After Tuesdays lecture, I walked away thinking about illegal immigration and immigration in general in a different way than I had previously. Many of my thoughts went back to when I was first learning about immigration in elementary school about the people coming over by boat to Ellis Island. I remembered how I perceived people coming to the U.S. and how I didnt understand why so many people got turned away and had to return to their original country. I dont think it seemed very fair when I was learning about it for the first time then and it now that I know more about the issue from each succeeding year of school and this class I better understand some of the reasoning behind the immigration controls. Sam mentioned that the number of people that come to the United States must be controlled. It seems as though this is a valid point because it is not saying to turn away everyone, but to make sure that the nation will continue to prosper by only letting in those that will help the country improve. I feel that illegal immigration is inevitable because of how this country was founded and how it operates compared to others in the world, but there are things that can still change on how we perceive them and how they are treated once the illegal immigrant is here and trying to work. After Sam said that the costs for illegal immigration balances out what illegal immigration gives to the U.S. society, it doesnt seem as bad as some of the news makes it out to be, but there is still room to improve. I agree with the fact that there should be limitations on how many immigrants should be let in, but I wouldnt know how to prevent some people from pursuing work here and others to go back home. That may be the problem for many people. We dont know how to put limitations on immigration fairly so we just let it be with people continuing to react to the foreigners the way they always have been. Instead of trying to figure out a way to stop or limit people from immigrating to this country, the people of the United states can learn more about why they had left their families and home country to pursue their dreams and try to help some people out. If the people who immigrate here are very hard-working as Sam said, if they have help from the people who are already here they will able to help the nation prosper further in a shorter amount of time than they would on their own.

When this was brought up in class I was not surprised since the high school that I attended was mostly white with only about seven black students out of about 1200+ students total in the school. I had never really thought much of it. I had just thought that it was natural since mostly white people inhabited the surrounding suburban neighborhoods there would therefore be mostly white people in the schools by default. However, learning that most schools in the United States are like this has lead me to think about why we are so segregated. I know that in the 1960s and 1970s schools bussed black students into many schools in New York City. When my mom was growing up in New York City in the 1960s, she went to a public high school that, in her senior year, transferred many of the black students from poorer neighborhood school districts to her school. This eliminated the segregation in her school and provided better schooling for the new kids. It doesn’t seem like that happens as often anymore because I feel that many people could have had a problem with the large influx of people that arrived at the school, not because of their skin color, but because of the sheer numbers of new people added which could make it difficult to have smaller class sizes and individualized attention.
It doesn’t seem like we’ve gone backwards since schools are more segregated in 2011 than in the 1970s because it seems as though many of the circumstances that cause schools to appear segregated are due to other factors in a person’s life, what their incomes are, where they live, or how they were brought up by their parents.
In the beginning of this course, Sam mentioned that on average black people have lower incomes tan their white counterparts and therefore live in neighborhoods with less adequate schools. This is not due to the fact that white and black people do not want to live in the same areas or intermingle, but they had experienced different opportunities from their upbringing that separated them.
I believe that since more people are going to college and receiving higher education which will thereby push people forward into getting well-paying jobs will reduce the appearance of segregation in our school systems as more black families can afford to be in higher income neighborhoods. I don’t think that schools are segregated now because people are ignorant or racism since it seems as though most people are accepting or at the least indifferent to other races, but I feel that we have a long way to go before schools are segregated because of the segregation and racism that has occurred in past years that caused the disparities between an average black family and an average white family.

