After this week's lecture, I think there are a couple reasons why people generally dislike immigrants. People are afraid of change, of unfamiliar cultures coming into contact with ares, immigrants are generally poor and desperate, or else they probably would not be immigrating, and they take jobs. Jobs which usually no one else wants for pay that no one wants. I do not have a problem with immigrants, I am sure ninety nine percent of our class came from a line of immigrants who came in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. I know I did and I am thankful for such because my life would be much different if that immigration did not take place. Illegal immigrants, and usually held with much more dislike because they are often associated with crime, like drugs coming from Mexico and taking advantage of policies our government has in place like free education for their children, free health care, and automatic citizenship for children born from illegal immigrants. All stupid policies by the way that should be dealt with. Immigration is a huge problem for this country and our borders need to be closed for a couple of years. Our population is drastically rising, and the poor, here legally, are not getting jobs because illegals are hired for less pay, and more people are becoming poor because the economy is bad that they are not really leaving a bad life for a much better one. But I think the biggest reason is that people are afraid of change. They are afraid to not be thought of a dominant and see others coming here as a threat. That is why during the time of Ellis Island surge, they were put in large ethnic slums to keep them away from "America." Also, people do not like how immigrants come here and do not feel the need to learn English. I was very pissed off when everything my middle school and high school sent home, news letters, and announcements and such were in English on one side and Spanish on the other. Are you kidding me? This country is far to nice with their policies. Now on to jobs, immigrants take jobs from those already here which means they are not able to support themselves and or families. Someone who has lived here for an extended period of time should always get priority but unfortunately in today's greedy market, it goes to those who will work very hard for very little pay. They make take the jobs that no one else wants for pay no one wants, but here in the wealthiest country in the world, people should not have to pick up garbage for minimum wage. This is another problem in itself with our country's enormous wealth gap.

As a big Dave Matthews fan, I was glad when Sam played this in class especially since the message is so powerful. In fact this song was mainly inspired by Apartheid in South Africa but later was related to the experience of Native Americans. When Sam brought up the point that the United States Government committed the largest genocide in history it really made me think. As soon as I hear genocide I immediately think of the holocaust against the Jews committed by the Nazis but now that I think about it, my country did commit the largest genocide and now we keep them suppressed in extreme poverty. Before this class, I can honestly say I knew very little of current Native American life in today's shadow, but now I recognize that it is a huge problem. Life on that reservation was absolutely horrifying and an inner city neighborhood in Detroit seems like a paradise. Somehow their lives remain a secret and hardly anyone knows their suffering. Nearly everyone knows about the holocaust and he gave Israel to the Jews to ease their suffering and give them a safe haven against future killings, yet we have given the Native Americans, those who were hear long long before us, nothing. After seeing that video, our government really needs to change that. It reminds of the movie Flag of our Fathers, one of the Marines who raises that iconic flag over Iwo Jima comes home with his fellow comrades to a hero's welcome, however after the war ends he returns to his tribes reservation, becomes addicted to alcohol and dies mysteriously in a pig pen. No autopsy was performed. That was truly one of the saddest stories I had ever heard and hardly anyone knows. The flag raising is an important symbol of American and a soldier who contributed the most to that was forgotten. When you mix alcohol with a situation like the one in reservation, you are bound to see deaths, suicides, the highest rates by the way, and broken families. These tribes try to keep their ancestors moral and beliefs and because they never had the chance, nor should they have had to, to join American society they are punished in a most harsh way. We took their land, their lives, and now have forgotten them. I will be honest, that song made me feel guilty, that my nation, which emphasizes freedom from oppression committed atrocities like that. One big problem our nation has, is that it tries to solve every elses problem but does not want to on the home front. We need serious changes here, poverty is big and we need to focus on this problem here. We definitely owe it to these people .

