I would first like to say that this was a great semester and this is a class I will actually remember for the rest of my life. I can not think of another class I could say that about. Even though it was some times challenging, it was always enjoyable. It is very important to know about the world around us, but most people just block out the problems around them and focus on their, comparably, insignificant problems. It is always eye opening to see how truly bad other peoples’ lives are, when just by the luck of the draw that is not our lives. To think that I am at Penn State and complaining about a test or anything else, when there are people younger than me who are working in modern day slavery and constantly starving to death. My problems do not even compare to how other people have it. Most people do not think about how hard millions, if not billions, of other people on this earth have it. This class opens your eyes to these problems that the world has, but also to the even closer to home issues that other people and races have in our own country. Previous to this class I would have said that I know a lot about the world and the problems our country has. I had seen “Freakanomics” which talked about the hiring practices where there is an immediate judgment based on the applicants name alone. However, I did not know the true extent of it where the race could make the interviewer would change their body position to a position outside of the “safe zone” for interviews. This was a subconscious movement, but it only added to the discrimination in the job interviews of people from a different race. I am almost at the age where getting a job becomes the most important thing in your life, at least to your parents, and I could not imagine being denied just because of my name or my race. It really hit home for me, and then Sam talked about how a white person with a felony would have a slightly higher chance of getting a call black then a black person with no criminal record. It is easier to see that a race to be favored, but for the race difference to be more than a felony in the change seems too extreme. It was also interesting that if the interview was black, they were also more likely to hire the white person over a person of color. This class opened my eyes, even to issues that I already had known about. I have suggested this class to many people that will be taking it next semester and when I did world in conversation for the second time I explained the how great to class was to every one in the group. I really enjoy everything Sam and world in conversation does and it is important that the message gets spread because people in America don’t understand a lot of what goes on around them.

This is a great question that can really show how a person has been brought up and how it affects their tendencies later in life. I was brought up through a private catholic school so I have always had religion engrained in me. However, I differ from most people who go to catholic school because my school was not also a parish; this was also true when I went to a private catholic high school. This means that we did not interact with priests much or have to do alter serving at any point. We still had confession and a chapel to pray in, but confession was normally once a semester, which only made it seem that much more important. This leads to priests being looked at by a young student as something like the hand of God and also as infallible. This also made it seem like they were the only times to take to God. This has changed as I have gotten older, but I still always have that regimented thinking of God. Many people have these same feelings and they are not easy to overcome. One of the main reasons is that talking about religion is often seen as almost taboo and if you break away from your parents’ religion you are viewed very negatively and can even be kicked out of the family. These reasons make it very hard for a person to form their own relationship with God, without the normal confines of a religion, and then tell people about it. Just the pressure of leaving your parents’ religion may be enough to stop a person from thinking of breaking the confines of a “normal”, preexisting religion. A person normally holds their religious beliefs in high regard, so much so that it has been the basis for countless wars over time. Most often we are born into these beliefs and even though it is not talked about, it is always around us. And similar to race you are grouped into a religious and you are not ever seen as ambiguous of religion.
Even if you do not break off of a major religion I still believe that each person’s religion is based off their own thoughts and private interactions with God. For example, praying, outside of church, and visiting the chapel are always personal conversations with God. Even if you are a devout Christian, or any religion, you still do not have the same feelings about God as another Christian. So I do think it is fine to still follow a major religion because you will have your own thoughts about God. And with an idea as abstract as God it is good to at least have a template to work from when you work through thoughts about God. Talking with priests or other people help you form ideas and see their feelings. But in the end a person’s religious decision should be based on their own thoughts and they should not be disowned for their beliefs.

