I never read the hunger games. However, after the movie came out I heard that there was an array of racial comments about one character being black. As I was told that the reader described her as black. That goes to show that people just do not read every detail of books. Like people have selective reading and hearing. I am just very sad that the media has peoples heads messed up to think that black or brown people are just not worthy enough to be in movies or being in plot that involve dungeon and dragons. Would Harry Potter be as popular if her were black or Indian. Like what does it have to do with anything because we are all equal in a sense at the end? Its like black and brown people in the United State of America are just not treated equally. Why? Cause we are oppressed in many situations by the movement. Can the government really benefit from us if we are in power? We have a black president; we should have these problems especially not movies that harbor fantasy. Why can’t we fantasize about a character being black or brown? Why does everyone have to be white with blonde hair and blue eyes? Is Hitler living through us all? He wanted this; he is probably smiling in his grave because the world is turning out just like he wanted. The whites are all we see in the world. Through commercials, ads etc. We have very few black people in ads and if they are, they are lite skin and Photoshop makes them even lighter. The same when for beyonce in ads, she is made lighter in white magazine and darker in black magazines. That’s some sick shit but it’s our reality of our country and our culture. But when will we move past this, will people get tired of seeing the same type of people in the world? Can we possible get new faces? Movies like the hunger games are trying to do this but people are always hating. Why can blacks get at 1 hour of fame instead of 10 or 5 mines of fame? We see that movies that don’t have many blacks are making tons of money and becoming beyond the brand. When was the last time you saw a movie that was based around black and it was turned into a ride at universal studios that knows? I just really wish that we lived in a different time where we could all have an equal chance. Can we just get along and be equal. How can we change people’s perception? Do we do it through the cold shoulder approach?

Racical profiling seems to be alive and well in all cities not only new york. I can say that Philaelphia is much more worse because if a black male is walking and minding his business in the old city section of Philadelphia then he is looked at twice unlike if a white man were to do the same. This is because most people with a lot of money live in that area and they have a pre conceived notion that black men are going to try to either hurt them or take what they have. I believe that media as a whole really gives them that impression and sometimes black men do it to themselves. I am not saying that all black men steal or do bad things and I am also not saying that they do. However, there is two ways of looking at it. There are some cases where a black man in a upper class neighborhood might be traveling to scout out where he will strike next. But that black man also may be just walking in the neighborhood minding his own business. It is then when people call the police and they police make the same assumption using force when an innocent black man is not cooperating. In Philadelphia there is also that Search and Frisk, which is more racially bias than anything. If a black person cant walk down the street without people already having a thought about him before getting to know him, then what is he to do? Is he to stay sheltered in his own home and not be able to show himself to the world? I don’t think cause it just cruel world today. One can say that the Trayvon Martin case is racial profiling. You have this innocent kid walking in a gated community and he gets shot by this raging community watch captain because he feels that he was threatened. No lets just think about it, the kid was racially profiled because of the color of his skin and the clothes he was wearing. The clothes he was wearing were culturally related to an African American. Although many people around the western culture wear hoodies, it is commonly associated with the African Afro American culture. In terms of police, I recently watching a televison show called Soul Food that talked all about racial profiling and how police congintively see face first when tailing a suspect. 9 out of 10 times police will not pursue a white or Chinese man only if they are committing a serious offenseo or just look plain old out of place as if they are going to do something. Its kinda sad that tax payers have to fear the very people they employ to protect them.