I found that imagining that I was a person from the Middle East during the lecture was very insightful. I realized that I never really took the time to see how the United States worked with other countries or achieved all the success that the nation has and by trying to see things from a different perspective changed the way that I look at these issues from now on. At the beginning of the lecture, Sam described what the world could have been like if the Chinese carted off U.S. coal for their own use leaving the United States in a state of poverty. After describing this scenario and then drawing similarities to our current oil situation with the Middle East, asking us questions about why this was happening as if we were in the Middle East, made me realize that there is a double standard. It seems as though that as Americans we don’t see any problems with using resources from other nations, but if any other countries were to come here to use our resources I don’t believe it would be as easy as it was for the reverse. I understand that we are one of the most powerful nations in the world and we hold onto the beliefs that in order to achieve success we need to put ourselves in situations to make that happen. The situations just happened to be tapping into the resources from other countries, but not doing much to help the people in the country that we are taking it from. After seeing Sam’s scenario with the Chinese and the coal, I know that I would have wanted some of the benefits of the resource from U.S. soil to help our country instead of all going to China. Although it doesn’t seem to be right to be so nonchalant about interfering in other countries, whether it’s with their affairs between other nations or just the country itself, it seems to me that sometimes it is unavoidable. It is impossible to please everyone in any situation regarding some kind of conflict. In theory, it sounds like a very good idea – to have everyone have equal opportunity to resources and increase the wealth of each nation – but it is so similar to the communist philosophy that it will not work. Human nature is not equal. Everyone has the, sometimes fortunate and unfortunate, desire to be the best, to achieve at least a little more than the next person. The competition people and nations as a whole is what drives each country to create new things and possibilities to improve the nation and provide from its people. While I don’t believe it’s fair, how we interact in war, such as the one in Iraq, or just in negotiations for oil will continue to change to try to make things more equal for everyone, but it will never be that way. As much as we realize that we would not like to be in the position the citizens of Iraq and other countries in the Middle East are in, we can never know exactly how they feel because as a citizen of the U.S. many of us have never experienced anything like that, but we can take small steps to try and change our relationships with foreign nations in order to prevent even bigger issues in the future.

We see clips of a comedian like Chris Rock doing a stand up routine about racism because it does lighten the mood before discussing the issue in greater depth during the class. I think that seeing the videos shows how people are aware of some of things that we do differently when interacting with people of our own race and people of other races and ethnicities but do not always realize it at the time. Comedians make it easier for people to talk about issues that are prevalent in society but have been ignored or not realized to the full extent of the problem. Laughing about something that everyone knows occurs to other people or themselves makes it easier to address the problem at hand. People will be more aware and receptive to changing after hearing a comedian make a joke about an issue because they will continue thinking about how the joke does have a lot of merit in the actual world. They will realize some of the things that they might do that the comedian was calling them out on and will want to reform their actions so they are no longer a part of that group anymore. I know that when I was listening to the Chris Rock stand up in class I was thinking about whether or not I was part of the group of people that he was calling out doing things that were racist. He was showing many how the actions of people could be perceived as racism and without realizing it. I found it interesting that many people are probably guilty of doing at least one action that he had mentioned. No one wants to be in that group that gets put down or called out so I feel that comedians do a good job at raising issues like these in everyones minds so that people can make a change in themselves. Creating a laughable situation around serious subject matters can be very influential in gaining a reaction from a larger audience. Based on what we have learned from Sam in class, many people are scared of talking about race because they dont know how to start talking about it or how to do it right. However, comedy will draw those people that have trouble talking about race into the discussion. They will hear what the comedian has to say and be either agreeing or disagreeing with them based on their own experiences. As the jokes are told, people recognize that these things happen everyday and laugh, not caring that they have been known to do some of things themselves but laughing at how they realize that they do these things as well. People will be able to take that next step in perceiving other races and cultures in a better light than they had previously.

