Sociology 119 is one of the most influential classes in Penn State if not in the whole world. It makes you think critically towards major important issues that affect the world and individual who live in this planet. The discussions are all about problems and conflicts that are considered to be significant to every human being. I believe that Sam Richards is the type of person who not only delivers the information for the sake of education but make you think deeply within yourself, his style of teaching and mentality makes an outstanding instructor. Racism is a word that every person should know and understand and try with all his might to avoid it, knowing that you cannot avoid unless you deeply understand what does it mean and it tackles what. Sam made every person in this class some kind confess to himself of how ignorant we were. By exposing us to mind blowing statistics and charts that made the people in this class stare surprisingly to it. Sam basically wants to solve global issues, and he pointed out through his lectures that the underlying cause of all these issues is hatred, and hatred comes from race segregation and prejudice. Also, the fact that Sam is a white person, but he spoke toward white people freely so he basically talked about every single race without being biased to some or the other. I believe that the most essential thing that I came up with from this special class is a solution to all the problems around the globe related to racism; the solution is accepting our differences. In the end, we are all human beings who have the same inner structure our differences is only in the physical outer appearances that truly does not have a major affect. And one of the most interesting things that Sam talked throughout this semester is how the media and the propaganda is the major influential factor that infects the minds of individuals within every society relying on the society’s circumstances. So, all the stereotypical images that we get exposed to in our daily lives are false or not real. And this to me is the most drastic factor in changing the minds of human beings. In addition, I Talal as a person will always commit myself into being a person who has no standards for any person I know I believe that we are all the same, and I will give respect to every single person in this planet whether if he/she was black or white or religious or anything in the end the most important thing is respect and empathy. Empathy, is probably the key weapon in the arsenal of any person who has a goal of world peace and sustainable happiness.

Even though I’m a virgin and have never experienced a sexual intercourse with another female, the statistics made realized how the media and the propaganda have the ability and power to make people think in ways by delivering false information that will lead them to ignorance. Realizing, that the whole media nowadays relies on sex and porn images that infect the minds of individuals into believing wrong information like the statistics that were exposed in class about orgasms. The lecture basically triggered some key points that made people recognize the amount of obliviousness they were in from watching porn movies and sex video tapes. I believe that a sexual intercourse wouldn’t be successful if there was no true emotions toward the other person, for instance if I met a girl and at the same night I slept with her I wouldn’t enjoy it if I truly knew her beforehand and she also will not enjoy it more than me. Love, is the secret behind all successes in relationships, so if there was inner true love there is not much enjoyment especially for women. I think that decent sex is beyond physical attraction, because sex in this case is going to be a tool for the man in specific to reach an orgasm, but I don’t believe it is the same for women. I read a paper that talks about the psychological aspect of the females indicating that females care drastically about emotions and care that any other thing including sex. Also, I once talked to a girl who is seemingly experienced with sex and she told I no longer enjoy it, by claiming this she supported her claims by saying that a man who is having sex with a girl he doesn’t have any feelings for is similar to masturbating. In the end I would like to talk about my personal views towards this phenomena relying on what shaped my perspective which is growing up in a religious country and being strongly connected to religion. It is portrayed how the society in the United States of America care a lot about sex that you get the feeling sometimes that it is their main goal to have fun. My religion, Islam, taught me and obligated me that I shouldn’t have sex till I get married, knowing that Islam doesn’t obligate a person something without justifying with a reasonable answer. First, there are many consequences of having sex with different people. It could affect a person negatively in his life by influencing his psychological health badly. And the main reason is admiring the female gender, Islam teaches men how they should admire women by respecting them in ways to keep them safe and sound for their future husbands, because if a women who had sex with many men is possibly going to struggle a bit with a committed relationship like marriage, but it is not the same on the other hand.

