After taking SOC119 for a semester I took a lot of things away from this class. This being my last semester and Graduating in 2 weeks, I am very glad that I took this class because it gave me a really good idea of what type of things I will endeavor in my life after college. Besides the lectures, I really took away ideas and perspectives through my discussion group and I feel as though I made some good friends throughout the class. But there was not really a certain topic that I took away from this class but more of an idea of how to go about interacting with other races and cultures through the rest of my life. I grew up in a mostly white town and never really interacted with other races until I started here at Penn State four and a half years ago. The idea that I took away most is that when I interact with other races and cultures I really need to sit down and ask questions. By asking questions about how their culture acts and certain things they do differently than me, I can learn how to interact better and work with non-white American cultures. I learned that you really cannot learn everything about a culture from one person so you need to learn from more than one person. One thing may insult one person of a culture but not another so by learning from multiple people of a culture you can start to realize the differences among them. In talking with my discussion group, there were a few different cultures in the group but all of us had different experiences with different cultures. We had great discussions in my group and I feel as though I can say that we all learned something new from each person in the group. Another thing I learned in this class is just how big the imbalance is between the rich and the poor. I knew there was a decent gap and that there is a possibility that some poor people could reach the top, but after taking this class I realized how big it really was. I also took away that there really is no chance for the poor to ever break that gap. This is because the super rich run this country and will never let the poor reach the top or ever get out of the position where they are at now. There will always be the select few that break the mold and get to the top but in general, the poor will always be in that social class because the super rich will never let them break that mold. Overall I really enjoyed that class, learned a lot, and got to share my new knowledge with others and go to discuss what we were learning.

It just frightens me to see these videos and such and after this lecture I really feel as though this problem is going both ways. The Arab Muslims see the Americans as Christian crusaders and all we want is their oil from their land. Though the oil idea may be true, it has been the faults of a few top leaders that have made the Muslims hate Americans. First off I can see where Sam was coming from when he put us in the mindset that we were Arab Muslims and how we would only see the bad videos and none of the good videos of America and our soldiers. It’s a shame that these few top leaders have made these videos or said these things that speak for our country as a whole but are almost entirely not true. The same goes true for the United Sates as well. WE are only shown the extremists and the terrorists and we have, just as the Arab Muslims done, generalize all Arabs, or in the case of Arabs, Americans, are all the same and are terrorists. I just don’t understand why people don’t want to hear the good stories. I know plenty of soldiers that have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan and have done really good things for the people and villages to make their life a little bit better. For example, we have made sewer lines and landfills in certain parts of both countries so that the villagers do not throw their waste and excrement into the streets which contaminate their drinking water. These stories are not told in the Arab countries as well as right here in America. We as humans always focus on the negatives of the stories like death and innocent civilians being caught in the line of fire and maybe every once in a while a good story might peek its way through all of the bad stories. It is a shame that that is what us as human beings want to hear. Like I said before it goes both ways, between the Arab Muslims and the Americans. The Arab Muslims see the soldiers running over cars, killing innocent civilians, and leaving small villages in ruins because of a couple bad guys that were hiding out in that village. The Americans see only the Islamic extremists suicide bombing markets, shooting at our soldiers, and laying improvised explosive devices on roads or underground just waiting for American military to either drive over it or walk over it. I really don’t think that there is a solution for this because I think it is just human nature to want to hear the bad news rather than the good news so I really think that the Arab Muslims and Christian Americans will always be divided.

Immigration is a major topic that constantly comes up here in America. The battle between Democrats and Republicans on how to control or regulate the Immigration “problem” has been going on for a while and has now recently heated up. I believe that there is currently a problem with illegal immigration as well as the Americans who are unemployed. The first problem I have with illegal immigration is that there are more and more Hispanics crossing the border trying to look for jobs. The problem with that is that there are no jobs here for the immigrants to take and they end up living on the streets and going without food for days. It is not safe for the as well as not safe for Americans. Another problem that I have with the illegal immigration of Hispanics is that there are some that bring violence, drugs and guns to America. This violence results directly into injuring or even killing Americans because of gang or drug violence. That is a major problem about Hispanic illegal immigration that needs to be addressed some how but I honestly do not know how to solve that problem. Another problem that arises with the immigration problem is that a lot of the jobs that the illegal immigrants are taking are hard labor jobs and farm jobs. When these immigrants were taken away from the jobs, the farming companies lost millions of dollars because Americans who don’t have jobs wont work those hard jobs because they are lazy assholes and don’t need to work because Obama gives them everything so they can be lazy as long as they want. If an American is unemployed they should not worry about what kind of job they get, they should worry about getting a job that paid them and be able to feed their families. The Americans that are screaming to get rid of all the illegal immigrants because they are taking American jobs need to realize that Americans wont work the jobs the immigrants are “taking” or that they need to man up and actually work a hard labored job. I think that the only way Americans can stop illegal immigration is to stop being lazy, parents need to teach their kids how to work hard regardless of your job and not let them be lazy. This has really bothered me for a long time because I see kids today who have never worked a day in their life and never broke a sweat just helping a fellow American out with a simple job like raking leaves or fixing something. This is easy to relate to immigration because these immigrants are much harder workers than a majority of Americans and they are much more willing to get down and dirty to help anyone out who needs help.

