I completely agree with you on being surprised about white women being the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. I never really thought about this too much before so that aspect was very surprising to me. I also found the videos of the schools very sad. I wish everyone could have the same benefits but like Sam said in the lecture it just does not happen. It really stinks that not every child in the United States gets a really good education. Someone in the class made a comment about paying for taxes for the better school when your children are going to the school that does not have as many opportunities and I think that would be really hard to deal with.

I really enjoyed the lecture on Affirmative Action. Sam really laid out this lecture in a way that I had not really thought about Affirmative Action before. I never really took a dive into the program and looked into who it is really helping. It was really surprising to me that Affirmative Action helps more women than anyone else. I have always thought that Affirmative Action helps people of color before any other group of people that is discriminated against. It was also very interesting to me that out of the women that most benefit from Affirmative Action it occurs with white women the most. This was very interesting to me because like I said before I had always thought that people of color were helped by Affirmative Action more. I also found it really interesting that only 10% of all hires, admissions, and other programs are completed by Affirmative Action.
Along with these thoughts I also found it to be very interesting to hear about Penn States process of Affirmative Action. It was really interesting to hear how Sam had to go back and relook at resumes to make sure he did not leave out a male or person of color that applied for the job and was _____.
When I used to think about Affirmative Action all I really thought about was meeting the quotas for the company, school, or program. I never knew that using quotas was illegal. This really opened my eyes to the fact that all the people applying for the position really need to be able to do the job well. I really thought it was great how Sam talked about Affirmative Action programs that just hire to fill a quota the person might get in but if they cannot perform the tasks they might not be there very long. I think this is a really important aspect to point out.
The last thing I want to speak about is something that Sam pointed out that I think is extremely important. He started talking about how Obama said that his children should never benefit from any form of Affirmative Action program because all of the benefits they already have in their life. I think this is a really true statement. Whether you are black or white, male or female, Hispanic or Asian, etc if you come from a family of affluence in which you have already benefited more than the average person in the United States you should not benefit more. I think this brought up a great point that it is not only your race but what class you are in as well. A black woman growing up in a wealthy community should not benefit from Affirmative Action before a Hispanic growing up in a poor community.

Your posting is such a crazy story. I can’t believe that people would say that to the doctor after he had served the community so well. It is such a shame that after he worked so hard to even get an article written about him that people would be so rude to him. I think it is really sad in the United States how we have come to treat people that come here from a different country. None of the people living in the United States besides the Native Americans are people that are from here so it really is annoying to see them treating people that have come here to better their lives just like our ancestors did years back.

I really enjoyed this lecture and I really think this is information is an essential part of learning about our country. This country was founded on people immigrating to the United States but recently we have come to look down on people immigrating to the United States. I’ve be really good friends with a lot of people that have immigrated to the United States and it is crazy to see how much they have been discriminated against and looked down upon. Especially my friends that have immigrated from Mexico. These people have become a huge part of our communities. A lot of the time they are doing jobs that other people in the United States would never want to do. Not only do they do work in jobs that other people do not want to work in but they do an amazing job working in these positions.
To me it is crazy that the same people that had their ancestors looked down upon for being Italian or Irish or any other ethnicity years ago are now looking down on Mexicans or people who immigrated from other lands. I’m so sick of hearing the classic if you don’t speak English you don’t belong here. How many of our family members so long ago did not speak English either but they came here to start a new life to be able to provide for their family members and be something. It almost disgusts me that we can tell people now a days if you do not speak English you shouldn’t be here.
This lecture really reminded me of a woman I used to work with. In high school I worked at a grocery store making sandwiches and a woman from Mexico worked with me. She was one of the hardest workers at the company but when customers came up and she had trouble pronouncing some of her English words people gave her a hard time. She would get really upset about it and almost embarrassed at times because she tired to fit in here so much. She really tired hard to learn the English language and work as hard as she could. It broke my heart to see how people treated her at times. Sometimes it got so bad that I would even step in and try to protect her from how people were treating her.
I really thought the statistics of this lecture were very interesting. I thought it was crazy how lately we have been making a huge deal about the increase in immigrants but really the immigrant levels have been consistent over time. I think this fact also shows how much media and other thing affect what we think of the world. It shows that we really don’t think too much for ourselves and we let people tell us what is going on in the world without really looking into it ourselves.

I completely agree with you. I am very glad that Sam did a lecture on LGBT issues. I honestly have not had too much exposure to these issues so it was very interesting to me. I agree with you that I feel that racial subjugation and sexual orientation subjugation are very parallel. I also completely agree with your views on gay marriage and on gay parenting. I think it is great that a child can be adopted into a loving family where people really care about them instead of growing up in a orphanage or in an abusive home. I think it is beyond ridiculous that tax implications could ever interfere with people truly in love with each other and getting married. Hopefully these issues will work themselves out and gays will be able to feel comfortable and have more rights.

I really enjoyed the lectures on LGBT issues. I have not really been exposed to a lot of information about gay people before. This lecture really brought up some ideas that I have never really thought of before. I am not religious but I was raised Catholic. In the Catholic religion like Sam said the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin. When Sam brought up the ideas that most people sin all of the time doing things like getting drunk or having sex outside of marriage it really made me think about how much hypocrisy there really is. I really believe that gay people should have the same rights as anyone else in the United States. I really enjoyed the stories Sam shared about the people he talked to that knew that knew since they were small children that they are gay. I think this really helps people that haven’t had the exposure to gay people understand that do not choose to be gay they just are.

