Like Sam has said in class, I did not realize that I had “white” skin until I was out of elementary school and into middle school, when I started to hang out with more black people. My parents always taught me to be nice to everyone and to treat everyone I encountered with respect. I was never taught to see color and they never hinted that different skinned people should be treated differently.
When I was in sixth grade I started to hang out with a group of girls; their races were hispanic, black and white. But my white friend only hung around minority persons. This was when I started to see that my parents had raised me in a more upper class society with different opinions and rules than the girls I had just become friends with. Where as I was not exposed to the dangerous lifestyle these girls had been opened up to. Where they were taught that the police were racist, sexist and mean, I was taught that police officers were there to make sure I was safe and that the world was kept in order. They also believed that since I came from a wealthier family that that meant that I was snobby and spoiled. I saw them as girls who didn’t have as many house rules as me and girls who lived in poorer homes. One day when I heard my black friend use the word ‘ni**er’ I asked my parents what it meant and why she used it. They told me that sometimes other families were allowed to use these words but if I used it I would get into trouble. This is when I started to see that the color of my skin would mean more to other people than it would to me.
I think that a lot of the emphasis about race and gender in today’s society stems from the media, especially the demographic of the MTV influence. It was about the same time when I started to hang out with that group of girls and when I started watching MTV and listening to rap and hip-hop music. I saw on TV shows and heard in rap music that girls were called sluts/hoes and that black, hispanic and asian people had mean nicknames, if you will. Even now, the media only reports that worst possible news and it usually has to do with a man or minority person doing something horribly horrific. And the outlook on women being objects and not partners is even more askew. I was walking with my roommate down the street St. Patty’s night and we were wearing jeans, converse and t-shirts when a random guy started yelling sluts at us. It was completely uncalled for and I can honestly blame the guy for being an asshole and Jersey Shore for allowing his remark to be considered “okay”.

I think that the fact that a white guy is promoting a concealed weapon holder is hilarious and ridiculous. I laughed through this whole video! It isn’t as if I expected a Black, Mexican or Asian to promote a video like this, but the white guy in this video is super corny.
The way this white guy dresses isn’t so “white” to me as him just dressing as a regular guy. I’ve seen plenty of Black, Mexican and Asian guys wearing polo shirts and kaki shorts. His tone of voice I would definitely say is white because, to me, most Black men talk with a more throaty and loud voice. I don’t think I need to elaborate as to the way Mexican or Asian men speak compared to the white guy in the video. But I feel as though the language this guys uses compared to Black, Mexican or Asian people is vastly different and distinctive. The white guy uses more descriptive words and no slang as he explains how to use the concealed weapon holder. He speaks as though he is educated and proper when other races wouldn’t be so formal. The guy in the video is definitely awkward as he speaks and he seems super uncomfortable and jumpy during the whole presentation. When he talks about unbuttoning his pants to show how to wear the holder, he trips over his words and as he tries to be less awkward, he only succeeds in being more awkward. I felt as though he didn’t really know what he was talking about because of how distant he seemed when he was holding the gun or when he was showing how to put on the holder. I also feel like anyone who uses a gun or has a concealed weapon license wouldn’t wear their gun in front of their stuff, only making the white guy speaking seem less credible on this topic. His mannerisms are what get me the most to think that he’s really “white”. This is because what he is saying and doing are so self explanatory yet he takes the time to demonstrate it all and list reasons as to why this is a great efficient product haha.
I sometimes take offense when people say “that guy/girl is so white” just because most of the time said white person is acting or doing something that is really corny, silly or stupid. I feel the same way when people say “that’s so gay” which is an issue for another time. However, I would say this about the white guy promoting this weapon concealer. It isn’t as though his skins is so much paler in comparison to another white person but his mannerisms are very corny in this video.

I have never picked my seat according to the group of people that were sitting there. If I have friends in the class I will always sit with them. If the class is small I will try to sit somewhere in the middle so I blend in (I don’t like to be called on by teachers), but in a class the size for SOC 119 I will try to get a seat in the middle so I can see Sam directly. I’ve never thought about where I wanted to sit according to the people that were sitting there.
When I walk into SOC 119, I have noticed that I’ll see a group of Asian people sitting together and the majority of the black students sit in the front middle section of the classroom. I don’t really notice where the white people sit but that they do sit with other white people. I think most of the time people are sitting with their friends or friends of friends and they don’t consciously think “I’m white so I’m going to sit with other white people.” After the lecture, I did notice that more people were looking around at the people around them and noticing that they were similar.
After this class I started to take notice to where I sat in my other classes and where people would choose to sit in the HUB or even in the library. I found it very interesting to see that most of the black people I saw walk into the HUB all grouped around each other and further away from white people. I don’t think this was a conscious decision to them but I found it interesting. I also thought it was neat to see that most Asians would only sit near another Asian even if there was an empty seat closer to a computer, table or the door. When I went to the library I noticed that most of the white people who came in tried to find an empty table to themselves. And a couple of the white people got very uncomfortable when another person would sit at their table with them.
Like I said before, I don’t find a seat according to the people sitting around me but a seat where I won’t be called on spontaneously or where I can still see the professor at a direct angle.