When watching that video, I thought that it was very disconcerting that the little girl had to classify herself with the doll that she had said was the ‘bad’ doll. It was hard to watch because you can see that she didn’t think of herself as bad, but because she looked like the black doll, she may have begun to associate herself as someone who is not as good as someone with a lighter skin color. The messages that she and all of the children had received that influenced them to choose the white doll over the black doll can come from anywhere. The first thing that came to my mind when I was watching the video was that they were only exposed to TV shows that had white people as the main characters or heroes, but then I realized that since they were so young, the shows that they were probably watching were probably simpler with children of different skin colors all on an equal playing field like on the show with Barney the dinosaur. So I don’t think that it’s the media that influenced these children into behaving like they did since they most likely do not fully pay attention to everything that happens. However, I do think that some media does have an effect on their decisions. They may not have been choosing the white doll because they think that the skin color represents its “goodness”, but that the black doll looked more “evil” to them because in all fairy tales (e.g. Disney movies) the evil character, who usually does have white skin (e.g. Maleficent in Sleepy Beauty) or in the same family as the hero (e.g. Scar in The Lion King), is dressed in very dark clothing and lives in an area surrounded by blackness without a lot of light. It is possible that they may have seen the black doll and thought that by making the doll have darker skin with the same clothes as the white doll was just another way to show an evil character. When the person filming asked the one girl which doll she looked most like after she chose the doll, the look on her face and her hesitation to pick the black doll made me think the girl wanted to change her response after realizing that she was wrong. It seemed like she was embarrassed that she made an assumption about the doll and realized that she was wrong when she made a connection between herself and the doll. She knew that she wasn’t bad because she had dark skin so she then realized that the black doll wasn’t bad either. To answer the question of where the messages come from is very difficult because you don’t know. They can come from their parents, movies, television, stories, or school, but you don’t know whether they each played a part in shaping her thoughts or she came to the conclusion from somewhere else. I think it’s likely that they are copying something they had seen since little kids tend to learn by mimicking the actions the others.

This is a very good question. There have been times when I have thought about this, wondering how we manage to produce so much food and use so many resources without thinking about how much is left, if there even is enough left in the world for everyone. However, all of my thoughts usually go around in circles, making it difficult to understand completely because of how many variables are in this problem. So, I stop thinking about it, believing that there are enough resources in my lifetime that I won’t be around when we know the limit and have to ration everything. This is not a very effective way of thinking though if we are to make a change. I feel that many people do exactly what I just described when thinking about issues like this. People believe that because it won’t happen while they are alive, they do not need to worry about problems that probably will not be disastrous until after they are long dead. While this is a valid belief, people should want to make sure that future generations will be able to thrive and prosper as we do or even better than we do today. Figuring out how to distribute the limited amount of resources available to the populations of the world as it doubles in size is a difficult task and cannot be solved with just one solution. There should be many steps that are taken in different aspects of life to help create a better way go about our lives without sacrificing too much. As the person in the video said, the world’s population will continue to increase rapidly. In order to curb the population growth, there could be a limitation on how many children a family can have, however that will most likely only work in places where the government controls most of the public’s lives. In the United States, that policy will probably not work since everyone has the opportunity to speak out against government policies, protest, and choose how they want to live their lives, such as whether they want 2 children, 5 children, or no children. It is also important to consider changing the way that we use our resources. Already, there are developments to create better, more efficient fuels instead of relying on oil, but I believe that even those methods won’t be able to compete with the sheer numbers of people that will eventually have to use it. It seems that the only way to really solve this problem is to continue working to improve the efficiency of producing food, fuel, and other goods, creating new technologies and changing the way that we do things little by little to keep up with each change that occurs in the world.

Government regulation is a very important topic to discuss because it will affect everyone's lives in at least one way over the course of their lifetime. I believe that we do need some government regulation to keep everything running smoothly, but too much will take away too many rights and powers that individuals or states currently have. It would not be very beneficial to have no government regulation at all, especially since many people, like senior citizens, who depend on social security, rely on government aid, but I feel that many people who want more government regulation want it for things that they just don’t want to be accountable for themselves instead of the bigger things that they can’t possibly do without the government. In the 1930s when the United States was hit with the depression, many policies were enacted from the government to create new jobs, help the unemployed and prevent situations like this from happening again. Before this, having so much government intervention in the lives of the U.S. citizens was unheard of, but all of the progress that was made and the building blocks for future acts and policies would not have been made otherwise.
In the article, Michelle Bachmann says that she does not like how the government is handing out breast pumps to encourage breast-feeding in infants, but then says that she is a part of the people who have breast-fed too. It seems as though she is making a bigger deal out of this issue than is necessary. I agree that the government should not regulate something like this. I think that deciding how to feed infants is up to the mother to choose what she wants to do. However, I do think it’s a good idea that Michelle Obama is sharing information on the benefits of doing so to general public. This is not necessarily telling mothers not to feed their newborn children with baby formula, but informing them of other options to make the best decision. By handing out free breast pumps, Michelle Obama is trying to promote another healthy way of living, but just like anything else, no one has to take part in breast-feeding especially since there has not been anything negative against using baby formula instead of breast milk. Unlike the promotion of being active to stay fit, breast-feeding or bottle-feeding will not make the difference between people that are healthy or not healthy as they grow up. When I was a baby, my parents decided to feed my brother and I with baby formula. It seems from reading the article that if you do not use breast milk, your children will have a higher likelihood of being obese. I can honestly say that I am not, nor is my brother. Everyone in my family has a healthy weight without having been breast-fed. I feel that it doesn’t matter whether the government tries to promote breast-feeding because being healthy ultimately depends on the family and environment in which children live. The government cannot mandate how people choose to raise their children. If people have a healthy diet and are active, it would not have mattered whether they had received baby formula or breast milk as a baby or not.

