I think honestly that my parents would be more willing for me to be in an interracial marriage. Im Asian and my parents would probably not have a problem if I married someone that was not my race. I am currently dating someone who is white, and my parents do not really care. I think they actually assume that I would. Growing up in a suburban white town, there aren’t many Asians around me so I’m never around any anyways. I don’t have a preference for only one race, it just happens that I tend to go for white guys usually. If someone who was cute and Asian wanted to date me, I wouldn’t say no to that either, or if someone was African American. My mom has even told me before that she would not care who I dated as long as I loved them and that they loved me. I honeslt don’t think my parents would necessarily be against me being lesbian or transgender, but they would have to get used to it. Its not like they are against it or anything, my moms best friend is gay. It would just take some time to get used to, but if they had to choose, they would probably prefer that I married someone that was a different race than me, because then I could still have a baby with them. My dad might have a little more hostility than my mom but I think that eventually he would end up being okay with both as long as he liked them. My dad doesn’t seem to have much of a preference as to who I bring home as long as I don’t get pregnant. I think if I lived with my cousin there would be many more problems however. What is absolutely bizarre to me is that her father and mother are in an interracial marriage. Her father is moraccan and her mother is thai. However, for some reason, when she brought home an indian man, neither of her parents were happy about it. You think that they would understand how it is, but for some reason they just don’t see it the same way. I think her dad wants her to marry someone that is arab and her mom probably prefers the same unless maybe hes white. It is such a strange situation, but her parents are extremely conservative and if she came out of the closet as bi or lesbian, both her parents would have an extremely hard time accepting this as well.

I definitely think that someone who is gay or lesbian can definitely be born with it. If it were so much of a choice, then gays and lesbians would not be so hesitant to come out of the closet. People wouldn’t be ashamed to say that they were gay if it was truly their choice. I know I have a friend who I think is gay, and he definitely does not want to be. He tries so hard to be manly, but constantly he slips and you can tell that he is not straight. I don’t have a problem with him coming out of the closet, I wish he would come out of the closet, but I think his dad has different views than my friends and I, which is why he pretends to be straight. It is also like if being gay was that much of a choice for some people, then they would not be marrying women to cover up their sexuality. However, I do think that people can choose to be gay if they wanted to. I know my friend has a friend, who chose to be gay because his girlfriend died in a car accident. Because of her death, he has chosen only to be with men. Also Sam Richards said that if his wife passed away, he would probably be with another man. That is clearly a choice, but there are definitely people who are born that way, and wish they were not gay, but they just can’t do anything about it. You can’t help if you have feelings for someone of the same sex as you, just like how being heterosexual isn’t much of a choice either. However, the question that is asked, can it be from circumstances in the environment, like from parental views or what not can definitely change someone’s sexuality as well. I think that if parents are opposed to gays and lesbians, it is not going to make someone become gay obviously, but I think circumstances like if a girl has been abused numerously in her life by men, then maybe she would turn lesbian, because she does not trust men. Her experience with men could leave her attracted to women. These types of circumstances in the environment could lead someone to being homosexual. If they constantly have bad relationships with the other sex, it could end up scarring them for life, and they would end up hating the other sex, ultimately leaving them no choice but to be sexually attracted to the same sex. I think the topic of gay and lesbians is very confusing mostly because there is so much debate on whether it is nature or nurture, but I think that it can honestly be both or one or the other. I don’t think it is limited to only one thing. Depending on the circumstances for specific individuals, one can be born gay, choose to be gay, or end up being gay because of their personal experiences.

My thoughts when choosing to save someone were really difficult. Obviously in this kind of situation you do not want anyone to die, but unfortunately you have to choose someone. At first I thought I would choose my mom, because she means so much to me and you can pretty much never get another mother again. But then I started thinking that I should probably save my child, because cannot neglect your child. My mom would for sure give her life up to me in a second, so it seems obvious that I would do the same if I had a child. But someone in the class brought up that you can always make another child, and even though this is true, could you really replace one child for another because you had chosen your mother or significant other instead? My mom would definitely not let me sacrifice my child for her, so she would probably end up having me save my child. But if I am married to someone who I truly love, it is not very likely that I will find another husband that I could be the same with again, so maybe I would end up choosing my husband. This makes us think about so much, but why wouldn’t we? Each one of these people mean so much to us. Someone brought up finding a new husband, and although that might be easy for them, I feel like it would be so hard to leave the love of my life to die. I could actually always make another child, but I could never find that same husband as I did before, and if I couldn’t find that husband, then my child and I would end up being alone anyways. I honestly don’t know who I would end up choosing, also because my mom has had a full life, and the baby has not. But I would probably end up saving my husband if I were really in this situation. I could always end up making another baby with him, and I could actually have a support system, rather than being left alone with an infant who I could not even confide in about losing both my mother and my husband. Trying to choose one of these people would be really hard for me and I don’t know who I would end up choosing. I could not sacrifice anyone I truly loved. I would probably end up sacrificing myself if I could, it would essentially be the least selfish thing to do so I could save two people instead of myself and another person.