First I want to start off by saying that I have white skin but I have never heard of white privilege until Sam started talking about it this semester. This probably won’t surprise many people because I feel like most white people would be obtuse to the effect of white privilege as a white person. I’d like to think that I got into Penn State because of my grades and that it has nothing to do with the fact that I put that I am part Latino on my application. I like to think that my hard work got me to where I am now. I know that some white people have received things over “minority” persons because they’re white, but I also think it’s just as common for a “minority” person to receive a job over a white person because of the fact that they’re a “minority” and no business wants to be wrongfully accused of racism because a white person got a job over a “minority” person.
This was a topic we briefly touched in my section on Monday and a student in my class said that the reason that I don’t see white privilege is because I don’t know how the world is and that I’m blind to it. Part of this statement I agreed with because I probably am blinded to white privilege being a white person. Also since most of my community is white, I might be more aware of white privilege in a more diverse area. I understood what this student was talking about but I also take offense for being called “blind”. I think that many people look for white privilege and create what could look like privilege even though it isn’t there. I don’t think this is what that student did, but to assume I’m blinded to it makes me think that because I’m not looking for it, that makes me ignorant of it... which I think is wrong. I’m sure that white privilege exists in more ways than I am aware of, but I also think that many “minority” people are “blinded” to what I would call minority privilege, but I don’t see minority speaking up about that.
In response to some of those who think while privilege is their parent’s buying them a new car or wearing a North Face and Uggs... you are seriously misinformed. Not only is that not even close to being an example of white privilege (more so an example of a wealthy family) but I have seen just as many white girls wearing Uggs as I have Asian and Black girls. I am in no way racist at all but in my experience I have seen more injustice towards white people over “minority” people because no one wants to be accused of racism, which makes it easier to overlook a white person than a minority.

Earlier this week when we talked about determinism and free will I identified more as determinism but not to the drastic degree where free will has nothing to do with a person’s success. As we discussed more about forces that are out of a person’s control, I understood what Sam was saying but I also thought he was a little drastic about the way people get jobs and get into school. I think that as many white people that get jobs, there is also a woman and a “minority” person who will beat out a white person for that same job because they are a woman or “minority”. With the King of the Mountain example, my thoughts were shifted slightly, but not to the degree where the “King” will stop another person’s success because of their skin color or origin.
However, I do agree with the idea that once someone would become the King of the Mountain and do everything they possibly could to get their friends or family at the top with them. I think this ideology is very natural for someone in a position of power. I feel like it’s the same way with college students and the distribution/sharing of alcohol. When you go out to a party with a group of your friends, you want to be able to drink with your friends without there being a problem. Whether it’s getting alcohol for a whole group or splitting a small amount that’s left. It would be the same way if you’re hosting a party. You want your friends to be the first to get cups and drinks... friend’s of friend’s are a lower priority in alcohol distribution.
I don’t like to think that there are people who won’t let someone “stand on the mountain” or even “touch the chair” because of skin color, gender or ethnicity but I know that this does happen. When Sam was talking about it, it seemed to me like he was saying that it happened a lot more than we see and that we must open our eyes to this kinds of discrimination or sexism. Almost like he was looking for it. Like I said before, I don’t know that this happens as little or as much as I see but I know that it does happen.
I would like to think that I got into Penn State because I was academically capable. I don’t think my parent’s social status/money helped or that because I am a Chilean woman. Regarding King of the Mountain, filling a quota or holding someone back because of race is remarkably ignorant and potentially deceiving if that person is genuinely qualified.

