I think it definitely depend on what type of business I would be running if I had to decide between illegal immigrants and legal residents. Because like Sam said, I do agree that really all illegal immigrants that risk it all coming over here have a strong drive to work much harder than most if not all Americans have, in a lot of instances, the illegal immigrants really need the money more than most Americans do, but like I said, hiring them would depend on the kind of business I was running.
For example, a business based primarily off of cash purchases that I would try to hide from the government such as a painting business, home improvement business or landscaping business. Illegal immigrants would work cheap, not that I would deprive them of payment that they most certainly earned, but they wouldn’t require nearly as much as a legal American would want, or need to be paid for that matter. Paying illegal immigrants would be able to be done in cash only so I wouldn’t have to take taxes out of their salary, and most of my payments, and illegal immigrants would work much better than white people outside, it wouldn’t matter what the conditions were the illegal immigrants would always be sure to get the entire job done in a quality way because lets face it white people are lazy. I’ve had white people paint my house before, it takes them five times as long as the Mexicans take to paint an entire house, they cut corners, so usually the job has to be done twice, they demand you pay them much more than they deserve, even after the shit job they’ve done, and they just plain suck. Also, Immigrants need the money much more than most white people do, and since its easier for white people to get a job other places than it is a minorities, it is only fair that I give these sort of opportunities to the Mexicans. Everybody wins.
A business where I would reluctantly hire legal citizens (white People) over illegal immigrants would be a restaurant, a store, or something of that nature. First of all because its much more of a hassle to hide these paychecks from the government and that could be a problem, and two because illegal immigrants are probably to overqualified for these jobs compared to the lazy white people that I would give them to. I wouldn’t hire illegal immigrants for these jobs also because Id rather them go somewhere where they can pay them better for their work and they would be busy all day such as another landscaping business or something. Mexicans would run out of duties to do in a restaurant in about one hour as opposed to the white person who would take one hour to wash a pile of dishes.

I would first like to start of by saying that anyone that says they would turn down an offer due to nepotism is full of crap. I would love to meet someone (especially in this economy) that would have the balls to turn down an offer for a job just because someone was doing them a favor. Alot of people are saying bad things about nepotism and how it may not be fair. But people aren’t looking at this from both sides of the fence. What about an unemployed single mother with 3 kids that gets a job from her best friends brother, or a convicted felon with a family that cant find a job because of a criminal record. Its because of some situtions like these that I don’t necessarily believe that nepotism is a bad thing. Id like to use my dad for example, owning his own company, he has the power to create, or destroy jobs. However, he is very fair when it comes to hiring and paychecks. A couple years ago, his brother and sister were unemployed for quite sometime. As it turned out, he was shorthanded at his company at the same time. Now instead of hiring someone that had an extensive background in his industry, which he easily could have, he gave them a job. Clearly if they weren’t related to him it wouldn’t have been so easy to get a job working for him, but nepotism gave them a shot. So now two previously unemployed people had money to support their families and when is that a bad thing?
However like almost anyone who works for family, they seemed to believe that they could slack off and get away with it. So they started showing up late for work, being lazy in the office, and other stuff like that until he fired them both. And this is why I don’t think nepotism is completely unfair. People can help you get opportunities, but you still have to work hard to benefit from them or you will be replaced, its that simple.
I will be reaping the benefits of nepotism this summer working for him, but he made it perfectly clear, that if I don’t work up to the same level as all of his other employees, I will be fired. Im sure there are tons more people qualified than me even to take over my dads company when he does not want to run it anymore, but my dad does not plan on giving anyone that opportunity. It is my father’s company, therefore he can do whatever the hell he wants with it, just as it should be for anyone.

