I think this question regarding whether America should invade other countries when we have our own problems is very circumstantial. Part of me says yes and part of me says no. I think we need to deal with the problems that are here in our own country first, then try to help out the surrounding ones. It is just like we have heard our entire life “worry about yourself”. The problems that are occurring in our country are OUR problem and I would feel uncomfortable with another country trying to take over and run things their way. We are independent enough to be able to figure out what we are doing on our own, whether that takes longer than it should or not. Americans need to settle the social and political unrest of their own home before messing around with another country. When countries break into other countries against their wanting, it can cause something really bad. Not just hate, but war. War results in so many casualties and injuries, which is just not worth invading the country in the first place. We also cannot be responsible to cure every issue or problem in all the other countries. Even though we may think we do, and of course it would be nice to, we do not have all the answers. We are only as much to the other places as we are to our own, and if we still have problems here then we need to take care of that first. The part of me that says yes to America intervening with other countries is due largely to the safety of the United States. If this country is a threat to us as American citizens and we are aware of this, then that is when it is acceptable to interfere. As one unified country, we need to focus on doing everything in our power to keep all of us safe and out of war. This also goes along with the thought of taking care of our own issues and problems before dealing with every one else. Yes, we may be powerful and one of the strongest, most successful countries. So when people from other places express that they want help then it would be okay to go in and give the assistance they wanted. We could do that by using our power and knowledge on what is positive and works in our country. With the situation of September 11th, I feel our safety was in jeopardy. This is a perfect example for when the United State of America should invade. The reasons for interfering would be to seek revenge and to protect our citizens. Considering they attacked first, regardless of what took place years prior, our troops are there fighting for us as Americans.

I think this question is something that EVERYONE needs to take the time to ponder. A lot of people have kept quiet during a situation in their lives, which could have and may have lead to some serious damage being done. This whole situation has taught me some incredibly important lessons. The first one is to always do the right thing. As cliché as that sounds, your one small action could be saving someone else. There was a case years ago about a woman named Kitty Genovese. She was stabbed to death in an alley near her home in New York City. So many people heard what was going on through their apartment windows yet no one wanted to get involved. This resulted in not a single person picking up the phone to do what was morally right by calling the police. Blatantly, these situations are much different yet they each are centered around the bystander effect. Mike McQueary was twenty-eight years old when he witnessed Jerry Sandusky in one of his monstrous, horrific acts. Personally, I feel that twenty-eight is old enough to know that a grown man should not be in a shower messing around with a little boy. He definitely knew something was wrong since he reported the situation to Joe Paterno, so what I do not understand is why he would not go straight to the police. I understand that this is one of the people he had to listen to and work under, but those little boys lives were much more important than his job. He should have immediately gone to the authorities and made sure they took care of this whole situation rather than just telling his father and Joe Paterno. Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are also people who should have known to do the right thing. Instead, they protected their friend, which was immoral and wrong. All of this has taught me that no matter who is involved, I have to do what is right and what will protect the people in the situation. Silence needs to be broken. People need to come right out and say what has happened, regardless of the consequences. Of course it is easier to ignore what is going on and not get involved, but this could truly lead to serious issues later on in life. It was hard to watch so many of our leaders crumble before our eyes. But like our new president, Rodney Erickson, said "don't paint us all from the same brush". These few people, no matter how high their positions are, do not describe our entire university.
Another message I have learned to thoroughly listen to through all of this is to never believe a word of the media. From being in State College and witnessing everything that is actually happen, the news-people blow everything out of proportion. They also only focus on the negative aspects that are occurring rather than the positives, such as the vigil held. I will always wait until the full truth comes out before I make any judgments on a huge situation that is being put out by the media.

As a Penn State student, I feel that all of this attention drawn to us is so negative. It is giving the school such a bad reputation because all of the media is refusing to show anything but the animalistic side to this situation. Flipping media vans, riots, and “F**k Sandusky” chants are what is making it to the televisions when that is only a small percentage of our student population. What about the people who are holding vigils for the victims of this horrific incident? Why does no one want to realize that none of the students were even at the university during this time? We are getting blamed for not caring for the children, when in all reality we care more than any other student body. Not one other school in the world has something as incredible as THON. Yet on the 100 days till THON celebration, media trucks reported the nerve of Penn State students to be upset over the head football coach wrongfully getting fired. Everyone was so quick to jump to conclusions rather than taking the time to find out who should be accused and proven as guilty in this matter. Mike McQueary, a twenty eight year old grade student at the time, witnessed this awful event and decided to call his father and report it to Joe Paterno. Why is his position on our staffing coach still there when he was blatantly old enough to go directly to the cops with this story? All of these questions are what should really draw the media in rather than the way the Board of Trustees got rid of Joe Pa. The investigation is still going on, and students have every right to act the way they are. Upset, hurt, ashamed, disgusted, confused, shocked… these are just a few words to describe our reaction to this whole situation. As a university, we pride on how we carry out tasks in success with honor. Our alma mater states that as Penn State members, may no act of ours bring shame. No one on the outside of this whole scenario understands what we are going through. We are taking the brute for what one disgusting man did and how a few others covered it up around twelve years ago. Why are we as the present students getting sucked in and blamed for all of it? This Saturday, our football team who is eight and one has to play one of the toughest games of their careers. Not only is it going to be a hard team to beat, but it is the senior game, which already is emotional in itself. Now knowing that Joe Pa, their idol and such a huge inspiration to all of those boys won’t be there makes it even worse for them. This school will unite so strongly on Saturday as one, to fight against child molestation and all of the awful media reports to prove that we love this university and we still are and always will be Penn State.

