I was both surprised and unsurprised to find that business shapes illegal immigration. I was surprised because I hadn’t really thought about it before. You don’t think of illegal immigration as a necessity to our country. However, after hearing the story about the farmers in California and how they lost thousands of dollars one season because they refused to hire illegal immigrants, it shows how necessary they really are. It was also interesting to learn that California will never question the use of illegal immigrants after that fiasco because it wasn’t worth the economic downfall many business owners faced. It was cool to see how illegal immigration actually makes a positive situation in our country at times. Sam brought up how immigrants—illegal or not—are often extremely poor. They will do anything to make money at whatever pay people are willing to give them. It was just surprising to actually see how necessary it is for businesses to function with illegal immigrants.

However, at the same time I wasn’t surprised to learn that business shapes illegal immigration. It makes sense that in order to get their products out to the public for the smallest price possible, business owners are going to want to hire people that are willing to work for ridiculously cheap pay. The cheaper the labor, the more they will be willing to bring the cost of their item down. Think of how expensive things would be if businesses hired extremely well trained and experienced people that could easily go elsewhere for a job? Prices would skyrocket because businesses would have to make up for the amount they spent on hiring a work force. However, with illegal immigrants, they know they can offer them a lower pay and probably get harder working individuals than they would otherwise. Sam mentioned that in class as well. Think of any illegal immigrants you may have worked with. They always work their butts off in fear of being ratted out by their employees. They are risking their lives and their livelihood—along with the well-being of their families—to work here, so they are going to do the best they can to make sure they make enough money to send home to their loved ones.

However, after seeing both the surprising and obvious factors of illegal immigration in the United States, I am still not 100 percent clear if it is truly a positive for our country. I think there are both negative and positive aspects to illegal immigration, and in this case I feel like too much of something can turn into a bad thing. I think illegal immigration definitely has benefits for businesses and consumer life, but I think for our country overall it isn’t necessarily a wonderful thing. I think it just depends on what angle you take on the matter, and it will be interesting to see where we stand on the issue in the years to come.

#4: My roommate is Jewish, and she doesn’t hold any hatred against me because I have German blood. And Shirley, my neighbor from the Lacota Sioux tribe, holds no hatred against anyone in our community because we are living on her people’s land. All of those actions are in the past, and while they were horrible, there is nothing for us to do but to move on from them. As long as we can acknowledge that, yes, a massive genocide did occur here in North America, and, yes, all of our houses and buildings and property are on Native American land, then I think that is all we can ask. We should all be able to live in peace amongst each other, and if we can do that then I think we’re doing the best we can.

#3: Other than that, I can’t say I have had too many experiences with Native Americans. However, I don’t think it is fair that Americans—of any kind—should pay for the actions of our ancestors. It isn’t fair that the Native Americans are forced to live on reservations, and it isn’t fair that European-Americans should live in guilt for what their ancestors did. I will never disagree that the Native Americans were treated horribly and massive genocide occurred in this country and all other countries in North, Central and South America. However, those things happened hundreds of years ago.

#2: There was no way she would live a high quality of life if she stayed in South Dakota. She married one of my dad’s co-workers, and good friends, and they now live in our neighborhood. She is now in her mid-40s, and although she and her husband love children with a passion, they decided to not have any of their own. Instead, they opened their house to Shirley’s nieces and nephews who still live on the tribe, so they could have a better quality of life. They have had several of them come through their house, and they stay for a few months up to a few years. Denny and Shirley never turn one of them away, and are happy knowing they can provide some sort of safe haven for these kids.

After hearing the lecture on Native Americans, I left class feeling very somber. It is sad to think that the reservations offer such a low quality of life for the original people of this country. Obviously we know that Native Americans still reside in the United States, but I don’t think we take time to really think about that. The only real encounter I have had in my lifetime with a Native American is with one of my neighbors. She actually grew up on the reservation the video talked about in class—she is a member of the Lacota Sioux tribe. However, she left the reservation as soon as she turned 18 because she knew that was the best thing for her.

Oops! This was supposed to go under the video about the 29:1 ratio (the question right below this). My apologies!!

I was shocked to find out that the number the United States takes into consideration when planning a bombing or raid is 29 civilians to one bad guy. However, as bad as it is to say, it would be impossible to go through with such tasks without innocent people getting harmed. Obviously no sane person wants to harm people that don’t deserve it, but as Sam mentioned in class, our government does the best job it possibly can to avoid fatalities of the innocent.
The whole topic reminded me of an episode of The West Wing. In the episode, the president is planning a bombing to get rid of a bad guy. The episode goes through the planning procedure and shows how difficult it is for the president to choose a time for the bombing because he doesn’t want anyone to die that doesn’t have to. However, the location they are bombing is a very public place and the chance of getting the pretty number of 29 civilian deaths is nearly impossible. In the end, the president and the army generals decide to bomb during the night, that way the only other people who should die are janitors and workers. The episode shows how distraught the president is over this decision and how he feels he can never live with himself again knowing full well that he caused the deaths of dozens of people that should’ve lived a much longer life.
It is sad to think that people that don’t deserve to die have to during a war, but that is part of what comes with a war. Our army—and most armies around the world—do as best as they can to avoid killing innocent people, but it can’t always be avoided. If most people had it their way, they would say their magic number of civilian deaths would be zero, but we just aren’t capable of that yet. But we have come a long way. Think of World War II for example. The United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds and hundreds of completely innocent people—just to send a message. As Sam said in class, the United States army’s number of 29 is by far the best the world has seen in modern day warfare. The United States really tries to go out of its way to ensure that the least amount of innocent people gets killed.
So I guess, in short, it is hard to give you an answer to what my magic number would be. Ideally it would be zero, but realistically I am impressed with what the United States is doing now. Who knows, maybe in the future 29 will seem outrageously high for all armies and the world will have an even lower number. And if we’re lucky, someday we will find a way to get that magic number down to zero.

