I think today the stereotypical image that comes to mind when one thinks of an immigrant, is an illegal from Mexico. No one really thinks about the rich man coming from Europe, or the doctor coming from Indian. This image of the typical immigrant being poor and needing our country for support is why immigrants are viewed so negatively.
The other day in class someone brought up the Hazelton immigration issue. I am from a small town about twenty minutes from the city, so I remember watching a lot of the news coverage and debate in high school. The area did have a problem with such a large number of illegal immigrants entering the city, but I don’t believe that the city went about it the right way. The mayor Lou Barletta created the Immigration Relief Act. They started to fine all sorts of companies who employed the workers and apartments who rented to them, but offered no solution to the now out of work and homeless people still in the city. I remember my friends complaining of their high school becoming over crowded, but they never even addressed that problem. The thing the Mayor Lou Barletta and the city implemented that got the most support was changing the official language of the city to English. This meant that no official city documents could be translated to any other language. He was later sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and the whole Act was ruled unconstitutional.
I do have an understanding of why so many people supported making English the official language of the city. It is frustrating when you go somewhere and can’t understand what the person is saying because they are speaking broken English. I think another part of it, especially for older people, is when my grandparents moved here they felt the need to assimilate as much as possible. They struggled as soon as they got here to learn to speak English as fast as possible. I know they have kept many ethnic traditions, but they truly believe in order to be successful in America, they had to speak English. They expect people coming here now to do the same.
I also believe some people feel threatened by immigrants coming in. In my town in recent years people from India have come in and bought many of the chained business. They are owned and run by large Indian families. I know it has been intimidating to residents whose families have lived in our small town for generations that someone knew is coming in and buying everything. I remember my senior year there was a lot of controversy because a family bought both the Dunkin Donuts and Subway in my town and fired all the high students who worked there and replaced them with family members. This change did not last long though because the new employees did not speak English well and costumers, including myself, were not happy with it taking them twenty minutes to get a sub or coffee.
Stereotypes have been formed about modern day immigrants that have caused them to be viewed negatively. I think people need start looking at immigrants as new attributes to our country.

This article really made me think about how society has taken something we were all born with, sex, and conceptualized it so much into gender. Although the man in the article was born of the female sex, it seems like his gender is male. What then is more important, what one is, or what one appears to be?
When I began reading the article, I first wondered how Mr. Devoureau’s boss figured out he was born a female. If he is taking male hormones I doubt he looks very feminine. I then thought what is the harm then with letting him work there? Are the men taking the urine tests really going to know that the person watching them was really born a female? And if Mr. Devoureau got a sex change, isn’t he just as male as everyone else in the bathroom?
I understand that there are some people that might feel deceived if they were to find out Mr. Devoureau was transgendered, but if he went as far as to change everything in his life including his birth certificate, isn’t he really a male now? I feel like I would feel comfortable with him being there if I was a man.
All week I’ve been thinking about what really is the definition of a man and a woman. I watched “The Crying Game” in another sociology class, and in the movie a man falls in love with a woman, who turns out actually to be a man. I completely fell for the plot line and had no idea the women Dill was actually a man until they revealed it in the film. She worked at a hair salon, wore pretty dresses, painted her nails, and had many other feminine qualities. The man who fell in love with Dill was sickened at first by the revelation, but then confused. If she is everything he wanted in a companion and women, should he not still love her because she has a penis?
Defining a man and a woman is tough. Sexually it’s just you have a penis or a vagina, but socially it’s so much more. We are taught at an early age there are clear differences between. Girls wear dresses, are sensitive, take care of the children. Guys are tough, have short hair, go to work. Children know this by age three and four. If Mr. Devoureau is socially fulfilling the role of a man, why should he not be considered one?
With a quickly changing world, that is becoming slightly more accepting of transgendered and homosexual people, as a society we really must start creating new norms and deciding on it is sex or gender that matter most in situations like this. My opinion in Mr. Devoureau’s case is if he walks like a male, talks like a make, looks like a male, he’s a male and deserves his job back.

