With the recent scandal that is going on amongst us, I think our school’s (and our) reputation needs as much positive light as it can get. I’m not sure about the rest of the class or students here at Penn State, but this past Thanksgiving break was the first time I was questioned by family and friends about our integrity. Even though the events never happened while I was here, let alone if I was even considering going to college. Many of the comments I was getting back home were along the lines that our student body is a bunch of imbeciles and morons with no compassion for the victims. I tried to explain to my family that our actions were in reaction to the sacrifice of Joe Pa but I have come to the realization that I cannot be the only one trying to defend our school’s reputation. We need to come together as a whole student body and do something big for the victims or stay low from any negativity as much as possible.
The idea of sacrificing State Patty’s day would be a success in my eyes and would prove a huge point to everyone and especially us. Some people’s response towards this idea was that no one would care if we didn’t celebrate it and that it won't make a difference, but I beg to differ. I think such an act would show that we are not all selfish nor an irresponsible group of young people that only likes to party and that we don’t see the bigger picture, similar to the way the rest of the world sees us. If we do celebrate State Patty’s this year I think that would attract more negative attention from the media than if we didn’t celebrate it. Our society feeds off of negativity and the media is the birthplace. The bigger question is whether or not it would actually work and honestly speaking I don’t think so. We have just the right amount of young minded ignorant kids in this school that would never skip a “holiday” like State Patty’s day even for their own families. It would have to take some serious convincing to make the entire Penn State body and all of their friends from other schools not to attend this year’s State Patty. In my eyes I think that would be a miracle that only Sam Richards and his wife can do (after all it is his idea). If it were to be successful I think that the most shocked of us all would be us (the student body). To give something up for the sake of all of our reputations would be something that only we can give to each other. I have had enough of what people think of us, its time we do something big together and to stand for something bigger than our social lives.

When I first heard of the scandal I was confused on which way to really feel. I was disappointed in the way the Pennsylvania State University handled the situation as a whole. I think that they failed to address this matter to the students and faculty of this institution and let the media and immature people take control of the ciaos. I feel hurt because sexual abuse happens everywhere in the world but mostly that it happened basically in our own backyards and there is nothing we can do about it. I feel sickened that the administration and the football faculty continue to cover up such a horrific event. I have learned that you can really trust no one in this world, old people alike. Everyone in this matter is a grown ass man, let alone an old man well above senior citizen status. That makes me look at the world differently because these are the people we are “supposed” to come to for advice and guidance but the realization is that people are just human and man should and could never be above another. We all make mistakes the sickening part is how far we would go to cover them. I have learned that money makes the world turn. This was hidden for many years probably because the Penn State name was on the line but that will never justify this kind of behavior. I think a lot of my peers here at Penn State have very different priorities and morals. Till this day I believe that many of the student body is most upset at the fact that Joe Pa got the boot and not about the victims. We had a whole week of intense hostility on campus, not to mention a ridiculous riot, for a man who in the end of the day knew that something horrible was going on behind closed door to innocent children. I will take this experience with me for the rest of my life and I will always be informed about child sex abuse and modern day slavery, which is really the same thing and I believe that we should educate more people to stop this act. I will forever be convinced that “group think” will always take over ignorant peoples minds. I feel for the children that have been victimized by such a manipulative man and I pray that they have the courage to stand for justice. In the end of the day the biggest lesson I have learned is that “this is a COLD world you better know what you are fighting for.” We need more love for humanity and the world around us. Eventually we will all die, let us learn to live in peace amongst one another and pray for a day were we are no longer scared to have a safe and secure family.

