Like most of my responses I feel like I go both ways on this question. I honestly do not know what I would do if that opportunity presented itself. If someone was to flat out ask me, I think my initial gut reaction would be to say no—that I would not help an illegal immigrant cross the border. I think my first thought and reason I would be turned off to the idea comes from the word illegal. I usually like to follow the rules and knowing that I was purposefully breaking the rules would make me nervous. I think that I would be afraid of getting caught and then into major trouble. When I think of it, it just sounds wrong and like it would go against my morals. Plus I would have absolutely no idea what I was doing. I would probably end up feeling guilty if I did end up doing it and that would make me want to tell authorities about the illegal immigrants.
Another reason that I would probably not help is for the reasons Sam talked about in class. When we have illegal immigrants they take over some jobs from Americans. That means it is now hurting us and our friends and families. We might not be able to get certain jobs or make as much money as we were hoping to because these illegal immigrants are taking over jobs—and usually for lower wages.
Now there is also a flip side. There is part of me that feels that maybe I would help. Whenever I hear stories like the one Eric shared in classes, it triggers my emotions. I am able to get my own visuals and I start to picture families. I start to see mothers and little children struggling to get by and only searching for a better life. I think the problem is that many people often see these immigrants as bad people. Whenever I picture these families I no longer see “bad people” trying to get past the rules. Now I am able to think of people who want something more and want to escape from their bad reality. Also, I start to think of my own family. I think if I somehow knew the immigrants or had some sort of personal connection I would feel much stronger about it and would be more likely to help them. It makes so much more sense to me when I hear about others who help people to cross the border when it is their cousin or somehow they formed a relationship with. I cannot imagine knowing someone and knowing what they are going through and not feeling empathetic or wanting to help them.

I do not think that I would actively try to avoid it if a situation presented itself. I mean I do not think that I search for opportunities where I am going to be favored because of who I am who or I know, but if that was going to help me I do not think I would avoid it. I do not think it is essentially wrong to get things because of your connections, basically using nepotism to your advantage. I think the problem is when people TAKE advantage of nepotism. I have a problem with it when there are people who are getting things over people who actually deserve them or are more qualified then those get it. Like we discussed in class, there are some times when some one fully deserves an internship but some one else gets it just because his or her dad knows the person who is hiring. Those situations actually make me angry because I think most of us have probably experienced some situation where we thought that we were qualified and should have gotten a job or some sort of position. For whatever reason, we did not get it, and I think many of those times probably involved nepotism, which is wrong. At the beginning of class Sam asked how we could make society more equal and I think this is one area where I would definitely focus. I think that we need to make sure each area of society runs of the idea that those who work hard and have the best qualifications should beat out the rest even if there are special connections.
However, to answer the original question, which now that I look back over my response may seem slightly contradictory, I still think that I would gladly accept it if it was affecting me. I think that basically reiterates what Sam was saying in class. Whenever it is something that we really want, we tend to make ourselves believe that we actually are the most deserving and that it is only fair if we get it.
Actually, I know that I have benefited from nepotism. There have been certain jobs that I have gotten because I was close with other workers. There have also been other areas, where I have been accepted or looked at in a certain way because I am associated with certain people, which I think could be a form of nepotism. Finally, tying it all together, it is kind of crazy to me to be realizing all of these things because before class I would have said that I have not benefited from affirmative action or nepotism, but now I can see that I have been influenced by both.

