First off, I'd like to say thank you to Sam for teaching a course that I actually enjoyed and was actually able to take things out of. Until this point, I have never taken a class in college in which the information just stuck with me. I think it's basically because the information we learned was brought to us from a completely different point of view than I have ever seen before. I do not need to take notes in Sam's class because I just listen and think about the information that Sam gives to us and it just soaks in. I also liked how we learned about many, many different things from race, gender, and all the way to "needy penises." Going into class on a Tuesday or Thursday, you never knew what topics would be covered that day, or what controversial subject would be probed. This is what kept me interested, and why I have recommended Soc 119 to everyone who has asked me about it. Even though this class is over, I will never forget the things that Sam has taught us and the way he forced us to think differently about subjects we otherwise would not have.
Going back to the original question, it is hard to name just one way in which Sam has made me think differently. Like I said earlier on, he has covered some of the most controversial topics in class, but what made it different was because he showed these topics to us in a completely different light. One example that I can give from class was how we look at race. We looked at all the stages of race for a white person, and then for a non-white person. This is what sort of enlightened me, so to speak. I consider myself a very race conscious person, but up until Sam's class, I do not think I have ever looked at race from any other point of view, other than a white person's, because I myself am white. When we looked at the stages of race for a non-white person, that made me think about race in such a different way than I ever had. It put me in the shoes of a non-white person for a little while and made me understand so much more about the topic of race.
Another example I can give is comes from all the coverage we did on the Haiti topic. Before Soc 119, I always felt bad for the people of Haiti for suffering through the earthquake, but I didn't really understand the gravity of the situation until we covered it in class. Sam brought in the man who was born in Haiti to talk about what he saw down there after the quake, and a video was shown that depicted the awful images of the devastation. This is what got me and made me care so much more and want to strive to help the people of Haiti. Examples like this happened all the time in Sam's class where he just makes you think differently about so many topics.

First off, I think that this is probably one of the toughest questions that has ever been asked to me. Actually hands down. Anyways, at first though the thought of giving my own life to save all three lives came to me. I would absolutely do that for the three people who mean the most in my life to me. I want to be a police officer when I graduate anyways so it is possible that someday it may be asked of me to do this for people that I have not even met before in my life, just as part of the job, or like our soldiers do for us everyday. But since this is not an option, I have to go through a different thought process. Sitting here now, and being able to have time to think about it, I would choose to save my kid out of all three. My reason behind this decision is taking into consideration what all three people would want. My mom, who at this time is 54, has one grandchild, a 16 month old little girl, who is my sister's daughter. I know for a fact that my mom would do anything for her granddaughter include give her own life if it was to save her so I know she would do the same for my kid if I had one. My wife or significant other would also want the same, to save our own child. I know this because I would never marry a girl selfish enough to save her own life over her kid's life.
Like I said though, since I have time to sit here and think about what I would do, those are my first thoughts. However, if i had to make a split second decision on a whim, well, I do not think my decision would change. I think I would still go straight to my kid to save him or her before I went for my mom or wife.
Looking at it from a different perspective, if me, my wife's mom, and my kid were stuck in a burning house and my wife could save only one out of the three of us, my wishes would be that my wife would save our kid over anyone. Actually I would hope to be saved last out of the three of us. As I said before I would never marry a woman who would not save our kid over anyone else in her life.
I can safely say that I never have thought about this before in my life until Sam has brought it up to us in class. Which I guess this is what he wants to do for us every class. Make us think about different things from different perspectives.