Racical profiling seems to be alive and well in all cities not only new york. I can say that Philaelphia is much more worse because if a black male is walking and minding his business in the old city section of Philadelphia then he is looked at twice unlike if a white man were to do the same. This is because most people with a lot of money live in that area and they have a pre conceived notion that black men are going to try to either hurt them or take what they have. I believe that media as a whole really gives them that impression and sometimes black men do it to themselves. I am not saying that all black men steal or do bad things and I am also not saying that they do. However, there is two ways of looking at it. There are some cases where a black man in a upper class neighborhood might be traveling to scout out where he will strike next. But that black man also may be just walking in the neighborhood minding his own business. It is then when people call the police and they police make the same assumption using force when an innocent black man is not cooperating. In Philadelphia there is also that Search and Frisk, which is more racially bias than anything. If a black person cant walk down the street without people already having a thought about him before getting to know him, then what is he to do? Is he to stay sheltered in his own home and not be able to show himself to the world? I don’t think cause it just cruel world today. One can say that the Trayvon Martin case is racial profiling. You have this innocent kid walking in a gated community and he gets shot by this raging community watch captain because he feels that he was threatened. No lets just think about it, the kid was racially profiled because of the color of his skin and the clothes he was wearing. The clothes he was wearing were culturally related to an African American. Although many people around the western culture wear hoodies, it is commonly associated with the African Afro American culture. In terms of police, I recently watching a televison show called Soul Food that talked all about racial profiling and how police congintively see fRacical profiling seems to be alive and well in all cities not only new york. I can say that Philaelphia is much more worse because if a black male is walking and minding his business in the old city section of Philadelphia then he is looked at twice unlike if a white man were to do the same. This is because most people with a lot of money live in that area and they have a pre conceived notion that black men are going to try to either hurt them or take what they have. I believe that media as a whole really gives them that impression and sometimes black men do it to themselves. I am not saying that all black men steal or do bad things and I am also not saying that they do. However, there is two ways of looking at it. There are some cases where a black man in a upper class neighborhood might be traveling to scout out where he will strike next. But that black man also may be just walking in the neighborhood minding his own business. It is then when people call the police and they police make the same assumption using force when an innocent black man is not cooperating. In Philadelphia there is also that Search and Frisk, which is more racially bias than anything. If a black person cant walk down the street without people already having a thought about him before getting to know him, then what is he to do? Is he to stay sheltered in his own home and not be able to show himself to the world? I don’t think cause it just cruel world today. One can say that the Trayvon Martin case is racial profiling. You have this innocent kid walking in a gated community and he gets shot by this raging community watch captain because he feels that he was threatened. No lets just think about it, the kid was racially profiled because of the color of his skin and the clothes he was wearing. The clothes he was wearing were culturally related to an African American. Although many people around the western culture wear hoodies, it is commonly associated with the African Afro American culture. In terms of police, I recently watching a televison show called Soul Food that talked all about racial profiling and how police congintively see face first when tailing a suspect. 9 out of 10 times police will not pursue a white or Chinese man only if they are committing a serious offenseo or just look plain old out of place as if they are going to do something. Its kinda sad that tax payers have to fear the very people they employ to protect them. ace first when tailing a suspect. 9 out of 10 times police will not pursue a white or Chinese man only if they are committing a serious offenseo or just look plain old out of place as if they are going to do something. Its kinda sad that tax payers have to fear the very people they employ to protect them.

