i feel that people with strict parents will have a much harder time coming out to their parents. They are most likely strict because of their religion. I have a few friends that have really strict parents and would never be okay with having their child or letting their child have a gay friend. i feel that they are like this because they are so into their religion that it rules their life and whatever their religion says is how it is, no exceptions. This is really sad for the child because the parents are pushing their religion on their child and their child should have the choice to pick what religion they chose if they believe in a religion. Coming out and saying that you are something that their religion does not accept would be really hard to deal with. The child would feel really alone and not supported so they may become depressed. I think the biggest thing that would be hard to deal with is the disappointment of parents. There is nothing worse than a parent saying that they are not mad, just disappointed in you. The parents may think, "Wow, I thought I raised then through faith, to be religious person, to respect God." It would be so awkward and hard for the child to live in the household with strict parents and just would not be a good situation to live in.
If a person already had gay parents and figured out that they were gay, their parents would be able to sympathize so much more with them because they already have been through the same situation. The parents dealt with coming out to their parents and dealing with all of their friends know that they are gay or lesbian. The parents and child could actually bond more because of having to go through the same thing and dealing with the world. The known fact that they would be accepted and not judged by their parents would make coming out to parents so much easier. Not only would it be easy to come out to their parents, but it would be easy to come out to their friends, friends of the family, and other family members because their parents had already taken the burden of being the first to say that they are gay or lesbian. It would definitely not be as hard as being the first person to come out in the family. The family and friends as a whole would just be so much more accepting which would make the whole experience so much easier to go through.
Overall, i think that it would be much harder to come out to strict parents because of their hard core religious beliefs where as someone with gay parents would be much more accepting because they have already been through what the child would be going through.

Like Sam said on the video, half of the class thought that 10,000 kidnappings happen every year with people not in the family. I did not guess this many, and actually guessed the right answer which was about two hundred and some kidnappings. I think that this fear that everyone has is from television. The media always chooses to show the worst kidnappings and the worst criminal happenings, although the majority of criminal acts that happen in real life are nothing like what is shown on television. Sam had a slide that also backed up this belief of mine. People get so paranoid that the same awful thing is going to happen to their child, even though the chances are very very low.
I will admit that I do not like walking alone at night and even have to sleep with my light on sometimes after watching a scary movie. I know that nothing is going to happen to me, but I think that the small chance that it could be me is what scares that crap out of me. I realize that the chances of being kidnapped are very low, but just that little chance is what scares me so much. It may seem silly, but I just can’t help but thinking that way. I try to snap myself out of it, but I just can’t do it. I always think of that one incident that something awful happened and say well ya, that could happen to me.
Not only do the media choose the few worst of the worst criminal acts that happen, but the shows on television, such as NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI, and Law and Order, only show the most brutal and bad criminal acts. In real life, these things can and do happen, but really not that often. I do not even remember the last time I heard of a serial killer on the loose, or a serial rapist on the loose. Writers of the show come up with these complex plots just to get good ratings and get lots of people to watch their shows.
Books are also culprits of instilling this fear into people. In my opinion, no person is going to buy a thriller or mystery or whatever type of book that deals with kidnappings, and be really interested in it if it isn’t a good story or scary story. People would be disappointed in the book. I think the stories that these writers come up with are also quite different than what happens in reality. These stories that people are reading get stuck in their head, and also think to themselves, like I do, that there is a chance that something like this could happen to them, even though this chance is very low.
Overall, I think that they media, including news, television shows, and books are the main culprits of instilling this fear into people. I am in no way pointing fingers, because I am a victim of this fear also.

