I think only twelve percent of white people think they will do better than their parents because they have higher standards to live up to. And as for blacks and Mexicans I feel as though we have on average, lower standards to live up to. Most white people are middle class or upper-middle class. And so that gives them a higher gap to fill. More whites are likely to go to college than blacks and mexicans probably combined. Or at least have a higher graduation rate. When it comes to blacks, I can’t speak for Mexicans, I feel as though our parents always bust their butts so we have more than they had. And we get a chance to dream and try to fulfill our dreams. On average, where I’m from our parents make about 25,000 to 45,000. In todays world, that really is not that much. Like for me, my mother has worked in a post office for the last 21 years of her life. She makes no more than 40,000 a year. All my life she has wanted me to be able to go farther than she has. By raising me with the ability to dream. Now living where we live, 40,000 is actually a bit on the high side of the spectrum. My mother has no college degree. My father has no high school degree. So like to compete with them all I really need is a college degree and BOOM. I have out done my parents. Its actually pretty sad that this is all it takes. Like I said earlier, I can not speak on behalf of Mexicans seeing as I am not one. But notice earlier when I said most of our parents... I said parents not families. I think that plays a big part into it too. More black than not are usually raised by one parent. So then that there splits up how far you have to go to exceed the life style of your parents. For white folk, they are more accustomed to having actual families and so you then have two whole incomes to compete with instead of one. Also, because more of their parents will have gone to college and have a college degree and along with a better paying job. Sometimes I feel as though for blacks its more so a, I can do better than you think thing. Blacks love to be told what they can not do so they can prove someone wrong or beat the odds. For whites, what do they feel like they need to beat? Compared to blacks how many stats are against them? How many laws or things have been put in place to see them fail? Exactly, so when a black person does such a thing its a great feeling of accomplishment.

Sam said white people will be the minority in the future but I am not so sure I believe that statement. How do I feel about it? Well, I feel like its calm. Like I’m not excited for it and I’m not scared of it happening. At this point I just feel like it is the inevitable. I think it will be a shock to the nation as a whole though. I mean if white people are the minority, then who will be the majority? I think that plays a big part in it too. Because if black were to become the majority (which I highly doubt would be the case) it would be extremely different than Asians becoming the majority or something of that nature. It would deff shake things up a bit. I know as a minority now, that when you walk in a room of people who look different than you, you notice and so do they. But when your around people who look like you all the time you can some times forget than you are indeed the minority. Like when I hang out with my friends at Penn State it almost never crosses my mind but if I am with a group of white people I am constantly thinking about my behavior, my body language, my outfit, is this okay to say and questioning everything before I make a move. Well, at least that was how I used to be. I am at a point in my life now where I am going to be me no matter who is around. I have learned to be comfortable about myself regardless of who is looking. I feel thats exactly what whites will have to do once and if they actually do become the minority. When I did my study abroad in South Africa as a freshman last year in the spring I was the only person of color who went out of thirteen students. While in Africa I felt calm and relaxed and free but some of the others who had traveled and come with us used to hate walking down the street by themselves. They hated sticking out and being the “Elephant in the Room”. Some even felt unsafe and wanted to go home because they felt so uncomfortable. And I remember that first night we had our discussion group within two days of arrival and they were all stating their opinions and emotions on the matter while I sat quietly listening. And towards the end I only said one sentence, “Now you see how it feels to be me in America”. Once that was said the room got quiet. No one had ever put it in that perspective before and placed themselves in someone else's shoes. I feel like that is exactly whats going to happen and it might even be necessary.

Why would someone be a sell out for hanging out with someone of another race? I don’t see why someone would be considered a sell out by just hanging with people that make them comfortable. In elementary school I hung out with people of all races. My best friend is white and I feel the same hanging with her than I do my black best friends. Sometimes I hate the fact that people put so much of unnecessary effort in distinguishing people based on their race. Yes, I’m black so what? Does that mean I have to only hang with black people? Umm no.. Penn State has less than 4% of black people. I prefer to keep my options open and not be confined with such a small number of people. Also, since a lot of people in the black community hang out with together, it is easier to have friends of different races because its easier to have friends that do not know your other group of friends. I mean what is a poser? Someone that is acting like someone else? Well I pretty sure the people that have friends of a different race are acting like themselves. They feel comfortable around them, so what? Why do people have to look at the black kid hanging with white people an oreo. He’s doing him and people should let him. I like friends of different races. Its fun to mess with people of different cultures. And it helps us as people get to broaden our horizons. Once you get t know other cultures you then get to start to question yourself. And ask why you do the things you do. hanging out with someone of a different race does not make you sell out. It makes you a person. Thats like saying girls hanging with boys girls are being a sellout. In my eyes race is no different than gender. We have no say in either. I feel as though if everyone married someone of a different race in one generation there would be no prejudice. Personally, like I have said before I would never marry a white guy, so I guess that whole marrying someone of a different race thing would never really happen. But you never know... it could. I went a charter middle school outside philadelphia that was not that all diverse but had a few white people. I went to the worst high school in philadelphia where like the test scores sucked and the only white thing in the school were the walls. But I remember my first day of school i had a key chain with a picture of my white friend and I and this one girl in the class picked it up of the desk and said, “You actually know white people?” And im jus like -_- yea stupid , there not a myth.

