My parents would probably accept me more if I were in an interracial relationship as opposed to if I were a lesbian. They actually don’t mind if I don’t date within our race because although we are mostly under Asian, we are very mixed. Both my mom and dad are halfies so technically they dated out of their parents dated outside of their race. I think they would love me no matter what, or at least I expect them to and hope they would, but they would definitely hate seeing me in a relationship with a woman. I don’t even think it has to do with our religion because my parents aren’t really religious. We basically focus on keeping a relationship with God instead of celebrating church traditions. I think it’s just the way they were raised. They definitely feel uncomfortable whenever they are exposed to even the simplest displays of affection between two men or two women. It could just be holding hands or simple kisses on the cheek and they get very disgusted. It’s funny because straight men and women in different countries kiss each other on the cheek as friendly gestures saying hello and etc. It really is just based on where you were raised and what culture you are used to.

My mother is Catholic and my father is Christian. As a child they let me choose which route I wanted to take. Through the Catholic faith I felt that I was not worthy enough to communicate with God on my own without the guidance of a priest. It’s like he was the only one who was allowed to speak to God about everything. He was the godly representative. This is just from my experience though. I had a problem with this because my relationship with God did not seem real. Since when do relationships need a middle man? It was like marriage counseling. The priest played the role as the counselor who told me what I was doing wrong in this relationship, what I needed to change about myself, and what I needed to do better. Of course nothing could ever be wrong about God so I was just constantly put down as unworthy. The Catholic faith also consisted of so many traditions that I never understood why I needed to follow. Why did I constantly need to keep proving myself as worthy? The more I felt controlled, the more I wanted to rebel. Being Catholic obviously wasn’t working out for me so towards my last two years in high school and into college, I decided to try out the Christian faith. This suited me so much better. I feel as if that was the first time I really focused on having a relationship with God instead of just following a religion. I didn’t need my pastor to build my relationship. He was only there for ideas and inspiration. Nothing was enforced. It was all up to me. My relationship with God was finally real enough for me to actually want to be in, to actually want to work for, and it was a beautiful kind of spirituality that I began to develop. I didn’t have to give up something for lent. I gave something up when I felt it would help towards the betterment of my persona and I could give something up whenever I wanted. It was a lot of self-discipline and responsibility that I learned. I wouldn’t be able to explain to you why people need a person of “higher power” to reach their God other than that’s just the only way they know how to build a relationship. I feel like what they do is strictly praise and worship. That was just how they were raised. I guess it’s just up to the person on what suits them better. I feel like having a middle man definitely decreases the chances of their relationships working though. No real relationship can work without communication. Middle men can always mess things up for us.

It’s sad to see, but all races will react the same way when it comes to choosing between whites and blacks. This reminded me of that video we saw about the white doll and the black doll. African American children still chose the white doll over the dark-skinned one just like how we the three black women still gave the white boy the benefit of the doubt. Deep down I know she would have been more disappointed if she saw the black kid instead. I don’t want to assume, but a crime is a crime. She knew stealing the bike was a crime. Crimes should be justified. It’s sad because my uncle is a lawyer and he used to have a passion for his job, but now he’s just depressed because he tells me the injustice in court. There is definitely still racism when it comes to accusing and punishing criminals. People are always easier on the white man, but with the white man holding the most power in our nation, it’s like of course they would be nicer to him.

It’s part of our culture and shown through the media all the time. We constantly see movies and television shows of African Americans living the life of crime in what people describe as the ghetto. We rarely ever see anything about white teenagers doing crime. I noticed that when white boys dress what people describe as “ghetto”, they really aren’t taken seriously. It’s always seen as just a phase or a trend. Once you add dark skin to the clothing, people are automatically scared because they are expected to be bad.

I feel like people are just so used to the idea that black kids are the biggest delinquents that it’s so much more easier for them to react to black teenagers stealing than white teenagers. It goes against their whole thought process to see a white boy doing bad things, especially regarding economics. Why would white people have to steal? You already see it when most the class didn’t know that African Americans are actually middle class and not in the lower class. They could have been scared because it goes against what they are used to. I feel like they would give the white boy the benefit of the doubt just because it stains white supremacy.

