I really gained a lot of knowledge this lecture that has really changed my opinions and views on certain situations regarding Affirmative Action. I have always been a white female thinking that Affirmative Action was implemented to help out people of color. I really connected it to schools and businesses having to meet certain quotas to have a specific number of certain people working for them or in their schools. From Sam’s lecture I found out that having quotas are illegal and most surprisingly, that the people to benefit the most from Affirmative Action are white women – like myself.
I found it slightly offensive when Sam told his story about how Penn State made him go back and look through all of the applications again to make sure that no one of sex, race, or a specific culture was left out in the final selections. From taking the class and feeling like I know the kind of man Sam is, I just felt like if I was in his shoes, I would have been offended that they thought I was excluding these people based on what they were, not their background and credentials for the position. But once he explained it all, I understood it better. It is true that we grow up learning the way to think and act and believing that it is okay and normal. In reality, we do act a certain way and sometimes stereotyping people and excluding them base upon reasons other than their credentials for a position, whether it is race, culture, sex or allowing nepotism to play a role.
The part of the lecture that I was most interested in, was the video shown by Oprah about the urban and inner city kids that changed schools for the day. The inner city kids of Harper High spent the day at a 62 million dollar state of the art facility where the graduation rate is 99%. The students at Neuqua Valley high school spent the day in the inner city Harper High, where the pool hasn’t been filled in ten years and had a leaking gym room. I completely understood the message of the video and the point that they were trying to get across, I just felt like they picked a very extreme school to compare to. I went to a suburban high school and we did not even have a swimming pool, but the inner city school that is 15 min away has a swimming pool at it. The inner city high school also has two high schools; one tailored towards people more interested in vo-tech schooling while the high school right next door is for kids in honors classes looking to continue their education in college. I feel like I agree more with Obama and it is based upon social class. I mean it is terrible and should not be legal to have inner city schools to hold classes in a building that is falling apart, with lower level classes. I feel like these privileges all boils down to the amount of funding and money one area has, but how do you even begin to solve a problem like that. I am not really sure.

I found your response very enlightening because throughout the lecture I found myself agree with the same statements and learning a lot of the information you did. It was shocking to me as well that the people that benefit the most from Affirmative Action is white women. I also connected it with only benefiting people of color and making quotas. I had no idea that quotas were illegal because I thought they were the only reason why there was such a push for Affirmative Action. But now realizing that Affirmative Action should more or less be linked to social class and helping out the poor before race makes a lot more sense.

I could not have said your post any better. I agree with what you are saying. I found it really interesting about the video based on American workers that do not want to do the jobs that immigrants do. It was surprising that by the end only 13 have taken over immigrant jobs. I can understand why, but at the same time that doesn’t mean we should allow more illegal immigrants into the country to help out this problem. It was shocking to hear both sides of the story to the battle at horseshoe. I never really thought of how we are only taught the stories that make us look good as a country.

I thought that it was really interesting that Sam made the point that immigration is not an issue carried out by democratic or republicans, but it is rather something that is run by business. This thought has never crossed my mind but it makes perfect sense now that I know about it. It is apparent that the United States has relaxed their boarders to accommodate the needs of businesses. Companies need cheap labor and it helps that the immigrants come to America to work for cheap prices, which is what runs their industries. It is evident that businesses are calling in the number of immigrants into the United States based off of how many people they need to keep their business open, running and making money. This is shown around the 90’s when the economy was flourishing. Due to the economy doing better, there were a lot of documents and undocumented immigrants coming into society.
Another part of the lecture that stuck out to me is when Sam pointed out the fact the people that live in America expect the immigrants coming into the country to shed their language, culture, and customs to assimilate into the society that we consider normal now. Some people in the United States have gotten into heated arguments thinking that these “Mexcriments” do not learn English and our culture because they do not know our history. I found this statement really interesting because there are a lot of United States citizens that do not know the history of the country and they can even speak English. There are lots of talk show hosts that do random questioning on the street about common facts that citizens should know. For example they may be asked who our vice president is, how many sides are on a triangle or name countries starting with a specific letter. A lot of citizens are not able to answer these questions correctly, if giving an answer at all. Here is the link to one of the videos of this happening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE. This just strengthens the argument even more that we are very hypocritical and do not realize how we are before we are judging others for being a specific way. It is usually not the lazy people of a country that chose to go through all of the struggles and complications of becoming and immigrant to another country. These people that enter as immigrants usually have a drive, motivation and desire to want to make money and become something. This is why immigration drives and helps us believe that the free marker is the best way to run things.

I thought this lecture was really interesting because I did not know a lot of the facts dealing with multiculturalism and why it is inevitable. It was really surprising when Sam brought up the obstacle to amalgamation. I never really thought of the other side before because I always just considered the United States to be a melting pot but not really seeing further into the situation. It was interesting how we build new cultures out of all of these separate parts but the problem occurs when the whole system gets derailed. This usually occurs because some group gets in to power and becomes the dominant group, which leads to their group thinking that their culture is the ideal culture and thinking that everyone after them has to assimilate and transform to be like them.
The other part of the lecture that I found really interesting was the LGBT portion that Sam talked about. What I found extremely interesting was when he discussed the functions of the family. The point is brought up between straight people bearing a child and the issues that usually deal with gay couples adopting children. Sam made a very good point when he brought up the point that heterosexual couples engage in natural sex a lot but sometimes not with the intention of creating life. There are many families that keep their children, even if they were not expecting a child because of not agreeing with abortion, which leads to a child being raised in a poor family atmosphere. Gay couples on the other hand have to go through a lot of hassle and paperwork to be able to adopt a child. These couples would not go through all of the pain and the work if they truly did not want to have a kid, so there would not have to be as big as a concern about the family life the kid will have. Sam also brought up the point that even though children are brought up in homosexual households, does not mean that they will raise their kid to be gay. There are a lot of people that have been brought up by homosexual couples that have turned out to be straight. In most cases this has taught the kid to have a more open mind and understand more situations in society.
The last fact that really stood out to me was increase in the corporate equality index. It went from only 13 corporations in 2002 to 260 corporations that were on board with LGBT ideas in 2009. This is a huge increase and has really shown how far our country has come in a couple of years. We also have to remember that these corporations are the ones making policies for the rest of society, so to some extent it really shows how much society is on board with this culture.

