Immigration is a highly debatable topic here in the United States. I have always had a pretty strong opinion on it, but I have never been resentful or hateful towards immigrants. I have always had the opinion that if you are going to come to America that’s fine just do it legally and know how to speak English very well, that’s very important to me. I cannot stand when people come to America as immigrants and can’t speak a lick of English. Here in America it is extremely important to be able to speak English, because a lot of people can’t speak any other language than English. If you can speak English and you come here legally I am completely fine with it, after all America is the “melting pot” of the world. I think that a lot of people have problems with immigrants because they feel that they are “taking over” our country, but in reality our family members were all immigrants at one point in time. My great-grandmother came to the United States as an immigrant years ago from Italy. She came legally and knew how to speak English, but she still was an immigrant. I bet if most people that have a problem with immigrants looked back in their family history they would realize that their family were immigrants at one point or another. People need to take time to stop and think before they criticize others. Not only are immigrants harmed by stereotypes from American people, but also the media. There are so many movies and TV shows that portray immigrants and immigration in a negative light. I think that the immigration issues in America are very touchy and until we get some solid rules. I have had experiences with several illegal immigrants in my lifetime and all of the experiences were positive and if anything I felt bad for them. I used to work as a waitress at a family owned Italian restaurant in my hometown for almost 6 years. The cooks in the kitchen were all illegal immigrants for the most part or were here on a working visa. One of the cooks I became friends with was here on a working visa from Mexico. He was here because even though he was probably being underpaid he was making 5 times more than he would be able to make in Mexico. He had two young daughters and a wife that he would send money to every week. I became close with him and would teach him English while he would teach me Spanish. This experience changed and molded my perception of immigration and I felt that it would be fair to make him a citizen, because he truly cared about learning how to “be an American”.

In class on Tuesday we learned about nepotism which is favoritism granted from friends or relatives, regardless of merit. To be completely honest if I was given the opportunity to not benefit from nepotism I would not take it. My Dad has always told me “sweetie it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know” and this is definitely true. Nepotism isn’t fair in some cases because there are probably people who are far more qualified in certain situations and they get passed by due to nepotism. I have definitely benefited from nepotism at certain points in my life, but I can also say that I have been on the other side where I was negatively affected by someone else benefiting from nepotism. In reality we all have to understand that there are so many things in this world that we cannot change, we just need to learn how to deal with them. Even if we were to implement rules to attempt to prevent nepotism from occurring, people would find a way around it. It is proven that people benefit from their parents and their bloodline in one way or another. Whether your family has money, power, or fame in the whole country or just your community; you will benefit from this no matter what and no matter how hard you try not to. I have had several instances recently during my job search where my father or some of my friends connected me with people to apply for jobs with. One job I interviewed with was actually at the company my dad works for and without nepotism it would have been impossible to get the interview, but once I actually had it they were very impressed with my skills and credentials. This helped me get my foot in the door, which is sometimes all you need, a chance, and that is granted through nepotism. I have experienced a lot of this lately in my job search. I have experienced nepotism in positive and negative ways, as does everyone else. I also had an experience where I was a good candidate for a position at a company in Philadelphia and there were 25 of us interviewing, but only two spots. The people interviewing us personally knew two people through friends, so those two people got the position. From the second I found out that the interviewers knew the two applicants I knew that they were getting the positions and that the only reason the rest of us were being interviewed was because they have to follow the rules. People can offer opportunities to everyone but in the end if they have a connection with someone that person is likely to get the position. I can honestly say that if I were presented with a time to not use nepotism versus using it I would choose to use it.