This is question I have asked myself and considered before whenever I discussed race with my family or friends. Being the happy, peaceful and naive person I am, I would like to think that everyone can be friends and skip joyfully together but this won’t be possible with every person in the world. No matter what happens in the future, there will always be at least two groups of people who can’t stand the other because of race, religion or politics.
Race is something that is used to classify people and it always will be. This is where many of the race issues come from today.
I hope and believe that in the future, when our generation is the one making laws, owning/running small and big businesses, and fueling the planet, race will be less of an issue than it is today. I don’t think there will be as many racist people or as strongly racist groups. I feel like a lot of racism today stems from our parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles and elders because it was more acceptable to them to be racist and display racism. When my grandparents were in school black and white kids had to be segregated. Now even though my grandparents are not racist, they have friends who kind of are and then their kids took on those ideals and are that way as well. Even within hate groups such as the KKK I feel like the new members are sons and daughters because of racism, and these ideas, being passed down a generation. I like to believe that our generation is one of tolerance and acceptance, or at least one that is more like this than previous generations, because we are exposed to more multi-racial people than our parents/grandparents. And because of this I think many of us see that skin is just a color and what we credit people for is how they treat us and others.
There are still race issues today but I think many of them are more related to equality more than racism. By this I mean putting our race/ethnicity down for college apps, job apps, bank loans, etc. When we were texting our responses in the beginning of class many of the responses weren’t about one race being superior to others or someone not liking another because of race. But they were about equality in the workplace, gay marriage, women vs. men and affirmative action. Until we can stop asking people what their race is on job apps., there will always be these problems.
I honestly wish that everyone would get the job, scholarship or role they deserve because they are qualified but even if this was the case there will always be someone claiming racism or sexism. So in conclusion, I think that racism, if it doesn’t fade out completely, it will diminish with our generation and the ones to follow us. But until we can stop asking what everyone’s race is, “equality” will always be an issue.

I think yes and no to this question. I feel like there are so many answers and sides of this issue it’s to hard to cover them all. I feel like political correctness is an issue that won’t ever make any one group truly happy and it will leave a lot of people frustrated and burned. Political correctness is something that I try to abide by when I’m discussing race but even though I still try to do this, I still feel embarrassed or nervous when I discuss race.
A reason I think we should all try to use political correctness because of past issues between all racial groups. There are numerous offensive words that can be used to describe white, black, asian, mexican/hispanic, and indian people (among others). I think being and speaking politically correct helps for people to understand which words are offensive and which words they would like to be called. No one wants to be offended, singled out or spoken badly against so being politically correct can help ensure that this doesn’t happen. I think it’s a good way that people make themselves feel better and in tune with the world outside of their own.
Other times I don’t think political correctness is a good thing because even though many try to be politically correct not everyone is happy about the way their racial group is refereed too. Making everyone happy is never going to happen unless each racial group can come to the conclusion that they would like to be called by a specific name and they won’t be offended by it. I also sometimes believe that races use political correctness as a crutch per-say. I think this because I see many races call each other names that if an opposing race used would make them mad, then a hate crime or racism is declared. This is one of the biggest reasons why I don’t like political correctness. I don’t like it is used to be vindictive or to trap someone. I feel like this is seen a lot in politics where a candidate isn’t being politically correct and an opposing supporter uses it to claim ignorance and racism.
When it comes down to it, the true blue is that I think being politically correct isn’t specifically necessary but it’s polite and considerate to people of a race other than our own. Although I believe political correctness can cause/does cause more problems/conflicts between opposing races, it’s something I practice to ensure that I don’t offend anyone of the race I may be speaking about.

I was really interested to see how the two girls in front were dividing the students into racial groups. I was even more interested at their conversation about why each student was a particular race and not something else. It was obvious that the girls were dividing the group into like skin colors as well as eye shape and hair type. I am extremely thankful to Sam for not picking me to go down and divide the group.
I am not sure how I would define race but I think it would be appropriate to do it by ancestry. I know that this process can be difficult, expensive and time consuming but I feel like it would be a fair way to create races. Most people, including myself, look at the color of a person’s skin to classify race, but from the exercise in class, we can see how wrong many of us would be about a person’s race/ancestry.
This activity was something I waited for and was excited about because I knew that Sam taught this class in a very up front no bull way. I feel like by getting the races out there and challenging the way people presume race and who others are by their race, gets us as a community seriously thinking about how we perceive people and why. I don’t know how many people were taken aback by the activity but I know that I was and that I really started to think about how I was looking at people and why I might be doing this in a really incorrect manner.
I also thought it was extremely neat to see that people who looked similar in skin color, eye shape and hair color were very different races and that people who looked like one race were so different from what I thought they were. In Thursday's lecture we talked about how all people and races blend and mix together to create another race. I thought this really applied to the exercise we practiced on Tuesday. I could see why the two girls, and myself, divided the people the way they did.
I have this class with my boyfriend and my roommate and we were talking about what kind of race we look like and it was agreed that they look white. I also look white but I wasn’t born in the USA. I was born in Santiago, Chile which is a primarily Spanish/Latin nation. Because of this, I look Spanish (I am often spoken to in Spanish even though I don’t know Spanish) and sometime Italian. I found this really interesting when I related it to the lesson because even though I’m sure my blood is the majority of Spanish, people assume Spanish is my primary language. This only proves that judging someone by their physical looks can give you a wrong impression of who/where that person really came from. My experience is half correct but judging my looks still make others wrong about where I really came from.

SOC 119