My dad's side of the family is very Italian and very old fashioned in their way of thinkings and attitudes towards things like race and sexual orientation. My grandfather is especially opposed to gay marriage and homosexuality because he is very religious and thinks it goes against a lot of things he believes in. My older cousin on that side of the family came out as a lesbian a couple years ago and it was really interesting to me to discuss it with my dad about how my grandfather would react. My dad had no problem with the news of my cousin, but said that his father would definitely not be ok with it at all. This really made me realize for the first time the differences in mentality and attitude that generations of people have. I know my grandparents generation has complete different views on gay marriage than my parents do and it's because of the generational gap that exists in society. People's outlooks and opinions are shaped by the environment and time period in which they grew up and the ideals and values that were socially acceptable during those times. I think as a whole that America is getting more and more lenient towards areas like homosexuality as society moves forward.

But over the years at many family events and family gatherings, I noticed that even my grandfather seems to be more ok and more accepting of my cousin. I remember at first, it was very awkward when they were in a room together and everyone could feel the tension between them. However, last year I saw them talking and laughing and everything seemed to normal. I later talked to my dad and he said that grandpa seemed to be ok with everything and was starting to open up his mind to the fact. I think most people who oppose homosexuality and are adamant about it only do so because they feel uncomfortable and they are not used to it. Just judging from my own experiences, I saw my grandpa's opinions about my older cousin change over the years as he got more and more comfortable with it and because the subject hit close to home because it was family. Most of the criticism and scorn that is thrown at homosexuals is a lot of the times through the eyes of people in the Catholic church. My grandfather was a devote Catholic and that belief system and ideology molded his opinion about the issue. I'm not saying my grandfather is now completely ok with the fact that is oldest granddaughter is a lesbian but I could definitely see progress as he starts to open his mind to the situation.

Fear is something that affects everyday life. The fear of not meeting a deadline, the fear of missing out, and fears that we don't even think of that prohibit us from doing certain things. I think that the media and news channels spotlight stories that instill fear in society because they are the ones that are most interesting and will make them the most money. A news channel needs viewers and if they were to talk about monotonous things or things that did not have people tuning in constantly to hear the latest tragedies then their business would surely die. Fear of the unknown is something that grips a lot of people in America, whether it be unfamiliar areas or unfamiliar situations. A personal example of this was when one of my aunts moved to a not so nice area nearby her old house and would not let her children ride the bus. I'm sure there was nothing wrong with the bus system or the people on the bus, but she was just not comfortable with the area and the people in the area to let her children ride the bus.
I think that most people are afraid to broaden their horizons and comfort area. Fear of failure sometimes plays a role into people remaining in what they feel comfortable and not venturing out to meet new people and explore what the world has to offer. Constantly being tuned into the negative aspects in the media will eventually cause your train of thought and mindset on the world to be negative as well. If you are consistently hearing about tragedies and the bad things that happen in the world, your mentality and outlook will reflect that.
My mom used to take me to meditation exercises when I was little and I always hated it. We would have to wake up really early and I never really felt like going because it was boring to me and my mom would force me to go. The whole theme of the exercises was about self healing and how the power of positivity and your mental outlook can actually lead to reality. They said that thinking positive and mentally picturing what you want in life can help it to actually come true. I never really believed in all of it and it never really resonated in my mind until college. Going to an unfamiliar place and being in a place that I was not used to lead me to have a lot of negative thoughts and a grim outlook on the world. I started to think about all the things from that seminar and began to slowly think positively. It made me realize that having a positive attitude can open you up to different experiences and lessons that you would not obtain if you were afraid or negative.

I went to a Catholic school from kindergarten until eighth grade and then went to an Episcopalian high school so I have gone through a lot of religion classes and learned about Catholicism. When I was in sixth and seventh grade, we would go to mass every first friday of every month but other than that I did not attend church regularly. I always noticed that all the people that seemed to go to church most often would always linger behind afterwards to talk to the priest. It seemed to me that these people simply wanted to gain a further knowledge for the messages and morals they had heard in the sermon and messages in the mass. I always thought that if someone committed themselves to a faith or religion they would want to gain the most knowledge and want to know as much as they could about it. I always disliked discussing my faith with others, though, no matter who was it. I would always feel uncomfortable even talking to the priest in elementary school about my interpretations of my faith. I guess most people need to further their faith by talking to experts on the subject. I don't think that people think these experts are closer to God, but that they can give them better information or better views on certain aspects of their faith. I think that most people when they do not get what they want from their personal relationship with God, seek an expert's advice to further their faith. Most people assume that high positions in a religion must have a stronger personal relationship with God so they seek their guidance to help their own relationship.

