What a great question considering the school we go to! Here at Penn State, partying is something we do quite often, and therefore have a lot of chances to encounter different types of people and things at each and every one of them. Let me answer this kids question piece by piece.

First up is the white people party. If a party predominately white people, I am in my element. Why? Cause I am white. If a party is full of white people, clearly I do not have any problems socializing and what not because I am with a bunch people that are the race as me and therefore there is never a fear of saying the wrong thing or violating any cultural norms. At a white people party, we are listing to our techno and raging with our fanny packs on, so just don’t mind us.

Second, the kid talks about going to a party that is primarily Native American kids. First off, I do not many Native American people. I should say I do not know many Native American people that are like fully Native American. Aside from the stereotypical face painted people dancing tribally around a fire (which I am sure does not happen at modern day Native American parties), I do not know anything about Native American parties. If I could have the opportunity to go to a party predominately with Native Americans, I think it would be awesome. I would love to know what a party with Native American people just to know what it is like. I’m sure y’all are awesome.

Third, the kid talks about going to a party with a lot of Asian kids there. I know Sam said they would only invite white kids with calculators, but I am really going to go out on a limb here and say that also is not true. As I said with Native Americans, I do not know an extensive number of Asian kids so I do not know what they do at parties. I’ve partied with a few Asian kids and they are pretty awesome, so I could definitely be okay with going to a party of mostly Asian kids and having a good time.

Last, this kid mentions going to a party that is predominately African-American people. I would love this. I have multiple African-American friends back home and here at school and they are always a good time to party with. The ones I know tend to be pretty loud, but know how to have a good time. Therefore, I would be okay with going to an African-American party as well.

As you can see, I do not really care if a party is not hosted by people that are predominately my race. I truly care more about how cool the individual kids are, not their race as a whole. Although it might be a little hard to interact at first because you are clearly the odd one out, after a while, I would learn to fit in (I hope) and have a good time!

I think this is an interesting question posed by Sam and his lovely wife and I think there are definitely parallels that can be drawn between the male standard and the white standard.

As we learned in class, the male standard is very much about them. Men in our society are looking for women that are very stereotypical and follow guidelines to what our media and other influences believe women should be. The male standard is about the women that you can see in ads and in magazines and other media that a skinny, perfectly posed, and overall beautiful women. Also, men are looking for a girl that is going to be willing to satisfy him and maybe not so focused on satisfaction for her in the relationship. As we discussed in class, women often try and fulfill this male standard by being obsessed with how they look and obsessing over the male standard. As we all know, it takes girls a long time to get ready to go out on any given night. We can assume this is because girls are taking their time picking out an outfit that will be appealing to men, putting on make-up, and doing their hair in order to look their best when they go out. As we know, these women are trying to give themselves the image that the male standard is looking for in order to have a chance to either hook up with, or possibly start a relationship with a guy. Lastly, I think that once a guy and girl get together, the male standard takes over again and the sexual experiences between them may go back to media standards and the sex may just be the rip your clothes, quick, male pleasured oriented sex.

I think the male standard I just described can often times be similar to the white standard when it comes to women and sex. As a white male, I can say that most of the girls I am attracted to are white women who are skinny, beautiful, have long hair and the list of generic things can go on and on. Much like the male standard, I think the women that white people is often time attracted to be the women we see in ads and in other realms of media. Also, I think white women fulfill the male standard by getting all dressed up and ready to go out in order to hook-up with or start a relationship with a guy. I also think that when it comes to hook-ups, the white standard is much like the male standard in regard to the sex being for male pleasure. However, when it comes to relationships, like we discussed in class, I think sexual experiences can become more focused on both partners over time, rather than just the man.

That is all I have for this week SOC 119. See ya.

In relation to what has been talked about in class this past week, I am not entirely sure how this fits in. However, it appears that this might be something that was brought up by a story someone told in one of the discussion groups so I guess I can do my best to answer the question. To be honest, as a white male, I have never even heard this statement and I cannot say for sure if I even believe this is a real thing. However, I will do my best to try and shine some light onto why this may be happening in situations you see.

