It is amazing how much Nepotism does occur but being a Penn State student I’m sure we will benefit greatly from it. Think of the strong “networking” that Penn State is known for. Some of it is legitimate social and business networking; some of it is alumni loyalty, friendships, frat brothers, etc. I think everyone in the United States probably reaps these benefits in some degree, how ever miniscule. I am glad that after this lecture that I know more about Affirmative Action and in an different perspective. I still believe that there shouldn’t be laws in regards to it though. I do not believe this is a governmental issue. It’s a people issue and people need to be educated. While I agree our current system is far from flawless we are slowly bridging the gap . So I entirely agree with your suggestion for improving the current situation.

I think it was a good way to start this lecture by posing the question how would you plan to provide for more equitable opportunities socially. It definitely got me thinking about my personal thoughts on that topic right off the bat. It’s important to realize that people will never be entirely equal, no matter how much we might try to construct that type of situation. People are simply different and there are so many factors and forces that influence and affect social and economic status other than race. Two children can both be from lower working class black families. If James mother reads to him every night and therefore has an insatiable appetite for reading and learning he will have certain influences and opportunities in his life because of that. If Jeremy’s parents are always working and have little interaction with him and never encourage him to put his full effort into school and he is naturally uninterested in education he will not have the same situation as James. I also was so happy to hear Sam admit his political affiliation or philosophy as libertarian. While this has little to do with the lecture I find it not only extremely interesting but really important for me. I consider myself a continually educated libertarian and a topic such as this specifically contradicts my political thinking. It is really helpful and amazing to see that Sam is able to still have those beliefs but as a sociologist open eyes such as mine to the sociological perspective of it. I was a little shocked to learn that most people that benefit from affirmative action are straight white women. That’s me. The opera video was really amazing to see. I was a teenager that went to a suburban high school much like the well off one in the clip. My school had many advanced level, classes, brand new turf grass lacrosse, soccer and football fields, etc. That is probably one of the largest factors I can attribute to why I am currently about to graduate from Penn State. I feel like having all of those resources propelled my education because I know I certainly did not care that much about school but I had really good teachers and all of the books and equipment and other things to make learning easier and even more fun at times. While as a libertarian I naturally oppose affirmative action I cannot neglect that I myself have benefited from nepotism and they are essentially one in the same. I cannot continue to condemn affirmative action when I have received the benefit from the concept of it. Clearly when the majority of the population goes through life seeing themselves as better than other people issues will be created. We need to first be willing to recognize that there is an inequality issue.

I used to be one of those people that would get extremely irritated with the whole “speak English” argument. I still do not believe that we should go out of our way to accommodate non-English speakers because the primary language of our country is English. The Sweden story shows just how ignorant people can be. I can honestly say that if I immigrated to another country where I was not fluent in the language I would make an effort to learn the language just because it would make things easier for myself I think, however I say that without having actually been in that position so who knows.

Immigration is something that I always felt, or thought I felt, crystal clear on. Black and white issue for myself, until now. I always, and still am, against illegal immigration in the United States. Sam’s point that immigration is propelled by free market capitalism really made me think. I am a huge advocate of capitalism and think it is the single best economic system that our market should operate on. This made me start to think if I myself was a business owner what illegal or legal immigration would mean for me and more importantly my business. It would mean less expense and higher profit; the core concept of capitalism. Sam is right that immigration is not a republican or democrat issue but an issue that we all have as United States Citizens. It is remarkable to see that our immigration policies are so profoundly influenced by economic concerns. It is all about business and money. Another part of this lecture that I found interesting was the Kongo The Dog story. Is it racist that there was proposed legislation for a bill to save Kongo’s life because he attached an illegal immigrant? I can almost guarantee that if he had attacked a United States citizen the topic would not have the same tone, outcome or even be a topic of discussion at all. Another thing that I think is important to be pointed out and understood is that everyone has the metaphorical finger of “lowlife” pointed at them at some point; every race and ancestry. It was not necessarily always easy for whites to immigrate to the United States and they shared their troubles and obstacles as well as exemplified by the Irish. To be a poor white person was still undesirable. The example of the rich roommate or a poor roommate was a great way to get to understand how poor people were so undesirable. I’ve been in situations where I was the one who had to collect money for the electric bill and other bills as my name was on it. I had one roommate who would takes weeks on end to pay me back and by the end of our lease I refused to live with her or be responsible for the bills. One of the main concepts I took from this lecture was that immigration creates conflict. Another was that we do not have to agree with immigration, illegal or legal, but we need to understand what it means to immigrate for the immigrants and us. I would not say by beliefs that I do not support illegal immigration have changed but I am more able to understand what it means to pick up everything you have and move to a foreign place in search of a better life.

