I decided to do my last blog on the Pennsylvania Lifers. I wish I would have been known about these blogs that they were being posted. It’s really interesting to hear where they are coming from. One reason I’m really interested in the Pennsylvania Lifers is that many members of my family are apart of the prison population. My older brother has been imprisoned since I was in the 8th grade. He’s supposed to get out this year. I have never asked him about how does it feel to be in prison with some many restrictions on your life and daily routine. How he feels about prison would probably differ from someone who is in prison for life because he has the opportunity of becoming a free man. A question that crossed my mind is that will he ever be a free man. Although, he will soon be released from jail his past will always be apart of him. Especially since he’s black. It’s going to be so hard to find employment. I remember when Sam said a company would most likely hire a white guy with a criminal record than a black guy with a criminal record. My brother has a criminal record so where does that leave him? It’s going to be extremely difficult for him to find employment. I really feel that the system is created to keep black people at the bottom of the social economic class. If he can’t find a job, how else is he going to get money? If there are no legal ways to get money, then he’s coerced to get money illegally. Not just him but all black men with a criminal past. The government needs to create some type of law to get people with criminal backgrounds employment. They could even give incentives to companies that are willing to hire employees with criminal backgrounds. I feel like we need to figure out why so many people are going to prison. The amount of people in prison is insane. Additionally, it cost so much money to keep people in prison. That money could be going elsewhere like for students to go college and better themselves. I feel like the government needs to make some cuts to the prison budgets. I’m not saying that murders should not be imprisoned. What I’m saying is that let’s spend money and find out why some people murder? Some people are naturally bad; however, some people just make the wrong decisions. Should someone who made the wrong decision be imprison for LIFE because they didn’t have enough money to afford a good lawyer? The money that we spend on keeping prisoners in jail for life we could spend elsewhere.

Part 3
More places needs to become more “transgender friendly” like Penn State. I don’t know if you know but, Penn State is very “transgender friendly”. If you’re transgender you can request special housing, and can live with other transgender people. Also, they have restrooms available for transgender people in places such as the Hub. Instead, of turning transgender people away Penn State embraces them. I feel like many other companies and businesses should take that aspect on the situation. We have to remember that everyone has rights

Part 2

People need to become more open minded. Even if you don’t agree with someone, I think you at least should be able to understand where they are coming from. For example, Mr. Devoureau’s boss disagreed with him being transgendered and also didn’t even understand where he was coming from. I feel like if he understood with where he might be coming from he would have treated him differently. He really did him wrong. I feel like there is no reason to fire someone because of they’re transgender. He still has to feed his family and pay bills. In addition, to be honest I feel like that is not now of his boss’s business. As Americans we need to stop judging people especially people that we never get a chance to know. If we do judge people, we need to learn to put are judgments aside because sometimes that could get us in trouble..

Part 1
This is an extremely interesting article for me. I feel like transgender people and their rights have been overlooked for many years. I feel as though they are equal to everyone else in this country. Who are we to deny them rights? I can relate to them because they are minorities just like me. I feel like he should not be denied his job because he’s doesn’t fit the ideal job description or because his boss may feel uncomfortable around him. That is exactly how people were and still are to black people. So I definitely understand what he’s feeling. There need to be more laws out there to guarantee that everyone is getting treating equally. With that being said, why do we have to have laws to ensure equality? Why can’t everyone just treat everyone equally without being coerced? Does evil always exist? I feel like we need to come together as a society and become more informed. Ignorance is the cause for many social problems in America. If we have more classes like this where students can learn about inequality and just become more informed that would really help out a lot.

This lecture was similar to many of the other lectures; it did not really change my opinion or perspective on terrorism. However, the lecture did provide me with new knowledge on terrorism. I never knew that a target enemy is worth 29 civilian lives. That’s insane to me. Who are we as people to put the price on other people lives? We as Americans are always trying to control other people lives. We want to go to other places and control their resources. However, who are we to just take what belongs to someone else? For example, we got the land that we call the “USA” for the Native Americans, and now they’re forced to live on reserves. How can we come here and take control over other people resources and land. This is in some way what we were trying to do in Iraq. When I think of terrorism, I usually think there is a message they’re trying to get across. Whenever someone does something like that there is usually a reasonable explanation behind it. Whether you agree with them or not is totally a different story. The message that they’re trying to get across is that they want us out there country, and that they would protect their country by any means necessary. I feel like Americans are the same way. I know so many people that volunteer to join the marines and fight for our country. That’s basically what terrorist is doing. With that said I really don’t support war. I feel like we could be doing something else with those people that are going to war and we could be putting the funds that go into paying for war. Without war I feel like our society would be more productive. America spends so much money on weapons for defense. There are so many different ways that the money could be used for. For example, it could be used for education, tax breaks, and low interest loans for small business. Increasing money for those purposes could really benefit our society as a whole. One thing I think Sam wanted us to take from this lecture was to just try putting yourself in someone else’s shoes so you can understand or at least know where they are coming from. We as Americans forget to understand where others are coming from. Understanding where someone is coming from can really come along way.