To start out with, I would like to say that I am a white male who found the video about the Asian students at USC very funny. The reason I was not willing to voice my opinion on the video was because I was afraid that what happened to the white kid who also thought the video was funny would happen to me, which is why I give the kid props for coming out and voicing his opinion and sticking up for himself once it caused all the uproar that it did. This is the reason white people have to dance around sticky subjects regarding race, just like Sam always says. Once a white person says something about his opinion, he gets called out, then never wants to voice his opinion again in fear that it will be the wrong thing to say. In turn, most of us white people just sit there when the race conversation comes up.
That being said, in my opinion, I think people misunderstood the concept USC video anyways. I don't think FOX was making fun of the Asian students' accents, but poking fun of their ignorance about a major occurrence regarding their football team, which happens to be one of the largest facets of their school. I won't lie, the Asian students accents did make it sound a little funnier, but I don't think that was the point. Whether the girl who called out the kid would admit it or not, I would be willing to bet she's laughed at something like this in some point in her life.
In regards to the actual question brought up in this post, I think the Asian kid in class who also thought the video was funny was not called out because it was people of his own ethnic background. Because he was an Asian American or just plain Asian in general, I think the girl never called him out because she thought it was his right to be able to laugh at people of his own background, so she called out the white kid for thinking it was funny instead. This question kind of made me think of the hypocrisy regarding the use of the N word. I'll put out a disclaimer right away and say that I hate the word and don't use it, however, black people still use the word because they are African American feel that they can use it to refer to other black people too. But whenever anyone else uses the word, it is simply unacceptable because they are not black. I think that this is very relative to what happened in class when the white kid was called out but not the Asian.

First of I'd like to say that the last couple classes in which we have discussed the ongoing war in the Middle East have not only been very moving but in my opinion, they have also struck a nerve. Sam has gotten us to but ourselves in the Iraqi point of view, and we have also heard from our American veterans who have been there first hand. Despite the fact that we have all heard both sides of the story, it's still hard for me to sit here and have one stance over another. I have very mixed feelings regarding the war.
I'll start by saying that Sam's presentation on the Iraqi point of view was very effective. If I were an Iraqi and people came to MY country, took MY resources, and killed MY people, as Sam says, I'd feel some kinda way about that. The most of those iraqis running around with guns are just trying to protect their land and their people. When we go over and kill them, that has to anger them and make them despise our presence. The youtube videos of our soldiers running Iraqi civilians off the road for no reason and seemingly destroying their property unjustly has to make them hate us even more. I agree with the person in class who said if one single Iraqi came here to America and did something like that, it would make me hate them all.
WIth that being said, I have supported the War since day one. The soldiers who came into class and told their stories from being overseas reinforced my support for not only the soldiers but the effort we're putting forth over there as well. Stories like the ones told by that Marine who suffered a brain injury over there trying to support our interests and goals simply break my heart because guys and girls go over there and put their lives on the line for us every single day and people do not appreciate that the way they should. Many people argue that we're over there simply because of oil. I'm sure that oil plays a very, very significant role in why we're there, BUT people who say this must not remember that September day where thousands of innocent people were murdered by the extremists who we are now overseas trying to capture and get rid of. It frankly irks me when the question regarding 9/11 being a government conspiracy is asked. That is just unbelievable to me. I think that people need to rethink not supporting those soldiers who are in the Middle East trying to protect the American people as well as the lifestyle we live. If the soldiers were not there, yeah oil prices would rise a shit ton. But also the guys who orchestrate things like 9/11 would continue to do so because no one is over there to stop them from doing what they are doing.

To answer the question, I feel for the Iraqis, but my support for our soldiers has only been reinforced by the last two classes.

Here is the third part of my comment.

.I find it ironic that people of one race say people of another race smell bad. I think this is just a mild form of racism that comes out in a subtle way. It just shows that racism still exists today even if people don't even come out and say it. Little comments like this are said all the time, just like the Jeremy Lin comment that the sports writer tweeted the other day about the "couple inches of pain." Honestly it irks me everytime I hear something like this. When my friend just said the comment about black people smelling like onions it just made me wonder where he would ever get that.

Here is the rest of my prior comment. It wouldn't let me comment all at once because it said it was too long.

Obviously kids don't smell good when they sweat. But yet again I have never noticed a difference in the odors of kids when they sweat, regardless of what race they are. Until that girl in class explained that this idea is really, I would've said that this was just a racist comment to insult white people. But, maybe there really is biological differences that explain that white people smell like wet dogs when they are wet. I hope I never smell like a wet dog. I have also heard people say that black people smell bad whenever they sweat too. Actually, as I was telling my friend about the assignment I'm doing right now, he said black people smell like onions all the time, not just when they sweat or are wet. I think this was also a racist comment with no factual basis behind it. Once again, maybe my sense of smell sucks, but I have never noticed a difference in body odor of people of different races in all my 21 years of existence.