I don’t really see a problem with sagging. However it does give a bad name to black people cause many associate sagging with black men, thug, gangbanger or anything of that sort. In Philadelphia, particaruly in the urban neighborhoods, there is an abundance of sagging. Many of the people are black but I see sagging as pop culture element. We have many pop stars, rap star etc sagging so many just imitate those they see through the media. The media plays a big part in the sagging culture. As said earlier, sagging is imitated from the pop culture. However, during the late 80s sagging came about and thugs or gang bangers from the African American, Hispanic, Latino and Chinese American culture actually participated. The point of sagging was to create accessibility for their firearm or weapon. Interesting huh? I still remain on my point, why does it matter if people sag or not. Im not sure why people have problems with it. I think it’s the media that sheds negative light on it. Granted that many would not like to see the lining of men’s asses in public but hey I’m not objecting it. Do you really have a problem with it? Can we look at it as a form of expression? I mean people can walk around naked and call it art. Well can I walk down the street, with my ass out but my underwear covering and call it art. Is it really art? I think yea cause people should be able to show their bodies. I wonder if the practice originated from a cacausian American culture would it be so opposed. Would it be more prevalent and accepted? Only one can imagine how things can change when the race factor changes. So I was wondering if you heard that some muncipiatlies and states are in fact arresting people who sag. The consequece can run from a $500 to $1000 fine, indicent exposure and possiblility of 6 months of jail time. Really? I was very surprised when I read this on nbcnew and saw a news segement. Can you really get jailed for wearing your clothes the way you want? This has to be an violation of the first amendment and its just not fair. It should be freedom of expression. What if Penn State adopted a law like this? How would many feel? Would they be able to feel free? I just hope that this never happens here in Penn State. Heres my end thought, Sagging should not be opposed. People should have the ability to do what they want and any way they want. I want to sag around campus in the coming week just to show my commitment.

I like the picture of the gay marine kissing boyfriend. It was nice to see cause you don’t really see homosexuality of in the armed forces. However, as the video said, Id like to see when it doesn’t come in as a wow moment. We will reach the point in society when gay affection in public will be not such a surprise. We’ll reach a point when two women kissing will be something people will accept. I know that when a two males kissed here on campus people had the big fucking problem with it. At the end of the day we are all human and should have the ability to do as they want. It might be normal for men and women kissing but we need to be accustomed to different types of love. Real love is real love no matter what sex they are. I’d cetaintly wouldn’t want anyone expressing any opposition to my personal life or the public affection I might show with my partner. I believe that is soely my business and no one eleses. I also agree that people should just worry about themselves and worry about the problems and situations they might have within their own self. We find that many people worry about others actions and problem with a total disregard to their own problems. I admit that sometimes I do the same. However, I just think it healthy to worry about ones self first before trying to reform others actions because you have to do right in order to police the world. That’s just my opinion. Can we really show revoltion against others because we don’t agree with what they do? My answer is no. The world would be in a much better state if people, nations and organization just mind their business and worry about what they need to do and contribute to the world. Take for instance, The United States of America and it territories find its self in everyone business because it wants to benefit from them. The United States trys to tell other nations how to live and how to run their countries. The uNited states cant even save its own people but it cycles millions to other countries to help out. Again, we cant even get joe off the street during the winter time. That’s the hard part to understand. The united states should worry about how it can help its onw people before worrying about other nations who are well off, maybe not as well off as we might think but they have enough to help their people. Will that ever happen, where the United States helps its own people before it places itself in other nations, lending a helping hand?

Discrimination based on race is something that we deal with daily. It’s something that we deal with monthly. However, it not something we must fight, it is going to be a long road because the media is the biggest fosterer of discrimination through it hegemonostic programming. We find that many television shows label different races. Bascally based on skin color, they get a role. So many times in television shows, the black guy is always the one who is a gang banger or drug dealer. We rarely find white folks in thoise types of roles. And when they are in that role, they still embody the norm for blacks set by the media. Because of this people start to think that’s how majority of black people actually acts. We always see a white person as the successful one, who went to college and has the high paying job. Whites are rarely saw as people who of lower class. Television and media rarely show the real, the real being that more white people are on food stamps and public assistance. Through white supremacy that will never be expressed .We see in this currant presidential race that canidates are first to judge people on their skin color. Santrorum, judging black people, as they are problem. I have not endured racism directly because I come from a diverse and accepting neighborhood. However, my dad tells many stories about the past when he was younger. My dad was actually one of those people who was sprayed with water hoses. He was shot too with a rubber bullet. My father was the little activist. Till this day, we writes journals and books about discrimination in the 21st century. I have read some of his books and I have learned how discrimination doesn’t have to be outward. It can we within a person, someone you can be cool with. Some white people at this school judge everyone on race, they think that the Chinese are smart at math and black people are thugs or athletes. If we aren’t that, we simply are just lazy, poor and rely on public assistance. Discrimination is every where we go. We discriminate in the first seven minutes of someone because we are judging from our first impressions. That’s something we cannot change because it natural to judge and somehow we discriminate against them. I can tell you that I personally discriminate sometimes. I am discriminated because of my lifestyle. Is it right? Is it fair? No of course not; however its life. We have to fight hard to abolish it. We cannot end oppression unless we want to and join together and fight for whats right.