I went to a Catholic school from kindergarten until eighth grade and then went to an Episcopalian high school so I have gone through a lot of religion classes and learned about Catholicism. When I was in sixth and seventh grade, we would go to mass every first friday of every month but other than that I did not attend church regularly. I always noticed that all the people that seemed to go to church most often would always linger behind afterwards to talk to the priest. It seemed to me that these people simply wanted to gain a further knowledge for the messages and morals they had heard in the sermon and messages in the mass. I always thought that if someone committed themselves to a faith or religion they would want to gain the most knowledge and want to know as much as they could about it. I always disliked discussing my faith with others, though, no matter who was it. I would always feel uncomfortable even talking to the priest in elementary school about my interpretations of my faith. I guess most people need to further their faith by talking to experts on the subject. I don't think that people think these experts are closer to God, but that they can give them better information or better views on certain aspects of their faith. I think that most people when they do not get what they want from their personal relationship with God, seek an expert's advice to further their faith. Most people assume that high positions in a religion must have a stronger personal relationship with God so they seek their guidance to help their own relationship.

I never could really pinpoint why I felt so uncomfortable until I got to high school. I began to start thinking that in elementary and middle school, mass was always so structured and all my religious classes were always strict so I felt that I always had to be on best behavior and adhere to the code that was given to me, rather than think freely and interpret what was said in my own way. Instead, I was given meanings and philosophies that everyone told me to believe instead of making up my own moral code. The catholic church imposes beliefs upon people and then goes on to tell them that they will be punished unless they adhere to the exact rules and ethics. I think that religion is all about what you interpret to be moral and correct within certain guidelines. Someone else telling you what is right and wrong for everyone should not be considered your own moral code because it's stemmed from someone else's experience and thought process. I also really enjoyed the guy in the blue shirt dancing in the background of this video.

I went to a very wealthy prep school that was located right outside of the Philadelphia city limits on City Line Ave. Although a majority of the students there were white, there wasn't a substantial difference between the majority and minorities in the school. Security was never issue at our school. We never had dog searches, we never had to go through security to get into school, and we almost never had to worry about anyone attempting to go through our bags or even our lockers. That being said, a lot of kids took advantage of the slack rules and would bring weed almost every day to school. No one ever had a fear of being caught or searched because they could easily just hide it in their locker or gym locker and never think twice about possibly having dogs being called in to search the school. People would also smoke weed all the time around campus and in the parking lot without ever having the slightest fear of getting caught. And if they did, they would simply get in a car and drive off campus to smoke somewhere in the nearby neighborhood. Also, there was almost no check or security involving guests coming into the school. My friends from public school would be able to come for lunch without any problems or check in or anything. Around where I live, which is about a 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia, and in a much higher socio economic area, the public school had the complete opposite security. They were required to check in guests and had to go through security daily through a metal detector and a security check. They had random dog checks all the time and many kids got caught with all kind of drugs in their lockers or in their cars. It seemed weird to me that when the exact same thing was going on at my school and no body was getting busted, I would hear almost every month about different drug arrests at the public school.
My school switched locations once I was a junior and moved an hour outside of Philadelphia, very close to where I live, and almost doubled in size compared to the old campus. Security got a little tighter but not much at all and not to the point where anything changed. In fact, since the campus was so much bigger, people could smoke easier because there was almost no risk of getting caught. Since it was an enormous campus and since 2 eighty year old men who were not in peak physical condition were hired to "patrol" it, kids would get away without almost anything. I think this issue really comes down to a social divide rather than a race issue. I think that even though the same thing happens in both classes, the upper middle class' legal problems tend to be more hidden and in the background.