I think that putting myself in the shoes of middle easterners changed my perception of the war in Iraq a little bit, but truly not that much. Before the class I was always the person who paid attention to politics when it was totally necessary, but for the most part I try not to watch the news too much or get too involved because there are so many bad things going on in the world that would stress me out if I knew about. When it comes to the war in Iraq, I understand it as much as I need to, but I do not fully get it. Sam’s lecture helped me understand a little bit of what was going on, but to be completely honest I felt a little bit attacked. The point was to put us in their shoes, but it was in a way that I felt like I was doing wrong. It’s very unfortunate that Muslims go through what they do in Iraq and I definitely feel for them, especially those close to my age. In reality I will still defend America to the end because I am American and although I may not support how some people act or what are country is doing 100% of time, I will still defend Americans. There are a lot of political and religious extremists in the world. The videos of the Christian extremists upset me because a majority of Christians are not like that. Putting myself in the shoes of middle easterners helped me see what the “crazy” people do to them, but I wish they would not think that all Americans or Christians are like that. In reality a majority of us are not like that and a majority of soldiers don’t act like total jerks like the videos showed. Our soldiers are over there fighting for what they are told to fight for. When you enlist in the military you don’t get to pick which wars you fight, you just have to fight for your country period. I liked being able to understand how middle easterners feel about Americans only to contradict it. I felt attacked during the class, like we were all being blamed for the way that a few crazy people act. Most people don’t act that way and basically every single person in that class probably thought look at those crazy people acting like idiots and disgracing America. So yes I think that putting my foot in their shoes helped, but it didn’t change my mind about being a Christian American and being who I am. I don’t feel that I need to apologize for Americans just because they are Americans. We all have the freedom of speech here and we are allowed to think how we please, so those crazy radicals will choose to think what they want, but they are not me, and I will never be like them.

After watching the video about the baby dolls we realized that children learn at a very early age about race. It was very sad that the children picked the white doll over the black doll every single time. This then sparked a debate within the class about whether the ideas come from media, parenting, or just learned from their environment. From the moment we realize as children that we are different from those of different skin colors we begin to establish our racial views and ideas. As we grow our racial ideas change from our experiences, things we are taught, and parental views. The media also plays a big part in what we believe about race, but I do not think it actually affects us as much as we think it does when it comes to race. Throughout my life my views on race have changed through my experiences. My parents and grandparents always raised me to think that whites and blacks are equal. I actually never have distinct memories involving racial differences till high school. My parents never really told me that racism was wrong or anything like that simply because they acted like we are all the same, because we are. There was no need for them to tell me that racism was wrong because they taught me that we are the same and so there was no need for discrimination. In this class I have not changed the way I think I have just opened my eyes to realistic things like white privilege. Sam has opened our eyes to the reality of life; he has shown us that racism does exist in everyday life. I could maybe say that when I was growing up I was oblivious, but I don’t think that was bad. I hope that one day, years from now, white and black won’t exist…that we will just become one race. I think that my oblivious ideas about race actually helped me not feel that I was any different from those of a different color. My first real experience with race was when I tried to date a boy of color and my Dad did not want me to because I come from a town where there are a lot of racist people. My dad is not racist; he was just protecting me from the horrible people who choose to be. Now that I am in college my dad is totally fine with me dating people of color, he just did not want me to in high school in fear of being attacked by racist people. I think it is hard to relearn racial ideas and I think that most people never truly will. They say your personality is fully formed by the age of 5 and I think that the ideas you develop are also at a very young age. When it comes to an issue such as race it is very difficult to change people’s ideas, and nearly impossible to relearn. We can only try to influence people to teach the future differently.

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. The focus of such policies ranges from employment and education to public contracting and health programs. The purpose behind affirmative action originally was to promote equal opportunity and make it easier for minorities to attend the same schools, get the same degrees, and have the same careers.

I believe that over the years affirmative action has begun to take things a little too far and has begun to hinder the amount of opportunities for non-minorities. Affirmative action is supposed to protect those of color and women. Affirmative action over the years has created programs to help minorities. Throughout these programs opportunities have been taken from those who may work hard and deserve it and are given to minorities just because of their gender or the color of their skin. I firmly believe that everyone in this country should have to work hard to get where they want to be and should not be handed things just because they come from a specific background or are a certain gender. As a woman myself I think that women should work just as hard as me, and we do, and we should be given the same opportunities. The opportunities we are given should not be just because we are women, but at the same time we should not be denied certain things because we are women. We should get what we work for. If I work just as hard as my male co-worker, if not harder, I should be paid the same as him and I should be able to interview for the same promotion as him.

In some countries, affirmative action is actually illegal because although it is trying to create equal opportunity, in all reality it doesn’t treat everyone equal. Why should a woman or a black person get into a university with a 2.5 gpa, while a white male gets in to the same school with nothing lower than a 3.5 gpa…all because they wanted diversity? We all think we are given different opportunities because of where we come from or the color of our skin, which is correct sometimes, but in reality we all have the power to better ourselves and not take advantage of things that are unequal to others. I believe that we all need to stop turning against each other so much and realize were all working towards the same common goal. We all want to graduate from a good school with a usable degree and get well-paid jobs and have families. Everyone wants to be a part of the American dream and I think that its important for us all to have to work equally hard to reach our dream.

