The videos of the soldiers abusing the locals disgusted me. It filled me with sadness, anger, empathy, and unfortunately a sense of familiarity and NOT SURPRISED. The images that Sam showed in class were not disturbing because of they did, to me. What made them exceptionally disturbing to me, is that the way the videos were shot. As if, it were some type of reality show, in some mythical world where there were no consequences for their actions. In a world, where there is no apparent suffering from having a family’s car destroyed by the “good” forces we have going there. I mean come on, running the damn truck off of the road? What the hell does that prove? Your power over the locals? If so, is it even needed to be demonstrated in that way? Doesn’t the constant presence of these foreign soldiers (who do both good and bad) walking around with guns and driving tanks where they please, remind them of the OBVIOUS domination the army forces have?

I say earlier, that I probably will feel bad about those videos later on for a specific reason. Not because I am some sociopath that doesn’t care about civilians who are tormented. I say that because I understand the effect that such videos or any other sad story has, if it is not in a near setting or to a relative, friend or loved one. It becomes some myth, not in the sense of Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes and the rest of the Roman crew. Rather in the sense of that, we are aware of these problems but because we are properly stimulated by the scene (physically, sound, mental, smell) and the identities of the victims are not known, feeling real empathy for those people requires a lot of work. The anonymity of sufferers leading to an apparent disregard for and indifference towards the people in their situation is a fascinating phenomenon. It is evident in the poverty in not only Africa, but even in the United States.

Just as the tankers said, the man whose own livelihood was destroyed because some people in power didn’t give a damn. They were blinded by their artificial power and the cult-like support and adulation they receive from the American public. I believe it is called the Lucifer Effect. When people who are usually “good” are given power, they immediately turn into “bad” people. Abusing the people who are below them because they can. That is the danger in giving people such power and influence with other people. So in conclusion I am sad what happened to the victims of those horrible actions. But I think that the only way to deter those actions from happening and to raise the collective consciousness is to radically reform the power structure that is implemented in the armed forces.

I have been interested with this issue for awhile. It is interesting that we see many Americans not willing to do the “hard labor” jobs. The first thing I would like to say is that i think the distinction between what is or isn’t “hard labor” is important. The jobs I see being called hard labor that Americans will not do, often are in agriculture. Hmmm... if i am not mistaken there is a very dark past with agricultural work in the states. There are many other very hard labor jobs that many Americans, and proudly call them “blue collar jobs”, inferring of course that they are still upstanding people with a lot of integrity. I mean jobs such as, plumbing, construction, factory work, farming your own land, and other jobs you are likely to see on the history channel show ‘Dirty Jobs”.

The job of picking field has always and seems to be forever the job of the migrant worker in America. Whether the migration of willing or not. So these jobs weren’t only for the lowly lower class but for those under the lower class. The “outcasts” is what the Indian Caste system would’ve labeled them; those who were so unimportant that they did not even hold a place in the stratification of power and wealth in the society.

Now let’s look at the people who do those jobs in America now. Mostly migrant workers from Latin and South America. They are demonized, vilified, and blamed for just about any problem in America by many people for stealing the jobs that “americans should be doing”. I’m sorry but this argument holds absolutely no merit. These people are essentially brought up here whenever there is a need for work to be done. Ask any farmer if he’d like to have an American worker or migrant workers work his fields all day. Unanimously they would choose the migrant worker.

They tend to be more driven than the average American worker, although if any American worker were to bring themselves that low to outside of the society essentially, I could see them being fairly driven as well. T

No americans want to do these jobs also because of the horrible transition of viewing the working poor in this country from noble people with integrity to leeches sucking tax dollars from the rich elite. It is an extremely sad thing to analyze throughout time. It has gotten so bad and the doctrine of hate those in need because obviously are lazy, that many working poor elect politicians into office who reinforce those views with legislation. Immigrants have always and will always be an integral part of our country. For the sole fact that in America, being poor is becoming illegal. So we save the jobs that are notoriously for the poor for the “illegals”.