I also grew up in a place where the population was pretty much 99% white. I think there may have been three African American people and maybe fifteen Asian people. Seeing a person who had a different race than Caucasian was very rare in my school. I can only remember four or five classes where there were people of other races than white. So, it is clear to say that I really did not have any interactions with people of other races than when I would go on vacation or go to the mall or something. Coming to college really incorporated me into a place with many different cultures. Although I was immersed into this, I have never felt uncomfortable. If anything, I think I like this better than my predominately Caucasian high school. I feel more cultured in a sort of way from being around so many people with different races. I have made a fair amount of friends that are not Caucasian, more than I know that of some of my other friends. It is not that I look to them like in one of the stages, which one it is I cannot remember, but I just wanted to get to know people who were not exactly like me. I have met people from India, Dubai, and Kazakhstan, and actually have become really close to them. I do not think that I would have gotten the chance to do that in my high school. I really like listening to stories from back home and learning thinks about their culture. I have learned about some of their cultures in history classes but it is completely different hearing it from a person who lives there who is not saying something to be with the status quo. I also have had to teach them some things that people in the United States say and do, and it is quite funny sometimes when they are really confused with why those things are said and/or done. They too have expressed that feeling towards me when I have learned something new about their culture. Overall, I think that I am a very open person to people who are a different race than me. I would not say that I was nervous when thinking about interacting with people of other races, just interested in how they and I were going to react. Thankfully it has been all good experiences so far and hope to keep that going. I also hope that I can continue to meet more and more people from different countries and learn things from them too. Overall, I would not say that I had a hard time coming to college and seeing and interacting with people of other races, but actually enjoy it.

When I saw the video of soldiers crushing the car and abusing their power I was very upset. The soldiers are people just like the people whose car they crushed and just like other Iraqis. The only real difference is their ethnicity. The soldiers don’t have a specific order to abuse their powers such as like when the soldiers crushed the car. If there were soldiers here from another country in the United States and they ran a person off of the road or crushed their car with a tank then they would feel like less than dirt. Obviously these soldiers did not put themselves in the shoes of the Iraqis or whoever the people were and did not think of this situation. I just believe that it is so disrespectful and disgusting. U.S. troops are over in Iraq to set up democracy and to get the country to be less corrupt and try to get the country back on its feet. But when this kind of thing is happening, nothing good is being done. It is just strengthening the hatred toward United States from the Iraqis and not improving anything. There are soldiers over there who just plainly want to help and make things better and then there are people who are abusing their power and just ruining everything good that other soldiers have done. It is so immature and soldiers who participate in this type of behavior should be punished.

I honestly do not know what can be done about this. I would hope that US troops would have morality and just do what they are told. They are there to help these people out and are doing nothing but destroying progress that has been made. Offering a morality class would not work because people already know what is right to do but sometimes just choose not to do the right thing such as the incident where the truck was run off of the road. I do not know of many soldiers would report things like this happening to their superiors so that they would be in trouble. That could be an option but I am not sure how truly effective it would be. My best idea that I think could only really work was to punish the soldiers who act in these horrible ways. I do not know how they would be reported or what exactly would be the guidelines for punishment would be but I think that it is the only thing that can work. If soldiers are being punished, then maybe this will make them and others not do these horrible things. I am not sure what the punishments could or would be, but some type of punishment should be put into place. Hopefully something will happen to change these heinous acts and will change the future.

When I first saw this picture I thought to myself, “Awe they’re so happy to see each other, how cute!” And listening to people saying “Ew that’s gross!” or other comments like that makes me so angry. The Asian guy’s response really angered me. If he’s going to criticize someone maybe he should be in their shoes before taking a stance. He should go serve multiple times for about four years total and then he can talk crap on public display of affection he would show when he came back to the United States. His reaction was so rude and inconsiderate of what this man did to keep him safe in this country. Also, everyone has the right to fall in love with someone, whether they are gay, straight, or lesbian. I am straight but I also have friends that are lesbian and gay. Just because they are gay or lesbian doesn’t mean that they don’t have the same right to fall in love with someone. I don’t see my friends any differently from when before they come out of the closet in comparison to now. Sure I know a little more about them now but that does not mean that I can shun them and not be friends with them anymore. I have actually became a lot closer with them now that I know that they are gay or lesbian because they feel more comfortable around me. They do not have to be embarrassed of how they truly feel or how they truly are. I applaud people who have the strength to come out of the closet and deal with all of the hatred of the world. I am obviously for gay rights and will fight for equal marriage and other rights for them because they are no different than other people besides who they find attractive. And, not everyone finds the same type of person attractive so they really are exactly like the rest of the straight people. Also, this man was just serving for I believe four or so years, as the video stated, and had multiple deployments. If I knew anyone who was going over seas to serve and see them come back I would jump on them just like the man in the video did. Not only did this man go over seas once, but multiple times. I would be ecstatic that they were still alive. My response would be even crazier, if you could call it that, if I was in a relationship with the person that is coming back from serving. They could have died over there protecting you and the rest of the country. So I don’t think that this reaction was over exaggerated or anything. I think it was a perfectly fine reaction and I would do the exact same thing if I were him.

