I did not understand your question at first, so I apologize for the previous comment. Exactly, not all immigrants can afford to get in the US legally. I know that what happens in Latin America is not fault of the US. In latin America there is racism, discrimination and inequality. For those of you who do not know, Latin America is the perfect example of inequality, is the continent where there is more income inequality. So do not think that it is all rainforest and poor people, but also do not think that there is prosperity and fairness. There is a lot of both. There are beautiful cities but also very poor neighborhoods. What I am trying to say is that the US is not responsible for all the disparities in the Southern continent, but as a big country and a large economy should help poor people that do not find opportunities in their countries, to get a job and have a better life. As some people say, this is the land of opportunities. In Latin America the greatest problem is that the opportunities are not available to everyone. In Ecuador, we do not even talk about racism, sometimes people never talk about inequality, and that is sad. So, I do believe that immigrants who want to work really hard should have an opportunity in the US, and many other countries of the world. The US should give the opportunity that they had in the past, when they just got here. In fact, native latin americans should be treated with respect. In the past they were oppressed and treated badly. Again, I am not saying that the US should feel responsible for what is going on in other countries, but politicians and every citizen should agree on the idea that immigrants do deserve a second chance. In the case of Ecuador, the greatest earnings for the country comes from oil, but the second thing is remittences. Remittences are the money that immigrants send back to their country. There are approximately 3 million ecuadorians around the world, and our population is 12 million. SO there is a lot of hard working ecuadorians, who had no money at all, that are now being productive and do not only help their families but also the whole country. I am very aware of the Latinos that come here just to be part of gangs or drug cartels. But they are only a small part of the millions and millions of latin americans who work hard and are always looking to have a better standard of living. Please, lets stop racism and discrimination. I am from Ecuador but I am not native american, I am hispanic and not from low or middle class. I do consider that we need to make a difference in our my country, and we need to stop inequality. But most of you are from the US, and i can assure yoy that I would do the best I can to make a change in my country. Please, do the same in the US.

So, you are saying that poor people should not be allowed to come in to the US?In case you did not hear what Sam said in class, the european immigrants who came to the American continent, had no money at all. Who are we to tell someone else not to come to America? I am taking Econ 471, in that class I learned that there is always a benefit of migration for the two countries, the one that sends immigrants the one that receives them. There is always an economic benefit, so the problem is more cultural or political. What do you guys think? Is it because there is a lot of racist people? or it is because they are thinking about the jobs that Americans are loosing? ... which is not true?

I totally agree with the person that made the question. We should help, not only because it is "one world", but also because it happened 1 hour away from Miami. For those of you who do not know where Haiti is... is not too far away from the borders of the US. As part of a big country and the largest economy in the world, people should feel responsible for the people in need. If we have the ability, we have the responsibility. There are many ways in which people could help in Haiti, there are no excuses and it will makes us happy. Does everyone agree with me? Who thinks that we do not need to help poor countries like Haiti? and Why?

I certainly believe that men feel the need to conform to what society wants. We are not in the same level as women, but we dress and do things that are acceptable in our culture. As Sam said on thursday, if you walk around campus or downtown, you will see basically one type of clothing for men. Everyone dresses in the same way. Well, not everyone... but at least the majority does. I said, not everyone, because there is a lot of men who dress differently, because they come from different countries. I am from South America, and I certainly do not wear the same stuff that everybody wears, like hats and huge jeens... I dress according to what my culture and what is acceptable in Ecuador.

The girl on the video never said anything about clothing. So there are a lot of things that we could talk about. Alcohol is something more connected to men than to women. For men it is harder to make friends if you do not drink. For women it is more acceptable and you can still make friends if you do not drink. In my country, it is not the same as in this town. Peer pressure is something unbelievable in State College, you are no one if you do not drink. So, in the case of alcohol I do believe that men feel the need to do what everybody does.

If we talk about taking care of our body, for obvious reasons, women are more likely to do more things than men. I am not saying that men do not like to take care of their bodies. You can see thousands of men everyday in the gym just in State College. Women use lotions and special shampoos, conditioners, etc. everyday. Women go to the hair saloon, they fix their nails, etc. Women do all that not only because they want to look beautiful, but also because they feel the need to do something that every women does. They want to look like the girl in the magazine, or the one in the movie, or maybe like her best friend.

