First off, I believe that the spirit of Affirmative Action and its goals is a great idea. The problem I have is that it is inherently racist by nature. By trying to counteract discrimination, people are judged based on race, which is ultimately more discrimination. I understand that the goal is to give underrepresented minorities a chance at what their racial counterparts are given, but the solution (at least in my mind) should not be Affirmative Action. The solution should be removing race from the equation. If people want to give underrepresented minorities the equal chance of success as their white counterparts, application processes should become truly and 100% objective. Loan applications are supposed to be granted based on criteria such as income, credit history, work experience, and an assessment of assets. If this is how they were really granted, there would not be a need for Affirmative Action - as anybody, regardless of race or sex, would be granted applications based on their eligibility through the aforementioned criteria. But, as we learned in class, this is not the case, and people are denied or given higher interest loans based solely on race. The same goes for education and jobs - white men (typically) get the higher paying corporate or "white collar" jobs, while minorities get "blue collar" jobs. If we removed the race card from the table, all we would be left with are people with skills that have equal chances of success as other people with similar skill sets. Obviously, this is a Utopian ideal as we all know that race will never truly be removed from the table so long as people are raised by people with skewed ideals (racists). But in this perfect world, Affirmative Action would not be necessary as an "underrepresented minority" wouldn't even exist - all people of all races would be interspersed among the ranks of the corporate world and all would be well. But I believe that we as a generation have the power to change the norm. With every passing generation, we see dramatic shifts of equality - true equality - not the politically correct BS that is Affirmative Action. It is only a matter of time before the idea of race relations is a non issue. It will become the proper way of the world - people of all "races" working together as one race - the human race.

Social networks have revolutionized communication and organization of large groups. I think that without facebook and twitter, the riots would not have gotten as crazy. I can attest to a personal account of a friend who saw that there were riots on facebook, saw pictures and decided to go. He grabbed all of his friends and off they went to riot. But beyond that, I think social networks as a whole add motivation to act crazy. People talk about profile pictures left and right and ultimately, I think that people try to do the craziest things so that they can post it on facebook. Social networks have revolutionized interactions online, but at what cost?

I define racism in a very simple way. To me, racism is the belief that one race is superior to another, without considering any other factors besides race. This would be like saying that one person is smarter than another person because of their race, or that one person is more qualified to do something because they are a certain race. By this definition, a lot of people would be considered racist, but to me, being a racist isn’t about occasionally thinking that one race is superior to another; it’s about thinking that one race is superior to another all the time. If that is the way you live your life, then you are clearly a racist..
As far as me experiencing racism, I will say that I have never been the recipient of racism, but I have seen one of the worst racists in action. This racist is my grandfather. I have seen him literally get angry at the sight of a black man walking down the street selling some flowers at a stop light. He proceeded to yell and say that all black people are lazy and don’t try to get real jobs to sustain themselves – they just do (and I quote) “nigger work”. I was 10 years old in this car with this man, and even then, I thought that he was off of his rocker and seriously disturbed. This really troubled me – a man that I respected conveying the purest and most extreme form of racism I have ever seen in my life. He didn’t think about what got that man into that position, he didn’t consider all of the successful black men that exist in the world or anything. He just saw one black man and assumed the worst. Now, one could try to rationalize and say that because my grandfather was Cuban it should be expected that he be racist (Cubans are infamous for their vicious racism towards black Cubans), but to me that is not an acceptable answer. I feel that if you are a racist, it is not okay. As Sam said in class, all humans share 99.99% of the same genome, but the outward appearance (the .001%) is what defines what we perceive of people. By being racist, you are criticizing a person that is .001% different than you are. You might as well hate all humans equally, because everyone in the world is almost exactly the same, and to hate on someone because of their skin color or hair type is no more rational than hating someone because they have blonde hair, a big nose, or any other feature different than your own. We are all humans, no matter what, and race is never going to go anywhere, so people just need to start accepting it and stop hating.

