In my RPTM 101 class were currently discussing military recreation. They have special programs for the Navy, Army, Air force and Marine soldiers in every country on every base. They have these recreational programs to keep the soldiers busy and entertained while they are over seas. They had this one video of a Marine fooling around with a ram for entertainment because they had nothing better to do. It’s pretty known that when people get bored they do really stupid things. A lot of the times when they look back on it, it’s really not okay. It’s like a night of drinking. People do stupid things with they’re drunk but at the time it seemed like a really good idea. I am in no way sticking up for the soldiers, however at the time it seemed like a really funny thing to do. If they were to step back later on and look at what they did, they probably wouldn’t think it was too funny. I feel like a lot of what is this behavior is provoked by boredom. I don’t particularly agree with their behavior. Running a random car off the road with a Humvee is not a wise choice. We’re already occupying an area that doesn’t want us there and now we’re using them as entertainment. I feel like it’s hard enough for them to have to deal with us everyday and then adding our messed up boredom to it doesn’t help.
The same could go if they were occupying the United States. Not like that would ever happen, but if it were stuck here with nowhere to go they would antagonize us as well. It’s difficult to find entertainment in a country where you don’t know anyone or anywhere to go. You’re trapped on the base for days with really nowhere to go and you start getting a little restless. That is why the government set up recreation programs to keep the soldiers busy and out of trouble. Watching those videos really made me realize that we are just as guilty as they are. Here in the States we see the Iraqis as animals and the evil ones so when we go over there its like we feel we can do anything to them because they deserve it. But a lot of the times it’s the normal citizen that have nothing to do with whats going on that are being attacked. That’s where we as Americans fail to realize that they are just like us. They are really not different then us going about their normal lives. We don’t always put ourselves in the others shoes to feel the pain that theyre going through. There is no way we would allow that kind of behavior in our country so why would we do it in theres?

In my RPTM 101 class were currently discussing military recreation. They have special programs for the Navy, Army, Air force and Marine soldiers in every country on every base. They have these recreational programs to keep the soldiers busy and entertained while they are over seas. They had this one video of a Marine fooling around with a ram for entertainment because they had nothing better to do. It’s pretty known that when people get bored they do really stupid things. A lot of the times when they look back on it, it’s really not okay. It’s like a night of drinking. People do stupid things with they’re drunk but at the time it seemed like a really good idea. I am in no way sticking up for the soldiers, however at the time it seemed like a really funny thing to do. If they were to step back later on and look at what they did, they probably wouldn’t think it was too funny. I feel like a lot of what is this behavior is provoked by boredom. I don’t particularly agree with their behavior. Running a random car off the road with a Humvee is not a wise choice. We’re already occupying an area that doesn’t want us there and now we’re using them as entertainment. I feel like it’s hard enough for them to have to deal with us everyday and then adding our messed up boredom to it doesn’t help.
The same could go if they were occupying the United States. Not like that would ever happen, but if it were stuck here with nowhere to go they would antagonize us as well. It’s difficult to find entertainment in a country where you don’t know anyone or anywhere to go. You’re trapped on the base for days with really nowhere to go and you start getting a little restless. That is why the government set up recreation programs to keep the soldiers busy and out of trouble. Watching those videos really made me realize that we are just as guilty as they are. Here in the States we see the Iraqis as animals and the evil ones so when we go over there its like we feel we can do anything to them because they deserve it. But a lot of the times it’s the normal citizen that have nothing to do with whats going on that are being attacked. That’s where we as Americans fail to realize that they are just like us. They are really not different then us going about their normal lives. We don’t always put ourselves in the others shoes to feel the pain that theyre going through. There is no way we would allow that kind of behavior in our country so why would we do it in theres?

It’s so hard to picture anyone in my family being sexually abused or someone being the abuser. My close, immediate family like my first cousins, aunts, uncles are grandparents don’t seem like those kind of people. Maybe in my extended family an incident could have occurred but I’m just unaware of it. I think this is what Sam was talking about. In possibly my extended family something could have happened but no one knows of anything because it’s all done in silence. That’s the horrible part about it. I know that I would try and be there for anyone who was being sexually abused even if I couldn’t do much. Especially if something like that were to happen to someone in my family. What’s hard is coming to terms with the idea that it could have possibly been from someone else in the family. That is a majority of the time how sexual abuse occurs. It comes from someone that the person is very close with. That’s what would make all of it so shocking and hard to comprehend. It will most likely come from somewhere where you least expect it. I personally find what Sam said shocking. I don’t understand how anyone in my family could have been sexually abused and not said anything. That’s what’s so mind blowing to me. Especially with this whole scandal coming out now how could my parent not tell me that my uncle was molested as a child or something like that. That would completely open my eyes and make this whole thing a little more real.
It is also hard, however, for the victims to come out themselves. That could also be a reason why I wouldn’t know of anything like that going on in my family. Similar to what one of the speakers said at the candle light vigil; who would believe you if you came out about it. It’s the adults voice over yours. The worst part is that you’re a child, or teen and life is becoming hard enough the last thing you’d want is more attention drawn on the idea that you’re being molested. Most kids just want it to go away and act like it never happened. Or the children could be threatened to keep their mouth shut, which makes coming out even harder. If any of my children, family members or friends were ever molested I would hope that they would feel comfortable enough to come out and tell me about it. It blows my mind how Sam says at least one person in your family has fallen victim to sexual abuse. I just can’t fathom that idea. It’s hard to say how one becomes a child molester but I’m hoping it’s not genetic. That way nothing would travel further and it could be squashed on the spot. I just pray I don’t have to ever find out about something like this ever happening in my family later in the future when I could’ve done everything to stop it at the time.

