I come from a very rural and close-minded area. I’m almost positive my parents would be more accepting of me if I dated a black, Asian, etc girl rather than me being in a relationship with another man. I come from a rural area where everyone knows everyone elses business and I a m pretty sure my parents would be more embarrassed or worried about the fact of other peoples opinions on me being in a relationship with another man. As horrible as that sounds, it is the truth. On the racial side of things, I have some experience with that. My younger sister dates a black boy and although my parents aren’t enthusiastic about the idea, they allow her to date him and he comes over to our house and she is allowed to go to his house. They definitely weren’t excited at first but they have opened up as time as gone on, and my sister definitely is one to be the rebellious kind. My mom was more open to her dating a black boy more so than my step dad but he is coming around. As for my real dad, I think he would have more of a problem with me being gay than me being in an interacial relationship. My dad comes from a very tradiotional farming family who has his ways set in stone… although my step mom who is younger has got him to loosen up a bit. I definatelt think my step mom would beopen to me dating a girl of a different race whether it be Asian or black or whatever.. and I think she would be open and okay with me dating another guy and being homosexual. She is very accepting of others with differences and has more of an open view on an outlook of life. As for what race they would be accepting of, im sure all of my parents would not really care if I dated an Asian girl.. I don’t know why but I think they would not care if I dated an Asian girl over a black girl. My parents would definitely be taken back if I brought home a black girl but I don’t think they would care really if I dated an Asian girl. There aren’t many Asians, African americns, or any other kind of race where I live.. I mean there some but its def mostly white.

I was with the small group of students that chose to save their mom. I feel very strongly about this for a few reasons but It was definitely a hard decision to make and one that I hope I would never have to make. The reason(s) why I would choose to save my mom is because she is the one that has given birth to me and has raised me and done everything in her power to ensure I have had a comfortable life growing up. She is always the one to be there for me to make sure I have had everything I needed and wanted. Coming from a family that was divorced, you tend to appreciate your parents and what they do for you more. My mom has earned the right and deserves the right to live her life until she dies naturally, rather than being the one not chose to be saved. Im not saying I wouldn’t want to save anyone else, but my mom deserves the most to be saved. I disagree with the people who said their husband or wives could be replaced. I feel when you marry someone you should be totally committed to that person and feel as if there is no one else in this world that you would want to be. I sure hope my wife thinks I am irreplaceable, because if she thinks I am replaceable, im not the one for her. I feel you should think your partner is irreplaceable, that is why you choose them to spend the rest of your life with. Your partner is supposed to someone special to you, not someone who you can just throw away and find another. I think the same people who said they could find someone else to replace their partner would feel terrible and would be offended if their partner said that about them. As for my child, this would be the hardest decision. It is very close when it comes to deciding between my child and my mom but I feel I would have to choose my mom.. maybe it is because I do not have a child yet and my thoughts and opinions on this matter would change once I have a child.. but for now I feel that I would save my mom over my child. However, I might feel that I would change my feeling on this once I have a child.

I think this all has to do with who you are allowed to make fun of and who you cant make fun of. Like I can make fun of my mom but you cant make fun of my mom, or I will get offended. I feel this is the same way when it comes to racial humor.. sometimes or most of the times its okay for white people to laugh at white people without anybody getting upset.. or black comedians can make fun of black people but if a white person got on stage and made jokes about black people it would seem as offensive or upsetting to black people. I feel this is the same way with Asians or Mexicans, they can make fun of themselves but if white people find humor in joking about Asians and Mexicans, it might be offensive for the asian or Mexican. This is why I think the white guy was called out for making fun of the asian and asian was not called out because they are “allowed” to make fun of one another. I think this is a complicated matter, a very touchy and complicated subject. This is also a point to bring up that its okay for the white person to laugh if the asian is laughing at himself or his other asian people because then you are laughing with the asian person and not AT the asian person.. this shouldn’t be that big of a deal but in all reality it is a huge deal. I think a lot of white people look for the go ahead to laugh at racial jokes or something of the sort. They wait and see if a person of that race, who the joke is about, is laughing or is amused by the joke until they show that they think it is funny too.. or they wont show that they think its funny either because they are afraid they will anger the other person who the joke is about. I think most times the jokes that are being made aren’t to degrade a certain race or anything of that matter I think it is all in good fun and many ppl make a living by doing comedy and race is a very popular joke topic.. I feel a lot of people are over sensitive to certain jokes and more people should embrace the jokes and be proud for who they are.

