Before this class I didn’t really have any opinion on illegal immigration. It was nothing I ever thought about because being from the suburbs of Pittsburgh; I never dealt with the subject. No one in my high school really talked about the issue other than making racist jokes about Mexicans so my opinion on the subject was very ignorant. That being said, I never really had anything against illegal immigrants nor held a grudge against them for “stealing” from America. No immigrant ever held me back from achieving anything or even bothered me so I never had any beef with them.
This class really opened my eyes to the issue of illegal immigration and some of the other issues surrounding it other than them lacking the rights of “legal” Americans. This lecture allowed me to think about the issue from a relatively educated standpoint unlike before. It really caused me to think about a lot of different issues regarding illegal immigration. After hearing this lecture, I began to think to myself that it might be our right as Americans to allow a certain amount of undocumented or illegal immigrants into our country if it could be regulated. These people are usually extremely driven and hardworking and want a chance that they deserve and can’t get anywhere else. As a good human and citizen of the world, how can we turn them away in good conscience? You can argue that since they will work for less it drives down all of our salaries, which is a fair point. At the same time though, all we have to do is work harder and that won’t be an issue, so I don’t see this as an acceptable excuse against them. I see it as a benefit to illegal immigration if it can improve our work ethic as a country.
I also never considered the fact that I could be a descendent of undocumented or illegal immigrants. I believe my great-great grandparents on my mother’s side came to America through Ellis Island, but I can’t be sure. They emigrated from Russia in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s during the Pogroms against the Jews. They were Jewish so what’s to say that they didn’t just flee the country looking for better opportunities in America, at this time I can’t prove that wasn’t the case so I have to at least consider the fact that they could have come to America illegally. This doesn’t really change my opinion on illegal immigrants because I believe that if they come here and work as hard as Sam said they do, then they deserve to be here and be a citizen. I think the uproar over immigration is a political ploy and wish that we could be more understanding, however I know that’s not possible.

I never actually listened to the lyrics in “Don’t Drink The Water” by Dave Matthews Band. I knew the song only as a catchy tune to relax too and jam with while extremely intoxicated at a concert. The thought that it might have a different meaning never crossed my head. I don’t know how to feel after listening to the song while following the lyrics and viewing the images of Native Americans. I’m kind of confused about what Dave Matthews Band was trying to say. Is this song a tribute or homage? Or is it a retelling of a vital part of our history that is often overlooked. I am currently viewing the video again as I write this and I admit it is quite upsetting. I knew that our ancestors exiled the Native Americans and put them through a genocide unlike any other in history and that currently most Native Americans are struggling very much to live in our society today. I never thought of the cruelty of all this and listening to this song has opened my eyes to the cruelty. “What's that you say? Your father's spirit still lives in this place, I will silence you.” These lyrics are quite disturbing when you think of the meaning behind them. The majority of the song is pretty harsh too listen to when you actually consider the meaning of the lyrics and honestly I’m kind of offended that anyone would profit off of this travesty. At the same time though, how many movies have been made about the Holocaust and the Native Americans? Dances With Wolves is a great example of this an I don’t know how I feel about it. On one hand, these movies educate us about history in a way that is more appealing than reading a history book. On the other hand, people are making millions of dollars and gaining great fame off of the genocide of innocent people, something to consider. At the end of this song, however, it makes a better peace with the Native Americans. “I live with my justice, I live with my greedy need, I live with no mercy, I live with my frenzied feeding, I live with my hatred, I live with my jealousy, I live with the notion, that I don't need anyone but me.” To me this says perfectly what it should. I think these lyrics give justice to the song and explain the situation better. I can’t really think of a good way to say it, but these lyrics say what I think they should say, that the Americans are wrong and they know it, but they’re going to live with that fact and are okay with it because they got what they want. Not sure what this says about humanity but it isn’t good.