Immigration is something that I always felt, or thought I felt, crystal clear on. Black and white issue for myself, until now. I always, and still am, against illegal immigration in the United States. Sam’s point that immigration is propelled by free market capitalism really made me think. I am a huge advocate of capitalism and think it is the single best economic system that our market should operate on. This made me start to think if I myself was a business owner what illegal or legal immigration would mean for me and more importantly my business. It would mean less expense and higher profit; the core concept of capitalism. Sam is right that immigration is not a republican or democrat issue but an issue that we all have as United States Citizens. It is remarkable to see that our immigration policies are so profoundly influenced by economic concerns. It is all about business and money. Another part of this lecture that I found interesting was the Kongo The Dog story. Is it racist that there was proposed legislation for a bill to save Kongo’s life because he attached an illegal immigrant? I can almost guarantee that if he had attacked a United States citizen the topic would not have the same tone, outcome or even be a topic of discussion at all. Another thing that I think is important to be pointed out and understood is that everyone has the metaphorical finger of “lowlife” pointed at them at some point; every race and ancestry. It was not necessarily always easy for whites to immigrate to the United States and they shared their troubles and obstacles as well as exemplified by the Irish. To be a poor white person was still undesirable. The example of the rich roommate or a poor roommate was a great way to get to understand how poor people were so undesirable. I’ve been in situations where I was the one who had to collect money for the electric bill and other bills as my name was on it. I had one roommate who would takes weeks on end to pay me back and by the end of our lease I refused to live with her or be responsible for the bills. One of the main concepts I took from this lecture was that immigration creates conflict. Another was that we do not have to agree with immigration, illegal or legal, but we need to understand what it means to immigrate for the immigrants and us. I would not say by beliefs that I do not support illegal immigration have changed but I am more able to understand what it means to pick up everything you have and move to a foreign place in search of a better life.

I love that you put your beliefs on gay marriage in here although some people may find that too controversial to mention. I'm currently struggling from a political standpoint what I believe in on this issue. I believe gay and lesbian relationships deserve equal rights but like you I still believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I also believe that as long as your actions do not infringe upon the freedom of anyone else you should be able to do anything, absolutely anything you want. So this is very hypercritical for me. I also have never previously heard of the term "amalgamation" and it is a really cool concept. With this idea the creation of different cultures is infinite and undefined.