I think Sam was completely right when he said that this was going to be the best lecture of the year. Just by the energy he had when he was presenting it made this one hundred times better than most every other lecture. It really shows that this is a topic that Sam was very passionate about and I think he is right to assume that it’s something worth making us all aware of. I personally really didn’t know that the biggest reason we were over in Iraq in the first place was because of oil. Well I wasn’t really surprised when I found out, but I didn’t know that it was such a huge part of why we were at war with them, and the way Sam presented the facts really shows that were completely out of line to be over there in the first place. Aside from Sam’s enthusiasm in delivering the lecture, is the way that he tried to put us all in the mindset of Muslims living in Iraq. Even in the beginning when he told us to imagine that scenario about china coming to America and basically doing to us what we are doing to Iraq. For me at least, it helped a lot in understanding what the Muslims are going through and the hardships that we are putting them through.
Another thing that made this lecture very effective was Sam’s use of facts to back up everything he was saying. They were very powerful facts, and for once someone gave the whole truth about what was going on in Iraq. This Lecture changed my view on a lot of things, I used to think the US had a justifiable reason for being at war, but now I think what were doing is dumb. I was shocked at his evidence about the violent Christians. I’m Christian myself and I’ve never seen the side of Christians that Sam showed us, but I do believe that its there. It really reinforces my view that a lot of religion is a scam to get money out of people and force unwanted beliefs on others. Not all of it is this way, but obviously some extremists are there.
One fault I saw with this lecture is that Sam didn’t touch on the fact that all of the Middle East is in shambles, only the places we are in are. He also didn’t talk about the groups of Christians that really do mean well for everyone. And try to help people. So, in a way this was sort of a one sided viewpoint lecture, but then again sam was over exaggerating in order to get his point across. All in all, I definitely think this was his best lecture to date.

I have a lot of problems with the way people perceive the unequality of wealth in America, but in a way I do see where some people are coming from. Of course I agree with Sam on the fact that a lot of people cheat the system whether it be by scamming people, stealing from people or other unfair practices in the corporate world. However, I also think that a lot of people feel that everyone that’s successful, unfairly aquired their status and cheated their way to the top. I also believe that people like minorities which Sam showed us have a much harder time of getting ahead have a chance to get ahead. Although it is small, it is there, but unfortunately they have to work ten times harder than everyone else to get the same position as someone who is not a minority.
Id like to use my dad as an example. He is 100% Hispanic from Colombia and he moved here when he was 8 years old. He did not speak a word of English nor did anyone else in his family. However, despite these obstacles, in high school he started working for some smaller companies working his way up the corporate ladder while supporting himself since his mom and dad had very low paying jobs. , When he got out of high school he did not go to college, rather he kept working until a few years later he opened his own company. Today he runs 5 companies, 3 of them being multi million dollar companies all by himself. This is why my outlook on inequality isn’t really as strong as some others may be, except I still have a good idea on how it can be a negative effect. One of my unless lived in America all his life, except he is African American. He struggles to find work and support his family, and you cant help but say that it is because he is black because it is. Hes a very skilled electrician, but he constantly misses out on job opportunies because a white man may apply for the same job as him.
So, my outlook on inequality is different than others based on my own experiences. I know it exists, and im very aware of how it effects different people, but I have a strong feeling that it can be overcome with an extremely large amount of very hard work. Its very unfortunate that it exists, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like this problem is going away anytime soon so we have no choice but to deal with it.

. Barack has already began doing great things with his presidency trying to help the struggle with inequality and hopefully it continues. Barack also serves as a great role model for many young colored kids who want to go somewhere in life and better themselves. Being that barack came from an underprivileged family, endured many problems with drugs as he was growing up, and still came out as such a successful person gives people living in situations simialer to his a great sense of hope. Sure many of them accept that they are not going to be as great as him, but just them knowing theres a chance of getting out of their low quality of life is very possible.

