I believe this to be a very interesting concept. Although the class was geared towards most of the time it isn’t a choice, and other times it can be by choice, but to think the environment you live in growing up could change that, is very appealing. I had to step back from the screen for a second and think deep about the question being posed, because I could definitely put myself into those shoes. Growing up my parents never really discussed homosexuality with me too in depth, and just assumed I would be straight. I am in fact straight, and am comfortable enough with my sexuality to know the difference between what would be considered a gay act and what isn’t, but I’m not so sure I would be the same had I been exposed to homosexuals more often. I could honestly see myself being a lot more open and caring towards those who are apart of the LGBT community. Not to say that I’m not open or caring now, but definitely without a doubt had I grown up in a different environment I would probably be more active. My father grew up in the Conservative south with a very Southern-esque family so obviously he wasn’t as open towards the idea as I was. My mother grew up a strict Catholic as well, so being homosexual was absolutely forbidden in her family. That never really stopped her from being open about it though. For example, when I was about 13 I went through a depressive phase where I didn’t see where my future was going and a lot of questioning was going on with my life so I just kind of shut myself off from the world. This signaled my mom as me being gay, so she asked if I was and that it’d be okay if I was, but it turned out that I wasn’t and it made it pretty awkward for me. I’m actually glad she was open enough to ask me though, because at least she could tell something was wrong and coming from a Catholic and saying it would be okay, meant a lot even though I’m not gay. And in addition, I’ll never forget the one time I went to an all gay town with my dad, brother, and some other family, and that was truly my first experience with homosexuals. Unlike in class, a lot of them were flaunting their sexuality because the entire town was gay. It was an absolutely awesome town though, very artsy and festive and everyone was so happy. I witnessed this at a young age, and its not that my father discriminated against anyone in anyway, it wasn’t like that, but we could tell it was just different. So being in an environment where gay is more prevelant, without a shadow of a doubt would that be a huge factor in determining orientation.

Growing up in a pretty relaxed culture with the parents I have, I never really thought twice about homosexuals. Generally my parents raised me to be pretty open towards a lot of things, and although I didn’t ever have much experience with dealing with too many homosexuals, I have encountered a lot here at Penn State. Obviously the number of homosexuals is greater here than in high school, so you have more opportunity to deal with them. So far as my genuine culture, homosexuals just aren’t predominant enough to even ever have to face that issue much. Sure its on TV about gay marriage, and I see LGBT advocates around campus trying to spread awareness for supporting that community, but outside of that, homosexuality just isn’t something I deal with too much. When I do, I try keeping an open mind, keeping my thoughts on what it would be like if I were in their shoes, and to know I can’t get legally married, so I have a lot of sympathy for their cause. Like it was expressed in class and how I knew already, homosexuals don’t have a choice. A high majority of the time it is a biologically implanted orientation which is why I always remember that before saying anything. I truly believe that homosexuals should see the changes that have come and are coming, like the corporations who grew from 11 to 300+ that are rated as being proficient in accepting homosexuals in the workplace. That was a phenomenal increase that proves the rights of the LGBT community is on the uprise. Much more so than other actions being taken like theirs, they are succeeding in winning this battle. Besides those extremists following their religion closely, a lot of people are starting to open their eyes to this issue with open arms. Not many people I know, or that are a part of my ‘culture’, say they would not support gay marriage. To think about that for a second, look how far their community has come over the years. Think back to the 50s or 60s. Would you ever see a gay marriage? Would you see two gay men or women freely walking down the street as if it were okay? Probably not. I’m not sure, and am somewhat curious when and how that change came to be, but since that shift it has been all uphill. I am a straight, white male, who doesn’t really deal much with the LGBT community, yet I can still see the drastic changes they have faced over the past decade especially, and can honestly say I am proud of their work. They took so much initiative to get to where they are, and I truly hope they keep going with this fight for their freedom.

