I don’t think there is one specific thing a victim needs to speak out. This is because every person and every situation is different. Some victims may need more than others to feel comfortable enough to speak out. In cases where speaking out will tear apart a family, it will take a lot more for the victim to make his or her voice heard. This is one of the hardest decisions a person would ever have to make. As a victim, do you speak out because you know it is the right thing to do and you know you need help? Or do you keep it in for the sake of your family? There is no right answer to this question and there are no right answers to many questions surrounding this subject. It is hard to put word to the complexity of these issues, and that’s why child abuse is rarely discussed.
As Sam said in class, the number of children who have suffered through sexual abuse is astonishing and unbelievable. How could such a terrible thing happen to so many innocent children? Do these large numbers indicate that sexually abusing children is a part of our culture? No one wants to answer this question because the answer is scary and no wants to believe that we, as a society, can do this to our children, the future of the world.
The main thing victims need to speak out is to know that they will truly be heard and trusted. I believe that many victims do not speak out because they are afraid no one will believe them because often times, the abuser has more authority and superiority than the victim. This is for many reasons: the abuser is usually a respected adult, the abuser is often times a trusted family member, and the abuser usually seems like a good person and it’s hard for people to imagine that this person could ever do such a horrible thing. The child may also be too young to realize how wrong these acts are.
These victims not only need trust, they need support. As we discussed in class, this issue is complex in itself. What exactly does it mean to support these victims? Is it enough to just give money to an organization that works to prevent child abuse? Or does supporting these victims mean more than just giving money? Should all of us make our voices heard and let children know that we are here to listen? If we do decide to do that, how do we go about starting to get our voices out there? What do we even say to make the victims realize we really are there for them? It is difficult to make sure they know they cant trust someone because being abused by someone you know makes it harder to trust everyone.
Does supporting the victims mean taking serious action to stop those molesters before they do anything? If we say yes, then how do we go about finding these people with thoughts of being sexual with a child? Because our society labels these people as monsters, they don’t want to tell anyone about the strange thoughts they are having.
Anything we think of that could help victims speak out raises questions as to how to do it. That’s why this issue is one of the biggest problems in our society to day. It may take a very long time before we can fix this complex problem.

I strongly believe, and I have for a long time, that money doesn’t equal happiness. If anything, money equals hate, greed, and evil. Everything happening at Penn State right now is a perfect example. No, money didn’t directly cause Sandusky to sexually abuse the boys, but it has a lot to do with everything that has transpired afterward. The Board of Trustees, the ones who made the decision to fire our president and our iconic coach, were strongly pressured and influence by alumni who give money to the university. If the alumni are unhappy with Penn State’s reputation and the Board’s decisions, they won’t continue to give money. This isn’t fair in so many ways. It’s not fair to the Board members who can’t vote based on how they truly feel. They have to vote based on what will make the alumni donors happy. It’s not fair to us, the students, because we haven’t done anything wrong, yet we will suffer the consequences of receiving less money. The influence money has on this situation, and many situations, is often times hidden amongst other things.
Think about the video we saw in class recently, about the modern day slaves who pick cocoa beans and don’t get paid a cent and are beaten to death if they leave. This seems like it couldn’t be possible because everything believes that we our way past slavery but that is far from the truth. These innocent people on the Ivory Coast are forced to live a life they don’t want to live just so the manufacturing businesses can make money off of cocoa beans and these companies don’t want to pay anyone to do this work because that means more money for them. If they had to pay people to do this work then they would have to spend a significant amount of the profits on their employees and that is the last thing big companies and businesses want to do.
There are countless examples of money causing horrible outcomes. Think about our financial crisis and Madoff. He was so incredibly greedy that he ended up ruining many peoples’ lives, including his own son. His own son was so upset and distraught about the entire thing and just couldn’t take it anymore so he killed himself. This example is pretty extreme but terrible incidents like this happen more often than people think, and a good amount of the time, money is committing the crime.
Why do you think poverty and drug crimes are related? People in poverty have to find some way to make a living so sometimes they have no choice but to sell drugs, or prostitute themselves. It sounds horrible but the truth doesn’t always sound pleasant.

