When told that business decisions were large factors in shaping the United States’ immigration policies, my reaction was one completely devoid of surprise. Despite this I still loved Sam’s talk on immigration and I think that him saying this needs to be said as many of my peers seemed surprised by. For this reason Sam’s class is great as it helps reveal a lot of truths to students largely unaware. This stems from an education problem though that would be another whole blog post. Hearing that big business shaped a policy or law in this country shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone honestly, and if it is they need to take another look at how our country works. Our country is built around big businesses and corporations and I see no problem with them shaping our policies (to a certain extent) as they dictate the state of our economy and livelihood for the most part.
The honest (and sad) truth is that the average American is most likely unaware of much of the workings of their own country. Whether it be politics, business, or education, many have a somewhat idealistic view of their own lives and things such as the “American Dream.” All it takes is a quick look at some of the recent rulings in court cases with businesses to see that our justice system, and therefore the country, sees businesses and corporations as people in terms of the law. For this reason it should be no surprise that these huge corporations have a large say in some of our laws, specifically immigration.
Another sad truth most Americans won’t face when arguing that immigration should be tighter is that many of the jobs they’re brought in to perform are ones that they wouldn’t do themselves. The average American is no longer blue-collar and willing to do hard manual labor for cheap pay. Many people overlook the fact that illegal immigrants in the country are actually good for our economy. Sam outlined a few reasons for this in the lecture such as taxes and doing labor for cheaper than the minimum wage. The truth of the fact is that many Americans are largely misinformed about a lot of immigration information thanks to the sensationalistic major news corporations on television, which are profit organizations and focus on that over honest news.
For the above reasons, I think that businesses influencing the immigration laws are not a problem at all. I think many Americans look at immigration in the wrong light. Immigration is not a problem that will just be “solved” one day but rather something, which gradually changes overtime, as America is built on immigration. Sometimes there will be an influx of immigrants and sometimes gaining residency will be squeezed tighter. For this reason I’m okay with businesses playing a part in this as they more than anyone understand the state of the current country.

When Sam said that the lecture on Tuesday, titled “Christian Invaders” was going to be his best of the semester, he wasn’t kidding. This lecture was definitely my favorite of what we’ve had so far. You could tell Sam had prepared it well because he was passionate and didn’t really take a break throughout the talk. Sam began the talk by providing to us a metaphor that placed us in the shoes of an American whose country was being raided for coal by China. This set the stage for the class to follow the buildup and occurrence of the Iraq War from the perspective of an average Iraqi living in his home country. I think I really enjoyed this class for a few reasons; the first being that I think it caused a lot of people to think hard about the war in Iraq. As someone who has thought a lot on the war and the reasons behind why we might be stationed in Iraq, I was glad to see some of my fellow students being exposed to some facts they might not have known pertaining to the war.
The biggest thing I took away from this lecture was probably not what Sam intended. If I were to guess Sam prepared the lecture hoping that students would become invested while living through the war as an Iraqi and question America’s intentions in Iraq and whether or not our presence in the region is beneficial to the inhabitants or if we are even wanted there at all. While many probably did leave the lecture in this mindset, the main thing I was focused on dealt with the seemingly scary amount of control the media has over how we perceive the world around us. The reason many had not thought that way about the war (or anything from a perspective that would be from someone outside of the American culture) is because our media is the primary source of where we get our information pertaining to world topics.
Sadly, a lot of what people might hear on the news is propaganda or exaggerated facts in an attempt to draw viewers in with exciting headlines and stories. What people need to hear are the facts and what is actually happening to be able to make a fair assessment of the war. Sadly this is not what has been put out there as I talked to a lot of friends after the lecture to find many grossly misinformed on a lot of information. I’m glad Sam gave this lecture because people need to be exposed to the truth, whether or not it is easy to swallow. If the media is not going to give Americans a fair, unbiased take on the war than our educators are a good fit to pick up the slack.