In terms of immigration people think of the cost before the benefits because our society runs off what brings in revenue first. The driving force of this country is to make money period! We live in a society that focuses on a free market system; if the people want it, they get it. I also think that because of our current economic state politicians use the issue of cost dealing with immigration as an escape goat for what the major issues are at hand. I think that politicians use the argument that illegal immigrants are “taking jobs” from Americans irrelevant because the real issue is that most people are not going to do these jobs. This leads to the realization that people think about cash flow before any other truths towards immigration.
I think that immigration plays a huge role in this country. I believe that immigration is what shapes this county and it is the reason we are the great nation we are today, but if only people really though of it like that.
There are so many benefits for people migrating to the US. A lot of them are looking for “the American dream” which is simply just to make a decent living and the ability to provide their families with opportunities that they wouldn’t have in their native countries. Most immigrants (it seems) are very hard working people who are disciplined and driven. So why not have these people come here to better their lives as well as the lives on many “non-immigrant” Americans.
I find this topic completely ironic. America was founded on immigration but how Sam said in class, “We just closed the door behind us.” That is a powerful statement because it’s very true. In actuality we stole this entire country. Pilgrims took this land from Native Americans and in today’s time they have governed who is able to enter, for obvious reasons such as terrorism and capitalism. I find it also ironic that black people were traded from their motherlands and they have the most strenuous immigration policy, well after Arabs. Lastly the fact that immigrants would work for less than the average American seems unjust to me. Why wouldn’t it be the same pay rate from the beginning and the competition lies on whom is best suitable for the position?

Ahhh! Finally a topic that I have been dealing with my entire life… Racism! I would define racism as the belief that one person’s race or skin color is superior to another race and displays these feelings by showing hatred towards individuals of the other race. I think racism to me is the single most accepted thing in our society and I see this every time I experience racism. First off I would like to say that there is no such thing as one race or ethnic group better than the other especially in a country like the United Stated of America. I say this because as our history shows WE ARE NOT THE ORIGINALLY PEOPLE OF THIS COUNRTY. Every immigrant including the different kinds of white people have experienced some sort of racism. With that being said why do we still insist to bring other people down if we have all been through such a horrible and unnecessary encounter? I think racism stems from being ignorant about other people. Most races have many different traits and no one is going to look the same. I think there are similarities amongst people of the same origin. I think that our generation has progressed with these issues but we had A LOT more to work on and I blame older generations because they are more close-minded and non-accepting than our generation.
When I was in a freshman in high school, my homeroom teacher was Spanish and came up to me on the first day of class and started talking to me in Spanish. Not trying to be rude and interrupt her I let her finish and when she was done I told her I was not Spanish and in fact African but I spoke Arabic. Her facial expression change almost immediately and she said “Oh your one of them!” One of them, what does that even mean, that I’m black? Throughout the year she would treat me with a weird cold shoulder. The second time I experienced racism was when I first moved to State College. It was the first home game weekend and everyone was so excited we won. I was walking with my friends to a party downtown when I needed to get cash out of the ATM. They went in line and told me they were holding a spot for me. While I was at the ATM I started hearing people describing my outfit, which was weird, but I guess okay because I don’t dress like everyone up here. So I turned around to see who they were and why they were talking to me and one of them yells “Your not welcome her!” I was shocked and responded, “You don’t even know me.” They were three extremely drunk white boys. The other one yells “Go back to where you came from you bitch nigger!” At that point I didn’t know what to do and started to cry. Even now I still don’t understand why they were acting that way towards me, I don’t think I ever will.

After our last couple of classes, I began to ask myself what stage I am and what are my friends and family, so this is a great opportunity to find out. Moving to the US made me realize that the way I view race was completely different from the way most people in this country viewed race and this was apparent before ever taking this course. I believe that I am currently in stage 5 and I’m pretty sure of it because at a young age I was exposed to the differences in cultures. I used to attend an international school in Saudi Arabia up until 8th grade. Most of the students were not Saudi and if they were they were probably half white (American or British). So from the bat I was not the majority race and it was even clearer to me when a white girl asked me when I was 4 years old or so “What are you?” As a child I had no idea how to answer that question, so I turned to my mother and she said we were from Sudan. I ran and told the girl and she said what’s that? So I asked my mom again and she said African. I looked at her like what did you say? Then I told the girl and she began to look at me differently. That was probably the last time I was in stage 2. Going to an international school opened my eyes so many exciting and different culture especially their foods (the best part). I’m pretty certain that most of my friends then were at the same stage I was in- accepting to others, realizing our own cultures, and ultimately individuals. When I moved to the US it was kind of like a step back. I started realizing that the black people would only sit with themselves and so did white people and Asians. This was probably the toughest years of my life because I would be around all kinds of people but my close friends always looked at me weird and questioned “if I was black enough” so obliviously they were in stage 3 and 4. My current close friends I would definitely say are in stage 5 or 6 and so are my siblings. They are rarely are uncomfortable around people even if they are the only one of their kind. I barely hear the use race identifiers when unnecessary and most of all they most interested in the weirdest looking person in the room rather than the ones that look like them. I would definitely say that they influence me to grow as an individual and that’s the beauty of it.

