Yeah the Opera video was a great piece for Sam to use in this lecture. I can't get over how the white girl said to the black students something like, "You guys don't have a cardio room?" Ignorance, in its purest form. But those striking differences are real, all over America. I've seen schools where soda machines are the norm and I have also seen schools were kids have to drink milk from zip-lock bags. Guns are a scary reality for any school to face. We've seen how Columbine and Virginia Tech can shock a nation to its core. School shootings and killings are an everyday ordeal in inner city schools. But, that's never shown own TV, because the media doesn't care about colored children shooting one another in schools. But, I digress. The discrepancy of schools showed in the Oprah video showed the need for affirmative action in our education system. For those colored kids in poor schools if one can make it out and get into college he or she should be able to receive the benefits of affirmative action. If they can make it out of that hell, then they should face no other barriers as they try to make something of themselves through their educational process.

Disregarding what I learned in the lecture, I have always been on the fence when it comes to Affirmative Action. I support it mostly, but I don’t think it will be necessary after a few more decades of existence in America. As it stands today, it should slowly become a short term policy which deteriorates as our nation reaches new heights of tolerance. It is of course, impossible to measure tolerance, but perhaps within a few decades we can start voting on the policy to see if the general population still thinks that Affirmative Action is needed. Allow me to explain my indecisiveness in more specifics:
As an African American I probably have witnessed the benefits of Affirmative Action (I probably wouldn’t be at Penn State in discussion with you all if it weren’t for Affirmative Action) so I can’t say that its existence is a negative. Additionally, if it gives my peoples and other peoples of color and gender a chance to “make it” in a society where they have a tougher chance of “making it” then I’m all for it. The American Dream should be achievable by all peoples, but that has never been the case. For example, if you’re a white man in American society you have so much of an opportunity to achieve the American dream on the basis of that credential alone. If you’re reading this and don’t think there is any truth to what I’m saying then you obviously have not been paying attention in this class. Your gender and skin color are the key to all the doors in our modern world. In contrast, when you’re a person of color or a woman you automatically enter society with a negative stigma attached to yourself. We have to jump over hurdles and break through ceilings which you will never have to be faced with, within your entire lifespan. Affirmative action would not be needed if this wasn’t so. The “unfairness” of the policy in itself is only as unfair as the society it presides in. In other words, SO WHAT IF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS UNFAIR? It’s one of the few buffers that women and people of color have in order to be protected from the daily discrimination that is prevalent in this society. We have to ask ourselves before deciding whether Affirmative Action is wrong or not to look at its positives instead of merely reinforcing its negatives. 10% percent is not even an unfair number. What’s 10 out of 100? Or 30 million out of 300 million? As long any institution can be 90% white male then that is overtly more unfair than anything that can be drummed up by the existence of Affirmative Action.
I believe as long as discrimination is prevalent in our society, and then there must be policies in place in order to curb it. Where would any of us be without the American Constitution, for that matter even the Emancipation Proclamation or even Title IX? We need (social) policies in place in order to protect us from our own humanity which causes us to discriminate against one another on a daily basis. That’s why I project, in the future perhaps; affirmative action will no longer be needed. There may come a day in the near future were we all grow up and stop discriminating each other on the basis of race and gender. Maybe in fifty years or so we can sit down and/or vote on whether Affirmative Action should still play a prominent role in our society. If we can end discrimination, then maybe we can end Affirmative Action.

I often wonder what's worse for America, illegal immigration or the abhorrent ignorance that spawns from those who spread racism and hate. I'm obviously embracing the latter. I wonder what would happen if some brave soul picked up a megaphone and told those who protest immigration, the true scope of the issue at hand. I think that maybe one or two people would listen and give it some conscious thought, but I believe that the overwhelming majority would rather keep protesting, either to uphold their racism or just to have something to argue about because there is nothing better for those (rednecks) to do on that day. There are just so many more important things to protest and debate about in our society, immigration is truly unimportant in the context of our universe.