I guess in ways I could understand how the Muslim woman thinks that Americans do not respect themselves because of how they flaunt their bodies and wear skimpy clothes. I would assume that they believe this because we do not keep our bodies in private for only people close enough to see, instead we show the whole world and this seems like a sign of disrespect to our body. Maybe the Muslims believe that your body is sacred and that a lot of skin should not be showing? I’m not positive but it also might be because of how they were raised, they are just naturally born to think that because they their society told them that is the way to think. I believe that we show our skin, not necessarily to get a guys attention, even though that might be a reason as well, but because it’s natural for us. It gives us strength and power to flaunt our bodies and show that we are confident with what we have instead of hiding behind it and being ashamed of it. Both aspects do make sense, but its what the society makes of it. That also goes for the situation that Sam was talking about when we easily drink milk out of the carton, but when we are asked to drink the milk of a dog we are all repulsed by the thought of it. The picture that Sam showed in class Tuesday was also really interesting, how the American said, “she only shows her eyes, what a sad male dominating culture” and the Muslim says, “she only covers her eyes, what a sad male dominating culture” and in some respects, both aspects of each person is completely right. Americans wear skimpy clothes out at night, to bars and parties to impress men and even other women around them. They want to look “hot” and attractive and the more skin that is showing, the better. I know many women also get turned down by men if they don’t look sexy enough or aren’t showing enough skin, this results with the women feeling ugly and a lot less confident in herself. The Muslims are always covering their skin because the older men in their lives are very strict with what they can and cannot wear. I know my Egyptian friend’s dad is always very strict with what she wears day in and day out. If her shorts are too short, or show is showing too much cleavage her father immediately gets angry, and the same thing would happen once she got married, instead it would turn into her husband getting angry at her. This portrays how society works and how much male domination comes into play.

I think that if white foreigners from Russia or any other country were the ones being interviewed in the video, it would also be offensive. Not only were the Asians being made fun of because of their accents, but they were being made fun of because of their lack of knowledge about sports and current events going on at the school. If Russians were involved, they wouldn’t be made fun of necessarily because of their accents, but because of their lack of knowledge as well. I feel like if whites were in an Asian country and they were being made fun of, whites would definitely get offended by watching the video. But they would also end up defending themselves by making fun of Asians, saying something along the lines of, they’re Asians and they are making fun of us? I feel like its almost like the white superiority coming back as Sam mentioned earlier in the year. Whites can pretty much make fun of any other group even though they know it might not be validated, but if they are made fun of, they believe that they are the best and get more offended that they were made fun of instead of making fun of that group. The video was offensive for many different reasons, it wasn’t necessarily the answers that were given by the Asians, but its also because their intent on making the video wasn’t right at all. They also chose very foreign Asians to make the video. There are numerous Asian Americans that were born here that don’t fit into the Asian stereotypes, but of course they were not videoed. Of course this video was humorous to some, including Asians, but the fact that they categorized one group made it offensive. If they had used different groups of people it would have been less offensive, but it would have still essentially been offensive just because their intentions on it were to make fun of people. Anything can be humorous but it can also be offensive humor, which is what a lot of Asians and non-Asians probably thought of the video. Not only would it be necessarily offensive to just Asians, but to the people actually in the film. They obviously did not know they were being made fun of and I think that if they knew, they would have felt very differently about the video. I know that when I speak Thai in front of my parent’s friends, they are always looking for the English accent. My friends are also made fun of because they have American accents when they speak Arabic to their Egyptian friends, so if this video was made in a different country, whites or any other group would be getting made fun of as well.

