Before I took Soc 119, I really did not know what to expect other than a hilarious teacher. I had an open class and when I saw the 700+ person class I knew that the teacher had to be good. But I got more out of this class than I ever expected. I talked more about race relations in this one semester than I had my entire life. My family is a very straight-laced family where this is not a topic that comes about very much. I would not consider either of my parents racist but with the backgrounds they have come from it is not farfetched to hear a racist remark here or there. But as I sat through this class I learned more about what needed to be done in the future, about the large economic gap between different races. The analogy of the white race being the first race to climb the mountain will always stick with me. It is the best description that I have gotten so far and I think if I were ever to ask that question again I would use that example exactly. Another thing that comes to mind after taking this class is just the word ignorance. Just seeing how ignorant some people leaves a very ill taste in my mouth. I think more people need to take this class because one it is the best class I’ve taken so far and two because it really has educated me in many different ways. I can continue to sit here and list things that I have learned in the class but I would really like to focus on Sam as a teacher. I learned a lot, but the reason why I learned so much was because of the way that Sam taught the class. He really engaged students and kept us occupied in an hour and fifteen minute class twice a week. Sam used analogies, guest speakers to keep students wanting to come to class. Another aspect that I really want to focus on is the discussion group. This class expanded your mind because we were able to hear opinions on what Sam said in class. As much as everyone loves to hear his opinion it is cool when people disagree with what he says. It really left me thinking about what people said in class. There were a few times where I even called my mom and talked about what people said in class. I loved having such a diverse group of people and to hear all different types of opinions. If I had the chance I would take this class again. I think it would be cool to talk more about things out of the United States, but overall the class was a great experience.

In my opinion, I think there is a lot more to a girl and guy being together than just a simple orgasm. There is no simple answer to why guys do not address the problem. I think many guys do not even realize how small the number of girls that get orgasm from sex really is. Obviously there is not special method of doing so, so I think that most guys just assume that they did a good job as opposed to trying to do a little more to help their counterpart out. I have been in relationships where a girl has told me like was that it. It is not something you want to hear from a girl so after that scenario I have completely avoided the topic all together and stuck to this male oriented world. There is no reason that a guy does not want to satisfy a girl but sometimes its more the girl that does not speak up. Even though it made me very uncomfortable when she told me, I did what I had to do to make up for it. As Sam discussed in class that most males only care about them so it really is not something that comes to mind when thinking about sex for a male. Girls are definitely more prone to speaking up in relationships, which makes it more enjoyable for the girl. I also think it would catch a guy off guard if she did tell him that she did not get anything out of it. Obviously time will tell, but I think that it is almost the norm for a girl to fake an orgasm and just move on even if she didn’t get anything out of it. Another thing that really struck me about the lecture was about how women see sex as foreplay. Something a guy would never consider sex is such a crucial part to a girl. I think things like this also create a barrier between girls and guys talking about what an orgasm are because there really is such a fine line between these things. Most of the time when a guy brings a girl back to his room he is only looking to have sex where as girls may think of sex as just the hookup at the party as sex. It is not really up to a single girl in particular, but if they want something done about then they are the only ones with the power to do so. I would never get mad at a girl who spoke up and said something about it. It really is something that is wrong among our culture and could easily be changed with a little confidence from the ladies.

In my opinion, I think the reason for the search of these different topics is because of the oppression they may be going through. If they are forced to be a certain way, the only way it really makes it acceptable is if they do it in the privacy of their own home without anyone knowing. Coming from a family where my parents are very open to anything, this makes me very concerned. It really does not allow someone to be who they are if they keeping it behind closed doors. Obviously United States is much more advanced than many other countries, but you still see these problems coming up here. Recently with the Facebook profile picture blowing up I thought it was just another dumb thing that people were doing. But after discussing this in our discussion groups and giving it a thought it makes me very happy that we can do this. There really is no barrier for things we cannot say or do when it comes to the government. I think another reason for homosexual things being searched is that it has to do with something they have never seen before. Here in the United States we see different races, cultures, sexual orientations so its really not like we need the internet to see these certain aspects of life. It is really unfair that a society can completely brainwash someone to think that being gay is such a sin instead of a certain way of life. I think as we progress as a human race certain things will not be as big a deal as they are not. Just as how we have moved away from interracial couples are not looked down upon as much as they used to be. Even in our country pornography is used to look up something you may not have or desire. Its something that you may want to know more about or even something that you use to get away from what you already have. The condemning of something as serious as relationships between two people can have serious affects on the citizens of the country. Something that I would love to know is out of the amount of suicides how many are actually because of this topic. It is something that cannot be tested because people aren’t open about their real sexual orientation, but I am sure the number would surprise a lot of people. Taking a step back, this entire class has really made me appreciate the family and society we live in. Many of these things are not in these people’s control so it just makes me so thankful for the life we are all given. This class has really opened my eyes in ways I would never even think about.

