In class, we were posed with a serious scenario and asked to answer a serious question. The scenario was that we were on a small boat in a river and the boat was sinking. We knew how to swim, and we had to pick a person to save from the boat. We could save our mother, our significant other, or our child, but we could only save one person. When I first thought about whom to save, the answer popped right into my mind: I would save my child. However, I’ll go a little more in depth into the thought process that I had in order to come up with that answer. I went through each person one by one. When I was thinking about saving my mother, I decided that she was already 49 years old and had already lived for half of a lifetime. Although she has always taken care of me and made sure I have been safe, I would not save here in this situation. The other two people will benefit more from my choosing to save them. Additionally, my mother would probably not want me to save her in this situation. When I was thinking about saving my girlfriend, I decided that although she is only 19, she is still much older than the child (assuming it is a young child) and therefore has lived longer than the child. Although I love her, I would feel terrible about saving her life over the life of a small child. Also, as someone brought up in class, no girlfriend of mine would not be able to swim. Swimming is a necessary life skill. Through my thinking, I eliminated two out of the three choices. The child was the youngest and most helpless, and had the most life left to live. In this situation, a person only has a few factors from which to make a decision and these factors were the main determinants. From an economic standpoint, I picked the person who would benefit the most from my saving them. Interestingly enough, the majority of the class agreed with my opinion. When the professor asked the class who they would choose to save in this situation, about 90% of the class said they would save the child. Of course, there were a few selfish people who said they would choose to save their girlfriend or boyfriend, because they would be able to make new children with that person, but these people were few and far between. Although this situation is entirely unrealistic, because most of the people in this boat would be able to swim, I found this activity very interesting and I enjoyed hearing other peoples’ responses.

When Sam asked us the question about how many people are abducted by strangers per year, I honestly had no clue what the answer was going to be. Like most of the poll questions in that class, the answer is always the opposite of what most people might think, so I looked for the answer that seemed the most far-fetched. I knew that there were very few kidnappings in America each year, but I figured that Sam was trying to make a statement, so I chose 10,000. That ended up being the most wrong answer- the real answer was 100, which was closer to my original thought. I’m curious to see if the results of that poll question were slightly biased from people like me who chose a ridiculous answer in hopes that it would be correct. However, if the majority of the students in the class truly thought the answer was 10,000, then I think that is a testament to the media’s unrealistic portrayal of violence. The thing is, good news is just not interesting. People are naturally more interested in hearing about crime and destruction. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. As a matter of fact, any Penn Stater will know this concept well, because it is for this reason that the Sandusky scandal received a multitude of media attention while THON’s record-breaking 10.6 million dollar performance went unnoticed. The media perpetuates negative images and ignores positive images. I think this is why most people thought that there were 10,000 child abductions by strangers per year as opposed to 100. Through TV, the internet, and the news in general, we have been taught to think that the world is a very negative and dangerous place. Every day, we hear about bombings and shootings and kidnappings and fraud; however, the percentage of people exhibiting these types of behavior is very small compared to the percentage of good people in the world. Sometimes, people need to take a step back and realize that the world is not such a bad place. Sure, there are bad people out there, but there are not enough of them to make a significant impact in the world without the help of the media. This lecture was eye-opening and certainly changed my view on the nation. I realize that some areas are worse than others, but overall, we live in a very safe and caring environment and we should all appreciate it. It’s a shame that statistics like this kidnapping statistic never make the news; maybe these helicopter parents would let their kids walk to school for once. I think that most people need to look at life with a more positive outlook, and I think this activity helped many people in SOC 119 do this.

I found this topic to be one of the most interesting topic discussed this semester in SOC 119 – the idea that western women do not respect themselves because they show too much skin and dress in a cavalier fashion. In class, Sam showed us a political cartoon showing two women. One woman was dressed in traditional Muslim garb and we could only see her eyes – no skin was visible. The other woman was dressed in a skimpy bikini, showing the legally required amount of skin. Each woman was holding a sign accusing the other of not respecting herself and living in a male-dominated society. And that posed an interesting question: which woman was correct? In regards to the Western woman in the bikini, there are two arguments. There is the argument that she is dressing this way to impress males, not to be free, and is living in a male-dominated society. There is also the argument that she is dressing this way, because she is extremely comfortable with her body, does not care what others think about her, and wants to express herself through fashion. We later discussed this topic in my recitation, and there were a few points made. The first point was that the woman in the bikini is conforming to society’s standards of beauty and is not respecting herself. These standards are perpetuated through magazines, television, the Internet, and the media in general. Many women see pictures of extremely, unnaturally skinny models and celebrities and assume that being that skinny and dressing that way is the only way to be beautiful. This argument says that theses women are only trying to fit in with society’s standards and therefore, have little respect for themselves. The next point was that the woman in the bikini was respecting herself by showing her skin, because it proved that she was comfortable with her body. The act of her wearing the bikini was not an act of social conformation, but rather, an act showing that she can do whatever she wants, and therefore, is respecting herself. Personally, I can see both sides of the equation; however, at the end of the day, I think that many women wear small bikinis to impress their male-counterparts. That doesn’t it’s the wrong thing to do. It’s human instinct to want to impress those with whom we are attracted to, and both males and females are guilty of dressing in certain ways to impress each other. I think that the only person who can truly know the answer to the question of whether the woman in the bikini respected herself or not is the woman in the bikini. Either she respected herself or she didn’t respect herself.

