I think the river exercise was very interesting. It caused a lot of us to think. The scenario caught me off guard because I wasn't sure how it related to what the speaker was talking about. But I felt like it was a fun exercise. When he first asked the question, I didn't know who I would save. Of course my first thought was my mother. But then, I thought bout what my mom would want. Since she has lived longer, she may not want to be saved. And some people in class were thinking the same thing. Some even knew for a fact their mothers wouldn't want to be saved. Then I thought bout saving the baby. I would save the baby, because it hasn't even seen life yet. The baby doesn't know right from wrong, nor has it developed morals and goals. So in order for the baby to have a fair chance at life like everyone else on the boat, I would save it. But then, there is also the option of saing the wife. Someone in class said she would save her husband over the baby because they could make more kids. Lol as harsh as that may be, she does have a point. Even though the love you have that child cannot be replaced, but you could have another child.
I think this question is really tough to answer. Because in life, those are the most important people in your life or should be anyway.

I am not surprised at all about this video. When people think of drugs, they automatically think of black people or people who live in the black/minority communities. Little do people know, most drug dealers and/or user live in white communities and are majority white. It really shows how stereotypical our society is. I'm from DC and iwas fortunate to not have to go to a public school. However, I have seen what public school is like in DC. Every public school has metal detectors and security walking thru the halls non-stop. Yes, sometimes the security is needed because people fight and drugs into school. But the same thing happens in white public schools. I think its really terrible that the lady's niece can name what houses the kids sell out of. And I'm pretty sure alot of adults know about it, but wont say anything to please. When I went to Altoona, there was a frat house these guys sold drugs out of. And by drugs, not just weed; hardcore drugs! Anyway, their house got raid by drug task force in the area. And I'm pretty sure that is not rare in some school areas. But, there is a saying: Blacks make and sell the drugs, but the white man gets paid for it all. Basically, the white people control the drug game. And it somewhat true. Mafias of all races sell, make, and distribute drugs all over the world.

I think the video would have been funny if he interviewed any foreigner. I didn't think about race when I saw the video. In my opinion, the video wasn't to make fun of Asians or the lack of the knowledge they have about sports. It was to show foreigners and the lack of things they know about sports. I thought the video was funny. I took it as a joke. If i was the person being interviewed and put in a video like the one shown in class, I would be a little upset. But if I watch the video and see that it was joke, I'll laugh. However, I can understand how some people could take a offense to the video.

So far, from discussing the war, Sam hasn't changed my opinion. My few of the war is the same as it has always been. I think ht war is so pointless, especially right now. They are suppose to being bringing the troops home, but yet still sending people over to Baghdad and other middle eastern countries.
i think the mainly about power; and who has the most. Its all a competition. Who has the most power, who controls what country and their resources. Like, we went to war because the middle east had weapons if mas destruction. When they discovered they was no weapons they were already in too deep to pull out. Bush spent 8 years trying to find Ossama Bin Laden, and he was unable to find him.
Barack has been successful with his efforts in the middle east. He found Bin Laden and is slowly bringing the troops home. But i still feel like the US wasted too many years and too many lives of inncocent people. I understand that we neede to fo to the war in the beginnning because he had to protect ourselves, but I feel its time to end all ties in the middle east and bring the troops home for good. Its onvisous they want to come home. They are going trhu so much stress and depression.

Being a person of color, I was taught since elementary school about my culture and we my forefathers had to endure in order to each freedom. So from an early age, you start forming thoughts of race and different cultures. My elementary was mixed; white, black, Latino, asian, everything. So I never really paid attention to race or anything. They were just my classmates. I did notice that we were all different but it never clicked until I went to middle school. There, I started to notice race. Everyone was the same as me. From there, I identified myself as black and knew the difference between my race and other persons' race.
I think a pro from learning about race at an early age is you are able to id yourself. You are aware of the different type of people. You are able to immerse yourself in a new culture of seek to learn about a new culture or race.
I think a con is that you may be too aware of different race and sometimes people are afraid of different. Which would dthen cuz the person to isolate themselves from other cultures and races.

I think the best thing for someone to do is to not be affraid of different. Always seek to learn about new people. Being close minded is a negative thing in the world. Ignorance is all around us, and it the publics responsibility to educate themselves and others. I try my best to be open minded about eberything.

I think the war is completely stupid. In my opinion, its all about the wrong things. America just wants to have control and their hands in everything! They are spending more and more money, for what? To use that country's resources??? After todays class, I think I am more against war then I was before. I still support soldiers 100% because if our country is in war, we need people to fight for our country. But, I don’t believe in the concept of war. When listening to Sam’s TED talk, I realized that people go to war for very simple things. If I put myself in the Iraqi’s shoes, it is sad to think that my people (the innocent civilians) are dying over oil. But, I do also think that from the United States perspective, it is necessary to go to war. Oil is a huge source of energy in our country and if we lose connections to get oil, that could be a really bad thing for our country. Even though I think that it is really sad to think that there are many civilians over in Iraq that died because of this, I wonder what would’ve happened if we didn’t go to war. Gas nowadays is about four dollars but if we didn’t go to war, it could’ve been seven or eight dollars. I think it is sad to think how many americans view muslims. I would consider myself as a very grounded person and not racist in any way but when I see muslims with turbans in America, I usually cringe. It’s a first instinct. I cant help it. It was drilled into my brain. It is terrible how the Muslims gained a bad reputation because of Al Qaeda and all of the other radicalists in the middle east. The majority of the people in America that are muslims are good people and they are affected by their stereotypes and bad reputation. It is sad to think that they are discriminated for their religion even though they are not a bad person. It would be like one Christian doing something terrible and then the rest of the world thinking that all Christians are like that. It is a shame because I am Christian and I could get a bad reputation and be discriminated against for something that I didn’t do. I am just believing in a religion. So after class and looking at both sides, I guess I could say that I am confused what to think. I think war is good in some ways because if we didn’t go to war, oil might be scarce in the United States and oil could be more expensive then it already is.

