This is not anything to surprising to me. My best friend’s mother’s side of the family is Jewish. They are African Americana and believe they are the lost tribe of Israel. There are black Jewish people so that’s nothing that is to shocking. I guess it is surprising because the tribe was found in Zimbabwe but then that might make more sense to why we have black Jewish people living here in America. If they have such similarities to Jewish people they are most likely Jewish. It shows how much the world for the most part is really diverse with different cultures and religions being spread around the world.

That is crazy that this kind of thing is going on in the 21st century. How can you possibly ban someone from going to their prom because of their sexual preference? That is so wrong on all levels. I think the school needs to re evaluate and think what kind of image they are trying to have. How can they possibly tell this couple they can’t go to prom because they are lesbians who make these rules? Homosexuals are already going through enough and trying to fight for their rights and now you’re putting rules on high school students? Seems kind of backwards to me.

I don’t really see the problem with this. I feel like things might be more leveled and people of both minorities and whites will both be in control. Our president is white and black. I feel like there will be no major event where minorities will have the most power and whites will be under. We are supposed to be growing as a nation and finding hot to become one. Where not suppose to be worrying about who should be more powerful or not. On the list of the world wealthiest person the top 5 people are not all even whites which shows that minorities are doing what they have to do.

Although I believe that illegal immigrants are hard workers. I don’t believe that they should get free government services such as health care. They do need to pay taxes like everybody else so they can get health care and other services. It’s not fair that citizens and legal immigrants have to pay taxes but they are receiving the benefits of it. We do need sometime of change to regulate things and make things fair. I don’t know what type of system the government can come up with but one needs to be made up. They need to start regulating things. The illegal immigrants are basically stealing from those hard workers that do pay their taxes.

Having a lot of family and friends that are Nigerian I know that it can be pretty difficult for people to get their papers especially when money is in the picture. People need to learn that it is not that easy for people to get their papers. I don’t feel like illegal immigrants steal jobs from American citizens because most of the times they hold the jobs that American citizens don’t want to do. Illegal immigrants although it is wrong they are still hard workers and deserve the same respect any other hard worker gets. They should try and get their legal papers because at times they have the same benefits and opportunity that legal immigrants get.

I think this guy is entitled to all his opinions but he is just an ignorant person. If he is really promoting this and saying “If you don’t speak English then get out” then he has to be asking for trouble. There have been immigrants in this country for years. This country was “founded” by Christopher Columbus but clearly the facts state that there were Native Americans here when he came here. So who is he o decide on who should be allowed to live here or not. I was born and raised here and though my parents are Nigerian they went to school here too and got a degree so I don’t support the causes to get rid of immigrants or have them conform to our society. This is supposed to be the land of the free which gives opportunities to all. I don’t see what the problem of immigration is.

When it comes to the topic of God and religion it is a hard conversation to have people to see eye in eye and try and be understanding. I identify as a Christian although I haven’t been religious since I started college in 2008. I was raised in a Christian home all my life and went to church every Wednesday (for choir), Friday (for missonettes), and Sunday (for church service). My last year of high school was not the best and I started witnessing some things that people who claimed to be Christians started to do. That is when all the questioning started to happen. I know people say it’s not good to question God but I don’t see why that would be a bad thing. My pastor of about 8 years committed adultery with different females in and outside the church and the church members found out. After this it made me question like if my pastor and the person who is running this church could do such a thing what am I getting myself into? Members of the church started to leave and didn’t want to come back. I am no person to judge and as much as I believe that there is a God I have questions now about different religions. I see people criticizing and attacking other people’s religions and to me they are just as bad. I took a Buddhism class last semester and have learned so much about their religion and so much more and I just can’t understand why we even have so much segregation between religions when we all have similar believes and we all do believe in God. Through being understanding, learning other religions and family problems I decided that even though I do believe in God that I can’t be engaged fully in any religion until I am ready to pick which religion I believe will best fit me if there is any. I believe in a higher being which is God but just do understand why everybody for the most part is against everybody’s religion. Once again I am not trying to judge anybody but there are certain things I just question like the Priests in the Catholic Church that molested little boys, the Muslim extremist that are suicide bombers all in the name of Allah. These are a few questions I ask but I don’t criticize their religion or beliefs. I just feel like maybe God wants us to look at the bigger picture and wants us to come together and just worship one God. But when it comes to God punishing me or me being a sinner because I wear clothes and eat food made by these modern day slaves, I don’t think it’s something that I feel I should be held accountable for especially when one is not aware. I am aware now but there’s still only so much I can do.

When it comes to the topic of child slavery I am also clueless of what the second step might be. Most of my clothes are made in foreign countries and I’m sure they might be made by some form of modern day slavery or through sweat shops and it is WRONG on all levels but as an individual I don’t think there’s anything I can do that will make any type of impact on supporting these companies that make their clothes trough sweat shops. Growing up in the American society and not ever being aware of how most of our clothes are made its hard to just stop wearing these clothes cause it’s like where does that leave me.

I think the end goal is to be open minded and understanding about things we might not experience personally. Just because I might not go through something or experience it doesn’t mean I won’t be able to have an understanding or see where the next person is coming from. This is a very good question because we have been in class for a whole semester and the point is to leave being a little more open minded and understanding even if you don’t change your beliefs or morals. We are trying to make the next generation better and not worse than the generation we are in now. If people don’t start talking about these things and being aware then we will never break the cycle and history will keep repeating itself. Sometime we have to look at the bigger picture in life take off our shoes and put the shoes of other people on whether it is a black person, and Arab person etc. As educated students we have to learn how to start being open minded about certain situations and just take ourselves out the shell for a while add see where other people are coming from. When people start to do this I think the world will be a better place and there will be more of an understanding through cultures. We can fix the whole world and not everybody will ever be willing to conform to such ideas. Sometime you have to just sit back and listen without putting your opinions in and see where everybody else heads are and just listen. When people start to do that like Laurie said that light bulb on top or heads will light up. I don’t think I was an unreasonable person before this class and with certain topics Sam does bring up my little light bulb does light up and even though I might not have thought anything of a certain situation before I say to myself “wow that’s a good way to look at that situation” There isn’t an end goal for everybody per say. Every individual is different and everybody has a different time of when their light bulb my light up and some people’s light bulb might never light up. People have to reach that understanding by themselves as much as we can talk about race relations as long as the person is not willing to let go and understand they will never do it. Race relations want people to be able to be comfortable to talk about certain race problems without being scared or feeling guilty. Sometimes getting you light bulb to turn on might be hard depending on the circumstances someone might be in. People getting certain beliefs and morals engraved in them at young ages like Prussian Blue the twins that are white supremacist but have been brought up in that culture and they probably don’t even understand why they have those beliefs.

Although I understand why you may feel mandarin might not be a relevant language to learn. I have to disagree with you. The reason why they might want to start teaching children to speak mandarin in high school is the same reason why they teach high school student Spanish or French or Arabic. China and America have a lot of business that they do together. For someone who was trying to make a career in the business world might want to learn to speak mandarin so it can improve their communication skills when doing business. Certain languages are good to know in certain fields (although English is the most used language). I am a crime law & justice major and I want to work for the FBI and when I met a representative from the FBI they said learning Arabic might improve my chances of getting the job. A nurse living in NYC might want to learn Spanish so they can communicate with their patients who can’t speak English. I think learning a certain language depending on your field might be very handy.