This semester I learn a lot about race relation. Many people told me so many great things about this class that it would be like no other class I have ever taken before and they were right. I think classes should be run like this with more interaction. I also heard so many great things about Sam before I even knew about this class. This was a very informative class with lots for good info you don’t get to talk about every day. I learned lots about world which is good because we need the truth of the world we live in. I did not know that Native Americans were the poorest in this county and that there suicide rate is the highest than any other race which is sad. I also learned that all people in the Middle East don’t hate America. I knew that but if felt really good hearing from the man on Skype that we talk to in class. We also talk about affirmative action which has many debates about. For me as an African American I don’t mind Affirmative action I believe it makes the playing field even. Another issue we talk about was immigration and it became really real when Eric in the class told us his story that was so amazing. Because he is a hard working student and the media makes it seem like immigrates just come over here to take our jobs and live for free and that’s not the case they are here working there butts off and they are doing the jobs most Americans don’t want to do. We learned about empathy which I feel is a very important thing. Like Sam’s TED talk about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes before you judge someone else also to see where they are coming from. Overall in this class I learn to treat people how you would like to be treated. We need to stop hate and that will have to start with our generation to change all this. I really like this class and Sam was a great teacher. I am so happy I got to take this class before I graduated this was so good and like I said before college classes should be more like this getting us ready for the real world. So I learned lots feel like I got my money worth and I won’t forget what I learned and pass is down because people need to know this stuff and we need to all talk because it will clear thing up for the better.

Wow that is a very good question. That’s why I like this class so much because we talk about real issues. So the question is what stops us males from asking our partners if they received an orgasm. I believe there are many reasons why guys don’t ask but I have three reasons I think it is. I think the reason is that some guys are embarrassed, some don’t care, and others know they did the job right. Some males might feel embarrassed especially if they are not so advance at sex. They might feel that the girl had better and for most guys we have a big ego so we like to think we are the best. So to ask and find out we did not give her an orgasm is telling us that we suck. I don’t know its weird asking a girl that. I ask three girls I been with if I please them and two out of the three said yes and the one that said no it hurts it makes you think there was someone better or she had better I don’t know. But the ones that say yes it’s good to hear it makes you feel like you’re the man and it make you feel good that you please someone else. Now I say that maybe some guys don’t care. I definitely care how my partner feels. But some guys out there just want to have sex and once they are good they can care less about their partner and that’s mess up but it’s the truth with some dudes. For some guys once they are good they just fall asleep, leave or just did not care for the girl and use her just so he can bust a nut. Finally, not trying to brag but when you know your good you don’t have to ask because you can read the girl’s body langue and tell that they are having an orgasm and the fact that you put them to sleep after. It’s funny because you don’t have to ask they tell you that you were the best or that you were the first to ever make them have an orgasm. In closing I believe that guys should do more to please their ladies because it’s not fair. But they ladies have to speak up because some guys don’t know there has to be communication. Once there is more communication I believe that the experience of sex will be more pleasurable for both partners because I don’t know about others but it feels good to me knowing my partner is please. Like I said at the beginning that some guys might be embarrassed but if you’re able to get naked with someone you should feel comfortable to talk.

I believe there are many reasons on why the United States takes care of other nations before they take care of us back home. My first reason would be our image because we are the world leaders so we should help out and show the right example. Next, it shows peace with us helping other people in need. Finally, I would say that there poor is a lot worst then the poor here. I also like to say it would be nice to use that money to help fix up our country first because there are a lot of people struggling especially the Native Americans. I think that we should fix up our country and help out our people first then we can help others in other countries. But that sounds really selfish because we are a nation base off from people from those poor counties and if we don’t help then no one else would. In my own opinion I believe we can help both at the same time. We are one of the richest nations in the world so I don’t see why we can’t help our poor and help poor countries as well. What we need to do is stop spending crazy amounts of money on things this country does not need. I am all about a strong military but we don’t need to be out at war still. All the food that this country produces and throws away everyday can be given to a poor family. For example the commons services lots of food and I am sure all of it does not get eaten so I think instead of them throwing it out they should give it away or donate it to people less fortunate because there are thousands of families out there that are going to bed hungry tonight. I am all about helping people but also we can help only so much. I say we help get people back on their feet and get started and then show them how it’s done and let them take care of their self’s. For the native Americans I feel really bad because they are the poorest in the United States. But as a people I think they should ask for help or do something to better there self’s. I also think if America is going to give out aid the Native Americans definitely deserve some of that aid. So overall I think the United States should keep giving aid to other countries because it makes our country look better but at the same time I do believe that the United States could definite do more to help the people of this nation to feed them and help them get a better life that all Americans want to have.