While all of the videos sent very powerful messages, I was actually most impacted by the picture of the family that was shown. Before he put up the picture of the typical Middle Eastern family, I really don’t believe I was truly putting myself in their shoes. Our cultures just seemed too different, but when Sam displayed the picture of the family, I realized that family could be my family.
Before this class, when I thought of Middle Eastern, I thought of people trapped in war torn countries suffering every day. Seeing that family though made me realize that is not the situation for everyone there. Many people live lives very similar to my own. They are probably not happy with their government at all times, like we are as Americans, but are just working to do the best for their families and get by. The media however likes to show us extremes. It’s important to realize that not everyone in Iraq is a Muslim extremist. Understanding this also helped me to understand their misconceptions.
Prior to the class, I had never thought of the war in the Middle East as being about religion at all. I knew the government was not being completely truthful with us, and this was likely a war over power and oil and not weapons of mass destruction. I never however considered it to be a Christian crusade. I still do not really consider it to be a war to spread Christianity. I knew one of the videos had a clip of George Bush calling the war a crusade, but I wonder if he realized what is meant by that word.
While I do not think that the government’s intention is to spread Christianity to the Middle East, I can understand now why people living there would think so. In the same way that the American media paints all Middle Easterners as Muslim extremists, there are many videos that paint Americans as Christian extremists. If I lived in the Middle East and watched the videos we watched in class I would certainly be apt to believe that most Americans are crazy Christians, especially with the video of the church that encourages bringing guns and brainwashing children. I also think it’s important for both sides to also realize that the stress of war might make soldiers more religious than they would normally be. When you life is on the line, you are probably going to do a bit more praying and be a bit closer to whatever god you believe in.
I think both people in American and the Middle East really needs to question the video clips and stories they are reading about the other side. Every group of people has a few crazy ones that go against the general norms of society, and it is important not to judge one another based on these outliers.

I think the information on my own sex was more enlightening. I am a female and after spending the last twenty years of my life around males, I have learned that they really like sex and are pretty much always ready to go. Women on the other hand are much more complicated.
I really connected to what Laurie said about women around my age thinking they can go out and date and have sex like men when they can’t. Last year after dating jerks, a friend and I decided we no longer wanted to attach ourselves to guys; we wanted to date like guys do. Run around indiscriminately and break hearts. Needless to say it didn’t work and ended with us crying over different boys. I also believed Laurie was right when she said that females use alcohol to feel more comfortable with sexual advances. The other weekend friends of mine had a “no pants party”. In order to get into their house, you had to take off your pants at the door. Before going to the party I drank more than I normally would have or should have in order to feel comfortable there. After the lecture it really made me think did I really want to go to a party and remove my pants or was it me thinking this is what a twenty year old girl in college should do?
I also found the part where Laurie and Sam were explaining how guys and girls are at different levels of arousal when together. I experienced this the other weekend when I was dancing with one of my guy friends. We were dancing and having a good time and I left him for a little to go talk to some of my other friends. When I was talking to them, one of my male friends said so someone’s “getting it” tonight. I said absolutely not, and asked him why he would think that. He explained to me the way I was dancing and the dress I was wearing clearly made it seem like I was looking for action. I tried explaining that every girl there was wearing a short dress and dancing with guys. We weren’t all looking for sex. We just wanted to have a good time.
Thinking of these past experiences and the lecture really made me realize that we do live in a man’s world even when it comes to something men and women do together like sex. I do dress to look sexy, I do drink to feel comfortable, and I do feel pressure sometimes to hook up with guys. It’s strange to think about if I really want to do these things though, or how much of it comes from societal pressure. I will definitely take this lecture into consideration in the future.

I feel like would I ever date a black guy is a hard question for me to answers. I don’t think I’ve ever been attracted to a black guy the way I have white guys in the past. I like to think of it as not being attracted to a guy that is shorter than me. I mean when I think of guys I am attracted to, they are at least taller than me, but that is not to say that if I happened to fall in love with a short or black guy those features would stop me.
I am not sure if part of the reason I have never had feelings towards a black guy is because I come from a small town, where only I think three black guys graduated in my class, and I have not had that much interaction with black men. Here at Penn State I have slightly more interaction, but I’ve never got to know a black guy on a level where I would want to date them.
When thinking about how others would react, I don’t feel pressure from my immediate family to date a white guy. I feel like if I brought home a black guy, they would be surprised but accept it. In high school one of my closest friends was a black gay guy, so I feel as though that gave me some insight on how accepting my parents are. I feel as though my extended family would feel differently though. My cousin dated a black guy in high school and her parents were very disapproving. I don’t think I would let that bother me though because they tend to be ignorant on a lot of things and my parents have always taught me to ignore their opinions when they are ridiculous.
One thing that would worry me though is how my friends from home would react. Many of my friends here at Penn State are from bigger cities than I am from. They have grown up in more diverse backgrounds than I have, so I do not think it would bother them if I was dating a black guy. Also we have talked about the possibility of us dating black guys before and everyone’s general consensus would be whoever makes you happy. I feel like it would be different with my friends from back home though. I know my very best friend in the world would always be happy for me and open to anyone I brought home, but I feel as though the rest of my close friends would feel differently. I knew a few of the girls I am friends with are uncomfortable around black guys because we did grow up very sheltered. The guys would probably have a hard time with it too, but it would harder to tell if it was over race because thus far they have hated every guy I have dated for no good reason. I don’t think this would necessary be enough to deter me from having a relationship with a black guy though. I honestly think the only way I’m ever going to know if all this is true if I happen to fall for a black guy. I’ll just have to see what the future holds.

