Affirmative Action's main purpose is to create equal opportunity amongst different groups of people. It is intended to favor minorities, it ensures that not one group be discriminated against people of beliefs, gender, or culture. The bill for Affirmative Action was passed in 1965 and many white males still disagree with it. Even though this helps give more opportunity to the less fortunate, Affirmative Action takes opportunities away from the white male. It is not so much that the white male is racist, it is in fact that less qualified minority groups are obtaining jobs, and the more qualified white male is getting cheated out of an occupation. From a students perspective i think it is absolute bullshit that a black man with lower SATs and lower grade point average may get accepted into a college just so that college can make its quota and look good in the eyes of the public over a student that may contribute to thats schools name. Granted, there are some times when minorities who are more qualified than the white male get cheated out of a job just because of his race or ethnicity. On another note, many white males generally grow up with everything given to them on a silver platter. Not all white males but a good amount. In retrospect, many minorities come from rough neighborhood and have very tough lives. Once again not all minorities but a handful. The white male has no idea how hard it is to acquire an education when there are bigger things to worry about, for instance guns, drugs and money. The white male may be more qualified but the minority may be better for the job and they just do not understand. Since the white male does not understand the hardships he may believe that Affirmative Action is a load of shit. A prime example of why the white males may disagree with the terms of Affirmative Action is the Bakke vs Regents, University California. It is a court cased that is based around Affirmative Action white male with better qualifications was better than the minority applicants. Bakke took it to court and won, even though he won it proved that the same opportunity was not given to white males. As a result the white male turned and said the Affirmative Action bill is wrong and does not create more equal opportunity, but instead creates a more divided society. The white male has a reason to hate on Affirmative Action because it is absolute horse-shit that more qualified people are not getting jobs ,the white male has no idea the hardships of the minority and can not full comprehend why they are given more favoritism, and last because it creates even more discrimination.

The scandal that has shocked so many students, faculty, alumni, and basically the whole country is one like none other. It not only dealt with crimes that literally no human being can support, it also dealt with people and a program that, until now, held the utmost respect throughout the collegiate world and Pennsylvania. When the allegations first were blown up by the media, the anger and frustration by the whole nation was quite apparent. When the administration went and fired Joe Paterno the way they did that was the last straw for the student body. Angry students proceeded to downtown State College and showed their frustrations by chanting they’re anger at the university and destroying property. I’m tired of hearing people say those people downtown were not Penn State. Whether you like it or not they are Penn State students, you have to take the good with the bad. With all that aside, this whole scandal shows that people are selfish. It was extremely selfish to harbor the actions of a pedophile just because his relationship and status with the University. It was selfish to sacrifice the justice and protection the young boys involved deserved. It was also selfish to lie about what went on to protect their own image and hide how responsible they actually were for knowing Sandusky’s actions. Another thing I pulled from this scandal is that nothing is ever what it seems and even the most seemingly innocent things can actually have some very corrupt, evil secrets to them. I remember when Ohio State was getting in trouble for the actions of their football players and coach. I remember thinking that Penn State was one of the last prestigious programs that had not gotten caught up in any type of scandal. Little did I know that Penn State was already in the midst of a scandal worse than any other schools in history. I remember thinking that Paterno is so old school and has his viewpoints so ingrained in his team and his staff that nothing of scandalous nature could ever come out of that program. Just as said earlier, nothing is ever as it seems and the most disgusting truths about one of his long-time assistants came out in early November that shook the Penn State community to its core. A once seemingly immortal man with the utmost standards of morality was shattered down to being a frail, old man that was part of the biggest scandal in a long time and quite possibly had the power to stop it from happening. As weeks went on, reports of him going over the heads of administrators to get his players out of trouble started to surface. The image of cherub-like Paterno has been beaten down to him just being another football coach, looking out for what is best for his team. This is not my opinion of the man at all though. I have the utmost respect for him because of the final lesson I learned from all this. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Although Paterno made mistakes and had lapses in judgment, the good he has done for countless individuals grossly outweighs the mistakes he has made in his life. I hope that when I am in my 80’s I can step back and honestly be able to say that about myself because very few people can.