The shocking statistics that was exposed in class made me realize how there should some drastic system in the American society to change and apply equality and fairness to its maximum extents. The significant question is, how? First of all I would like to talk about how the United State relies drastically on capitalism and I believe that the capitalism approach is not properly applied in the economic system. Yes, I think that the economic system should be changed, because throughout history it appears that there were many economical breakdowns that affected American people in particular and the whole world. The recent economical breakdown (2008) should be like a wakeup call to the American government and society, since the most important thing in an economical system that it would benefit everybody equally, and I consider equally as the key word. Knowing that, the figures showed how there is a surprising amount of inequality in the United States of America. The study of economics is basically how the economic system should have an ultimate goal which is allocating resources to satisfy peoples wants, this mean making people satisfied and pleased of what is happening. Therefore, I call for a change in the economic system to benefit people from all different races and ethnic backgrounds to work all together to make this country the best. Also, another solution would be establishing some kind of an organization that the government would give full authority to act if there was any inequality or racist acts in the economic system, by putting rigid qualification applied to all people from different races and statuses. Furthermore, they should hire foreign workers who have never been exposed to racism before so there shall not be any bias expositions. Also, I believe that a very big portion of what is happening is in education. Education is the most influential factor in causing many world issues, because if a person was educated properly then he will think properly and will have good intention that relies on rational thinking and reasoning. The problem is that many if not all of the educational institutions all they care about is academics and students only care about their grades and getting full marks and this is it, but this not only the purpose of education. Education is something that will shape the way of a person’s thinking in an approach to make him think properly and reasonably to survive in this complicated world. In the end I would like to point out that the if this country walked still on the way its walking on now then there will be no solution, call for meetings, educate people, and raise awareness for a sustainable future and to make the sons and daughters of this country happy.

Even though I’m an international student who has nothing to do with the statistics that was exposed to us about income inequality, I think that it changed the way I think. Realizing how the media could reflect to the world and also Americans that there is equality, justice, and fairness in the United States system. It appears that there is a great amount of people who suffer from inequality and not given their rights. When everybody says the land of opportunity the first thing that I think about is how America spreads justice and fairness, knowing that all people are satisfied with their current standings, but after what I saw it appears that that is not the case. America relies on the free market economy ideology but I think that this philosophy is only applicable to certain amount of people (the top 1% of the American population). Economics is the study of allocating resources to satisfy people’s wants and needs, this mean that the economic system should be practical for every single person and enhance their economical or in other words financial statuses. The statistics showed the exact opposite of what I just said, an economical system is considered to be successful if every single person is satisfied. Therefore, I believe that the economic system should be changed. Also, through the history I recognized that there has been a decent number of economic downturns, and what really surprises me that how people are still following and agreeing upon the current financial situation and structure. In addition, the underlying cause behind all of the impracticality of the economic system is because there is a very high risk rate, that one person could be extremely benefited and the other will be worse off. So, a financial system that serves one person and strikes the other is not suitable for a large number of populations that America currently has. I would recommend every single person to look the Islamic Financial system because to me not because I’m a Muslim but because I think it’s the most pragmatic system that could be applied in any country and in every situation. Basically, the Islamic system is risk free and interest rate free system that serves every person a great amount of certainty in his banking (financial) transactions. Further, its goal is to make every single person better off by making the person (client) share the risk with the bank which could make him more confident and assertive to a great extent. Finally, I would like to conclude my writing by expressing my gratitude to Sam and this great class because it is some kind of a wakeup call to every single person who lives in this world, and majorly Americans.

I’ve always had this picture of the most powerful and great country in the world (America) as if it was the best place any person could be, but my thoughts and perspectives have changed. While growing up in my home country Saudi Arabia talks and thoughts were always a matter of interest when it comes to America, so I grew up thinking about this country and putting a goal to myself, and come for education to America. When Sam started talking about the inequality and affirmative action in the economical system of The United States of America, notions begun popping in my mind about how the media and the propaganda of this country and the world makes people from all around the world ignorant about the truth. Economics is the study of allocating resources equally with emphasis on equally to satisfy people’s wants. Therefore, even if the economical system is spawning money and returning huge profits this doesn’t indicate that the economical system is successful, because in my own opinion I think if there is only one person in a certain society who is not satisfied with his needs then the economical system is not fully successful and needs to be diagnosed to solve the problems within. What really interested me about the mind blowing statistics that Sam exposed us to is the wealth distribution chart, how the top one percent control the majority of money distributed among the country. So, it appears that the largest portion of the American society are unsatisfied with what is happening, because they barely have their daily fundamental needs that makes them move along. Racism is the underlying cause of all of these scandals that I saw. When a colored person and a white person apply to the same job, the white person is most likely gonna take it than the colored person, also Sam mentioned how a white person is most probably gonna take a job over a black person even if he has criminal violations. I think that the things that Sam showed is devastating but simultaneously considered to be like a wake up call to the American people and something that foreigners should learn from when the time of their real life applications start. I think that there should a practical solution to this problem as soon as possible, and I think that the whole economical system should be changed, it is true that its not easy at all but it is the next generations job to change for the better sake of people. A pragmatic solution would be an establishment that the government totally trust and rely on that hire foreign workers who have never been exposed to any racist acts, and basically their work is to monitor the white collar system and put a set of standards and qualifications that are applied on both white and colored people.