I have never personally witnessed English being forced to be spoken, however, as a Spanish minor I have heard stories of where it has been. One of my professors—who is white, with blond hair and blue eyes and is originally from Spain—decided she was going to teach her 3-year-old daughter both Spanish and English. She decided that her family would only speak Spanish at home and English would be spoken with company and when her daughter was at school or other activities. However, she said there were several times when out in public with her child that people would look at her funny for speaking Spanish to her kid. And she told us one time in particular where she was speaking Spanish with her daughter at CVS when a woman approached her and very rudely told my professor that she should be speaking to her child in a “real language” aka English. My professor didn’t say anything in return, but expressed her outrage to us in class. I couldn’t believe that someone would think that, let alone say that, to someone and her young child.
There was also another story that was brought to my attention from a classmate, Maria, who was born and spent the first 11 years of her life in Venezuela. I would’ve never guessed she was born in a Spanish-speaking country, as her English is impeccable, and even though her appearance makes it obvious she has Spanish heritage of some kind, her accent didn’t lead me to believe Spanish was her first language. Anyway, she told me a story of when she was walking in State College earlier this year and was talking on the phone with her mom. Maria still speaks only Spanish with her parents, and this time was no exception. As she was walking, a girl ripped the cell phone out of her hand, yelled something nasty to her and started beating Maria up—all because she wasn’t speaking English. Maria handled the situation very well and holds no grudges against the girl that beat her up, but I was appalled by the act.
It is just so hard for me to believe that people in our country are so against people speaking Spanish—or any other language for that matter. The United State is the third-largest Spanish speaking country in the world, meaning there are more people in our country who speak Spanish than in most predominantly Spanish-speaking countries in the world. It is so unfortunate that people are still against this when being bilingual and multi cultured has so many advantages to a society and to an individual’s development. Maybe if people took the time to step back and appreciate these things for what they add to a society, then we wouldn’t have so many outbursts against it.

I would absolutely date a black guy if the opportunity presented itself. Currently I am in a year-long relationship with my boyfriend, Josh, who happens to be white as well. However, the idea of dating a black guy has never been something I have been opposed to. Actually, one of the first crushes I can remember in about middle school was on this boy named Alex who went to my school who also happened to be black. He was the nicest guy and we even though nothing happened between us, he remained one of my good friends for many years. I’m not going to lie; I’ve always found black men attractive. I don’t know what it is about them that attracts me, but I do find them appealing. I think part of it is their smiles. They just look so much fuller and brighter in contrast to their dark skin, and I find that very attractive. Other than that, I can’t pinpoint what it is that I like about them, but I just know that I do.
The only thing that would’ve deterred me in high school or earlier on in my life would’ve been my family’s reaction to an interracial relationship. However, those questions have all been answered for me. My younger sister, Brenna, has been in a relationship for just about two years with Darius, who is black. She too was nervous as to what my family would think, but she found that everyone was very accepting of Darius and treated him as if he were a member of the family. Even my grandparents were eventually okay with the relationship, even though they were slightly uncomfortable at first. One of my cousins also married a black man named Romero. They have two beautiful children and are very happily married. Becky (my cousin) kind of paved the way for interracial dating in our family, and once people saw how smoothly it went for her, it seemed as though several other people were willing to try it. And now there are a handful of people in our extended family who are in an interracial relationship.
I think the biggest thing that makes me comfortable with dating a black man—or any man for that matter—is the way I was brought up. My parents never discouraged us from interacting with people of different races or ethnicities. In fact, they encouraged that we did so. I think that plays a big part in me and my sisters being open to dating a black man. All of us like to please our parents (as I’m sure most people do) so I think it would be a different story if they were outwardly opposed to the notion. But it’s nice to know that if the opportunity presented itself, I could take full advantage and have the full approval of my family.

With that being said, we all know that there are different races out there and no matter how we were brought up on the issue we still find the need to point out the differences. I would never introduce one of my roommates, as “white Diana” or “white Leah.” However, I fully admit to introducing my other roommate as “Emily, the Jewish one” or something to that extent. Or one of my roommates will refer to one group of her friends as “the black guys” and whatnot. And the same thing happens with other races too. I know my sister’s boyfriend (who is black) has referred to my sister as “white” when talking about her, and has referred to our whole family with that classifier. I don’t know why we do it or when we will realize that it’s not necessary, but I do know that we need to be aware that we’re doing such things. Maybe if we all make a conscious effort to eliminate these unnecessary racial references from our dialogue, then maybe it will encourage others to stop doing that as well. We’ll never know until we try.