In almost every class we’ve discussed the events that have been going on this week. I heard about it first on Sunday by my advisor who was very emotionally distraught about the whole situation. Her husband was then positioned as the new athletic director on Monday. She now has to attend all the events and discussions that Tim Curley would have had to endure. Her entire world has not changed and more pressure is put on her and her work. I think what the student body doesn’t really comprehend all the lives that are now changing because of this scandal. Nothing will ever be the same. Our lives won’t even be the same. Everything has gotten so big so fast that no one had really gotten the time to process everything. During our team meeting on Wednesday our whole team was grieving over how this whole mess. None of us could have expected anything like this to have happened, especially right before our last home game. But it’s not only our last home game; it’s Nebraska, the senior game and the THON game. There were already so many things riding on this game that the last thing this university needed was a scandal and a diminishing administration to damage our name. I think because of all the unanswered questions, the students are unable to understand why everything is actually happening. Canceling the press conference on Monday was probably one of the dumbest ideas because no one knows what Joe Paterno really had to say. I feel like because Joe Paterno is such a strong figurehead of Penn State that the media portrayed him as a scapegoat without really giving full reasons as to why. The students then respond rationally because they don’t understand either. No one knows what is really going on.
And what is hard for us to comprehend is the idea that we can do nothing about it. Rioting in the streets will not bring Joe Paterno back or the sponsors that have pulled their funding. It will not help the victims or make them feel any better about this whole situation. I think the student body handled the situation terribly on Wednesday. The nation was watching us for hours in disgust at the way we were reacting. People who had job offers just got pulled between yesterday and today because of all that’s been going on. I think as students we lost sight of why we came to this university in the first place. I love everything about this school the way it is now. Us as students weren’t apart of the scandal we have nothing to do with Sandusky or his time here. We need to pull together as the supportive students we are and instead raise awareness about child abuse. Support the cause and fight and on. This university is our identity; it is who I am and what I’ve become. There is no school better then Penn State in my mind and there will never be from here on out. We can make a change for the future because we are the future. Penn State students are more then this scandal and it’s about time we start to prove it. Forever and always PSU.

Since I’m half Puerto Rican that side of the family speaks Spanish all the time. During the holidays they normally try to stick to English because most of my cousins and my mom only know that language. But whenever they want to make something private or say something inappropriate they will speak Spanish. Sometimes it’s annoying cause I just want to know what they’re saying. A lot of times I wish my dad taught me Spanish so I wouldn’t feel so out of the loop. It would make my life so much easier. Especially when we would travel to Puerto Rico and visit all the extended family. A majority only know how to speak Spanish so it’s hard having any type of conversation. When we go there its normally my mom, sister and I hanging out in a corner by ourselves unaware of anything that is being said. It makes us look anti-social because no one can talk to us. So when we go to Puerto Rico it makes me a little uncomfortable not being able to understand the language and when they speak it around me. My grandpa and step grandma barely speak any English as well. This makes it really hard to get close to them. So when people are speaking another language around me it’s hard for me to build a relationship. It sucks to have to have distance between your family because of a language barrier.
Same goes for the Chinese people in the nail salon. I hate when they speak their language around me cause I always feel like they’re talking about me. It makes me extremely uncomfortable. I know that they’re talking about my lack of toe nails or my hairy legs. Sometimes I wish I had a translator to tell me everything they’re saying. Or the Indian people in my town. They are a majority and a lot of times you can catch them all together talking in their language. And you know that they’re talking about you when you walk by and it all goes silent and then someone makes a comment in their language and you have no idea what they just said. All you know is that it obviously had to be something about you. I mean its not all the time I fell uncomfortable. Sometimes I think its cool to listen to two people have a conversation in a café or a classroom in a different language because it’s something I could never do. Or what’s even cooler is when they can switch back and forth to their language to English and include in conversation. I always find that really nice because I’m not completely ostracized. I feel like there’s different levels of speaking another language in public because it all depends on the situation. It could make people extremely uncomfortable if you’re talking about them or completely involved if they’re going back and forth.