Ernso made a great point today that I never thought about before. A point which I now strongly agree with. He said that while sending money donations to Haiti can help, it does not help as much as people think and it only helps in the very short run. Foreign aid agency use children because lets face it, people feel much more emotion for a child suffering then an adult as children were born into those unfortunate circumstances. A money donation goes to help running the foreign aid group among other things before it is given to a family in need. A money donation can possibly help a family buy a batch of food or clothes are other small things yet it does not help them get family income in the future which is what Ernso stressed in class today. He explained how people need jobs in order to have a steady income while that will also help people expand business and form tighter communities. Money can absolutely contribute to long term but must be donated to a group that is set up to build business and not just distribute food and clothes, which will run out in a short time and leave the family is need back where they started. People in developed countries must teach the people in need skills to handle money, build, and business practices while networking to expose their products to potential markets. The foreign aid groups that show those sad children in poor places do not show you the rebel with a gun in his hand behind the child, or the mother and father working yet getting no where. They select what will appeal most to the viewer. Ernso's message not only laid out future ideas and progress, like getting high speed internet, but it clearly laid out how others can help and showed how it works. Donating money to a group will not get the family out of poverty, it will only shorten their suffering for a few days or weeks, yet it will keep them in poverty. Jobs with steady income and markets to sell goods are what is needed and today we saw how it works. Sam also realizes how this works which is why he tasks each incoming soc 119 class with proposing how to help these businesses grow. The quote Ernso made about how giving a man a fish is useless while teaching him how to fish allows him to sustain himself forever. Ernso also said that is 25 years Haiti is expected to be the most visited nation, clearly he has seen first hand how these ideas are helping Haiti and if that prediction comes true, Haiti will surely be out of poverty.

As a guy, I definitely agree that women have very little choice in what they were when going out. While they may have hundreds of dresses or shoes they are limited by dresses and heels so in reality that have 2 choices but several selections within those categories. Even though society does not frown on me for wearing a tee shirt and jeans everywhere, on party nights, I choose to dress up as much as a guy in a fraternity can. Usually a button down, nice jeans or khaki pants, and matching shoes. I know for a fact that sororities have rules on what their girls can where and are forbidden to come out unless they were the short dress, heel uniform. I mean society wants girls to be sexy and that means a short dress and heels. No guy is going to disapprove and I can assure you that we appreciate that image, however I guess if I really think into it, it is wrong to force girls to dress a certain way in order to gain society's approval and guy approval. I mean, a lot of girls do like to dress up and enjoy shopping for these items so I do not think it is a horrible situation and I can tell you as a guy, girls are attracted to mean who dress well. So there is a standard for both sexes. A girl is more likely to talk to me if I am wearing a polo style shirt and khakis than if I wear an over sized Nike tee shirt and ripped jeans. I persoanlly do not see anything wrong with these because part of the fun on party nights is dressing up.
These dresses that women wear are not necessary for a good time, but under today's standards, they are necessary to get guys and get other girls approval. After thinking about this I have realized that I follow this standard set forth by society because I would not approach girl at a party who is just wearing a tee shirt. I agree that that is wrong. In today's world, women are truely taught to attract and get the approval of men. Sams's analogy to the dolls was a good one. Those children did not have the absolute freedom to choose what doll they preferred. In order for that to happen, those black children would have had to be born in an empty room and immediately blindfolded and have no human contact and then be asked to choose a doll because they would be outside of society's influence. It is the same with woman, in order to be accepted, they must conform to society's image of womanhood.

As a guy, I definitely agree that women have very little choice in what they were when going out. While they may have hundreds of dresses or shoes they are limited by dresses and heels so in reality that have 2 choices but several selections within those categories. Even though society does not frown on me for wearing a tee shirt and jeans everywhere, on party nights, I choose to dress up as much as a guy in a fraternity can. Usually a button down, nice jeans or khaki pants, and matching shoes. I know for a fact that sororities have rules on what their girls can where and are forbidden to come out unless they were the short dress, heel uniform. I mean society wants girls to be sexy and that means a short dress and heels. No guy is going to disapprove and I can assure you that we appreciate that image, however I guess if I really think into it, it is wrong to force girls to dress a certain way in order to gain society's approval and guy approval. I mean, a lot of girls do like to dress up and enjoy shopping for these items so I do not think it is a horrible situation and I can tell you as a guy, girls are attracted to mean who dress well. So there is a standard for both sexes. A girl is more likely to talk to me if I am wearing a polo style shirt and khakis than if I wear an over sized Nike tee shirt and ripped jeans. I persoanlly do not see anything wrong with these because part of the fun on party nights is dressing up.
These dresses that women wear are not necessary for a good time, but under today's standards, they are necessary to get guys and get other girls approval. After thinking about this I have realized that I follow this standard set forth by society because I would not approach girl at a party who is just wearing a tee shirt. I agree that that is wrong. In today's world, women are truely taught to attract and get the approval of men. Sams's analogy to the dolls was a good one. Those children did not have the absolute freedom to choose what doll they preferred. In order for that to happen, those black children would have had to be born in an empty room and immediately blindfolded and have no human contact and then be asked to choose a doll because they would be outside of society's influence. It is the same with woman, in order to be accepted, they must conform to society's image of womanhood.