When I interact with people from other races I start realizing how very little I know about all different kinds of race and ethnicity. To me, I don’t get hasty or change myself or nervous when I talk and interact from people with different races. I believe in the exact opposite, I think it’s a positive thing to me and to that person, because the more you know about people from other races the more you know about the world and the less ignorant you will be. Also, I consider it as a whole new opportunity to explore the astonishing differences that are recognized between all human beings (physical, and mental). My religion Islam urges all Muslims to get to know people from different background, because Islam addresses the significant amount of benefits the person will gain when he get to know other ethnic people. Also, in my own opinion I think that getting to know people from different races makes you think out of the box. How? You will start realizing how stereotypes and the media/propaganda and other influential factors infected the minds of individuals within every society relying on the society’s circumstances. I believe that there is a decent amount of people who are extremely ignorant about people from other races and ethnic background, they start assuming things and believing it. I personally think it’s because of what they see and read on T.V and news sources. And this makes me realize how strong and affective this factor could be. Therefore, every single person living on this planet should be aware from all the factors that could influence or change his point of view if he knows that he is one of those people who believe everything. I’m saying because I encountered many people who are thinking in strange ways towards the Middle-East, when I first introduce myself to these people, they ask me do I live in tents and ride camels, and that makes laugh a lot, because they are exposing to me how they are very ignorant and how the media have dominated their minds. As a solution to this problem I think that there should be organizations that promote race and ethnic relations and exposes to the world the reality of all of these distinguished backgrounds. In addition, the only thing that would change the world to the better is making people realize how we all should accept our differences. No matter what are your own backgrounds, race, perspectives, beliefs and practices as long as you are respectful to me I will always respect you. Because in the end we are all human beings, all striving to reach happiness , satisfaction, all want respect and we all originally want everybody around us to be happy. Interacting with people from other races/ethnic backgrounds is an astonishing opportunity so take the best out of it, and spread the love and peace.

Death is the final stage in the human's life, knowing that it’s a start of a new juncture. Sometimes when I hear that a person died I start thinking, was he ready to die? Did he achieve his goals in life? And a couple other what if questions. Realizing that death is certain and unknown (when) to any person. So, I believe that every person should strive in his life by working hard and achieving their ultimate goals in every single day of their lives in every different aspect in life. Islam taught me how to deal with every single day as a new opportunity to do great things that makes me and other people happy. Therefore, the fear of death affected me in being perfect enough in life or not in all different aspects from religion to a smile in a poor man's face. Thisnotion kept me thinking about how to satisfy all these facets in the most immaculate way. Thus, I decided to put for myself two major traits that I will commit myself to in every single day in my life, and they are excellence and laughter. Why? Because excellence is going to help in exceling in every life need (academic, religious, social), so I approach every one of these in an intention of being extremely positive and excellent to lead me to happiness and satisfaction. On the other hand, I chose laughter because laughter is a way of expressing happiness and gratitude in life, when you laugh you are spreading positive feelings to other people and changing your stance to a more positive one. God created us for a reason and every single person has a powerful message to deliver to his regarded means, knowing that this life is like a test because God wants to test us of how are we going to deal with life especially all of the obstacles that a person is facing. As many people interpret some obstacles as bad things to them knowing that they are tests from God to differ between the believer and the hard worker and the person who give up on life or turns all of these obstacles into negative influences on himself and the people involved in his life. Islam always calls for positivity and keeping a smile in your face no matter what you are facing to keep high faith in God who is testing you. Our prophet Mohammed peace be upon him is one of my models and biggest model in my life, and his influence in every single Muslim is widely drastic. Prophet Mohammed who is the messenger of God is a person who faced extremely bad things he was beaten by many people, he was offended by many persons, he was threatened in life situations but he stood up and kept a smile in his face by achieving his ultimate goals which is delivering the message of God and he did, and you can recognize his influence by measuring the number of Muslims nowadays. So, death for me is an extreme motivation to be an excellent beloved person who has positive influences on the people I get through.