When Jasiri X came to class on Tuesday, my first impression of him was that he was awesome and that it was going to be a great class. That first impression did not stay for long because of the way Jasiri and his hype man conducted himself. Empathy is a huge part of what Sam has taught us and I related this right back to Jasiri X and what he was talking about. When I first heard him rap, I thought it was going to be a Lupe type of guy where they really rap about their opinion. Jasiri came into our class with one motivation and that was to advertise him as a rapper. It really made it hard to state my opinion when these two guys were almost bashing every single person that said something on either twitter or with the microphone. It almost made it seem like they wanted to get the last word in every time and my opinion really did not change how they felt even though that’s what they were asking for. It really made it hard to empathize with him and what he was talking about when it seemed like he was coming at white people completely. It seemed like he was trying to convince people of his viewpoint, but really did not take into consideration other viewpoints. It made students argue instead of him really backing up the points that he was trying to make. I do not think he really allowed himself to see other viewpoints. It made it hard to listen to someone who could not even consider how I was feeling and only really cared about people that were being prosecuted. I understand that everyone likes to hear it from the underdog perspective, but when people are coming direcrtly at your people saying its their fault, it really does make it hard to listen to someone like that. Especially when he brings history into it, it doesn’t make his points anymore valid. We all can acknowledge what happened in the past, but this doesn’t make it more right for us to act in a completely different way. There is two points to every story and I can see where he is coming from, but it really makes it tough when he would do everything he could to not have to listen to what we were trying to say. The one thing I really repsect about Jasiri X is that he says what he feels. He does not hold his opinion back and no one can really tell him his opinion is wrong. Even though many people invluding myself disagree with what he is saying, he earns my respect through his determined opinion.

I agree with Sam’s opinion about nepotism is more socially acceptable than affirmative action. Obviously this is a normative question, but the face that someone’s relatives may be benefiting them compared to their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Even though comparing both side by side may seem like they are very similar because of the face both are not controlled. You do not get to choose your family members, nor do you get to choose any of the previously stated characteristics. But the major difference that I see between the two topics is the fact that family is there to help you. If a job was given to me because of the pure fact my dad owned the company, he is simply trying to help me. He has tried to benefit me my entire life and is simply continuing to do such that. If he gave someone a job because of the fact they are black, Hispanic or Asian then it is something completely different. He may be making speculations about that person that are true or false, but it should not make a difference because of something they cannot control. Another huge difference between nepotism and affirmative action is that people benefiting from nepotism are people who have already made an impression on the person giving them a job. An interview is there to give an impression on the recruiter who is hiring, so if someone had known someone for a period of time before hand and they had already had a good impression of them then there is no reason for the interview. It is another step forward in the recruiting process that a family member may have over any other candidate. To reiterate my point before this it also is much more acceptable because of success. When giving a job to someone, the point of hiring a person is to get the job done and the job done right. There is no way to tell how well a person can do with many tasks at hand but to let them do it. But the biggest thing with hiring the right person is you want to see them succeed. Promotion is a big thing in almost every job and it is something that is almost completely in the control of the person that has the job. My entire life my parents have tried to give me the most opportunities and I don’t think its wrong for them to continue doing this while I am an adult. They lead me to success and it is ultimately my choice to take advantage of it or not. Giving another person a job based off purely one characteristic does is not and will never be socially acceptable.

I think this question offers many interesting points because of many topics it covers. One it deals with the way that women are supposed to act or not act. Almost every guy in the room raised their hand when they were dealing with masturbation yet almost no women were ecstatic to raise their hand about their menstruation cycle. I think that this is because we have an idea about how women are supposed to act. Obviously as society progresses, this idea of chivalry and its wrong to call differentiate a steward from a stewardess is vastly changing. But obviously there are things that will never change. For example, my father and I love to curse and talk about random inappropriate things, yet when my sister is around he would never mention any of that. So even though the world is changing, it is hard for everyone to be seen as just people instead of male or female. It is similar to farting on a date. You will not see many people who find it comfortable to fart in front of someone of the opposite sex even though it is completely normal. Some things will just never be “normal” to discuss in front of large groups of people. Another topic that this question briefly talks about is free will over determinism. In many posts before this talks about how kids women do not have the free will to talk about certain things when I think this issue deals more with the determinism aspect. While the menstruation cycle is something that is normal in every woman’s life, the human race is the only reason why this topic is taboo. It is something that we have probably blown out of proportion to think it is as gross as it is. Another thing about this topic is the difference between men and women. Just as though there is an idea of a tomboy and just having an idea of how males and females are supposed to act. Just as there are stereotypes about different races there are also stereotypes about gender, sexual orientation and even political views. As we talked about earlier in the class stereotypes are a natural thing that occur within the human race. So even though there are no explanations to why these things are so uncomfortable to talk about it is just something that can never really be explained within our society. There are benefits and downfalls for both men and women and it is just something that our ancestries built before us. These things will not change over night and it is something that we just have to deal with. But no women ever has to be held down by stereotypes of how she is supposed to act.

