Did his presentation make me change my view on immigration? Good question. I’ve gotta go with a big I’m not sure. I feel like I am just as confused about where I stand with immigration as I did previously. On one side you have the people who debate that these people are taking jobs that nobody else wants. They believe that they should stay because without them many things such as construction, landscaping and agricultural related things would cease to exist. On the other hand though, people believe that they are here illegally and should leave. They see it as a corporate cop out and believe that if you are going to give anyone a job, make it and American worker and pay them a respectable wage. Do not outsource your work force so you can make more money than previously anticipated. I can see both ends of this argument. Yes, I think that we should let them work here because quite frankly they are cheap labor and they are content with their wages so why not let them stay? It is not like they are being held captive as slaves to corporate America; they are getting paid more than they would if they were back home. But if you think about it, is this a corporate cop out? Could we have many more jobs for Americans if this wasn’t happening? Some people believe not. Many believe that if you opened up these jobs, no one would take them, even if they did pay a respectable wage. Some people believe that the work is too demining and would rather work at McDonalds than succumb to hard labor such as that. People need to realize that even though people in America need jobs, that work is not easy and American people are very prideful. Very few people would actually get up and take that job because they know that a landscaping job is not going to help them get anywhere in the corporate world eventually. Essentially, it is a dead end job that no one wants to take. The only problem is you run a high risk in the communities that these people are in. When you have a place filled with undocumented citizens, they have nothing to lose. They can make crime shoot up because what are you going to do, deport them? They don’t care, they’ve got the money they need and now they’re just trying to see how long they can go without getting caught. It’s something that is extremely controversial and needs to be thought about a lot. I do not believe that there is an easy solution but I do believe there can be a middle ground where everyone is happy, what that looks like though, I have no clue.

My question is why the people of color seem to be the ones who realize color. When that presentation was going on I just saw people telling a story but when people of color see the story, they see people being racist and telling it from a “black” perspective. Just embrace that people of color are just as similar as people that are while. I feel like people that are white see color a lot minimally than people of color but I do not understand why. People of color complain about white people all the time but they (we) just need to relax. They are normal people and yea, their ancestors may have done and things to our people but get over it. It happened, you want to change it? Good luck, just deal with the fact that it happened and move on! Guess what, my people were slaves to and from what I hear it sucked. But let’s not get carried away and cat link that will be our excuse for everything. I never use this excuse because I believe in today’s day and age it is completely irrelevant. Just embrace the fact that we are all different and don’t try to recognize the fact that we are different and happen to have different answers. If we had different answers and we were white would anyone make a note about it, no and why? Because people seem to categorize themselves by what they look like and not how they feel. Stop living your life through pure emotion and try to live a little. Embrace the fact that you’re different and show everyone how great it is! Yea they’re white, so what! I love white people, they’re awesome but it doesn’t mean that every one of them feels the need to discriminate against us. They’re different; guess what, so are we! Love the fact; embrace the fact, that we are different! I love it and I hope that people of color will understand that even though we are a different brand of people, we are still people that enjoy the greater things in life and the only thing that really matters is that right? Just embrace our differences and live and love that fact that they are there and we have to coexist with them! They are pretty amazing and the world would not be nearly the place it is now without them. I just think it’s funny how the people who think the world around them is the most racist, is actually the people who recognize color the most! Embrace the world, embrace the color, and embrace the fact that we must all coexist and live with the decisions we have all made!

