That video that Sam showed was pretty eye-opening. Here you have two schools, less than a few hours away, and they look like they're in completely different worlds. It's easy to see the disparity in the quality of education between the two schools. The nicer school that was shown probably spends more money on just maintaing the place alone than the teacher at the other school would make in a lifetime as a whole. Every kid should have the same opportunities to learn and grow. To learn in the best environment as humanly possibly. But as of right now, it's just one big pipe dream.

Sam hit the nail on the head at the beginning of the lecture when he said that people will never be equal. There's way too many variables to take into account. Where were you born, how were you raised, how much do your parents make, what's your ethnicity? The list goes on and on. Then there's actual personalities to take into account just like Sam said as well. One person may define success has laying down on the beach all day while kicking back on the beach with no worries. Another person may define success as being the CEO of a company and nothing else. Everyone has different perspectives and goals and neither person's one here is at fault. That same freedom and different outlooks on life however is exactly why it's impossible for two people to be the same. In the example I said above, how are those two people going to agree on the same life goals? It's practically impossible. If a person wants to relax all day, then relaxing all day is a good day to him. Working away all day like a potential CEO would, is a bad day for him, and vice versa.

An interesting fact though is what women, primarily wealthy white woman, benefit the most from affirmative action. If you would have told me that before I would have laughed at you, and any one of my friends would have laughed at you as well. However, affirmative action is usually viewed as a single entity, without factoring in nepotism. Nepotism is a very touchy subject. Benefits from nepotism are wonderful, but being on the other side is horrendous. Would you love to gain a job because your friend is cool with the boss? Sure. May someone else be better suited for the job? Perhaps. Are you taking a job from someone else? Definitely.

"Affirmative action exists to cancel out Nepotism." That's an extremely interesting way to look at this, and I say that it holds a lot of water. The two definitely balance each other out nicely. Let's say you were a young lady looking for a nice secretarial job, but the rich bosses wife put her in over you. Now you're out of a job! But wait, your best friend from college that you still sort of talk to just opened up a nice company and they're looking for secretaries! It's a cycle. A vicious one albeit, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. This world is far from perfect, but you have to make the most of it. Nobody is perfect, we all think we're way better than we are, and we're going to make mistakes. That's why you need to have friends, and establish connects. So when you do slip up in life, you'll always have somebody to help you get back up on your feet.

I was born and raised in the city and I am a man of color. As such, I have already dealt with race relations and other issues about race everyday while I was growing up. I wasn't sure how much I could really learn going into this class, but I now know that I still have a ways to go. There were things I knew going into this class that I was aware of, but there were also things I took for granted There were other issues that I ignored completely or didn't give much thought. Whys is it okay to drink cow's milk and not whales milk? Why is everyone automatically go into this political correctness filter? These are some questions that people may be aware and think of from time to time, but not really topics that as Americans we tend to dive into.

I went to high school with a son of an illegal immigrant family. Did I know this before I started taking to him? No. Did I stop talking to him when I found out? No. Did this change my perspective of him in the slightest when I found out? Some people may lie here and say no, but I'm going to be honest and say yes. It's hard for any American not too. From a young age we're made to believe that illegal immigrants are bad for America and bad people. They steal jobs from hard working Americans and we don't need them here. Is any of this actually true? I don't think so. But are more Americans basically programmed to believe this? The answer is yes. I still talk to this friend to this very day and we had some very enlightening discussions about the entire topic. He says he generally does not like to tell people about his illegal immigrant family status due to the negative stereotypes, but he is very proud of his family and appreciates everything they have done for him.

Free market capitalism is a very interesting topic. A lot of people seem to blindly support it without understanding it or what it supports in its entirety. I'm not claiming to be an expert, but if everyone that is against our current illegal immigrant policy is against free market capitalism/a socialist--then I guess we have a lot of socialists. Things get even more interesting when we bring up Obama. People that are anti-Obama claim that he is a socialist and describe socialism in a bad light. I am in no way a socialist, but if these same anti-Obama people that are against socialism are against our current immigration policy what does that make them? If they're aware it makes them hypocrites. If they're unaware then it makes them ignorant. Either way none of if is positive, and it doesn't reflect well on America when people who discuss politics do not really know what they are talking about, or even worst--contradict themselves.

Illegal immigrants are definitely portrayed extremely negatively like you said. Between the way the news portrays them and the way teachers talk about them in class we're basically programmed to dislike illegal immigrants when we don't even know anything about them. It's hard not to discrimination or think of illegal immigrants in a negative light when we have never heard a single positive thing about them. Before these lectures with Sam I've heard very little about the positive effects that they can bring. Like you said in their position, why would we do want to go and purse a better job? People switch schools and go to other states for better learning and job opportunities, it's only fair that we give illegal immigrants that same opportunity.

LGBT. A lot of people don't know what that stands for, and the people who do know tend to not be big fans. Personally, I have no problem with the LGBT community, as I have close personal friends that are apart of it. That being said, I know other people person who discriminate against the LGBT without knowing or even talking to anyone inside of that community.The general population doesn't like a racist (an outright one,) but is discriminating against the LGBT any different from discrimination? Why are most people afraid to come "out of the closet" and admit they're gay? Why do some people go their entire lives without telling anyone? Or worst, live out a life with their spouse, only to confess decades down the roads? Because the general public does not like the LGBT community.

