clicking on this link.

After reading about this article, I started to think about the world's history. Every day, scientists are putting forth their best efforts to make history a bit clearer: specifically in this case, uncovering the origin of humans. There will always be missing pieces to history, and I believe that many of our findings will not be completely accurate. So, why do people try to find answers to history, and how do we know if our knowledge of history is correct? I also wonder if our version of history is affected by personal interpretations. 

Leave your thoughts and comments below!