Based on your statement, I am going to have to go out on a limb here and say the approaching of minority women by white men you are referring to is in a romantic or attracted to kind of way. I say this because I am a part of many groups here at Penn State and have approached, talked to, became friends, etcetera with multiple minority women. Therefore, I assume many other white males have done the same.

As someone else has already pointed out, a lot of social interaction that goes on here at Penn State is done where people are drinking or had been drinking prior to the interaction occurring. Therefore, I am not a hundred percent sure if you are mistaking them approaching and talking to minority women while drunk as the only factor as why they are choosing that time to approach and talk to them. As we all know, alcohol can be quite the liquid courage for some people. Therefore, I wonder if some white males are intimidated or nervous to talk to minority women when they are sober because they have not had many opportunities to talk to minority women. When people do not know a lot about a person’s background or culture and want to make an effort to get to know them, maybe they are afraid or nervous to mess things up or say something that is offensive. Perhaps having that liquid courage inside of them gives them the opportunity they were looking for to approach and talk to a minority women and then if things go horribly wrong, they can fall back on being drunk as the excuse for why it happened. I also think this works both ways with minority groups approaching whites, whites approaching minority groups, and even minority groups approaching other minority groups. I think when the connotations of the approaching and talking are just in a friendly way, people do not have a problem doing it. However, when it becomes romantic or flirtatious, I think there is a little more hesitation out of people.

I personally have no idea if what I said is true, it is merely a thought. Have a great week SOC 119.

I think this is a really good question posed by these guys. Every year we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on foreign aid to help countries get started, rebuild, fight wars, feed the hungry, or whatever the case may be. I think it is important that we continue to help people in other countries because they are far more worse off than we are. People in other countries who do not have clothes on their backs, shelter, or food to eat on a daily basis, still deserve attention from countries who have a majority of the population far better off than those people. Each and every day we stories about people like those in Haiti who struggle for survival and those people deserve our help. I do not think that the United States should refuse to give foreign aid, but I think it is important to look at our own countries needs as well. Despite foreign aid being important, I think it is equally as important to realize that not everyone in the United States is well off. There are people in the United States who could use assistance in getting back on their feet. The United States should take a closer look at the poverty level and such things and realize that that some of the money that we spend on foreign aid should be kept here in the United States to help our own people. If we can help improve the lives of the people in our on country, I think those people will in turn be more willing and able to help improve the lives of people in other countries.

In regards to the Native Americans, I think they are one of the groups that could use the most help here in the United States. As we all know, we took the land from the Native Americans all those years ago, and moved them off of it to other parts of the country. Not only was this originally their land, we killed and impacted the lives of many of the Native Americans and they were never quite able to recover. I think the United States government should most definitely look into improving the lives of the Native American people, fixing up their reservations to ensure a higher quality of life, and look into other methods of helping out the indigenous people of our country. Although most nations have started or at some point in their history been involved in the taking over of land, I think it is important to realize this is a different time and things like that can be seen as wrong and as if they should never have happened. For that reason, I agree with these guys that it is important to give foreign aid, but also important to help our own.

I have no problem with Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action can be defined as the intentional inclusion of women and other minority groups in the workplace based on the finding that they were previously excluded. The goal of Affirmative Action is to change the employer's system for making employment related decisions. It also seeks to give educated and well qualified women and other minority groups the chance to be included in the work force and given a chance to obtain jobs in higher level positions. Because of the past injustices that white males in particular, as well as other groups, have put on women and minority groups, I think it is okay that there are programs set up to try and right some past injustices by giving women and minority groups equal options in the workplace. In some ways, I do not feel like these groups are really receiving hand outs. White people have opportunities throughout the entire history of the United States while women and minority groups have not. If those groups of people had not been discriminated against and given the same opportunities as white people, they probably would not need these so called hand outs that they are receiving today. In some cases, it is impossible not to think that if women and minority groups had been given equal opportunities throughout time, whether or not they would be on an equal playing field with white people, if not ahead of white people. Now it is time to actually answer the question that these two guys posed to the Sociology 119 class.