America is a country marred with tremendous hypocrisy and abhorrent racism. America is a country founded by immigration, terrorism, and genocide. However, it is funny to see how immigration, terrorism, and genocide are coincidentally, three major issues that America is fighting against today. I often wonder if those who are against immigration today are afraid of facing potential terrorism and genocide. Do we really fear that Mexican immigrants will overtake our country using terrorist and genocidal tactics? Don’t they really just want to work and have a chance at living the American dream? I wonder if our free market policies allow Canadians an opportunity to live the American dream. No one ever hears complaints about Canadians and immigration. The problem seems to lie in people who happen to have some color in their skin. Immigration isn’t a security, business or population control issue; it is a race issue. Today, America has an increasing fear of immigrating Latinos, Arabs, and Africans. It doesn’t even seem to matter whether they are immigrating to this country or not; they are not welcomed in American society because its racist hierarchy doesn’t want them there.
I always had an inkling that business was the guiding hand that drove “policy” in America. Either than racism, I wonder what other problems that business has with legal immigration and illegal immigration. The free market is happy to have illegal immigrants. Immigrants (legal and illegal) make up a vital part of the American economy. Without them, the American economy would be crippled. They do the jobs that many of us would never do, nevertheless, could ever do. It seems as if the free market discriminates against immigrants because they simply choose to. When Sam stated that Democrats and Republicans were in a “pissing contest” to see who was toughest on immigration, I totally agreed. I believe America’s political parties are more focused on their power struggle than the rights of the individual. It’s all about winning to them. They’ll say and do whatever it takes to win and gain power. They ignore the reality of the individual and the individual suffers as a result. As we witnessed in the lesson, dogs are more important than some human beings. There are more laws to protect the rights of animals than there is to protect both legal and illegal immigrants.
Finally, I want to quickly comment on the right-wing “loudmouth” of whom we have watched on multiple occasions in this class. “The Loudmouth” is the problem with America. Here is a man who is so fanatically ignorant, so fruitlessly angry, and so tyrannically bigoted that he has become the literal definition of “hot air”. He’s so quick to lambast people of a specific race and completely ignores the fact that he is a decedent of criminal immigrants. He is also ignoring the fact that his beloved country depends on the very people whom he wants to get rid of. The only people whom I believe need to be rounded up and delivered out of this country are those Loudmouth’s who choose to spew hate based on racism and ignorance.

I think the fear, in the context of homosexual parenting, lies in peoples beliefs that the homosexual parent (s) is forcing or pushing straight children into being homosexuals. I cannot vouch whether there is any truth is to the former statement, but I assume that this where people's fears lie. Like you, I do support gay rights, yet I'm completely ignorant on all matters of the LGBT community. I think people are afraid of change, your right. But that change has nothing to with people who aren't apart of the LGBT community, so there is no real change to fear. I'm on the fence in terms of whether I want people to change their minds or just let them live in their own ignorance because it may not be worth the effort.

One of the problems I've had with my religion ( I'm a baptist Christian) is its defamation of homosexuality. More so, I'm offended by people who claim they are Christians, yet attack the LGBT community on daily basis. Christianity and Catholicism teaches that people should be accepting of those who are different from one another. I think those Christians or Catholics who attack the LGBT community want to force homosexuals to be something that they are not, heterosexual. Yet to do so is an impossibility. Even if the Bible condemns homosexuality, it doesn't grant Christians or Catholics the right to attack and defame those who are homosexual. Those Christians and Catholics who attack homosexuals are practicing a religion which is not Christian.

I would love to live among the most diverse areas of the world. I think this is why I’m so attracted to living in the more urban areas of America. I’m on a personal, never ending quest to seek and gain knowledge in my life. I want to know how all cultures and peoples operate and live their lives in our society and around the world. I always want to know more about the multicultural society that we live in. I embrace the differences of our (multi) cultures and find each one as fascinating as the next. I’ve have lived and conversed among many different peoples. As an African American I have lived and ate at the same table with blacks (Africans, Haitians, Jamaica, and African Americans), whites, Asians, Arabs, Indians, and Hispanics, Jews, among many others. My dating life has been a lovely multicultural experience, I have had decent relationships with African Americans, Hispanics, and whites (one Jewish and another atheist) (I’m a Christian). I hope to expand on this more until I find the right person for me.
I sometimes wonder if throughout my multicultural experience, whether I have experienced assimilation. Sometimes I’ve had to catch myself as I found myself drifting to another culture’s norms. For example, before I started hanging out with Hispanics and whites I would have never thought of drinking or smoking. My African American friends (for the most part) don’t ever participate in these activities as much (or at all) as my white and Hispanic friends have. It used to really bother me when my friends drank and particularly “smoked”___. However, as I grew among them, so did my curiosity. When I got to college and saw that intelligent “forward-thinking” whites and Hispanics did this, I was really thrown for a loop. My curiosity got the best of me and I began engaging in their activities. I was very conflicted at the beginning stages of my drinking and smoking because I felt that I was assimilating into their culture and abandoning mine. It truly tore me up inside. However, as time went on, I found myself engaging in these activities with all other cultures, including my own peoples. Given my experience I have found that assimilation can never exist in its completed form as stated in the lecture. All cultures engage in the same (similar) activities. I think it’s more of a question of which individuals that you are hanging out with which determines your assimilation within a new or different society.
I also want to quickly comment on the multiple rap videos we saw from the various countries in the world. I love hip-hop/rap music more than any genre of music and it has made such a profound impact on my life. I find its globalization very surprising do to the fact that the genre is still in its early stages. Through those videos you can see the love, passion, and professionalism that the global community has for the genre; I find it beautiful that the globe shares the same passion for the genre as we do. It is now a global world system and that is truly amazing. Does anyone else find it as amazing as I do?

