I think people hate on immigrants because they want to blame someone for all the things that are not perfect in their own life. People in America are hardly ever satisfied with what they have. There is nothing wrong with that; that is just how our system is set up. You work hard to get ahead. After all that is the American dream is it not? But what happens when an American is unable to reach the American dream? Or what happens when the American does not think they can or have reached the American dream? What happens is that he or she immediately starts playing the blame game. They start pointing fingers at things and people who they believe are stopping them from achieving their dream. A lot of times those fingers will land directly on immigrants especially in the cases where the person pointing the finger is unemployed. Now first of all I think it is pretty ridiculous that people put the blame of their unemployment on immigrants. With what Sam has showed us, most immigrants are the heart and soul of American industry. Yes the cheap labor is not good when you look at it from a worker’s point of view, but it is a good thing from just about every other point of view. For example, the businesses get cheap work. Work that is usually more productive than American work I might add. And because of this there is more production, which means a cheaper product for the consumer. Not to mention that most immigrants pay taxes their entire time in the United States but never receive any of the benefits American tax payers get. So they are working for cheap and not getting the benefits. Of course all this stuff can be very hard to see from a workingman’s point of view, especially if he is unemployed. Well I guess he would not really be a workingman if he was unemployed but you get what I am trying to say. When an unemployed person looks at immigrants all they see is that this illegal alien is working while they, an American citizen, are not. I can totally understand why they would think this way. I think that’s a pretty normal way to look at it. But I am going to end this response with a thought. The immigrants are working because they are willing to work for cheap. And most of them send what they earn back to their families in their mother country, and they still get by. No they do not live a glamorous life. Some may not even have a home. But my question is, why can’t Americans do the same thing. I’m not saying they have to go homeless, but why can’t some unemployed people lower their standard of living and just learn how to get by. Survive, that is all.

In theory I think it would be very interesting to see what would happen if no one could benefit from nepotism. I say in theory because I don’t see any way in which this could ever possibly happen. I think that if nepotism did not exist here is what would happen. First, the strong would strive and the weak would perish. This is simply because no one could benefit from anyone else’s doing. It would just come down to making your own way and doing everything for yourself. So now we have competition for survival. No matter what the competition, you want to be at the top, and if you are not already there, you will need to work your way up to the top. Well if a weaker person can’t make it to the top on their own they can easily seek out help from another weaker person with the promise that both will work their way up the competitive ladder. Well eventually this is going to catch on and eventually everyone is benefitting from someone else’s efforts as well as their own. This obviously just leads to nepotism. But what if it was not even possible to benefit from nepotism at all? Like what if you could not help anyone even if you wanted to? Again the strong would survive and the weak would not have a chance in hell. In theory it is interesting to think about how it would be or where you would be in that type or world? Would you be able to make it one hundred percent on your own? But as for the question would I choose not to benefit from nepotism if I had the chance? In real life with today’s society, there is no way I would consciously turn down nepotism. It is sad to say it like this but it is true. Think about it. Everyone is trying to get ahead. Everyone wants to climb that ladder and get as close to the top as they can. If you yourself choose not to benefit from something like nepotism that does not really do anything but decrease the competition for the people that will choose to benefit from it. And there will always be people who choose to benefit from it. So choosing to try to make it on your own is out of the question. Even though that would be nice in a perfect world, that is not the world we live in. Sam was right; it is all about who you know and what advantages you have over your competition no matter what form that advantage comes in. I think the best thing we can do is just simply be aware that we are being affected by things like nepotism on a daily basis. We are not paving our own path. Everywhere we get is through the help of someone else. Everyone just needs to realize that and act like their success is based solely off their hard work.

