The source of a story or information determines the extent to which I trust or believe it. For me, I consider most information biased in some manner unless it is empirical. Because people tend to use words to portray information in a way which they desire, there is a tendency for written or verbal information to be subjective. This includes stories, news reports, and academic writing as well. Where we get our information can influence the decisions we make. Especially at a young age, people are influenced by what we experience. If we are continually exposed to one political thought, we are more likely to agree with that philosophy later in life. If one reads news from only a newspaper or a certain television news network, he or she is likely to have a limited understanding of information based on what is given.
In response to the prompt, I generally assume a story or piece of information as somewhat true, as there could be multiple ‘sides to the story.’ Whereas a news report may suggest a significant issue within society, I try to assume a sense of bias. However, unless I put deep consideration into it, I tend to assume greater truth to information that is less relevant to me. Being one of the volunteers in the story activity in class, I had figured what I was told was completely different than what was given initially. In fact, just conversation from the storage room may have influenced what I had remembered and told as part of the story to the next volunteer. It was interesting to see how distorted the story had become. I think it is important to have some critical thought to what we are told. Doing well in college over the last four years meant actually doing work myself rather than relying on others to know everything. I think that having a sense of critical thought about what we are told to be true along with the personality of doing something for yourself, rather than letting others do it, will go a long way in helping you in life.

The Trayvon Martin story is relevant to this discussion because there have been several different perspectives of the situation released. Some describe the victim as worse than Zimmerman, while others shine the ‘evil’ at Zimmerman. Anyone who is not involved in the case really relies on strictly what is said on television or in newspapers. Therefore, I think it is important to keep open about the issue, rather than making assumptions and relying on the press. Sam mentioned in class that events like this lead him to believe this country is slowly being divided by race. This was an interesting point, however, I think this story will also open the opportunity for many citizens to reflect on their own racial lens and begin to rethink or assess the meaning of race in society.

The question posed in this video brings attention to the dominance and biased outcomes created by the influence of race. Since the ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, race has always influenced the consequences and outcomes of various social activities. Even in government, minorities continue to be under represented in respect to the racial proportion of representatives and the racial proportions of the US population. Although the extent to which this is evident has diminished over the past century, it still remains an aspect of American politics.

The comparison between switched roles in the proposed scenario exemplifies the biased influence race has on crime and policy. The story of Trayvon occurs in the southern state of Florida, which white supremacy has been existent even in the mildest of forms. Stereotyping is commonplace, even if we do not ourselves experience it and this form of social behavior, i.e. assuming someone to be of a certain group simply based on one’s own experiences and knowledge is a significant issue in American culture.

In order to overcome our own assumptions regarding race and people, it is important that, as a society, we become educated more about the myths and truths about race relations. Sam’s class is large, but it only opens the eyes of less than 800 students a semester. The discussions and critical thinking the professor forces us to engage enable us to overcome our own assumptions and build that knowledge that is needed to avoid situations like that in Florida.

Once people are educated and have a greater understanding of race relations, then society may overcome the fact that a shooter, being black, is more likely to be in jail than his white counterpart. It is the societal development in its entirety, or the becoming commonplace, of biased influence of race on outcomes. As America becomes more diverse with the immigration of greater cultures into society, the likelihood of such a change is gradually greater. It is when America is no longer a strictly white and European ethnocentric country that the dilemma in the video is removed from society. As a result, immigration policy and the political environment which influence the growth of diverse culture in America that dictates when our society will make this change. By educating the youth in the manner that Sam teaches this class, we will build the foundation for making that change in the future.