I think it differs for every person. Just as we cannot label all people of one race as being the same, we cannot label everyone who hangs out in a mixed crowd a poser. Having said this, we also cannot rule out the idea that people who hang out in mixed crowds are posers. I believe that most people fall into the category of non-posers, but posers exist. People may feel the need to have friends of multiple races to prove they are not racist. Some people may want to have friends of multiple races because they want to seem “cultured.” People who have mixed race friend groups for these reasons are trying to be politically correct. There is such an emphasis on being politically correct and I don’t think anyone can give a straight forward answer as to why our world is this way. Fear is instilled in everyone to make sure they don’t say the wrong thing to make someone mad and it seems silly to me. People shouldn’t be afraid to speak their minds and say how they feel if he or she knows he or she is not racist. Does it really matter what other people think as long as you know how you view race? Yes, bad things can happen if people of a certain race are offended, but I don’t think anything extremely serious would happen if someone racist was said by accident. People who associate themselves with other races just to make a statement are probably insecure about how people view them and their views on race. If a person truly is not racist, then there would be no need to try to prove it.
On the other hand, there are many people who have friends of all different races just because that’s how it turned out. If someone comes from a very diverse area, they are more likely to meet people who are different and therefore are more likely to befriend these people. Other people who have a multiracial friend group may just be very outgoing and open to all types of people regardless of their race or culture. These kinds of people are most likely in the later stages of racial identity development. It would be a perfect world if everyone could accept anyone but we all know this is basically impossible. People who associate with other races for the right reasons are in no way posers. I am sure those people would be shocked to hear someone call them a poser. This is because they probably don’t even think about the fact that they have friends of all races because it seems so natural to them. When you have been a certain way for so long (such as being open to anyone) it doesn’t seem to be anything unusual and any other views seem strange.

There would definitely be more consensual sex in a woman centered world. Rapes only happen because we are a male centered world in terms of sex. As Lori and Sam discussed in class, men have a much harder time stopping themselves from wanting sex once they are already aroused. Rape is about males feeling power over women; it is not solely a sexual act. This is a common misconception about rape. Because we are a male centered world, men feel that they should have more power in general. They feel that they should have more power in the work force, in the family, in the bedroom, and many other aspects of life. Some men don’t even realize that they are technically raping their victim. In some rape cases, women are saying no and the man does not take her seriously and continues to have sex with her anyway. In a lot of cases, women are too drunk to know what is going on to even be able to say no. Because of these few reasons, most rapes are never reported.
As a girl who has been sexually assaulted, I know how real all of this is. Even after saying no countless times, the guys did not stop and they did not even remember what they did. If this was a woman centered world, these kinds of things would never happen and women would not have to suffer the consequences of a men-centered world. In a world focused more on women, women would not feel the need to wear sexy clothes and uncomfortable heals just to get a guys attention. Maybe men would have to wear uncomfortable clothing to impress girls if our world was centered more around women. This may sound ridiculous but we are so accustomed to the social rules we have now that anything else, no matter what it is, will sound ridiculous. If you think about it, some gay men wear heals and tighter clothing to impress guys they are interested in so in actuality, a man dressing in uncomfortable clothing to attract girls is not that farfetched. A main misconception about rape is that “women are asking for it by wearing sluttly clothes.” This is far from the truth. If a woman went out wearing sweats, would she get any attention compared to the girls who are wearing skimpy clothes? Probably not. Women are pressured to act and dress a certain way because they are under the impression that they have to in order to get any kind of attention. Men may deny this simply because they are not aware of it because these social rules benefit them rather than hinder them. The entire porn industry is an example of how much our world is centered around men. There are very few, if any, porn videos that are made for women. The saddest part is that most women fall into this trap and conform to the social rules without even realizing it. Because most women conform, those who don’t are often left out to dry and often become the ones who are victims of sexual assault and rape. Men assume that most women will have sex with them just because they are “suppose to” but when a woman says no they do not know how to react and therefore force women into having non consensual sex.