This is a very good question because I feel that it is the question most people had on their mind during the class. This may be exclusively for the white students because the questions that were being asked after it were mostly against white students. The first thing is that I saw the video after it was first put on TV, and almost everyone had a problem with it because it was blatantly targeted at a group of people, international students. Second, as high and mighty as students in this class like to be when they see something like this, they laugh at similar things against other groups. The white student that was being attacked for saying it was funny, brought up a great point that comedians get away with similarly racist jokes against white people. For example, Kevin Hart, Eddie Murphy, Eddie Griffin, and Chris Rock have famous jokes that make fun of white people and the way they act. I would bet that every person who said something against this video would laugh at those jokes, and I would also laugh at those jokes because they are jokes. I’m not saying that they are racist, but I do not like when people get high and mighty in class when they also laugh at racist jokes. No matter how mean the video may have seen, I think that it was meant as a joke. The commentator was being an asshole when he asked some of the questions and made the exchange students repeat their answers because they did not say it right. However, as this question points out, in other countries they would laugh at a foreigner in a similar way. During the summer after junior year in high school I went on a service trip to the Dominican Republic, and I can tell you from personal experience that they will make of you to your face for the way you talk. I was there building houses for extremely poor people and they still made fun of the way we spoke Spanish. I had no problem with it because I know that if the sides were switched I would still make fun of them for the way they spoke my language. This made me very surprised when I saw the extremely negative reaction to the video because I thought more people would have seen it as a joke. I feel that they may have been more of a negative response because the interviewer was white. It was still not an appropriate joke to pull on people from another country, but it is not the worst thing that has been done, and in the end it was not meant to hurt the students, but to make some entertainment for people. And as the question asks I can guarantee that it if was a white foreign exchange student or if it was an American student in an Asian country it still would have been funny to that group. In the end people need to be less serious and take jokes for what they are meant, even if they are offensive, because any group would have done the same to us.

The chair example was only good to introduce the topic. It is not practical at all when it comes to the actual situation that it is representing, taking the land of native Americans. Possibly to be better would be there are a few couches and the “white girls” take all of the couches except one, could be old or ragged etc, while a few of the native American girls are forced to share the last one. This is at least needed to represent possible solutions. It is too simple to just say give her the chair because then where does the white girl go? Leave the country? That would never happen so it should not be the option. Using the chair example also gives people the chance to not be part of the reason and easier for them to say they should give it back. If you instead asked a person to give back their land or possessions to the native Americans, you would be hard pressed to find people who would do it. If you gave them the personal responsibility to do it in real life the decision would be much harder. The problem does not have a simple solution as the government has found out when they have tried to repay different native American tribes. However, similarly to how Afghans do not want to be paid by our government for their family members who have been killed, the native Americans do not believe that it is far and will not take money as if the land was sold. The government has a savings account with over 3.4 billion dollars that is meant as repayment to different tribes, but they will not take it, which I think is the right choice. Nut it also shows that the answer cannot be as simple as a check and an “I’m sorry”. They are given some leniency when it comes to policing and following some laws, some places even have tribal jails. This does not make up for it, but with scholarships is a small start. This does not mean that people will want to give up their land or anything they have had so long, especially as the generations go on the guilt that can be felt becomes less and less. It is good that they are given government land to live on, but it should not be expected of people to give up their land as an apology for something that happened hundreds of years ago. In a perfect world maybe the girl could just have her chair back, but I think that the most that could happen is to instead share our couches more. WE should do this soon as the more time that passes this issue will continue to fade and future generations will assume that it was a peaceful transfer of land.

This question made me think back to the entire year and all of the things we have learned. We have gone over so many topics and I have not had the time to think about every thing. A few things have struck me; as an over all topic many people are very strong in their beliefs, even when they are very ignorant to what their beliefs actually mean. This was very easy to see when we talked about religion and especially creation. Most people said they believed it, but when it was explained that it meant God created everything as it is, most changed their mind to a lower level of creation beliefs. However, if you had just told them they were wrong without explaining what they had said you would have been met with a lot of resistance. People blindly follow a lot of beliefs they have been told when they were younger and will defend these beliefs if challenged. Another thing I found very interesting was that the disadvantages races face are across the board. From getting loans to renting to getting a job, many other races face stiff disadvantages. Also if a race faces stiff opposition in one area, they probably face similar opposition in many other areas. It seemed like black and Hispanics were always facing the worst discrimination and it was not just one area. These numbers are not known by most and it is very eye opening to see how bad this discrimination can be. The resumes were a shocking example because a white person with a felony was more likely to get a call back then a black person with no criminal history. Combined with the fact that your name alone can rule you out when apply for a job makes the disadvantage for people who are not white even more wide spread. I feel that it is very important for people to know this because if I had not taken this class there is nowhere else that I would have learned this. These are topics that are never talked about even though they affect us every day without us noticing. For the rest of the semester I would like to learn more about the current world and not just previous problems, for example I would like to learn about some of the candidates and the coming election because it will be affecting us for at least the next 4 years. I feel like this election is much different from previous elections where there was not one main front runner and they did not have as extreme views. Many of the candidates this year have some extreme views on religion, marriage, and abortion as well as many other issues. I think it is important for people, who are all of age to vote, to actually learn about the people who are trying to be our next leader. I feel like if there was a class on it people would learn more than they would know if there was not a class because most people do not truly research the people who they vote for.