The question of “if you were a business owner, would you hire an illegal immigrant” was somewhat difficult to answer at first. I immediately thought, “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” I’ve always been the type to help out whoever I can whenever I can”. I then read the question allowed and when my roommate overheard she blurted out “Absolutely not!” When I asked why, her story truly opened my eyes. When she was younger, her family decided to get work done to their backyard. They hired a company who they heard through friends was diligent and reliable. One day while the workers were in the backyard, my roommate Sara heard a loud bang. She ran to the screen door to check out what it may have been. When she looked, she noticed a man was lying under a piece of equipment. His co-workers helped him up and as he stood up, Sara screamed. Half the man’s face was bleeding and the skin was falling off. She could tell that the man was Mexican or some type of Hispanic from his skin color. She ran upstairs to get her father. He came down in a hurry and when he saw the man’s face he quickly ran to see if everything was all right. As he approached closer, he could see how severe this situation actually was. “I’m going to call the ambulance. Don’t worry everything will be okay!” her father screamed running in to the house. All of a sudden, the injured worker sat up and yelled “No! You can’t call them! Or the cops! I’m fine!” Stunned, her father could do nothing but stare. This man’s face was peeling off and he did not want any help at all? That’s when it clicked. He was an illegal immigrant and was not considered an American. He had no insurance and no social security number. This man was helpless. A co-worker lifted him up and drove him home. That was all Sara could remember. This story sparked a conversation between Sara, myself, and our other two roommates. Being a business owner with responsibility as the one who owned that construction company is a scary thought. What if something happened to one of your own workers like in this situation? The responsibilities and stakes are just way too high. I personally think finding a job in this day in age for these illegal immigrants is near impossible. Taxes are incredibly high which makes it even harder for these people to start a new life and live in America. In conclusion, as a business owner I do not think I would hire and illegal immigrant to work for me. Too much trouble and risks would be taken that I may not be able to afford. But I wish there was some way that these immigrants could easily find jobs and that would help support their families and lifestyles.

Racism is something that is all around us, whether we realize it or not. It is going to be around for quite a while, even if we try to prevent it. It is something unique that has continued through out our history, posing problems and issues forever in our world. It is the notion of realizing inequality in our world due to the shape of one’s eyes or the color os their skin. Racism is the discrimination against a specific group of people due to their race or skin color. It is the belief that race accounts for difference in human character or ability that a particular race is superior to others. It is an unnecessary hatred for a particular group of people. This goes along with the stereotypes people give to people of a different race than themselves. By giving certain stereotypes, which are normally mean, I feel is an example of a person being racist. Like Sam said, people questioning Barack Obama’s religion because of his skin color is racist. They feel that because his skin color is different than the other presidents that we have had, they begin to question his capability of leading our country.
People that are racist are not open to people being different than themselves. They feel that because the person is different they are superior to them, which is ridiculous. Racism is something that should not be tolerated. I feel, personally, it should have never existed. Foolish people are the ones who choose to be racist. Sociology 119 proved that we are all the same. We have more in common with all the people around us than we actually thought. People point out the differences in people of different races and it makes situations uncomfortable. There is no need to even discuss them. I came from a town where there is not much diversity in race. It is a predominantly white town. I have always been open to embrace whatever diversity or mix of race came my way. For some people, Penn State University is not the most diverse. To me, it was completely different than where I had grown up. The discussion group for this class has helped me become even more comfortable with accepting the mix of ethnicities in our world. Last semester, I took a class on racism in literature and cinema. It taught me how there are so many issues of racism out there that people are not even aware of. Racist comments and jokes are passed all the time and when I hear things like that, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I personally have not experienced an act of racism that is harmful in a significant way, but I know it is out there and it needs someone to put an end to it.

