Sociology 119 was one of the best classes I could take during my time at Penn State University. I am very grateful my friend convinced me to take this class. I am from a town that is only one square mile big and is almost completely an all white community. Needless to say, I was not very knowledgeable about other races and ethnicities. Coming to Penn State University has made me more comfortable around other races because of interact with teaching assistants, professors, and classmates of different diversities on a daily basis. Even though I felt like a new enough, I thought I would give Soc 119 a try. Soc 119 has given me a whole different prospective on multiple aspects of race. I never really gave race a thought. If someone talked about anything race relate (ie. Racism, Affirmative Action, etc.) I would just roll my eyes and change the subject. But now I feel educated on the subject and can contribute to the conversation with statements from different sides of the argument. Also, I will now look at generalized statements with a critical eye instead of blindly listening. Before taking this class, I did not realize how much affirmative action benefits white women like myself, that the Native Americans are a very a low priority in our country, or the fact that only one kid in our class never sinned. My favorite part of the course was when we discussed the stages of race for both whites and people of color. I always thought it was just black and white, but now I know that there are many different areas on the spectrum.

Students, administrators, faculty, athletic coaches, victims, and people everywhere learned countless lessons from the sex scandal that has turned Penn State University’s world upside down. I feel like after seeing the consequences Penn State University is facing and the embarrassment of the community is going through, universities everywhere are going to start cracking down on assault charges and reporting the assaults. They should start enforcing a zero tolerance for abuse and/or cover up policy around universities, institutions, businesses, etc. I’ll admit it. Penn State University handled the situation from beginning to end completely inappropriately. They should of exposed Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse behavior when they first found out about it. Yes, the consequences would have been very bad, and I can see where covering it up seemed like a good idea at the time. On the other hand, their thoughts and actions back then, now caused the expected consequences, plus several worse consequences as well; such as several men losing their jobs, perjury charges, etc. Maybe if Jerry Sandusky was exposed in 1998 or 2002, Penn State University would still be under Graham Spanier’s presidency, Joe Paterno would still be coaching the Nittany Lion football, and the athletic director would not be charged with perjury. No one knows what was said in the meetings that resulted in the cover up, but I hope that the people involved learned their lessons incase a similar event happens to arise another time in their lives. You can see on the news that many universities across the United States are starting to expose abusers. For example, a person came out saying Syracuse’s basketball coach sexually abused them. Also, an Olympic gymnastics coach in California was said to have been sexually abusing the female gymnasts. A lesson I learned, along with all the students and alumni of Penn State University, media is not always the unbiased, factual story. They only tell the parts of the story that they think will sell the story. For example, the fifty people who got extremely feisty during the riot are apparently the representation of all Penn State University students on Sports Center. Unless you are a die hard Penn State football fan, most people have never heard of Jerry Sandusky, so the media are making Joe Paterno the face of the scandal to sell the story. I will now read newspapers, watch news reports, etc. with a skeptical eye and ill never take their word as the full truth ever again. One good thing that came out of the Penn State University sex scandal was that now child sex abuse is getting more of a voice, and hopefully the recent attention will decrease the amount of abusers and victims.

Happy Valley has not been so happy these past few days. It has been a whirlwind of embarrassment, anger, and pride. When the news first came out, I was extremely embarrassed because our school, which I love more than anything in the world, was associated with the sick, disturbing man named Jerry Sandusky. I read the Grand Jury report and was sick to my stomach reading about the awful things that man did to those young boys. The fact that Penn State University was going down with him broke my heart. Which brings us to the anger stage. This sex scandal brought a lot of media attention to campus. Most students are feeling angry because the media is forgetting what the scandal is about and focusing more on Joe Paterno and the students. This negative attention on television and newspapers made people who are not associated with Penn State University in anyway feel superior to Penn State University students and feel free to make fun of Paterno and the students, saying stuff like “an older woman who like younger boys is called a cougar, so I guess an older man who like younger boys is called a Nittany Lion.” That is so offensive! The students were not the ones who sexually abused those boys, Sandusky did! When was the last time you heard Sandusky or Curly’s name mentioned on the news or Sports Center? When you look up the Penn State University sex sandal a picture of Joe Paterno shows up, why? The media portrays the students in such a negative light for a ‘headline story’ that would get attention. They need to sell the story, but why ruin reputations that should not be ruined? Penn State University students are now being called beasts, rapists, rape-covering supporters, brainwashed, pure trash, or that we do not care about the victims. ALL ARE FALSE. Why are we being associated with this scandal?! The students are just at the wrong place at the wrong time. We are here during a historical time, but a negative one. This would make a huge deal at any university, but since this scandal involved a LEGEND, Joe Paterno, this is Earth-shattering news. A man who has been an icon in the college football world for so long slipped up. His retirement was going to be a huge part of history, and to be here at Penn State University during that time would have a bittersweet experience, but now his image is tarnished and the experience is only bitter. Hopefully, the news will soon turn to a different scandal, Sandusky will be going to jail, and Penn State University would be able to have a fresh start. Sam brought up a really good point yesterday in class about how people are so upset about Joe Paterno is becasue he part of our identity of Penn State, and we feel as if we lost part of ourselves. As a student body, we need to accept the changes being made around campus, stick together, and show our Penn State Pride. I love my school and I refuse to lose my spirit.