I feel like when we are children, we don’t really get to understand much about our culture and where we came from so children are more eager to just go with the flow and do as our teachers say. Younger children also can’t think abstractly yet, so they aren’t yet embarrassed about their heritage. I know that when I was younger we had so many heritage days growing up. My parents always had to cook Thai food and we would all dress up from whichever country we were from. It was a lot of fun and none of us thought anything of it. It was a good experience to see all the different cultures I remember seeing so many different outfits throughout the school. However, I also did very similar things in my middle school. I’m sure kids weren’t so eager to dress up, but everyone still brought different foods from their culture and heritage. Maybe my school district was different, but we didn’t hide where we were from. I could assume that middle schoolers all try to fit in and it is the peak of bullying, so kids are trying not to stand out like a sore thumb and be the one that is different from the rest. That is probably why they probably did not embrace their culture as much. They probably tried to be as “Americanized” as possible. Being the victim of bullying is quite possibly the worst thing that could happen to any pre-teen so they are probably avoiding any spotlight as much as possible. Although our race is unavoidable, it is easier to just pretend like it doesn’t exist mostly when you are a kid just trying to get through school. It would be helpful if schools could really embrace heritage and race more like my school did for us. It could really help students and peers be more open to different and diverse things. Even having good ethnic food in the cafeteria could be an eye opener to someone to see race differently. Since being different is unique and inevitable, we might as well embrace it from the start, starting when we are little and even throughout the awkward middle school years. It does however get more lenient in high school and mostly in college to be open to race and other people. People that are not okay with being someone of a different ethnicity is because they have been closed off from it their whole lives. I know that my parents feed me amazing ethnic food from Afghanistan, Morocco, India, Italian, Chinese, Malaysian, French and it just makes me appreciate their culture that much more. Being in any of those ethnic restaurants shows me more about their culture then I would ever know if I just ate boring macaroni and cheese every night for dinner. There are many ways to open kids eyes to other cultures but it is definitely easiest when it starts from a young age.

My perspective on war has definitely changed after this class. The class was extremely emotional, just hearing the stories of the war veterans. But after this class and after watching Sam’s video on empathy, I can definitely be more open-minded and even if I can’t feel exactly how the Iraqi’s feel, I can try and understand their point of view, by putting myself in their shoes. What stood out to me during that class is when Sam showed us a picture of that Iraqi soldier who had just gotten caught by the two American soldiers. To us it looks like he is just probably some sort of terrorist who wants all Americans dead, but in Iraq, he could easily be a father trying to defend his family and his son’s rights so that American’s don’t take over one day. After Sam pointed this out, I understood that everyone has their own perspectives. I never categorized Muslims into one group or anything, thinking they were all terrorists, but it definitely opened my eyes to understanding that everyone is fighting for the same reason. Everyone around the world is fighting for what they think is right, and even though we may think certain foreigners are monsters, they are surely saying the same about us. Imagining having soldiers from Iraq or Afghanistan in America trying to control things would be so completely insane, but that is exactly what we are doing to them. It’s almost a double standard, like Sam’s example about China. Considering China is a larger country then us, if they came into the United States and wanted to change the way we lived our own lives, everyone would be going crazy. Americans believe that they have the super power to control our own lives as well as the lives of others, in a different country. Do we have a right to just invade a foreign land and try to change how their country is being run as well as try and change their government? I don’t think we do. This class was really interesting, also because we got to hear the stories of the war veterans. After hearing the woman war veteran speak, it showed that even she went into war close minded and came out of war more open minded. Her ability to be able to talk to the women and children of Iraq actually changed her outlook on Muslims and now she is an advocate for Muslim rights in the United States. My view has changed on war, I still don’t believe fighting and killing one another is the right answer, but it also shows that everyone is fighting for the same reason. It is almost just a matter of disagreeing in beliefs that make us different, causing us to fight.

Seeing that picture did not make me feel disgusted or anything like it. I actually agree with the woman reporter who thought that the kiss was absolutely adorable. Why shouldn’t two lovers be allowed to show their affection for one another, mostly after one had come back from the military. Regardless of the case actually, some people who think that this PDA is okay probably are making an exception because he is in the military. If it were two random men on the street doing that, I think public viewers would have a much different outlook. That almost takes a double standard. Just because he is in his uniform, people are more vulnerable to accepting their kissing, but if he had changed and was not in his uniform, there would be many more dirty looks, which isn’t okay. Everyone seems to judge before they know the situation about anything, so just being in a uniform one can assume one thing, but being out of a uniform, their whole outlook can do a 180 so quickly. People should be accepting of lovers of any sex. It doesn’t matter. You cannot stop who you are in love with and no one should judge another because of it. If we had grown up with the norm that women should be with women and men should be with men, most of the world would be abnormal. For the haters that believe that this picture is disgusting or whatever, they should learn to be more open minded about things. Why should one deny someone because they are the same sex? That just does not make sense. No one should hide their true attraction either, mostly if they are already “out of the closet”. If I was a lesbian, and I had to hide my attraction to my girlfriend, I would not be happy. It doesn’t seem fair that couples of the opposite sex can show affection and PDA, but just because someone is gay, they have to hide their affection for each other in the bedroom. People can think whatever they want, but they just have to learn to keep it to themselves. No matter how conservative, how ignorant could you be about being in love? You cannot help who you are in love with, and no one should be scared to tell the world how they really feel. Although the man’s PDA is a little much, having his legs grasped around the other man, it doesn’t matter. It just shows their affection that much more. It is not like girls don’t do that all the time. The double standard just bothers me that guys have to hide how feminine they are or else they will be stereotyped against. This picture is so cute, and it shows how much love they really have for each other.