Putting myself in the shoes of a Middle Eastern person did open my eyes up quite a bit. Until this lecture I had not really thought of the war from that viewpoint. As an American, it was very easy for me to look at the entire war from the eyes of America. I was filled with patriotism, concern, and I’ll admit even a little hatred from the 9/11 and other terrorist attacks. But this lecture really allowed me to broaden my horizon. I still think what terrorists do is horrendous and completely uncalled for. I think that is an extreme that never has to be reached, but I also know Middle Eastern people are not the only ones to blame for terrorist attacks. Where this lecture really hit me was not the terrorists, but rather the rebels or people fighting against the American soldiers. It seemed to me that Middle Easterners were a lot like us. They know they had a resource, they saw us coming into their country for that resource, they were swayed by the media or other images they saw about Americans, and inside of them grew a sense of patriotism or a pride for their religion, or perhaps they thought they had to fight just for their right to survive and live peacefully in their country. So ok, I could see where they are coming from, from their point of view, it was pretty unfair that Americans are taking their oil, and then once they hear about all the Christian Invader stuff, that pushes them over the edge and they fight back. Ok I get that, and if that were to happen to me, I would probably be the first to fight back as well. But the part of the lecture I had a problem with is that every time there was a clip about something America did against the Middle East, a clip that was suppose to anger the Middle Easterners, Sam always said something like, “Well you as Middle Easterners don’t know what America is really like, or you don’t look into other sources.” Basically it just seemed like as a Middle Easterner, a lot of your views about Americans were based on assumptions or sometimes just plain ignorance. And before I offend anyone I want to say I know Americans do the same thing, maybe even more than Middle Easterners. We see the clips of kids holding guns, and terrorist leaders saying death to America and we think the entire Middle East is like that. Well on both sides, I say its bullshit. There wouldn’t even be as big of a conflict if both sides would get up off their asses and learn a damn thing or two about the other side. Yes there would still be disputes over oil. That is huge, but the hatred of an entire culture is something that could be avoided. So did this lecture change my views on the war with Iraq? Damn straight it did. My view is now neither for war or against war. My view is now try to learn something about the other side first, then make your decision after that.

When whites become the minority, and yes I said when not if, I don’t really think whites will be treated too differently. One thing that comes to my mind is, would it be anything like when blacks, for example, when the clear minority. As far as slavery or anything extreme, I think its safe to say that we are very far from that no matter who is the minority. I am not saying that slavery does not exist in the world or even in the United States but I am talking about the type of slavery that was happening in the United States before the civil war. Clearly even if whites became the minority blacks or whoever the majority is would not start selling and buying whites like back then. But what about lesser extremes of racism like looking down on someone or thinking you are above another human being just because of race. Even this is unlikely in my book. I think most of the world and especially America has been so socialized and trained to think of white people as up on top. Sam has showed us countless examples of racism today in our society such as the racism in the criminal justice field. But if the tables were to turn and whites would be the minority I do not think we would see a great rise in the arrests of whites. I think this would hold true for most parts of life just because we are all socialized to put whites on top even if we do it subconsciously. If anything changes at all I would think that whites and the new majority, whatever it may be, would be closer to equal since that seems to be what we are pushing for now when whites are on top. But there is one thing that I would be interested to see if it changes or not, and that is the benefits one receives because they are a minority. For example, would whites be given scholarships or things like that just because they are white, or how about scholarships that have other parameters but are only available to minorities; would there be a bunch of opportunities like that for whites if they are the minority? Honestly I do not think there would be as many opportunities like that for whites as there are now for other races. I think it probably ahs a lot to do with all those years of oppression in the past. Whites did not really go through any of that and that is probably the reason they are “on top” right now. Even when they become the minority in numbers, I don’t think they will be treated like the minorities now.

First of all, I don’t really think it would be very difficult for me to date outside of my race. I mean I never have dated outside of my race in the past so I don’t know exactly how my family or extended family would react to it. I’m pretty sure it would not be a problem for my immediate family and I would hope it wouldn’t be a problem for my extended family, although I guess people can always surprise you.
Anyway I’m not sure if it’s so much of factors about race that make dating between races difficult nowadays. I guess for many people who have different forms of prejudices race may be a factor. But as time moves on I think culture and possibly religion would be more of a problem when it comes to dating. Culture could obviously pose many problems just because people of two different cultures will not be familiar with each other’s customs, traditions and things like that. One person could very easily offend the other person and not even know it. Religion could become a problem once the relationship gets pretty serious, especially if one or both of the people feel very strongly about their religion.
But as for race, like I said before, to me it doesn’t really seem like that big of a deal. Obviously to some people it may be. But I feel like with this generation it wouldn’t matter as much. In fact I think the people who have the biggest problem with dating between religions would be the older family members of our generation. And for the people in our generation who do have a problem with it, that way of thinking was most likely taught to them or reinforced by some member or members of their family. I would be interested to see a child be born and have no family influence their way of thinking. I would like to see what would happen if just the world shaped this child and see what the child thinks when he or she reaches the dating age. Well I guess it would all depend where the child would grow up and a whole bunch of factors. I guess there isn’t really a fair way to do that experiment. I guess I am being a little biased but based on my life and my experiences, I don’t think race has to do so much with dating. If anything I think it’s more culture and religion.