I honestly thought this was one of Sam's best lectures. Empathy is something I have always strongly believed in. Back in high school, I was a leader in a program called Unity that was dedicated to spreading awareness, tolerance, and understanding among the students on our campus. Our school was the originator of this program, but through a group of students’ belief that the more understanding there is of another person, the less acts of violence there would be, we fought to bring this into our curriculum. The program became a special class that taught students several key components: how to provide social support for their peers and our community; how to decrease bias, bigotry, racism, and etc at our school; and how to better understand friends, family, the community, and ourselves. For those not able to take the class, we would hold full-day forums in which we performed skits then participated in activities that illustrated and exposed each step on the pyramid of hate. These forums could break down walls and create bonds between the students that even distance could not break. I still get messages from my past group members thanking me for bringing them into the program and it is honestly the best feeling in the world seeing people walk out renewed and comfortable enough to accept each other and themselves. I still get updates from current leaders at the school about the progress we have been making. There is now a gay couple running for prom king and queen, which I had already expected to happen anyhow, but this really is a major step in our community. Anyway, Sam’s lecture about empathy really reminded me of all this. I’m glad this subject was even brought up in a college classroom. People like to believe that ignorance is bliss because the facts just complicate, personal opinions will overtake, and people actually get offended enough to start shit. But I know everyone in the class is capable of the type of understanding he exposed us to. I thought it was clever and artistic of him to start out with the coal issue between America and China because sometimes it really is hard to show different perspectives when you have never experienced it before yourself. After putting us into the shoes of the people in Iraq, I was even more pleased to have been able to have a class conversation with one of Sam’s friends from Iraq. Being able to hear him talk and give his opinion and tell us his personal experiences and knowledge from this war was a definite privilege. I mean, would most of the class have gone out and met a man from Iraq otherwise? Would they have even tried to get to know our “enemy” without this? I don’t think many would. I know we live in a selfish world. Not many would do much for their neighbor unless it benefited him/her in some way. But I also don’t believe the world is as bad as people see it to be. I believe there is still beauty left in every human being underneath their selfishness. We just need to find a way to bring that all out. We just need to find a way to make people care again.

I honestly thought this was one of Sam's best lectures. Empathy is something I have always strongly believed in. Back in high school, I was a leader in a program called Unity that was dedicated to spreading awareness, tolerance, and understanding among the students on our campus. Our school was the originator of this program, but through a group of students’ belief that the more understanding there is of another person, the less acts of violence there would be, we fought to bring this into our curriculum. The program became a special class that taught students several key components: how to provide social support for their peers and our community; how to decrease bias, bigotry, racism, and etc at our school; and how to better understand friends, family, the community, and ourselves. For those not able to take the class, we would hold full-day forums in which we performed skits then participated in activities that illustrated and exposed each step on the pyramid of hate. These forums could break down walls and create bonds between the students that even distance could not break. I still get messages from my past group members thanking me for bringing them into the program and it is honestly the best feeling in the world seeing people walk out renewed and comfortable enough to accept each other and themselves. I still get updates from current leaders at the school about the progress we have been making. There is now a gay couple running for prom king and queen, which I had already expected to happen anyhow, but this really is a major step in our community. Anyway, Sam’s lecture about empathy really reminded me of all this. I’m glad this subject was even brought up in a college classroom. People like to believe that ignorance is bliss because the facts just complicate, personal opinions will overtake, and people actually get offended enough to start shit. But I know everyone in the class is capable of the type of understanding he exposed us to. I thought it was clever and artistic of him to start out with the coal issue between America and China because sometimes it really is hard to show different perspectives when you have never experienced it before yourself. After putting us into the shoes of the people in Iraq, I was even more pleased to have been able to have a class conversation with one of Sam’s friends from Iraq. Being able to hear him talk and give his opinion and tell us his personal experiences and knowledge from this war was a definite privilege. I mean, would most of the class have gone out and met a man from Iraq otherwise? Would they have even tried to get to know our “enemy” without this? I don’t think many would. I know we live in a selfish world. Not many would do much for their neighbor unless it benefited him/her in some way. But I also don’t believe the world is as bad as people see it to be. I believe there is still beauty left in every human being underneath their selfishness. We just need to find a way to bring that all out. We just need to find a way to make people care again.

I have always believed that love carried no gender. Everyone is completely capable of it and more often than not, we cannot help who we end up loving. Love is more than attraction. It is past any satisfaction that lust could ever provide. It is an intense feeling, a deep bond, and more like a unique attachment to another human being in which you are in your most vulnerable state. I believe that if a woman feels this for a woman or a man for a man, it is just as real and true as a relationship between a woman and a man. I remember seeing this photograph of a protestor one day holding up a sign that said, “Don’t let my gay marriage get in the way of your straight divorce.” I thought it was so clever since the divorce rate has been going up for the past couple of years and divorced used to be so frowned upon back in the day. So did this picture of a woman kissing a woman bother me? Not in the slightest. I actually agree don’t even see what all the commotion about these types of pictures are about nowadays. It’s just two people kissing. We see images of two random people who aren’t even in a relationship kissing all the time. Seeing two random people of opposite genders who barely know each other kissing at a random party is fairly common too. At least with this picture, we know that two people in it mean something to each other. Of course, even though the vast majority claim to accept homosexuality, I can see that a lot of people still won’t open their minds up to it. It’s like you will always have an equal amount of lovers and haters. The man who thought this picture was just “weird”.. well, I don’t think we can hate on him either. People are scared of things they don’t understand. He must have not had the opportunity to be exposed to this type of couple in a positive light all his life. Sadly, though the concept may be foreign to him and many others, there is no difference between a gay couple relationship and a straight couple relationship. In both instances, people have met someone special, have taken a chance, have gone through the honeymoon stage, have become comfortable with the other, have fought, and more often than not will have had marriage be the goal in mind all along. We all want the same things, we just all have different ways of obtaining it. That doesn’t mean that one person has more of a right over something like happiness than the other. It just means that humans love drama and just need to learn to mind their own business. No two paths to happiness will ever be alike. Just because one doesn’t take the same path as you does not mean one does not know where they are going. It does not mean that person is wrong. I’m excited to see what other boundaries our generation will be breaking in the future.