After talking about how exposure to a certain group of people, not of your own group, can make you learn more about that group has made me understand it better and made me realize that it is true. I also have first hand experience in exposure to a new group when I was working in a furniture factory this summer. My supervisor had me working in a different job in the department and the full time employee who I unofficially worked for was a Vietnamese man. I never knew much about Vietnamese or Asians in general because most of the Asians I had met in my life were Asian Americans or they were born here in America. The Vietnamese man I worked with was born in Vietnam and came over to America when he was 16. His father was an American soldier from the Vietnam war but he never met his father. He told me that he was discriminated against because other Vietnamese could tell that he was part American. As I worked with him all summer I asked him questions about his culture and about Vietnam itself and he was more than willing to answer my questions. I learned a lot about how Vietnam runs their country as well as how he adapted to American culture as well. I learned a lot about what people eat, what they do for work, and about the family life in Vietnam and I really had zero knowledge about this before working with him over the summer. There are a few other Vietnamese men and women who work at that company but they usually just work and keep to themselves, in other words, do not really consult with the other white workers other than their supervisors. I always knew from working there that they were much harder workers than the white workers in the factory but I really never understood why. The man I worked with told me that he, as well as a lot of Vietnamese boys, stated working when he was only 6 years old. They had to work in order for their families to have food on the table and clothes on their backs. He put into light how different American culture is to Vietnamese, and in general, Asian culture. He had a lot of funny stories about his culture as well and we had some pretty good laughs about it. On the other hand, he asked me many questions about how I grew up and how the American culture is. Although he has lived in America for 20 some years, he does not have great English and still predominately interacts with the Vietnamese population in my town. Overall I truly believe that to get to know a certain group of people, the best and almost only way to learn it to exposure yourself to that group and to ask questions and learn from what they say.

My first reaction when I saw the statistics about the incarceration rate of different races, I wasn’t really surprised. I knew that there were more white people incarcerated than other minorities just because there are more white people. What did surprise me was the statistics about young kids getting sent to adult prison systems rather than staying in a juvenile system. The statistic was that young black and brown people were much more likely to be sent to an adult prison system than a white kid who committed the same crime. We talked a little about why we thought this was the case and it was really difficult to come up with one answer, because I do not think there is one inherent answer. Some things we came up with were that when a white kid commits a crime, society is more apt to think that they will change and become a better person so they are kept in the juvenile system. Black and brown people on the other hand, society seems to believe they will not change and they will just be criminals for the rest of their life so they are sent to adult prison systems. Another reason we came up with was that black and brown people almost expect that they will be in prison one day just because that’s the way society has formed their beliefs. It was surprising when the statistic came up about how more than double the white people have used or have sold drugs than black people did. It is surprising because society has almost came to the conclusion that far more black people use drugs or sell drugs than white people do which is not the case. So when a white person gets caught for drug possession or dealing drugs they are far less likely to get put in jail and kept in jail than a black person solely on the reason that they are white and are more likely to change. Another thing I think is a problem is that in the media if a white man commits a crime the headlines would say man caught with one pound of weed. If a black man commits the same crime the headlines would say African American man caught with one pound of weed. It doesn’t matter in the world if the man is white or black committing the crime but society makes a point of making sure that they distinguish between whites committing crimes and black or brown people committing crimes. I really think that this is a big problem in the country but I do not think that people are aware of it or the fact that they just do not care about the facts. In saying that, I don’t think this will ever change either unless the world becomes perfect or it won’t.