A lot of the videos made an impact on me and either surprised me, angered me, or frightened me. The one that showed the soldiers destroying the man’s car made me very righteously angry. I just sat there watching it and was like, “Why are they doing that? Who gives them the right to do? Why do they think that is funny?” The video just made them seem like cruel individuals that got pleasure out of others’ suffering. I think it made it even worse to hear that the man was a taxi driver and that was his way of living and making money. I think it was just like Sam’s point in class by making us be “in their shoes.” Once we could see the reasoning for their beliefs about Americans and feeling the way that they would feel, it made things a lot more understandable. In the case of that video, it made it a lot harder to watch knowing that they were basically destroying that man’s life.
Another video that struck a chord with me was the one about the church that was similar to Jihad. I thought it was a cool idea that they were trying to get those kids excited and passionate about the gospel because I think that is crucial. I think that our society has very much downplayed the importance of our faith and spreading the gospel. However, I do think that we need to remember where our motives are and along with being warriors, we need to love the people around us. The way that some people view Muslims, in that they will kill people and just want everyone to convert, should not be the way Christians are viewed. Yes, I think that everyone should have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ because that is what I believe is right, but I think we need to form relationships with people and love them. Hopefully through that we can spread His word and show people that we truly care and do not just see them as “projects.” I think that could be a problem with that church, and the fact that they were speaking in tongues and doing things like that made me a little cautious.
Finally, the video that probably had the biggest impact on me was probably the video made by Sam’s friend about the Jihad. It was pretty crazy how that video could portray a group of people so strongly in such a negative light. The way that they were shown was such propaganda, but yet it still made me scared. I think whoever created the video knew what they were doing in order to make people nervous and biased. The images that were shown greatly affected our emotions as they showed people dying and hurting and families that were upset. It allowed me to relate and to picture what it would’ve been like if that had been me or my family that was directly affected. Watching the video made me angry that they did that too. Also, the fact that he put quotes like “they want to take over the world” and “they want to destroy Americans” made it feel like a personal attack. It is pretty crazy that one person can make a video that can make me think all of these things and reaffirm the beliefs many people already have about people from the Middle East. It made me think about my beliefs though because how many of my beliefs have been created and affirmed through things such as this propaganda?

Yes, there have been times that I have felt uncomfortable when two people are speaking in a different language. I think I would usually say that I think it is more interesting however and that I am more intrigued. I think it is so interesting that two people can be speaking and having a full-length conversation and I do not understand a single word of it. Actually just yesterday I was sitting and two Asian girls were having a conversation. I did not know anything that they were saying, but as I was listening, I was thinking that they are probably talking about the same things I would be talking to my friends about. I think that gives an even more interesting perspective because it is weird to think we could be talking about the same exact things, but yet when they speak, it just literally seems so foreign. It almost seems like we could not be talking about the same things. I think the reasons that it would make me uncomfortable are just that I do not know what they are saying. I tend to be a nosey person, so I like to know what is going on. When they are speaking in a different language, I do not have that privilege. First I cannot understand if they are talking about something dangerous; for example, if I should be scared. If two English-speaking people were talking about robbing a store, I would obviously be able to understand and to know that it is unsafe and I should tell someone or stay away. However, if two people speaking Korean, were saying the same thing, I would have absolutely no idea! Another reason it makes me feel uncomfortable is that they could be saying something about me and I would have no idea. In some ways it is like two people talking behind your back, like when two of your friends share a secret talking about you. However, these two people would not even have to talk behind your back—they could talk right in front of your face. I think that is just weird to know that they could be right there talking about me and I would have no idea. Finally I think it makes us realize that there are other cultures out there and that is a good thing. Yet, I think sometimes it makes us uncomfortable because we discover that we may no longer be the majority and that we may be forced to learn something new and get out of our comfort zones. I think basically the reasons we feel uncomfortable with it are just because of security issues. We feel threatened in terms of safety, our knowledge and place as the majority, and simply because we are insecure.

I personally think that there is nothing wrong with interracial relationships. For me, my life is about my faith, so I believe that needs to be the determining factor in my relationships. The person that I am dating needs to be committed to their faith and have a personal relationship with Christ. I think this person could be black or white. As a matter of fact I have liked a black guy and dated an Indian boy. Interestingly enough my parents did not have a problem when I dated the Indian boy but they had a problem with the black guy, which was similar to the response I got from friends. No one really thought much of my relationship with the Indian boy, but when I talked about the black boy there were more questions about why I liked him, what my parents thought, and just general surprise. I am not sure why my parents were okay with the one relationship, however as I am thinking about it, it may have been that he went to my church and was adopted and raised in a white family. When I asked my parents why they had a problem with the black boy, they would tell me that there would be too many cultural differences and would just not be a good idea. I'm not sure why they thought there would not be differences with the other boy, unless they were just assuming that because he was raised in a white family, he would basically act white.
I'm not really sure what my parents are talking about because besides the normal differences one person has from another, I do not think that black people are that different from whites. Basically to me the important things like I said are my faith and if I am attracted to the person. If he is white or black so be it.
The only thing that I am not sure about is the issue of children. When I think about my children, I picture white children. When I have thought about having children that are black or mixed it just does not seem to be what I have always pictured. I am not saying I would not want to do it, but it does make me question why I even think it is weird. Another thing that makes me question my own stance on the issue is when I see interracial couples. It often strikes me as something unnatural and I usually take notice to it. Even though I do notice most couples, why is it that we often pay more attention to mixed couples? I do not know if it is the stereotype that interracial couples have, things my parents have told me, or if I do have some sort of latent prejudice against these relationships.