As an African American I realize that State College caters more to white people than minorities. All the hair salons and barber shops in state college do not know how to handle minorities’ hair. As a guy in my first semester in state college I had to make major adjustments. Back at home I could find a good barber shop anywhere. The barber shops at home do shape ups, hair cuts and low cuts. When I came to state college most of the barber shops only know how to do hair cuts but they do not know how to do low cuts and shape ups. I understand that the majority of the population in state college is white so that's why they cater to white people and have mostly white hair salons. However, I feel that the barber shops and hair salons should at least know how to handle all kinds of hair textures instead of just straight silky hair. I know a lot of black females are always complaining about how they have to wait till they go all the way back home to get their hair done. Majority of my females friend said even the hair store sell mostly white hair products. Some of them said they try to go buy a weave and the weave products was made for white people. Yes white girls wear weave too! They hair was very thin and too silky to blend in with her hair. This is why most minorities buy their hair products in advance when they back at home. This is a very important issue to discuss because everybody want to look good and if so your hair have to look good. Most Black men on campus get their hair cuts by a friend or do it themselves. I personally get one hair cut by one person up here and if not I go all the way home to DC to get a hair cut. The only way I see this issue being solved if somebody step up and open up a business in state college that cater to minorities hair. Other than that I feel like nothing is going to change. People need to realize that this is not only a race issue but a money issue. If the majority of the population is white off course they is going to have mostly white hair salons and cater to white people. Therefore, if you really want change we need to make an effort to increase the population of minorities in state college. i just think they need to cater more to blacks hair because we take the most time and effort to do it.

Asian stereotyping is wrong, but common. Its sad, but its just how society is. Personally I think the notion of racism is most always first seen as extremely negative, that being said generalizing a particular ethnic group of people is most often correlated with something negative as well. That being said this has to do with the history of our country and the depths of racism that are country has endured since the first settlers came to America. Our country has a past of reacting in a harsh, negative, ignorant way to anyone who is not white like the Englishmen who first came to the continent. That being said it is obvious to why the idea and concept of being racist is seen as a negative thing. However when we generalize different groups of ethnic people people in positive ways like Asians being smart and blacks being good about basketball we get confused on how we should feel about it. The generalization and ideas of different ethnic groups in any way positive or negative is a form of racism. For instance if one said that all blacks are criminals, you could say yes some are but not all blacks are criminals and that is making a negative generalization about a certain ethnic group. So when we say that all Asians are smart and good at math, you would say that yes some are very smart but on the contrary not all Asians are smart nor or they all good at math. Making generalizations about ethnic groups in a positive or negative way is a form of racism. Some may say that it is a complement and to each individual person it is considered a complement, but not to one whole ethnic group in our society.

It’s very sad and disappointing to see discrimination around us in the year 2012. We would have thought that we see racism a lot less than before but the truth is that it’s everywhere every day, especially when in the work place, internships and when renting houses, etc. When turning in resumes, I believe that there should not be discrimination between the applicants just because of their gender or race. I think that all races and gender can be equally smart. In Thursday’s class, Sam gave us an example of two girls with the exact resume, just different name; and he mentioned that the one with the white name is a lot more likely to be hired than the one with a non-white name. I agree that this is true, and I also know that this is an example of racism in our society. What if there was a black/brown person with a white name? Or vice versa? This is extremely racist and wrong! A name does not tell anyone how smart or talented they are; their resumes do and that is the reason why they exist! It’s completely unfair to the brown and black people that might be as smart if not more as the white people. I believe that the person that is more qualified for a job position should be the one getting the job, not the other person just for being white, or having a white name. No one should have an advantage just because of their race. We were meant to be different for a reason, and I don’t think that this is the reason. Life would be boring if everyone had similar names, with similar looks, at least that’s my opinion. Like some of my classmates said, if I were to own my own business in the future, I would definitely choose the person that best qualifies for the job position, not for their race, gender etc.

I think some races dominate a certain sport because of the areas they grow up in. In most black neighborhoods, basketball and football are the most played sports. Not a lot of high schools in these areas have a variety of sports. In white areas, they have all types of sports. They are introduced to new sports and as a freshman in high school, you are willing to try these new sports that you are introduced to. Public schools in all black areas only have limited amount of sports mainly because of the amount of money given to them by the government. If you notice, private schools provide tons of sports, i.e. hockey, rugby, etc.

Race is technically the issue in the amount of people in a certain sport. Its society and the government who holds these individuals back from branching out in the sports world. If the government would give more money to schools to develop a good sports program, then majority black schools will be able to learn to play sports like hockey and baseball and rugby.