Before I came to University Park, I think I was in stage 1. My town in Northern New Jersey is not the most diverse and there are little other races besides white. Race was never really a thought in my day to day life, just due to the fact that there was such a small amount of it surrounding me. It was not a huge topic discussed, unless it was in a history class in school. So when I came to University Park and saw much more of a diverse community, I entered stage two. I began to see that there is an us and them and that people are very different. Even though, the majority of this campus is white, it is still much more of a mix than I have seen in the past. I felt like I was constantly watching my word choice to make sure I was “politically correct”. I am very comfortable being around people of different races, that has never been an issue for me. I do feel uncomfortable and weird around a person who is racist or makes a comment that I feel is inappropriate. If I were with a person of color and a racist comment was made I would be upset. My friends at home are definitely all in stage one, along with my family members. I believe that the reason for this is just because of our location of where we live. There is no reason for them to be in a different stage. Here, I have friends from all over the country. These people are in more of stage two or three because they have grown up in communities where race played a main role in their everyday lives. In a positive way, these friends do influence what stage I am in. They make it easier for me to accept and grow more comfortable with all the different types of people we have in our world. It is nice to be influenced for the better, especially with a topic like race that will always exist in our world. I think my friends from home are still in stage one. The universities they go to are no one near the diversity we have here at Penn State. Until they are out of that element, they probably will not leave this stage. I can truly appreciate the acceptance my friends at school have for all the different people there are.
Taking Soc119 has also opened my eyes to how easily one can pick which stage they are in. A person’s behavior is all their choice and the way they chose to deal with this topic of race is also up to them. This will reflect in which stage they are in.

White guilt is the feeling of regret or remorseful awareness of having done something wrong, dealing with racism. For example, if you are to make a racist comment or feel that you have benefitted in a situation due to your race. Personally, I feel that white guilt is everywhere in my life, but this is not because I am a culprit of making racist comments. Like one of the kids used in Sam’s examples today, as a white person I am very aware of my word choice when dealing with race. I do not ever want to offend anyone and would never want to run into the situation when someone takes what I say the wrong way. I feel that sometimes people will treat me differently than a person of color. In a way, this is racism because it is as if I am receiving special treatment due to the color of my skin. We have a girl on our team who once expressed that she feels the only reason she is a member of our team is because she is black. She feels that she was picked not based on her talent but due to the judges trying to avoid “white guilt”. This also makes me feel white guilt because I am a white person who made the team. The tryouts are equal and it is sad to think that she does not feel her talent was enough to get her on. Some white people feel that if they are nice to a black person, just as nice as they would be to a white person, it is a way of being racist. They feel that this act of kindness is a form of white guilt because it is a white person being polite to a person of color, which for some reason people feel is out of the ordinary. If the situation was reversed, and a black person was being nice to a white person, there would be no such thought of “black guilt” because this is such a normal action for them.
When colored people do not get a job or accepted into something, they will make comments about how it is due to their skin color. I experience this once when I got accepted into a leadership program but my friend of color was denied. In a joking manner, she stated it was because the man who interviewed her was white. I knew that the only reason she said something like this is to be funny, but it gave me a sense of feeling white guilt. I do not know why she was not picked, whether it was something said in her interview or on her application but it made me feel uncomfortable knowing she thought I got it because I was white. White guilt is something in our society that I feel is hard to escape sometimes. In a way, this is a positive thing because people are trying to avoid making racist comments or coming off as discriminating.

ABC’s “What Would You Do” does a fantastic job showcasing serious issues in our society and how by-passers would react to these situations. While watching this particular video, I found myself with the most disgusted look on my face. I could not fathom the thought of people actually just walking passed the situation that was taking place. What would stop them from intervening in a situation like this? I have many people in my life that have been picked on for being gay, whether they actually are or not. Growing up as a dancer, I have encountered so many gay males that have to constantly live with being bullied about their sexual preference. Personally, I feel it is ridiculous that our world still has such strong feelings against homosexual people. It is disappointing to see how little respect some people have for others as well as how little respect they have for what they truly believe in. Some people on the boardwalk stood there and watched. One of the couples interviewed said they felt it was not the right time to step in and if it had escalated they would have tried to stop it. The poor kid is getting tortured about the type of gender he is attracted to and you don’t feel it is your place to help or stick up for him? Were they waiting for the three boys to eventually lay a hand on and hurt the kid. Everyone shown in the video realized what was taking place but only a few attempted to stop and help out the poor boy.
Most peers of gay teenagers do not feel comfortable with being around them. It is not uncommon for these kids to be tantalized, which makes them feel uncomfortable in school and around these other people who ruin their lives. When situations like this go beyond being in the classroom, like the scenario on the boardwalk, things can become completely out of hand. There is no supervision of teachers or principals where the tormenting can get them in severe trouble. This is why it is imperative for by-standers to step in. Gay bullying is a crucial topic that comes up a lot in our world. The Rutgers situation, the Laramie Project, and the Harvey Milk story all show us how strongly people feel and how there anger against the situation can really hurt the person being made fun of. In these stories, it gets so bad they it can result in death. These people are humans just like any of us. No one gets made fun of for being straight so where do these people get off destroying those kids lives? They make them feel like social outcasts and makes there life so hard. It is something that our society needs to put an end to.

