I think it is all relative to how your parents are. For the girl who has straight parents who are really religious than I can see where they would have a problem because of the religious view but that’s not the case for everyone. My parents are straight and my mom has always told me that no matter what, she will always love me. So I guess it is more of a religious thing than a straight verses gay thing.
However I feel like when a child has gay parents they have always been exposed to that culture and life style. Whereas the children with straight parents don’t encounter it until much later in their life. So I feel like a big discrepancy is given here. When you are constantly exposed to something than it seems normal, but when something is new people tend to shy away from it. So from that I feel like children with gay parents would feel more comfortable coming out of the closet than children with straight parents because they have always been around that kind of stuff.
So it kind of goes back to the fear of the unknown. Most people don’t like what they don’t know so if straight parents are very religious they haven’t been exposed to people who are gay and therefore reject the idea and see it as a sin. Whereas gay parents are comfortable with the idea. However I don’t think it just a matter of religion because im sure there are other people who have been told by their parents that being gay would be a problem. And im sure there are plenty of religious gay couples, who of course accept that being gay is normal.
But, again, it is all a matter of relevance. One parent could be okay with it while another could be totally against. I did notice that the girl in the video with straight parents only mentioned her dad, so im wondering if her mom would be okay with it. And I guess everyone has their own opinions that they are entitled too but it just makes me really sad to know that some parents are like that. And even to say that you can’t have gay friends was a shock to me. So even if kids with straight parents have never told them it would be a problem, I think they have a harder time with coming out because they know that their parents aren’t and they don’t know if they will accept it, whereas the child of a gay couple already knows that it will be fine.

So when I found out that there are only about a hundred child abductions by strangers it really made me think. I was kind of shocked at first because lit always seems like there is a missing child report in the news or on the radio almost every day. But I really think that it is all part of the medias fault in how they portray the news. Of course it is always bad when a child is abducted but it really doesn’t happen that often. So when it does the media will just grab onto that and run with it. They need breaking news stories that catch our attention and those types of stories do that. Its not interesting to hear about how someone did something good in the world. But it is much more attention grabbing and interesting in a sick kind of way to hear about a child abduction of a murder.
They really want people to relate to the story so they just keep telling it and reporting every little detail of it until it feels like you’re a part of the story. And I really think that’s where the fear comes from. The fact that we get so engrossed in a story that has nothing to do with us makes us start questions well what if this happened to me. When really the odds are very slim that it will happen to you.
But I’m not too sure how this ties into race relations. Because I don’t think people have an overwhelming feeling that someone of a different race is going to abduct this child, just people in general. However I guess it can pertain to the fact that most people will cross the street when a black man is walking towards them. We just took a fear and applied it to another. Our fear of something happening to our children and applying it to our fear of what is different.
I really don’t think that people go around and think oh hey that black guy or Spanish guy is going to take my child. And vice versa for different races. We just have a lot of irrational fear towards what we cant control. And primarily I think that fear comes from the media, like I said before. They don’t report the positive things people do and only the negative. And that is where our fear comes from.

The class where we talked about ethnocentrism was one of my favorite classes that we have had so far. It is good for everyone to step outside of our little worlds and see what other people see. And to actually acknowledge that people from other places may view things that we do as strange and out of the ordinary.
For me the best example of this given in class was that of the Sudan boys who were filmed on their first trip to America. It was really funny to see all of them eating butter so if it was normal. But they didn’t know that you are supposed to spread it on something. So simple things like that, that we think are so normal are actually not normal in other places. And looking back and actually thinking about it makes it seem wrong that everyone in class laughed. But it is just a reaction to people thinking that we are weird because to us we are the most normal culture. However, what culture is actually normal? How can we decide what is normal when things all over the world are totally different. Normal is relative and it isn’t fair to laugh at those boys for not knowing anything about their culture. I am almost positive that if the situation was reverse, those boys would laugh at a white person who was doing things outside the norm.
However one example from the ethnocentrism class that I think was actually pretty bad was that of the milk. Sam showed a picture of a little girl from another country drinking right from the utter of a cow and asked why everyone thought it was so gross. He said that it was exactly the same as drinking it from the carton but it really isn’t. It is completely different because the milk we drink from the carton is pasteurized and reduced fat and what not. It is not the same as drinking straight from the carton and I thought that was a very misleading example.
Overall I thought the class was very eye opening. It is good for us to step back and look at other cultures and see them as normal and not as weird compared to ours because it is impossible to compare a culture halfway around the world to one in the United States. It is good to try and see things that are strange to us as normal for other people.