In the recent years many people have had their life engulfed in different social media outlets.
Facebook, Twitter and other types of social media are prominent in everyday life. These outlets are free
of cost and many people take advantage of this and have different pages on a variety of sites. It makes
it easy to communicate to the masses at a very fast rate. Ideas and thoughts are constantly being
thrown around on the internet through these different social outlets. Since so many people check their
respective pages almost daily the influence it can have in spreading ideas and thoughts is incomparable
to anything in history. The horrific incident that has plagued Penn State in the recent week was only
enflamed by these social media outlets. People felt anger and confused, they were able to vent their
anger on these social media sites which was seen by hundreds of peers. Radical ideas were tossed
around the sites and people started to take notice of what other people were saying. The fuse that sent
students off was the firing of Joe Paterno. Paterno was a father figure and beloved by all the students
for all of his contributions on and off the field for the school. The firing sparked the thought of a riot.
Word spread like wildfire over the social media sites about the idea of a riot. Students were interested
in seeing or for the few less honorable people actually participate in the riot. The thousands of kids that
showed up can mostly be due to seeing something pertaining to the riot on social media sites. The
disgrace that was brought upon this school by the riot embarrassed everyone but would the outcome
have been different without social media sites. The answer is quite simple, yes. Without the various
social media sites word of the riot would not been able to spread that quickly to such a large mass of
students. There could have been “riot” in my opinion of a couple of students, if you even consider that
a riot. This riot would have been quickly subdued by the police presence and the damage would have
been near to nothing. Without the different social media groups it would have been near to impossible
to have a riot by the numbers that was witnessed on Wednesday. To spread word that quickly and to
such a great number of people only seems possible to me by doing it on social media sites. Facebook,
Twitter and other social media sites are one of the most powerful sources for information. It is an oasis
of different ideas that can be seen by large quantities of people. Even with the hypothetical’s and the
impacts of social media the main story is being overlooked, that nine kids have had their lives taken
away which should be a cause for a riot.

One of the most controversial and debated topics in the news today is the issue of illegal immigration. With that issue comes the issue of employment of illegal immigrants working in the United States. Both sides of this argument raise plenty of points to support their argument. From the perspective I have as a student I oppose illegal immigrants working in the United States but from a different perspective as an employer my view changes. As an employer of business I would want an employee who was dedicated and hard working. Illegal immigrants come to this country with the intentions of making more money to improve their own life’s and their family. They seem to be more determined and harder working in their work. They come from much worse living and working conditions in the country they are from. Here in the United States I feel like they almost feel blessed living in better conditions and reaping the benefits of living in a more advanced society. Also, the voyage they take to get into this country is one of the most dangerous and demanding tasks ever. It shows that they will do anything to improve their life’s. The previous mentioned statements attribute to their dedication and hard working mentality. Americans at this level of work seem to be more lazy and unmotivated. They are not happy with the position they are in and are more unmotivated. The immigrants are happier with their life’s opposed to the Americans and happier workers leads to better work. The most important factor in this whole decision process is pay. Immigrants are willing to work for a cheaper amount than Americans are. The pay may seem extremely low compared to the standards we are used to but for the immigrants it is an extreme pay raise. Especially in tough economic climate the more money that a business owner can save the better. That money that I would save as a business owner could be invested into further improving my business. Immigrants more simply said are more loyal and dedicated workers than Americans and would be a better hire. Also, they are not menaces to society but actually contribute to the society we leave in. They don’t detract from society and provide some sort of service or make a good that benefits the population. One issue that might be present in hiring these immigrants is the language barrier. That is a small issue that could be easily avoided by having an employee that can speak English and Spanish. These immigrants can work regardless of the language they speak. One person just needs to give them instructions and they will follow them. The benefits of hiring these illegal immigrants outweighs the negatives from a business owners perspective.

The thought that Caucasians will soon become the minority race in the United States holds an interesting connotation of many Americans. This concept may mean many different things for our countries future. First of all, the culture in which many children are raised may become slightly different. Composures of neighborhoods and geographic locations of specific ethnicities are bound to change. Another potential change to our countries policy is affirmative action. Now that Caucasians are no longer the majority, people will have to reconsider whether or not affirmative action is still relevant issue. With different ethnicities becoming a higher percentage of the United States population; will they stop being given special advantages in getting into different institutions and the work place. It’s interesting that race has been such a popular issue to discuss for so long and finally the conditions of the debate have changed. Another factor to think about is that whites are now a minority party. There will be some new concepts that people will have to come to terms with. For instance, not being as ethnically based of a country as some previously thought. The United States will no longer hold the connotation as a “white American” based nation. Different religions, races and ethnicities have successfully permeated our country forcing a positive change of seemingly mandatory acceptance of unity in racial and cultural differences. America is a country that was built on the backs of African-American slaves. This harsh truth has resonated ever since slavery was introduced, and still stands today. Equality has not always been present in this country, and now that whites are eventually not going to be the majority equality should come with time. In any country where the majority is white, the other races will most likely be slightly discriminated against. With the newfound equality, and possibility eventual minority of the Caucasian race in America, equality is much more likely to come about. America was built on the idea that all men are created equal, black, white, or any color. Slavery and countless other oppressions throughout the years have challenged this original idea that America was built on. As other ethnicities garner more and more respect and the whites garner more acceptance, America will become what it was always supposed to be, a melting pot of culture and race. As a Caucasian male in America, it looks from the outside that I have the easiest pathway. The very term “minority” paints a picture of someone who does not have as much representation and say in a nation. This means that as long as there are minorities then there will be underrepresentation and an unfair say. The depletion of minorities in America will allow equality and the true meaning of America to spread throughout our nation.