I have personally witnessed two acts of racism that I can recall off the top of my head. The first, back in high school during the time of the Presidential election of 2008, students organized McCain Mondays and others organized Obama Fridays. My high school was majority republican and majority white and the McCain Mondays supporters were as such white. The vast majority of the black students however were Obama supports and it is more common to come across a black democrat than republican so I would expect the majority of black students to support the democratic candidate who happened to be black. After a few weeks of seeing white students wearing McCain shirts and black students wearing Obama shirts, several arguments over the whites being racist and the black being uneducated about politics and just voting for Obama because he was black broke out. I heard repeated N bombs dropped. I, an avid republican, did participate in McCain Mondays and would have participated in Obama Fridays had I have been a democrat. Others just looked for reasons to fight. After a few weeks I stopped wearing the shirt to avoid having to form alliances and be confronted with arguments. People on both sides were ignorant and I personally handled the situation by just staying out of it. However, I was surprised to hear n bombs dropped. Another experience was when I went to Italy. Almost immediately when arriving I was warned by the tour guide about gypsies and their devious ways. Gypsies come from Romania by the way. I had heard stories of gypsies stealing traveler's money and felt my items would be safe...they were. However I was extremely surprised to heard the tour guide say that should I come across a gypsy bothering me, I am to physically attack them. No action from the police would be taken against me and the police will likely come to my assistance. I though...im sure. However he was right. Will visting the Vatican, I saw several plain looking people walking around the walls carrying large billy clubs. I asked the tour guide who they were and the were literally hired to be "gypsy beaters." Their job was to walk around the Vatican walls and attack people selling counterfeit merchandise and asking visitors for money. That is probably the most extreme form of racism have and will likely ever encounter. Fortunately I did not have to react in this situation but I personally would just avoid and ignore racist encounters. People will always be ignorant. I am accepting however and therefore wont participate in such however people have a right to say what they want I am just choosing to ignore it.

Last week I was shown the exact same video in another one of my classes, women studies, where race is a topic we discuss quite frequently. This is a disturbing video but i truely found it surprising. I was surprised when the black children of today picked the white doll as being good and the black doll as being bad. My experience growning up was to accept everyone for their differences and skin color just shows your ancestry but every one is the same. I believe the United States is making great drives toward equality and the public schools try to teach us to accept each other so I am curious as to what happened in the young children lives to already make them think white people are better. I hate to say this but based on the evidence we have I would have to say family members,,,perhaps adults who show favoritism to lighter skined family members. Is so, that is truly sad. I think the whole dark is bad idea dates back to many many centuries ago with dark being associated with evil and the light being safe and good. When white Europeans found Africans, they must have thought them as evil and since the idea of black evil and light good is still very prevalent today I think that is why some people still want to think of us different and better. Also, many of the success stories we see on television show white people the vast majority of the time, and just until this past election white people had also been president. So I think their is a subconscious belief that white means more likely to succeed. Stereo types account for racism and unfortunately I do not see them going away any time soon and only more will be developed. White people are rich and stuck up, Jews hoard money and do not spend it, Blacks are loud and obnoxious wherever they are, Asians are all smart and engineers. More stereo type are brought to light every day and it is unfortunate but I do not see them going away any time soon which will no doubt cause racist feelings. Right now I believe the two biggest, besides school, influences on our lives and beliefs is our parents and the media. It is important for parents to raise their children's awareness that people are different yet skin color is the other thing that is different and on the inside we are all the same and that it is ok to interact and befriend them. The media, through cartoons and success stories, is slow to catch up however at this point I believe they are starting to have more black characters and interviewing successful black men. However I do notice that I oftern hear....First black man to become this...or first black man to make this. How about man makes this or becomes this. By telling us he is black shows he is different. Right now I think the media needs the biggest change.