I came into Soc 119 on Thursday with high expectations for the much-anticipated “Needy Penis” talk and I was not disappointed. Sam and Laurie’s joint lecture was one of the best of the semester, and should be a talk that’s given to all students in Penn State and well something that should be discussed with college students across the nation. The Needy Penis talk was informative, funny, and encouraged input from the audience. Listening to the question posed to us in the video on whether or not we were made uncomfortable by what was discussed in the lecture made me stop and think.
Being a young white male, many might think that I would come away from the lecture uncomfortable with everything that was discussed. The idea that the world we live in, especially when it’s related to sex, is one that is centered around the male gender. This was drilled home throughout the lecture and I have absolutely no objections with what Laurie and Sam tried to get across to the audience. As I consider myself somewhat in tune with societal constraints and molding, this is nothing new to me. I would not say that the lecture on the Needy Penis made me uncomfortable at all, though I hope that it did for many other males in the audience.
There are a lot of things that seem to get swept under the rug in our society, and sex is one of those topics. Just as Sam and Laurie said, everything we’re shown about sex is flashy and through the male perspective (for the most part). Sex scenes in movies, pornography, even the male and female ideal images are all shaped around what might be described as the average male’s view of how things should be. Although some of this stems from our natural biological wants and needs in ancient times, all the blame cannot be put onto that.
One part of the lecture I found most interesting was when Laurie and Sam began talking about sexual abuse and the sort of grey area that comes along with “consent.” Sadly, one of my closest friends at Penn State found herself sexually assaulted by a mutual friend of ours earlier in the year. When talking to her about the incident, it became clear that although what he did to her was very wrong, the grey area of consent and the difference of “getting ready to go” between herself and the partner was where the core problems arose. If I wanted people to get one thing out of the lecture on Thursday, it would be the idea that consent can be a tricky topic to handle and people need to be absolutely sure that what they’re about to do is right for both of them. Sexual assault is a serious issue and people need to be aware of the consequences of their actions. The easiest way to prevent these kind of incidents of course is to have discussion like the lecture on Thursday be a reoccurring thing. The more people hear about it, think about it, and discuss it, the less discrepancies and grey areas there will be when it comes to sexual relations between a man and a woman.

Although I have never myself been in an interracial relationship, I do not have any problem or hold any bad feelings towards them. I consider myself pretty open when it comes to so called “progressive” topics such as interracial or homosexual relationships. Even though I have not been a part of any interracial relationships, I have friends who have been or are currently in them. I think a lot of people look at interracial relationships the wrong way and need to reevaluate how they see couples. The topic of interracial relationships came up in my discussion group today and it made me think about how most interracial relationships occur, or rather, how most relationships occur in general. The reason why interracial relationships aren’t prominent in society is because people usually find significant others based on some basic criteria: the amount of time spent around them and similar interests (as well as attractiveness of course).
When keeping this in mind, it makes sense that interracial relationships are on the rise in society and yet still make up a small percentage of couples in America. This is because we are not very far removed from segregation and racism in the mid to late 1900’s. Since segregation and racism existed, many people of their own color or race did not associate with other races, specifically blacks and whites. If you do not have any friends of another race, you don’t spend time with people from another race. Therefore, interracial relationships wouldn’t form simply because many were never even introduced to each other. Saying this, our generation has begun to mesh cultures and it is much more common to see friends of different races and cultures than 100 years ago.
Another interesting question pertaining to interracial relationships that came up in discussion was whether or not our family would be okay if you were to bring home a significant other of another race. Although, like I said before, I have never dated out of my own race, I think my parents would be very accepting if I decided to bring home a girl of another race. Growing up I had a lot of friends of different races (so much so my parents once asked me why when I was younger, not that they had a problem with it, they were just wondering why it was) so I’d assume that my parents by now would not have a problem with having their son date another race. They might be surprised at first, which is natural because it is something they wouldn’t be used to. Overall though, I think my parents would respect my decision and trust that I would’ve picked a good significant other and race wouldn’t be an issue, as it shouldn’t be.