In Tuesdays class we had a special guest, a Native American from a reservation. This was a very emotional visit and the room was very silent while he talked. We were discussing about how the Native Americans live and try to survive on their reservations that the American government forced them onto. These Native Americans live in the poorest lifestyle in America and there is really no help given to them by our government. We took over their land when the settlers came into this country and we have forced them to live on special land that we decided upon. The families are alcoholics and the rate of suicide in young Native Americans is an extreme high, the highest in Americans by a large gap. Even the wealth gap between the poorest Americans and the Native Americans are extremely large. Our guest gave us a first hand story of how every day he struggles. He had family members pass away and others pass away gather fish for their ceremonial traditions. His young cousin could not handle all this tragedy and decided to take her own life to deal with her pain. This is a very sad story and it really opened my eyes to how bad the Native American life is on the reservation. Many people here about the casinos that go up on reservations and they make out well. What you don’t hear about is the tragedy and depressing images of how the majority of the reservation life is. A couple questions I still have on this topic, because I don’t really know much about it, is how can these horrific lifestyles be changed. I know that there is not one answer to this problem but there has to be some way of bettering the life on the reservations. I think that at some point the Native Americans will have to try and start conforming to society, but of course retain their rich culture. I know that may sound harsh but I believe they will never get their land back because our government will never give that land up. I think their needs to point of acceptance that what the Americans did was 100% wrong but try their best to move on from that and better their life. I know, but I really don’t, how hard that must be to forget one of the biggest mass killings of one people but it cannot be undone. I think the American people will be very accepting if they voice their story more about how they need help to have a more prospering life rather than voice their opinion on how we wronged them over 100 years ago. Again, I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but I personally look at it in a realistic way and the only way for the Native Americans to improve their life is to conform to society, but naturally empowering and sharing their culture.

I definitely think there are a combination of determinism and free will to my story about how I ended up here at Penn State. At first I thought that all my decisions that led to me to Penn State were my choice, free will, rather than deterministic choice. I thought that going to college was my choice and that I decided Penn State would be where I got my degree. After class I realize a lot of these choices were out of my hands and that I really had no say in making the choice of going to college and going to Penn State. First, my decision to go to college was actually drilled into my head in high-school. “If you want to succeed you have to go to college and get a degree”. These words being said over and over again by my teachers and the faculty at my high-school really made the decision for me because I do want to succeed in life. I had thoughts about joining the military right out of high-school or going to a trade school to work on automobiles but I was told multiple times that I will not have a successful life and have the things I want by doing those jobs. So really I made the decision to apply to colleges but actually the decision came from my teachers throughout grade school. My choice to come to Penn State really wasn’t my decision either. I grew up being a Penn State football fan and was born and raised in Pennsylvania. When growing up in PA, you are either a Pitt fan or a Penn State fan and I was the PSU fan. Both my parents graduated from Penn State so I have always heard about how great it was. I have gone to Penn State football games since I was only a little guy. Then when my older sister decided to go to college she went to Penn State as well. So I really was involved with Penn State my whole life and my parents we slowly persuading me that Penn State is the only option. I applied to a couple different colleges but as soon as I received my acceptance letter to Penn State Main campus my decision was already made for me. I technically had the decision to choose between Penn State, Temple, and Arizona State and I guess technically I made the free will decision to go to PSU. This class made me realize that a lot of decisions I have made in my life were not really my decisions. All of the people that were involved in my life helped or steered me toward different decisions. I honestly thought that these we my decisions made by free will but really they are made for me.

I believe there are a couple reasons why no one in class stood up and said that they were rich. One reason I believe, is like Sam said in class, if someone has a lot of money, they don’t speak about that money. People who are super rich don’t like to speak about how much money they have because I think it can make people think less of them rather than like them for how much money they have. Partly the reason for this is because if you always talk about how much money you have then you look snobbish or selfish. There are, as we discussed in class, millions and millions of people in the world that are very poor and it someone has so much money they can wipe their ass with it, it makes them look bad because they aren’t helping others in need. In saying that, there are rich people who do a lot to help people but I’d say the majority of people don’t gives others a part of their wealth. The second reason I think no one stood up in class saying they were filthy rich is because there may not be someone in class that is filthy rich. I’m sure there are people that are rich in class, but maybe no one in class is super rich. I also believe that there are two different types of rich people in the world, people born into money and people who became wealthy, and these two types flaunt their money differently. Those people that are born into money have grown up all their life with money and there is a sort of knowledge that you don’t talk about money. The people who become wealthy, either through working hard or luck, usually flaunt their money more. I believe this is the case because they have worked so hard to become wealthy and they want everyone to know how wealthy they are. An example of this would be a new sports superstar or a new rap artist signing a brand new multimillion dollar contract. They want people to know how wealthy they are by buying huge houses, driving exotic sports cars, and in rap artists cases, they flaunt their money in their music videos as well as rap about how much they actually have. There is a clear distinction between these two groups and if you take what we talked about of how the super-rich people run the country through the president, you can see how they don’t show how much money they have. Those you give the money to the president and candidates do so behind doors and use the president to flaunt their money. All in all, people who are born in to wealth do not typically flaunt their wealth and that’s the main reason I believe no one stood up in class and proclaimed their wealth.