I was born and raised in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. For those who have never been to Chadds Ford, it is a town located about 35 minutes from Philadelphia, and the majority of its residents are white. Chester County has one of the highest per capita incomes in Pennsylvania, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District consistently ranks at the top of the standardized test rankings, and many of the residents are very successful. Having grown up in this area, I felt very sheltered when I came to Penn State. Even though the vast majority of students at Penn State are white, Penn State still has a much larger population of minorities than my hometown. My high school had roughly 5 blacks, 40 Asians, and 20 Hispanics; the rest were white. Even so, although I have never been around much diversity, I still do not feel like I am in stage one or stage two. I feel like I have skipped to stage six. I am aware of racial inequality, I think it’s wrong, and I am open to all sorts of races, opinions, and views. SOC 119 has been an eye-opening class for many reasons, but I do not feel like it has changed my opinions on race. I came in with an open mind and I still have the same mindset that I had at the start. I’m not sure if it is because many of my favorite athletes and musicians are black, or because I have had experience travelling outside of the country, but I never needed real-life experience to progress through the typical stages that a normal white person goes through. Maybe I can attribute this stage-skipping to technology and globalization- I am exposed to so much through the internet and the media that I have been able to develop an open mind through the experiences of others. Although I consider myself to be at stage 6, I do not think that I ever went through stages 3 and 4 in which I have become the political correctness police and then have gotten mad at minorities. I don’t remember any such phases in my life. However, I do know that I now have friends who are minorities and I feel comfortable associating with people of all races and origins. Oftentimes, when I hear Sam speak in class about the typical white stages, I wonder how I came to stage 6 without any real life experience. This blog has made me realize that there are, in fact, others who like me, have progressed through the stages simply by having an open mind. I think that having an open mind is the most important step in understanding race. I know it has helped me in SOC 119.

I have always been very impressed with those who are bilingual. I’ve been taking introductory Spanish classes since elementary school and I can barely hold a conversation with a native speaker. My vocabulary is basic at best, and my speech is very slow and broken up. It is through my Spanish-speaking experience that I can truly appreciate how hard it is to become bilingual. Therefore, when I read the New York Times article “Why Bilinguals Are Smarter” which said that bilinguals are smarter than most people, I was not surprised at all. Over the years, I’ve always received great grades in my Spanish classes and I’m not even close to being bilingual. It takes so much work, effort, and time to fully learn a second language, and those who do so must be intelligent. Additionally, the task of have to decide between two separate words or phrases for a single thing at any given moment must be a serious brain workout. I can only imagine the number of extra decisions a bilingual person’s brain has to make a day, just to speak. Being bilingual is truly a remarkable thing, and I think everyone should strive to learn a second language.
On another note, I think that it is appalling that being able to speak a second language is generally viewed as detrimental to the electability of a presidential candidate. Honestly, how ethnocentric can Americans possibly be? Just because someone knows how to speak a second language doesn’t mean that he or she is any less “American” than anyone else. It only means that 1. He or she is probably smarter than the average American 2. He or she is striving to better himself or herself culturally and academically and 3. He or she is more fit to deal with international matters than those who do not speak a second language. Being able to speak a second language should be viewed as a positive attribute, not a negative. This is especially true in the present day, because English is slowly losing its dominance over America. 50% of the residents of Los Angeles County speak Spanish, and this number is growing every year. Spanish is becoming a major language in the United States and in the coming years, many people are going to have to learn to speak it. Personally, I think that every American should be required to take a Spanish class every year, starting in kindergarten. Moreover, Spanish should be treated as a core class and not an elective. This way, students will be forced to study the language over the course of their entire childhood, and with hope, they will be fluent by the time they reach college. Every other country requires its students to learn English, so why should America be any different? At the very least, the New York Times article showed that learning a second language will make a student smarter. At the very most, that student will become a bilingual, culturally educated, global citizen.