I feel like in this class all the students want to seem accepting of all other races and ethnicities, but having a language barrier is a challenge that is a lot harder to overcome than customs or skin color. Language is how you interact and get to know other people. If you cannot understand them, how are you supposed to communicate with them? Let us get real for a second. Most people feel uncomfortable if they are around people speaking in a language other than their own. You feel both awkward and curious. Think back to the times you go get your nails down at the nail salon by your house. I have been going to the same nail salon since I was little, and the owner is a very sweet Vietnamese woman. All the women who work there are her relatives she brought over to America after she started her business. We always talk as she does my nails, but there is definitely a challenge sometimes to understand what she is saying. Her Vietnamese slips into her sentences when she tries to speak in English. I have to always awkwardly pause and try to figure out what she said and I am afraid to answer with something that does not make sense in the conversation. There have been more than a few times I came home from the salon with gold tips when I thought she asked me if I was wearing a gold dress to my dance. Also, another time I feel awkward is when the women talk to each other in Vietnamese. Are they talking about me? Are they talking about something funny that happened? Are they making fun of other customers? Plus, I am just straight up curious of what they said. If I knew what they were talking about I could be part of the conversation as well. I fear that I might disrespect them or their culture if I have to ask over and over again for them to repeat what they said and still have to make up an answer that may or may not answer their question. This is not only embarrassing for both of us, but also frustrating for both of us as well. I know I get frustrated with my lab TAs all the time! I am trying to understand what the requirements for my lab report are and I cannot figure out what they are trying to say. You can tell my TA is frustrated too because they repeated themselves several times to the class. Some people may say that I should just learn the language, but really? How are we supposed to learn every language ever spoken? I do not know how to solve this problem because I also speak in English with other English speaking people in front of non-English speaking people.

I know a lot of people are skeptical about Sam’s statement that whites will be the minority in 30 some years, but I would not be surprised. I doubt it will be that soon though. The evidence for a gradual shift is there, but it will not be that instantaneous. He kept trying to get a feared response from the white people in class. I do not think that was the best way to go about it. This generation is not as prejudice as previous generations. We are not are grandparents and parents who were raised to believe differently. It should not be a scary thing. Hopefully by the time that happens people of color will not treat whites badly to seek revenge for their past. On the other hand, there is a good chance that will happen. Which is pathetic. Also, there is always the fear of the unknown. How will the workplace be different? How will the education system be different? How will the economy be different? I think that this the source of a lot white people’s fear, and maybe even the fear that Sam wanted to hear being expressed in class yesterday. I grew up in the suburbs where it was predominantly white. My high school was not a melting pot of races because the only race other than whites was blacks. We had like 20 blacks, 1 Native American, and zero Hispanics or Asians. Coming to Penn State University was kind of a culture shock for me. It broke me out the white suburban bubble that was my hometown. I feel like even though it’s a change, if you are exposed to change gradually it would not be such a shock. A source of the future shift in majority is mixed marriages. The marriages between races are not as taboo as they used to be, and the amount of biracial children will continue to increase throughout the years. If whites have children with other races the amount of all white lineages would decrease. My question is what would the majority be and will white be accompanied with other minorities? Or will all the current minorities become the majority equally and only the whites will be the minority? I feel like the amount of immigrating of blacks will stay at the same low rate as whites. Native American populations will most likely stay the same as now. The only races I see increases are Hispanics and Asians. This is due the current immigration situations. No matter who the majorities or minorities are, it should not make a difference on how we view our nation. The United States is not a ‘white’ land. It is a melting pot of all different cultures.