I do not believe I have ever felt guilty for being born white. I believe guilty is too strong of a word. When I think of feeling guilty for having done something, I think about times when I have been personally responsible for something happening. No action of mine made me white and someone else black, so why should I feel guilty for it?
The other day my discussion talked about weather white people should feel guilty for being born white and I feel like the group came to a general consensus; we all feel bad for what has happened in the past, but we do not feel guilty because we are not personally responsible for it. What we are responsible for is making sure the past doesn’t repeat itself. Making sure we learn from these mistakes. We should feel guilty when we hear a racist comment and do nothing about it, but I do not believe we should feel guilty for the racist actions taken by those in the class. The colored individuals in the class agreed that we should not feel guilty, but they do appreciate sympathy when people step out of their comfort zone and acknowledge past wrong doings.
We also went on to talk about if we feel guilty for being Americans. I was born into a nice middle class family and have lead a pretty happy life. I know others have not been so fortunate. There are millions of starving children in other countries and are born into poverty. Millions others have been devastated by recent Tsunamis and other natural disasters. I feel so bad for these people, but I don’t know if what I’m feeling is guilt. I think its sympathy. I feel so bad for these people. The times I feel the worst are when I’m complaining about something stupid, like a bad grade on a test or a dumb boy, when there are millions of people with real problems in the world. I shouldn’t be complaining about such small things.
When I think about all these things and how lucky I am to have the life I have, I do feel guilty. But it’s not because I was born white or an American living the life I’m living. It is because I feel like I should be doing more to help these people. I feel as though I must have been given all that I have and all the opportunities I have for a reason and I feel this reason is to help others less fortunate than myself. I have volunteered and done things for others in the past, but I always feel like I could and should be doing more. This is the guilt that I feel.

The use of the r-word in society is defiantly something that needs to be addressed. When I first saw the topic of the r word, I could not even thing of what it was. I believe its something many of don’t think of as being offensive. Growing up my family used the r-word a lot. When my brother or I did something stupid, our dad would call us retarded. My brother and I then began to use it on one another. My friends also came from families that freely used the words, so it never seemed to be an issue.
I do remember the first time when I realized the r-word was offensive. I was outside in my yard and my brother did something I thought was stupid and I called him it. My neighbor overheard the comment and then yelled at me for using it, asking me if I realized how offensive it was. Being really embarrassed I apologized and quickly said I wouldn’t use it again and hid from him. It was later in the day when I was alone thinking that I realized the levity of the word. That it’s just not another word to use instead of stupid. That it is a slur used for people who suffer from mental defects.
Watching the CNN video and seeing how politicians have been using the word recently absolutely shocked me. My household tends to be much less politically correct then what politicians say to the general public. Politicians pay a lot of money to have people monitor what they say and make sure they don't offend anyone. That is why it was so surprising to me that they would all so freely use the r-word. Although politicians are certainly not role models for society, I do believe they have a responsibility to maintain political correctness, because much of what they say is covered by the media. What is used in the media does have an effect on the word choices and what is deemed appreciate by the general public.
I believe that the Special Olympics are taking important steps in spreading awareness in the r-word. I truly believe it is something that people need to be told is wrong because they do not realize the offensiveness of the word when they use it. Once people do realize how much others are being hurt when they use the word, hopefully the use if of it will go down considerably.