In class, we watched a video clip from the show “What Would You Do?” in which the producers of the show chose actors to pretend that they were stealing a bike chained to a sign in the middle of a park. They switched it up from scenario to scenario where the actors would go from a white male, to a black male, to a white female. Both actors were wearing something similar so that they outer appearance did not give off an impression. As we watched how random by-passers reacted to the actor stealing the bike, it was evident that with gender and race their actions had changed. When the white actor tried taking the bike, people walked by without stopping, just asking if that was his bike. Not many people tried to prevent him from taking it. Some even tried to help him. Many assumed he had just lost the key to the lock and did not conclude he was stealing. In our society, we view young white men as pure and innocent. People want to expect the best from them and see the good rather than see the truth, whether good or bad. It all goes along with the American Dream, that this family has the perfect son who is incapable of doing any wrong or harm. One woman even said “You normally do not see young white men carrying burglary tools.” For some reason, this society will trust a white male more than a black male, even if they have some skepticism. When the situation changed, and the black actor went in to try and steal the bike, the reactions of the people walking by were totally different. More frequently than not, the people walking passed would stop and interrogate the actor. They immediately accused him of stealing the bike, which they “knew” was not his. One man called the cops to come, a woman was taking pictures to report him, and another man confiscated the tools the actor was using. This actor attracted many more people to stop and question what he was doing. They all instantly assumed he was stealing. This example just shows how people view one’s race in our society. It is the perfect example of racism—Why is it that the white boy is not accused as much? People choice to believe he is innocent just because he is white. But why would they not assume that for the black boy? These stereotypes of black people being more likely to be felons or commit crimes than white people are ridiculous.
When the producers sent the female actress in is when things start to get comical. The girl who is also stealing a bike makes it very evident that she is up to no good and that the bike is NOT hers. Many men showed in the video even ask if she needs any help! Not only does this make these by-passers sexist (thinking this woman is incapable of completing this task on her own) but it shows how weak the male gender is towards females. It is astounding how the different races and gender of people change the way people act and react to situations. A crime is a crime. Stealing a bike is a crime, regardless of who you are. That bike is not yours and you are taking it! In this situation, I would immediately try to stop whoever it was no matter what they looked like. What I don’t understand is why this is? Why do people view a black boy different than a white boy? Why do they feel the girl is just trying to retrieve her bike rather than stealing it? One’s skin color or gender does not determine their morals.

Sociology 119 has opened my eyes to so many remarkable thoughts about different ethnicities, races, and countries that I never even realized before. The Haiti project is just another mind-blowing topic to add to the list. They have been through such a horrible tragedy and they are all fighting to provide for themselves and their families. It is incredible how something that is so easy for us as Americans to do will make such a difference in a Haitian person’s life. All of these videos are very interesting and really show you what the working conditions are like in Haiti. This project is very interesting because it is allowing us to do something to help out these entrepreneurs that really need our help for their business grow. With our assistance, we can take an approach to expand Haitian economy. The United States can send supplies over that will make each of these entrepreneurs’ lives so much simpler. The Haitian Partners for Christian Development is such an interesting organization and it would probably be so cool being able to partner with them.
Clorene Blaise is a clothing manufacturer who makes embroidered and screen-printed apparel for different businesses. The stitching on her t-shirts is magnificent and so clean cut. The style of her bags are so nice and are decorated with cute patterns. Because she chooses to make those bags out of old denim jeans, they are strong and practical. Textiles, appliqués, and sewing products are not that expensive in the United States. If we could just figure out some type of deal with seamstresses like Clorene it would help benefit her and her company. All of her employees are responsible for supporting and taking care of their families. They need to make a decent living. The conditions Clorene and her employees work in are hot, sweaty, unsafe locations. She needs her own place that is somewhat cleaner and better conditions.
Figaro, the pastry baker, is another story that really inspired me to want to help out more. She is a mother of four boys and sells her products to schools. She manually makes all of her baked goods, which I know is extremely difficult to do. By microfinancing a mixer, her company will be able to expand to more than just four employees. It also will be easier for her to complete the products and not have to go the bakeshop after she picks up her sons at school. Her smile is radiant and through out the video you can completely see how positive she is. Manouchka is a woman who makes unique products such as frames and bracelets. She is so proud of her work and that is evident in the video. It is a dream of her’s to employ more people in her workspace. She is low on space and products and also needs help advertising her products to be sold. The idea of Soc119 meeting the project to help Haiti is something unique and an event that I would really like to be apart of.