There are not many times that someone tells me something about another person (who I don’t know) where I stop and wonder whether that person was white or black. However, when someone freely shares that information, I think it might change my impression of what that person is trying to tell me, and it will also give me more of a visual. I think that irrelevant racial signifiers definitely affect racial stereotypes because when you hear or see something so much, it is easy to start to think that way yourself. For example: if you constantly hear that blacks are violent and dangerous, you will probably start to get nervous when you see three black men walking towards you. In a lot of these cases, it probably reverts back to subconscious beliefs, which goes back to latent prejudice. I think that these racial signifiers can often awkwardly stick out in sentences, but I think they have become so natural that many people do not notice or think twice about using them. I think that the more you hear people use irrelevant signifiers the more you start to associate the signifier with the stereotype. For example: at track meets I often hear people say “the black sprinter” or something like that. I think hearing that over and over can lead to one thinking that black people should be sprinters.
I know I have listened to my parents or grandparents tell a story and they would say, “So the black woman gave me…” or “So I was at this store and, believe it or not, the black man…” They seem to feel the need to share if it was a black person, but when they have an encounter with a white person I hardly hear them say, “Today I ran into a white man.” They would not feel the need to specify his race in that case but would probably just say a man. I think signifiers affect stereotypes by making them more widespread and more believable.
I think these signifiers go beyond racial stereotypes as well. I think they can refer to all minorities. Like Sam said in class with the woman driver scenario, the fact that so many people refer to women as bad drivers and specify when they caused an accident only strengthens the stereotype that women are bad drivers. It also affects other groups with religious jokes, such as Jews, or even groups of women, like blondes. Certain jokes get started and they get spread until those jokes have turned into deep-rooted subconscious beliefs. Once these beliefs exist, it seems only natural to people to use these signifiers when telling a story because it would make more sense to the audience. Without these beliefs though, the signifiers would seem confusing and out of place. Therefore, by using these signifiers in our current world, which maintains these beliefs, I think we are only strengthening and spreading the stereotypes.

I think affirmative action is a great thing and has made a huge impact on our world. I think it is a huge help for minorities and is set up so that is operates in a pretty fair manner. Even though it has good intentions, I believe that it is definitely possible that affirmative action can be taken too far, or at least in the eyes of certain people. I think that a lot of times white people believe that colored people get advantages because they are the minority, in things such as sports, scholarships, acceptance to schools, and jobs. I think it is very likely that these white people could feel that they are being hindered because they are the majority. I think they can believe that they are more qualified or would be better fit for a job but the colored people get it because the manager feels bad or does not want to appear racist. I think that is where the problem arises. I think so many people are so concerned with how the look, like we have talked about in class with political correctness, that people do things out of the norm. They will say things they do not actually believe or do things that do not align with their beliefs because they want the people around them to look at them in a positive light. I know certain people who will have people come over for dinner or invite a group of people to hang out even though they do not like them, but they want to appear nice and want others to like them. Ultimately, they are overlooking their true feelings and living to please others. When people do this, I think affirmative action can become a problem. Although it is illegal for employers to give a job to a less qualified colored person, I think it probably still happens. I feel that some people are probably intimidated not to give a colored person a job because they have the stereotypical thinking that they are violent. I feel that other people just do not want to get into the drama of a possible lawsuit, so if the decision comes down to a close decision between a white and a black person, they may be more likely to choose the black person, as to avoid any questioning. However, I think there are still many people that would choose the white person, and actually go the other way and discriminate against the black person. I think that some people may be right in the middle and honestly choose the best person regardless of skin color. Summarily though, I think affirmative action is a good thing, but can definitely hurt white people at the same time.