I grew up in a similar background to the person asking the question. I lived in a very isolated part of the suburban Pennsylvania and it seemed like everyone in my area knew everybody. In fact, my area was considered to have the highest percentage of people living there as adults with families who grew up in the same area. It's a predominately white area but is becoming increasingly more diverse; however, I went to a private school which was almost all white. I did hang out with a bunch of kids who went to the public school and would always go out to parties and stuff with them. They're school was a lot more diverse and I never really found a problem hanging out with black or asian kids. I really do think that having an open mind can overcome experience when it comes to race and accepting people of a different race. Growing up I was always told to treat everyone equally and treat everyone how you would want to be treated. My parents never really discussed race with me as a child because they simply did not think it was a big deal or mattered at all. I think this approach really helped to be open to people of all races and be more comfortable in diverse situations. Although it would seem like I most likely would not have much experience judging from where I come from, I do not feel uncomfortable discussing race or anything like that. I think sometimes that growing up in a community or society where you are surrounded by people exactly like you can lead to a closed mind and closed perscpective of the world at large. I also have two adopted asian cousins who are 4 and 8 years younger than me and I feel that because my family is very open about things of that nature it has lead me to become more aware and more willing to expand my horizons rather than close my mind and stay isolated in my own comfortable community. I do think that experience plays a huge factor in someone's acceptance of racial differences but an open mind helps to further develop comfort with diversity. I think that my generation all shares very similar stories to mine in that our parents taught us to have an open mind and not to judge people based on their skin color or what they look like. As generations are removed from segregation or the race wars that happened in the 1960's, people are becoming more and more open minded to situations concerning race and diversity and it is not only those who grew in mixed communities that are ok with race and diversity now.

During my senior high school, I took one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken, taught by one of my favorite teachers, an ex Marine who was also the wrestling coach at our high school. The class was called Islam Fundamentalism and it's focus was to separate the extreme image most of us have of all Muslims and differentiate between the radical fundamentalists and the more modern form of Islam that most people are continuing to adapt today. Some of the more interesting lessons and classes we had were when our teacher would show us videos of American military personal interacting with the locals of Iraq and Afghanistan. One video he showed, an elderly man who was one of the most respected figures in a small town in Iraq could not smile and mouthing the Arabic word for "thank you" every time the marines would speak would to him.

I think the most important thing that this class taught me was not to generalize or have preconceived notions about something I am unfamiliar with based on the interpretations or even opinions presented to me by the media or by peers. Actually seeing first hand footage and listening to first hand accounts of a man who served in Iraq, I can now see the difference between the "terrorists" the media portrays and the people who suffer from unfair criticisms and racial profiling solely because of a negative image that has been imbedded into much of the American population's minds.

Another very interesting part of this class was the explanation of many of the radical's beliefs and justification for their actions, which completely baffled me. Many radical Muslim's principles and beliefs are backed by philosophies coined before the 12th century and have not changed too drastically throughout its history. I think that simply understanding the other side of the argument and conflict would do wonders for people still uncertain about the war or about the entire Middle Eastern conflict. Knowing the history and past of a certain type of people that you may not not a lot about or even misunderstand can help greatly to rationalize actions and their train of thought, rather than be simple minded and blindly poke at reasons for this animosity through our own jaded point of view. Educating yourself on another perspective or side of story can help people to greater empathize with the misguided racism and hatred many Muslims have to endure based on a small populace of their ethnicity.

Jeremy Lin has become such a special and unique basketball superstar in recent weeks because of the glorification of his Asian ancestry. It is no shock to those who follow sports that "pure" Asian athletes are hard to come by in basketball, let alone any of the four major sports in America. On top of that, Asian male athletes that are superstars in their respected sport is even rarer. In basketball, the only other prominent athletes of Asian descent are usually immigrants from China or Japan and would not be considered of Asian American nationality.
Asian American sports fan who see the recent craze of Linsanity arise in the NBA and who share the same ethnicity or background immediately become interested in his story. And with the New York metropolitan area containing the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, it's no wonder that many Asian American New Yorkers have become intrigued with the Knicks and his story. However, his rise to fame and stardom in the media especially the social media, which I consider ESPN now falls under, has been overcast by this obvious attraction to his race and rarity in his sports, rather than the fact that he is a gifted and special athlete. Scouts and analysts have said that he is one of the smartest basketball players out there, which can be attributed to his Harvard education. Lin has proven his work ethic by graduating with a degree in economics and a 3.1 GPA at one of the most demanding universities in the United States as well as an all league player as a basketball player. These other factors and attributes were most likely often overlooked in his scouting and now that he has a chance to prove himself as a basketball player, race should not play a role, positively or negatively, on the judgement of his games or rating of his performances. But since the population is raving over Lin and a growing market for Lin has emerged in New York, the media portrays this image of Lin to gather viewers and create a hysteria, much the hysteria of Tim Tebow. But because he is a such a rare case in that his race is rarely ever seen as a "poster boy" for an NBA team especially one in New York City, the media sets this as the story to gain viewers and to create the hype which in the end only overshadows the hard work and resilience Jeremy Lin has put into game and life. But in the end, it's such an obvious thing that he is in fact an Asian American male leading a professional sports team in the largest city in America, that if the media did not report it, it would probably be considered irrelevant or uninteresting.