This is being reported because many see it as a controversial topic. I do not however and believe this is a fair idea that should not be thought of as biased in any way. I just sarched google and the first 3 sites to come up were from the NAACP and Black excel which offer black students scholarships. There are hardly any white scholarships and those few that exist now are probably given with prejudice. This man however is not wanting to give them to minorities because they are minorities but because white people do not have scholarships they can apply for while black students do. Minorities often associate white with wealth yet there are many poor white students that desire college but need help. Affirmative action has hurt whites because organizaions are looked upon with scorn if they are not giving minorities the same opportunities so that meant whites who needed the help were left out just so a group would be looked upon favorably and not offend anyone. If black organizations can give scholarships than so should white ones. White people are embarassed of their past in regards to treatment of minorities so now we are looking to make up for it and are ashamed of people like this who are excluding minorities when we should not be they are just doing what other groups are. It is easy to attack white people because of their past but todays would is pretty equal. White men may have been desired over minorities and women in the past but they have certainly made up for it. More women go to college than men currently. Not all white people are wealthy and many, even from middle class, need help paying for college. This man wants to give them a place they can look without having to worry if their scholarship will be given to someone else who is just being given it because they are a minority and the company wants to be politically correct. Also one of his requirements is just be 25 percent white, that can mean you are 75 percent african. So it is isnt just pure white people. He does not endorse racism and condemns it. white people, not just minorities, need money and unlike other groups whites do not have an exclusive scholarships that others do. He makes a great point in that the minorities are those that can pay college but the majority need help. He says he realizes this is a controversial topic yet it should not be. By people thinking this is controversial shows that we still see each other as different groups rather than one american equal population. He is just trying the level the playing field.

Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including race, color, religion, sex, or national origin into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination. Most people when they think of affirmative action, immediately think of black people taking jobs away from white people. Actually African Americans are only a small part of affirmative action and women and Latino are the biggest part. I personally am against affirmative action, I used to not be but due to a personal run in with affirmative action have changed my views. In short I was very qualified to go to a United State military academy. I was a two generation legacy, had great grades in high school, got a United States senators nomination, started my own business, did extensive volunteer work in high school and had the desire to go. I believe the only reason I did not get accepted was because I am white. Affirmative action worked against me. At first you might say this is ignorant but in reality allow me to share some information. One of the professors at my desired academy wrote an article my senior year of high school. All non-white applicants go into pile "a" and white applicants into pile "b." The united state military was under executive order to put more minorities into the military academies. Higher priority was immediately given to non white applicants and and therefore the white standard of admission increased dramatically. Also, the class of 2013, is the first class to have more minorities than white people. I had an impressive resume and wanted to continue a tradition in my family, because i was white I could not get it. Now on their website, you can view the average GPA and SAT scores for the class of 2013. I was well above all these. This happened to at least 3 of my friends as well, one of which was captain of two varsity sports teams. Affirmative action does not allow for qualified applicants to get jobs. rather to avoid lawsuits and such, companies hire minorities just to fill a quota. Getting a job should be based on performance and accomplishments to given to people. If i was hiring, if any person, regardless of race, had a top notch resume then they get the job. I could care less about race, but I don't think the government should force me to turn away qualified people just to "look better." Affirmative action is no longer needed and at this rate, white people will need their own. The fact that affirmative action exists shows that society still thinks of different races as separate group and not one population. And it hurts qualified people.

I believe it is hard to say whether or not the arrests of different races are because of racism. Personally, I believe there are several different factors as to why it seems other races are arrested more than the white majority. It is a well known fact that most minorities live in urban areas and urban areas employ the most police. One factor people may not realize is that cities have a social stigma of being filled with more crime than suburban, predominately white areas which I believe the research back ups. Therefore I think it is mostly stereotypes and a larger police force presence which accounts for minorities being arrested more. There is no doubt that some individual police officer are racists and look to bust minorities more than white people but I do not think that police departments as a whole are racists. If more minorities live in urban areas where there is a larger police presence, than more minorities are going to be arrested, it is as simple as that. Also, one social factor is that inner cities are poorer and as a result people commit crime just to get by, stealing, robbing, use drugs as a form of retreatism. The poverty that is is inner cities is a terrible thing which if eliminated would hugely reduce crime but that takes time. I think the sterotypes involved with poor crime filled areas cause police to patrol there more and as a result come across more crimes and arrest the offenders. I am sure that if white people predominately settled in the inner city than more white people would be arrested. But the stereotypes that come with city life are very present in the minds of police and no doubt influence their arrest habits. People in the suburbs tend to have more money and as a result tend to commit less crimes because they do not need money from robberies, materials from theft, or drugs for retreatist culture or to make money. Im sure if you look at statistics of city arrests, the vast majority is for robberies, drug offenses, and thefts. If the government can provide more effective funding for the poor areas, than the people would not need to commit crimes in order to just get by. With the videos we watched in class, one offender said why work at McDonald's for 400 dollars every two weeks when you can sell drugs and make 3000 dollars a day. If poverty is greatly reduced, than crime with also be greatly reduced but that unfortunately takes time and a lot of government money but fighting crime takes a lot of that money too so it could be a trade off. But all together it is the poverty and high police presence that accounts for these arrests it is not because of racists police departments.