This was a very interesting lecture in which I do agree could have been the only one needed all semester. If not one class made us all think before, this one surely changed it. I love how the video of the African tribe and the American football fans were so closely related. It opened up the entire lecture for being open minded, which proved to be effective. There were parts of the lecture I agreed with completely, but there were some things that made me a little uneasy. First, when you brought up the part about how it’s no different to drink milk out of an utter, its obvious there is the difference of pasteurization. It is a more civilized and healthy way to drink that milk, so it’s in no way the same. In addition, someone posted on the twitter feed that by giving the ‘excuse’ that our milk is pasteurized is trying to say we are the dominant culture and better than other cultures. Nobody ever said we were better because we drink pasteurized milk, our culture is just simply better off than most on the basis of having the means of having the technology to complete that process. But that statement is simply the point. Acknowledgment of other cultures is the entire point. I realize that other countries probably think it’s weird we do that to our milk because they do in fact drink straight from an utter. I’m weird to them and they’re weird to me, but I am not one to judge which is per se better because I am not apart of that culture. This lecture just opened so many doors for me because I had thought, ‘well this culture is the best, because we are so superior to others.’ But now I see that maybe the word superior is subjective to the observer. Someone living in Kenya might think their way of life is better than ours because that’s all they’ve known. I can’t say I wouldn’t enjoy a Hindu culture because I’ve never experienced such a thing, besides one celebration which turned out to be awesome. I just think its tough to be a judge of others cultures, because we lack the experience, or gift of life rather, of other cultures. We’ve only ever known ours, which is why our selfish selves think it’s the best. But once you start to do some exploring, and ‘taking a cold shower’ if you will, we start to realize that our culture may be the best to us, because we’re living in it and we’re apart of it, but it most definitely is not the best to everyone. I think that’s the main point I got from this very interesting lecture, is that if we start to explore other cultures, we aren’t really all that much different, but sometimes we just like to be.

This is actually a very interesting concept I hadn’t thought of. It is funny in itself this happened because I feel as if this applies to all races. For example, there were some black people on the Twitter feed saying jokes about their race are only funny if its from a black person. And some people were angry at that, saying it shouldn’t be funny. But I mean come on, its comedy. They are pulling this stuff from their butts just to say things. They are saying it to be funny. That’s the point of comedy. That video was obviously a parody of the fact they had no idea what football even was yet they won a National Championship the year before. When you put anyone into a foreign culture, they get made a fool of. That’s what makes it funny. I don’t think it was a racist video honestly, because the intention behind it was not to make fun of Asians. It was making fun of the fact they don’t understand the culture. I don’t feel bad laughing at it, and I don’t think anything really needs to change, as some people suggested, because why even have comedy. Yes it sometimes may include a stereotypes, but I think laughing is the solution. All races have stereotypes, and its funny when our entire culture can sit back and acknowledge the same things about us that make us laugh. As for not scrutinizing the Asian man for laughing, I think that comes from the fact that he can maybe better understand why its funny. I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where you were taken out of your element and you look stupid, most of the time in front of people. But now its funny, because once you break the barrier of uncomfortability, that is when you can truly transcend into a better understanding of culture. Its just like a cold shower, at first it really sucks but once you let it sink in for a while, you feel glorious as this newfound hidden gem of an experience. This can relate to this situation perfectly. I don’t see why so many people complained at the fact we were laughing. The intentions of the video were for humor purposes, not to make fun of Asians. All races can and should laugh at something like that. People made a great point when they said why would you laugh at Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle then? They are blantantly racist with their comedy yet they are millionaire comedians. Daniel Tosh is racist against a lot of races, yet he’s hilarious. Its confusing to think anyone could disagree with it yet we all embrace such racism in comedy already. I think its safe to laugh at something like this, and will continue to laugh in the future.