The numbers thrown around in this video are really eye opening. It is well known that the military spends a lot, but $1.6 trillion? What put that number in perspective for me was looking at it as 1,600 Billion dollars. That amounts to about $4.4 billion every single day spent to fund this war. And what results of this war? We say we spread democracy and end terrorism, but look at the news – terrorist attacks still happen (because with oppression on a certain group of people, they are always going to want to lash out), and we still are in Iraq when there is no reason to be. Even if you went with the idea that we are “fighting terror”, the terrorist group we were looking for was more focused in Afghanistan. Granted, now we are in Afghanistan, but only after we were in the war for 8 years. The points made at the end of the video really jumped out at me – the U.S. Government cuts programs and spending that amount to tens of billions and complain about lack of funds. Well clearly we have an issue here. I know we need defense and money to support our troops, but I’m sure there is something we can do to lower the defense budget by a significant margin. Not only that, but in the face of this economic crisis, we need to cut a significant amount of spending or increase revenue. Those are the only two options. Just think if we managed to lower defense spending by a measly $200 billion. That is about 66% of the current federal education budget, but only 12.5% of the current defense budget. Imagine investing 2/3 more money to education. Better schools, more books, more funding for teachers, better salaries – the list goes on and on. Not only that, but the economy and future of America would be in better hands because the younger generation would be better educated for the future. Now instead of going toward education, imagine if that money went towards infrastructure. All of us in Pennsylvania know how terrible the roads can be, especially in the wintertime. If $200 billion, just over 10% of the federal defense budget, was spent on infrastructure, we would have infinitely better roads, bridges, buildings, and public works systems. Think of revamped fire stations, better-funded police programs, and better ambulance systems. Cost of upkeep and maintenance would go way down and efficiency would go way up. I’m not saying I am against the war, but I am against spending over half of the U.S. budget to fund the military when it is absolutely unnecessary. Quite frankly, this country would be a better place if the funds were spent in a more educated manner.

I think that race does not directly relate to drug use too much, but race affects many other factors that influence drug use. Black and Hispanic people (statistically) live in more urban or low-income areas. Living in these areas affect drug use regardless of race because of their prevalence among the poorer population. There is a strong correlation between income and drug use that has been observed in some studies. But, the types of drugs used differ greatly between many socioeconomic statuses. For instance, most “poor people” drugs are crack cocaine or methamphetamine, while “rich people” drugs are more like cocaine or ecstasy. So in that regard, I would say that although race does not necessarily affect whether or not a person uses illicit drugs, it could affect which drugs a person takes should they take drugs in the first place. There was proof of that in one of the statistics that was shown in class. Crack cocaine, for example, was used predominately by black people, while white people (predominately) used cocaine. Interestingly, (and I noticed this in many other statistics as well) marijuana use is equally high among all races. I am sure that there has to be some sort of explanation for that. It may be because all races acknowledge the relatively harmless manner of marijuana, or perhaps because smoking weed is typically a very social thing – something all people can enjoy. Regardless, it doesn’t seem to support or deny the claim that race affects drug use since it is an outlier. Despite my stance of the lack of a cause-effect relationship of race to drug use, one can’t help but notice the statistics that were shown in class where drug use varied among different races. I think that this (again) had more to do with other environmental factors that were outside of the scope of the surveys. Factors such as income level, location, and popularity of drugs in different areas could all influence drug use despite race, but certain races are more likely to fit certain socioeconomic stereotypes that do affect drug use. We do not know the whole story behind any statistic presented, so to conclude for certain one way or the other about race and drug use is very hard to do. It is like that with any statistic. It is easy to observe correlations between things, but the causation is nigh impossible most of the time. For this reason, it is my personal belief that any statistic, whether read or heard, should always be taken with a grain of salt. Unless there is an overwhelming statistic (like the one that 67% of the white population use drugs), we should not be so quick to assume things that are so easy to assume given the right statistic.