I would say as I’ve grown up and gotten older I definitely do not believe half the stuff that is told in the news. I would say that the news that is presented is somewhat true, but the whole story or the background of the story is definitely not told completely. I feel certain news stations portray certain events in ways that reflect their ideologies and opinions. And people know what specific stations are going to broadcast or what opinions certain stations have so they tend to watch the stations they agree with and never bother with the stations that have an opposite opinion. I feel that the news will never show what really goes on, I mean they can’t show the ugly side of war to the public although I feel they should. I feel this would really change the minds of people who are making the decision to go to war and the people who are saying we should go into other countries and show them what America is about.. most of the people in favor of war probably do not have a family member in the service or have no real grasp on what the reality of war is, because if they did I do not think they would ever want the United States to go to war..unless it was do or die. I think every politician should experience war up close and personal before they decide to send of thousands of young Americans to be killed just so they can become wealthier. In todays society it is so easily to altar images or make fake videos of what is going on, you never know what you are seeing and you can never believe what you see or what you are told. I think you should question whatever is being presented to you or what you are told because I feel you cannot believe anything you are told without doing a little research yourself. We live in a world where everyone is trying to and will say anything to get someone to agree with them for their own benefit. These people do not really care about us, they just want more followers and will say anything to gain that.

I feel that the topic of physical attraction is everywhere not just our job careers. Its with our friends, family, its everywhere.. when we go to high school we become friends with ppl who look like us, when we go off to college we become friends who look like us and we think look attractive and appealing. I feel this is something we cannot help or control and its purely instinctual. I think we are more personable and nice to people we find physical attractive and we are more comfortable approaching strangers who look more appealing to our eyes then people who do not look as open. Who are you rather to ask for directions if you are lost? A person whos smiling, dressed in jeans and a nice shirt or someone who is dressed in all black with their hood up looking down at the ground? Obviously you are going to ask the person who looks more personable to you, and if you say no you are most likely lying to yourself. So when you talk about a job interview, it is hard for a person to put away the physical attraction away and base it solely on who Is most qualified for the job. I feel physical attraction is a bigger part of a job interview then what people actually think. I think getting a job obviously requires having the right requirements and degree but I feel a huge part of getting the job has to do with the attraction between the person being interviewed and person conducting the interview. Who wants a person that’s qualified for the job but you cannot get along with for 8 hours of the day? When there is someone who is qualified for the job, maybe a little less then the other but is physically attractive? You want to spend 8 hours of your day working with someone who is nice to look at, not someone who disgusts you when you look at them. This is especially true when one is looking for a person who is a sales associate or someone who deals with clients and/or needs to deal with people. You wanna put someone out there who is physically attractive, not someone who people will shy away from. Like I said before, people are more likely to gravitate to someone who they are physically attracted to more times than not to someone who is unattractive and seems to be not as personable. So all in all I feel that physical attraction plays a huge part in the job industry and everyday life.

To answer the question why certain races dominate sports I think it is totally and causality and culture phenomenon and has nothing to do with biology. When growing up what do white kids dream of doing? Throwing the winning touchdown pass in the superbowl or hitting the game winning homerun of the world series. What do you black kids dream of, or mostly, I feel they think of hitting the game winning shot of game 7 in the nba finals. What do Spanish kids in south America and central America grow up playing? They either grow up playing soccer or baseball, that’s why baseball is so dominated by latinos. Its not because they are genetically driven for a specific sports it all has to do with where you grow up and what opportunities you have around you. And to say Asians aren’t very athletic would be very wrong and uneducated.. some of the most talented baseball players are found in the Japanese league and some of them make It over to the MLB (most famous would be Ichiro and Matsui). When you see a little black kid what do they always have in their hands? I would say more than likely its going to be a basketball or football. You travel to the city and what do you see being played on every block? Basketball.. you don’t see football or baseball fields being built as much as you see basketball courts in the city. So it’s only natural for black people to dominate basketball and football, white people to dominate football, hockey, baseball… if Asians grew up playing football from the time they were born they would dominate that sports. If black people grew up around hockey and played hockey since they could walk they would dominate that sport. The same goes with racing, and it’s the same for every sports..it all depends where you grow up and how much effort you put forth when you are a young kid and the resources you have that determines whether you are going to excel into the professional realm of sports. All in all it all depends where you grow up and what sport you grow up around which will determine what sports and what races will thrive in the professional leagues.