Death is one of those peculiar things that no matter how much research we do, we will never have the correct answer. Religion is there for us to fall back on but the reality is that no one actually knows what happens when someone is dead. I really had never though about death until a year ago when my best friends with heart problems went into cardiac arrest. He was “dead” for about eight minutes before the medics came and survived him. I had always though of death as something that happens when your life is coming to an end. My naïve view of death mostly had to do with old people just knowing that their time was up. When my friend actually went through this my entire perception of death changed. Yes, it still has to do with one’s life ending but it can seriously happen at any point. There is no guarantee for tomorrow and as cliché it is, it is actually true. Even though I was greatly affected by this experience, I continue to ask him how he feels about the topic. He told me he lives in the present more and enjoys each moment he is alive. One should not fear death, because it is unknown. There is no control over it and it is not worth thinking about. Even though it was not me who went through a near death experience, I still like to think of that as myself. There really is not much guaranteed in life and it will pass right by if you not take advantage of every opportunity. Many people say they have some sort of bucket list they want to complete before they die, but I think the two most important things about life is happiness and pride. I do not want to look back with regrets about what I did or did not do. Every decision one makes is solely up to the individual. I do not want to think back on my life with any regrets at all and so far I feel I am doing a pretty good job. And second, I want to look back on my life with happiness. Anybody can complete medial tasks, but its how they affected you in the long run is what would be most important to me.
Something that really stuck with me for a while that we talked about in our discussion group was that in certain cultures death is celebrated. One is moving on to the next life and it is looked at as a celebration of their life as a whole. Even though in my life I have never seen death celebrated, next time someone passes I am going to try my best to remember that discussion we had, because it really is remembering the good instead of fearing the unknown.

Although this question seems very basic, there is a lot to the “discovery” of a God. Even though many religions coincide, many also conflict and the fact that there is a God would cause a lot of problems in the world. Before I would make any judgments I would like to know a lot more about the god. I would try to learn, read, and study as much about this god before I could do anything. Then I would begin to worry. I do not know what I believe as of know after listening to many of Sam’s talks about god, but with the discovery it would open my eyes a lot. And as easy as it is to not worry about the afterlife with the discovery of god it would terrify me with what we are on this world to do. Are we doing a good job or are we just disappointing the source of all life? It would stress me out beyond belief to know that there is a superior human that is watching our every move. The idea of God theoretically is great, but just to know that we may not being doing what he wants us to do would completely freak me out. But if the alternative where we found out there were no God would scare me a lot less. It may seem that this life is pointless and that we are just living to die, but I think there is still a lot to take away a life without a God. Yes, there may not be a higher power to turn to, but in my opinion we are still here to learn something and regardless of if God is real or not it is one our duties to learn it.
What I really like about this question is that God is something we cannot touch, see, smell, hear, or feel. Even though most of the population believes in some sort of God there is nothing out there that says that he is or is not real, yet he does have some an impact on our life. As Sam told us before that Atheists are the least desired spouses for their children, it shows us that God does have such a strong impact in many lives. So this question will never be answered or even really asked by most because even if there is no God, it is someone to turn to when times get tough. He is there to believe in and give hope to all. That’s why it really doesn’t matter if God is real or not because we do not need him to be real. The theoretical idea of God is the most important part of most religions.

To answer the first portion of the question, I do not think that black people would be equal regardless of how early the law would have been passed. I do not know how much farther we would be, but it is inspiriting to see that we continue to grow as a nation and has not stopped. But as harsh as it sounds, no one will ever be equal. It is an inherent trait that people are born with that you are here in this world to survive. Anything to get ahead is normal to do and something as small as race can set someone apart. But just as Native Americans that have been dealing with racism since before blacks it is something that will never go away. It also has to deal with past generations. The reason why we are progressing so much is because with each generation, race is becoming more integrated. As someone stated earlier, parents have a huge impact on where the racist ideology comes from. It is clear with a black president that we are making progress, but we need to start getting away from the fact that minorities get jobs not based on if they deserve it but because it “looks good” to have an integrated work force. It is not being racist if someone gets a job because they earned it. To answer the second portion of the question, I think what he was trying to say is that he wanted to be given a scholarship because he earned it not because he was born the way he was. The best analogy I can think in my case would be legacy to a school. As much as you want to be accepted because you meet the credentials, you still are going to make sure you’re a legacy applicant. If the opportunity is there then one should take it. Even though it may not be fair, on is simply a fool to not take advantage of every thing that is “given” to them, because it wouldn’t be given if it had that big of a negative effect. I also do not believe what he said was to offend anyone of his race, but to simply say that he wants to be recognized for the good not the bad. Racism is a very touchy subject within our society, but I agree completely with what he was saying. To be given something because of the mere fact that white people were racist back in the day is not rewarding. In the long run, I support people that deserve the scholarships; I just cannot convince myself that