A lot of times people who live in poverty tend to have a lot of children, while people who are rich only have one or a few children. I think this is very selfish. People who live below the poverty line tend to not be as careful with birth control and sometimes cannot afford birth control or even medical insurance to pay for the pill. This puts them at higher risk for having children. In Tammy’s video she said that her family had 22 children. That is completely insane to me. I don’t know any one family could make enough money to support that many children. The cost of raising a child on average in today’s culture is well over $200,000 for their 18 years. This is a big commitment that people should not take lightly. I feel that some people like Tammy’s parents just have kids because it happens and they don’t care like they should, which is incredibly selfish. Children deserve to live a certain way. By that I don’t mean that they have to be walking around wearing designer clothes and driving a Mercedes Benz when they are 16, but they deserve certain things. Children deserve to live in a reasonable environment, have food on the table every day, and toys to play with. Obviously there are certain circumstances in life that make this impossible, but when people choose to have too many children that is unfair to the children. The children did not do anything to deserve the life they will have. Children not only need material things, they need attention, and that is not possible to give them the amount of attention they need when they have 21 brothers and sisters. Children need a certain amount of love and attention to reach full happiness. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs love is a very important part of achieving happiness and becoming ones true self.

I also feel that the reason people in poverty have so many children is not because they want to. If they can’t afford to be on the pill in the first place, then they don’t buy condoms, and if they get pregnant can’t afford an abortion. It’s a vicious cycle when you’re stuck in a situation like that. The unfortunate part about the situation is that lets say you get pregnant and do not want to keep the child, but can’t afford an abortion. Then the child is born and you can’t live with yourself if you give it up for adoption. But then the child ends up costing so much more than it would have cost to use birth control in the first place. I do not think it is fair of people under the poverty level to have so many children. You need to be able to give a child all that they need and in a case like Tammy’s family with 22 kids, that is impossible.

Using the ignorance card is something that a lot of people do constantly on a daily basis. Saying were ignorant can only get us so far. Like the boy said in class as soon to be college graduates its important that we are knowledgeable on the problems in the world. We owe it to our human race to not be ignorant and to open our eyes. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to be knowledgeable so that we can pass on the right ideas. Some people say that ignorance is bliss and that is true in certain situations, but not most. I can’t stand when people pull the ignorance card when you know they aren’t ignorant. Come one were growing up in the 21st century where things are way different than they used to be. The internet provides us with more information in one day then some people centuries ago knew in their whole life. We see topics about life on facebook, twitter, tumblr etc. For goodness sakes were in sociology of race class. We are being provided with the tools and ideas to change ignorance on a daily basis. We all sit around and say that we want things to change, that we don’t want racism to exist, but were not doing enough. We all need to change the attitudes we have, the way we look at people, and the things we say. People use the excuse of ignorance in way too many circumstances. People use the ignorance card when it comes to racism, gender differences, handicaps etc. I think it is very important that we all take everything we learn in Sams class to heart. We need to open our eyes to the stories and views that Sam is showing us. We need to pay attention to the things we can learn from each other and change the way we act. It is not an excuse anymore in today’s culture to say “I’m ignorant”, you will get torn to shreds. We have so many racial boundaries being broken on a daily basis that you almost seem like an outsider when you do act ignorant, which is not ok. You should not act in a way that makes you feel outside of society. I think we can learn a lot from our class and especially discussions. My discussion group has opened my eyes to even more things than the class has because people share their opinions and stories from their life in a closer setting. I really enjoy all the things I am learning in the class and discussion so far and I think its very important to soak it all in. Let it change you and your attitudes, that’s the point.