I agree that there is latent racism amongst a large group of white people, and a very outspoken racism amongst people of color. It is a complete double standard. I think this is because of our country’s history. People of the white race created such an awful, racist atmosphere for people of color back in the day. Times have changed; customs have changed, but because of the treatment of people of color in past, it are socially unacceptable to express any racist views towards people of color if you are white. This stems a lot from white guilt. Also, white people do not want to be associated with those types of beliefs such as white supremacy and elitist. In my personal belief, I think that the obvious uneasiness and discomfort some white people have around people of color is more offensive than saying something that could be seen as ‘risky’. That behavior displays that the people notice a difference between themselves and the others and is afraid to say something wrong. In my life I have came across some white people who were fairly racist towards people of color and would openly speak of their thoughts, but only in company of other white people. As soon as a person of color came into the circle of conversion, even if they were not of the same race as the one the aforementioned person was talking about, they would not speak a word. They might just give them certain looks of disgust or sit as far away from them as they can without being too obvious. Unlike whites, people of color seem to have zero restraints when talking about their dislikes about white people, and even sometimes people of other colors different from themselves. I think this for the same reason whites are latently racist. HISTORY! A lot of people of color do not restraint their racist thoughts because they feel justified in doing so because of what their race’s experiences were in the past. Because everyone knows what kind of hatred and disrespect they faced, they know they can get away with treating whites the same disrespect and hatred now. This outspoken behavior is accepted in society for some unnecessary reason. White people are not going to shut people of up because then they would be seen as being racist. It always comes down to fear. The biggest factor is, once again, is white guilt. A lot of the time, people of color plays off of this guilt for fun. I guess when white people’s fear and guilt is added to people of color having so much built up hatred and a thirst for revenge, you get the strange tip-toeing behavior around the topic of race.

I believe I am between stages 4 and 5 with a pinch of stage 2….if that is even possible. It is hard to pin-point exactly what stage because race is such a touchy subject, and sometimes my view on the race varies. I tend to go back and forth between the three stages depending on the situation. Why do I think I am stage 5? Sometimes I feel accepted, but still catch myself wanting to make sure I have other races’ approval for certain things, such as racial signifier, dance moves, terms dealing with their culture, etc. But other times I become frustrated when they bash whites or say how other races are ‘holding them down’. I find myself more comfortable in the company of some races more than others. This is when I sometimes revert back to stage 2 and stumble for “politically correct” terms or just feel uncomfortable. The ethnic groups that I fine myself weary about are Indians and Middle Easterns. I think this might be because there are so many different terms thrown out in society about these two groups, and I did not have a lot, if any, in my hometown. I have not had enough interaction with their culture to feel comfortable around them yet. I am more comfortable around whites and blacks than any other race. I think this might be because those were the two races that I have been the most exposed to my whole life in my town back home. I have a couple friends of different races (and yes, they do consider me a friend as well). I defend other races in some cases. For example, I think that biracial children are very pretty. Look at Halle Berry! Anyways, my friends and I were discussing this topic one night this summer. They were telling me that mixed marriages are tabo and I was not allowed to bring home a man of a different race. This made me upset because, in my personal opinion, love is colorblind. It should not matter whether I fall in love with a white, black, or Asian man. On the other hand, I have gotten into some debates with people of difference races who made generalizations about all whites being racist, or just flat out said complaints about how they are still being held back from succeeding in life by whites or other races. THAT IS NOT TRUE AT ALL!! Also, today in lecture, Sam asked the question to people of color if they have ever messed with a white people about racial terms before. A large amount said yes. I could not believe that! Why? I thought equality was the goal, not revenge. Sometimes it seems as if people of color are ALLOWED to be racist towards whites and it is acceptable in society. What?! That is ridiculous.

I honestly would not know how I would feel if my child told me they were gay. Our discussion group briefly talked about this topic on Monday. It is such a hard place to put myself without actually living the experience. I think I would just feel a whorl-wind of emotions at that moment. I would be confused because I am not gay so I would be difficult to understand why they are feeling these feelings for people of their same sex. I would be disappointed because homosexual couples cannot reproduce the usual way. Usually gay couples adopt or use a surrogate with one of the partners’ sperm or eggs. This causes the problem of that the chances of your child having children of their own with your chromosomes and traits are extremely slim. This thought is would be the hardest part of finding out your child was gay. Who would not want grandchildren who you can see parts of yourself in such as your hair, your child’s laugh, or you husband’s eyes? Of course I would still love my grandchildren whether they are not genetically similar or not, I hope you understand what I am trying to get across. I would also feel a sense of happiness because I know that my child was comfortable enough to share the revelation with me. Also, I know they would be happier with their significant other than they would be if they were forced into a heterosexual relationship. You cannot help whom you love! Who am I to say otherwise? As long as their significant other treats them well and my child is happy, I would be elated for them. I would completely support them. The thought of kicking my own flesh and blood out of my house is very disturbing to me. I am one of those people who believe that you are either born gay or straight. Homosexuality is a result of something within their genes; maybe something within their chromosomes that determine your sexual attractions, mannerisms, etc. It could also be a chemical imbalance, but either way it was not their choice to be gay so you cannot be upset with them.
My cousin is an out lesbian. She came out to us three years ago when she was moving to San Diego with her girlfriend. We also kind of knew she was since she was little so we were not all that surprised, but I remember when my aunt found out. She is extremely supportive, but you could tell she was slightly disappointed underneath her forced smile. The part I am most proud of is that my family welcomed it with open arms because we love her. We would never kick her out! Even my hard core religious relatives warmed up to the idea and actually invited my cousin and her girlfriend to dinner!