I feel like people should stop caring about how other people spend their money. Guess what, there are hundreds of countries that are in debt and could use that money, does it matter that he just happens to be the President of the United States? It does but it shouldnt. Honestly I get it, I do, Haiti is a very poor country that needs a lot of assistance to get better. Yea were doing a project to help them out and thats all fine and dandy but we dont need to stop our way of living for them. If the President wants to spend a billion dollars on his campaign then let him. Are you insinuating that his money is better spent if it was given to Haiti? Thats a pretty ridiculous assumption. If I had a couple extra million and I wanted to buy a house, should I be judged because someone needs the money more than I do? No, I worked for that money and I can spend it as I please. People care too much about what the world around them is doing when in reality their real only concern should be their own life. I just hate when people judge other people for the way they spend their money. The over the summer I brought a pair of $300 sunglasses just cause I felt like it. Am I now a bad person cause I didnt give it to Haiti or another third world country? Seriously, get off our backs. If people have money, spend it however the hell you want. The man has an extra billion laying around to spend on a campaign, then go for it! That money isnt going in the garbage, its being used to pay peoples paychecks. People believe that America is full of people with money but its just like any other country. We have our rich and we have our poor. Why shouldnt we give them money to help our own country? People are always trying to be worldly because thats just what people do. So heres the plan, people get their paychecks and go buy what you want. Sound good? Stop breathing down the neck of public figures because they dont want to give every damn penny of their paycheck to charity. Their people too! They have wants and needs, theirs are just more expensive because simply put, they can afford it. Dont act like this holy person being like well if it was ME I would have given all of that money to charity. Seriously? Lets take a reality check right now. You would be buying that Italian sports car and that mansion because you can. So the message for today is get off your high horse and let people spend money the way they want to.

There are a lot of people that feel extremely uncomfortable with people speaking another language around them and I honestly don’t understand it. Yet I’m one of them. Yeah this is a little biased considering there are occasions that I speak a different language on some times but nine times out of ten it is in a setting where everyone whom I am speaking to/I am speaking around, speaks Spanish. I feel like when people speak Korean around me (as an example) they are talking about me. Is it cause’ I’m a little coincided and I feel like people talk about me on the reg, yeah why not? But regardless you know that It happens a lot. Why else would someone talk to you in English, look at their friend and speak to them in another language, then go back to talking to you in English. Clearly it’s not because they felt the need to add some diversity into the environment but rather because it was a snarky comment that cannot be stated aloud. People need to realize that even though you may not feel comfortable speaking the language commonly used by the people around you, they are probably judging you mad hard. If you don’t want to be subjected to racist comments then try to conform to the world around you. Yeah, there’s all of those people that say don’t conform but clearly these people are a bunch of losers that have nothing better to do with their time then talk about how much they hate society. Just try to be an individual but stay to what everyone deems as normal. People won’t make fun of you if you act normal so just do it. People always complain about the comments that are made about them doing things that they clearly didn’t have to do. If you are mad about what people are saying then stop. Now don’t get me wrong, those racist people who yell at white/black people, they’re all ignorant bastards with no intelligence what so ever but if it’s something you can prevent like, say, speaking English, then you should. I mean it will help you learn English too and that is a plus for everyone. Just realize that you are not only doing yourself a good thing but everyone else around you. If you speak English then people won’t judge you, you’ll be happy, they’ll be happy, like seriously its just a win win win. Think about it, people love multicultural people, just not when they act multicultural. Embrace your culture and show ours, the greatest culture in the world that ever existed aka the United States of America. Only three words to say: Tri Winning, Duh.

