This was another interesting lecture and Sam’s insight into the issue really helped me to understand affirmative action and nepotism. I thought affirmative action’s purpose was to help discrimination and provide equal opportunities for all in society. So I was a little shocked that 10 percent of all jobs, admissions to schools, and various programs etc. are connected to some type of affirmative action program. So this means that affirmative action really does not affect our world. During class Sam ask a white, black, and Jewish person to help him demonstrate the reason we need to build greater equity. It seemed to me that regardless of affirmative action if the person cannot perform the job the white person always gets ahead. So if everyone was equal despite color or gender all would have equal opportunity at success. Nepotism was another interesting subject in the lecture. In my town nepotism is the town topic. It has been rumored and discussed publicly that the superintendent of schools has helped every family member to secure some type of position in the school district. Recently the community has taken a stand on nepotism as the superintendent of schools is retiring. This has prompted a search for a new superintendent leading some members of the council to seek someone outside of the area while others favor a local person. As of now it looks like nepotism may continue on here as the council has decided to hire a local individual versus an outsider. I enjoyed the conversations at the end of lecture with the boys and their thoughts about how to solve these issues. I agree that education is key as people need to understand these issues. Once people have an understanding of the issues we can come together and draw on each other ideas to put together a plan that would help put everyone on equal footing. I think to do this we must begin at the county level and work up to the national level. I had no idea that affirmative action existed at Penn State and had admission counselors that recruited black or brown people from certain cities. This gives these kids a chance at success. A merger was announced between a medical school and well known trauma center. It seems the school will open its doors next year and will have criteria for those individuals that will be accepted. I wondered if this is tied to affirmative action program as disadvantaged students, residence of the state, and students in the area will be given first choice for admission. This area is very poor and has many people of color. So I wondered if this program could possibly be provided to allow them an opportunity to succeed or if they succeed to encourage others to strive for success.

I cannot believe either how these children will miss out on opportunities because of where they end up going to school. It is a great question about if anything has improved or worsened, I never really thought about until you mention that and I would like to know if it has. I really never thought about how advantaged it is just by being white. I agree with you I thought that idea about the pot of tax money was a great idea and also wondered about taxes for those schools and how they handle them. You have great questions and I was I knew the answers to them.

This lecture had me thinking as well and I did think that Sam made several points that got everyone’s attention. I only knew some things about immigration and the government but like you said I did not know until now. One thing that really got to me was how businesses would manipulate the system. When Dr. Richards talked about illegal immigrants paying taxes I did not understand that until someone in class asked him how they were paying the taxes and thought it was interesting how they would either borrow someone else’s SSN or stealing the SSN and paying someone for it. When Dr. Richards brought up about immigrants and speaking English, I think that wherever you are migrating to, you should be able to speak the language. I do not think that you should give up everything about your culture or beliefs but I do think that when you are in a different country you should speak their language.

I enjoyed the lecture on immigration and never really thought much about illegal immigration. I think this is probably because my great-grandfather was a legal immigrant from Ireland. He opened a small deli in Altoona and supported his family. My grandfather always tells us about the sacrifices made by his father so he could have a better life. He thinks that each generation sacrifices something so their children can have a better life. After Sam’s lecture I began to think about illegal immigration and the influx of so many Mexicans into our community. They are everywhere doing anything from lawn service, construction work, to picking farm produce in our area. Now I realize the controversy over them being allowed to work here in the United States. My parents had a room in our home dry walled recently and 4 Mexicans did it in one day. They were carried 8 ft sheets of dry wall up to the second floor, cut the dry wall, cleaned up, and were done in 2 hours. At the time I did not get the comments from my father about how many of them were actually legal. He also gave them extra cash for cleaning up as he said they do not get paid much for the work. After listening to this lecture and thinking back on the dry wall story it makes me think that we as (White Americans) a society have become so educated we may think it is beneath us to do menial labor. They are leaving their home looking for a better life just as my great-grandfather did so many years ago. It disturbs me that we seem to focus on immigration as bad and not realizing history is repeating itself. The letter read in class that Jackson wrote telling about the battle at Horseshoe Bend and the killing of the Creek Indians was horrible especially using the skins to make bridle reins. The Indians were not accepted in the culture then because maybe we did not truly understand their ways. This could be the reason we are so against illegal immigration---afraid that this influx of immigrants may begin to take over our way of life as we know it. Even though I am not sure how I really feel about the issue I think everyone deserves a chance at a better life. From a business perspective it seems like it is beneficial in terms of income tax paid (which I assumed they did not pay), money sent home to help their families, and keeping wages lower, which in the end makes money for the United States. In a way it seems like business is hanging on to illegals for their self-preservation. I am not sure about the solution to this problem but after this class it certainly has broadened my horizon and made me think more clearly about looking at the issues from both sides.