It doesn’t even seem like the future because it’s happening right now. Ever since I was in elementary school, central New Jersey has been a majority of Asians and Indians. It’s really not something new to me. It’s interesting though to hear in class how people think State College is so white. I feel like same as home. There ratio of blacks to whites to what I have at home. There may be even more blacks here then at home. However I’ve come to notice there are more Asians here in State College. They’re always smoking out on the lawn or up till the real early hours of the morning just hanging out. It seems like they pop up everywhere and never sleep. One of my roommates last year was an international student from China and she said a lot of Chinese people come here to get more experience with American culture and language. China is becoming a powerhouse venturing into different countries to become even more powerful. But its not only the Chinese, the Indians come over here as well. My high school was a majority of Indian. A lot of them study to become doctors or surgeons. All the doctors in my town are Indian now. One apartment complex that used to be majority black, two years later became a majority Indian. There are two Mosques in the span of a mile and a half and neighborhoods are mainly Indian. I’m around it all the time and can see how times have already begun to change.
I feel like it will be a total culture shock if whites became a minority. Everything would change. There would be new dominate religions and more people might believe Jesus skin color as black or tan. Whites probably won’t be seen as the pure and dominant race. Tides will turn. It would be interesting to see the way the world would be. I feel like I’ve already started experiencing it back at home. There are some many Indian and Chinese restaurants coming up around my town. Our country may become more cultured and be forced to learn different language to keep up with the growing majority. A lot whites may retaliate against the growing majority and it could start another world war. White supremacy has been around for generations and most whites, like the KKK, would do anything to stop it from happening. It could be like the Civil Rights movement all over again. It personally doesn’t really matter to me if whites become the minority. I’m half Puerto Rican so I’m half already considered a minority and it rocks. It easier for me to get into colleges and apply for different scholarship because most schools want to become more diverse. I’m proud of who I am and if whites are moving into the minority sector, then that is something that they are just going to have to deal with.

I had a large group of friends in high school. Majority of them however were white. One of my close friends throughout freshmen and sophomore year was a black girl. She was a competitive cheerleader outside of school and was mainly surrounded by white people. During freshmen and sophomore year I noticed that she really only hung out with white people. It’s not that she didn’t have any black friends, cause she did, but she wasn’t like the rest of them. She didn’t act like the other black kids in my school. She wasn’t loud and always running around. She didn’t wear the same clothes as them or talked like them. She was mainly attracted to white guys and had several white boyfriends. My other friends and I would joke about her not really being black because she acted so white. She was never considered the black friend; we associated her as being white, kind of like an Oreo. Even though I’m not really in her position, by being the primary race that she hangs out with I don’t consider her a poser. She’s always hung out with us and its not that she doesn’t associate herself with black people at all, she just prefers to hang out with white people. I don’t think she’s ever really had someone come up to her and call her a poser either. It just became natural to everyone that Briahn was the black, white girl. She saw no problem in it and neither did anyone else, that I know of.
My school was very diverse. We had a majority of Indian/Asians and then there was everyone else. People were all mixed up. It wasn’t surprising to see an Indian hanging out with black people or a Hispanic having a majority of white friends. I feel like it’s because we grew up in such a diverse culture, forced to accept everyone, that we don’t really judge a race for wanting to hang out with another. My best guy friend in Mexican, and mainly hangs out with white and black people. He doesn’t really hang out with other Hispanics (other than myself of course). He really can adapt to anything and I think that’s what people need to be aware of. I think you can hang out with whatever race you want if they make you feel welcomed. A poser would have to be someone who’s pretends to be someone they’re not. My two friends are themselves around us and are comfortable with the situation they’re in. I don’t believe they are pretending to be friends with different race, because really who is that benefitting? This is who they are and others should just learn to mind their own business.

