I was shocked to know that affirmative action really benefited white women the most and hence benefited the white man most of the time. I always thought it was people of color in bad neighborhoods who benefited the most, mainly African American females. Even though I know that there are “white trash” people out there who live off food stamps and struggle to survive, I never thought that affirmative action could be directed towards them, let alone benefit them the most! This was probably what was the most shocking to me this lecture even though it does make sense. I just never would have thought that but now understand it.
Also I didn’t know that only about 10% of people actually benefited from AA. That is not that big a number in retrospect, and it shows, as Professor Richards said, that unlike what some of us think, AA will not destroy our chances at getting a job or getting into a school, it really doesn’t affect us that much. It helps in some stances getting equality out there in some ways.
Another thing that was great was the first video Professor Richards played that was from Oprah’s show. Seeing the blatant inequality and unfair advantages given to suburban private schools compared to intercity public schools was pretty unnerving. The intercity public school children had beaten up school facilities and basically no resources compared to the suburban private schools that had top of the line everything. It seemed almost impossible for the intercity kids to even consider reaching the same goals as most of the suburban kids could easily get to. This was because the public schools had few resources to allow them to succeed far. It was like they could do nothing about it too. It is sad and so unfair for them and you could tell just from the firsthand accounts of the intercity public school kids how upset they were. They actually saw how little they had and how blatantly unfair it was. In a system like this, you can’t help but wonder, as Professor Richards posted for us, how can we fix this inequality somehow? Affirmative Action is one way to try to alleviate this inequality and help out people who are struggling. I at first did not fully like the idea of Affirmative Action because the government seemed to be interfering too much in freedoms of choice, but when I learned more about Nepotism and how it is basically the same thing as AA, I realize it is a good idea. We do nepotism in almost every business and every school etc. Nepotism gives a person the upper hand at something in unfair means, as does AA. We need to accept both and realize that it is hard to make everyone equal.

I thought the same thing. When I first thought of Affirmative Action before this class I thought it was just giving a minority the upper hand and I wasn’t exactly a fan of it. I thought it was kind of unfair to automatically give them an advantage even if we have equal records. Now I know that it is basically necessary and how without it we would be stuck in an unequal and unfair playing field, more so than it is with it. We do need improvements for it, but we can’t get rid of it all together I agree.

During these talks on immigration, I have come to realize that this is such a tangled and complex issue today and has been for centuries. Immigration hasn’t changed much and you would think that certain steps or policies would be passed to improve some of the problems. I know that the part of this lecture that stood out the most with me and resonated in me was the story of Jorge Munoz. This man is truly an angel like the one man in the video said. It makes us step back and re-evaluate our own lives when we see someone so selfless and giving helping out these poor immigrants every single day. And it isn’t just the fact that he is giving them food. He is giving his whole life basically to help these strangers on the streets. These homeless immigrants on the streets are helpless and sometimes don’t eat for days. We might pass them and think “get a job” or “they are filth” or “go back to your country.” These are just ignorant thoughts even though I’m sure many of us think them. We think they are lazy, yet they are the ones who came to this foreign land in search of a new life to support their family. They are the innovators and the industrious people. And Jorge sacrifices almost everything in his life to give these people just a little bit of food. Touching quotes from that video almost made me cry when the mother said “going to sleep hungry is awful” which made me really think about that and actually get sad. It is terrible, but Jorge and his family are inspirational and amazing people. Jorge said “you have to see their smile that’s the way I get paid.” It is beautiful how kind some people can be. Just the fact that he can look past the fact that they are illegal immigrants (probably because he was one so he can relate) and just feed them food and help a person in need out is great. It reminds me of my boss at the deli I work at. She owns the building and is a landlord to the entire building. She has about 8 illegal immigrants living above us, and she lets them eat sometimes for cheaper and protects them virtually. I remember thinking it was risky and she was crazy for doing it, but still thought it was kind of her. Now I can parallel her to Jorge and find her almost as a role model citizen just out of her kindness and love. I am not saying illegal immigration is okay, but these people are suffering a lot and they are people like you and me, so we could try to be a little more understanding because immigration is not going anywhere anytime soon.