This lecture was similar to many of the other lectures; it did not really change my opinion or perspective on terrorism. However, the lecture did provide me with new knowledge on terrorism. I never knew that a target enemy is worth 29 civilian lives. That’s insane to me. Who are we as people to put the price on other people lives? We as Americans are always trying to control other people lives. We want to go to other places and control their resources. However, who are we to just take what belongs to someone else? For example, we got the land that we call the “USA” for the Native Americans, and now they’re forced to live on reserves. How can we come here and take control over other people resources and land. This is in some way what we were trying to do in Iraq. When I think of terrorism, I usually think there is a message they’re trying to get across. Whenever someone does something like that there is usually a reasonable explanation behind it. Whether you agree with them or not is totally a different story. The message that they’re trying to get across is that they want us out there country, and that they would protect their country by any means necessary. I feel like Americans are the same way. I know so many people that volunteer to join the marines and fight for our country. That’s basically what terrorist is doing. With that said I really don’t support war. I feel like we could be doing something else with those people that are going to war and we could be putting the funds that go into paying for war. Without war I feel like our society would be more productive. America spends so much money on weapons for defense. There are so many different ways that the money could be used for. For example, it could be used for education, tax breaks, and low interest loans for small business. Increasing money for those purposes could really benefit our society as a whole. One thing I think Sam wanted us to take from this lecture was to just try putting yourself in someone else’s shoes so you can understand or at least know where they are coming from. We as Americans forget to understand where others are coming from. Understanding where someone is coming from can really come along way.

If whites become the minority I feel like nothing would change. What sense are we talking about when we say a change in the minority and the majority. In this sense I feel like we are talking about the population change from whites being the majority into the minority. With that being said, I feel like white people would still be the majority of people that is in power. Money and power goes hand and hand. I feel like the white people are still going to be in charge because they have money and power. So nothing would really change at all of you ask me.
On the contrary, if we look at the aspect of black people becoming the majority in power than that’s a different story. I feel like there are many black people that are still not over slavery. Many black people feel sensitive to the fact that their ancestors were mistreated and killed due to the color of their skin. When I ask some of my friends how they would feel if the situation was reversed, most of them would say that they would do onto the whites as they did us.
The Barbarian thought of “an eye for an eye” is not what I live by. Just because our ancestors were mistreated by white people, doesn’t mean that every white person was harsh. There were white people that also believed that the blacks shouldn’t have been treated like that. But we as people seem to forget that. Because of those white people that helped blacks, several blacks were able to have better lives. I believe that what happened to my ancestors was wrong, but I am also aware of what was done for my ancestors that were fortunate enough to have a life.
I will always remember my history but I also respect my present and future. Our generation has come a long way racially and culturally. We no longer have segregation and there is now more diversity in mostly every career field you can think of. We as students are able to accept each other’s differences and we aren’t highly influenced by our elders. We are a generation of independents. We want to make our mark on this world as those that made the world a better place not expanded the world on hatred. In reality, whites will never become the minority because us black people are killing ourselves instead of building a loving community. As long as we continue this, we will never be able to be a majority.

I really didn’t pay racism any mind until I got up here at Penn State. I don’t know if it was because I haven’t been exposed to as many white people in Philly as I was up here, but I’m convinced that there are many racist people up here at Penn State. There may be many racist people in Philadelphia, but they must not show that side of them for whatever reason that may be. The one racist experience I had and can remember vividly occurred to me freshmen year Spring semester. So one Friday night my friends and I decided to go out. They were looking for somewhere to go, and I brought up the idea of going to one of my other friends fraternity. So the night we get to the fraternity, and everyone couldn’t get in because their name wasn’t on the list so we decided to leave and find somewhere else to go. So on our way back to campus we run into some other friends of ours on Beaver Ave. This is where it’s started getting interesting. So we’re all standing on the corner socializing. All of a sudden I see like oranges coming from behind me, and then I hear “go home niggers.” I’m thinking to myself like what’s going on? Then they said, “Why are yall here? Go back to Community College.” I was shocked by the words that didn’t know how to respond. Some of my other friends were arguing back and forth with them. Then one of my friends was like really trying to go in the building and go up to their room. It hit him the hardest cause he actually does go to a Community College. Some one stopped him, because if they wouldn’t have things would have really gotten out of hand. We all decided to walk away because it wouldn’t have been worth it. While walking back to campus everyone was just expressing how we felt about the entire situation. I personally was upset and annoyed. I was upset because it hurt me to hear that vulgar and derogatory language. Why did they think they were better than us? Who are they to judge someone? The reason why I was annoyed is because it made me mad how ignorant they were. With that being said, I always know there were people up here that were racist. I just hated to actually see it. It’s crazy because one of the kids could be in my class sitting next to me and I would never know. One thing I had to remember is that not all white people are like that it’s just a few. Well at least I hope there is just a few. This is not the only time it found out someone was racist, but it was the most traumatic.