I believe that there is a lot of negativity toward Muslims because of the major influential factor that infects the minds of individuals within every society relying on the society’s circumstances and mentality, which is the media and propaganda. I think that the media and the propaganda reflect to every society false images that suffer from many lies and ignorance. Especially in the United States the media here is extremely dominant and numerous people trust the media to an ultimate extent, which makes me sad. For instance, when I first came to America I went to my dormitory room then I introduced myself to one of the Americans in my floor, I told him that I was from Saudi Arabia then he said do you live in tents and ride camels? Which exposed to me how much the media could change the minds of individuals and take control of them, then I asked where did you see or heard that he told me on Television. In addition, the major event that made the people pretty biased against Muslims is the September 11 incident, because lots of people reflected this event by generalizing that all Muslims are terrorists. Bearing in mind, that the world “Islam” addresses the submission to God and calls for peace and equality which is one of the major and most drastic fundamentals in Islam. Also, some people always picture Muslims as people with tall beards and short clothes that shows extremists, all people should know that being an extremist is something unacceptable in Islam, because Islam calls that all Muslims should be balanced in all aspects of life, and strive to reach perfection which is understood to be impossible. Furthermore, before two weeks I went to Sam and told how the media and the propaganda made the people very ignorant and he agreed with me, afterwards I asked him for any recommendations that could help me as an individual toward the powerful sources of media so he told me: don’t watch the news. I wasn’t fully convinced with what he said I wanted him to elaborate more so we agreed that every news corporate has its own goals relying on its mission and self-best interest which makes them big promoters of dishonesty and misleading. In my own opinion I think that there are vast pragmatic solutions for this sad problem, and one of them is world in conversation. Why? Because it makes people sit and talk and read with other people from different backgrounds so the person gets exposed to the reality, not what is deceptive in the media. Also, I recommend that every person should go on and seek knowledge about what is really Islam, by reading several reliable sources and asking people who are open-minded and knowledgeable about this religion. Islam taught me as a Muslim and an individual from a religious country that I should treat all people equally and help all of them, and strive in my life to gain the love of God and the love of people by calling for equality and doing great things to every man kind no matter what his background was.

Racism has been a widely known phenomenon all around the world. It’s considered to be one of the most important issues in the world. History revealed to us many aspects of racism, for instance: the United States of America’s problems with colors and segregation between whites and blacks, and the problems between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims back in my region (the Middle-East). Racism is the mental path that the person thinks that his race and ethnic group are better and have the right to do than other racial groups. Human segregation is one of the worst problems in the world, because we can recognize that it caused many conflicts in the history of humanity. Also, we could relate racism to ethnocentrism because ethno-centric people think that their racial groups are better than others which is extremely wrong. We are all humans, we all share genetics and the thing that make people differ is the physical attributes which a very small amount of the human body. There has been a study that indicated that humans differ in only 0.01 in genetics and it’s the physical traits, such as: color, hair, eyes, etc. In addition, I believe that the media and the propaganda have a major influence on racism (ethnicity/race). How? By exposing us to false views of people from different races. For example: we always see black people as thugs and they’re always in crime scenes (on the T.V), which I think gave people a deceiving impression about them. Another example, that people from the Middle-East are a very dry, crazy, ignorant people which are awfully wrong. Knowing, that I lived all of my life in the Middle-East all I see makes me think how a big majority of people are ignorant and really suffer from the lack of knowledge. They just believe what they see and judge from their first impression. When I asked Sam and talked with him about the media he agreed on what I said, then I asked him is there any recommendations that I could benefit from, he told me: don’t watch the news. This does not mean you just don’t know about what’s happening but look for reliable resources. In my own opinion, I think that there is a simple solution for the problem of racism. Simply, let’s accept our differences. Because, when a person talks Arabic and another person is black or white that doesn't mean that they are bad people. We are all humans who have feelings and deep inside us we are good people so let’s not make a newspaper or a T.V show change our way of thinking by deceiving us and letting us believe what we see or read.

The Iranian woman amused me with her courageous comment, because there are a lot of people who want to say a lot of things but they don’t because they are scared. What she said was very reasonable and I agree with her because she declared how some American people are ignorant and they judge people from the media. I believe that the media and the propaganda influence the minds of people drastically. For example: when I first arrived at the United States of America, I came to Penn State then while wandering through the east halls commons I introduced myself to two American guys, when I told them that I was from Saudi Arabia they immediately asked do I live in tents and ride camels. Therefore this made me realize how many people suffer from the lack of knowledge and how they believe any single think in their media, which is extremely wrong. I deem that every news corporation has its own distinctive goals relying on its criteria. So, my recommendation is to not watch any news channel, there are many other resources that are reliable and trustworthy. The Iranian girl made me realize how any person can stand up and speak up without caring about the outside judgers, because if every person did what the Iranian girl do in this way we will educate ourselves better, and strive to make this world a better place.