As someone said in class on thursday, women are more likely to talk about other women and judge. I am not trying to be sexist, because I am not... I have 2 sisters, but women are more likely to talk about other women and feel the need to do things so people do not talk about you. And if they do, then it better be good things. I am generalizing, all women are not like that, but most of them. In the case of men, there are a lot of guys who talk and judge other people because of the way they dress or because of the things thy do. if you go to NYC, I am sure that men will feel a greater pressure of dressing like everybody does, maybe, more elegant.

There are many things we could do to show our disagreement towards slavery. One of the "second steps" could be, joining organizations that are directly fighting against this issue. We need to give our support to this organizations that are constantly trying to change the status quo. It is not easy to start an organization like that, but it is really easy for us to just become part of those things that already exist. I googled anti slavery and I saw many websites that had to do with organizations, and groups of activists. It is not hard to get into these groups and take your second step. All of you should join one of those groups.

Do not get me wrong, I really admire people who want to learn things from a different culture and even better if it is another language. I really think that people who understand that the world is not just about one country or even one continent. I am from South America, and I speak two languages, spanish and english. I am not perfect in english but since I was a kid, I have been interested in learning another language. Mandarin is an amazing language, and really complex. People who can learn mandarin, must be really smart and have enough time to study the language. But again, i do not believe that mandarin is the future language.

First of all, chinese is not a language, and I do not agree with Sam and other people who say that we need to learn mandarin in order to ensure a future in the marketplace. English is the language that is widely used for business purposes.There is no reason why things will change. Even if Chinas population grows and new Chinese businesses emerge, english will be used for business purposes. Maybe in hundreds of years or even later in the future we will see a new language being used, but as long as me and my children live, english will still be used. The whole world is so used to the use of english.

There are so many races, that it is impossible to number them. So, is it really easy to categorize people into 3 different categories? Again, I just heard Sam talking about White, Brown and Black; he never uses any other color. It is OK to be multiracial. And you do not need to categorize yourself as white or brown. You are Puerto Rican and your father is "white", thats it. I have never though of myself as multiracial. I am from Ecuador and in the past some of my ancestors where Native americans and mostly europeans. But I do not think of myself as multiracial. Can someone comment on this post? Please... what do you think about multiracial people, and latin americans.

I totally agree with Miss Fancy feet. We do not need to identify with a team, we do not need to call ourselves black, white, brown, yellow or whatever. Actually, what would Asians be? White? Brown? Those categorizes do not even completely cover all of the "colors" and races. We do not need to identify with a team. It is better to label people according to their nationality. I am not Brown, and I am Ecuadorian. I am not White and I am ecuadorian. Many people who see me, think I am Italian or Spanish. I am Ecuadorian, I do not think that being white is better, brown is worse, it is just that I do not want to be label as any of them.

This is a very relevant issue for me personally, because I go through this sort of identification problem myself. I am 100% international student here at Penn State. I was born in Ecuador, and both my parents are from the country in question, although just by looking at me you would think that I am white, european. In Latin America, we went through a different historical period of colonization, where the spanish that came to the new word did not seek to eliminate and suppress the native peoples. Rather we inherited their culture, language and religion; and in doing so, many of the european and native blood lines became mixed; in my country, my heritage is known as mestizo.

I know that I have native blood but I can also trace my lineage back to Spain, and the same can be said for many people in the Latin American continent, and most of my Latino friends here at Penn State.

In my consideration it is very difficult if not impossible to strictly qualify a person in a single ethnic group, specially if the criteria in question is only sin color. I believe that a person of some shade of light skin can combine many histories embodied in his/her genetic composition. In the case that it is absolutely necessary to categorize people under one criteria, it is far more simple to do so by nationality. In this particular point in time, I dont think The United States of America has the capability of doing this. In Latin America, when identify yourself in front of a diverse group of people, you would only do so by mentioning your nationality, not your ethnic background. Maybe, it is a difference in history. We had a relationship with our colonizers for a little over 300 years, which has been enough time, for the ethnical lines to be blurred, I do not think the same can be said for America.

Many years ago, there was a Roman influence in England. There has been Arab presence in Spain. There has bee Greek colonies in Middle East (mesopotamia). Due to our common human history, I believe that it is difficult to say that anyone is purely white. We all come from the same mother land.

I really do not like when in class we talk about White, Brown, Black, etc. As I said, no one is completely white. If someone wants to categorize people by color, we do not have to think about where they come from and where their parents come from. If you are white, if you look white, you are a white person, if you are almost black but not white, then you are brown. But we should not categorize people in different colors given our ancestry.

Can anyone tell me if I am right or wrong. Does anyone feel like this? I dont really like to label people.