This class on Tuesday didn’t really change my perspective on international affairs in terms of the Middle East. The reason being that I am currently also taking an International communications Class as well and in this class I’ve learned a lot about the United States involvement in wars and international conflicts. The readings and videos I’ve done for this class have opened my eyes and given me an entirely new outlook on the United States involvement in wars.
My belief is that our country goes to wars for money. They use excuses like Weapons of Mass Destruction (which we bought for Saddam in the 80’s) and call it a “War on Terrorism” to justify this to the average American. However, the root of their goals in all of these conflicts is money and business. This explains that they went into Iraq for oil, not for terrorism and why they have so much involvement in other countries’ wars as well. I wouldn’t blame this on the government however, because the Trans-National Corporations have more power than the government because the money they make supports the economy and the government.
With all of this said, I understand why terrorists and the people living in the Middle East feel the way they do about our country and why the extremists want to attack America. I don’t think this is justified but I understand why they dislike us. We invade their country, rape their land and kill their civilians. They have every right to be upset. Many of them probably are sick of us attacking them and ruining their homeland and want to get back at us for that. There are many differences between what we do to their land and what the terrorists do to us, however, and I would say that our cause is more justified. Even if we are killing civilians and ruining the land, we have a cause other than just to kill them and send a message. Even if our reasons are convoluted, we still have a reason that we believe is justified and therefore we aren’t intentionally killing civilians for no reason. And it’s for this reason that I don’t think terrorism is justified and at the very least I would say that the terrorists have a pretty large hand in why America is invading their countries. America can’t invade a country for no reason, no matter how much we might want to. The catalyst for the War on Terror and the War in Iraq was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In general, I don’t agree with war or terrorist attacks, I would rather settle something democratically rather than just blowing something up, however, the world doesn’t work this way.

I don’t think there is one good reason for why white guys tend to be hesitant to date black girls. However, I think a lot of it comes down to being afraid to try something new and different.
In general, people tend to stick to what they are comfortable and hesitate to leave their comfort zone. I would say this goes a long way in explaining why you see so few white guys dating black girls. A lot of the white people at Penn State come from suburbs and rural areas that are mostly populated by white people and aren’t used to interacting with black people, especially black girls. To make matters worse, despite the numbers in class that said Penn State is 27% black, a lot of white guys don’t meet a lot of black girls. We discussed this in our discussion section this week. Our proctor asked the white guys in class if they would be open to dating black girls and most of us responded that we would be fine with it we just haven’t met enough black girls to really know anything about them. This goes back to people not wanting to leave their comfort zone. People segregate themselves naturally, making it harder to meet someone outside of your social group, however it is defined. Even if a white guy wants to meet a black girl, he might not know how to do so or where to go. I’m a senior here at Penn State and I can’t say I’ve seen more than maybe a handful of parties or classes have a lot of balance between black and white. Sometimes it’s just hard to meet someone outside of your group. Aside from that, even if a white guy knows a lot of black girls, he still might not feel as comfortable around them as he would white girls because he is more familiar with white girls and either fears rejection or doesn’t want to wander outside of his comfort zone.
Another potential reason for white guys being afraid to date black girls is that they are afraid of being judged. Our society has come very far in terms of race relations but we still have very far to go. No one wants to be different or looked down upon, and in our ignorant society, white guys might think that they will be looked down upon for dating a black girl. I’m not saying I agree with this by any means, I’m just hypothesizing. A lot of people my age are still brought up with racist beliefs unfortunately and you can see it in their behaviors, even if they don’t knowingly display them or try to hide them.