I don’t agree that race has much to do with illegal drug use. I think race seems as though it plays a role in drug use for a few reasons. The first reason is that people of the same race often tend to hang out together. We talked about this in class; we feel more comfortable around people who are more similar to us. This is unfortunate and this class aims to break down those walls we have between ourselves and people who appear to be different from us. Maybe someday everyone will look past physical appearances and it will seem silly to judge someone based on what they look like. But, sadly, as of right now, there are still distinct separations between races. We tend to hang out with people who have similar interests. If we have a desire to do illegal drugs we will most likely find people to do drugs with. These people are most likely going to turn out to be their tight group of friends. Because our close friends are often times people or our same race, people of the same race end up doing the same drugs as one another. My high school is an example of this. I went to a predominately white high school but there were a decent amount of blacks and Asians and Indians. All of the black people hung out together for the most part. I would imagine that if one of them wanted to do a drug, his or her friends would most likely try the drug also just because they happen to be hanging out with that person. I can’t say that for a fact because I didn’t hang out with them enough to know for sure but from what I have observed from my experience, friend groups usually participate in the same type of drug use. This can be misunderstood because people just see a large number of people in the same race doing the same drugs and just assume that it is due directly to their race. In reality, it is not due directly to their race.
Poverty is another factor that strongly influences drug use in my opinion. It seems to me like adolescents who are living in low-income areas are more likely to turn to drugs. This may be because it is more accessible, because that is how they were raised, or because they want to mentally escape the hardships they are dealing with. As we learned in class, minorities are often the ones living in extreme low-income areas. Because minorities are discriminated against, they cannot get as many high paying jobs as white people do. By no fault of their own, minorities make up the majority of people living in poverty. Because this is the case, and poverty may lead to drug use, this may also make it seem like race is the single contributing factor to illegal drug use.

I think it may be an interesting idea, if possible of course, to have each group pick a country they would like to develop a relationship with. If the project added this aspect, the class will have done something for many countries around the world that need the help as much as the Haitians. What about all the wars that are going on in Africa and the Middle East? People tend to forget about them because they aren't on the news anymore. The news only shows us a snapshot of what is happening currently in the world, and mostly our country. To truly know who needs help the most, we need to dig deeper and find ways to help countries that have been sufferring for years.

I think it is an incredible idea to have us do something completely hands on to apply our knowledge to the real world and people with real needs. I have always loved helping people in every way that I can. I volunteer at a 24 hour crisis hotline and I have gone on mission trips before, so I know how it feels to be helpful to others. It's a truly amazing feeling to know that you, yourself, saved someone's life, because, face it, if some of these people in Haiti don't get the materials they need they may not be able to support themselves enough to stay healthy.
While I do have a lot of good feelings toward this project, there are a few negatives. I do think it is awesome that we are able to help them out any way we want to, but this project also made me think about all of the other countries that need help too. I've thought about doing the peace core and people in the peace core are all around the world helping people because they love to. It doesn't matter where you are or who you're helping, you are making a big difference in someones life. Some people cannot say the same.

I definitely agree that income has a strong correlation with SAT scores. Of course SAT scores aren’t solely based on the family’s income, but the income does play a significant factor in determining how well the child does. For instance, children of parents with high income will have more money to go to a better school, have better resources, and take SAT prep classes if they choose to. We talked about free will and determinism today and based on those two beliefs the child is either stuck doing what is expected of them or the child can make a choice to do something different. Every child will choose to do something different and that is why nothing is always determinism and nothing is always free will.
Children coming from lower in come households are extremely disadvantaged from the beginning. Their schools often have less resources and the level of education is overall lower than wealthy schools. Yes, those children could work their asses off to achieve the level of education of those going to wealthier schools but is that really fair? Should those students who have less money be forced to work twice, or even three times, as hard as students with more money just to reach the same level? That doesn’t make sense to me. People that believe those students have an equal opportunity clearly haven’t thought about what it would be like to be in their shoes. This is because people with those beliefs are often people who had it easy their whole lives and never had to work hard for anything.
Many of the prejudices today wouldn’t exist if everyone could just imagine what it would be like to be someone else for a day. If administrators and government officials considered how hard it is for students of low-income areas and school districts to have the same level of education as wealthier students, they may change the laws. One of the biggest problems in our country is that people in power don’t actually consider what is best for the citizens of the country. If you think about it, the way our education system is set up now doesn’t make sense at all. Having the SATs as an “equalizer” doesn’t “equalize” anything. The only way to have equal opportunities would be to have equal funding for all the schools. Every school would essentially have to have the same resources, same level of teachers, and same learning environment. This does sound impossible and it is the reason no one has done anything to change it. It would be extremely hard to make such drastic changes to the system but it has to start somewhere and no one is even making a start.