I think, no I know, the fact that I am black heavily influences the way I see the world. From birth things had been determined for me. I would never get a perfect score on the SAT. I would never get into any ivy league college/school. I would more likely than not have to pay for college. I would not live in a mansion or have a summer beach house. I even think the fact that I’m black has something to do with my dad not being around. Things like those seem to be predetermined factors for a lot of the blacks I know. Unlike many though, I am lucky enough not to have to pay for college due to a wonderful blessing. I don’t see the world as a place with butterflies or rainbows. I see the world we live in as another world’s hell. Whomever said life’s a bitch ain’t never lied. Growing up black in the ghetto is rough. I still wonder how I made it out. I feel as though if I would have been white or in a white family, life would have been a little easier. All I had in high school was a dollar and a dream. I feel as though there are way more down to Earth blacks than there are white people. For example half, if not more, of the things Sam teaches in class is just me and my friends lives on a powerpoint. But those things are new to white people. Doesn’t take a genius to know SAT scores are related to money. Being black does make me bitter as well though. A lot of times I feel the world/people in it are out to get me. I know a lot of blacks that feel like the world owe them something, but I just think thats stupid. I have always wondered how being Asian affects the way you see the world. Like since we all have this stereotype and think they are all really smart, do they think we’re really dumb? Do they also think they’re the best at math too? Being black has a big affect on things when it comes to money. Seems like big companies LOVE to throw money at poor neighborhoods and schools. I think they get a tax credit or something, but back in high we would get so many grants and things from big business places it was ridiculous. It kinda got annoying for me though, cause its like we only get those things because we’re a minority. Do we really deserve it? I know for a fact I don’t deserve my full scholarship. There are way more people who had a higher SAT score, a higher high school GPA and did more things in high school that are paying out of pocket for college. But why was I awarded it? Oh, thats easy. Because I’m a minority. Great.

The subject, “If my child was a gay,” is a taboo one in my neighborhood. A lot of my classmates and peers feel if their child was gay they would be okay with it. Most of the reasoning comes from this statement, “It was more so our parents and grandparents generation that were against the things that we are more so moving towards now-a-days.” That statement is always followed by: “Like I’m okay with interracial dating but my grandparents would be against it.” And most of the time I feel very old school for not wanting to stray from what our older generations believed. Personally, I feel like if my child was gay I would have difficulty accepting that. I would not shun my child nor disown them or treat them any different. Its just that thats a difficult thing. So for me to sit here and type and say, “Oh yeah, I would be perfectly fine with my child being gay. I don’t care its a free world.” -__- Yeah no thats not happening. I am going to be honest and say that I would more that certain have difficulty with this issue. I can also say that it would be easier to deal with my daughter coming out to me than it would if I had a son. And for that I blame media, and I blame social norms. In our society today its more acceptable for a woman to be gay than it is a man. In our porn industry, there are way more girl on girl videos than there are guy on guy ones. So thats why I feel like it would be slightly easier to deal with my daughter coming out to me. I am actually not okay with the fact that I would have difficulty with it, so I have been trying to do some things to change that. For example, I have started to broaden my horizons by learning more about gay and lesbian and bisexual people. It is interesting to hear their point of view on things. Most of them that I have spoken with would actually rather their own child not be gay because they want their child to have an easier life than what they have had. And the crazy thing is, thats not a gay thing thats a human thing. I do not know of any parents that deliberately want to make their childs life harder than their own. I feel like all anyone wants at the end of the day is to be loved and to be with the person that makes you laugh. Whether that person is the same sex or opposite sex has nothing to with anyone else but those people, so other should really just mind their business.

