I now understand why nepotism can be viewed as a negative thing and it really made me think back to all the jobs and internships that I have had. I think every job I have held has been the result of help from either family or friends. Whether it was my first job at Pizza Hut or the management training internship I completed over the summer I have had help from someone. It really makes me feel fortunate and I always assumed that my connections were just a result of my hardwork. Regardless of my guilt I don't think I would turn away a job just because of nepotism.

I recently got a position in New York City working at an artist management company. When I got the acceptance email I felt as if my dreams came true. This is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life but my in with the company was because my father knew a lady whose eldest son worked at the company. I was told hundreds of people applied for the job I got and I feel blessed to be picked. Realistically if my Dad didn't know that lady then my resume would probably have never been read.

I think the "Christian Invaders" lecture was definitely one of the better lectures this year but I'm not sure if I thought it was the best. This is not because I didn't find it extremely interesting it is just because I found a few others to be better. Overall I was blown away by the lecture material and had never thought about putting myself in the shoes of middle easterners. I had always pictures them as all being crazy terrorists who wanted to kill us because of the way they are portrayed in the media. After learning about Islam in my world religion course I have realized that they are a peaceful people and only radicals take things from the Quran out of proportion similarly to radicals we have here that take things out of the bible and interpret them incorrectly. On top of this I never really thought about their oil as being theres. I think our country needs to put more focus on finding alternative energy sources to break free from the oil chains that have been tying us down and the subliminal reasons behind our recent wars.

I think a really important thing to realize is that oil is all that those people really have in terms of national resources. The exploitation and dependence on them for it has spun out of control. Hearing quotes from famous politicians saying that the war was about oil made me feel sick to my stomach, especially because I have friends and family members in the armed forces. If one of them were to lose their life over something as stupid as an oil dependence i would be beyond myself.

I think even more importantly than the middle eastern perspective on this situation I think the biggest thing this lecture made me realize is that their are always two sides to every story. I think I am to quick to believe the things that are told to me. Another important thing I think we need to realize is that many middle eastern people probably realize that not all americans are bat shit insane. I never thought that every middle easterner wanted to kill americans, I assumed it was just radicals. I'm pretty sure they don't think everyone in our country is out to get them either. Overall I thought this lecture was great and i hope it is a topic that we further expand on before the semester is over.

I grew up in Doylestown, PA in a primarily white high school in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. I had friends of different ethnicity through travel sports and what not never really thought much about going to a basically all white school. I feel like Penn State is a primarily white school, and the statistics we learned in class definitely support that statement. Regardless of the statistics I still think being up here has exposed me to more people of other races and ethnicities. And just because the majority of students are white doesn't mean this campus is not diversified.

One thing that kind of bums me out about this campus is that I feel like people tend to flock to groups of friends in the same ethnic group that they are in. I'm just as guilty as the next person but I feel like asians usually hangs with asians, black with blacks, whites with whites, etc. It confuses me why it works this way but I guess it is because people flock to what feels comfortable or normal. For the most part though, I haven't experienced or seen a lot of blatant racism here at Penn State and that is because I feel like most people are pretty open-minded up here. Given that a large part of the downtown community are college students I think we all tend to be pretty open minded and liberal in terms of accepting all people regardless of race and ethnicity.

When I started looking into where I wanted to apply to college, I had a lot of different things I was looking for. Diversity, wasn't one of them. It was not something I really thought of before until taking SOC 119. I actually really wanted to go to Temple University but my Dad didn't exactly feel comfortable sending me to go to college in north Philadelphia. I do not think it was because of the ethnically diverse school but more because the neighborhood is pretty bad. When I go and visit my friends at Temple, I noticed that they all hang out in mixed company and I think it rules. Up here I think I have maybe 2 black friends and that is about as diverse as my group of friends is. It is not because we don't want to hang out with other ethnicities, it just kind of worked out that way and I am not sure why.

I think having taken SOC 119 I have really realized how much of problem this is becoming. I never really thought about it before Sam started talking about it. I never asked myself why I didn't have many black or brown friends until now.

It's saddens me to say that I think that your lighter skin will get you ahead in society. Being that it is 2011 I would like to think that racism and discrimination are no longer as prevalent as they used to be. I grew up in an upper middle class / middle class white suburb and was in taught in school and by my parents to treat all people equally regardless of their skin color and religion. Before going away to college or doing a lot of traveling with my band I just assumed that these morals were instilled in people all over the country. But after hearing Sam's lecture I was thinking about my own parents. If we needed a contractor I wonder if they would be more willing to hire a white or a black one. Yesterday's class left me feeling confused and even had me questioning myself in regards to if I was a latent racist.

I never have gone into a job interview or done anything where I said to myself afterwards, "good thing i'm white." After seeing the slides from yesterday I'm not sure if I should feel lucky or disgusted. It is evident that discrimination is still very prevalent in our society. Whether it be in our prisons or banking systems it is still there. With that being said I think his lighter skin will give him advantage over others that have darker skin tones.

I try to be a forward thinking person and I would like to hope that the percentages and statistics we have learned about will continue to lower as time goes on. I know that my children will probably be less likely to be latent racists and so will their children and so on. I think it is important that we realize that these problems are still prevalent in our society, as I mentioned earlier I had no idea that discrimination occurred so regularly until recently. I think the only way to battle these issues is through time and education.