I feel like people get so offended when they know something is racist because it is almost an instinct. We all just know that it is wrong and racist so immediately we want to show everyone that we think it is wrong by voicing our opinions on how wrong it is. Specifically for white people, going back to the fact of white guilt. We want to convince ourselves that we are better than we used to be and that we should accept everyone no matter the color of their skin. So basically we get offended not because it personally affects us, but because we know it may offend others around us and we want to show them that we don’t think that way.
However I really don’t think it is necessary to get so mad when the comment or whatever doesn’t apply to us at all. It is okay to say that whatever it is is wrong but to be so angry is really out of place. If you have no relation or connection to the person being offended (if they are even offended at all) then why should you be personally offended?
That brings me to another point. If the person who the comment is directed at doesn’t get offended then I feel like it is almost more offensive to them if people react so strongly. Again going back to the “race table” we can look around and see who gets offended and it they say something then we can speak up too. But if the person isn’t offended then I really can’t imagine a logical reason for an outsider to be offended either.
Another aspect of this question was if the statement is true, then how can someone get mad. And I think this is a really good question because what if it is true? For example there is a stereotype that all Jews are cheap. Well this didn’t just come from nowhere… hate to admit it but as a Jew I, too, am a cheap bastard. I don’t like to spend my own money and I am not ashamed of that! When people say something about me being a cheap Jew I just laugh because it is true. There really isn’t any reason to get upset about it because I don’t see my cheapness changing in the near future. And bringing it back to a more general sense, no one has the right to get mad about a comment not directed at them. They can voice their opinion but to actually get angry is just kinda weird.

The statement that if the shooter had been black, he would have been in jail right now really makes me feel like we have not progressed as a society at all. It reminds me of all the stories that we learn about in grade school about the times of slavery. How if a black man looked at a white woman in any way he would be beaten or even worse, killed. This statement is obviously not as extreme but it is still along those general lines of having an irrational fear of black people.
However I also look at this statement and I am just shocked. I’m not shocked because I think that it is a false statement. Actually it is the complete opposite. I think this is extremely true and that is the most shocking part about it. How can we as a society determine that something is more wrong if a black person does it? Because that is exactly what this statement is saying. There is a double standard, as white people we like to think that everything is equal. That we created a perfect society that has laws that govern everyone regardless of skin tone. However this is not the case. This question asked what do you think can be done to change this, and honestly I don’t think there is much anyone can do at this stage in our society.
If the values that everyone is created equal had been instilled in our minds way back during the time of the constitution I don’t think we would be having these problems about race now. Maybe if a black man had helped write the constitution things would be different. But we have had this idea that we are superior since before the constitution and that mentality has been passed down from generation to generation.
However the question also asks what can be done. And like I said earlier, nothing at this stage but in the future I believe things will be better. Our parents never had a chance to be racially accepting. Most of their parents were living through the civil rights era. That resentment and hate that came after that period was passed down to our parents. Hopefully most of our parents didn’t pass that hate down to us. But I feel like since we are all, for the most part, more educated about race then our parents that we can really have a positive effect on the future. I’m hoping that is we don’t pass down hate for others to our children, than we can solve and resolve this problem of having skin color being a problem.