We all are humans. In the reading it says that we are ninety nine percent identical to all humans in terms of genetic makeup. This means that we are all much more similar to other human beings than most people think we are. That one percent difference in genetic makeup has made all the difference in the world and it has caused uproar and violence for centuries. We call our nation the land of the free but how free are those minorities some people discriminate against? Statistics have shown that it is harder for a black man to get a job over a white man even if they have the same credentials, and there are many other situations similar to this. It boggles my mind that anyone can treat someone with such disrespect just because they look different, or because they believe in a different god, or because they have different cultural practices.
Even though I grew up in a fairly sheltered area with mostly white people around me, I have never understood racism or prejudice of any kind. It's hard for me to even wrap my head around the fact that something like skin color makes one person less than another and vice versa. Thinking about the Holocaust or other genocides that have taken place leaves me speechless. The amount of lives lost in these tragic events far too many. Even one life lost over race issues is one too many.
I believe that judging people based on the way they look is just as silly as judging someone based on their favorite color. The way you look shouldn't mean anything at all, but we all know it matters significantly in our world today. The only reason we can't all be human is because people had to classify one racial group and when they did that, they thought that made it okay to treat them with less respect. Racial groups exist so the "better" race can treat the "worse" race like shit; how sad is that?
I am white and I have dated people of color. If I lived in a different time period that would not have been possible and thinking about that makes me so sad. What if the person you were meant to be with was a different race and just because of that you could never be with him/her? Our world has many flaws but prejudices due to race are among the worst. Think about all the wars and what the causes were. Yes, not all of them were due to race, but most of them were.
The truth is we are all humans and the fact that we look different shouldn’t make any difference. In fact, it's what makes our world a beautiful place and we should embrace it.

I’m hoping to learn more about Affirmative Action because I have my own personal views on the subject but I want to make sure I am fully educated on the topic. I know the basics: it was made to try to give African Americans equal opportunity because they have been at a disadvantage as long as they have been a part of this country. I would like to know more specifics about how it was created, who created it, how it was passed, and if they have made any changes to it. This information would be interesting to me because I feel that as times change, laws such as this need to go through changes as well. As time goes on, the dynamics of our country change and the same laws will not always work as well as they have previously.
Knowing why it was specifically created and how it was passed would help me to understand why it is such a controversial issue. It would also help me to understand why there haven’t been many changes to it, because I feel as though changes are more than necessary. I certainly understand why it was created and I see how it evens the playing field to an extent, but skin color doesn’t mean everything when it comes to income level. It is still true today that African Americans are at a disadvantage when it comes to getting jobs and that is simply statistics. It is also fact that a majority of people in poverty in America are Hispanics or Blacks. I am someone who will fight for underclass, under privileged, disadvantage people to no end because I believe in non-profit organizations and I think we need more of them. Although I do strongly believe in this, under privileged people aren’t always minorities; there are plenty of white people in poverty in this country. A better way to go about this subject would be to classify each high school as a certain poverty level and schools that are underneath a certain poverty level will receive extra benefits from colleges. I understand that this would be hard to implement for many reasons. We have had the same Affirmative Action laws for quite some time and it would be extremely difficult to pass a law that has such drastic changes. This is because most people are afraid of change just because they are stuck in their ways and aren’t open to new, and probably better, ideas.
As much as people would try to fight this, it makes a lot of sense. Isn’t only giving minorities benefits just as prejudice as discriminating against them? It isn’t fair to the white people in poverty who are just as disadvantage. They are struggling just as much as Blacks and Hispanics but because their ancestors were slave owners, they have to accept the fact that people still believe we “owe” the minority community.