In class, Sam brought up the point that white people who have power will most likely always be biased towards benefitting his/her own race rather than another race. However, he went on to explain that this is just the nature of human beings, and that if another race had been in the position of white people, we would still have the same problems. America has been described as a melting pot because of our diverse culture base and variety of ethnicities and race that populate our society. But it is not really like that in the real world because typically, races tend to band together and stay separate from other races in society, rather than mix together. For example, in many big cities, there are boroughs in which a community of people of the same background live and almost isolate themselves from the larger community, like Asian Town or Little Italy. So in my opinion, it is not only white people that separate themselves from other races but is more of a common reoccurrence in society. I do agree that it could be a little more noticeable with white people because, as a white male, I am used to being the majority in most situations. Races that make up minority typically grow up in very diverse communities and are accustomed to openly talking about race and diversity. But as different races percentages climb in the population and the white majority margin is growing smaller, white people now find themselves in many situations with a diverse race base, which is some might not feel entirely comfortable with yet. For instance, the white female who was forced to choose with of three asian males she thought was most handsome, could not decide because she did not know what to look for and did not interact with asians too much in her life.

In our smaller discussion group, a black female brought up the point that in a social situation, white males usually do not make an effort to go up and talk to her because she was black. She said that it seems that white guys are often intimidated by her and won't want to go up and talk to her. Many people in the class agreed that they do not see a problem in going up and talking to someone of another race and gender, and did not see a problem in interracial dating. Another male from the Dominican said that he felt white males typically get all the attention and males of other race typically get blown off by almost all girls. I have never really thought about it from another point of view and this opinion really made me think and will make me more aware in the future.

America has always been and will always be a very diverse nation with many nationalities and languages making up the foundation of our society. That being said, America was founded by English speaking people and English has been the dominant language in the country since its birth. It would be a ridiculous idea for American citizens to be forced to adopt a new language because of an influx of Spanish speaking people in our country. They are choosing to leave their country and come to America for a reason. Usually, it is not a very difficult decision to make as many immigrants face difficulties in their homeland that forces them to leave and try to start anew in a better place. Since our nation is offering them this better chance, shouldn't they be the ones to feel responsible to learn our language in order to help them succeed more efficiently. Being fluent in the primary language of a nation creates a much greater opportunity for that person to be successful in not only getting by but having conversations and building relationships. However, there is no way of fighting the mass amount of Spanish speaking people currently living in this country that do not know how to speak English.

In middle school and throughout high school, I was forced to take a language every semester. Many school systems have this requirement in place, but if even more follow their lead then most of the youth in the nation will have some form of the Spanish language in place that will hopefully stick with them. I only reached the Spanish 4 level but I am an average English speaking student and can understand most basic Spanish words and phrases. I feel that having just that little bit of information will help with the language barrier greatly. But this very minute responsibility should not be placed solely on the shoulder of English speaking people in America.

If both sides of the argument wish to reach a middle ground in the language debate, there needs to be compensation from both parties. Just because there has been influx of Spanish speaking immigrants into this country does not mean the responsibility falls solely on the Americans because we have a majority of the power in the scenario. Since many immigrants make up the base of our work force and economy we should feel at least some kind of responsibility to accommodate to their culture and make them feel at home to an extent in their new country. However, if they are willing to leave their homelands and move to our country, they should also feel obligated to learn the bare minimum of our native language in order to get by and be successful, which is what they came here in the first place for.