The answer to the question these two kids asked is no. Because I do not have a problem with Affirmative Action and Nepotism, I would not mind taking a hand out from someone. First off, I am a white male and therefore I cannot really benefit from Affirmative Action whether I believe it is right or not. As for Nepotism, I cannot say that I have a problem with getting something based off someone I know. Is that not what the idea of Networking is about? If I have family members, friends, or people I know in a position that could help get me something, I have no problem allowing them to help me if they want to do so. If my network is in a position of power in their jobs or whatever, they clearly have worked in some way to get there and have the qualifications to be in that job. Not only do I work hard, but I know people who could help me out. If I can work hard and use my extensive network to start my career, I will use it. So the ultimate answer to your question is yes, I would still take a handout if the opportunity was given to me.

I do not believe in any way that women are not considered to be truly "free" because some of you will not raise your hand and say you are on your period.

The first thing I would like to point out is the way Sam presented the question and how it automatically put a Taboo like effect on the whole conversation. To initiate the question of menstruation by asking the girls in the class if they were "bleeding," was the completely wrong approach to getting a valid response from his audience. I believe that if he had chose to ask the question in a more normal way, like if anyone was "on their period" or if it was their "time of the month," I think he would have seen a lot more girls be honest with him. Another way he could have gotten a true response out of them would have been to just ask a clicker question. I know Sam would argue that if he kept the question normal or anonymous with a clicker question, that he would not consider that free because you are not taking people out of their comfort zone, but I do not think that is the case. I do not think this topic is something anyone particularly wants to discuss, but I think girls would at least be willing to say when they are on their period if it was not made into such a big deal.

I also think this is a subject of privacy. There are things in life that are personal and just because we choose not to discuss them does not mean people are not free. They are FREE to discuss them if they want too, but most choose not too. I saw someone post that they would not give Sam their social security number, or passwords to things, but they are still free and that is completely true. Just because people do not choose to tell you something does not mean they are not FREE too, they are simply using their FREEDOM of choice to not tell you.

To be honest, I thought Sam's talk about free will versus determinism was a very good lecture and I do not want to seem like I did not get anything out of what he said because I did. However, I think that using the example of girls not being willing to admit they are on their period is a good example of free will. I think it is free will to choose not to disclose certain information. I think he could have searched for a better example of free will to discuss in class, but nonetheless I thought it was a good lecture.

I believe that people censor themselves out of fear and respect.

I think in some instances, people censor themselves out of fear. I think that people can be very careful about what they say, in fear of the consequences of saying the wrong thing. These consequences could be physical, verbal, or publicly embarrassing, but regardless, they fear it. I think this can be seen in a lot of different areas of life as well. I think people are censor themselves when it comes to religious views because they do not want to push their views on to someone else, they do not want to make incorrect assumptions about other peoples religion, or they simply do not want to make judgements about people based on their religion. I think these things are seen in race as well. People are afraid to say certain things about race because they do not want to come across as racist or ethnocentric. People are afraid they will come across as someone who thinks because they are white or black or middle eastern or whatever the case is, that they are better than other people. Although I think people do tend to censor themselves out of fear, I think some people also do it out of respect.

I think in some other instances, people censor themselves out of respect. I think some people are not censoring what they say because they are afraid of the consequences of what they say, but rather they censor themselves because it is the right thing to do. I think some people truly believe that everyone is equal and that there is no superior religion or race or age or whatever category you may put people in and define them by. I think some people truly believe that people are all equal and therefore respectfully chose to censor themselves to not sound egotistical or ethnocentric. I think certain people really respect that people are different and will be from different races and different religious groups and therefore, will chose to stay neutral and censored on certain topics.

I do not think that one reason is better than the other to censor what people say. It is not my role in life to say that people must respect and appreciate all people of all races and all religions and that we all be equal and get along. Although that would be nice, I am not the one to say that people have to act any certain way. With that said, if people censor themselves because they are afraid of the consequences of not censoring themselves or censor themselves out of respect for all races and religions, or choose not censor themselves at all, that is their choice.

Well first off I would like to say that I am happy to see some blogs up after class on Tuesday (I always like to have my blogs done as soon as I can). I learned Tuesday that Sam and I have a different view on "really cool" in regards to the class. Although I did not find the lecture as fun and cool as others might have, I did learn something.