I may be naïve, but I don’t think that white supremacy actually exists in State College today. I think that a lot of people, particularly white people are really obnoxious and throw around loaded phrases like white power and the n word without considering the ramifications of their actions.
In today’s society I think it’s safe to say that people are in general more accepting of other races than they were when most of our parents were younger. My belief is that the fact that we are more accepting of each other makes us more open about discussing issues of race. This leads to good and bad results. One of the bad results of this new found comfort level is that people make jokes of things that used to never be a laughing matter. I would use this as my explanation for why you saw white power written on the brick wall at the bus stop at Beaver and Garner. I know a lot of my friends casually use the phrase white power as a joke without realizing the ramifications of what they are saying. They don’t say white power to put down other races, they just think it’s funny. What’s more offensive to me is how loosely white people use the n word. I used to be guilty of doing this myself in high school and early in college, but recently I realized that this is wrong. No one considers that the n word is a loaded word with years of oppression behind it when they use it, but people use it all the time. A few of my friends use the n word in casual conversation and it’s offensive. That being said, these kids don’t have a serious overt hatred for black people. It’s completely reasonable to say that they harbor some negative feelings towards black people, but they don’t use the n word to put black people down. For some reason it is viewed as ok to say the n word freely. Part of this problem can probably be blamed on the black rappers that freely use the n word in their music all the time. This lets the white people that use the n word think it’s ok to use it and leads to people saying stupid stuff like white power and the n word all the time.
At this point, I don’t think there is a huge problem with people using these racist words and phrases because most people don’t use them to be racist, but use them to be funny. I think the bigger problem is that people think it’s funny to use these words when they actually have a long history of being offensive.

The presentation in class the other day as well as some previous presentations and one of the videos I watched for the first exam really opened my eyes to white privilege. Previous to this class I had never heard of white privilege or gave consideration to some of the benefits society gives me because I grew up an upper, middle class white boy. After learning about this I felt a lot of things including anger at a racist society and sorrow for those who haven’t received the same treatment as me and others like me. However, I didn’t feel any guilt for getting preferential treatment. I don’t support white privilege or even want to try to begin justifying it, but I don’t feel guilt for the benefits I receive from a racist society. Feeling guilt will accomplish nothing. It’s not my fault that this country and the rest of the world are run by their latent racist tendencies. While I will do my best to fight these tendencies in my own life and the lives of those around me, I can’t feel guilt for what others have done before me.
What is unsettling for me is to think that this racism comes from how people were treated 150 years ago. I think that it is unfair how the freed slaves were treated, but considering the environment they were in it makes sense they were treated that way. I think it’s unfair that blacks and whites weren’t given then same rights, especially when I think about the sunset towns and the living situations of those times. I don’t like that white people can attribute their family’s success to hard work and being deserving when their success was allowed to them because they were white. The fact that blacks didn’t have the same rights in those times, which lead to white people achieving more success in the short and long term, is clearly not fair. Anyone who won’t acknowledge that is foolish. However, this doesn’t cause me to feel any guilt for my situation. I don’t think anybody in my generation should feel this guilt, I think a better solution would be to work to fight this white privilege. If more people were aware of this phenomenon, it would not exist in the same state it does today. I guarantee if employers were shown the study we saw in class that illustrated the inequality shown in hiring they would shift their habits. The divide between whites and blacks that got a call back would decrease, helping to fight white privilege. Unfortunately, this isn’t a very practical solution to this problem and the fact remains that there aren’t many good solutions. This is a problem that will have to be fought on an individual basis, one I will have to wage in my own life, but probably will never change.

Race wasn’t always an issue for humanity, according to the anthropology class I took my junior year, race was made up by a bunch of white Europeans who wanted to prove themselves superior to black people so they could justify enslaving them. They even published scientific articles and books proving that not only were black people inferior to them in brain structure, they were an inferior species, as similar to white people as monkeys. Obviously we as a society have advanced from these ridiculous beliefs, but no matter how far we advance, race will never stop being an issue for human beings.
Classifying people by race has been going on for so long that it is second nature to us by now. Many people in our society classify people by race only because it’s something that is hard wired into their brains. I personally classify races but I don’t think any race is necessarily better than the others. I don’t classify races for any reason other than I grew up in a society where people with different skin colors and backgrounds were classified into races. For me, the problem with classifying people into different races is more about the negative connotations that comes from differentiating a certain type of people from you. This is explained in social psychology when you investigate the in-group vs. out-group relationship. Those in the in-group tend to depersonalize and look down on the people in the out-group, which I think helps explain why race has been such an issue for our society. Because of this, as long as society continues to classify people into races there will continue to be a perceived inequality.
Classifying people into races doesn’t have to be a bad thing. If people could do it without hating each other, I think it could be scientifically useful to our society. We could study the differences in races and learn a lot about human nature and use the differences between us to make a better world.
I don’t think, however, that race will ever cease to be an issue in our society. As I mentioned earlier, it’s been going on for so long that it is second nature to us and to completely stop making race an issue would probably be impossible. I think it would be interesting to see what the world would be like if there wasn’t race. It would be an interesting experiment to see if people of different colors and backgrounds could intermingle without worrying about the differences between them. I think if this could happen, the world would be a lot less hateful of a place and we would see a decrease in violence, but I don’t believe that it is possible.