In our society today women are seen as more innocent then men because of history and gender roles maybe. I feel like gender roles play a bigger part of it than history. To answer this question we need to take a look at what it means to be a man. In my opinion, to be a man it takes courage and strength and i guess 'manly' qualities. What are manly qualities? I have no idea. But from medias perspective or views, to be a man is to be able to provide and protect. To not have female tendencies like take care of your hair or clothes. Females on the other hand do do things of this nature. Females generally care more about their looks and their reputations than guys do. Men are more in the 'hardcore' fields than women are, although this is starting to change. But as a black woman in the college of engineering... I am one of few women. In history women have taken on this role of needing to be ‘saved’ or needing to be ‘protected’. From fairy tales to grandmothers’ stories of how she was swept off her feet, its all the same. In movies, how many female construction workers do you see? I don’t know. But men just value women as innocent creatures. I feel like white women are looked at as more innocent than other races. Maybe its just me but theres more to that blonde hair and blue eyes. Its something about them that just screams innocent. Lets be honest, black people are anything but innocent. Like really, from a black dog to a blackout things with the word black are more than often viewed with a negative connotation. Asians go unnoticed. When it comes to stereotypes they get all the positive ones. And in my mind those are the 3 major races. I also think white women being considered as the most innocent goes along with them being the majority. Also, Sam showed us a video in class that had 3 people stealing a bike. The first was a white man. And people stopped and stared, only a few actually asked him was that his bike. I can’t fully remember if someone told him to stop but I doubt it. The second was a black man. Many people stopped him and questioned what he was doing. I specifically remember this one old white man argued with him and started yelling and starting chaos. Lastly there was a white woman and a few men actually helped her steal the bike knowingly. Like I said earlier I guess its just something about women they look innocent. But women as a whole, for us, looking innocent its a curse and a spell.

I think the Haiti project is a great thing. I think it will help a lot of different people that live in that country. I also think the fact that these people own their own businesses is a beautiful thing. growing up environments such as Haiti it is important for kids and children to see their own people being successful. It gives kids hope ad dreams to say, “Hey, I can do this one day!” I honestly wish I would have seen more of that when I was growing up in my neighborhood. One thing that foes concern me regarding this project was for the Hospital one where money is raised from the community to help provide hospital gowns and meals to people who are ill and need to visit the hospital was that the money is being raised from community members. I don’t really see that as being very helpful (but this is just my opinion). I feel as though most of the people who live in Haiti do live under the poverty line and taking their money to help fund a hospital is nice and all but what about those may never need to use that hospital? Or those that already have health insurance? Side note: Does health insurance even exist in Haiti? Well maybe that was a stupid question but I’m just not sure so thats why I asked. While listening to Figaro’s story it truly touched my heart. As did the lady who made bags from one sowing machine. Although it did make me wonder how did she learn to do such a thing. In the video she said she would sell the bag for 30 haitian dollars which is equal to 4 American dollars and I just want to know is that really enough to live off of? Also, in Figaro’s video the way Sam handled when she told him she was mugged recently on the street and they took every bothered me. I felt as if he did not care. Now, as for if I have any ideas for Haiti? I mean like, I am not really too sure. We could always do a book drive, or be unoriginal and send money. As a student right now, I am not sure exactly what I have to offer besides my knowledge and a friend to the people in Haiti. As an engineer, maybe I could find someway help with infrastructure, like that one man Noel who had solar powered street lights. Which by the way, was so cool. I had never heard of anything like that before. This project does bring tears to me eyes, especially watching the videos of the entrepreneurs themselves. It reminds me of when I went to Africa and I saw many people having their own form of entrepreneurship.

I am so happy this is a blog question for this week. I was definitely thinking this exact thought. "If Sam was a different race would he be a different person?" I mean like there is so much to say on this one topic. During class on Thursday I tweeted at least four times that the things Sam considers un-mind blowing things, mind blowing. I feel as if, if Sam had grown up in an urban community like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Brooklyn etc... he would have already known these things. Growing up in Philadelphia, an extremely urban community most of the things he says are prevalent to every day life. Finding out that SAT scores closely relate and may be heavily dependent upon family income is no shock. I remember one day in high school I was in SAT prep class and the teacher just flat out told us, "To be honest, you guys can study as hard as you like but we can't teach you everything you need to know for this exam. It's extremely racist and classist and sexist. Only the best of the best exceed on this exam, so good luck." I guess instead of our teachers teaching us the 'normal' lesson plans they decided to actually give us something that would be helpful towards our lives. Which were the facts on real life. I feel like if Sam had grown up in an urban environment he would not be a sociologist because all the things he finds fascinating he would have known growing up and perhaps he would not feel the need to share them. Seeing as most people I know who have grown up in these less fortunate environments do not consider them so mind blowing or shocking. We just consider it life. If Sam was a black person I think he would probably working in somebody's McDonald. I remember Sam mentioned in class that once he graduated his mother suggested that go work somewhere(I do not remember the exact place) but she recommended that he go somewhere to work. He also said that if his mother had not encouraged him to get a job then might be home with his parents. I feel like in an urban Sam would have crumbled. i know this blog was supposed to be about what would happen if Sam was a different race, and I realized that I basically talked about if Sam grew up in an urban area. But I feel like habitual environments are way more important than race when discussing what Sam is teaching. While in class (like I stated earlier I was tweeting about the things Sam was saying in class) and I tweeted something about only white kids mind's were blown today. A white kid retweeted me by commenting and saying "So are you saying white kids are not poor?" And I had to stop and think about what I just said. it was prejudice and then I had to check myself.