I personally feel that things may not change for a very long time. Yes its probably true that if the situation were reversed, the shooter might be in jail. However, you have to start having some faith in the United State Judicial system. Keep in mind that there have been, and will continue to happen, where a person of color has gotten away with the murder of a white person. Its unfortunate that this case happened, and I truly feel so much sympathy for the family and everything, but its not the only time its happened. Take for example OJ Simpson. All the evidence in the world proved him to be guilty, yet the Juidicial system felt that was not the case and he got aquited of the murder. At this time its very emotional and still fresh in our minds, but just try to look past that and see that cases like this happen more. Don’t get me wrong however, its more likely and probable that the white person gets away with the crime, as in this case. As for what can we do and when will it change? First off it starts with awareness. Right now the pictures of people being hooded or like the little black boy who said “Am I next?” these viral campaigns help that cause. Look at all the people who already know about this, and its only been a few weeks if that. Continuing to use social media as an aid, rather than an evil, will help spread these causes and make people realize the social injustices of the world. With that being said, it’s a pipeline dream. There was a rally today for the boy who was killed, and like our guest speaker said, black people will most likely expect white people not to be there. So it’s a two way street. We as white people acknowledge your feelings, so we feel somewhat out of place to be able to show up to something like that even though our hearts are in the same place as yours. The day that we can overcome that fear, and overcome that feeling of neglection as a race, that’s when things will start changing. Its truly sad to see that some people have to go through such inequalities in this world, but the solution is complex and distant. As much as it’s a cliché, this class is a good start for 700+ people a semester to start learning. Yes maybe not everything is true, and yes maybe some theories in this class are flawed, but as a society (this class) we are starting to wake the hell up. If that’s what it takes, to step into something we’ve never stepped into before, then so be it. Sometimes the only way to change is by opening up to something you may not want to open up tp, even if it isn’t always comfortable.

To be quite honest, my perspective has not changed whatsoever. As Sam mentioned, I understand why Middle Easterns would see this as unfair and act upon our military actions with a vengeance. But what was failed to be mentioned is the facts. We were in Iraq and Afghanistan hunting members of Al Qaeda, a national terrorist group. Our mission was to bring peace to their place, not steal from them. Our mission wasn’t to kill innocent people. We were not trying to overtake their land. Maybe the cost of one American soldier’s life is worth 29 innocent people, but I completely agree. They are risking their life so that our life here is a better one. They do so much for our country. And the most important part of that last sentence is it’s OUR country. We all live here, and bathe in first world problems and growing social media and lots of wealth. That’s what America is. That’s why I love being an American. Anyone who doesn’t support our military actions clearly takes this country for granted and it makes me so angry. If these doubters would move to another country for 6 months, or a year, or any amount of time, they would soon realize all the things they took for granted in this country. Sometimes that’s just how the world works, some people are more dominant than others. The world’s main energy source right now is oil, and I support an aggressive tactic to achieve getting it. This world runs on trying to improve everyones self- worth based on working in our own self-interest. So when our soldiers, who are some of the only people in this world who act in America’s interest rather than their own, go to war for us, you’re god damn right I’ll support them. It made me sick to read to Twitter feed and hear people bashing the military. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t even be here. Someone made a comment, “The last time they fought for our freedom was what, WWII?” That comment had me so irritated. If you would open your blind eyes, you would realize they have been and continue on fighting for our freedom every single minute of every single day. If they were’nt there to add stability and safety in our country, life would not even grasp what it is today. So what can we do to change? I don’t see a need to change anything. The fact of the matter is we aren’t Iraqis. We aren’t Pakistanis, or Germans, or Sri Lankans. We are Americans, and we are proud to be able to say that name. Sometimes life is unfair, and I get it. We go into their country and sometimes innocent lives are lost at the expense of lives who have terroristic blood on their hands. As my father, a veteran of the Vietnam war always says when I say something isn’t fair, “Golf is fair, life is unfair.”