Yo!!! I am all for the idea and practice of interracial relationship because they simple go against the norms put on us. My grandparents were different races, with my grandfather being white and my grandmother being black. They were just the cutest couple truly. I never met my grandfather though but my grandma told me he was a guy. I believed her. My question is why does race matter when it comes to love. Why can’t two people fall in love despite their culture. This world tries to tell us who we can and cannot love. I am so against it because love is love. Like loving the same sex is love, loving the other sex it love. Love is the combination between two people, heck in this day in age, love can be among a group of people. That’s the orgy part I talking about. The point of matter is that, love cannot have constraint of who can do it who can love who. Here at Penn State, black girls I mean black girls are very much against black males dating white girls. They think white girls are trying to take their men. But black women seem to complain how black men are not shit. Excuse my language. But I wouldn’t know about that, if you know what I mean. But as I was saying, black women are very critical when a black man wants to date white women. Many black men date white women because they don’t come off as dramatic as black women are perceived. However, there are other factors that play black men desiring white women, such as if that man grew up in a predominant white neighborhood. White women might be all he knows and has been conditioned to like. I am don’t really see a problem with because love should have no conditions except within the bond between those two people. External factors should never play into people loving each other because its simply not fair. We are all human and deserve the right to love who we want and how ever we want. I know that I wont let anyone control who I love because its my free will to be with whoever I want. People simply do not understand that society isn’t gonna to take care of you at the end of the day. Its gonna be that one person you choose to love no matter what color they are. I wonder sometimes what my grandparent went through; however where they are from, France didn’t have much racism. The reason being, that not many black or colored people actually lived in Paris during the 40’s. I tell you my grandparent must have been very cute in paris speaking French.

You asked why black girls want their hair straighter and why white girls want their hair curlier. Hegemony plays a role in this because the mass media channels like television and the Internet host images that represent a small part of the population. These media outlets are very cluttered with one look and the large population believes that to be the overall look. Thus causing the desire to imitate it. The public does not accept the naturalness of ethnic hair because it doesn’t represent the western culture. “Nappy” hair can sway with the wind and be twirled around with the head. This is where hegemony comes in, capitalism cant profit from nappy hair because only a concentrated number of people have unique hair that isn’t naturally straight. Thus, they disseminate that straight hair is the norm through different types of media to the point that it consumes most of what people see and hear. Many will consent that straight hair look is what’s best for them when in fact the products to straighten ethnic hair has more consequences than benefits. We find that more and more African American women have has at least 12-20 perms in their life before they turn 21 years-old. People think that this country is the land of the free, when in fact it isn’t. People do not think for themselves, rather they are told what to do, what to wear and how to act by mass media. People have the tendency to imitate what they see more than what they hear. After taking a series of communications classes that focus on how the media affects society, I am more critical to what I observe. I kind of saddens me that black sisters are forced to believe that natural hair is not as beautiful as chemically induced straight hair. Our hair is oily because it retains water efficiently when our ancestors we in the jungles of Africa. Caucasians have weak hair because they more than likely did not have to withstand the harsh rays of the sun. The same can be said about Chinese and their eyes. They have wide skinny eyes because it protected them from the UV rays in their eyes. It seems that every culture has its differences for a reason or another. However, I do wonder why Irish people have red hair, what causes that trait? That’s something I would be interested in. When it comes to white girls wanting curly hair, I don’t necessarily believe that white girls are attempting to imitate black girls. Not all black girls have naturally curly hair. My opinion is that white girls want to have curly hair because it facades fullness. One thing I want you to take from this is that the media controls how we feel and the information fed to us.