Well I knew that the most people were in different stages when it came to their relationship to racial topics. What i have suspected throughout my life was clearly put in the lecture when Sam put everyone is different stages. I learned how to "properly" react and communicate with people in the sensitive stages. I started to realize that many of my friends were not even close to the stage I was. It made me want to help my friends come along the stages so we could all be in the same stage. But then I quickly realized even though you may be able to move people up stages temporarily, they tend to become very reactive the next day and sometimes even revert. So I now know that an organic shift between the gears of race is much more realistic. The stage lecture also helped me see the times in my life when I went through the certain stages. I clearly saw each stage and how they affected my relationships with friends, family, and peers. Coming to college didn't really do much to my stage, I consider myself to be stage 5, but I saw it in friends fairly quickly. My dorm floor freshman year was VERY diverse. We had india, pakistan, ethiopia, germany, china, and italy represented. So naturally we ended up having race talks as a part of our "chill out" sessions. We would spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting our cultures. That included religions, foods, customs, and other unique traditions. It was a really really good time to see other cultures. During our talks, I noticed changed in some of the people becoming very reactionary and caustic towards any questions of their cultures. Others were very accepting and enjoyed the experience of being questioned and confronted about traditions and so on. So having friends of different stages has affected the way I interact with some of them but for the most part I stay the same and hope they come along and drop the hate towards my group, even though they may not hate me. Listening to them talk about certain groups of people in heavily stereotypical ways are the times when I try to come in and correct their misconceptions and clear biases. I also compare my views to theirs to keep myself true to form and not judge someone right off the bat. We joined the SOC 119 class together and decided that we would't join the same group because of the many disagreements we have on the topics that would be discussed. That shows to me that we are moving along quite well even though our different views on race. In fact, it is our political views that tends stress our friendship. either way this class has been a very eye opening experience for a guy who is very historically grounded in terms of race, politically active and generally a pretty knowledgeable guy.

Ok, i’m going to break the rules a little bit here. I am black. So I’m going to say what stage am on. To start off, I wasn’t very fond of the stage system when Dr. Richards first brought it up. I was getting the feeling that there was no in between stages in his interpretation; which was against pretty much everything he’s been saying in class.

I left stage one so early, I barely remember my world before realizing my “blackness”. I was at the mall with my babysitter when I was in first grade. A older white gentleman walked up to me and said, “ God bless the Confederacy. Things were much better back then.” The only thing I had known about the Confederacy was about slaves, so when I asked my parents they unfortunately confirmed what I was afraid of.

Stage two was a great experience for me. It allowed me to get closer to my parents. My dad and I would draw maps of Ethiopia and I would get quizzed on major cities and landmarks. I learned a lot about Ethiopia’s history, it’s involvement in WWII, and much deeper understanding of the culture.

As I look back, stage 3 was a roller coaster ride for me. I went through that in late elementary school and early middle school. It was a crazy time because whenever I’d talk to white people they would say that I was black. And whenever I would talk to black people, they would say, “You’re not black. You’re Ethiopian, you Ethiopian’s think you’re so much better than us”. For silly political reasons, the Ethiopian community had ostracized my family at this time also. I felt like the two major classifications didn’t want me in their “group”. So I just went on a Ethiopia power time in my life. Whenever I would meet an Italian, I would shove my Ethiopian heritage in their face. My pride in it’s history of being the first African country to defeat an European occupier. Effectively not letting colonialism destroy our country like it has done all around the world.

Stage 4 is what I went through when through in late middle school and early high school. I think that I was more critical of the Ethiopian community than the African American community. Obviously because that was what I was around the most and what I knew the most. At the dinner table, I would always interrupt conversations when I noticed racism sneak it’s way in. It tends to be different being a first generation Ethiopian American looking from the outside of the groups who were supposed to be a part of in stage 3 and the same goes for stage 4.