I don’t think there is a simple answer to that question. There are times when it is necessary to be politically correct and there are times when you wish people would just say what’s on their mind. The problem stems from society expecting us to be politically correct in everything we say and do and chastising us if we aren’t. I agree that it is important not to offend people, but at what cost?

It would be interesting to view our society if people were free to speak their minds instead of trying to be politically correct. Imagine what President Bush would have said after the 9-11 attacks if he didn’t have to be politically correct, it’s very possible that it would have been a hate filled message towards the people, cultures and countries he believed were responsible for the attacks. This makes me think of Antonia Cromartie, a football player for the New York Jets. In the week leading up to the Jets’ matchup with the Patriots, he said how he really felt about Tom Brady and he was torn apart by the media and the rest of society. While what he said might have been a little out of line, he was simply exercising his first amendment right of freedom of speech and the fact that he was being berated for it would outrage certain people.

On the other hand however, it would be naïve to believe that our society could function without political correctness. People like Mel Gibson and other public figures would go around spewing hate and bile, which would lead to a corrosion of our society. One of the major functions of political correctness is that it allows us to live in a nation together free of hostility towards each other. Sure, there remains plenty of racism in this country, but you don’t have white people going on television saying how much they hate black people or Muslims or Jews because the majority of the country would find this overwhelmingly offensive. Despite the threat to our first amendment rights, the United States of America needs political correctness to maintain peace among ourselves.

In a perfect world, people would be able to speak freely without being politically correct and not offend many people. I should be able to let people know of my viewpoints without being thought of as a racist or a bigot, or at the very least uneducated. Unfortunately, in our society today, people become offended so easily that we have to watch everything we say in order to maintain the peace between groups. It would be great to live in a world where everyone could be open and honest with each other without having to worry about offending people.

I found it interesting that Sam called God a she. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that however. In the movie Dogma, Alanis Morissette plays the role of God and I have heard other references to people thinking of God as a she. Most of the times I’ve heard someone refer to God as a she, it has been more for humor or irony than serious consideration. Thinking of God as a she isn’t as weird as I thought it would be once I put some thought into it.
God is often thought of as the creator of the universe we live in today. To think of God “giving birth” to the universe like all of our mothers did to us, kind of makes sense. It’s easier for me to believe a female God gave birth to the universe than to believe that a male God created it out of nothing. One reason I feel this way is that the universe is constantly changing and growing like a human organism; while my understanding of the creationist story says that God created earth and the universe in six days. One problem with this however, is that it is hard to believe a female God giving birth to the universe without a male in the picture, but when it comes to religion you have to use your imagination some.
I also prefer to think of God as a nurturing being, which is easier to do when imagining a female God versus a male God. If God is the creator of the universe and all that is in it, I find it more soothing to think of her as a female. Men tend to be harsher and less forgiving than females and I prefer to think of God as a forgiving, nurturing being. Also, to go along with the giving birth metaphor I made earlier, I’d rather God be a mother figure than a father figure; for me personally, my mom is more authoritative and my dad is more of a friend.
As I probably illustrated in my previous three paragraphs, I wouldn’t be fazed if someone referred to God as a female in front of me because it is something that I have dealt with and considered previously. The same cannot be said however, for my friends. While writing this, I asked a few of my friends what they would think if I said that I believe God is a female instead of a male. One accepted it without any resistance, one shook his head and wasn’t sure whether or not to accept what I said and the other friend flat out denied the possibility of it. I think it’s something interesting to think about.

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