I’ve had quite a few instances where I have been subject to racism and I feel like I’ve acted differently in every situation. When it first happened it was one of those things that you really don’t know how to react. How do you react when someone discriminates against you because of the color of your skin. The first time it happened I was in a store similar to JC Penny’s and my mother and I were shopping for clothes. While we were walking around my mother asked me if I was “that guy behind the pole”. I looked over and saw him kind of creeping behind a pole and just thought he was a weird guy. As we walked around the store we realized that he was following us. Whenever we picked up an article of clothing he would get closer and closer because he clearly thought we were going to steal it. What is it about the color of my skin that makes me prone to steal. I can afford to buy the JC Penny store itself none the less an article of clothing inside of it. It’s amazing the stereotype that people literally press on EVERYONE in that race. At first I was extremely appalled at what he did but I soon realized that many people in this world are extremely ignorant and you just can’t take them seriously. If I took every single ignorant person that I’ve met in my life seriously I would be one stressed out young man. I feel like people have to realize that yes, people are going to be ignorant and going to say stupid things but if you actually look at these people, see where they’ve come from and what they’re doing you soon notice that what they say really has no merit at all. Only when a person with a PHD says a racist comment does it have any merit. That means they realize (or at least should) what people have gone through and if they still feel the same way about it then they must have some type of reasoning with a moderate amount of merit to it. I think that even in that case you should just shrug it off. You are never, let me repeat NEVER, going to have a world without racism. Why? Because there always needs to be a sense of superiority in people’s eyes. If there is no one on top then, by human nature, someone will jump on top of that and say that they are better than everyone else for some stupid reason. Just take every day one day at a time you will soon realize that life isn’t that serious. You’ve just got to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Honestly, I believe that the process in which Penn State does admissions and runs their minority students in general, is really messed up. You have people who apply to Penn State and don’t get in because Penn State is trying to “diversify its university”. Why do you feel like you need to give minorities a crutch to get into a proper university? If they didn’t try hard enough in high school and didn’t make the grades then they shouldn’t be able to attend that university, it’s that simple. That’s something that Penn State really doesn’t get. They are so for affirmative action that they are willing to turn away very qualified white people to let in a much lesser qualified minority students. Its pretty messed up if you ask me. All the time I am asked “Oh you got into Penn State Main cause you’re a minority right?”. Every time I am asked I am just as appalled as the last. I worked my butt off in high school in order to attend Penn State and the fact that many people were let in simply based upon the fact that they are a person of color. Sadly, admissions aren’t the only thing that has minorities have an unfair advantage over white people. Why is it that colored people having three counselors while white people only have one? Do we really need that much more help than white people that we are given three times as many counselors as white people. This handicap that we are given is really demining in my opinion. I understand a university feels the need to diversify its minority population but the question is, are they going about it the right way? Is putting down another race in order to bring another one up really the right way of helping out the colored nation? Shouldn’t we educate them enough to know that college is not only the right way to go but also an obtainable option? People in inner cities feel like college is such an unobtainable goal that many of them do not even try. I feel like they need to build up the motivation to do well in school and be a helpful, functioning member of society. I know that this whole thing may be a little off topic thought it at least hits why I believe Penn State is where it is. Yes, I understand, Penn State is a university with an extremely unbalanced community of white versus colored but that is no reason to hurt white people who are able to strive at Penn State. We as a university need to realize that people of color need to build up their own motivation, not be given a handicap because of the color of their skin.

I feel like a lot of white people will be nervous to speak on this topic in fear of being called racist but me, a Puerto Rican male, would be more than happy to speak on their and my behalf. Affirmative action when first put into action, I feel, was needed but now? It’s gone way too far and needs to stop. There are a lot of people at State that I know look at me and believe that I got here because of affirmative action but in reality I just worked my butt off in school. Are people of color stupid compared to white people? Of course not so why do we need a program that treats us like such? While this is all going on there are a lot of white people who are being rejected from the college of their choice because they are being beat out by another person though not because of their grades but rather because of the color of their skin. That is absurd and this is coming from a man of color. Affirmative action has made people of color lazy, very lazy. Let me tell you a little story: there was a baby born, John. Right from birth he was given a crutch. He used that crutch to get everywhere. His best friend, Rob, was not given a crutch though. They both went through school and college together. After college John wasn’t allowed to use his crutch and he fell. He didn’t know how to walk by himself. Though, Rob on the other hand, walked completely fine because he never needed a crutch to hold him up. What I’m trying to say by this story is that when people of color get to the “real world” there is no crutch. The government needs to understand that affirmative action is doing a lot more bad than good. Yes they get through school and college a lot easier but why? Are all people of color mentally handicapped? No. They need to stop having self pity on what happened so many years back, move on and hit the library. There is nothing stopping them from studying so why is there a program acting like there is something blocking them from learning? White people are hurt everyday because of the extreme affirmative action has taken. I know it was put in there for a reason and it’s duty has been served, now, it’s time for this laws abolishment because there are too many people suffering because of it and too many people riding on its coattail. People need to embrace the fact that all humans are capable of doing the same things given they have enough aggressive effort. Stop taking pity and start working.