Stage 5 is what I am currently trying to break through. A part of me does not want to get to stage 6 too though. The way I see, I have a good understanding of the complexities of race, racism and it’s consequences. But my world view as the son of Ethiopian immigrants, who has been surrounded by poor working folk has shaped me in ways I still do not know. Losing my love for working class people would leave not much more to fight for.

During Obama’s campaign, I was beginning my journey of finding my political beliefs. I knew that the progressive tone of his speeches were definitely in agreement with my growing sense of beliefs. This was also the first election that I really paid attention to, until then I didn’t care. All I knew was that I didn’t like the majority of what the Republican party had to offer. Being a African American, I was well aware of the Southern Strategy that was talked about openly between Republicans. Although I did not learn it in school, I learned a lot in the library about how the New Deal and other major landmarks in America’s history in creating the middle class were hijacked to not include African Americans. With that being said, of course his background had an effect on my views of him. It took my positive position of his views and put into hyper mode. I want to be perfectly clear. I was not one of the illusioned African Americans, which Howard Stern interviewed, saying that Obama was going to pay their debts and mortgage payments. On a side note, Howard Stern’s little experiment shows nothing but the fact that there are people who do not pay attention or do not know what their stance is and just vote on public opinion. The same thing has been done concerning the Sarah Palin lovers, the Tea Party movement, and the current Occupy Wall Street movement. The people doing these interviews are just perpetuating a horrible cycle of two sided politics, a “us and them” not only with race but with ideology also. Plainly put although I was affected by Obama’s black skin, that is not why I voted for him.

Now that he is POTUS and quite blatantly abandoned his progressive world view, I will only vote for him because my fear of the alternatives. Where I am influenced by Barack’s skin color is when he addresses the Congressional Black Caucus and tells them to stop whining and “take off the house shoes”. These words were so divisive and played once again to the stereotypes of African Americans.

Much like me, Dr. Cornel West, sees the very alarming trend of the Obama presidency. We both see that the area where race played a role in supporting Barack Obama, the implied fact that he would identify with or at least bring light the poor in America. In a country being poor is becoming illegal, a president that understands the working class’ struggles. Dr. West’s response to this perfectly culminates my feelings about Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus. He said, "We’re trying to stay true to Bob Marley. We know the difference between wailing and whining. Wailing is a cry for help against the backdrop of catastrophe. Whining is a cry of self-pity associated with a sentimental disposition. We don’t whine."

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What are the big issues?

If you watch the news, you are led to believe that big issues are the “debt crisis”, “terrorism” and an unsecured border.

If you ask your conservative uncle, you are led to believe the socialistic agenda of Barack Obama is the big issue.

If you ask your liberal uncle, you are led to believe that fixing all of Bush’s failed policies is the big issue.

If you ask the Tea Party, you are led to believe that the Federal Government taxing them too much is the problem. You are also led to believe that “the slackers and moochers” of the tax payers is the problem.

If you ask me, a Occupy Wall Street supporter, you are led to believe that Wall Street greed leading to a United States of Corporate America.

If you ask an Evangelical Christian, you are led to believe that gay marriage, abortion, and Islam are the big issues facing the US.

What do you I think are the big issues facing America today? I think reign of deregulation on financial institutions which have led to a fascist police state. A very unsettling trend of big business completely controlling the actions of government. Down to the elections. They have created astonishingly efficient machine where a $5000 donation can create a mandate to use their product. Of course, that is an attack at the GOP Presidential candidate Rick Perry. The very fact that a corporation has the same rights as you and me is disappointing. What is worse is that because a corporation cannot speak in a physical sense, political donations are deemed to be their exercising of free speech. With the ruling of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) we have all lost our voice.

Giving big business (corporations) rights has led to a corporatocracy, that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business. Where corporations, conglomerates, and/or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country, including carrying out economic planning (notwithstanding the "free market" label).