This s a very good question and one I’ve heard of before. This names study came up in the book that was turned into a movie “Freakanomics”. They also went into how names can also denote the persons class, and how the names move from originally being an upper class name to a lower class name. However, when it comes to race there are many names that clearly point to the person being one race or another, while there are others that could be any race. “Freakanomics” said that one reason African Americans are giving their children these very different names is to make them unique and show their heritage. But, I do not think they know what affect it would have on their kids when it comes to getting jobs. The main problem with this is that even as wrong of a practice it is, I feel like it will continue to happen for awhile. To compensate for this, there are affirmative action programs to make sure that companies do not discriminate. There is no problem with this fundamentally, but in practice it may not always make everything fair and instead give someone an advantage. In a perfect world, the most qualified person would get the job, but that is not where we currently live. Many people hire the person they would like to work with and possibly friends with so they tend to stay within their own race. This is why affirmative action and other programs are good, but if they go too far they are not good for anyone. If an under qualified person is hired for a reason like this not only will they hurt the company, other people will notice this and not like them because they will assume they were only hired because of their race. Many people make this assumption even if it is not the reason they were hired. I think people make that assumption too much. The problem of discrimination when hiring is also more prominent with the high unemployment rate, so many people may blame another race for why they do not have a job. I was very shocked to see that the racial assumptions and judgments were still present just from reading a resume and not an in person interview. When I had heard of these racial prejudices I assumed they were only in person. It is crazy to think that a person will not get even a call back just because of their name. I was also surprised that the prejudice in an in person interview was not just judgments but also in the body positioning of the interviewer. These examples show that racism is still a problem today and that we are not above stereotypes and assumptions like we would rather believe. We should work to make the effects less severe, but many of them are subconscious assumptions and are much harder to change.

This question is one that often exposes many people’s hidden racism or stereotypes towards certain groups. It’s one of those general consensus ideas that leads to many people judging others by the way they look. If you walk in to the IM building to play basketball, and you see an all black team playing an all white team, most people will just assume that the black team is going to win and that everyone can dunk. However, since the whole world and the whole darker race are not automatically NBA plays this is most often not the case. Even with this being understood, if Sam brought an average black kid and an average white kid to the front of the room and had every one vote who would win a game of 1 on 1, I would be surprised if less than 90% choose the black kid, even if he had never played a game in his life. On the other side of it, if you asked who is better at hockey, the class would be almost unanimous in their decision that the white kid was better. This belief comes from who we see dominating the professional sports, and in sheer numbers blacks outnumber whites in basketball, and whites outnumber blacks in hockey. Even when there have been great white basketball players like Larry Bird, Pete Maravich, and Jerry West who are some of the greatest to ever play the game, they still are not respected or shown on TV as much as a black player of equal talent. They are all players I looked up to when I was growing up, but it is easy to see how they are not talked about nearly as much as black players. The best example of this is Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, they are as equal as two players of different races I think there has ever been. I would never say that I only like Larry Bird because he’s white, Magic was also one of the best ever, but it would be very hard to convince a group of people that Bird was better. I feel that this has only gotten worse in time because while Bird is still mentioned, he is not talked about nearly as much as Magic is. This only increases the expectations that all blacks are good at basketball and in some ways I feel that it pushes them to basketball and away from sports like hockey, purely because they know the social expectations. This is slowly becoming less prominent, where there are more black hockey players like the Flyer’s own Wayne Simmonds. He is one of my favorite players because of how he plays, and also because he is breaking down these unsaid barriers. On HBO 24/7 they showed him helping to open a new hockey rink in North Philly to promote hockey for African Americans. It’s great to see a player that has faced so much adversity in his journey to the NHL, including earlier in the season someone threw a banana on the ice as he was taking a penalty shot, still wanting to spread the game to his race. I feel that most people responding to this question might talk about how there is an economic disparity between the races and sports or how they are better somehow because of slavery. Those may be factors, but I find it hard to believe that they are truly that affective. I believe that the main reason are the social expectations of different races which are constantly reinforced by the media and I hope that soon people will not be limited to the sports they can play because it is not what people expect of them.