Political correctness may have a part in the division between people who support, and people who are against the LGBT community. If there was no political correctness, I feel that it's not unreasonable to believe that a lot more people would come out and express their dislike of the LGBT community. What would be stopping them? Just like a white man running for office cannot come right out and say he dislikes every black person out there, or a black man running for office cannot say he hates every white person on the planet--political correctness weights us down.

Recently, New York became the fist major state to allow gay's to legally marry. Obviously this is a huge moment for the LGBT community, and there's obviously a few New Yorkers who may have a thing or two to say about gay people being able to marry in their state. The regular people can speak their mind freely, but the people in more established positions cannot. If the CEO of Coca-Cola came out and said I hate every person in the LGBT community, how do you think that would effect their business? First off, the CEO would be promptly fired, and would be lucky to be the CEO of a cardboard box. Secondly, the entire LGBT would riot and refuse to even be in the same room as a Coca-Cola can.

"You can't have your cake and eat it too." I think this quote sums up life pretty well, but some people don't get it. What this quote is basically saying is that you can't always have everything you want. Some people want political correctness to go away completely, but it's hard. It's very, very hard. The main reason for this is that people are sensitive. We are a very sensitive generation and most of us wear our hearts on our sleeves. If some people in power spoke their minds 100 percent, people would riot like no tomorrow. What if Obama told you he hates all Asians? Or the Governor of your state says he actually hates the state and wants to be the Governor somewhere else? Granted, these are extreme cases, but some people do truly feel this way. How do you filter these feelings out, and draw the line between what's too much and what's okay? Political Correctness. A lot of the things we discuss in this class can be tied back to this one concept. It's the Pandora's Box of sociology. It enables people a go to way to talk about sensitive subjects, while it disables people to truly speaking from the heart.

I definitely agree with being gay being biologically. It's hard to turn a straight person gay and to make a gay person straight. Just like you mentioned Sam said in a previous lecture it's not really something you think about, it just is. You don't wake up one day and decide that you're going to be gay--it just happens. Whatever sexuality you are, or whatever sexuality you become, depends on your genetics. If you're genetically wired to be gay, you'll be gay. A person can try and make the choice to change your sexuality against your genetics, but it's going to be very hard to maintain in the long run.

I watched the same documentary back in high school and found it to be pretty sad. It shows just how bad things can get when someone is treated differently from everyone else. A lot of people think that a person getting attention is always a positive thing, but it's not. Kanye West has a Twitter account and he initially wasn't following anyone. When he finally did follow someone can dubbed him the "Chosen One," that guy was flooded by Kanye West fans on Twitter. He claimed he was just an normal guy and didn't want the attention. Even though the situations are clearly under different circumstances it shows that the grass really isn't always greener on the other side.

Discussing the Pre-Awakening stage a little more and the story told Sam about his friend was very interesting. I know some people tend to ignore racism or stereotypes to at least some extent, but I don't know a lot of people that haven't had a single experience related to race at 40 years of age. I'm not sure if I believe him completely but it's definitely something worth thinking about.

For his friends statement to actually be true would depend on a lot of variables. Such as where he grew up, how he was raised, and how much he looked/cared about those experiences or encounters. Someone could be discriminated against for a job or a promotion but not view that as being discriminated against. The way a person looks at a certain experience or event really if that particular instant is racial to the person or not. The saying "to each his own" describes this perfectly.

I have one white friend at 35 years of age hasn't had a lot of experiences where he had any racial encounters or experiences, and yet felt some feelings of white guilt. His family is decently connected and he initially got his job due to his father pulling some strings. Some people care about these things, others don't. Other people want to work right at the top of their father's company, and others want to work their way up to the top. Just like people's view on racial experiences, people's feelings about getting favorable benefits varies as well. My friend accepted and embraces said benefits, but he always wondered "what if?" What if his dad didn't help him get his job? Or what if he was born under a different family or different circumstances? It's always interesting to ponder these things, but at the same time you do have to carry on and live your life to the fullest.

Another thing what got me was the clip "A Girl like Me" that Sam showed during the lecture. The clip covered multiple stereotypes that black girls face in today's America and how they feel about them. One part that I found particularly applauding was when one said her mom told her to "stop, you look African." To which the girls response was "I am African," and she was visibly upset by her mother's comment--and she should be. The household is so important to a person's development in the future. What your household is like and the environment around you is such a huge contributing factor in how you're going to grow and develop down the road. When you hear words like that coming from your own mother, a person you're supposed to look up to--you have a big problem.

I definitely agree with your point about them being a product of their upbringing. Everyone is brought up in a different way, and it effects them in ways long term and short term. Some ways may seem normal to us like yours, and others may seem out to there to us like there's. I also agree that it's fairly obvious that they really didn't grasp the weight of what they were actually saying. They were brought up with that mindset and thought nothing of it. In America there's certain things we can and can not do, in other cultures that same list is completely different. Even though the audacity of what those girls were saying is hard for us to wrap our heads around, the same thing could have happened to us if we were in their shoes.

I definitely agree with your point about them being a product of their upbringing. Everyone is brought up in a different way, and it effects them in ways long term and short term. Some ways may seem normal to us like yours, and others may seem out to there to us like there's. I also agree that it's fairly obvious that they really didn't grasp the weight of what they were actually saying. They were brought up with that mindset and thought nothing of it. In America there's certain things we can and can not do, in other cultures that same list is completely different. Even though the audacity of what those girls were saying is hard for us to wrap our heads around, the same thing could have happened to us if we were in their shoes.