I agree with the statement that racism amongst white people is latent and racism amongst black people is outright. The reason it is latent among white people is because of a lot of factors. One factor is the fact that if you are seen as an outright racist in this world and you are white, you will be most likely shunned and not accepted. Any racist thoughts or feelings one might have are suppressed so deeply since a very young age and they only come out subconsciously in certain situations. Anything considered a racist thought gets suppressed to point where white people don’t even realize they are doing something racist. It is actually kind of sad. The media and the past are huge factors in these subconsciously formed thoughts. For example, a white person that lives in the suburbs that has been watching the news from a very young age over the course of times notices the amount of black people on the news shown in a bad light. After awhile, that person starts associating black people with crime and whenever that person will be in a parking lot or at a stop light they might lock their door when a black person walks by rather than do nothing if the person was white. It is a plethora of things like that that are racist but are so reflexive and subconscious that white people do not realize they are even doing it. On the other hand, black people’s racism tends to be more outright than anything else. A lot of people feel that only white people can be racist against blacks and not the other way around but this idea is false. Since this preconceived notion is generally accepted, some black people feel that it is acceptable to openly hate white people because of their race. Since white people are afraid to be labeled as racist themselves, they do not let black people know this isn’t okay and that it is racism. For example, a black child is constantly told by his father how white people keep black people down and all white people hate blacks and they want to see black people poor and destitute. After awhile, that black child starts to believe these statements and begins to hate white people for what they are doing. When he is older, he may do the same thing to his kid or maybe even to harmful things to white people for being white. Basically, white people have latent racism because they suppress their stereotypes and black people are outright racist because they think it is okay to be. All these generalizations I am making will probably be considered racist itself but it unintentional because of how my mind conceives the information that is presented to me.

This video does not really surprise me to be honest. The amount of technology we use in the military is astonishing and its sophistication is top-notch to say the least. I know it is messed up that we spend so much in one year for war but I honestly think it is necessary to an extent. I know the healthcare comparison could be persuading in this argument, but I honestly do not think the speaker was giving the whole truth about how that money will be spread out. I know 53 percent of our taxes are going to this and that is messed up to say the least, but we need the military and our intelligence agencies. Maybe we do not need to be all over the place but we do need to allocate a good amount of money to the military so we can at least have lives where we can be comfortable enough to walk down the street. I’m not justifying and wars and I am in no way a pacifist, I’m just recognizing some sort of militaristic and intelligence spending is very necessary for our well-being. Let’s say the government uses the funds usually allocated to the military on the health care bill instead. Yes, there will be more healthy people walking around but without proper protection and intelligence; we would have bigger problems than not being able to afford doctor’s visits. Trust me, I’m the last person that thinks the government does things with the citizens’ best interest in mind, but I honestly think they are somewhat are doing things right. Also, I think people cannot just say we could use that money for so many better things. They don’t understand that if we use that money for something else, we will then not have the level of security and protection we enjoy at the moment. Then, when we realize how vulnerable we are, people will shift their bitching to how we need to spend more on the military. Seriously, what good is the quarterback without his offense line? My coach always said that when the offensive line is doing a good job no one will ever notice, it is always when they are performing poorly is when everyone notices their presence. I think the same thing applies to the military and intelligence. One thing I do have to mention is how I do not in anyway support the disgusting acts of violence that was the causation of those two little children being severely injured. That is the individual’s fault, not the whole organizations. Things like that are so disgusting and I cannot imagine being in that situation. I don’t want my money facilitating criminal acts. When it comes to this whole argument about spending and ethics I honestly think it is one of the ongoing things that can never be solved. There will always be opposing viewpoints.

Men do not sacrifice comfort going out simply because it is not the cultural norm to do so. Ever since Western Civilization really got a head of steam, women have been expected to doll them selves up and sometimes that means sacrificing their comfort. Back in the day, women were treated like second class citizens so they were kind of forced into dressing in an uncomfortable were to please the more important sex at the time. In the nineteenth century, women had to wear suffocating corsets and big wire contraptions on their waists under their dress to exaggerate the hour glass look. Even the women did gain a plethora of rights in the twentieth century it didn’t really change the norms of them getting dressed up instead of men. Nowadays, even though a lot of the time women are more casually dressed, when they go out they tend to wear short skirts and high heels to the point where they complain more about having to be in that attire than have fun. This being said, I do not think women absolutely have to sacrifice comfort to go out. I know most sorority girls do because they follow each others lead and succumb to peer pressure very easily. Other than that, most girls can get away with going out in jeans and a shirt if they so please. I don’t know if this effects comfort but what girls wear to class and out and about during the day looks like its uncomfortable in a way that they are showing too much skin with the micro shorts, the skin tight leggings, and the ridiculous amounts of cleavage they show. That all being said, since I have come here I have in a way expected girls to dress in the short dresses and heels and wear revealing clothes to class. It is a sad thing to say but it is true. I am not saying I think they have to because I would be fine with them dressing completely modest. I would probably think of girls with more high regards if they dressed modestly which is something I want to be able to do. Men do not feel the need to dress all uncomfortable because there is nothing they can benefit from it. They wouldn’t get more attention and they wouldn’t be considered better looking. I honestly think if women stopped dressing so uncomfortably as a whole it wouldn’t be that big a deal, but some people neglect the fact that some girls like to dress up. So while others don’t enjoy doing it, some do and I think if you do not want to then don’t; If it is your thing though, then by all means go for it. No one is forcing you to do anything.