The election of barack obama definitely has had a great effect on the race movement. Whether hes black muslim or anything else I cant remember, but finally having a president of a different race definitely helps with the movement towards equality. Firstly, a president of a different race, obama, really helps break the ice when it comes to bringing up racial issues in government. Its much easier for someone of a minority race to talk about racial issues, than someone of white race. Given there are some black representatives in government like congress and the house of representatives, barack obama holds the highest position in government therefore opening the floor for racial issues to be discussed. Having a black president also helps because we have someone in office who knows what its like to be the victim of racism for many years. Since Barack was a minority growing up, he has been through the civil rights movement and has seen the struggles the black men and women and other colored people have had to endure throughout the years. Barack now has the power to make a change to that. Its one thing bringing up race issues, but since Barack is in the highest office, he obviously has a lot of pull in government. So upon proposing new plans towards the advancement of equality, he also has a lot of oversight in seeing that his ideas, and other ideas for that matter are carried out.
Really I am shocked that we accepted a colored president so quickly. We basically just got out of the civil rights movement, all of our past presidents have been extremely white, and we have made barely any advancement towards equality in prior years. And for barack obama to come out on top in the election, over a woman for that matter shocks me. I don’t think that we would have elected barack if he was of any other race such as asian, Indian or even jewish. I think that his election really shows how far our society has come.

I was really shocked at the numbers of diversity sam showed us in class. When Im walking around campus I feel like there are plenty more racial groups walking around than the statistics said. I was especially shocked that Asians only accounting for 4.6% of the population because sometimes I feel like there are more of them everywhere than there are white people. It was also pretty interesting that native Americans only make up .1 percent of the school, which amounts to only about 230 students across the whole campus. That being said, I think penn state is doing a pretty good job of trying to diversify the school. I mean maybe it doesn’t look that way on paper with over 70% of the universities population still being identified as white, but there definitely is a good amount of diversity around campus. I was pretty surprised when we counted the amount of colored people in the penn state advertisement, I thought there was going to be much more colored than white people like the Penn state commercial. Sometimes it almost looks like the school is trying too hard to diversify the school with their advertising. They don’t portray the school as it actually is in terms of ratios of ethnic group.
The diversity issue did affect my decision to come here. I also think diversity does play a big part in a lot of people’s decisions of where they decide to go to school. Its easy to say that diversity had no bearing on your decision if you’re a white person going to a predominantly white school, you may tell people that your decision had nothing to do with diversity, but what if you were accepted to a school that was predominantly black, would you be saying the same thing? Odds are most white people would have a problem going to a predominantly black school, and choosing to go to a different school over that school means that ultimately race does have a pretty big bearing on your decision.
I personally don’t care much whether there is diversity or not, I think people exaggerate the need for it. Sure theres some benefits to it like learning about new cultures other than your own, but what really is another positive to diversity? If people want to be considered the same, and don’t want to be classified based on their racial group, then I think It would make much more sense to not really ignore diversity, but just turn a little attention away from it and treat people equally like we have been trying to do for so many years.

Personally,I think the r-word is much more offensive than any racial slur. The r-word is in some cases used in a different context to mean slow down, or something similar to that, but most people mean to use it as on offensive word without even knowing it. People use the word while they are associating with friends, referring to themselves or something they don’t like. It usually does not cross the persons mind that they are in a sense mocking a group of people born with a serious birth defect that 1 they cant help, and 2 gives them a hard time to go about everyday life. I definitely agree with the man in the video saying we need a new word. There are plenty of words in the English language that are perfectly fine to say without offending anybody so I don’t see what would be so hard about picking one of them. I have always been conscious about using the r word, i cant remember the last time I might have said it, but when I use it I know that I wouldn’t say it in public, and any time I say it is purely a mistake. I feel a great deal of pity for people with disabilities, and I have a great deal of respect for them as well for being able to live so well in this day and age. Although many of us look down on them and don’t see them as capable human beings, they continue to prove people wrong by holding jobs, starting families, and leading relatively normal lives. Granted some of them are just to mentally ill to be able to function normally without a great deal of help, but the ones that aren’t really do a great job without it.
One experience that Ive had with this word is particularly disturbing to me, one of my good friends from home’s brother has autism. Even though he has this detrimental disease, she still uses phrases like, “you’re a retard”, or “that’s retarded”, and I think that’s extremely disrespectful to her brother, and her family but yet she continues to use the word like its meaning is harmless. That just shows what its overuse has done to the meaning. It is so overlooked and used so commonly in our society that some people are completely blind to its meaning, so it may be even to late to stop it. Its worth a shot however. I think having some mentally retarded people speak to others and share how they feel when they hear the word misused would be very effective in educating people of its hidden meaning, and overtime it might ultimately lead to the end of its usage.