I think my race pays a huge part on how I view the world mostly because I feel confused about how I identify myself. My family is originally from Sudan but I was born in Saudi Arabia. When I visit Sudan my family members usually make me feel like an outsider and that I don’t belong. They would say things like “the American girl” even though at that point I was still in Saudi Arabia and had never been to the US. I feel like I could identify as Saudi Arabian more than anything because I was born and lived there for 13 years but Saudi’s would never allow that unless I disowned my Sudanese heritage. I think I am more Saudi that most locals but in their society you can only be Saudi if your family bloodline is from there. My parents tried there hardest to make me feel like I belonged to a certain group but that is still something I struggle with.
When we moved to America that was the first time I ever felt a sense of belonging and unity. I had a country that I could finally identify with and that was an amazing feeling. Soon after that feeling faded I realized that I identify as Afro-Arab American, Afro-Arab first then American. Its not like I think my race identifies me but I do think that it shapes me. We live in a society that is very used to categorizing our self’s into certain groups.
Sometimes I think that my race plays a part in the way I might interact with people. Lets say I'm alone I would probably act differently if I was around a group of white people than if I was around people who were black.
I realize that my parents have given me certain privileges that most people don’t get to experience such as traveling to different countries and being exposed to multiple cultures. The only difference from me and other Sudanese Americans would be the fact that they let the community influence their lives and most of them live double lives (meaning that their parents probably have no idea of who they really are.) I try to stay away from that stigma because I don’t think that were I'm from should define me… So in the end of the day I really don’t care… I’m an individual

Why do women wear short skirts and high heels while men wear whatever they want? I can only answer this question from my point of view and there are certain things I would have to clear up first. In class a lot of the focus as to what women wear was geared towards being attractive to men, I want to disagree with this point of view. I think that most women dress a certain way to impress other women before impressing other men. Yes they are certain things a woman can wear that will get a guys attention but I don’t think she is wearing it for his reaction mostly but more so for the women around him. Some females tend to put up a kind of “alter ego” when they go out; you have to look banging basically and who is that for..? The other women trying to figure out which label brand you are wearing at that time. Next I think that most women that follow the trend of the short shirts and the low top with the high heals are getting a certain kind of attention that they might not necessarily want to get. Most men would see that women as a young person that is up for anything and at the end of the night they possibly could get picked up or a number or whatever. In a sense women are more focused on getting a man than the man is on getting the girl because of these signs. They are a lot more factors that do play into this as well but the first thing people do is look at appearance. Lastly I do think that nowadays men do take into consideration of what they wear. I know a group of guys that take about 2 hours to get ready to go out, which fyi is longer than it takes me to get dressed. They make sure that they look just as good as the ladies would if they were going out. It just appears that they don’t care or do as much because their clothing is much simpler than women’s clothing. Women have many options to choose from while men don’t really. With options things can get complicated but I think that women DO NOT have to dress the same and wear their sexuality on their selves to be attractive or fit in. My motto is comfort first and with that you can never really go wrong. It is so easy for a woman to dress up the simplest outfit and that’s the best part. So ladies try something different and leave things to the imagination rather than flaunting it all at once.

The assumption that women are more innocent than men never really affected me until I watched the You Tube video that Sam showed during lecture with the three different people stealing bikes. When I really think about it women do get away with a lot more than men and that’s shown in many ways not just in the justice system. In relationships if the man did something wrong the woman gets to cry and be sad and that would make it acceptable. If the woman does something wrong it is much easier for her to show remorse because she is considered to be emotional and innocent. Women are considered to be caregivers and with that come certain responsibilities. The fact that women are mothers is a perfect example that demonstrates that they are supposed to be more innocent than men. Throughout time women have taken the role of being the housewife and men have been the providers. Men are supposed to go out into the world see a lot of things that women in this sense would not be exposed to. In my own personal experience I have found that I have been preserved to be an innocent bi-stander. I was at a party once and the cops came to bust the party down and lined up all the females in one side of the room and the males in another. The police basically sympathized with the all the women and let us go because we did show concern and remorse, while they charged the men for underage drinking without any hesitation. I guess the notion that men will do anything to get with a woman was going through the officer’s head. The more innocent races to me are Arab women that are grabbed down covering their hair and bodies. I think that because they seem to look like they are the women that are oppressed and do not have their own voices which makes them more innocent than men in that society because they are not in a position of power. This is my general thinking but because I have lived in Saudi Arabia I can attest that not all women that are fully covered are innocent. Some of them simply don’t get caught. I also think that SES does play a big role in how innocent a certain woman would be than the other. If a rich white woman was accused of stealing you could easily argue that she probably is crazy and was “going through something,” she innocent. On the other hand if a poor black woman were accused of stealing they would probably send her to jail because she knows its wrong and she shouldn’t do it even if that’s the only way to get it.