Regardless of all the statistics and information available, our culture still seems to think women are the more innocent sex and some races more innocent than others. In class, we saw many different statistics on crime and it relation to race. Some of the numbers are shocking and some of them are not but regardless of what they say, people still view the white race and female sex as the innocent race and sex. Women are probably looked at as innocent because, up until very recently in human history, they have been the stay at home moms, maids, and generally seen-but-not-heard. They are given the benefit of the doubt because they are the child-bearing sex and, in more a more sexist light, looked at as too incompetent do something sinister or immoral. Also, like in the video we watched, a woman’s attractiveness can make her seem innocent. Attractiveness has so much of an effect that in the video we watched, the attractive women attempting to steal a bike was offered help by mean that clearly knew she was stealing it. The one thing about women being considered more innocent is that it is only innocence in the eyes of men. During the video, women were the ones to call the police on the attractive bike thief, most likely because they can look past the beauty and see her for the thief she really was. When it comes to race, white people clearly get seen as the most innocent race. In the video, the white bike thief barely got bothered while the black thief was practically ganged up on by anyone in the vicinity of the bike. The reasons for this are clearly rooted in societies very racist past and also rooted in what the media shows you every night in your living room. Racism makes people automatically see black people in a bad light and when they see a black person in a sketchy situation, they automatically assume the worst. Also, when you turn on the nightly news you see reports of crimes that usually involve black men’s mug shots, which also contribute to the bad view. White people are considered more innocent by society because they are the one’s that weren’t treated poorly when racism ruled society. They were seen as the upper classes and the hard workers so they can’t possibly do anything wrong. Also, a large majority of cops are white so maybe since the law enforcers are mainly white, the whole race benefits from that. Regardless, white people are viewed as innocent most likely because they are the majority race and biggest wealth holders in the nation. I am not condoning women and white people being considered more innocent, I am just explaining why that may be the case.

With this blog entry, I chose to specifically focus on the community projects in Haiti rather than the individual entrepreneurs. I’m not ruling out the entrepreneurs as less important, I am just focusing more on the big picture when it comes to Haiti rather than the individual. First of all, what I learned in class about the United States and Haiti is very inhumane to say the least. The fact that we “convinced” the Haitians to switch to our “cheaper” subsidized rice in the eighties is ridiculous because in the long run the Haitians literally get screwed since the currency used to purchase the rice is leaving the country rather than staying on the island. Furthermore, the job loss as a result of Haitian rice farmers losing their jobs furthers the money lost from the country’s economy. The whole situation is just a mess to say the least. To counteract such a hard blow to the economy, entrepreneurs founded the Haitian Partners of Christian Development. What they do is train Haitians in business relevant activities for six months and then set the newly learned entrepreneur up in an office to start their business. They will be set up in the office for one year and from there will let off on their own with guidance and advice from the organization still behind them. Overall, the organization does so well because all the entrepreneurs featured in this project are sponsored by this organization, which says a lot. ERNESA is another great community organization. It basically sets up solar-powered street lights that also double as a cell phone charging station. With this, it is a lot simpler to keep the streets safer by keeping them well lit and having the citizens able to keep their communication lines open. This is clearly an example of an organization that needs to stay afloat in Haiti. The hospital project is another community project that will be very beneficial to poor Haitians. The fact that the country has “free” medical care and people still cannot afford it is ridiculous. People still have to provide their own meals and their own gowns so a lot of people still cannot afford the hospital. This organization takes its donations and pays for patients’ meals and gowns and also prescriptions so that they can stay in the medical system with no money to their name. The last organization I am going to mention is the one that Pastor Richard runs. He is an amazing person. He convinced a Haitian cell phone company to donate a building and the government to provide teachers and he is currently trying to get books, desks, and computers to provide the children is this poor area a great education. With people’s help, Pastor Richard can achieve his goals so these children can become educated and begin to get their country out of the economic position the are currently in.