The consequences of a system placed for interest of business instead of the people are things like corporate socialism. The very same politicians that advocate free market principles touted a bailout for banks claiming they were too big to fail. THAT IS CORPORATE SOCIALISM. Big business represents the wealthy. That is why low effective tax rates on the wealthy and corporations is pushed. The rational? That the money to trickle down from the top of the economic ladder to the bottom. It is why social programs are being slowly dismantled so big business can profit even more essential needs of the poor like healthcare.

The repealing of the The Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 is what many economists claim was the beginning of the end. All of regulations mandating that investment banks and commercial banks. It led to giants like Citigroup, formally Citibank and Traveller’s Group. In fact, the Citigroup merger is the reason why Glass Steagall Act was repealed.

The most saddening part of the Bush presidency is the fact that very same people who led the nation to the ground through horrible banking were in charge of the treasury and the FEDERAL RESERVE. Why else would these people think that the banks were too big to fail? And that specifically the banks they worked for got the most money with no interest rate. FREE MONEY.

Noam Chomsky says it best it, these financial institutions can carry out whatever atrocities with almost no impunity; which makes them not only too big to fail but “too big to jail”.

In my humble opinion, it is deplorable to say that big banks are too fail because that in turn implies that the American working class IS NOT too big to fail. For big to exist, small must also. For important to exist, insignificant must also.

This Haiti project is going to be a great opportunity for me and my group challenge each other to think of the root causes. The different viewpoints on what the root cause of Haiti will show us that we all have different ways of thinking. The discussion of free-will and determinism really speaks towards to the way people are going to form ideas to help the entrepreneurs in Haiti.

I watched the videos concerning Anaes Blaise, who made original designer totes, Euclid of “Boho” clothing designs, Yvrose Noncent, who makes sandals and evening wear, and Figaro Louis, who makes pastries and cordials.

The best way to help these people is to provide materials and capital for the entrepreneurs. This will help them get new items for shop and hire people to increase production. I also think that measures should taken to increase the quality of the roads to make transportation of goods more efficient.

Free Will vs Determinism is something I thought about when I was younger but did not know the terms to describe it. I think being a first generation Ethiopian American has much to do with my interest in this at such a young age. Understanding what my parents overcame and hearing stories of their struggles first arriving made me realize what I had been given.

Being a first generation American really puts things into perspective or at least my experience as one has done so for me. My parents came here from Ethiopia two decades ago. They came with nothing and worked very hard to get where they are at now. My mother is a nurse and my father is a Pharmacy Technician at the Hershey Medical Center. I specify his workplace because it is under PSU, so I receive a scholarship for going to there. I also specify that because when my dad found out about the job’s benefits, he did what he needed to do for the job. He hoped that me and my brother would go to PSU and lighten the burden on the family’s budget. That in and of itself is an example of both FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM. Of the choices my father had as an immigrant, he chose the one which he felt would benefit the family most. It is never either or.

Now a little about my life and how my father’s choices affect me.

As a youngster, my family lived in a group home. A group home is where many people who cannot take care of themselves live and have people help them with daily chores. Soon after my mother started classes to become a nurse, I remember distinctly helping her study for exams. My parents were both straight A students in Ethiopia and attended college when a near 4.0 was needed for acceptance. Much was and is expected of me. To make a long story short, we now live in a house in the suburbs and consequently went to a highly ranked high school. Now I am at the University Park campus of PSU.

This is a very basic summary of things of course.

The only big free choice, that I am aware of, I made was to work hard in high school and going to college BUT many small choices were made in the construct of my reality. Just like there are big things in my life that determine my life AND there are also many small things in my life that lead to my decisions also.

I must say that deciding to go to college tentatively was a free choice because I was told thatI was going to college all of my life. Also the fact that my father had taken a job that didn’t pay as handsomely as he could’ve gotten, so me and my brother had a easier access to college heavily weighed on my decision to come to PSU specifically.

Understand that the reality of life is a hybrid of the circumstances that people are in and the FEASIBLE choices they can make.