I think brown and black people might be more expressive of their problems because they may feel they have an excuse or at least a reason for being in the position they currently are in. What I’m talking about is the history of how minorities have been treated in the United States. It is no secret that people of color have been repressed and discriminated against in our country’s past times. I believe that most black people feel connected to their ancestors who went through segregation and things like that. Since their ancestors were treated this way and denied many of their freedoms and rights, these people may think they too have been cheated of chances that they may have gotten if they were born into a better situation. There probably is a lot of truth to this when we think of the effects of determinism. If black people in the past would have been given the chances that white people had, would it have taken this long to get a black president? Would the poverty rates of black people be so high? Would black people have a harder time getting jobs than white people? None of these questions can be answered for sure because black people were never given these chances, but it certainly is fun to wonder about. And I think black people may have a point when they bring up topics like this. I think this is the reason for most black people being more public and expressive about their troubles. But what about poor white people? I believe the reason poor white people are not as expressive about their troubles is because they are almost scared to voice their sorrows. Just like black people, they are well aware of how black people were treated back in the day. The only difference is that white people were the ones who were abusing the black people. So white people may feel like if they complain they will seem like babies. Or like they are complaining for no reason. This is why black people may be more expressive about their troubles than white people.

I think it’s hard to tell when it comes to racism in the justice system. When Sam presented that data to the class I was a little skeptical at first. My thoughts were, ok obviously there are more white people using the drugs but more black people getting arrested. But does that point to racism right away? Using a drug and getting caught with it are two completely different things. How can we say that just because more white people use illegal drugs that means more white people should be arrested? Couldn’t the fact that more black people are arrested be due to any number of reasons? Perhaps more black people get caught because more black people live in urban areas where there are more police officers like this question suggests. Or perhaps most white people using these drugs don’t really do the drugs in places that they would be easily caught in. I think there could be infinitely many factors that could explain this. But as I considered different factors I found myself coming back to the free will versus determinism argument. What I mean is that I began to question, well why when I go into most urban areas I find the majority of people to be black. In my opinion a lot of that has to do with determinism. With many black children being born in those areas, it would be natural that those areas become the homes of those children. They may not have all the resources that other kids growing up in different areas may have. So these kids turn to drugs, maybe not for use but maybe for money. Like the man in the video during class said, “Why work at McDonalds and make 400 dollars a week when you could make 2,000-3,000 dollars in five minutes?” So I think determinism has a lot to do with why kids would turn to drugs. If they grow up where drug dealing is a common or at least accessible profession, they may turn to it out of desperation. Unfortunately for them, these types of areas most likely are also going to be places where police are on the look out and really crack down on drug dealing and/or use. So that may be why more black people are caught in drug related crimes. However, that is not to say that there is absolutely no racism in the justice system. By assuming things like, urban areas are where drugs are the biggest problems, most people in the city are black, so there is a good chance a black person is involved with drugs, is clearly displaying racism. This may or may not happen, there are just too many factors to take into consideration to ever prove racism does or does not exist in the justice system.

The choices I have made have greatly influenced how I got to Penn State and continue to effect me everyday I am here. That is not to say that where I started out didn’t have anything to do with it, but I think the choices I make and how they effect me are much more obvious to see and point out. I guess the best way to show how my choices affected me is to start from the beginning.

Growing up, I lived with both of my parents, two older sisters, and a younger brother. We lived in New Jersey comfortably, but certainly not in luxury. We lived in a very old house but we did have things like a television and computer (although we did not have cable and only got about ten channels). I was able to play sports as a child in my community and I really enjoyed them. Then things looked like they were going up when my dad got a higher paying job in Pennsylvania. So we moved to a newer house and things were good for a little. But my dad wound up getting laid off multiple times and each time found it growing more difficult to find a job. So while we lived in Pennsylvania we were always a little tight on cash, but still not in what many consider poverty. Us kids quickly found out that if we wanted anything, we were going to have to work and get it ourselves.