Definitely one of the most interesting things that I have learned about in class is how much white supremacy is still in effect today. As a white woman who grew up in a primarily white suburb, the idea of white supremacy never really crossed my mind. Except during a middle school history class when we had to learn about it back in the days of slavery or shortly after it was abolished. But I never really stopped to think that it was still present in society today. I was completely shocked to find out that all the other races in the room knew that it was still in effect but basically no white people thought that it affected our lives. To be honest I felt almost a little stupid because it literally affects everything that we do or think. It really impressed upon me how lucky I really am.
Even though I understand now that yes it is still a major factor in today’s society, but it still bugs me that it is present. And probably like every other white person has said before but I do have black friends and it just never occurred to me that they thought they might be treated differently because of their skin. Probably the biggest thing that I am still “wrestling” with is the fact that I didn’t see it. In my high school me and friends, who were mostly white, would always talk about how since we all lived in the same county that we all must be well off. Living in Montgomery County Maryland is expensive so yes most people probably did have money, but not everyone. And coming to Penn State my thoughts about the money aspect kind of rolled over. I always thought that since it is so expensive to go here then everyone has money here too. However I was talking to my friend Maddy one day about this and I said “oh yeah, everyone at Penn State has money.” And she kind of looked at me funny and was like “Amy that’s really not true, half the kids in our building couldn’t go here if they didn’t have their scholarships.” I knew my building was the “scholarly diverse” building but again, it just never occurred to me that people might be struggling because of white supremacy.
Maybe not direct white supremacy, but hidden white supremacy like the example of who would get a house or a job if they had the same credentials. So all in all I think that it was a really good wake up call for every white person in that room. And maybe we can all just stop pretending that we don’t see color and acknowledge the fact that white supremacy still exists in some form.

It is true that many sports are dominated by certain racial groups. Whether it be people with ancestry in Africa who primarily play basketball, or white people who dominate the sports of ice hockey and swimming. However the differences in which sports are dominated by which racial group is purely biological. There are different types of muscle tones and shapes that make people better suited for different sports. For example in track, long lean people who run long distance tend to have longer and leaner muscles opposed to those who run sprints that have short and bulky muscles. The shorter muscles allow for quick and powerful bursts of energy to go short distances, while the long and lean muscles allow runners to go for longer distances without getting tired quickly.
Muscle tone comes into play not just for track but for basketball as well. The shorter muscle allows an individual to be able to jump higher. Since the basketball hoop is high in the air, it is easier for someone with shorter muscles to make a jump shot. It is hard to see a short white guy making a good jump shot if they have long muscles. It is also hard to see a black man with long muscles making a jump shot too. However basketball is a predominantly black sport because many black men have the shorter muscles, therefore they are better equip to play basketball.
Another reason for the difference in which racial groups dominate each sport could also be depended on where you live. The topic of racially dominated sports seems to only be an issue in America. I don’t think that in Europe they have to talk about how different racial groups dominate different sports. However it is also dependent on the sport as well. While basketball and hockey are racially dominated, sports like football and soccer tend not to be. Probably because those sports have very wide varieties of skills that can be utilized during a game. For football you need people who can catch, run, block, throw, and kick. These skills can be filled by any number of racial groups as long as they are capable to do so.
So, yes it is true that some sports are generally played by one racial group but that’s because they are better suited to play that certain sport. A 7 foot black guy would probably not balance very well on a pair of ice skates. Just like a short white guy wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the tall black guys on a basketball court. Of course there are always acceptations but then again that is because the people who are acceptations are biologically suited to play those sports better then others.

I think it is extremely true that white people shy away from race. It is very uncomfortable to get into a conversation about race with people of different races. As a white woman I have always been taught that it is not okay to point out someone’s skin color. My mom always told me that it is rude and could hurt someone’s feelings. It is a very deep seeded feeling that most white people have that it is not okay to talk about race.
For some reason it has always been that way, for me at least. A girl in my recitation brought up a very interesting point about the reason why white people are so against talking about race. She said that since we have been taught for years, from 1st grade up to 12th grade and maybe even in college, about the slave trade and the civil rights movement that we as white people have gained that understanding that we are always wrong. That since we did something so horrible, now it is deeply embedded in our minds that we can’t talk about race because it will get us into trouble of some sort. So because we fear that it will get us into trouble we constantly avoid the subject to avoid confrontation about what we might say.
If we say something wrong, or stupid it could be misinterpreted by a person of color and offend them. And that is one of the biggest reasons that I personally shy away from talking about the topic of race because I really don’t want to offend anyone. White people in the past have made such a huge deal over the color of a person’s skin and now we are not necessarily trying to correct the past but just keep ourselves from making one of those mistakes.
I’m sure that white people are not the only ones who are uncomfortable with talking about race but we are the only ones who are so noticeably awkward during the topic. When I get nervous talking about something my face turns bright red and I start to sweat even if I feel okay talking about the subject. There is actually a physical change that happens in most white people when they talk about things that make them nervous. I hate to raise my hand in class and talk because I know my face will get red and everyone will be able to tell that I’m nervous. Maybe this is going out on a limb but that could be a big reason that most white people don’t like to talk about race. People can actually see with their eyes that it makes them uncomfortable. So besides the fact that race is already an uncomfortable topic for white people, it makes us look sweaty and nervous and red. That’s why most white people in my opinion try to avoid the topic of race.