So today Sam told us that Hispanic and Latino and Mixed are not racial groups, but ethnic groups. Now the question that Mr. Ellis here poses is, "How Do We Classify People Who are More Than One Race?" and my answer to that is....do we really have too? What I mean is that I do not know if it is really that important to classify people based on their race. I know Sam said early in the semester that being "color blind" or "acting like race is not a part of our society" are not the right thing to do, but I also think classifying people is not the right thing to do either. Personally, I do not care how you classify yourself! If you are part African-American, part White, part Middle Eastern or part whatever, classify yourself however you want too! If you are part African and part Middle Eastern and you take more pride or identify more with one group over the other, then classify yourself that way. Classify yourself however you want. If you a proud to be a certain race, then by all means announce it and be proud of it. However, if you are proud and confident in all parts of your ethnicity and you are of multiple races, then just put mixed on the application or census or say mixed when you are asked. You do not need to have your own special classification, there is always an option for "mixed" or "other" on those sheets. Check that box and write down everything you are and everything you are proud to be!

Another reason I answered this question like I did is because Sam spent seventy-five minutes of my life drilling into my head the number 99.99. That is the percentage of the human genome that is the same in ALL human beings in the ENTIRE world. That means that a tiny .01% of the human genome is actually different and that just happens to be the external part. Well if that is truly the case, then we are pretty much ALL the SAME! Genetically speaking, we are ALL the SAME so why do we have to classify ourselves. I know for the sake of this question why he asked, but in the end I do not care how you classify yourself. If you are Black, White, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, or whatever the case may be, THAT IS GREAT! In the end, I'm going to classify you based on you and what kind of person you are, not how you define yourself racially.

That is all for me this week! Keep it real Soc. 119 and give my comment the thumbs up!

In the words of Sam today, PEN YEAH I AM INSPIRED TO TRAVEL TO IRAN!

When Sam first asked us the clicker question about how many of us would think it would be cool to travel to Iran, I said I disagreed. My initial thought was, why the hell would I want to go to Iran? Why would I want to leave the United States? Why would I want to leave country where I am the majority and I feel safe? Why would I want to go to country full of people who hate me? Why would I want to go to country where I would not feel safe? I could go on for hours with questions like this that were running through my head when he first asked the question. However, I was saying all these things without a real reason.

When I started to really think about it, I actually changed my opinion about wanted to travel to Iran. In my head, I actually started to answer all of the questions I posed to myself before. Why would I want to go to Iran? Well maybe I should want to go to Iran because it will give me the ability to learn things about a different culture. Why would I want to leave the United State? Maybe I should want to leave the United States because it gives me a chance to travel the world and realize there is more to the world than just the small bubble I live in. Why would I want to leave a country where I am the majority and I feel safe? Well I came to the conclusion that in the United States I may the majority, but that does not make me better than anyone else just because I am a white, middle-class American. I also thought about the safety aspect because how safe can I feel in country where random acts of violence and such are happening everyday. I am only so much safer here than I am anywhere in the world. Why would I go to a country full of people who hate me and where I would not feel safe? Well like I said, I am only so much safer here than if I am visiting another country and saying the people of Iran hate me was such a blind statement on my part. I do not hate any minority group in the United States and therefore who was I to say that people of Iran would hate me. They are people too. They are no different really than me and you.

Finally, Sam really helped convince me that I would be open to the idea of traveling to Iran by showing us the video of life in Iran. Not all of what you see on the news and such is what the country really is. It showed that people in Iran like to have fun, shop, play games, and hangout just like we do here in America. Also, getting to hear Malziar talk via Skype really made me realize that the people of Iran are not that different from us. He was a funny guy who shared a lot of similar interests as those people in the class. Lastly, I would just like to say that Goli, the Iranian girl in our class has given a great reputation to Iranian people. She speaks her mind and even talked to Malziar in Farsi today in class. I think she is awesome as hell and I hope she realizes that people in our class really appreciate her speaking her mind during the discussions about Iranian people. Hopefully she now realizes that she should not be ashamed to tell people she is Iranian because we all seem to think it is pretty kick ass! That is all for me this week Soc 119, keep it real!

I did not mean to lump all people from the middle east together. It was more referencing the girl who spoke who was pale, but a little darker than most people and had an accent. My comment was more tailored to refer to her in particular.