The first thing you have to understand about this is from a business standpoint. Businesses don’t just pikc a town with a lot of people and say okay, we’re going to build a shop here. Demographics are taken into account to attract customers that they want. So when you say State College caters to white people, such as hair salons, which is honestly the only example being given, from a business stand point you’re damn right you’re going to cater to the majority. When you look at business projections in a town that is by far majority white, as well as Central Pennsylvania as a whole being predominantly white, I don’t find anything wrong with targeting a majority audience. State College, PA is a unique situation because Central PA is very rural, and whites dominate this geographical area. You want to target a place that has the majority of customers that would be interesting in the products your business is selling. So yes, many hair salons are geared towards whites in State College because they bring in a lot more money for them. If I were to open a business in that field in State College, I would probably promote my store to whites too. Not because I am white, or favor white supremacy, that’s a ridiculous assumption as to why people might see this. Its because if I cater to whites is predominantly white area, I’m going to make a lot more money. This is actually a funny time to be talking about this, because yesterday I was driving around the town over from me, which means I was driving in the highly urban town of Allentown, PA. The city is full of diversity and mixtures of cultures, not many of them being white. So while driving around I went into a shopping strip to go to the beer store. Right next to it was a hair salon called “Nappy By Choice” I was with some of my white friends and one half black friend and we were all making fun of the name because usually black people get offended (i.e nappy headed hoes) when white people make that claim. So the point I’m trying to make is that it make come off as somewhat unfair, or bias towards minorities that State College is full of businesses trying to promote themselves to whites more so than other races, but that’s just because they want the most customers. I would never, ever in my right mind walk into “Nappy By Choice” because that store isn’t made for me. But I’m sure it’s a successful salon because the demographic area has a lot of minority citizens, which is their audience. If they moved their store to State College, it would probably go out of business. It’s a very simple issue to realize that its not about wanting to cater to whites, but from a business major it is easy to see its because they HAVE to cater to whites in order to be a successful business in Central PA.

In class, we discussed how controlling for certain things change the results of standardized tests scores. However, there are a few things to consider. When controlled for money, the higher income students did better which may come from higher standards built for them by their parents, tutoring options available or better education in school. When controlled for race, of the exact same kind of student, same background and everything, there was a difference. When they were told ‘this test has generally been excelled by white students’ it made a bigger difference in the data. This is more of a sociological reason than the previous, controlling for money example. With that there are more opportunities and money has nothing to do with race. But when controlling for race, there is a difference. Looking at the 2009 SAT results, black students and Hispanic/latin American students are doing substantially worse than Asians, with average scores of 1276, 1345 and 1623 respectively. This does seem to be an interesting difference, but I believe educational background and childhood environment have to factor into this equation. I would bet that the majority of Asians who excel on the SATs are from high income, good cultured families who value education. Speaking for myself, I came from a good educational background and the public schools I went to were pretty good credentials wise. I didn’t invest any money into the SATs, showed up to my only attempt hungover and sore from a party the night before, and ended up with a pretty admirable score. I believe that success came more form the fact that I was raised to believe education was the most valuable part of my life, and it is. It has nothing to do with that I’m white. Its hardly even the fact of income. The culture I came from was built around getting the best and highest education I can get. I’m sure these Asian-American families instill these values just the same. The company that administers the SATs is quoted with saying the strongest performers were those who took rigorous core classes and those who familiarized themselves with the test. I feel as it is unfair to say it doesn’t have much to do with where you live or what genetics were passed on. In regards to how when someone is told another group of people do better on a task than the person doing the task, that’s a psychological principle that applies to a lot more than just this example. When anyone is given doubt by a third party about the succession rate of something, it is almost certain that person will not perform as well. Simply put, I don’t buy into how race causes that much of a difference. I see the data and I see the difference is average scores, but I’d also like to see the difference in family culture and lifestyle. Saying three kinds of races taking the same test are all identical, does not represent the vast majority of cases in the real life. In most cases, Asians and Caucasians and African Americans and Native Americans all come from different educational backgrounds and cultures which has a profound impact on the data.