I believe that white people do not want to admit that they have discriminations because they do not want to seem like they have prejudice or are racist. I think that as a white society, we want to seem accepting. Because it seems that there is more focus on whites and whether or not they discriminate, I think white people are very cautious of their beliefs, but more importantly their words and actions. I know that I often choose my words a little more carefully when talking about to or about black people and I do not want them to think that I think badly about them or categorize them in any stereotypes. I think that white people commonly want to make a good name for themselves, so they will maybe not say what they really feel or sugar coat it so it sounds better.
There have been many times that I have heard my parents and grandparents make very stereotypical, borderline racist comments and I always give them a hard time about it. However, I know that they would never make a comment like that to a person of another race and probably not even to another white person outside of our family. I think it all just goes back to putting on a good act/face for people to see. I think people think that if they are racist, others will look negatively at them and think of them as bad people.
I think another reason white people are reluctant to admit discriminations is that they do not want to feel privileged. I know personally I do not want to think that I get certain benefits or a job just because of my skin color. I like to believe that I will get what I work for and what I deserve, but sadly enough I do not think that is exactly what happens in our world. However, I do not think many white people would feel happy or comfortable knowing they only got something because it came down to skin color. I think we like to almost live in our own imagination or how we wish the world worked. For instance: we wish that everyone was seen and treated the same way so we go through life trying to act as if they are and when people question it, we deny that there is discrimination.
I also think like a previous post pointed out that we have not received much discrimination either so it makes it harder to recognize. For example: in high school if you fit into a “group” and were not getting called a nerd or ostracized by the clichés, you probably would not think anything was too wrong with your school. You would probably not think people got too made fun of and that nothing drastically needed changed. However, for those students who did get made fun of, they probably felt that it was awful, probably hated school, and felt that there was a huge problem. I think since most white people have not been the brunt of race jokes, it is harder for us to recognize and own up to it.

I think this is an interesting question because my immediate reaction was that we do not have white privilege. However, the more I have been thinking about it, the more I can see that it does still exist. I think in some areas of life it is easy for us to think that the minorities have the privilege, which in some aspects I think they do. That does not mean that white people do not have their own privileges though too.
To begin, I often hear people say, "Well they only got into that school because they are black," or "Well they get so many more scholarships just because they are a minority." To those people, they obviously believe that the minorities are getting a big privilege, especially in terms of money and school. I think minorities also get a privilege in even simple conversations. I think we often feel that we have to be extra careful with what we say because we do not want to offend them-just because their skin color is different. I think people often sugar coat things or do not say or ask what they really want to know just because they do not know if it is appropriate. I do not think, however, that many people think that when they are talking to a white person.
Even still, I believe that white people do have privileges. I think it has gotten a lot better than many years ago, but even in simple things such as thoughts, I think white people have certain advantages. What I mean by that is that I think if you were to put two people beside each other-one white and one black-and let's say they were both a little "thug" and you asked who you thought robbed a store or shot someone, I think most people would say the black person. I do not think that has something to do with being racist but the way our parents and generation raised us. I think just those simple, probably subconscious thoughts are where white people have the most privilege. In that same way of thinking, I do believe black people also have a privilege. For example: if you were to say who you thought would be the best dancer or who you would want to be on your sprinting relay, I think most people would choose a black person over a white person. So maybe some would not call this privilege, and it may not be, unless you are the one being chosen, but although I think it is rooted in stereotypes, it still does give privilege. Overall, I think white people may still have some slight advantages in certain jobs, but I think as a majority, the big aspects of life are not really impacted by a big white privilege.

I had never heard this song before so after hearing this line I looked up the rest of the lyrics and was blown away because this is a really powerful song. I think it hits on a lot of points and similar beliefs of many people—some that are vocalized and some kept quiet.
I will first answer your question about what I believe that the line, “I think that all the silence is worth than all the violence” means. It is similar to what I had always been taught growing up, that if you hear/see someone making fun of another person but you do not do anything, then you are just as wrong as the bully. I think that is what Lupe is getting at by this line. By standing back and not doing anything, we are allowing all of this stuff to happen that we know is wrong. We allow people to mess up our school systems by implementing standardized tests. We let them take away the arts in order for more reading and math because that is what the government has decided is necessary. We also have let some schools go forgotten, like the video Sam showed in class. It is not fair that there is a “white” school that has an Olympic size pool and full workout facility, when just a little while away there is a “black” school that is leaking and in poor condition. It seems that our society has become consumed with itself. I think what Lupe is saying is that people do whatever they think is best for them and say whatever they need to make themselves look good.
I think he brings up another good point about voting because I think that is another example of when people “stay silent.” Certain people do not vote like Lupe is saying because they disagree with one thing or another, but they are in essence just being silent and not taking a stand for what they believe. When they do not vote, it is not fair for them to complain about the way things are because they did not help to pick the people making decisions.
Basically I think that the main idea in this is just that our words are not matching up with our actions. We complain but are not doing anything to help fix the problem. Our silence is like us just sitting back—waiting, waiting for the government to take action or for some one else to make changes. Until we realize that we need to be the ones to break free of this silence and start being the change, we are going to be stuck in this rut of letting people control our lives, and unfortunately they are going to continue going downhill.