White people smell like wet dogs when they get wet? What? I have never heard of that or noticed that in my entire life. Maybe it is because I am white and I've been around wet white people a lot or something? Although I haven't noticed this, the only thing that could maybe explain this is that white people produce more body oil than black people do for some reason, like that girl said in class. I personally think that race probably has nothing to do with it. People just don't smell good when they're wet. When I'm in a classroom full of kids and it's been raining outside, the whole room has a distinct smell that you can tell people in the room got rained on. However I don't think that each person in the room smells differently when they're wet according to race. I think it's the same when people sweat. I've played sports for my entire life with kids of all different races.

Sam, as much as I would like to believe the story about how the Shaman healed your sprained ankle over night, that is one of those things that I need to experience for myself. This story kind of made me think a lot so I have a lot of questions going through my head. I just find it really hard to buy into the way that Shaman learn, by transcending out of their bodies and go into another realm where plants speak to them and tell them how to heal people. I also understand that this sort of medicine goes back long before our types of modern medicine were even a thought, so that makes it seem like they must have been doing something right. I just do not understand how they can just leave their bodies whenever they need to learn something. Apparently they are aided by all kinds of crazy hallucinogenic drugs that they get from nature. But even if I was tripping my face off, these out of body experiences where the Shaman go to get their information just would not happen to me. No matter what I take, no plant will ever speak to me and tell me how to heal someone. So to answer the question, I don't see this approach on learning to be a legitimate one.
I am sure that I am missing part of this and I'll probably never really understand how they do what they do, and I probably won't believe it until I see it and experience it for myself. Until then I'll have to stick to the classrooms here at Penn State. Learning in the realm of a classroom has always been really, really boring for me and I have trouble paying attention a lot of times, but this is how I learn. It's how I've learned for my entire lifetime, and how generations upon generations before me have learned. Some people may not like it, but is tried and true and will always be there (granted technology does not completely replace the teacher and classroom).
Learning in the classroom environment does not always work for everyone, like for instance a shaman. I don't think a shaman like Sam met would be able to come to one of our classrooms and learn what we learn by sitting down and being lectured. They have their own way of learning. Other people are hands on learners and would rather be out doing things and learning from experience than sitting in a classroom and being lectured about things and not actually going out and doing anything. Like I said, I believe learning in a classroom setting to be more legitimate than the shaman's way of learning, but if I ever someday am able to experience that, then maybe I'll believe it.

The idea of the American Dream is different for every person trying to attain it. However, in summary, the American Dream is the notion that one can be successful here in the States. A person can go to school, graduate with a degree, find a good job, get married, and have a successful family. It is the idea that America is a land where anything is possible and there is an opportunity awaiting each and every one of us to pursue and make ourselves successful.

However, over the course of time, Americans have seemed to gain a sense of entitlement. By the way, when I refer to "Americans", I'm referring to people who were born here as well as a couple generations of their family prior to them. As we have learned, the only true "Americans" were the Native American Indians we forced out of America. Anyways, Americans these days, mostly this generation, seem to feel like they should just be handed everything and not really have to work to attain the American Dream. I believe this is a result of us being spoiled and having access to basically whatever we need. This is the way most of us have been brought up here in America, and it has been that way for a couple generations. We have a much higher standard of living here in America than almost anywhere else in the world. This has caused that sense of entitlement that I mentioned before because a lot of people are not used to having to work for what they need. This is also the reason that people from other countries embrace the idea of the American Dream more than we do ourselves.

People from other countries see the way we live here in America and they come here to try to better their lives and the lives of their families. Whether they choose to come here legally or not, the reason we have so many immigrants flooding into the States is derived from the American Dream that they believe they will be able to attain if they come here. Many times emigrants to America can only land low paying menial jobs that involve a lot of physical labor or unskilled work. However, more times than not, this is much more of an opportunity than those people would have had in their own countries. Even the illegal immigrants who come here and work for around two bucks an hour are making more money than they would at home. This is enabling them to provide for their families and put some food on the table.
I believe that to them, this is what fulfilling the American Dream actually means. They do not come here with idea of becoming millionaires. They just want the opportunity to improve their lives even by just a little bit, and that is possible here in America. This is why more and more immigrants will continue to migrate here here.