I think it is extremely interesting how the Shaman learn. It is a completely different philosophy then what we go by in America. They gain a deeper understanding through drugs that kids in America use to get high and away from our world instead of getting deeper into it like the Shaman. It’s incredible to think that a drug we use on the weekend is the same drug that the Shaman use to take themselves to a different level of understanding. I think it’s great that they can control the way the drug affects them to gain this knowledge. I will say that I am very skeptical about many of the stories, as I often feel like they are exaggerated. For example, I can believe that they took the drugs and saw spirits or gained spiritual enlightenment. However, I have to draw a line with how serious I take it when they say they saw their spirits in a double helix as if to say that the spirits showed them a scientific fact that had never been seen before. I am also skeptical that they were able to have some major pain killing lotion because if they do how would it not be the most widely adopted pain killer in the world? With that said I do not have a problem with the Shaman, their drug use, or the way they believe in things in their religion. I cannot imagine what one of those sweats where you are taken to another level of consciousness is like to experience. I feel like it could be a life changing experience each time, and it is definitely better than sitting is a class room and being talked at. I accept stories about the Shaman having great religious experiences, but the scientific finds are much harder to believe. I do not think there is even a reason to exaggerate what they experienced to other people because it only leads to them being discredited and being called drug addicts. They see the world, life, and the after life in a much different way than we do, and I respect them for it. I will not call them drug addicts if they really do only use the drugs to gain a different level of consciousness while doing the drugs in a controlled way where it is not just to get high like we do. I really hope they are not just a bunch of stoners who make up stories about what they see when they are high. It would be almost inspiring to know that there are people in this country that base their religion not just on what they are told, but also on their experiences. Don’t tell me that they cured cancer with a cream they thought of when on shrooms during a sweat, I won’t believe you. However, I respect them for being able to get to another level of consciousness and to a place I have never been.

I have learned a lot during the past few months, from the school I love to the heroes that represent the university. I also learned a lot about the media and people’s reactions to major events. Right away I was amazed at the reaction of the media because they acted like this had come out of nowhere and there were no reports of the grand jury earlier. They wanted to make it dramatic and for all the information to come at once because it would have a greater impact. Also, it is very clear when you read the articles that they were not trying to deal with the problem at hand, but instead talk about people like Joe Paterno and Penn State to get more page views. The way many of the early articles were written you would assume that Joe Pa was the one who had done those terrible things, and you would think it had happened yesterday. I would never want to take anything away from the victims, but something must be said about the way the media handled it. They did not write articles about how they felt so bad for the victims or how this is a problem our country has, they just wanted to write a story about an iconic person and university. These stories just kept piling on until there was a great hatred towards Penn State, a hatred that is still obvious today and it is from uninformed people who may head read an article or only a head line. I do not know if this hatred will ever fade away, but I know there is no chance the media tries to write stories about how improved Penn State is or try in any way to repair the damage to the reputations that they have done. It is even crazier to see that the same exact reports and writers who talked with disgust and looked down to Joe and the school in their articles in reports; come back this week and try to act solemn and say they truly looked up to him. That is truly disgusting to come back to the funeral for the person who reputation you tried to destroy and act as you never wrote a negative thing. It’s even worse that these biased articles led to such a hasty decision by the board of trustees. I think the decision came from the media pressure and the back lash that came from the articles. I really wish they would have stopped for a moment and thought about what they were doing. After the riot, they said they did not expect a reaction from the students. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There was a huge gathering just the night before and you don’t think people will react negatively to such a drastic move? They must have been so out of touch and so concerned with what the media was saying to not even have thought of the consequences. It’s just sad to see how the media works in this day and age where they would do anything to get just a few extra page views.

The Colbert Report is one of my favorite shows on television because not only is it very funny, but it also uses satire to bring people important stories in the news they would not other wise see. For most college students, my self included, world politics is not very important and the closest we get to a news paper is the collegian. Without Soc 119 and the shows like the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, I would not have much idea about many of the issues in the country and around the world. Even though the Colbert Report's main objective is to entertain he makes good points about this migrant worker issue. States that pass laws like these do no fully understand the effect of the many different industries. I am not saying that we should just allow anyone into our country, but we should be much more understanding and see how many people in our country are actually dependent on these workers. Stories like this take away the credibility of legislatures who pass these laws and say that they were taking jobs for Americans because it is clear that they are not when no one will take the jobs back. At what point do we accept that we do need these workers and stop treating them as if they are not people. There is such a stigma against them, but if you think of the food you have eaten this week, you should know that you would not have it, especially at that price, without them.