I agree with your second paragraph. I don't think PSU is "too white", but there is an obvious discrepancy between whites and minorities. I think using the term too white is a little unfair (I'm not attacking you, I'm just stating my opinion on the term). "Too white" implies that there are some white students who should not be at PSU. Anyone who wants a college education should be able to get one at this university. However, the problem is that their isn't enough non-whites in at PSU. This is one the largest and most popular universities in the world. It should be melting pot of diverse students. Instead, I think PSU is more like a vanilla flavored cupcake: Its foundation (the cupcake itself) is white, it's most prominent and prosperous feature (the icing) is white , while the people of color (the sprinkles) are few and far between and don't have any effect on the (taste of) product as a whole. People of color are only used to make the cupcake look better, in other words we're used for decoration. That's all we people of color are used for here for here at PSU. We're here to make the school look "nice" aka not completely racist. They could take the sprinkles off, but it wouldn't be as appealing amongst modern day liberal America. Plus they wouldn't receive as many government benefits without us.

I think its a shame that people strive to be something that they are not. Especially when it comes to racial status. The American social construct has doomed all of us to be sheep and discourages our efforts to find and achieve inner beauty. Becoming white or striving towards "whiteness" is something a lot of racial groups adhere to and face difficulties with. I find that it is acceptable and natural for people of all races to adopt aspects of another race. However, I believe a line needs to be drawn when we find disfavor of our own race and start inheriting nepotistic traits of the dominant race or culture. Self-identification is such an imperative part of being of a person of color, but mainstream society is slowly robbing us of this. The reason why African American girls pick those barbie dolls are because they posses a lack of self-identification. Those girls and all people for that matter should pick both Barbie dolls as they both show an equal amount of beauty. I believe It is so crucial that we begin teaching the youth that beauty possess no color.

I want to discuss two topics which caught my interest in this brilliant lecture. First, I was shocked to find out that some Asian’s identify themselves as white. The idea doesn’t make any sense when we see those with obvious physical and social characteristics that add fallacy to the claim. I’ve heard that some Latino’s identify themselves as white too, but I’m sure it isn’t as prevalent as in the Asian communities. I think those who identify themselves in this manner are suffering from a crippling psychosis. To look yourself in the mirror and see something completely different from what you really are is just plain crazy in my opinion. It’s the equivalent to a hallucination. Even if you’re a white person who was born and raised in the blackest region of Africa, you are still a white person. You can only share a nationality with people (African/American) not a race (if you are of a different race and not mixed). I’m African American and was born and raised in a white suburb for most of my life. However, I would never think of calling myself anything else but African American, because that is not what I see in the mirror, it is not evidenced in my lineage (though I do have white and indigenous in my lineage, however it’s so tantamount that if I claimed myself as the former or latter I would be contradicting myself), and that is not how I perceive or would want the world to perceive me. To forsake your (race of) people in that matter is a sign of shamefulness. If you are so ashamed of your race and seek to identify as one that is totally different from you, you are suffering from an oblivious mental disorder. It’s either that or you’re fascist.
I also found it interesting to see that there was an actual correlation and study between race, popularity, and education in America. It is a devastatingly tangible phenomenon which proves that racial groups are the one’s holding themselves back from educational progression. In other words, outside forces do not make such an impact on education and popularity. I used to have poor grades in middle school, yet at the time I had a lot of friends. As I grew older and started to put away the childish aspects of my life, I began to start making more effective efforts in my schooling and self-image. However, in that span of time, I began to lose a significant amount of my friends of color (and some white friends who didn’t care much about their education). I was quickly labeled as a “nerd” and a “loser” (A term which can never be applicable if the person who is calling you that is an underachieving student herself) among my peers. In contrast, some of my white, Asian, and other “forward thinking” African-American friends grew closer to me. Yet, till this day I can only count the number of friends I have using my right hand. This makes me want to emphasize that college has been such a huge blessing in my life. I feel as if I’m surrounded by my equals; not only pertaining to other races, but to people of my own race as well. College students, for the most part, are made up of forward thinkers who congratulate people who are succeeding in their lives. Back where I come from, success often results in condemnation, defamation, and on a few occasions, crucification. It's a damn shame if I can be frank.