I think you said it best when you summed up your post saying “we do not have to agree with immigration, illegal or legal, but we need to understand what it means to immigrate for the immigrants and us.” That is probably tea mil issue everyone has with immigration. They argue over if it is right or not, but at this point we need to realize that people are struggling every day to find food and survive, and we need to just treat people better and understand that immigration has been occurring for years and years and it isn’t going anywhere.

Another survey that stood out to me was the one that asked how often have you shared a meal in the home of someone of a different race? It is true that a lot of us can say that we have friends of different races or know a lot of other raced people, but to actually go to their home and share a meal with them is different. The numbers don’t like too, and the majority of people rarely have eaten with another race at their home. It is so weird how we are so hesitant to commit ourselves to different races. In turn, however, the question of if you were open to a marriage with someone of another race ancestry group was kind of contradictory to this entire lecture. Most said they would with 35% saying strongly agree and 36% saying they agree. I find this pretty awesome and pretty weird how we are willing to fall in love with a different race, yet we are hesitant towards most in terms of living with them and having them in our country. Just made me think I guess.

I just put myself in an immigrant or foreign person’s shoes and say I went to a different country that I didn’t know the language and there was a sign like that for me. I would be so embarrassed and wouldn’t know what to do. It would be hurtful and I would think that that country really hates foreigners and I would come back home and tell people that. It gives America such a bad reputation, but according to most of the statistics Sam gave in class, this is pretty much how most Americans feel. We want all of the foreigners to conform and assimilate; however, we want them to do it on their own time and not around us. It is quite hypocrisy if you ask me.

I just put myself in an immigrant or foreign person’s shoes and say I went to a different country that I didn’t know the language and there was a sign like that for me. I would be so embarrassed and wouldn’t know what to do. It would be hurtful and I would think that that country really hates foreigners and I would come back home and tell people that. It gives America such a bad reputation, but according to most of the statistics Sam gave in class, this is pretty much how most Americans feel. We want all of the foreigners to conform and assimilate; however, we want them to do it on their own time and not around us. It is quite hypocrisy if you ask me.

So certain aspects of this lecture caught my attention. I liked how there were a lot of surveys in the first lecture done of the Soc 119 class. The one survey that sat with me was the one that asked if you entered a store and the clerk didn’t speak you’re language how would you feel. The answers to this were pretty predictable because most people are still weirdly afraid of other cultures and want people to assimilate. Sam said, however, that we should all have no sense of discomfort when it comes to different languages. We don’t need to be afraid or uncomfortable because this is just silly it is just someone speaking. It made me think about how in Philly there is the famous steak place called Geno’s that has the racist logo of “This is America, when ordering ‘SPEAK ENGLISH!’” This is so ridiculous and dumb. And I know many people that agree with this bull. My own roommate has a t-shirt with that exact logo on it. I mean yeah it is funny but do they understand how offensive it really is?

I totally agree with you. It confuses me why so many people have to make it an issue if someone is LGBT. I think that that is their personal choice and really has nothing to do with anyone else but themselves. They are still people like you and me and no greater or lesser a human. It is just so ignorant to act different around them or make them uncomfortable. It is not a choice and if they could choose most probably would choose straight so that they could avoid such criticisms from society daily. I just feel so bad for them and think it is so unfair and hate when people make ignorant jokes about it.

One last thing that stirred my interest during this lecture was a comment made by a boy who said his roommates didn’t like Asian people in America and thought they should speak “American” in America. This same exact ignorant comment came up when I attended a World in Conversation discussion group. There as an Taiwan girl in our group and she said her friends spoke Chinese and Taiwan all the time to each other but she wants them to speak English and we asked her why they don’t speak English and what her thought were. She said something that upset me and made me feel badly. She said that some of her friends have very strong accents and are embarrassed to talk in class or around other English speaking people because they don’t want to be made fun of. Her best friend experienced it in a CAS class and has since been even more scared to speak English out of fear of being made fun of. It made me feel so different and so guilty. We are so quick to judge people and don’t put ourselves in their shoes. I always speak out against comments about language with Asians now at Penn State.