It is interesting to think about and understand LGBT as the second stage of the civil rights movement. This movement is becoming more and more powerful in our generation and I think it’s important to recognize this. Sam makes a great point that LGBT issues and topics unite us ALL despite race or color because we all fall under one of these sexual orientations or categories. The statistics on the rights that people think gay people should have in regards to marriage is an ever-growing hot topic. New York recently just legalized gay marriage, which is a huge movement in the direction for equality. With the United States being the most diverse country in the world it is interesting to find out that a significant number of our population think that immigrants that come to the United States should leave everything behind and Americanize themselves but they don’t want to have any part or direct connection to that process. It is interesting, however not surprising because that is a popular American opinion. The video of rapping in thirty different languages was really cool to see because while I couldn’t understand any of it the body language, rhythms and style were all extremely similar. It’s amazing that a music genre has been successful in reaching the entire globe. One question that Sam posed that really got me thinking is how do I feel knowing that sometime in my lifetime as a white person I will be the minority in the United States. This thought is kind of shocking to me and I do feel not necessarily uncomfortable with that thought but just in pure shock that this is not only possible but is going to happen. Sam’s comments that if you do feel uncomfortable with reflects your own ethnocentrism and racism made me think even more. I don’t consider my self-racist in the least bit and hadn’t considered myself ethnocentric either but really reflecting on my feelings about this fact scares me about my own feelings. If I was surrounded by a majority of people that were no longer my own race and I feel some way about this…I could be racist? I don’t think that it has anything to do with me having issues with people of color but rather the contrast of what I am used to being surrounded by. I grew up in a largely white community and attend Penn State where still roughly 82% of the student population is white. The adjustment would just be different. I know many people that feel that immigrants that come to the United States should assimilate themselves to our culture. The number one thing I can pin point people saying is that if you’re going to live in this country you should be expected to communicate in our language; English. I don’t think that immigrants that do not speak English should be punished for not speaking English but at the same time I agree with Sam that we shouldn’t bend over backwards in ways such as altering our street signs, exams, etc. in other languages to accommodate all immigrants. I recently was flying back from California and this elderly woman next to spoke not one word of English. She asked me if I knew Spanish and I replied that I knew a little and it had a long time since I used the language. She tried the entire flight to carry a conversation with me and I could tell she was getting frustrated with me for not being able to answer all of her questions in a fluent manor. One of the flight attendants had to translate for her with everyone she needed to communicate with during her travel. It was just interesting experience to have.

I agree with you that the opening analogy of this lecture was very interesting as well as helpful in understanding what it means to be white or black. I understand also how different individuals can be in different stages on different days because thinking about myself I sometimes feel like I hover between stages based on my experiences of that day, week or month. It is interesting that Asians consider themselves to be white, however when I think about what I personally would consider them I would say white as well. They certainly are not black any many I would not say brown either.

I remember Sam making a comment in one of the first, if not the first lecture of this course that as long as race issues exist there will be a need to have discussions about them and these issues will always exist. I know don't necessarily view this as a bad thing. We have these discussions because we all different, not just the color of our skin but many others things about our race and ancestry makes us all different from one another. I think it is a good thing to recognize these differences and have these discussions about them even if results in arguments because I think this will help the race relations issues evolve. This brings me to my thoughts on classification. The roles that classification and labels have on each of us within our society. To be classified as African American on the United States Census seems it would have a much greater meaning than to be labeled as African American in Africa. In fact, would they even do that in Africa? I wonder we feel compelled to label everyone by the race or ancestry as if it really has some impact on the composition of our character. The video shocked me that the little girls would rather have a black doll. It saddens me that people would so much rather be white than boldly display their own race. I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that I am fascinated, in a positive way, by people with other ancestries than that of my own. Maybe it is only my white blindness to the troubles and obstacles that other races face but they also get to experience and be part of a culture than I will never be a part of myself. Personally, being white seems boring to me. Some people are truly comfortable in their own skin, regardless of what color it may be, but it seems like the majority of people are constantly wanting the opposite of what they are which makes me wonder why there is such a high level of racism still today if most of us are trying to look like a different race anyway, Lastly, the conceptions of “cool” associated with good and bad grades in regard to skin color blows my mind. In my high, although mostly white, the difference in being considered cool based on grades was not between white and black but rather white and brown. It was brown people that were thought of as un-cool if they received good grades or were on the honor roll and the white kids were just expected to get good grades and sadly if you didn’t you were thought of as more of “white trash” than not cool. Once again, this is something that I continue to reflect on because the race topic is still a great blue slowly becoming clear.

It's really interesting that you admit that you are afraid of being called a 'racist'. I, as well, grew up in a town with a majority of white people. It's not that I never once interacted with other races but I live outside the city and it seems that mostly white people live outside the city and colored people live in the city. I never feared being viewed as a racist until you're thrown into a situation when and where you are forced the recognize the race card such as Penn State and especially this class.