I’ve learned our campus; University Park is one big bubble. The name people have associated it with, “Happy Valley” is such a façade. Many students believe that this town is the happiest, most joyful and perfect place on the planet. They believe not real crime actually takes places. However, they ignore that fact that many people get robbed, sexual assaulted and harassed more than ever. I am not taking a stand, all I am explaining is that people needed to wake the fuck up. The Sandusky Scandal has really made students more aware of what’s going on around. They now understand that this town and Penn State is not a perfect place. They now understand that anything can happen anywhere, no matter what.
I don’t really have many thoughts about any positions. I never heard of Sandusky until he became something the news media was interested in. It hasn’t really impacted me on how this scandal has affected our school until many of my friends were losing internships and job offers because of the scandal. It kinda hard to write this without taking a side. However, I just feel like the Penn State brand is damaged and our leaders have done nothing to defend it. No statements were officially made to tell the press how we felt. Rather our leaders remained quiet as the press ate this school up. 154 years of good a trusty name, down the drain and no one to defend it. We are a university of good faith and nobody believes in our school anymore. I am just surprised. I feel that its so corny that this happened during my last year of school. I’ll leave this school, thinking it went through its toughest time before I left. Will there be good memories or will they be clouded by sex abuse scandals, cover up and the death of the greatest man who walked this town. He simply made this school to what it is today. And now we have nothing but land with buildings. Where is the legacy? Can we really live on the experiment of Joe Paterno? I wonder if he is looking down on us, hoping that we continue to be who we are despite how people depict us. Im unsure. However, we still attend one of the best schools on earth. We can always say we had the best help by someone who truly cared about this school. That’s all I can think of when I leave. That I was loved by Joe Paterno and he loved this school with all of his being. I will graduate happy, knowing that I got a quality education despite the dam scandal etc . That’s all I can think.

The wealth gap is something that we have become accustomed to. The wealth gap is the most between black/Hispanics and whites. Many would say it is because most minorities do not go to college. That might be true with past generations. The current generation, we have more minorities going to college and obtaining jobs. However, we need to let time pan out because we need to let the current generation accumulate money throughout their lives. I don’t think the wealth gap will increase much as we have more and more white people passing money to their children, to where they already have wealth. I think the wealth gap pretty much will stay the same because of the term old money. It kinda matters to me but sometimes not because I am still in college. I know that I will graduate and get a job and build myself up the financial ladder.

I do not like the how the video depicted African American people. It made it seem that African American are always that one minority that is often losing their jobs more than others. However, studies show that white people are actually losing their jobs much more rapidly. The media will not explain that because that will not sell headlines. Think about it, “White people lose more jobs those blacks.” Can you only imagine what country would go throught. It would probably be a fucking frenzy in this country. At one point, Blacks and Hispanics will outnumber the whites. But does that say that we will come to power. Only time can tell.

Sometimes, I wonder why Africans are often grouped with African Americans. Aren’t they supposed to be grouped different? Maybe if we polled Africans solely, we would see that many of them are upper middle class people. Africans comes to this country like Asians, with money to spare. They have to, because this country is expensive. Not many people come to this country poor except when we hear that Mexicans are crossing the borders. In our discussion group, we talked about breaking up the races by heritage. Like not all whites are the same. I agree with that because we are simply not the same, not saying that I am white or anything. But I know that I come from Caucasian decent. My family is French; however, my skin is dark. So many people count me as African American when in fact, my father’s family is French and my mother’s parents are Native American. Does that make me Native American-French? Hmmm? I am not too sure how to think of it. Overall, we need to just break up everybody to his or her respective heritages. Do you agree? Sure you do! Because maybe you are not white, rather German or Polish.