This proved to be true through my whole middle school and high school career. Whether I wanted enough money to go on a trip or just enough to run up to Turkey Hill, I always found odd jobs around the community to raise that money. And on top of that, multiple coaches, teachers, and mentors who cared a great deal about me helped me out along the way. I’m not exactly sure if that counts for the determinism side or the free will side. I guess I could play it off either way, but the way I like to look at it is the relationships I built with those people is the reason they were always there for me. Anyway, moral of my teenage years was that I was no stranger to work.

Even at the end of high school when it was time to start thinking about college. I spent more time my senior year filling out applications for scholarships than I did doing actual homework. This was necessary because my dad had been laid off again and my parents were not going to be able to help out with the costs of college. So I think a lot of how I got to Penn State was based on my free will and the choices I made. But like I said before, that is not the only thing that got me to Penn State. Many people helped me on the way and I’m sure determinism had a lot to do with it as well. I just simple chose to write about the free will side for this blog.

I feel the same way. Like any comedian of a race other than white can basically say anything they want about any race, whether it is their own race they are talking about or not, and it will be funny. But if a white comedian were to get up and say the exact same things, it still may be funny, but you can feel the room kind of on edge. As if everyone is sort of thinking, can he say that? I’m not racist if I laugh at that am I?

My discussion group had a big conversation on the topic of telling racist jokes this morning and I was surprised to hear some of the things some kids were saying. I’m white and I guess have never really been on the receiving end of a hurtful racist joke. I mean I’ve heard plenty of white boy jokes and stuff like that but none of them ever really offended me. I like to think I am a pretty tolerant person but I don’t think that is the reason why I never got offended, it’s just that none of the jokes ever really seemed hurtful to me. Well in my group today I was able to listen to some people who have had racist jokes been told about them to the point where they were offended and often times angered. I guess I had never really thought something that starts out as a joke could lead to someone being genuinely hurt. One of the kids in my class actually suggested getting rid of racist jokes completely. He said since it is different for everyone as to what may be offensive or crossing the line, the only way to play it safe is to just stop making racist jokes.

I don’t know if this is the best solution. It seems to me that it is almost always a judgment-based thing and usually depends on whom you are with. Many people in a certain race may be completely open to the idea of jokes about their race and may actually be entertained by them, whereas many others in the same race would be completely offended. I think you just have to know whom you are with and make your judgment based on that. And if you’re ever in doubt, just don’t tell the joke.

When it comes to the comedians, it is their job to be funny. They want to make people laugh. If some people find racist jokes funny then I see it as the comedian is merely doing their job by making that type of joke no matter what his race is. I think people need to lighten up and bit and learn to laugh at themselves especially if they are laughing at others.

First off I want to say this is a great question because I see this happening around campus all the time, and its not just any one group in particular doing it. I’m sure everyone has seen a group of Asians, blacks, whites, or any group of people similar in appearance walking around campus together. I’m white and I know a lot of the time I see a group of Asians together they are often speaking their own language instead of English. I think there are many reasons as to why people do not really break out from what they consider the norm.

I think the first reason is kind of obvious but should still be stated. It’s just who they are friends with. I think before you get to college you try to make friends with the people living close to you who are going to the same college. At least that’s what I did. This may be why you see a lot of international students sort of hanging around with each other. Or perhaps they met through an event here at college. They have certain events, groups, and organizations that are meant for just certain races. Like there is an Asian frat for an example, or I see a lot of events going on around campus that are black only. There is a possibility someone attended something like that and made friends there. So I think when you see a big group of similar people together, it is a group of friends. I mean I wouldn’t just go up to a random group of white kids and try to join in on their conversation. But this leads to a very similar question, why are they friends with mostly their race?

I think that question also has a somewhat obvious answer as well. I think being raised in a particular culture has a lot to do with it. In the big world of college or anything for that matter, people find comfort in familiarity. It’s just easier and safer that way. Having grown up with a certain culture automatically gives a person an advantage when trying to make friends of that same culture. Think about it, they don’t have to learn what is acceptable or not, they know how they are supposed to think, hell they usually even look similar compared to someone who is not of that race or ethnicity. Language could also be another thing, especially for the people not from this country. So I think the reason we befriend people similar to us is just because that’s when we feel our chances of making friends is the best. It’s the safest thing for us to do without giving much effort to learn and understand a different culture.