Affirmative action is a really big deal in the United States. I have no problem with affirmative action. It is true that some qualified people defiantly getting look pass and that the best person for the job should be hired all the time. But the reason affirmative action is good to me is that white people are able to give jobs to family members and people they know to keep them and their race at top and that’s not far. In a way it’s the same thing but no one calls that out and there are definitely better qualified minorities for those jobs. As a minority myself I like affirmative action because it gives us a chance in which we never had in the past. Rights for blacks did not come into effect until the 1960 which is not that long ago so whites had a head start with everything. Many whites think this is wrong but they don’t have a single clue how it’s like growing up black. How many times we were judge before someone took the time to get to know us. There was this time I apply to a summer camp when I was 18 and I handed in the application and I turned around and I saw the lady putting my application in the garbage while my white friend got the job and she was horrible with kids and ended up getting fired. I just recently work at a summer camp where the kids voted me as favorite camp consoler and that the boss wants me to come back for another summer. I was way better for the job but because of the color of my skin I was pass over. I like the facts that jobs do affirmative action because it creates diversity in the department. If everything was on a fair playing field in the first place then there would be no need for this but it’s not fair so affirmative action is fair. One day I hope that everything will even out so we can go to just hiring the best person for the job. But as we talk about in class how a white guy can get a job over a black guy even if he has no criminal record that’s crazy and racism right there and not fair at all. That tells me as a black man I go to college do well get in no trouble but I will still be pass over by a criminal because he is white that is wrong. That’s why I believe there is nothing wrong with affirmative action because it helps us minorities out in situations like this which shows how things are so unfair in this country.

I took away many things today in class when Sam brought up the idea that we are not really free. That we have different things controlling us making it hard for us to truly be free. In class today Sam ask the female students if any of them were on their periods to raise their hands and only six girls raised their hands because the others might have been to embarrass to. So Sam pointed out that the females in class are not truly free because if they were free all the females in class that were on their periods would have raised their hands. I am a male so I do not know how it is like to have a period but I don’t think it’s such a big deal because all women have it its part of nature and it means you’re healthy. I think most of the females in class were just embarrassed because of the men in class. If it was an all-female class I think there would have been more than six girls to raise their hands. But it was not just proven Sam’s point that there are factors holding people back from truly being free. He then ask the males in the class how many of them masturbated in the last two days and some of the males in class did raise their hands but there were others that look around first to see if someone else would raise their hand first also showing how were are not free to do what we want. Like Sam said if we were free without these controlled then we would all be able to raise our hands to any of the questions not caring what other people thought. With the whole being free thing to Sam said we would be able to do whatever we wanted for example not wearing clothes to school. This subject was very interesting to me because it is so true if we were free we would do what we want but we don’t because we are scared or just scared of what other would think about us. But back to the question the reasons I think that the girls are embarrass are for a few reasons. First it’s a private matter not all girls want to air their business out to the world. Next, it’s something you don’t talk about every day when a girl bleeds. Last, it’s a nasty and painful thing that girls go through and don’t like to talk about. If I was a girl I don’t think I would of raised my hand too I feel for most of the girls in class. Finally, the reason I think it’s hard is cause society makes it sound like it’s a bad thing by saying things like girls always PMSing . So we are not truly free cause of different factors but I think we would be if people stop caring.

