To start off, I actually decided to take Soc 119 to look at the world in a different way. I will admit that before taking this class, I had a very closed minded and almost racist views on most of the topics we have covered throughout the course of this class. My home is not racist, like my parents don’t hate people of color or anything like that, but there is definitely an underlying notion of prejudice. And it’s not like that with just my immediate family, but with most of my other family members. I realized that there really were so many different ways to view the pressing issues in our world today and that the views of other races and ethnicities. Sam’s class was a very “in your face” class by throwing out the truth. Sam’s countless examples and stories really showed me the true, underlying reasons behind social in equality and therefore most common sources of racism. I would say I went from going down a path of classic racism to becoming a very intrigued and open minded person. The best example I could give is that before this class, I felt the way most Americans would feel about seeing a Middle Eastern person on a plane. When I did fly and see anyone who looked like that, I would get very nervous and uncomfortable then immediately label them as a terrorist. But after one of Sam’s recent classes where he showed us how the everyday Middle Eastern person views people like me and plenty of other examples, I really started looking at what I thought of people of other races. Now if I were to sit next to a Middle Eastern person on a plane, I would just see them as just another person flying on the same plane and nothing else. I also have picked up on more of the racist and prejudice comments that my family and other people make about people of different races and ethnicities. This class has changed the way I look at so many different things and I am so glad for this change. I understand how ignorant and useless it is to just blindly hate someone with know a single thing about who they are, where they are from or anything else about them. I have also realized that our world today has a long way to go before we are actually a socially accepting world. All in all, this has absolutely been one of the best classes I have ever taken and probably will take. I have learned more in Soc 119 than I have in any of my other classes, almost all being math and science classes. Being in this class has been life changing and I am so glad I took it.

When it comes to the topic of immigration, my view point has changed multiple times so here is my story. Years ago, when I was probably in about middle school or so, my thoughts on immigration were very angry ones. But it was the angry thoughts that came from a place of ignorance and misinformation. I really disliked immigrants because I felt that they were sneaking into our country and taking all of our jobs and consuming the wealth of this nation. I understand now that this is a truly arrogant stance to take on the topic, but my young self was an interesting one. After a few years of maturing and seeing and hearing more of the world (as much as a teenager could), my view point changed a little. I still did not approve of the fact that people were illegally living in our country but I understood more of the reasons of why immigrants flee their homes to come here. But I still did not like the fact that they were here. But recently, after growing up more and actually being in this class, my view is almost sympathetic. These people who come to this country, whether it be legally or illegally, gave up everything they knew and were comfortable with to come to a new country that is almost an entirely different world. It is something I am pretty certain I could never do, and some of the illegal immigrants here did it due to fear for their and their families lives. They aren’t taking jobs from Americans at all, not to sound demeaning but it’s not like there are illegal immigrants running fortune five hundred companies or even just taking middle to upper-middle class jobs. These people are plainly trying to survive here by any means necessary. I still don’t feel that illegal immigrants should be treated like American citizens, but if you come here legally, you should not be treated any different than a citizen like me. This point raises my biggest problem with the influx of Spanish speaking immigrants. I first realized it when I was in a Florida airport when I was in my freshman year of high school. All the signs in the majority of the airport were in English then again in Spanish. I am not about to take the ignorant stance and say that English is the official language, but I feel that if you want to come to this country and live the life of an American, you should also learn to read or speak the language that the old majority of people spoke: English. If you come here illegally, I feel that the law is already slightly turning a blind eye, so why should people who cannot speak our language or at least read it be catered to?

Right as I heard this question, I had a feeling that it was going to be a very heated blog and a lot of men trying to defend themselves. But this question still really confuses me to this day. Any time I see a girl or groups of girls walking down the street in six inch high heels, tight skirts, and shirts theyre basically falling out of, I almost have half a mind to go up to them and simply just ask them “why are you wearing that?” And I don’t mean it in a “you look slutty way”, because as a guy, it is pretty attractive. I mean it in more of a “how could you do that to your own feet?” I know when I am heading for a night out, I have my typical outfit: Adidas sneakers, jeans, nice tee shirt, and a backwards hat. It’s the same for any situations at any given time. I wear that honestly because it’s simple, its quick, and most of all, it’s comfy. I know if I were a girl, my first thought of what I was going to wear for a night out would be how cold outside it is and should I be comfortable where I’m going. I know from experience that is not the fact at all, but that would be my personal thought process. But in regards to this question, I feel pretty cornered as a guy. “Girl sacrifice their comfort” is a pretty loaded statement. It almost makes it sound like guys are almost forcing women to wear tall heels and short skirts. I never remember telling or insinuating to any woman that she isn’t allowed to dress comfortably. It honestly baffles me how women can do that to themselves: walking around on ice covered sidewalks in below freezing temperatures wearing tank tops, short skirts, and stilettos. In my opinion, a girl who is willing to wear comfy shoes and warm clothes to a party in the dead of winter is more attractive to me because she is confident enough in herself to not feel like that has to have her ass hanging out, boobs popping out, and risk a broken ankle to attract any guys, if that even is her goal for the night.
And on a final note, the comment that guys don’t even have to worry about looking good is a little off. I know when I go to a party, I’m trying to look as fresh as possible for the same reason the girls are “sacrificing their comfort”. When you see a guy at a party who looks like crap, its more than likely not because he doesn’t care what he looks like, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that he just straight up doesn’t know how to look good.