I personally am all for interracial dating. I have no problem seeing a black woman with a white man, or a white woman with a black man. Or any other race for that matter. As long as the couple is happy with each other, and they don’t care about their skin color then why should I. It isn’t fair to say that people of different races can’t date or that it is wrong because you can’t help who you are attracted to, and who you fall in love with. However I think that who we are attracted to initially is somewhat based on race because of how and where we grew up.

I grew up in a suburb outside of D.C. and went to a high school of around 2000 kids. It was never uncommon to see interracial couples walking around in the halls. My best friend is Filipino and she dated a white guy for almost two years. But their relationship was very strange because neither of them were going to tell their parents that they were dating. Not because their parents didn’t approve of them dating someone of a different race but because both families had a “policy” against their teenagers dating in general. Now after talking in class, and in recitation, I find it very interesting that both white and Asian parents were against dating. They were never against dating someone of a different race but just about dating in general because both sets of parents were very conservative.

So I think that if someone is uncomfortable about interracial dating it is because of their parents, or their families. My mom grew up in D.C. and was one of the five white kids in her high school. She has always told me that whoever I love, she will love no matter their race. But on multiple occasions she has told me that she can never see me dating a black person. When I would ask her why she never really had a concrete response, she would say I just can’t see you with a black man. And personally I can’t see myself with a black man but I don’t think that’s based on racism. It just is. I am not attracted to many black men and part of the reason probably is because of where I grew up. My little suburb didn’t have many families of color. There was maybe one black family a street over, and no Hispanics lived there either.

So personally I don’t see a problem with interracial dating, it doesn’t cause any problems in my eyes. But depending on where someone grew up, it might and we need to respect how others feel about the ”issue” of interracial dating.

Throughout the few months since the scandal was breaking news, things have severely changed about people’s ideas of and about Penn State. When my Mom used to tell people that I was going to Penn State they would always be so impressed and say how smart I must be, they would always say “Ohh! Penn State!” Now when she tells people that I go to Penn State their reactions are much different. Some will ask if I am handling the scandal well, or if I was part of the riots but the majority say “Oh… Penn State?” I hope I conveyed the polar shift in attitudes well enough, but you will never get the full effect of how different these two statements sound unless someone says them to you.

These statements had only been said to my Mom, I had never heard them directed towards me. Unfortunately when I decided to visit some old high school teachers over Thanksgiving break, that’s all I heard. Every teacher I visited ask me “I forget, where do you go to school again.” And already knowing their next question I said Penn State. Surprise, surprise they asked me how I was handling the scandal and how the other students were reacting to the news. If it effected our grades or how we were feeling about being a Penn Stater? This really made me sit back and think about how people on the outside of Penn State now look at those on the inside. Looking in the riots looked pretty bad, in hindsight… probably not the best idea but that’s how we were feeling at the time. Only the students who participated will fully understand their reasoning for doing so. People now looked at Penn State students as if we were animals who didn’t know wrong from right. Some even went as far as to say that we were supporting child abuse… that is the most absurd thing I have ever heard yet some idiots thought this way.

Then I thought, wow. I know for a fact that I have judged something from the outside without really knowing what went on from the inside. This is a natural human reaction to things, to judge events, people and things from the outside looking in without fully understanding why they happened. The scandal made me realize that bad things will happen and there isn’t much you can do about them after the fact but the thing that made me think the most were peoples’ reactions. No, it isn’t fair to judge something with just one look but I know I’ve done it. It is also not fair to jump to conclusions about things without knowing the facts. Once I stepped out of the little bubble we all call home, Penn State, I realized that not everyone will understand. Not everyone will care. But most likely everyone one will judge you, or the situation. So what I have learned from the whole scandal is that people really need to take a step back and see what is going on before they jump to usually the wrong conclusion.