I think the concept of the military being social workers is a pretty accurate depiction of the military now. I have talked to many soldiers who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and all of them say they are there to help the people. My uncle was deployed to Iraq and was in an engineering unit. Their job in Iraq was to build structures to better the people's lives. They built schools, hospitals, landfills, and even installed a sewer system in the one town because the people would throw their waste out of their homes onto the streets of the town. Many of these things are not talked about on the media and many Americans do not really know what our military is doing everyday. The media gives the wrong impression by showing deaths of soldiers and also show the fighting. The military's first job is to protect the citizens and make a better life for them. They are there to win the hearts and minds of the citizen. Soldiers are trained before they are deployed about the culture of the towns they are going too and only when the needs arise do they use their weapons. Also, many special forces soldiers grow beards since citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan respect men more when they have beards. This is done because the special forces spend most of their time working in towns and talking with the citizens to gain their trust. The citizens know when the terrorists will strike and who in the town are associated with the terrorists. So saying this i believe that the military as social workers with guns is a very accurate choice of words. Also, the soldiers do have to use their guns a lot because the taliban can attack our soldiers at anytime. They need to carry their guns every where because they need to protect themselves from these attacks. Being that the terrorists dont where uniforms, and look just like all the other citizens, sometimes innocent civilians get caught in the line of fire. In every war, citizens will get caught in the fire and get killed. It is sad that these civilians get killed but it is just part of war. But the military is not out to kill the civilians they are there to create peace and win the hearts and minds of the civilians. America will never win the fight and rid the world of terrorists but to get Iraq and Afghanistan on their feet and to set them up to fight their own battle would be a victory for the US. We can only get the victory by talking and teaching the civilians how to do what they need to do in order to fight their own battles. We have won many hearts and minds in these two countries but we have a lot more social work to do.

I would like to start by saying that I was not uncomfortable during the class on Thursday but rather it was actually pretty interesting. I am also a white male who grew up in mainly white community. When the young white girl used the comment of "colored people" rather than "people of color", I was shocked when the two African American women burst with outrage against this girl. At first i thought to myself that, what is the big deal that she just changed the arrangement of the words of color and people? I always assumed that "people of color" and "colored people" was a general term people who were not white. When she did say it I personally assumed that she meant all people and did not try to hit the nerves of the black students in class. I did not realize that the specific term, "colored people" had such a history in America and that it was such a term full of hate. As the class progressed, I started to realize that some African American students had very strong arguments against the use of the term "colored people", but I also think that some students did not have a very strong argument and just used that as a chance to use the discussion as a voice to say white people are in the "racist" category. I also thought that it was interesting that other people of color had no opinion on what term they felt more comfortable with. As an example, when the term oriental came up, there were not really any Asians that had a strong opinion either way. Many said the term did not bother them while others said it did bother them but they could not really come up with a strong argument for their opinion. I personally have never really used the term "oriental" and probably never will but, after this class, I came to the realization that it is not really a derogatory term. Although it did come to my attention that it is just safer to not use that term to describe Asians. Back to the term "colored people", Dr. Richards really helped to explain, at the end of class, the history of that term and why it touches a nerve with African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and segregation used the term "colored people" to specifically outcast black people from all others including, Latinos and Asians. I can now say I truly understand why there was such an outrage in the black community within the class room. I also did feel bad for the poor white girl who started the whole conversion and I know that she felt bad and meant no harm by it. Lastly, I do have to say that some of the white students have to choose their words wisely when speaking out in class about these topics because our ancestors, generally speaking white people, were the ones some of these who brought these topics to the point where they are at now. I am really enjoying these discussions though and I am learning a lot that i just have never thought of before.