I personally never felt guilty about being black. There is no reason for me to feel guilty about whom I am. I know I’m fortunate to live the life I live. My life is nowhere near perfect, but I just say to myself that there are so many people out there that have it much worse than I do. I sometimes forget that and do not take advantage of all the opportunities that are available to me. However, I still don’t feel guilty about being black. I feel like everything that I have in my life I worked hard for. My parents raised in a way that if I wanted something I had to work hard for it. For the most part nothing is ever going to be handed to you on a silver spoon in life unless you’re one of the “lucky ones”.

With that being said when I was younger, I use to sometimes be embarrassed about being black. A lot of the black youth in my neighborhood were violent and ignorant. The black people use to pick on and take advantage of the white people in my neighborhood. I don’t know if the white people were scared or if they just didn’t care as much, but the black kids use to like bully them. There were a good percentage of both black and white people in my neighborhood. However many of the white people were old couples. So the white kids were the minority compared to black kids. The black kids would just take advantage of the white kids kindness. Also, they would bully them. I was embarrassed because just because someone is being nice you should not take advantage of them, and that would give white kids a bad impression. They probably think all black people are like that and we’re not. However, as I grown up I realized I shouldn’t be embarrassed because those kids did not know any better. You can’t blame someone who doesn’t know. Also, white kids should not just assume that all black people are alike. How would they feel if we just assume all black people are alike? All in all, you should never make assumption about anything or anyone until you at least give it a try.

Another thing I wanted to talk about is that many white people that I came across they say how they feel guilty about slavery and stuff like that. I feel as though they shouldn’t feel guilty because they didn’t take part in slavery. However, if they’re racist then that’s another story. My main point is that you could change problems of the past, but you can become part of a future solution.

Having scholarships for white males only is fair to me. Why shouldn’t they have the opportunity to get financial aid when they’re in need of it? Everyone deserves the privilege of an education. If anyone say that they shouldn’t having scholarships I feel they’re racist to some extent. Many scholarships are targeted towards specific groups, so we shouldn’t deny any one group that right. With that being said, I feel like there are so many scholarships that are geared towards whites already. Most of the people that are on the executive board for huge corporations are white males. So therefore, I feel like these scholarships are targeted towards white males. The requirements for those scholarships are unattainable by most people that aren’t going to suburban or private schools getting a “grade A” education. Many of the people that go to those types of schools already have a better opportunity because they went to those schools, now they have another opportunity of getting those scholarships. I would feel some type of way if my tax money would be going towards a scholarship that’s targeted towards white males because I feel like that would be a waste of money. The majority of whites are already better off compared to the majority of other races such as blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics.
I feel like white people getting scholarships targeted towards them is just another way of keeping them at the top of the social economic ladder and keeping the minorities that need scholarship money to attend school from getting an education. For example, at Penn State the tuition has been gradually increasing over the years, and some students are getting tired of it, while other students haven’t even noticed the increased. Most of the students that are getting tired of the constant tuition increase are minorities and not whites because it affects minorities the most. There were two protests for lower tuition recently on Penn State campus. The majority of the students protesting were not white. Most of the white students heard about the tuition increase, but it doesn’t affect them enough for them to protest. So if increasing tuition doesn’t affect white students, why should there be scholarships targeted towards white males students? Clearly, they aren’t affected by expensive tuition so why would they need help to pay for college? So they can spend their money elsewhere by investing in real estate, stocks, or leisure. Whites are already better off especially white males. White males are dominating the society that we live in today. Them getting scholarships will only enable them to stay at the top, and enable minorities to stay at the bottom. The old saying will still be true, “the rich get richer, and the poor doesn’t get a dam thing.”