It is clearly evident that there exists in sports some kind of racial dominance. Coming from a huge sports enthusiast my entire life, and someone who has played all types of sports growing up, it has always been a question on my mind. I believe that it comes from a few things. First and foremost, genetically speaking it takes a certain build to play any type of professional sport. With that being said, each sport has its own skill set required to be a dominant player. For example, in basketball a man usually is required to jump high, run fast and have a good sense of their surroundings. Typically black males excel in running fast and jumping high due to their bigger, more athletic builds. In addition, their genes from past players have been inherited. Generations of blacks would be handed good, athletic genes that will help them prevail. Continuing on, the second reason is because society has built its culture around certain sports, especially in America, due to common trends of the past. What I mean by this is that there seems to be a general, societal consensus about who is good at what. Like Sam said, you would rarely think of a black man playing hockey because it requires cold weather and lots of violence, plus it is stemmed from Canada which is known for cold weather. In general, due to the climate of their origins, black people are hesitant to play in unfavorable conditions such as on ice. Another example would be the NFL. When most people think of a quarterback, they think of a white guy. When someone thinks of a wide receiver, they think of a tall, built, fast black guy. That’s only because the successful icons in those positions happen to be white and black respectively. For me, it is easy to see why people say baseball is a white mans game. Growing up I played with all white people, watching white people play on my favorite team the Red Sox, and played high school ball with 25 white guys. Its just the culture that is built around each of these sports. I do not feel this is racist nor is it a problem, just statistically and culturally based that people have these assumptions when connecting race to sports. Finally, I believe this may come from a sense of being hesitant to compete in a sport that is dominated by another race. I feel that a freshman in high school might be scared to try out for the golf team, regardless of his skill, because he feel it will be dominated by white men. On the other hand, a white guy might hesitate to try and compete in basketball because he feels its dominated by blacks so he goes on to another sport. This is the least prevalent argument I have made, but I feel it occurs more often than one might think. Either way, I am glad to see sports have become what they are. It is nice to see the best 11 guys on the gridiron, or the 9 guys on the diamond, coming together regardless of race to perform a show that we probably couldn’t be happy without. To think of it in those words, sports seem a lot more enjoyable than when they once discriminated against the best of the best based solely on color.

I don’t believe white people shy away from talking about race whatsoever. When Sam says that ‘white people’ don’t talk about it is stereotyping all whites and unjustly doing so. It is not fair to generalize this statement and I just don’t feel as if it has any evidence, as usual, to back up this claim. Who says I’m scared to talk about race? I have never encountered said claims about rejecting to talk about it, and I don’t understand why he would say such a thing. It is true that sometimes white people often feel hesitant to say something so that we don’t offend someone of the other race, and that anxiety is intense at times, but it does not affect everyday life or does it mimic the rash claims made by Sam. It just doesn’t make sense to me as to why he said this. White people do grow up being told not to factor race into the equation, and Sam presented this information with a negative connotation and I don’t understand why. Our ancestors are realizing they made a mistake and by teaching their kids not to look at race as a dominant factor in judging someone, they corrected themselves by instilling these new values into their children. I can’t comprehend why that is bad, because personally it has helped me throughout my life. It is easier for me to look past stereotypes hammered into us by the media and society, and especially because I came from a very diverse area, so I embrace that method of living. So if you say whites have a silence in the conversation about race, you are wrongfully mistaken. Look at the amount of white people in the class itself. That number speaks for itself because it shows we want to learn about ethnic relations, which you are claiming we don’t take part in. The class itself is proof that the argument made against whites is completely false. Our recitation groups talk about race in its entirety, with all different races and religions and such. There are plenty of white people right there in those groups talking about race, so this whole theory is ridiculous. Race is a touchy issue in this world no matter what color you are. It’s a tough topic to talk about because everyone knows the history and understands that there used to be a segregated society here. That association has no correlation with a person being white or not. The reality is that we all have to deal with it someway. By eliminating the factor of race in an individuals mind helps society as a whole. We can only change the future if we currently change what we are doing today.