Today in class, one girl said that it did not matter that Tammy was white, you have to feel bad for her. People corrected her saying that, no one does not have to feel bad for her, and they were correct in saying so. I, however, don’t think that was the point the girl was trying to make. I believe her point was that when it comes to feeling bad or sympathizing with someone, race doesn’t always matter. Those of us, who are truly sympathetic towards others, feel bad for people, white, black, or other.
When I think about poor people, the race I think of depends on the area I think of. When I think of poor people in a city, I think black, when I think of poor people in a rural area, I think white. When I think of homeless people I think of these two men I met once in New York City, one black and one white. I think I am more apt than most people to think of white rural poor because I grew up in a rural area and there were parts of the area than were very poor. I do not think this is the situation for many others because most people do not come from areas like I do and the media outlets that report situations of poverty are mostly based in urban areas.
I am white and I do not believe that I am any harsher on white people who are poor than black people who are poor. The amount of sympathy and help I give to a poor person is circumstantial. Some people were born into much better circumstances than others. If a person has been given many opportunities to do well in life and has not done anything with them, I do not feel bad for them. If a person has been given nothing in life and has worked their hardest to get by, I have a lot more sympathy and respect for that person. I think it said a lot about Tammy that she walked ten miles to work each day because she wanted to be able to support herself and not live off government assistance.
With all that being said, I would help anyone who was trying to help themselves. It does not matter to me if the person is black, white, brown, or something else, if that person is putting in an effort to better themselves and I am in a situation to help them, I am going to do so. I feel like poverty is one area where we really need to put race aside. If someone needs help they need help. Everyone in society should be there to lend a hand.

I believe that further education opens people’s eyes to networking and nepotism and that is why with more education people are less likely to believe success is a result of hard work. Most people who go onto college or any other form of higher education work hard in school to be successful. Unfortunately I believe we live in a society where it is not what you do that helps you succeed, but who you know. The industries that those with higher education go into are more based on networking. When graduation dates come it may not always be those in the top of the class getting jobs first, but those who know someone within the company.
I believe that high education opens some people’s eyes to the elitist networks that exist in our society. Last semester I had a social theory class and in the class we looked at the richest of the rich in the United States and how they all sent their children to the same schools, were members of the same country clubs and vacation together in the same areas. This giant group of the rich, powerful, and successful, barring a few exceptions, cannot be broken into with hard work.
While determinism and networking play a big part for those with higher education, I don’t believe it plays as big of a part for those who enter industries that are not based on higher education. I believe these industries are based on hard work. My dad works in the construction and infrastructure industry and is currently a superintendent. He never attended any form of high education and worked his way up to the position he has now, by working hard, giving his all to his job, and being good at what he does. Although he was able to become very successful by working hard in this industry, it would not have worked had he wanted to become a doctor or a politician.
I also believe that the United States is becoming more and more of an elitist democracy as the gap between the rich and poor becomes bigger. By having an elite group at the top of society, it puts a cap on how far one can get by working hard. Those with higher education are closer to reaching the upper ranks of society and see this deterministic restraint being put on them. The American dream of working hard and being successful is becoming more and more impossible. My dad ensured that I went to college because it is impossible to have a job like his in current society without further education. I believe we have to be careful of society becoming so segmented, so there can still be a balance between free will and determinism.

I understand and believe that me being at Penn State is a product of both free will and determinism, but when thinking about what got me here, the choices I made definitely stick out more. In high school I always pushed myself to work hard. My parents knew that I was very driven in school, so they never felt a need to watch over what I did. Neither one of them attended college so although there was a want for me to be the first in my family to go, there was never a push. My younger brother is a senior in high school right now and my parents know he does not particularly like school, so they are encouraging with his choice to join the army instead.
I however made the choice that I was going to try my hardest during high school and go to a good college. My dad is what motivated me to do this. He has a very successful job, but has worked hard for years to get it. He grew up rather poor so working was the more convenient than college. He now makes more than most of the college graduates in our town, but it’s by busting his ass and commuting two hours to work every day. He worked hard to get our family where we are, and I was going to do my best too. I worked hard enough to graduate first in my class and get accepted to Penn State. When I think about being her now I think about how hard I worked, how much I studied, and how much I will continue to do so. There were, however, some determining factors involved as well.
The community I lived in allowed me to go to a decent public school and get a good education. Over ninety percent of students at my school graduate and our standardized testing scores are very high. Although this socioeconomic situation has helped me get to Penn State, it has also restricted me from going further. Penn State was not my first choice in colleges. During my senior year I applied to 13 schools and got accepted to 11 of them. When narrowing down where I wanted to go, many of the places I wished to attend were too expensive for me to go. My parents have agreed to pay my undergraduate tuition but only to a certain extent, if I was to go to one of the one of the private schools, I would have to pay half my tuition. Because I want to attend law school some day, I was scared to put myself in that much debt, so I came here to Penn State.
While then it seem determined that I come to Penn State, I like to now subconsciously think I picked it. I love it here and do not think I would be as happy at any of the other schools I wanted to go. A balance of determinism and free will has gotten me here and will continue to take me places.