I also agree with the video that I would never really account race into the mix as of why people do badly in school or do good in school. I always believed that it was solely because how you were raised, and in my psychology class, we learned that intelligence has a strong impact on how your parents raised you, rather than intelligence being something that was more innate. That does not necessarily mean that someone cant be naturally smart, but that through experiences and schooling, intelligence is definitely affected by others around you, and how they influence you. I’m not sure why some races are smarter than others, but I know for certain Asian families, parents are extremely strict with their kids, and they push their kids to go above and beyond their abilities. This could be beneficial but it could also have hurtful consequences. The child could yes, end up being smart and end up making a lot of money, but it could also take a toll on their social abilities. Is it worth it give up one thing to achieve another? According to Sam Richards, African Americans show the lowest test scores, but maybe that is because their parents do not push them enough? Even though he said that these variables have been taken away, maybe it is because things like the stereotype threat, where kids believe they wont do well, and end up doing poorly. It could also be because certain racial groups have low motivation to do well. If someone believes that they will go nowhere in life and do not take advantages of the privileges they receive, then they are certainly not going to do well on tests. The question, “what can we do, so other races can excel academically” is a very hard answer. I think the process of having other races excel would take many generations, but maybe what is important is to not categorize people by race at all. By not categorizing anyone, no one will suffer from the stereotype threat and hopefully they will end up doing well. I’m not sure about this idea either, but maybe intelligence has a little to do with biology? Maybe genetics get passed on and through evolution as well, certain races just do not do as well as others. This can be said for many things though. Why are certain races better at basketball then others? It is clear that African Americans are better at basketball then Asians. Intelligence is just another factor that makes someone up, just like how athletic someone is. If athletics is not enforced as a young child, then the person who grows up will not be athletic either. If school work, and trips to the library are not enforced while growing up, the person will not be on the same level as other children who read books everyday.

I mean I’m not really religious but regardless, if someone told me that they did not believe in my religion but they have not read any of the scripture and pretty much knew nothing about it, that would really set me off. How could someone be so ignorant to say that they don’t approve of a religion when they don’t even know what the basis for all of it is? It just makes them very ignorant, I can understand that they believe what they want, and I’m all for them having their own perspective, but putting down another perspective just is not right. People should not be so close-minded to believe things that they know nothing about. It just doesn’t make sense. How ignorant could someone be to really say that to someone? At least if they are going to take that point of view, they should do a little research before acting like a complete moron, putting down someone else’s beliefs. I also agree with Sam when he says that people are so strong with what they believe only because their parents and grandparents believed it too. They are just following what their parents say and that doesn’t even make it their own decision. Everyone should be able to explore different religions and perspectives of looking at things to see which one is really right for which person. However, if believing in a certain God will give someone the strength they need or will make them a happier person, then go for it. Overall people just should not be putting each other down for whatever they believe. I believe both in God but I also believe that people have evolved over time. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but it’s also what I believe. I think there is someone looking down on all of us, keeping us safe, but I don’t think God just put us all on this earth out of nowhere. Maybe I’m not religious because my dad is a Buddhist and my mom is a Muslim? They haven’t quite raised me to believe in anything in certainty except for that God exists, and I think he does. Having parents as a Muslim and Buddhist is quite possibly the most different religions, I feel like they are on the complete ends of the spectrums of religions. I’m not for any religion however; I am not against any religion either. I believe everyone has to stop being so ignorant about what they believe and what others believe. Even full on Christians are so caught up in what they believe that they aren’t okay with people being gay? That is not right either. I also don’t believe that people should be putting down other religions when they know nothing about that religion. It isn’t right to just make assumptions based on what you hear without reading any of the scripture.