Just like you this lecture got me thinking about how much nepotism has played out in my own life. I too have received jobs and opportunities through my connections. I have alway agreed with the phrase "It's not what you know but who you know" and after this weeks lecture I have grown to resent it. We have turned into a society where you don't get ahead based on merit, but on other factors like race and relationships. This puts undeserving and incompetent people at the top and for the first time I've realized how monumental this issue really is.

Right from the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Richards caught my attention. I never thought of Affirmative action from more than one perspective. I always saw it from the position of it benefitting African Americans and people of other races rather than giving everyone an equal shot at various opportunities. When Dr. Richards said that most beneficiaries are white women, I was really surprised. Also, I never thought of the connection linking Affirmative Action to white men. It is amazing that most people judge it based on principal rather than how it is actually affecting their lives.
The next topic of Nepotism is one that I fully agree with but never really thought about before. It’s crazy how conceited we are without even realizing it. And when I say that I definitely don’t exclude myself from it. I never really thought about how many times I have undermined someone else’s abilities based on irrational ideas. Before taking this class I always thought I was super open minded and really underestimated my own ignorance in regards to other races, religions, and people in general. The thing is that nepotism plays such a big role in our day to day lives when we don’t even think about it. I realized that little things like who we sit next to or we choose to be our friends or who we give any sort of chance to can all come down to nepotism so it is really something interesting to think about.
Even after watching the lecture I still haven’t decided where I stand with Affirmative Action. If I had faith that people in our society were fair minded and didn’t judge based on race or name than I would say get rid of it but we can’t give everyone the benefit of the doubt that makes this a tricky subject. I feel like AA is being used to correct the mistakes of the past. We are giving minorities a new advantage to make up or everything they were against before. It is good because it does provide minorities with opportunities they may not have received otherwise by at the same time it undermines their intelligence. Instead of rewarding them based on merit, it is now because of skin color or gender, and I see this as weakening to the progress of our society.
Education is where we can start to correct this problem. By creating educational institutions that are level in status across the nation we can insure that everyone is offered the same opportunities from the beginning.

I agree with the points you made in regards to the video of the guy ranting about immigration. I too see that immigration has become a part of American culture and see it as a trait that sets the United States apart from other countries. The eclectic range of races, religions, and cultures is what makes up the US. I felt the overall theme of Dr. Richards lecture was to draw attention to the hypocrisy that is involved in people rejecting illegal immigration. I agree with you about improving the regulation of immigration. Perhaps levitating the intense rules to get visas so that more people immigrate legally and we can keep better track of them.

Out of all the lectures so far, this week's lesson about Immigration had me thinking about my family's migration from India to the United States the most. My parents moved to the United States with my oldest sister in the early 80's. The move was possible for them because of family and friends that had moved here previously and were able to help my family out with a place to stay and temporary employment. My parents are legal immigrants but I never spoke with them about the process they went through in getting their visas. I can imagine the process was tedious and costly so I can imagine why many people forego the legal process and resort to illegal immigration. I am in no way saying I agree with illegal immigration but I can definetly understand why it occurs.

There were many points made in the lectures that caught my attention. I understand how big of an impact immigration has on government and the economy but I didn't know the scope of it until now. It is pretty clear that illegal immigrant contribute to our society by taking on minimum wage job and working for less than any American would accept. This shows how our businesses manipulate the system and put our own citizens at a disadvantage. I was unaware that illegal immigrants paid taxes by stealing social security numbers. The fact that businesses would accept the wrong social security numbers once again shows how much the immigration system is manipulated.

Dr. Richards made a point to comment on how different cultures are brought over with the immigrants and how this is one of the reasons immigration results in such animosity amonst Americans. My parents worked hard to learn English once they moved here and go back to school. I agree that immigrants must learn to assimilate into this society when they make the decision to migrate, but I think the collection of cultures and beliefs that have made their way to the United States is one of the things that really sets our country apart from the others.

I completely agree with everything you said about the LGBT. I find a lot hypocrisy in the reason people give towards why they disagree with same sex marriage. I read on somebody else's post that they didn't understand how homosexuality was nota choice. They claim that since people get married and then divorced and say they are gay that it must be a choice. I liked that you said many people haven't had exposure to it so they don't know because I feel like that is exactly why some people realize it later than others.

This week’s lecture was really interesting. It is pretty obvious that the United States is one of the most diverse countries and multiculturalism is a big part of what sets this country apart from others. When Professor Richards spoke about multiculturalism he mentioned it is expected that by the year 2050 the population of white and other races will be almost equal. This estimation really makes me question what the future of racism, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism lies. We have already come so far with our societies acceptance of other races in the past few decades so this leads me to believe we are moving in a really positive direction. Like Prof. Richards said, the increasing globalization is doing wonders for business and cross country communication. The increasing amount of people moving not only to the U.S. but also from here to other countries is all serving to make the world a little smaller and the citizens a little more worldly. With this being said I can also understand how some people would see it as breaking up cultures. Many times people feel they understand a culture because of how it has been brought here or by who they learned it from but its possible that the customs were changed.
The topic of human sexuality is becoming increasingly prevalent so I’m glad Prof. Richards took the time to speak about it. As college students and especially or us at such a large university we are often faced with so many different experiences and people that allow us to learn more about ourselves. Sexuality is a big part of that. I am not surprised that the majority of students support same sex marriage. I feel like at a school like Penn State we are able to meet so many different people and make so many different friends that we are almost forced to be more accepting of race and homosexuality. I think its great that more people are opening up to same sex marriage. Personally I just have never been able to understand why so many people are so aggressively angry about something that doesn’t even have any effect on them. Many people think its wrong because it inhibits child birth. I on the other hand think it is great because there are so many children in this world without parents and a home.
Multiculaturalism and LGBT are topics are very similar in how they are effecting our society. Both are increasing in prevalence and with that I hope in acceptance as well.