I definitely believe that both determinism and the choices I have made in my life have gotten me to where I am today. My life has been a very interesting combination of the two. When I was young I lived in a typical nuclear family with my father working and my mother staying at home with my younger sister and I. I have memories of my mother being at home with me and then when I was 6 years old everything changed. We found out my mother was bi-polar and my parents got divorced. That threw my normal life into a big loop. My father ended up raising my sister and I and we did not have a lot of money to live off because my Dad was at the time only 27 years old raising two children on his own. We lived in moderate-income housing provided by the government until I was about 10. Then my dad and stepmom got married and my whole life changed. My dad was always incredibly intelligent, but was very young when I was born. As I got older he got better and better jobs and today my family lives in a big typical suburban house and we are pretty well off. My life has done a complete 180 since I was young. If I still lived in the same low-income environment as I did when I was younger my life would probably be totally different today. In one way all the decisions my dad made to better himself and our family determined our future, but at the same time the fact that I come from a high-income family today has definitely affected me to end up at Penn State. Therefore, a combination of determinism and choices has led me to where I am. My family structure and income level has affected me to go to Penn State, but in the end it was my choice. There are some people out there who are never given a chance to see the difference between determinism and choice. Some people grow up in an environment that is almost impossible to escape, and are never able to make the choice, their determined future makes it for them. Although my family has experienced very hard times, I consider my family and myself incredibly lucky to be where we are today and I am extremely grateful for everything I have been given. I am incredibly grateful for the choices my father made to form a better life for my sister and I, but am also grateful that I was able to go to college and get a degree at a top name university, because that is truly a privilege.

In today’s culture race is not as much of an issue as it used to be, but it definitely still affects every day life. It’s very interesting that we learned about how genetically black and white people are not different. The melanin in our skin affects how dark or light we are, meaning that in all reality we are truly much more alike than we think. I think that it will take a very long time, but hopefully one day we will get to the point in time where the color of our skin will not matter. I believe that because inter-racial relationships are more common and almost encouraged in some instances, that eventually our world will be completely mixed, or at least the United States will be. Knowing that you have black or white blood in your family lineage is very common in today’s culture. I believe that one day we may get to the point where every person has some mixture of black and white blood. Hopefully this movement will make it so that your “race” does not affect your everyday life.

Every day people from every race are affected by the color of his or her skin in one way or another. People are discriminated against when it comes to jobs, school, or even just in your social life. It is going to take A LOT of time and effort from generations to come to change attitudes toward race and stereotypes. Each generation slightly becomes more aware and less ignorant than the last. My future grandchildren will probably have a strong view on race not being a problem than my grandparents did. I believe that all people should be treated equal based off of color, gender, and religion. But I do believe that the way people act towards others is what they should be judged on, not their gender or skin color. Treat others the way you want to be treated. If you want respect, treat others with respect.

There are so many stereotypes in this world, not only based on race. But I do believe that we can work over time to change perceptions and ideas towards stereotypes and race. I hope that one day we can realize that we should look past the color of peoples skin and just realize that we are all the same, just some tanner than others. We should realize that we all deserve the same opportunities and forget about the past, its time to move on. Constantly thinking about beliefs that our past generations have held will majorly affect our life everyday. If we can come to realize that we are ALL THE SAME, from both ends, white and black, then things will change. Until we reach the day where every person has realized this, race will still be a problem. I hope that we can change our attitudes, but it will take time.

I know that we all tend to associate with people of the same ethnicity or race because it is what people think they are most comfortable with. There are so many issues when it comes to race, but its really sad because inside most of us want to act against the norms. Most of us want equality and most of us don’t want to follow, we want to lead, but it takes a big person to speak out. I personally have always had mostly white friends only because the small town I come from has only a few black families, but all the black families I am friends with the children. My best guy friend in the world is black and we always talk about how much we are the same and how we hate when people are afraid to act how we should. People constantly fear what other people will think. Every person is afraid to act a certain way or hang out with certain people because they don’t want to be “judged” by the opposite color from them. In all reality, we all think the same, but are afraid. White people are afraid to talk about certain things or act certain ways, but black people want white people to do what they are afraid of and vice versa. It’s a vicious never-ending cycle and it’s up to our generation and our children to change this. Personally I don’t think that people should be judged or have to act a certain way because of their skin color. My view is that we are all humans who can act however or be friends with whoever we choose and it’s not ok that we think we need to just adjust to the norms because that’s what society tells us. People feel uncomfortable going outside of their “normal” life but I think it’s important to experience things you’re not used to. I want to apply to teach for America because the ideas behind racial issues are so important to me and I want to be able to change the ideas before children become adults. If every one of us, no matter the color, would stop and realize we all want the same things. We all want to get along, be able to date who we please, be successful, and create a successful humanity. Those are all important to every single race, religion, gender, and ethnicity. We all need to learn to stop trying to be so “comfortable” all the time and realize that we all want to be equal. I think that from the day we are born we learn all about race and ethnicity in many direct and indirect ways. Over time I hope we can all learn to see outside of our skin color and realize that we all actually want the same thing…equality.