Honestly I don’t know if selfish is the word for it. I feel like it’s more of an act of stupidity than anything else. It seems to me (especially after watching that video about Tammy) that once people hit a certain point they completely lose hope. I believe that their thought process is along the lines of “I want to have as many children as possible so that I can receive the maximum amount of welfare”. I’ve seen way too many people go through that thought process and it’s absolutely absurd. You care barely afford to put food in your own mouth so you’re going to have more kids and that’s going to help you how? So you’re going to get more money through welfare, awesome. Do you think that those children aren’t going to eat, don’t need clothes to wear, don’t require a lot more money than comes from your welfare check? Wake up! It obviously does and the lack of education in the poor community is why these thoughts go through their heads in the first place. Is it a coincidence that the rich have a significantly lower average amount of children then the poor do? Of course not. It’s because, for one, they don’t need the governmental assistance and two they are having children for the reason people should have children for, to carry on their legacy. It amazes me on the lack of education in the poor community, I feel like even with a high school degree one should be educated enough to understand that more children isn’t the way out. Personally I feel like the people who suffer for their stupidity the most is the middle and upper class. Who’s paying for their welfare increases when they have more and more children? The middle and upper class. I think it’s terrible that because you made something out of yourself and your life that you’re penalized by a multitude of taxes because other people aren’t successful. Is that your fault? Is that why you’re paying for their situation? I just don’t see why America spends over $1 trillion every year helping these people that not only don’t care about self betterment but also put themselves in a deeper hole by having an excess amount of children. I feel like these people need to have all aid cut off. I think the best way for a person to chase for self betterment is to hit absolute rock bottom. When they hit that point and aren’t receiving handouts anymore they have no choice but to start striving for betterment. Only then will people stop relying on the middle and upper class to rid them of their debt problems.

Part 2:

”; it would help so many people that are under the false impression that the work force is actually going to come to them. People have to remember that there are millions of college graduates but only a hand full of jobs that you can pick from and those hand full of jobs are going to have more than enough people knocking at their door for a job to supply the demand that they are looking for. I believe that a college education should not be the reason someone gets a job, it should just be a prerequisite. When applying for an actual career people are expected to have a college degree so what separates you from the rest of the world? It’s about the things that you did while earning that degree. People have to get involved in do something to make a major impact in the world around them while getting a good degree. It not only shows your ability to multitask but to do it well.

I thought that the statistic that was shown in class was really quite interesting. I think that many people believe in today’s day and age that if you work hard in school and academics you are bound to succeed and the reality of it all is that, that’s not true at all. Does a good education help you get to the places you want to in life? Yes, for sure. What many people fail to realize is that it’s much more than a college education that will lead you to success in this life. It’s about what you do with that degree you earn that matters. College graduates feel entitled to jobs since they spent the last couple of years studying at University but that’s not how life works. In an era where college is crucial for most people to make it anywhere in life, people need to fight for their spot in the competitive job market. As people get more education and less job offers that’s why they think their hard work hasn’t paid off but what the reality of it all is, is that you need to go after that job in New York or that internship in Los Angeles because there are a ton of people out there who are actually willing to go the extra mile and get that job. It’s sad to think that such a large percentage of graduate students don’t understand this concept. I think that the “hard work” that they are referring to is school work but never do they take into account the hard work needed to actually find that job or career. I believe that that is a required class to take in college. “The act of using your college degree”