A lot of the entrepreneurs listed on the site have great set ups and make some incredible goods. I honestly was blown away at the quality of most of the goods that were shown in all of the videos; particularly the shoes, handbags, backpacks, and lunchboxes. Now, I really wish that all of these people could receive some monetary help, in the form of setting up micro-finances. The only way I would see this working is by having a benefactor of some sort – either a good Samaritan or a company/corporation that is willing to essentially “front” the goods to the entrepreneurs and be willing to work on a payment plan to receive the compensation for the goods. I feel that such an arrangement should not be too hard to find, though it is easier said then done. I feel that a lot of companies in particular would not be willing to front machinery and/or thousands of dollars worth of goods to a person or group of persons living in the slums in Haiti. As terrible as it sounds, it just would not be a wise investment in their eyes. It is for that reason that I feel that companies or people in general should be petitioned to support the cause in Haiti either through monetary donations or by supplying the things the entrepreneurs really need (hand mixers, mannequins, laptops, etc.) while being assured that the investments are going to good places. Along the lines of monetary donations, I thought that some sort of fund raising activity could be done to pool funds together to (at the very least) supply laptops to all of the people that need them like Sam said. Fund raisers held at restaurants and petitions for people to donate funds are sometimes effective, but perhaps something more widespread is needed. Maybe corporate sponsors need to be contacted to see if they could support the cause. The entrepreneurs definitely have a good system going on down in Haiti as they try to work their way back out of their own financial crisis, and there is no reason why America shouldn't do more to help developing areas like Haiti. I know we have our problems here, but I am willing to bet that not a single person in the class ever has to think about how they are going to eat today, or if they are going to get held up on their way home from class and get everything that is crucial to their life stolen from them. (As was the case with Figaro) As Sam made a point in the last lecture, we really have it well off here in America – we are enjoying a nice comfortable lifestyle with plenty of food, water, space, and a nice place to sleep every night. If every person in SOC 119 gave just 5 dollars towards the entrepreneurs' cause, we would have $3,500 to help supply them with the tools they need while they work to pay us back. That is enough money to buy all of those businesses laptops, and supply a number of them with appliances and raw materials. $5 is what most people pay to go to a party, is less than they typically pay for a lunch at Subway, Chipotle, or most other places, and is certainly a lot less than people pay at the bars. $5 is a very small amount of money that could make a big difference in the Haitian's lives. Just think – if we were able to not only get all the members of SOC 119, but also members all across the University, we could make some serious cash to get the materials and supplies these people need. We managed to raise $9.8 million in one year for kids with cancer, I'm sure we can raise a couple thousand dollars to help the poor stricken people of Haiti.

My opinion on interracial relationships is that they should naturally exist. I do not remember the exact source, but I recall in a biology class that from an evolutionary standpoint, humans are more attracted to those who are genetically different from them. To me, an interracial relationship is the perfect example of this. Different races obviously have different genetic constructs; otherwise they wouldn’t look different to people of other races. Beyond the unconscious desire of genetic diversity, people are attracted to various people. The color of skin or the place a person was born just shouldn’t be a factor in that attraction. I feel that if two people, regardless of race, find each other attractive and want to pursue a relationship, it should just happen without any thought to race. The only people that would care are outsiders to the relationship, and let’s be honest – they don’t affect the outcome of the relationship at all, unless the people in question let it. Much of society has warmed up to the idea of interracial relationships over the past few decades, but the fact that this is even being discussed shows that there is still a long way to go. I know Sam doesn't like the "racist" word thrown around, but come on: if people are upset or judge a person for dating someone outside their race, I would say that that is pretty racist, wouldn’t you? Again, if the people of mixed races are into each other, they are into each other and there is nothing anybody can do to change that. They aren’t thinking about the race card, so why should anybody else care? There is a great quote by a man named Bernard Baruch (I looked up the author) that fits this perfectly: “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Those who care about race don’t matter to those in the relationship, and those that care about the people in the relationship don’t mind that it is an interracial one.

If the opportunity arose to date someone outside of my own race, I would definitely jump on that opportunity without any thought. Race wouldn’t even be in the question. Like I said before, if I like the girl, I like the girl. Fuck what anybody else says or thinks, I’m going to date who I want to date. I happen to find certain people of all races attractive – Asians, Indians, Black girls, etc.. I have my tastes, like anybody else does, but I wouldn’t ever turn down a girl just because she isn’t white or Hispanic (the mix that I happen to be). I like to think that I have an open mind and will accept anything for what it is.