Being gay is the supposedly the “new black” in our generation. These people have been struggling to be equals with the rest of the world just like black people have done in the past. The stories that I have heard by gay people and the fact that they have to go through hell and back to do things like get married, adopt kids, and visit a spouse in hospital. Its quite sad when you think about it; we’re all supposed to be “equals” but just because their sexual preference doesn’t fall into the accepted view of society they are not able to do the simple things that straight people probably take advantage of. In my opinion, I could care less who you sleep with but our society is so used to picking on one group of people, it wouldn’t feel “normal” if we weren’t arguing about irrelevant things like this. I do agree with Sam; gay marriage is not a big issue in a sense that there are so many other things to worry about before that. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be able to get married I’m saying that education cuts are a lot more important in this day of age before any of this nonsense. Why can’t we pass a law that says that children in the same state should have the same educational opportunities as each other? Why are we probably the only country that has an on-going obesity epidemic while the rest of the world is dying from starvation? Why are our crime rates much higher than our graduation rates? Why are we bailing out million dollar companies but we can’t feed the homeless and less fortunate CHILDREN? We have such a big substance abuse problem in this country but yet meth, cocaine, and heroin are easily found in almost every part in America. Even though gay people should have the same civil right as the rest of us, I don’t think it should separate us to the point where that’s all that we talk about. The flash mobs in Maryland, Philadelphia, and Wisconsin are what we should be focusing on not as states or local groups but as a nation. These kids are coming together through social networking and physically assaulting innocent people in vicious ways. Education cuts are being placed to save our economy but the fact of the matter is that we need more money for these children!! The only way to secure a good future for our country is to invest in our youth. These nonsense arguments we have with each other, whether democrat or republican, are only placed so we don’t see the bigger picture. We as educated people need to WAKE EACH OTHER UP!! Rant over-

Personally, I have never really had a particular preference when it comes to race and dating. I have only dated black men and I am an Afro-Arab woman. I have tried to take interest in guys out side of that race but it never seem to be serious. I do find white, Hispanic, Asian, and Arab men attractive but I have never dated any. I think I big factor as to why that would be is the level of interest that guy shows me. Most people would say that I’m a “black guy magnet” and I would probably agree with them. When I go out usually a black guy would come up to me and try to talk to me but when it comes to any other race I feel like they are just conversation fillers and in a sense scared (maybe). Being in such a big campus such as Penn State I still seem to fall into the same problem, well I wouldn’t call it a problem more of an unnecessary confusion. Since I have realized this problem I have been trying to get comfortable around men with different backgrounds.
On the other hand, my parents have tried to make me date strictly Arab men. They do not know about my past relationships with men out of my Sudanese decent. I would like to believe that they would be happy that I have found some one to share amazing moments with but that would be naïve of me. My mother on several occasions has said that she would not mind if I dated a white man but has expressed to me that she would not like to see me with a black man. She thinks that white men are more cultured than black men and we would not have as much cultural clashes. That conversation would have ended in an argument and I would tell her that it didn’t really make a difference.
When Sudanese people see me with a man of a different race they will be labeling me in some sort of way. I remember I once was out with a friend who happened to be black and I ran into a Sudanese lady in my community and she told all of her friends that I was dating a drug dealer. When word got back to my mother, she was embarrassed and even though he was just a friend she never believed me.
I do have my reserved opinions on Arab men as lifelong partners. I think that there are some Arab men that are very judgmental and over powering towards their women. Some traditional relationships I have been exposed to in my culture have resulted in divorce. Many of the women I know have been force to quit their jobs, be isolated from other men and women, and the most extreme would be physical abuse. BUT I do know of amazing relationships in the same culture such as my parents.