To start off, it seems like this project is going to be a really good experience. At first, I thought it was just going to be to find some way to raise money or do service work for the people in Haiti. But after watching some of the videos and reading a few of the pages, I’ve realized that this is a really cool project; getting to interact directly with Haitian entrepreneurs to help them and their business to thrive. I was really interested in Clorene Blaise’s story about how she is producing large orders of custom made shirts and bags. I was especially interested in this because I took a class in high school where we did a lot of screen printing on shirts for clubs in the school and different groups in the area. Screen printing can be a very irritating process and it takes a lot of practice to be really good at it. So I can really appreciate the work that she is doing, especially because she is custom making and screen printing by hand on all the shirts that she is selling for a profit, so the quality must be very good. I have a few ideas in ways that I might be able to raise some money to help with the micro loan. I know that this project is more about working one on one with these entrepreneurs to help their projects thrives than just giving gifts or handouts, but I know that every little bit could help someone in Clorene’s position. The service that she is providing is amazing; she is not only providing a service to the people of Haiti, but she is providing people with a job and teaching them a very useful life skill. All of the entrepreneurs that are on the website are doing really awesome things. And it is really inspiring to see that even after all of the tragic events that the Haitian people have endured between the earthquake and political conflicts, that some people were able to pick themselves up by their boot straps and do something to not only better their lives, but the lives of others. I really hope that as a class of over five hundred people, we can all find a way to help at least one of these entrepreneurs achieve the goals that they have in their sights. Of course, I hope that we are able to help each of these people by getting them the resources they need or maybe even those last few dollars so someone like Clorene can get the printing machine or maybe pay the rent for a larger building so that her and her business can flourish.

To answer this question in a very obvious and literal way, we all technically are human. We are all basically the same when it comes to being a species in the animal kingdom. But I believe that we are called blacks, whites, Hispanics, and everything else because for some odd reason, people feel the need to be separated. This doesn’t just apply to categorizing people: we divide into countries, states, counties, and cities. People need the feeling that they are a part of something and they have ownership over something. That’s why humans draw these lines they call borders and create these groups of people we call races. Just like the movie we watched earlier in class said, we are all nothing more than monkeys that can stand up, form languages, and have less hair. But for some odd reason, we are monkeys that developed feelings. It’s the feelings of ownership, animosity, and power that are the reasons why we can’t just all be humans from different places. If we didn’t draw up boundaries and borders, then no man or woman would be able to feel the sense that they own some bit of land and that they can have power over the people in that land. And these landowners constantly want more and more stuff to call their own so humanity set up races and ethnicities to be able to separate each other, to give themselves a reason to hate some other people who look different and own land somewhere else. They used this hatred to try to take the other monkeys’ land. They also use these divisions to say that they can be better than someone else or to exploit a different looking monkey’s abilities or property. All in all, there is no reason for any of us to call ourselves a color or a race because we are all one people; we are just less hairy monkeys that, unfortunately, have feelings. But it is because of these feelings that man decided to set up borders, create divisions, and separate people. These feelings are what cause the hate and the war and keep us, as a bunch of people sharing the same floating ball of dirt, apart and restricting us from experiencing true peace. Just try to think of a world where there were no lines or categories of people, just a few huge islands with various types of monkeys who look the way they do because that’s how they need to look to survive. This divisonless world would be one without hate, without wars, but be purely about coexisting. Because isn’t that just we are really trying to do? Just find food so we don’t die and find a mate so the population doesn’t run out. Who needs these feelings when all they do is cause problems?

As anyone could tell from what we see in the news and around the world, religion seems to tear more people apart than bring them together. That’s the reason why I choose to not follow a religion that some old people made up however many years ago, but to follow the belief that there could possibly be something out there that is bigger than anyone could imagine and that it does somehow play into our fate. But I also believe and accept the opposition to this thought; the fact that we could be here in this world completely alone or that we are just animals like any other monkey, rabbit, or whatever else. The fact that we could just be here on this earth to eat food, stay alive, and make babies is completely fine with me.

I learned that i am not the type of person who needs to pursue my faith. Of course, everything I say here is all from person experiences and beliefs and has absolutely no evidence to back me up. Religion, in my eyes, is for the type of person who needs to know that there is something greater; something that they can trust in no matter what happens or where they go. And for that reason, I cannot understand why people feel the need to fight over who’s god is the right god because if all they are trying to do is find fulfillment, then why does it matter what is actually right. Regardless, I feel that people choose to follow their faith because they do not want to accept the fact that we might just be alone in this thing called life. I personally do believe that there is something bigger than all of us, but it isn’t exactly a thing or a person, but could be something we have never encountered. But I choose not to believe in organized religion because I discovered through my journey through my faith that religion creates differences, exclusion, and prejudice.

Personally, I have seen many different types of organized religion and because of those experiences, I actually found myself asking the same question. Throughout my life, I was baptized as a Methodist, confirmed as a Presbyterian, and attended both a Roman Catholic youth group as well as a non-denominational youth group. My family has always been involved with the church but not to any extreme extent. I have definitely talked all of my family about religious so it’s not like is something that everyone avoided; it’s just not the staple of my family.
Coming from a family that religion was not a huge issue, I was left to find out about faith for myself. From being with so many different types of religions,