There is a negative impact on their lives for several reasons. The pressure is on. People tend to live up to what is expected of them because they adopt that idea as what they should expect out of themselves. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This may cause Asians to score better on this and that, but they also get a lot of hate for being "smart". People are always comparing themselves to the next person. Students are then capable of jealousies that lead to unhealthy competition and cliques. Everyone knows the high school stereotypes of "geeks" and they aren't ever on top of the hierarchy. They aren't seen as superior in anything but book knowledge. This does not include street smarts, athletic abilities, and etc. We may be living in the Information Age, but socially, no one really cares how smart you are. Really smart people are given close to no media attention. When do we ever see noble prize winners on television when there is no scandal or mishap involved? What people care about most is what society thinks makes you "cool" or entertaining. They care about good-looking people, people with money, and people with drama. This also pretty much says that Asians are only good at or for one thing and nothing else. It's like Asians are incapable of being good athletes or role models or celebrities, etc. Furthermore, when you aren’t advertised as “cool” in the media, you aren’t exactly the number one pick in terms of picking mates. I’m not saying all people base what they find attractive on what they see on the media, but I am saying that we are more inclined to pick people that resemble the ones we are constantly exposed to through the media. But then again, this is all based on the American culture. I mean, I remember the activity Sam did in class when he asked a white woman to tell the class who she thought was the most attractive out of three Korean men and she answered that she was never really attracted to Asian men. I think that Asians have a disadvantage in the American culture because all they are known for is being smart and nothing else. I think it’s sad, but it’s hard to change a people’s mentality when that is all they have been exposed to for all their lives. Like what was brought up in class, people are so surprised that Asians can be good at anything else other than academics. Advertising things like “Linsanity” shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t be such a big deal that an Asian man can be good as basketball. Anyone can be good at basketball with the right kind of training. I understand that there aren’t many Asians in American basketball, but there are Asian basketball teams in Asian countries. And that’s about all I have to say.

I think we all should learn Spanish because there is a growing hispanic influence in America that we cannot stop regardless of the immigration laws the government tries to set up. As we saw in class, pretty much every attempt at controlling immigration has ended up in failure. No one has the power to stop the flow of any race of immigrants because it seems to me that America benefits from immigration as well. Besides, with well over 35 million Spanish speakers in the United States, and with over 40% of the population growth being among the Hispanic people, the stage is set for an enormous increase in Spanish usage in the United States. The hispanic culture is taking up a bigger role in business and becoming a bigger influence in terms of American economics so it would be beneficial for us to learn Spanish for better networking and communications. Learning Spanish will enable you to better communicate with Spanish speaking employees, co-workers, and consumers, which would help to expand faster and bring in more revenue because in North America, Hispanic consumers are the fastest-growing market segment. And it’s not only in the United States that the Spanish culture is growing. For example, In Europe Spanish is the second most taken-up language in terms of second languages, after English. Sticking with purely English is a pretty bad move in my eyes if we want to excel as a culture. I believe that taking in every culture has helped us become a very well-rounded nation in general. We cannot turn a blind eye or become ignorant of other cultures if we want to get more money. Getting to know everyone means knowing more people which means a bigger pool of consumers and more revenue. I think money is the only way Americans already welcome Spanish-speakers and etc. Of course, I’m not saying all Americans need to know Spanish. It’s definitely optional, but beneficial. It’s like one of those books that our professors tell us we should buy to read certain chapters, but don’t really need to buy if we pay attention in class. If it isn’t useful to the individual because he/she knows how to excel in life without it, then he/she doesn’t have to learn it. Why limit ourselves though? America didn’t even start out with English-speakers. America has been adapting to new types of people for centuries. I’ve taken three years of Spanish in high school but I still don’t know how to carry a full conversation. I think it’d be nice if our education system worked better in teaching us other languages because it would be really beneficial to the future generations. I still really want to learn Spanish though.