I found the point about Asians claiming they are white really interesting as well. I am Indian but have extremely fair skin and I guess because of that I don't look like your typical Indian. I have been confused for a number a different races but it is mostly Hispanic. My family would even joke around when I was little by saying I was adopted. Despite this, I think the acceptance of different races in my community was what made me proud to be Indian and not pretend I was something else. Your MTV True Life example of this really made me think about that.

There were a lot of interesting things covered in this week’s lecture that got me thinking. One of the first things was the correlation between popularity, grade point average, and race. When Dr. Richards was discussing this study and how colored people must manage their whiteness I felt like in a lot of ways he was arguing that colored people can almost choose which stage they are in. It is as if colored people ‘act’ more white, they are choosing a different stage- the pre-awakening stage where they assume they are white. He says that the pre-awakening stage is not acknowledging race, but we can only do that for so long until we are forced into awakening and must come to terms with the inequality and differences there are in our society.
I thought the experiment on children and whether they chose a colored or white doll was especially interesting. It made me think back to when I was a young girl and went to buy dolls. I realize that most of my dolls were white, but I do remember getting especially excited when I found a doll that was tan or looked Indian like me. If I were to guess I would have thought that girls typically picked dolls that looked more like themselves so I was surprised to see that they typically picked white dolls and find it really sad that they dislike their own skin color enough to do that.
The commercials about housing for different races were also really sad. I find it crazy that that kind of racism still exists and people an base so much just off of a name or accent. I did have a question this though. I’m curious to know which stage people who have undergone racism are in. Clearly they are past the pre-awakening stage because they are forced to acknowledge race but the resentment they must begin to feel towards other races is what confuses me.
After that he spoke about whether Penn State is ‘too white’ or ‘not white enough’. I have had this conversation a few times now and I have always been surprised by what other have to say. I personally have always felt like Penn State is extremely diverse. I’m not sure if this is because I have a diverse group of friends or what, but a lot of people I have spoken too say that it is actually one of the least diverse schools. I went to a pretty large and diverse high school so it is weird that I still see it as a diverse college. I guess the only reason for this is because Penn State is so large that it is hard to tell.

I can definetitely relate to a lot you said i your post. My freshman year I lived in supplemental and I had one white roommate and two Asian roommates. I thought it was really cool to have tow Asian roommates and always listened as they told me stories about China and Korea and I too never used Asian as a descriptor for them. But people who came to our room would always ask if it was weird to have two Asian roommates. Being an Indian, technically I am Asian too so I never knew how to answer that question. But it definitely made me think about all the times racial descriptors are used unnecessarily. You mentioned that the awakening stage can lead to white supremacy. Personally I think these days white supremacy is something lives on mainly through beliefs that are passed down in ones family and can diminish with the awakening of one generation.

I found this weeks lecture especially interesting because I feel that out of all the lectures so far, this I the one I’ve been able to relate to the most. One point that drew my attention was Dr. Richards’s discussion on guilt. I think guilt about race is something that most people have dealt with whether they be white or of color. Although he has discussed Native American genocide before this was the first time I have actually thought about what could have happened on the land that my house is on. I am not white but his lecture did the trick in revealing the guilt I feel towards people of other races who have been mistreated in the past. I think that these days individual people, white or not, don’t necessarily feel guilty about their own actions but about actions of their ancestors. Dr. Richards also covered this in his explanation of patronizing and paralyzing. Today more people deal with patronizing for others.
But paralyzing guilt fills ones life so easily in the smallest ways. With one innocent comment or action, depending on the way it is interpreted, you can quickly be labeled as racist. And when this happens just once, just as Dr. Richards says, it can keep you on edge. I’ve noticed a lot of irony when it comes to this almost to the point when I sense at reverse discrimination or the ‘reversal’ stage is becoming a prevalent theme in our society. After the Civil Rights Movement, we as a society seemed to be moving in the right direction but at some time did we pass the point where we viewed ourselves as equals and into a place where discrimination and racism when in two directions? Examples of this include stereotypes turning into jokes, people of different races starting to make fun of white people, and in other cases race just being a topic of taboo. With the all resentment that white people must be feeling right now as described in the lecture, then I’m curious to see how race relations will develop in the next few decades.
Another point of the lecture that really stuck with me was the video about the
twins who sang about white supremacy. Growing up, my parents never pushed Hindu beliefs down my throat or tried molding my views on the world and about other people. Instead they encouraged me to explore other races and cultures. This being said I find it interesting that these girls have such strong beliefs about white supremacy and during their interviews they seemed so ignorant and like they didn’t really know anything historical about what they preached. It made it pretty clear that racism lives on mainly through what has happened in the past and the lingering resentment of our ancestor’s actions. Once we can move past this, guilty feelings and passive attitudes about race will diminish.