When I read this post, I immediately knew what to write about. I was just downtown and saw an Asian man and a black woman holding hands. They were obviously very connected to each other, were flirting, and looked as happy as can be. My first thought was “Awe that’s so cute!” Then my second thought was “Hmm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple like them before (meaning the two races together)”. And my third thought was “Good for them for not being afraid of society’s views.” It was kind of inspiring to see them together, especially when I saw a bunch of other people looking at them weirdly.
It doesn’t surprise me that African Americans had the highest interracial marriages over Hispanics or Asians. They have been a large amount of people in this country for a very long time, longer than the large amount of Asian and Hispanic people here today. I feel that Hispanics and Asians don’t have higher rates because they are still receiving the beginnings of racism. African Americans have been dealing with racism in this country a longer time and white people have gotten more used to them. So, Hispanic and Asian people still have time of getting used to and I feel that in the future that their interracial marriages statistics will rise.
It’s unfortunate that there are people out there that don’t like the idea of interracial marriages. With older people I can understand why they are less favorable of them because in their lifetime, they have seen a large amount of racism towards many different races. I know that it is not easy to just completely change your views on racism when a person was so submerged in it for a big part of their lives. I still catch my grandma saying nigger sometimes. She has though, thankfully, become less racist and understands that racism is wrong. The only bad thing is though, sometimes bad habits, such as using this word, don’t always completely disappear. What bothers me the most is when younger people are the same or even more unfavorable of interracial marriages. I understand that their parents felt this way and probably passed this belief on, but we are in a time where racism is not as bad as it was before. There is a lot more awareness in racism and racism is trying to be put down. Times have changed since when African Americans had to sit in the back of the bus, or couldn’t sit in the same restaurant, or go to the same school, or drink out of the same water fountain. I just wish more people would be open to people of other races and see that they are just like they are, but just have a different skin color.

For as long as I can remember, I have always heard of people of some races dissociate themselves. I was always confused as to why people did this but only started to understand why in high school. I took world geography as a freshman and really got emerged in cultures from around the world. Some of these cultures and countries had times in their history where they were ashamed of, such as Nazi Germany. I believe one reason as to why people dissociate themselves from their race is because of this. I know that race is not the same thing as a culture, but they do come hand in hand a majority of the time. So, as my example with Nazi Germany may be an example of why people may dissociate themselves with being a white European. They may feel that they are being judged because they come from an area where something horrible happened. This judgment is not fair but happens and could be a solid reason why white Europeans disassociate themselves from their race.
Black may dissociate themselves because their race was subject to slavery and being seen as not even human. Some of these people may be embarrassed calling themselves specifically African American because Africa is where a lot of slaves came from and the majority of people who have lineage from there are African American. Unfortunately, there is still a large amount of racism going on in the world today. Another reason why they may want to dissociate themselves from their race is to try to get away from this horrible racism. When one of them is called black, or African American, they may feel subject to this racism and right away say something like “I’m not black/African American, I’m from the Dominican Republic, or where ever they are from.” Specifying their race as not African American may give them relief from this racism and makes sense as to why they would dissociate themselves from their race.
People from Asian may dissociate themselves from the general term Asia because they feel like people just clump all of the different societies together. People from China are not exactly like people from Japan or Vietnam or Laos or Korea. They have different cultures and the cultures are not as specialized as they may feel that they should be. I personally agree with this thought. If I were from Asia, I would want to be known from my specific country, not just Asian. I would want my culture to be celebrated and differentiated such as the cultures from France, Germany and Italy. There really isn’t a dispute between those cultures but in Asia there is. This reasoning is a clear idea as to why somebody from Korea would want to be called Korean instead of Asian.