I thought Dr. Richards lecture for this lesson was very interesting. I too have a friend that went overseas and just fell in love. She actually wants to travel more to different countries just to experience the culture. In high school I took French for three years and I was the worst in my class at speaking the language and could not understand it either. I feel the same way I think that it would have been better for me if I had started in elementary school. I am glad to hear that they are starting languages now at the elementary level. I just wish the language being introduced into the school system would have started earlier. During the summer I work at a day camp and part of my job is to announce when the children are going home, I have to talk to the parents in order to find out what their childs name and a lot of them have a heavy accent and sometime I cannot understand what they are saying. The one good thing is that I have someone with me who understands them a little better.

The lecture on multiculturalism really got me thinking about the change that society is undergoing right now. It seems that has crept up on the United States and its people. I have heard my grandparents say many times to my parents “if the whites continue to educate themselves and forgo having children eventually we will become the minority.” I never really thought about this statement till today. It is true that brown people are beginning to dominate society. On a recent trip to the grocery store the English and Spanish language now dominates food items. In particular Green Giant vegetables got my attention with a picture of the vegetable and English and Spanish information on the label concerning the weigh, name, and directions to make the vegetable. Store chains are starting to cater to their customers. I saw this on a recent visit to Houston, Texas with clothing and cookware. I can also see the change in my own community, which was at one time 90% white it has certainly become more diverse with an influx of Russian and Guatemalans. Globalization is here and in order for us to adapt we must embrace this and begin to look at ways to better ourselves by learning more about a culture and its language. I thought it was interesting that the Rap and Hip Hop video depicting the different cultures shows that all over the world we are experiencing the same type of music. The second half of the lecture on LGBT is something that has been prominent in our generation. It is like Sam said a civil rights movement for LGBT. They just want to be able to live in society and be offered the same rights as straight people. I agree that they live in two worlds just as the colored people but the more accepting society becomes of this group less and less will be heard of “hiding their issue”. Even the military is starting to come around on this issue. The word flaunt is a strong word but sometimes you say things just because you have heard others use a term. You do not really think about the meaning of the term. I do not believe that LGBT want to flaunt their sexual orientation but again just want to be accepted in society. The business world statistics were surprising, as I did not know that many companies find this a non-issue. The other issue in the LG community is adoption. When Sam showed the slide comparing the function of the family the only difference is sexual orientation, which does not influence them being a family. I never really thought much about this issue and the raising of children in this situation. This class has broadened my knowledge about race, culture and has made me begin to see these topics in a different light.