Being a lighter skin African American I feel like there are a few reason for why lighter skin is popular among black people. I feel that all skin colors are beautiful and that people should not be judge by their skin color but by their personality. I really don’t know why there is such a big separation with team light skin vs. dark we all are still black. One of my reasons I feel this happens is unfortunately in the African-American community there is an ideology that dark skinned is "bad". That was established in society since slavery times, which makes it hard for dark skinned people. Back in the slave time the light skin slaves would work inside the house and the darker ones out in the fields which definitely cause jealousy between dark and light. Another big part in why lighter skin is more popular among black people is just check out the media. In the media they portray light skin as the good guys and dark skin as bad. They also show light skin as beautiful and dark as ugly. A couple examples of this are when you think of beautiful black women you think of Halle Berry, Tyra Banks and Beyoncé which are all light skin. You go to Disney as a little kid and you watch movies like Aladdin where Aladdin is brown and light skin and he is the handsome good guy but Jar far is darker skin and he is the evil ugly man. Another Disney movie which does this is the lion king when simbas father is light skin and he is the king of the jungle and then you go to Scare Simbas uncle who is dark skin and is a loser that kills Simba father and is the villain. But I don’t think this problem of skin color is only in the African American community I also believe it’s a white person’s problem too. White people also have problems with skin tone that is why many of them go tanning. I feel in all races people will have problems over skin color. But like I said I feel the main cause of this comes from the media. Also from back in slavery times because this is not a new issue this has been around forever and I don’t feel it’s a big deal I just think people have to be conformable in their skin. I will never understand the difference or why these barriers exist. It is sad that I don’t think this is going to go away anytime soon and people are always going to want to change the way they look to fit in. It’s a good thing that everyone looks different cause if we were all the same it would be boring

After today’s class it really had me thinking about many different things. We talk a lot about evolution and creationism. Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Creationism is the religious belief that life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being. I am more on the creationism side I really believe that God created us and everything else. But after today’s class I feel like it can be a bit of both creationism and evolution. I feel the part evolution kicks in is when the people decided to migrate to different parts of the world and need to adapt to the part of the world they were in. For example people in Africa would be darker skin and have more curly hair and wider noes to breathe the warm air. As for whites that are found up north where it was much colder were they need their skin to be lighter to attract the sun and there noes more straight so they won’t breath in too much cold air and longer hair to keep warm. That were I feel evolution came in to help with those changes because like Sam said we are only .1 percent different from each other. Even though Sam said that we are really closely related to monkeys I most disagree that I came from a monkey. I really don’t believe that we evolved from monkey if people like to think they came from a monkey that’s them I like to think I came from a God. It’s funny to me because not that I know of any cases of any scientist or geologist finding any proof of it. If we can find hundreds year old dinosaurs then there should be proof or something out there that shows that we came from a money. The proof that I would like to see if they find a half man half monkey skeleton. But that would just change my opinion just a little bit I would still believe in a god creating us. There has to be a bigger purpose then this giant rock in space happens to be in the right spot with the sun and that we came from bacteria that change to plants that change to fish then to reptiles then mammals I just feel that is too much. So I really believe that God put everything in place and that evolution just happens as the years go on to adapt to different situations cause if we don’t adapted to situations we would be no more because we would have died out. I feel that the human race maybe still adapting to different things in good ways and bad. So overall what i got out of class is that life can be a cause of both creationism and evolution.