This is a topic that I have wrestled with and one day I wrote short definitions of African, African Americans and Blacks. To see the perspective taken for the words, I am an first generation Ethiopian. Both of parents immigrated here two decades ago. I grew up in suburban Lancaster County in a little one square mile borough called East Petersburg. Lancaster County is predominately white and blacks are third in population size next to Latinos. The African American community in my town was almost non-existent though. The Ethiopian community is a relatively small one but we do a lot to help each other out whether it be with money or just a helping hand. Sam did mention in respect to the Asian communities of whom family incomes are high but individual is low. I don't know why but I was very pleased to here it in class. I say that using my "definition" of the term. I realize that the word definition is a horrible word to use but I cannot find another word that describes it.

Africans: A man that comes from the continent of Africa. He resides ANYWHERE in the world. An African is proud of their heritage coming from Africa and will speak about it EVERY time an opportunity arises. Lastly, and most important, this person is WHITE or BLACK, YELLOW or BROWN. The color of the skin is just happenstance, their EXPERIENCES in AFRICA are what makes them an AFRICAN. It is a state of mind.

African Americans: A man that has an African background and lives in AMERICA. They have not lived in Africa before, they must be born in the USA, because that would automatically make them an African. Usually, the African American has African parents but may have African American grandparents or other family members. The main point is that are KNOWLEDGABLE of their African background. They MAY be ashamed of the background but they know that that IS the defining difference between them and the blacks.

Blacks: A black is just that. A man with black skin. His ancestors are from the CARIBBEAN or AFRICA, as a product of the slave trade. Blacks do not know their own heritage and due to that fact they have created their OWN culture, BLACK culture. Because they do not know much about Africa and they do not trace their ancestry back there, Africa is not a big deal to them.

Once again, I realize defining African, African American and Black is risky and just plain stupid to post for all to see but this class is about being open so I'm doing my best to be. I'm looking forward to more challenging questions in the many weeks left of the semester!

I have struggled with the question, "What are you?". Being the son of Ethiopian immigrants, the obvious answer seemed to be, "I'm 100% Ethiopian". Growing up I started to realize more and more my "blackness" and even what being Ethiopian meant for me. By realizing my "blackness" I mean, my first truly racist encounter. When I was in grade school, I was at the mall and a white man walked up to me and said, "God bless the Confederacy", and walked away. I was stunned. I did not think people thought like that anymore. Then many years later in middle school, a black classmate enlightened me to the fact that as he put it, "Ethiopians think they are so much better than other blacks" and that is why I would not go to his party. Even though I was raised in a household that did not drink any alcohol that subsequently led me to not drink. So all of a sudden, people who share the same skin color as me are critical of my ETHNICITY and others who do not share the same skin color as me are critical of me BECAUSE of my skin color. So when I answered 100% Ethiopian, I did so because I was just confused, angry and frustrated with the question. I wanted ensure that people knew my heritage is Ethiopian and I was proud of it. English was not my first language, as a child I spoke Amharic fluently before English. Ethiopia is such a big part of my life that I feel a loyalty to respect that aspect of myself.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter towards anyone. I don't say that I'm American because I did not grow up in that culture, whatever American culture is. I say I'm Ethiopian American. The beauty of multiculturalism is that while many different cultures amongst each other and yet we all want the best for OUR country. The key for everyone to live amongst each other is to UNDERSTAND their culture. Maybe once there is more understanding by all parties of each other's cultures, we can all say "I'm American". Also, I do not think the seemingly infinite different divisions be place ourselves in weakens our country. I don't think I'm being optimistic to think Americans want America to thrive. The only thing that can weaken America is if "white" is still perpetuated. A class like Soc 119 where EVERYONE IS EXPOSED is great because it is one step towards a more connected and understanding America.

In summary, I say America is not at the point where all cultures look at each other in neutral and understanding eyes. This is one man's opinion and an enjoying reading the other responses. I already see how my life as the son of immigrants manifests in my view. I have experienced humility in this class and expect to feel much more of it. I'm learning and unlearning things about myself and my surroundings and love it.

I leave you with a quote:
"We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." - Jimmy Carter