I think that racial stereotypes play a slight role in the general publics’ view on criminals. The public is constantly exposed to several crime shows and movies. All of these shows, whether it is intended or not, seem to cast certain races depending on what crime in committed in the episode. These shows help form the stereotypes on criminals. A white male usually portrays serial killers, fraud and embezzlement scammers, child abusers, and mobsters. African Americans and Mexicans are usually portrayed in gang violence, drugs, domestic violence, child neglect, and thief. Asians are usually portrayed in drug scandals (Pineapple Express?). So even though these stereotypes are not the public’s main way of thinking, the stereotypes are embedded in the back of our heads. This is why when you see a skinny white male in his forties with a thick mustache and glasses walking in the mall, the thought that you might be seeing him on this week’s episode of To Catch A Predator will quickly cross through your mind. Policemen are just like all of us. These stereotypes are in the back of their heads as well when they are arresting criminals. In class, the survey proved that you did not have to be a certain race to have used illegal drugs, yet black were recorded to have a higher rates of arrests and charges. The main argument was that the police officers were looking for a certain race or just paying more attention to a certain race when doing drug searches. That might be true, that might not be. A study found that the blacks offenders were three percent more likely to be arrested. Although this suggests some bias, it is insufficient to explain the large racial crime disparities. I think that there are certain areas like the inner city or the ‘hood’ where a lot of crimes such as gang violence, drugs, domestic violence, child neglect, and thief (same portrayed in the shows by African Americans and Mexicans) occur and the police spend a lot of time there because of the higher crime rates. They are not going to spend a lot of their time in the suburbs because there are not a lot of crimes going on there. Trust me, the most exciting thing a police officer does in my hometown is writing speeding tickets and the occasional handing out of an underage. There are not an even proportion of races in these two areas. Because there is a greater amount of African Americans and Mexicans living in the inner city and the ‘hood’, the chances of arresting an African Americans and Mexicans over whites is higher. In my personal opinion, I think that racial stereotypes do exist when talking about criminals, but I do not think that is why the rates for African Americans or Mexicans are higher than whites and Asians for getting arrested.

As we know, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. To add insult to injury, the country encountered a devastating natural disaster harsh enough to wipe out over a fifth of the country’s population and left 1.5 million people homeless about two years ago. This set back Haiti’s lifestyle and poverty even further back. Haitians are now trying harder than ever to improve their way of life, and tens of thousands are putting their skills to the test and becoming entrepreneurs. There are several ideas for thriving businesses around Haiti just waiting to be brought to life, but they need additional support because most of them do not have the necessary money and materials to succeed. The point of this project is that our discussion groups will try to find ways to help the entrepreneurs succeed. I am excited to finally be able to put in my helping hand. For the past several years some of my family members have been going down and helping out the civilians. My Uncle Dan is an extremely respected doctor of obstetrics and gynecology in Pittsburgh, and he goes down to help the women of Haiti twice a year. He has now started to take some of my cousins with business backgrounds to join him on his trips to help the citizens with their businesses. Also, my Uncle Dave is a very successful oral surgeon in Charleston and he goes down and helps the citizens of Haiti who have cleft palates or other facial deformities.
As I watched the videos and read the biographies of the entrepreneurs, I see how talented they are. Yvrose Noncent makes sandals, women’s dresses and evening wear. These articles of clothing are hand made in her small shop with old and out-dated machinery and limited tools for her and her employees. Yvrose uses high level techniques in her shop. She braids shoe straps, works with leather and sheer fabrics, and hand carves heels. I think Yvrose’s business could thrive if she had some loans and outside support.
One project I believe will be very helpful is the HPCD hospital project. My uncle has told me many times about the situation of Haitian medical care. The public hospitals are in horrible condition because of the lack of resources and staffing. The patients and other visitors must provide their own meals and hospital gowns. The HPCD wants to pay entrepreneurs to make meals for patients and pay entrepreneurs to make hospital gowns for women and pajamas for men, and then give them to patients in the hospitals. I think this is a great idea because not only are the Haitians being paid for their entrepreneurship, but also the patients are getting what they need as well.