I would have to agree a million percent with your post. I thought when you brought up the point of how inhuman and sickening it is that homosexuals in some areas are put in prison for doing sexual acts or just being homosexual in general. It truly is a question of humanity and ridiculous that this is still allowed in geographic areas in the world. I also agree with your feelings about how society it finally brining down the gay barrier and it is becoming more acceptable for people to come out of the closet. It isn’t as surprising to meet a gay person or couple in today’s society than it probably was about 15 years ago.

There were a lot of interesting points that hit me throughout the lectures. The first point of interest that stuck out to me was the different opinions when it came to freshman life in East Halls. Due to the fact that I am an athlete, I never had the opportunity to live in East Halls because we were always put into South Halls. It was very interesting to hear that minority people that receive scholarships are put into Pennypacker Hall and all of the rest of the minorities are dispersed in the rest of the dorms leaving about one on every floor to feel a little uncomfortable. But like Sam put it, it is hard to be away from your home and community to be put into a new community. It makes sense to put students of color with white students to integrate, increase friends and build bridges of ancestry groups but at the same time we want to give color students a sense of foundation cause you’re not use to all of the white people when you’re use to all black.

The second part of the lecture that I found really interesting was when Sam brought up the idea that a lot of non-white people consider themselves white. It was crazy to think that a lot of Asians consider themselves to be white when white people like myself would never consider them to be of the white race. This just strengthens the argument that the community you life in really shapes your thoughts, ideas and ways of thinking. Another study that proves this to be true is the one where kids are asked to pick whether they would want to play with the white or black doll and which doll is considered to be the good or bad doll. In most cases the child picked the white doll to play with because that is what the community has shaped her to think. But on the other side of looking at things, maybe these kids feel this way because they have learned that black could mean hell and white means heaven and angels. When we look at our childhood and what made us scared, many times we were scared of the dark, or we were scared of thunderstorms, not only for their loud noises but also because of their big, black dark clouds So it isn’t just the community shaping these kids ideas solely due to race, but also do to the norms in everyday living and society.

I really enjoyed reading your response and seeing your point of view on this interesting lecture. I also found it really surprising that a lot of Asians consider themselves white because being a white female; I would never consider Asians white. It just goes to show much the community you grow up in really shapes your thoughts, ideas and ways of thinking. This also leads to the interesting study of the kids choosing the white doll over the black doll the majority of times. I agree with the fact that people have always shaped white people being good and clean and black/brown people being bad and ugly, but I also propose the idea that we have always learned darker equals bad and white equals good not just with race. Maybe these kids feel this way because they have learned that black could mean hell and white means heaven and angels. When we look at our childhood, many kids are scared of the dark and of thunderstorms, which have dark black clouds. So it isn’t only referring to race that these kids may choose these specific dolls but just life overall.

I found it very interesting that you brought up the idea of what it is like for brown and white people that are in charge and kings of their mountains in other countries. This class has also made me think of this idea and wonder if other countries act the same way we do. I also agree with your statement at some people don’t want this feeling of guilt to go away, especially the guilt that white people carry with them. It is a normal feeling but it is also the only way to move on. And the statement I agree with the most it using a washcloth. I literally laughed out loud when I read that, and I have always used one as well. I don’t understand how people clean themselves and get the dirt and smell off of them if they do not use one.

I thought it was really interesting to learn about the next racial identity stages. I thought it was extra interesting when Sam was describing the second stage of awakening. In this stage you are leaning the language of race communication. People start to question and wonder when it is okay to use racial and ethnic signifiers. He was explaining people that do not know him might find it strange that he uses the terms “bro” and “dude.” He gave the example that if he is at a gas stations and asks a black man there, “Hey Bro, can you pump my gas for me,” the black man might find it offensive or think Sam is trying to relate to the black man by calling him bro. It turns out that Sam just calls everyone bro, even his wife. This is when Sam brought up the next point dealing with racial identifiers and how people should learn the language of race. Just because they use these types of terms doesn’t mean they are racist, it is rather when you are thinking about race in situations when you should not be thinking about it. This made me all really think of the instances when I have referred to someone by their race and probably could have used another characteristic to describe them instead. I am a white woman and strongly agree with Sam’s statement that white people learn not to talk about race. We really are supposed to treat everyone equally and learn to not see color because if we do we may be called racist.
Another point in the lecture that I found very interesting was when he described how black people think white people smell like wet dogs when they are wet. He took a vote in class asking how many black people use a washcloth to shower and how many white people use a washcloth in the shower. To my surprise it is not common for white people to use a washcloth in the shower, but rather black people to use it. He said this is because back during segregation and slavery, black people used washcloths because they were considered to not be clean people and having a washcloth would help them scrub the dirt off of them. Since white people were at the top of the mountain in that time, they were considered to be clean. I found this to be very interesting because I have used a washcloth my whole entire life and I am white. I would not think to take a shower without using once and until taking that poll in the classroom, I honestly thought basically everyone used a washcloth in the shower. So I agree with Sam when he joking asked what the white people clean themselves with.