I do a lot of things to prepare myself for my future. I try my hardest in school, I have taken on many internships, I have done countless hours of community service and I maintain a clean cut image to try put myself ahead of others seeking the same jobs I would like to have. My high GPA, work experience, etc. have always been the things I thought employers were looking at. I never thought going into an interview with Caucasian skin gave me advantage. I think the student from the video has an advantage over some but is still disadvantaged in a sense. It is important that we all rid the discrimination from the work place as we become the leaders of society in the coming years.

I think race and issues dealing with racism and inequality will always be prevalent in our society to an extent. I think in the past 100 years our country has made significant progress. Despite our progress a lot of work still needs to be done.

I think racism and prejudice are passed down from parents and family. Even the slightest comments can influence a young person. I have noticed that my generation and peers tend to be pretty open-minded and I think that this will be passed along to our children. I know that we aren't perfect, or even close to it, but I feel like every generation becomes more open-minded and less concerned with stereotypes.

My dad used to tell me stories about his childhood and the persecution he faced for being Jewish. Of course I have heard my fair share of jokes and have dealt with undesirable situations because of my race but for the most part I feel like my experience growing up as a Jewish person were much easier than his.

I listen to my grandfather speak at the dinner table and some of the things he says I have never heard my father say. To him those comments seem appropriate when in actuality they are not. I guarantee he doesn't understand that all people share 99.9% of the same genetic makeup. That stat even blows my mind. I sat next to black student in class yesterday day and when Sam read us that statistic we both looked over at each and laughed. It's crazy that we are all basically the same even though we look different. I think people all over need to realize this. I can't image putting a black man and a KKK members in the same room and telling the KKK member that they basically share the same genetic makeup.

I still hear horrible things every day and I know that I will always hear things like that. It is important that we teach our children to respect everyone regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or religion but they are the ones that are going to shape our future societies. I think that it is unbelievably amazing that our country has a black president. If you told someone 50 years ago that the United State would have a black president they would probably laugh at you. 50 years ago black and white people couldn't even use the same rest rooms or eat in the same restaurants and now our president is black! It is amazing to see the progress that we have made. I hope this progress continues.

Being politically correct has always been something that I have been conscious of. I consider myself to be an open minded person and I would never want to offend anyone by something I said. After sitting through Professor Richards lecture it really opened my eyes. Whether we like it or not people of similar races will always wanted to be identified differently. I think this is a good thing but at the same time it also makes things complicated for your average white guy like myself. I have plenty of friends whom are of other ethnicity's. My black friends generally like being classified as black but I have also met people whom prefer to be called African American or an array of other things. I personally classify myself as white and am fine being labeled as white.

Although we will never be a fully politically correct society I think it is important to use discretion and be empathetic to all people from all walks of life. I happen to be of Jewish heritage and I know I can sometimes be touchy about the way people identify my religion. If someone calls me a Jew in certain contexts I might be offended. I prefer to called Jewish, but even Jewish in certain contexts can be offensive. I think this applies to all races in different ways. Being called black can be offensive in certain situations while being called African American can be as well. That is why I say people need to use discretion and use common sense when using words like black, white, brown, etc. I find political correct issues to also be very prevalent in the gay community. Someone who is in homosexual relations is technically considered to be gay but gay in many times can be offensive to me.

Most people don't like upsetting others but no matter how politically correct you try to be there will always be instances that are misinterpreted. I was raised to always put myself in others shoes and because I know how it feels to sometimes face discrimination I will always try to be politically correct. I think the only way to really be 100% politically correct is to identify humans as people and not by where they are from, what they believe in or the color of the skin. Instead of me being a white person I should just be a person. I don't think race has anything to do with the kind of person one will be. There are way more factors.

In conclusion it is important to just to sympathetic to all people of all walks of life while trying to treat others the way you want to be. I know that sounds lame and like something your 2nd grade teacher would say but it is very true and it is how I try to live my life.

I identify myself as white or Caucasian. I have an Irish, German and west European heritage. I have light skin, dirty blonde hair and green eyes. I guess I consider myself to be the average 6 foot tall white guys.

I think identifying my race is a pretty hard thing to do simply because many people that identify themselves as white come from an array of backgrounds and places. I guess a common themes would be light or non-colored skin. Aside from skin tone I think its hard to make any other generalizations. My father has jet black hair, my mother and younger brother have brown hair and my baby brother has platinum blonde. My brothers and I all share our parents heritage but share no similar physical features. If my family were the only "white" people in the world I don't even think I would be able to characterize us with similar features. It is almost impossible to characterize other light skinned people because there are so many places of origin and backgrounds and cross-breeds of different nationalities. As we learned in class people have features based on where they live and have developed over time. I have seen white people with big lips and small lips and big nostrils and small nostrils. It just all depends on their parents and where they come from.

Overall I would say most people of European decent are the people that I would classify to be white. This is a contradictory statement though. We learned in class that there are plenty of white people that live in Africa as well as other parts of the world that people don't consider to have high white populations. I think identifying a race is dependent on individuals. Who am I to say if someone is white, black, brown or not? I don't base race on religion either so that isn't an option. My mom is Christian and my dad is Jewish and come from totally different parts of the world. I also thought we might be able to identify race with food but that is not possible at all. My grandmother on my mom's side usually makes some sort sauerkraut and pork dish for family functions while my grandmother on my fathers side generally makes matzo ball soup for family outings. I'm sure the both consider themselves to be white as well.

I think the only way to "generalize" people is by skin color. I hope this doesn't come off as racist, because I consider myself to be an open minded person. I identify myself to be white but simply because of the color of my skin and i don't judge on based on the color of theirs.

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