The question “Have you ever felt guilt about being of a certain race” interested me for a few reasons. First off it is important here to note that I am white. Naturally, as Sam talks about in class, there have probably been many times during my life when I could have benefited from “white privilege” whether I knew it or not. While this is not anything I should be ashamed of because of my own doing or racist act, it is still something I feel guilty about, as it is something that I feel should not exist in society. This sort of “latent racism” is most likely very present in society and I really had not had my eyes opened to it until taking Sociology 119 this semester. Hearing Sam’s stories about painting houses around his town made me think about my own neighborhood odd jobs I have done during my young life and whether or not my white skin had anything to do with me being able to do those, as well as any other work opportunities I may have had.
This is not the only source of guilt I have felt because of my race though. As Sam was talking about in a recent class, I am at the stage where I feel resent towards those in my own race who are racist towards others for a number of reasons. A main reason is that it continues racism in America and throughout the world, something I would rather not have happening. Not only that, but it gives my own race, and therefore myself to a smaller extent, a bad reputation. A good example of this, though not necessarily a racist act, is something that came up in my discussion group a few weeks ago. A black student who worked with SMART said that when asking students at Penn State to host a minority student for the weekend, white students who were asked almost never did so. She said it has gotten to the point where she will simply stop asking white students and only ask the minority students because it would just be a waste of time. As someone who is open to hosting students myself of other races, this made me slightly upset as I had never been asked to host anyone. That was the first time I had ever heard of a program, and when wondering why, I realized it was because of my own race that I was probably just skipped over while walking outside one day. While this example does not necessarily constitute any racism, it still caused others to see my race, and therefore myself, differently and makes me guilty for the actions of my own race.

When thinking about the diversity of the student body at Pennsylvania State University, it is a somewhat misleading statistic and can definitely put people off. Last time I checked, Penn State is listed as having about seventy plus percent of a white student body, which leaves us with a severely misrepresented minority group. I knew about this when I came to the school and while I do not consider myself racist, did not have a problem with the diversity numbers. One thing I did not like hearing about during the college application process was the diversity of a school. Many schools preached their equal numbers on advertisements and collegeboard.com, something that angered me to some extent. To me, applicants should be accepted to a college based on their academic and extra curricular merits, not the color of their skin to have a good public relations message.
For this reason, the diversity, or lack thereof, in the student body at Penn State is a non-issue for me and is something that I’ve known about for a long time. Anyone who might claim that this is a case of the university being racist or some sort of current day segregation needs to take a second look at where the majority of Penn State’s student body comes from. As Penn State is a public university in the state of Pennsylvania, the in-state tuition prices are dramatically less compared to out of state (I know since I am an out of state student). Keeping this in mind, Penn State is also a world-renowned university and carries a name that will not go unnoticed on a transcript. Naturally, many families in the state of Pennsylvania would want to send their children here.
Keeping all this in mind, the majority of Penn State is white. Anyone who attends the school will tell you that the drive in to State College is one that is surrounded by farmland and not much else. While the minority population might increase in the major cities of Pennsylvania, those students are also more likely to attend urban schools close to home. One also needs to realize that Penn State began as an agricultural university. Many of the studies focused directly on farming naturally, the students who attended were interested in these topics. The majority of these students were most likely white. Not only did this begin the trend of Penn State being a white-heavy school when it comes to the student body, but many of these families most likely influenced their children in attending the same university (that was the case in my family as both my parents were alumni). All in all, a lot of factors have shaped what we see today with Penn State’s lack of diversity and racism is not one of them.