In my town whites are a minority. The majority are Indian, Pakistani and Asian. There are two mosques in a 2-mile radius of each other if that doesn’t say something then I don’t know what will. So sometimes it’s hard to escape racially labeling someone. In the morning when I used to drive to school the mosque would be starting school as well. The same street I would use to go to the high school is the where you’d make a turn into the mosque. So a majority of the time when I would go onto that street something would happen. They either were driving too slow, they didn’t put their blinker on to turn, or just straight up cut me off. So when I would come into school all pissy I would say its because “that Indian lady cut me off” or “they drive so slow” and everyone knew who I was talking about. It just comes out that way. Its not that a white person wouldn’t do it or a Hispanic but its always an Indian and not only that it’s an Indian woman. It just became second nature for me to racial label people when explaining things. And sometimes I don’t even have to label it I would just say “them” and people knew who I was talking about. I still do it today without even noticing it. I’ve just become so used to it.
Just today during physical therapy I was talking to one of the trainees and was trying to describe on of my friends and right after I said her name I called her the black girl with the torn ligament. It’s not something that even phased me until after I said it. When you’re seeing so many people a day it’s hard to narrow down to who one person is talking about and describing their race may jog the memory. And lets be honest, it is the first thing we notice. Black, white, brown, yellow or red, we notice the physical characteristics first because they’re the things that stick out the most. Yesterday a girl sitting next to me was on the phone with a friend and talking about how she could knock someone out because the other girl probably fights like a “little white girl”. Clearly white girls have that label of being weak and unable to fight according to the black community. I feel like the girl didn’t intentionally mean racial label but she was just trying to get her point across. I don’t feel like we do it on purpose, sometimes stereotypes stick and the first thing we do when describing a situation is racially label. I don’t think its something we can really explain, it’s just one of those things that happen.

According to most of the male species women are the most complex human beings. We do and say things that trick and tease the male minds into thinking something else in the total opposite direction then what they wanted. I think that women make clear notions to what they want and men are confusing but I guess it goes both ways. But to add to a woman’s confusing identity they dress and act differently then who they really are. On any given weekend girls will go out in short skirts, dresses, low-back shirts, extremely high pumps and dark makeup. They become completely different people in the evening. It’s almost like an unsaid standard for women to go out and look like complete sluts, secretly trying to out slut each other. This look gives girls confidence when they go out because they catch guys attention. Girls believe that you should look this way to impress whoever they come across throughout the night. Because no matter what happens…at least you looked good doing it. Also it feels good to know that you look good. I personally do it because I like getting dressed up and I’m 5ft so a little height wouldn’t hurt. However, just because I tend to dress like a slut doesn’t mean that I am one. I like to look good and still keep some dignity.
Dave Chappelle does a skit on this idea about women. He dresses in a cop uniform and goes out into the street to see what reactions he gets from people in the streets. One lady goes up to him with a problem saying “officer, officer can you please help…” but before she could finish he says “why do you assume I’m a cop just because I’m in a uniform? I just felt like putting it on”. I mean people can dress however they want but it doesn’t mean that it defines them. Before I go out I ask my roommates if what I’m wearing is slutty or cute because I’m not trying to be “that girl” at the party. Also because people have different opinions on what they think is cute or slutty. A low back top with a high-wasted skirt may seem a little risqué to some but to others it could be a well-made outfit. It all depends how you look at it. But that doesn’t mean we should be treated with any less respect. During the day we show who we really are and at night we just make it a little more glamorous but were still the same person. Guys shouldn’t do anything that they wouldn’t normally do during the day because in the end were all ladies, just need those days to kick back and enjoy ourselves.

Women have always been seen as the maternal figure. Wherever they are women are caring, sweet and innocent. They give birth to children and nurture them till they grow old enough to go on their own. And even then they will always be “mommy’s little babies”. Think of nurses for example. Nurses feed, bathe and take care of the patients in the hospital. Back in the day, especially during WWII and Vietnam the nurses were usually women because they were more gentle, delicate and sympathetic towards the wounded. Women are also looked at as being submissive to men and therefore can be seen as never doing wrong. When the men would walk by the woman trying to steel the bike it was taken as the idea of a damsel in distress. Man always has to come to the rescue and save the woman from her pain. And that is clearly shown in the videos we watched in class. Even if she is steeling a bike, women have this effect over men that causes them to forget the purpose of what they are doing and just give the help that is asked because that is what men are supposed to do. The woman can never be capable of doing wrong because she is the maternal, nurturing type by nature and a good looking woman can never be turned down. It’s physically impossible for a man to say no. His testosterone kicks in before his commonsense can.
But amongst the woman community it’s a different story. In the video, when a passerby was a woman and saw the thief was a woman, they would report it with no question. Most likely it’s because there’s no need for them to be a hero and rescue this girl. Similarly with the black man. When the white guy was trying to steal the bike most people just ignored it, or would question it and keep walking not really paying much mind to it. But when the black guy was stealing the bike, every other person was saying something to him. A lot more people responded to the action and called the cops. It’s definitely a stereotype we put on blacks people to always be doing something wrong. I feel like it’s this way because it has been this mentality for years. In the ghettos there were and still are a lot of gangs, crime and violence the puts this image on all different black people that have no ties to that area. The white guy has always been seen as that dominant race so no one would question his actions or think he could ever do something wrong. Same for an Asian, people probably wouldn’t question him either. It’s a funny the way our world works and how we automatically can assume or disregard things that we don’t even realize.