I found this lecture on racial identity to be very thought provoking. It was interesting to see race through another cultures eyes. The questions from students at the end of the lecture made a good point about how different areas of the country look at racial identity in other ways. The videos on discrimination were interesting as I never thought about color and it’s affect on someone obtaining housing. Discrimination did not just affect color but single parents with children and disabled people. These people too were not able to secure housing. The video of the colored girls discussing how they relate to white people by comparing hair types made me wonder if they really would like to be us. It seemed as though kinky hair was not the same as permed hair and lighting skin color made them feel white. What struck me the most was how they were engrained at such a young age to want to be white. Hair and skin color was an issue at this stage. The video about the research with the black and white baby doll was very interesting to me. I wondered in some of those clips if the colored girl had been programmed to answer white as when ask which doll they would pick and why she would pick this one---she seemed to hesitate like she really wanted to say the black doll was prettier. It made me wonder why it is so important whether we play with a white or black doll or both colors. Another question is why they did not try this experiment with other people of color. These videos really made me see that people of color know their color from early on versus white people who need time to absorb whiteness. The statistics about color at Penn State really hit home—although I knew it was a white school I never saw the statistics that make it so clear. It was interesting to see the cities that most of the kids are from and the minorities represented at Penn State. I never really thought about people of color having to balance two worlds. The Jena 6 rally showed how people of color wanted white people but yet they expected more of their race to attend. It seemed like it was their event but yet they did not want to offend the white race. The LL Bean and the immersion stage was interesting as I never thought about how people of color look at white people modeling clothes in a catalog. So they want to be like us in a sense. The discussion about the dorms is true as I remember having one or two people of color on my floor. My RA was a person of color which thinking about today’s discussion made me wonder if she was there to provide a sense of belonging to people of color. It gave them a tie to their ancestry.

I have never realized there were stages of racial identity or knew that the stages are different for each race. I agree with you about the video associating white with good and black with bad. It was interesting how they picked and played with the white doll. I too thought they would pick the black doll. I have an American Girl Doll called Kristen, who looks like me blonde hair and blue eyes, and I was the opposite of the video. I wanted Addy who is black and came from a family of slaves. My grandmother wanted to know why I wanted a black doll instead of a white doll. I could not answer but just knew I really liked Addy. I guess this was a little like what we have discussed in class because my family talked me out of the colored doll. When I saw that video about the dolls it made me wonder why I was so adamant about having a colored doll. Did I know then the difference between our identities and want to know why we were different---this still haunts me 18 years later.

There were many topics in this lecture that I thought were very interesting including guilt. Like Dr. Richards has mention in his lecture about parents using this tactic, it is so true because when I was little my parents would use that on my siblings and I, all the time. Even though we are older now they still try to use this tactic. I am the same way about feeling guilty every time I see a deer that is lying on the side of the road. When Dr. Richards mention the wet dog and the washcloth thing, I could not believe it because one I never heard about the wet dog and second I use a washcloth and was surprised that other whites did not use one. I agree with you I do not think that it means we are unclean but we just have different ways of doing things.

I think this class has exposed me to see race as more than just black, brown or white. Race is much deeper and it has all these different levels to explore and learn. I think when in a situation with people of color now I may be more apt to question the reason for the way they do things. A friend of mine from Pakistan recently got engaged and I learned very quickly the differences between us. I would like to understand why marriages are arranged but must admit I am a little fearful that my questions or responses might offend her. The video about the two white nationalist’s singers took me by surprise to see such young people promoting white society. The girls are being taught about whiteness from such a young age that this is all they will ever know and will not have the freedom to explore life. Too me this was kind of sad. I wondered if they will ever awaken and rebel against the beliefs they are being taught or have they been enmeshed so deeply that they never will question. In my mind I wondered how many people are in this movement and could they eventually cause an uprising between people of color making racial relations worse. Is it possible to have a similar situation that led to the holocaust? This is in my mind as I recently visited my sister in Texas and one of our educational days was spent in the museum dedicated to the holocaust. The re-visioning stage was very interesting especially guilt. I could equate to this as my parents use this tactic all the time and I usually feel bad and do what they want. I never thought about it in relation to people of color and how I benefited from racism. The part of the lecture on racial identifiers got my attention. I recently was out with a friend who was telling me about crackers----believe me I was lost as she did not mean food. It seems this is a common term used by people of color, which means whites. I never would have thought it was related to race. I think I will be more conscious of using terms unless there is full understanding as to the meaning. It is true that we identify certain things with races but in the end does it really matter, as we are all human beings. I think white people say dumb things sometimes because they do not know how to communicate with people of color and maybe this is their way of finding out more about the person or trying to fit in. They are not thinking about race. I want to continue to see more beyond just whiteness so that maybe we can improve and not obstruct racial relations.