After about two weeks of classes worth of Sam specifically highlighting the plight of minorities in the United States, especially the lower classes, it was an interesting change for him to discuss the poor white culture in Thursday’s class. There were a lot of interesting statistics and details brought up about the poor white society in America, but what I found most interesting was when Sam was asking us questions about whether or not we should expect races to feel different levels of compassion / sympathy for their own race as opposed to other races. The thought of feeling compassion for someone in need based on their race had never really crossed my mind, thought I must confess that I do not feel sympathy for all poor people.
In the example provided in class, we watched a video of a poor white woman named Tammy who was obviously doing her best and working hard for her children in a seemingly helpless situation. It is easy for me to feel sympathy for her and her situation seeing as how she was one of 22 children and really had no potential in her life what so ever. Where she is at now is basically what she’s been locked into, and forces outside of her control have decided her fate for the most part. Could she have cleaned up her yard a bit or presented herself in a better manner? Sure. But it really would not have changed much of her situation at all. Because she lives in poverty due to forces and factors largely out of her control, I do feel sympathy for her and want to help her. Especially considering she is working hard to do what she can. Race has nothing to do with my sympathy for her; regardless of her color or culture I’d still feel the want to help her.
Saying all this however, once again my compassion does not extend to all of those in poverty. Tammy’s case was one where she was not at fault for her situation and was still doing what she could do make the best of her circumstances. I can’t say the same for all of those in poverty. While Tammy’s case might be more common than those that made poor decisions that led to their current life of poverty, the problem with feeling compassion for the needy is that one cannot know every individual story and circumstance. Someone mentioned in class that the compassion percentages towards the poor as a GROUP were much lower than what people voted in regards for Tammy. I think people have misconceptions or generalizations when it comes to those in poverty (lazy, living of welfare, etc.) that account for those statistics. In conclusion I don’t consider race to play a part in the level of sympathy I feel for someone in poverty but rather what got them there in the first place, whether it be something out of their own control or personal choices and bad decisions.

Discussing the ignorance card has always been tough for me because I find it difficult to take a stance on either side. On one hand I find it very frustrating that the majority of the Americans I talk to are for the most part disconnected from world politics and recent happenings around the world. It came up today in my discussion group when talking about Americans whether or not they would be considered arrogant. While I agree that Americans can be arrogant and overall oblivious to world current events, I find that there are a lot of reasons for this and that we aren’t necessarily to blame. This is the reason why I find it hard to take the ignorance card seriously because we as Americans (Sorry if this question was intended for a global scope but I wanted to respond specifically with Americans in mind.) do not have reliable and credible media outlets to deliver us current events and politics in an accurate and unbiased manner.

It pains me as someone who attempts to keep up with world politics and current events that I feel like I have to work and seek out unbiased reports. What many Americans see as major news networks are really nothing more than farces and should be considered businesses if anything. Many of the major news corporations, such as Fox, CNN, and MSNBC do not give reliable reports on the limited news scope they even BOTHER to talk about. With so many important topics around the world that should be brought to the public’s attention, some of the “news” that is fed to us by media corporations is a joke. And even when what should be broadcast or printed in the news is actually reported on, the inaccuracy and bias almost makes it unbearable to handle. Saying all of this however, the media isn’t all to blame and as stated before this is a gray area if anything and the American public needs to be held accountable for their lack of world knowledge.

Staying with the topic of the media, it seems to me that many people gravitate towards sources that tell them what they want to hear. As someone who considers himself neither Conservative nor Liberal (there are simply too many topics and factors for me to choose a political side when I see myself as largely uneducated in politics) it upsets me when people only seem to follow one of the largely biased news channels or newspapers. Being fed what you want to hear and not the being given the actual news has created the problem of extremism in American politics. For these reasons Americans need to be held accountable for the current state of our media and therefore the fact that we are so ignorant when it comes to current events around the world and the problems that exist. A term that comes to mind to describe the problem at hand would be rational ignorance. Rational ignorance, defined in economics terms, describes how people choose to know what they’d like to know. This is the reason your common teenager could tell you more about Jersey Shore as opposed to the Egyptian riots and mini-revolution taking place.