I'm not very shocked that is a question after Tuesdays lecture. I was actually anticipating this question being asked in class but I guess some people were too nervous. Anyways, the biggest difference between black people and African people is that African's are from Africa. Now I know that essentially everyone was from Africa but 'Africans' usually they have just 'come over' within the last two or three generations. I, myself am black. My mother and grandmother and great-grandmother are all from the United States so, technically I am not African. Nor do I know which part of africa I am from. The high school I went to was like 55% African and 44% Black. And like once a year in the spring the Africans would fight the Blacks. Not many other races know but Blacks and Africans sometimes do not get along. Some blacks feel like they are better than Africans because they've been here in America longer. Also, some black people accuse africans of having bad smells or eating weird food. But on the other side, Africans sometimes do not like blacks too. They come to america feeling out of place and its hard to make friends when your different, especially when you have strong ties to your culture. The fight in my high school was often pointless. It was a bunch of misplaced anger and many misunderstandings. And when I say fight I mean it was a big one. About 150 students participate in this thing annually. Africans more so have stronger ties to home than black people. Usually, but not always, Africans have bigger butts than Blacks. Africans tend to eat different foods and dress in more colorful clothing thats made out of a single cloth of material. Black people are more so Americanized. Meaning, we eat lots of fast food. Another big significance I noticed while in high school was that Africans tended to be more focused on school. Since they're parents have more so recently come from third world countries they have instilled in them a will for education that Black children have tend to lost. Living in America its easy to lose focus on what the ultimate goal which is : Getting an education, because an education is the key to success. I will be honest though, most things I have put in this blog post are stereotypes. So I don't think this makes me very creditable. Although stereotypes tend to be a negative thing, I feel like they fit this situation very well. And not all stereotypes are bad things. Sometimes I wish I was African that way I would automatically have ties to where 'my people' come from and then I would have a sense of belonging or a sense of culture.

Well interracial relationships is a very touchy subject, but it also a very interesting one. I, myself am against interracial dating. I grew up in a family where mixing races is highly frowned upon. Growing up, my mother would always threaten me about bring home (as she would call it) "a white boy". Momma would always say, "They ain't from where you from and they headed in your direction either." And I guess as I grew up I believed her. Cause I mean come on, at least half of peoples beliefs come from what they hear over and over again from family and growing up. Apart of me is ashamed for not having the courage to go against my parents and find my own beliefs. But I'm comfortable with not challenging them. Its always nice to know someone has your back. The crazy thing is though, one of my oldest friends is white. We grew up in the same neighborhood, just a block away from each other since like fifth grade. And from time to time I do ask myself, whats the difference between an interracial friendship and an interracial relationship? The only difference I can think of is, the people in the friendship are less likely to have babies. But as for me being comfortable dating outside my race, that would be a definitely NO. There are many stereotypes associated with being a black woman, such as being loud and loving drama... etc. I feel like if I were to date a white guy or spanish guy or even like an asian man I would need to be on my "best behavior". I'm partially sure some of this comes from my own personal insecurities. At times I can be that loud girl walking down the street and act ghetto. But what is ghetto? Cursing a lot, acting inappropriate in public? Well then I guess you can dupe me as ghetto. I guess I'm selfish for only seeing myself with black men. Some of my white friends say its sad that I limit myself to one race and that I need to expand my views. But I say, look the only thing a white man can do for me, is give my children some good hair. Like its wrong but its the truth. At the end of the day i feel like the races should not mix. And yes I know love knows no color but look, all I know is my own children had better not bring anything but a black human through my front door. Maybe one day I will expand my views but as for now, I am against interracial dating mainly because of views that have been passed down through my family. But I must say, the more I converse about these things the more I open my heart and mind...