I really thought it was interesting how many people that are homophobic actually turn out to be gay. I feel like that makes a lot of sense because if they were not gay there would be no reason to really care about what gay people do because they are just like straight people.

In the Multicultural lecture, I thought the plane was really crazy. It is insane to see how the planes follow the sun and how it really shows globalization. It really visualizes the fact that the world is becoming so dependent on each other.
I also thought it was really crazy how in the survey questions people were asked like about wanting to their neighborhood to be more diverse political affiliation really made a difference. I’m wondering if the difference in republican and democrat answers relates to the races of people in those parties. I know Sam mentioned that democrats seem to know how to be more politically correct but I am thinking it might have something to do with race as well.

I thought it was really crazy how all of the rap songs sounded so similar but they were all in different languages. It is crazy how the rhythms are so similar and at the same time it is in a different language. It really shows how rap music is so globalized. No matter what language the music is in it is something that everyone can relate to.

I really agree with Sam with the fact that in today’s world you won’t really get far if you are not able to accept diversity and how it affects your life and the workplace. In order to rise up in an organization you need to be very accepting of all people. A lot of companies now a days are really seeing how diversity in the workplace can really enable the company to get the best ideas possible.

I completely agree with you that Sam’s lectures are very thought provoking. I think he is great at really getting people to think deeply. I was also pretty surprised at the amount of racism from people of color. I’ve been reading the book we need to read for our quiz and even in those stories there is a lot of racism towards white people. I found the video of the young children picking dolls very disturbing. I couldn’t believe that the children called the black doll bad and the white doll good. I think this is really sad and hopefully it will change as time goes on.

I thought this lecture was really interesting. The first thing that really caught my attention is that some people of color think that they are white when they grow up in a white environment. It was really interesting that some Asians really think this and define themselves as white. I think this could be completely true because I know being in a white culture my whole life I never really thought about being white. I can really relate to an Asian person growing up in a white community and not really seeing their differences.
I thought it was really interesting that as GPA improves in high school white people become more popular and blacks and Hispanics become less popular as their GPA increases. I think that this is really unfair for the people of color. Just because they are succeeding and getting good grades doesn’t mean that they deserve to be any less popular.
I thought Sam’s story about people of color being Amphibians and having to live both on the land and water was a great analogy. It really put in perspective for me how people of color live in their environment. They are pretty much forced to live in two worlds.
I really enjoyed the videos. I especially found the video of the young black children picking out the dolls that they like best very interesting. I never knew that this happened with young black children. I thought it was really sad that they thought the black doll was bad and the white doll was nice. I wonder how much the communities they grew up in shaped these ideas. This also goes along with what Sam shared with the class. That his friend’s child who was black came home from school crying because her white friend called her dirty. The white child was not being racist they just didn’t understand the idea of race and thought about what happens to their skin color when it gets dirty. I think its really interesting that black children start to see their race at such an early age and at the same time some white college students still do not know what it means to be white.
Last I wanted to talk about the video of the 101 year old woman getting beat up. I think it was really interesting to see the different reactions of the white and black men. It seemed like the white man was very angry and did not know really how to deal with it. He also seemed really afraid and uncomfortable with talking about it. Hearing the black man speak afterward on the subject of the woman getting beat up was really interesting because you can see how much more intoned he is with race. He just calmly wanted to talk about it and get his point out there. In all it was a great lecture and I learned a lot.

I thought the part of the lecture about racial identifiers was really interesting too. It is something I have never really thought about before and it is something I will definitely remember. I know a lot of my friends and member of my family have done this I’m sure I have done it too. You hear it all the time when people are telling stories on the Cata buses at PSU. I think sometimes people want to mention the person’s race because they have something to say about that person or that group of people subconsciously. I have also heard people mention physical disabilities in stories when it does not pertain to the story being told. I feel like this is similar to the racial identifiers. I think it is something that all people need to work on so that we can be accepting of everyone regardless of race or gender or any other differences.

I thought this lecture was really interesting. I really liked learning about the different stages that white people go through in order to come to terms with their whiteness. I think it went along great with the last lecture. The last lecture introduced the topic and really got me to understand how much white people struggle to find their racial identity. It was really weird to think about the stages I am in and how I really have not fully accepted being white yet. I still need to work to figure out what being white really means.
I have found myself time and time again pulling myself out of race situations not because I am racists but because I do not feel comfortable enough with my own race to be talking about other races. I am at times afraid to use different labels for people such as black or Asian because I do not know if I am using them properly. I think at times I try so hard to not offend other races and really look to them to tell me how to act towards their race. Sam had mentioned how a lot of white people do this and then try to treat all Mexican people a certain way because of what one Mexican said, such as the example of speaking Spanish to them. Many people would think it is cool that you are trying but sometimes people just think your stupid and then white people tend to just give up because they are trying so hard.
One of the most interesting things I learned from this lecture is that people of color think that white people smell like wet dogs when they get wet. I have never heard of that before and I thought it was really interesting to hear. It is crazy to see how many stereotypes there are about different groups of people and the group of people do not even know it’s a stereotype for their group.
I thought the part of the lecture when Sam is talking about riding a bike and someone in a car hits them. He said that if race or gender has nothing to do with it then there is no reason to put it in your story when you are telling someone. I thought that was really interesting and never really thought of it that way. I always hear people saying and then this white kid or that black guy or this Asian woman but all of those descriptors really have nothing to do with their story. I think this is something to really think about when you are telling a story or someone is telling a story to you. Because at the end of the story if it has nothing to do with the persons’ race or gender there is no need to mention it.