While free will and freedom plays a part in this, I believe that people are responsible to be aware of some of the problems that exist in the world and therefore are responsible to spread the word and make problems such as slavery known. To claim ignorance simply due to the media is only half right, and it is our job to seek out accurate depictions of what is actually occurring in the world and attempt to do something about it. The quality of life of most Americans is too great to not put at least a little effort towards helping those less fortunate and it is our job to make ourselves and those around us more aware of the world around us.

The question of why I think racism still exists in the modern world has been on my mind many times and I’ve come to the conclusion that there are a few reasons why racism and discrimination still exist. One of the first things that comes to mind when seeking an answer about why racism still exists is inherent human nature when it comes to seeing someone or something different than ourselves. When people are faced with something different than themselves or the unknown, they are naturally afraid and cautious around it. I think at its core, racism sprouted when different races first made contact with each other and could not come up with scientific, logical explanations for their differences. People naturally searched for reasons why they might differ from other human beings and came to downright silly conclusions. Saying this however, things are drastically different today in that races are not as separated as they once were, especially in the United States, the so-called “melting pot” of the world. Even so, I’d say that people are still in the dark when it comes to the differences they observe from other races and why these differences exist. If anything, our Sociology 119 class is proof of this. So far I have personally learned a lot about why our races differ and I never considered myself to be racism or discriminatory to any foreign races. It just so happened that I came to (in my eyes) rational conclusions about differences I noticed between my own self and people of other races. The same cannot always be said for others.
Another big part of racism’s existence in modern society is the fact that past generations have influenced their youth. As Sam often jokes in class, everyone has their own racist uncle our aunt in the family. While this always provides laughs in class, it must be recognized that family members play a huge role in the continuation of racism as less than a century ago, racial tensions in the United States were alive and well. As many people of these generations still hold on to their beliefs today, this often affects their kids and grandchildren. It is natural for parents and role models, in or out of the family, to influence youth. So for racism to be something passed down from one generation to the next should come as no surprise.
Finally the last reason I think racism exists in today’s society is what I consider the darkest, and that is political agendas. As much as people might want to overlook it, race plays a huge role in modern politics and there are many ways to use and abuse the hot topic of race to accomplish other political goals.

When considering the topic of race and whether or not it will be an issue in the future, I think the answer is simple. Humans naturally look for differences between one another, and will always categorize and generalize in an effort to understand and simplify their own world. For this reason, I doubt that race will ever disappear as a talking point in society. However when saying this I think one needs to clarify what they mean by “race.” Obviously the most well known racial struggle occurred post-slavery where black discrimination was rampant, but there have been many other overlooked or less-documented cases in the United States history. While race might not come to mind, when every new immigrant group came to the country they were looked upon with disdain. The Polish, Irish, Asian, and now the Mexican immigrants are seen to the current inhabitants as the decline of the country and the end of the status quo. The sad thing is that no matter what the majority race or ethnic group is, they will discriminate against a minority group that enters the picture.
I recently read a study that claimed that the world’s population is slowly moving towards one unified color, something in the middle of a light and dark skin. Even knowing this, I believe that human beings will still find minute differences between one another and classify others in different groups or “races” in a difference sense than what we think about today. While we consider stark contrasts from white and dark to be different races now, I think that no matter how similar we look, we will never be completely the same and people will categorize and label different races. A good example of this is the different subcultures of races. For instance, “redneck” is common slang for a southerner in the United States who fits a certain stereotype. The formal definition of race is a classification of humans into a large and distinct group based on physical characteristics and geographical ancestry. Considering this, categorizing people into different races can definitely change over time, especially if what scientists predict is true about the spectrum of skin color growing smaller and smaller. While today a different nose or facial structure or feature would not determine someone’s race but rather a subset of race, whose to say it won’t be a defining feature in categorizing people in the future?
The topic of race is too deeply rooted in our politics, society, and even our natural tendencies to ever go away. Hopefully racism and discrimination will decrease in the coming years, but people will always find differences between each other and categorize and group based on similarities. For this reason, race will continue to be an issue in the future even if racial tension decreases from now.