The reason I feel there is so much negativity toward Muslims comes from a lot of different sources. First coming from the media because every time you turn on the TV, read the news you see someone from the Middle East Muslims shown in a negative way. They are always talking about bombing or shooting or rioting going on that it makes it seem that all Muslims are just violent and don’t care. I ask myself why would the media do this and the reason they do it is because that sells, people love conflict. When in reality they are just like use. The second I reason I believe the negativity comes from the fact that we are still at war over in the Middle East so there is this since to make it see we the USA are the good guys and make the Muslims look like the bad guys. Also with 9/11 happening people wanted someone to blame and unfortunate the blame the whole Middle East for what happen when it was just a few bad apples. And that leads me in to my final reason is people fear what they don’t know. If most Americans took the time to stop and get to understand or like Sam was saying act like your walking in someone else shoes and understand where they are coming before you judge.
The way we can fix this problem is by all working together. First with the media stop showing Muslims as violent and maybe show some of the good things Muslims do. Next with 9/11 I know that was a sad time in America but at the same time they did not have to treat all Muslims like criminals. For example at an airport a Muslim man would be stop right way and seem suspicious for something he did not do just because of a terrorist group did something. They don’t treat everyone like that cause if that was the case they would stop everyone white person because they have the highest rate for being a serial killer. So I think security and others should start treating Muslims better. Last was fear what you don’t know. I feel this one is most important because if you get to know something you get comfortable. I think there should be more classes like Sam’s class were he makes you think and open your eyes to new ideas. When Sam show that video of the kids our age in Iran it blow my mind I had no clue it was even like that over there. And talking to the one guy on the cam and seeing how friendly he was it really made me see that how negative Americans were about Muslims. So those are my three reasons why I think there is negativity toward Muslims because of the media, 9/11, and fearing what you don’t know. The positive is that we have the power to change.

I would first like to say I am very thankful for everyone in the military that are fighting for my freedom. With this topic of if I would serve in the military is a debate I have been thinking about for a while there is parts of me that would join and there are others that say no not to. The reason I would join would be if I really needed to. If it came down to protecting my family and friends I will go serve or if it came to this country about to be taking over then I will fight for this country. There are many reasons why I won’t because I have a friend that was in Iraq and he step on a bomb and both of his legs were blown off but he lived. The thing about that is that military people come back and are treated so badly that it makes me think it’s not worth putting my life on the line when everyone else does not care. Also I think why don’t the people in government send their children over there and fight because it’s their fault we are in war but they don’t. Their children go to the best school while people like us are the ones sent out there to fight. Another reason I won’t serve in the military is the fact I am not a violent person and I am more about peace. There are five big reasons I also don’t want to join the military first, I don’t want to be killed at a young age I want to enjoy my life. Second, I might get injured like my buddy and I will not be able to go through life was a mental or physical injury like that. Next, I might face discrimination in the military as being an African American. I am not saying that all Americans are still races but there are still people out there that hate me because of the color of my skin and you want me to go fight and put my life on the line for someone that hates me for my skin color I don’t think so. Four, I have heard sometime it is hard to leave the military after you serve and I do not want to be stuck in something like that. Finally, I have a future I am a senior here at Penn. State I have goals for myself and as American I have the right that I don’t have to serve. All in all for the most part I would not serve in the military for those reasons but like I said if it was a very dyer situation I would then join

This issue is a very big issue and it was very surprising that so many kids in the class go through some kind of struggle and I hope that they can overcome it. Myself personally I do not know anyone that is going through those types of struggles. I might be friends with someone and not even know that they are going through this type of struggles and it’s sad and I would like to help. Knowing that this is not a personal problems but more of outside factors cause the person to do what they do really makes me think and not be so judgmental by saying that they are selfish and just want attention when really it’s not their fault they are put into this situation by these outside factors. If I had a friend, a family member, or someone I knew that was struggling with a problem like an eating disorder or cutting, or thinking about suicide I would tell them that they are not alone. There is nothing wrong with them it just different factors in their life that’s making them feel that way. Maybe someone is bulling them so they do what they do but that’s not a reason to hurt yourself or the people around you. I would tell them to pray and to talk to people that are going through the same thing. Talk to your family because your family is always there to help you. Even talk to a teacher there are people out there that can help get you through what you’re going through. Talk about the situation will help a whole lot then just keeping it all bundle up inside and feeling alone. I would also tell them to stop worrying to much because there are other people out in the world right now that has it ten times harder than what they are going through. I would also tell them that I know it’s hard but I know you can do it and get over this. If all that did not work I will try to find help for my friend or family member. I would also ask them why they doing this to their self. What are the factors that are making you act this way because if we can find out what is causing the problem we can fix the problem one step at a time. I believe that everyone with these types of struggles can get through it I just think it takes time and a good support system and also talking about it and finding out what cause it so they can fix it. Just overall to the people that are going through these struggles you are not alone and there are people that are out there that will listen to you and are willing to help.