Today’s class was, without question, one of the SOC 119 classes that made me think the most. When we first began watching Sam’s TED lecture, I knew had a general idea of what he was going to be saying. Nevertheless, I listened to what he had to say and actually did what he was telling us to do – I put myself in the shoes of an Iraqi citizen. Having done this, I can say that it was a very interesting experience. I know that if I were an Iraqi citizen and I saw the United States take my land’s primary resources and station troops in my streets, I would be very angry and I would most likely hate the American people. In addition, I thought that Sam’s point about how Muslims in the Middle East view Americans as Christians on a crusade was very interesting. Although there are many Americans who aren’t Christian and many Americans who aren’t religious at all, the average poor Iraqi living without a television or a computer must associate Christianity with America. This way, they see Americans not only as enemy invaders, but as enemies in a holy war. However, this Iraqi perception of the American people would never occur to the average American. A conclusion like this can only come from putting oneself in an Iraqi’s shoes and viewing the situation through his/her eyes.
On another note, I was saddened when Sam showed us the videos of American soldiers running innocent Iraqis off the road with their Humvees and crushing the cars of Iraqis who were only trying to survive. I understand that it is very important for soldiers to obey orders, but at times, they should show a little moral discretion. No wonder why many Iraqis hate the American soldiers. How would you feel if, just for fun, an American Humvee ran your truck off the road as you were driving to work? I know I would be furious and would probably not be able to trust an American soldier again. It’s a shame that many times, the actions of a few people create an image for the entire group. As an American citizen, I don’t think there is any way to make this situation any better. I believe that the only thing I can do is to do my part and represent the American people in the brightest light by respecting and treating others the way I would like to be treated. This way, if I ever meet a native Iraqi, he or she will have a good experience with an American citizen. I think this applies to everyone who is not a policymaker or soldier in the military. The only thing we can do as ordinary citizens is to be the best citizens that we can be.

I 100% agree with what Sam had to say about typical white versus typical black names. I had known about this statistic before class, but had never really been given an opportunity to express my thoughts on the matter. The problem we have is that America is a predominately white country with many white leaders. Oftentimes, employers get so many applicants for the available positions and many of these applicants have very similar resumes with very similar work experience. Therefore, employers are forced to narrow down the applicant pool and one of the ways they choose to do this is by weeding out applicants with ethnic sounding names. This practice is extremely racist and should not be tolerated; however, it happens anyway and as a society, Americans need to stop this racism. Although the American people absolutely need to stop performing racist acts such as the latter, these racist acts will never end until black people start sticking up for themselves. The black girl in class was a perfect example of someone who will be negatively affected by the actions of racist employers, and instead of sticking up for herself, she merely stated that in order to overcome this adversity, she needs to work harder. When she made this comment, Sam yelled at her and rightfully so. He told her that she doesn’t need to work harder and that white people need to stop being racist. From my personal experiences, I have met many black and brown people with similar “roll over” attitudes when it comes to overcoming adversity. This may be a white world, but if the American people ever want to completely eradicate racism, black and brown people cannot remain content with the additional obstacles that they must face in life in order to get ahead. At the end of the day, it might just be easier for black and brown people (as well as other non-whites) to give their children white first names rather than ethnic first names. However, doing this is only giving in to society’s racist tendencies. One possible solution might be for families to give their children ethnic-sounding first names and white middle names. Again, however, this is giving into society’s racist tendencies. This is a very tough decision. On one hand, parents should want their children to have every opportunity to succeed in life, and if giving one’s child a predominately white name will help the child achieve success, then parents should be will to do so. However, that would only perpetuate the racism in the workplace and things would never get better. The whole situation is a shame am embarrassed to be part of a society in which employers judge applicants on their names and not their qualities.

The question “Why do some some races dominate certain sports?” is an age old question that has been fairly taboo in our modern, politically correct society. Everyone has pondered this question, but no one every talks about it. I’m glad that Sam has given us a chance to express our feelings on the issue.
From a socio-economic standpoint, hockey is the best example of why it is dominated by a certain race. Everyone knows that hockey is dominated by white athletes. Most teams have zero racial diversity, and with the exception of Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers, there are very few black hockey players. In addition, there are even fewer hockey players that trace their ancestry back to Asia. However, there is a socio-economic reason for all of this. Hockey is a very expensive sport in which one needs pads, a league, and ice time. Not only does a set of hockey pads cost hundreds of dollars and need to be replaced every few years, but if a player is not from the northeast, Canada, or eastern Europe, they need to play indoors. Since ice rinks are not as common as football fields and basketball courts, ice time becomes very hard to get (that is why so many hockey players have practice at odd times, either early in the morning or very late at night.) These factors make hockey a very expensive sport, and therefore, attract players from the middle to upper-middle class. Yesterday, a girl in class made the point that “there are no ice hockey rinks in the hood.” She then went on to explain that people from the hood (according to her these people are predominantly black), an area in which there is a lower level of income, choose to play basketball rather than hockey, because basketball only requires a hoop and a basketball. It’s much easier to go outside to shoot hoops rather than to spend a ton of money to play on an ice hockey team. That is why so many urban children choose to play cheaper sports, such as basketball, baseball, and football.
Of course, to become a professional athlete, it takes a certain innate talent, a talent that socio-economic theory cannot explain. Oftentimes, there tends to be a larger percentage of tall blacks than tall whites, so this is another reason why blacks tend to dominate professional basketball. With size comes strength, hand size, and many of the skills necessary to become a great basketball player. However, if whites or Asians had these physical traits, they would be great basketball players too. At the end of the day, socio-economic races perpetuate the problem, but certain races will still dominate certain sports based on their physical traits.