When you put your face to an application, you are basically giving your application and added impression that could be positive or negative. While yes it allows employers to associate an application with an applicant, it could also leave decisions unfavorable. Is it wrong for people to want attractive employees? Not necessarily. Is it fair? Absolutely not. But attractiveness is not something designed by people, such as economics or the study of sociology. It exists in the world outside of human existence. Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, described evolution as the progression of the individuals through their environment and the attributes those individuals had were those that became common. He gave the example butterflies described the story of the survival of spotted ones compared to non-spotted. While the spots were not necessarily an attractive attribute to a butterfly, the environment favored the spotted ones because of their ability to blend in with their surroundings, leaving the non-spotted butterflies vulnerable to predators. The result was, as you may have figured, is that reproduction would lead to more spotted butterflies. Take this story and imagine the effects it has as generations later, when spots are now common and normal attributes. The attractiveness of spots… is relative. We, naturally, are attracted to certain aspects of others because of those before us. Why do the bad guys always get the girl? Because they some attribute that makes them attractive to these women. So my opinion on the matter? Facial identification on applications makes for a subjective evaluation of an applicant. Whether or not you are qualified for a job can be assessed adequately before first facial/real impressions.
My biggest problem with this issue is LinkedIn and Facebook. Profiles with avatars/profile pictures will influence the audience. A potential employer will view you, and see your picture on there. Are you attractive? Well that depends. But its also relative to your job applicant reviewee and relative to their personality. So really, is it beneficial to post your picture on a networking site? Maybe. During my application process for the PhD program here at Penn State, I did not have to upload a photo nor associate a profile site with my application. There was no requirement to identify yourself beyond what would be expected. But this has led me to think about what if academic applications did require photos or links to profile sites. Would that influence the result? If it did, would all our future professors be attractive? Would be nice, but I don’t think such could be assumed. Although I was accepted, I believe such a requirement would have minimally influenced an application, at least in the field of educational leadership. However, this may not be true regarding the requirement and fields such as engineering and business. In those fields, it may have a greater influence on the results.

Certain sports are dominated by specific races because of several reasons. First, the popularity of a sport within a cultural group or race will have a significant effect on their level of dominance in the sport. If the current consensus among a race hardly demonstrates interest, their likely is very little dominance by that group. Second, the history of a sport greatly influences which race dominates. American football, which has roots from variations of soccer in the late 1800s was played primarily by Ivy League students. The first official football game as we recognize it today, was played between Rutgers and Princeton University. This is significant because overtime, whites continued to dominate football. The Civil Rights Movement, however, was an event that impacted American football by opening the door to colored players. From this point, the history of American football can be identified with black dominance. A third reason certain races dominate certain sports is the relationship between the characteristics of a sport with the biological attributes of its players. Sprinting and most running sports have a significant dominance by blacks. The muscle structure within this group is better suited for sprinting and as a result, leads to a greater dominance.
This is not to say that certain sports will forever be dominated by one particular race. Whereas some sports may currently have certain dominance by a group, this does not mean that other groups will never dominate a sport. Such is demonstrated by American football. Will NASCAR ever be dominantly black? Possibly. But it depends on the social environment of the time, the relationship between the characteristics of the sport and the attributes of its players, and the political environment as well. The effect of the political environment on the dominance of a race over a sport is demonstrated by the policies of immigration. Suppose the United States has significant increases of one racial group immigrating into the country. As a result, it is possible that their assimilation into American culture will introduce them to new sports and their participation in certain sports will lead to their dominance within the sport. Furthermore, economic effects may shift dominance from one race to another. As more countries begin to emerge economically, people may begin to participate in sports that their race had never before. China, with its capitalist economy, has recently surged economically and its people have experienced new things. It is possible that Chinese dominance in certain sports will occur.
Race dominance within a sport is not negative, for dominance is not influenced solely by one factor. Nor is race dominance an issue that needs significant attention by lobbyists who seek to control every aspect of society. Instead, race dominance is a feature of how society, a mere result of the various inputs.

Personally, self identification is something I have always done. I have always enjoyed sitting down with my grandfather and talking about family history. My family originally immigrated in the early 1700s from Germany and settled in Eastern PA, 10 generations ago. Self identification is something I have strongly taken pride in the past. It amazes me though how narrow-minded we can be about issues of racial identification.
When I think of self identifying, I remember a clip I watched on Khan Academy about evolution and the basics of species development. Something about his explanation of survival and instinct makes me want to relate our tendacies to identify ourselves to that of species survival. Are we trying to ensure future success, naturally?
My mother and father live on opposite ends of the state and I have experienced a tremendous difference in demographics and how I self identify myself with my community and race. When I am in either locations, I self identify quite a bit. On my mother's side, our family has alot of community involvement. My family includes township solicitors, the chief of police, former school district superintendent, township supervisors, all of which gives me a inner feeling of superiority than alot of the immigrating residents from the city. However, at my father's I am part of a small rural family that is heavily self reliant, growing our own vegetables, pigs, cows, etc. At either place, I am comfortable with associating with the group and therefore, I feel that self identification satisfies a need to be comfortable with a group.