rmative action are a set of rules that ensure there is diversity in places such as schools and workplaces to ensure that those in charge of hiring people or letting people into schools don’t let any prejudices they have interfere with how they judge people. Before these lectures from Sam about how people really are unequal in society, I had a preconceived belief that affirmative action was unfair. With all the talk about how were all “equal” nowadays, someone what’s someone to think if they don’t know the facts? It may appear that the minorities are getting special treatment from affirmative action but this is clearly still not the case. I think affirmative action is necessary, however I don’t believe that its going to be the answer to all of our problems when it comes to inequality. There is not much anyone can do to make sure that inequality is being handled properly, except to forcibly enact regulations such as this. I believe that this is the only effective way to see that this is carried out.
Affirmative action does help, but it only puts a small dent in treating minorities equal. Even with programs like affirmative action out there, Its still harder for minorities to to things like getting a job, getting a loan, and although we see it less with them getting into certain schools, there are still some cases where their different race will play a factor in whether they are enrolled or not. Affirmative action is especially helpful in places considered to be sort of “ghetto.” Behind all of the crime and violence there are sure to be a few people working hard in there sub par school to get into a good college, get a good job and eventually be able to move out of town. Since the schools are considered to be less effective colleges may look at a good GPA in that school as a poor one in another and therefore that student may have a tougher time getting in. Affirmative action increases the chances for these students and really levels out the playing field in a lot of aspects, so affirmative action is definitely a good thing to have around.
I also think ive had an experience with affirmative action. Im half Hispanic, pretty upper class, and I went to a pretty accredited high school. I had a high GPA and my SAT scores were just alright. Despite this I decided to just apply to some IVY League schools for the hell of it maybe see if id get in. I ended up getting into Dartmouth and cornell. I didn’t really have any interest in attending any of these schools, but some of my friends with either equal credentials or better got denied from both of these schools. So in this aspect, I think its even a little unfair that I qualified for these two schools just because of my Hispanic background and others got denied because they were white.

I think the arrests of different races have more to do with more police in urban places, but this is due to more crime in urban areas. Of course there are going to be some cops that are going to be racist and will try to single out a certain race such as blacks for instance, the police call this profiling and in a dangerous urban area I think its absolutely necessary. I don’t think its anyone’s fault that more people of different races are getting arrested other than those people themselves. Harlem NJ for instance is an area heavily populated with black people, and also has a high crime rate/drug rate, so cops obviously have to be very observant of their surroundings. If someone looks even remotely suspicious its most likely that the person is going to be approached by the cops. Its simple, if the person isn’t doing anything wrong they wont get arrested. Races want to stop being singled out? Stop doing drugs stop stealing shit and stop killing people. There are less white people getting arrested because they live in much more low profile areas with less crime, therefore unless they really screw up, their simply not going to get caught.
There definitely is a higher concentration of cops in dangerous urban areas, but who could blame them with all of the crime. In urban areas, 40% of the people who live there are estimated to own guns. Of that 40%, 30% of those people have used, or aren’t afraid to use, so with these numbers cops have to be extremely careful to effectively do their job and save the lives of innocent people.
One thing Sam said that struck me was how kids convicted of the same crime are six times less likely to be convicted if they are right. This I believe does show a racist side of the justice system. The terms of the arrest probably weren’t based on race, but rather based on the fact that the kid doing the crime was a dumbass, but to be 6 times more likely to be convicted than a white person, a black person almost doesn’t stand a chance. This is the reason for the excess of black people in our prisons, racist judges. Ill bet in 98% of arrests of people of different races is because of them doing something illegal and getting caught. However ultimately being sent to jail is because of the racist judges, or juries that convict them in the end.