I agree that the American Dream is more valuable to immigrants and we have lost the American Dreams’ value. I feel this way for a lot of reasons. When immigrants come to the United States, they are looking to start a new life. They left everything they knew to come to this country to make things better for them and their family. Coming to the United States is a great opportunity for them. Unfortunately, people already living here don’t see that living in the United States is kind of like a privilege. We don’t have huge famines that kill thousands if not millions of people. There are schools everywhere in the country that people can go to. Going to school is something that everyone does, and even seems to be super annoying to kids. People living in third world countries would kill for the things we have. When a person gets the opportunity to leave an area that is in such bad shape and gets to come to the United States were everything is so much better than where they lived, they do all they can to take it in. For instance, it is amazing how there isn’t cults of people taking over towns and raping all of the women. They feel safe and have the opportunity to make something of themselves. People who have lived in the United States don’t realize how good we have it to live here. We don’t realize how many people are being killed every day in countries because they don’t believe a certain thing, or they actually stand up for themselves and go against the main stream. Being a citizen of the United States, you can have freedom of speech and religion. You can work at jobs that you want to. Everyone has the chance to go to school and get an education. There are so many opportunities in the United States for everyone here and it’s valueless to us. All of these opportunities to immigrants are like gold. The immigrants want to explore these opportunities and do them. I feel like some people who are citizens don’t even know the true meaning of the American Dream. I have learned about the American Dream in high school like many other people, but do we truly know what it is or how we can take ahold of the reigns and actually fulfill this dream? When people don’t even know the real meaning of the American Dream, how can people even value it? It’s a lost cause in that case. As I said before, the value of the American Dream is higher to immigrants than it is to us. We take what we have for granite, and don’t realize what an opportunistic place we live in.

I have learned a lot from the recent events with the scandal and Joe Paterno. I think the biggest thing that I have seen and learned about people these days is that a lot of people get caught up in stories like this and are quick to judge without learning everything about the situation. When I went home for the first time after the students rioted for Joe Paterno being fired, I had countless people asking me “How’s campus?” and “Have there been any more riots?” Based on one event, people are assuming that campus is just a complete disaster with people rioting everywhere. This was not the case at all. Another person said to me “How can you support Joe Paterno? He did all kinds of stuff to little boys!” I looked at this person and said have you even heard anything right? Joepa didn’t do anything, it was another guy; why don’t you look up actually what happened before you go making comments like that to people who attend Penn State. Its people that say things like that and are quick to judge that make me sick to my stomach. Another example of people that are quick to judge are the people who are saying things like “Thank god Paterno is dead; he’s got a special place in hell”. They are basing their belief about one thing: that Joe could have done more. They aren’t taking into consideration what he has done for this school. He has a library named after him and a statue in front of Beaver Stadium! If this man didn’t mean a lot to this university, clearly the statue or library’s name wouldn’t be here. In class, Sam has been talking a lot about taking yourself out of the situation and looking at both sides of the story. I think that people need to start doing this more and there will be less hatred in the world. If a person still sees the situation the same as they did before looking at both sides then so be it. At first when this whole controversy came out, I was 100% against what the board did and was outraged. Now, I can see why they took the action they did. I’ve taken myself out of the situation and figured out pros and cons to each side. Doing this has made me feel more mature and accepting of the ruling because I wasn’t so focused on only what I believed. If only the people I talked to when I was home didn’t judge a situation without knowing more and putting themselves on both sides of the story, I wouldn’t have been as mad. From now on, I’m going to try to look at both sides and not be a culprit of quickly judging a situation without looking on both sides of the story.

First of all, I would like to say that I love watching the Colbert Report. It takes hot topics that may seem confusing to a large number of people and breaks it down while at the same time being funny. I'm not one to sit down and watch CNN, or be really interested in politics, but I can actually watch this show and enjoy it. I know that immigration has always been a hot topic to debate, but I think this episode brings up a really good point about illegal immigration. A lot of people think that illegal immigration is bad and we should just ship all of the aliens out of the country because they are taking jobs, but look what happened. Laws were finally enacted and jobs opened up but nobody wants these jobs. They had to go to criminals to have them work because no person wanted to pick fruits and vegetables. Without these immigrants, industries are in need of thousands of workers and crops are being lost. Hypothetically, just imagine if all of the illegal immigrants were ousted out of the country. So many industries would lose workers and our economy would be even worse off because no person would want to do the menial jobs that these immigrants do. Something has to be done so that there are workers. And if these illegal immigrants are willing to work these menial jobs, why not have them do it? No other people want to? The illegal immigrants aren't stealing the crops or anything. Somehow something has to happen to have these jobs fulfilled.