If you believe white people avoid racial discussions I think it is all about where you grew up and what you were surrounded by, people, culture, media etc. I grew up in a very small town, my graduating class was only 72..everyone know everybody so it was very open area. My school only had 1 black person in it and to be honest, she was more “white” than “black”. My area was 99% white and republican… a very rural and agricultural town so racial integration was rare. So where I grew up, I never had any real experience with other culturesl until I started getting older and was able to drive to go out to places such as harrsiburg. So from my point of view, I feel that it all depends on where you grew up. I do have black friends now that I went to college and got out of my hometown, but I am still uncomfortable around them and speaking about race. I feel this is the way because I did not grow up around them and had no interaction with them.. I could not talk to them openly as I grew up and now that im older and have interactions with them, it causes for some tense times. I am open to meeting any person from any race but since I grew up in a white town, im nervous to meet people from other cultures because im not sure how to interact with them and im afraid of offending anybody when I speak. At times I feel that other people view white people as being racist and white people do not want to offend and are too afraid to offend other people and that is why they avoid speaking up about racial issues in the first place. Most white people are not used to speaking about it so when they get to college and have the opportunity to speak about it with other cultures they rather shy away and not say anything at all instead of speaking up about it. I feel if some white people, as myself, would have grown up around a mulit-cultural aread I feel that we would be more open to talking about racial issues. I know I would be more open to speaking about racial issues if I came into more contact with different cultures as I grew up. I guess it comes down to the point that you should speak up and voice your opinion no matter what, it’ll help get your feelings out there and others will respect you more if you voice your opinion rather than keeping quiet and keeping your feelings to yourself.

Whether you should or shouldn’t learn Spanish is totally up to the individual, but I truly believe that you should learn Spanish for your own benefit. Im a history major and am required to learn another language and I chose Spanish over every other language. More and more people are speaking Spanish not only in America but around the world. And with today’s style of living, where everyone is connected around the world, one is going to need to know another language other than the language they were taught as a child. The idea of everyone should learn English because this is “America” is a very traditional-minded opinion and clearly an uneducated one. Learning Spanish and/or another language is setting yourself up for more job opportunities in life, which equals more opportunities to make money and living. I feel that America’s educational system should implement a system of having Spanish taught to kids at a young age in elementary school. This way kids will grow up speaking English and Spanish and they would not have to choose if they wanted to or not. I wish I could have learned Spanish in elementary school, not only for the opportunity factor, but being bi-lingual is a very cool thing to say you can do, and is very impressive. I come from a small, white, rural farming community where everyone is pretty close-minded (adults and old people) but as the younger generations are getting older, these traditional views are slowly fading away. On the finding that it hurts a presidential candidate to be bi-lingual, I feel that it is just ridiculous. What does that say about america’s society? It makes us look like a bunch of uneducated and simple-minded citizens. It’s embarrassing when you really think about it. I think we should want to our president to be able to speak more than one language, it shows that our president is very-well educated, who wouldn’t want a president that is able to speak different languages? It also shows he cares about other countries, which the president should, but it shows they are willing to learn different cultures which could help with international relations etc. America needs to get out of the traditional, tunnel-vision that most of Americans have. It’s time to move on into the modern age of globalization and realize America is made up of many different cultures, ethnicities, and languages. Just walking around campus you can multiple languages being spoke, if America keeps up with these ideas of America being only for English-speaking people, America will be left behind in the years to come.