I think the main reason why many people choose to disassociate themselves from other similar ethnic groups is to honor their ancestry and their heritage. A person’s heritage is a very special thing, and when people are grouped into a category based on looks and not culture and ancestry, they often get offended and correct the offender. One typical example of this scenario took place when I was at summer camp around seven years ago. I was hanging out with a group of guys and one of them happened to be of Asian ancestry. One of the white kids asked him if he was Chinese and he shouted “No you f**king idiot I’m Korean!” He was extremely offended by the white kid’s generalization and made it clear to everyone that he was not Chinese and was in fact, Korean. This is not the only time I have been present on one of these occasions. Over the course of my entire life, I’ve learned that Asians are care very much about people identifying them by their correct ancestry. And when you think about it, that makes sense. The continent of Asia is so large that there are many different types of people and there are probably hundreds of different Asian ethnic groups. And the same goes for Africa and Latin America. I know that I would personally be annoyed if someone called me French or Italian, when in fact, I am Irish, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian. Going back to the original prompt, I would be especially annoyed if I was from the Dominican Republic and someone called me African American. The Dominican Republic and Africa are very different! They literally share zero similarities, except for the fact that there are many black Dominicans as a result of the slave trade. The cultures are entirely different, the people speak different languages, and the two countries are on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To some, this may seem silly, but I can certainly understand why some people would take offense to ignorant comments based solely on appearance. I know that I take a great deal of pride in my diverse heritage and I’m sure many others feel the same way. I feel lucky that, as a white Jewish boy from Pennsylvania, I have never had to deal with people messing up my heritage. When others look at me, they see a typical white, suburban, American guy, and there is little room for generalizations. If someone were to make an uneducated comment, however, I would politely correct him or her and point out his or her mistake. One’s heritage is a way of self-identification, and everyone deserves to be looked at as the person they are.

Everyone always hears stories about Shamans from schools or from movies, but when Sam told our class that he had not only met a Shaman, but had been healed by a Shaman, I was awestruck. I have always associated Shamans with Native American tribes, wearing wampum belts, chanting strange spells, and dancing around fires. Of course, I got this image from TV shows and movies, and I never really gave any merit to their special powers. I always thought that the reason they are so knowledgeable is because they are old and have grown wise with age. As for their spiritual encounters, I always associated those with the fact that Shamans are always high on one substance or another. All in all, I had very little respect for Shamans or any power that they might possess. And when you think about it, that’s pretty understandable. I’m a non-religious suburban white guy who has grown up in a commercial area for his entire life, and who is currently attending Penn State. Therefore, I’ve never had an opportunity to come into contact with a Shaman, nor have I ever been taught by a Shaman. When Sam shared his Shaman experience with the class, however, I had to really rethink my stance on this issue. Sam experienced the healing powers of a 200 year old Shaman first hand. The fact that this Shaman cured a high ankle sprain with a random lotion that a few spirits told him to make is crazy. Although I didn’t personally experience this situation, the fact that someone I know did experience this forces me to respect the ways of the Shaman, no matter how strange they may seem. It’s interesting to think that someone can become so smart and so wise without going to high school attending a university. Americans spend much of their lives learning in school, so that they can one day obtain a mediocre job and support their families. These Shaman trip shrooms and suddenly gain the power to make medicines and heal others. I find this very interesting – the human brain must be very complex. Sam’s Shaman story reminded me of the time he told us about the Shaolin monk who sat his students down, said a blessing for each one of them, and then killed himself with his own mind. Now that is crazy. It is stories like these that really force you to think about the power of the mind, and the things you can do if you train it. Both the Shaolin monks and the various Shamans of tribal culture share many similarities and interest me greatly. And to be honest, hearing these stories makes me feel like an idiot, because my mind is certainly not as powerful as the mind of a Shaman.