As I was growing up, my parents taught me that in order to do well I had to do the work, but they also said that the work needed to succeed changes as you move through each stage of your life. Success begins with mostly hard work, but as people move up from high school to college and then to a full time career in the working world, a person needs to know more people to get ahead. In high school (as well as elementary and middle school), the only way that a student was measured was through their grades and how well they did on their artwork, quizzes, projects, or exams. We have been taught that if we work hard we will get good grades and have more doors open to us because of how well we did in school. By joining clubs or sports teams, those who eventually became the club presidents or led the other members of the club or team in some way were the people who worked hard and more often then not worked hard in all of their classes to achieve better grades. All of the achievements in high school classes and extracurricular activities helped in the college application process. This was the only way that colleges were able to see if a student would be right for their school. The college administrators do not personally meet every single applicant to determine how well they get along with other people, but judge them on an equal playing field based on the work they did high school. While students are in college, they learn that they need to get involved even more than they were in high school and I agree that as by graduation, most students believe that being better connected in the workforce will go further. When applying for a job after college, most people don’t have that much job experience so companies can only look at the merit that the student obtained while in school. For the second job, however, the grades that a person received at school will count less than the experience that they had at their previous job. With each job and opportunity that comes after school, the work put into achieving the best grades does not go away, but instead of trying to be the best, that work goes toward meeting new people and learning how to work in the job environment. I believe that success comes from hard work, but not only in one area, but in all areas of life. A person does not always start out with many connections to other people, but he or she has to put in the time and effort to meet new people and introduce themselves to those who can help move them up in their career.

The renting disparity due to race is a very interesting topic to discuss because it probably happens without people consciously knowing that they are making judgments until after they make them. It seems that many people have these predisposition on how they view people of other cultures. I think that this is mainly from being exposed to so many television shows, movies, books, and other media every day. On shows like Fox’s 24, viewers see the people from middle eastern areas talking in distinct accents portrayed as evil, enemies destined to gain control over the United States government. The people from the Middle East are rarely shown as the good guy on television shows or movies, which may in part be because of the reactions of the hijackers that took place after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. Viewers start to associate that the people who do bad things to others are from a specific location, race, or ethnicity and then are in the habit of doing that when faced with real life situations. I don’t feel that people really believe that those with these accents are bad or untrustworthy, but instead have gotten used to referring to people who are similar in that way.
I have heard about people being treated differently while trying to rent a house and did hear about the experiment of the guy testing out different accents to see how the seller would react. It seems like people are just fearful of what they do not know. If someone does not know much about another culture, I feel that they would react strongly to someone who has a foreign accent that is not familiar to what they are used to every day as well as the fact that it brings to mind images of the characters that are the enemies on TV shows. When someone hears another person with an accent that they are used to hearing at school, work or other common place, they are more likely to act friendlier than to someone who elicits feelings of fear when they hear their voice. It’s not necessarily that they think these people are bad, but because of what they have seen and experienced, or lack of experience of other cultures, people are wary of talking to new people. If the phone call between the seller and renter were longer or they got to meet in person, it is more likely that the seller will learn more about the foreign person and realizes that there is nothing to be afraid of. It seems like people are more open to accepting people who are different than them if they can actually see who they are as well as hear their accent because they don’t have to imagine a face, which will more than likely be similar to the evil faces that they’ve seen in the media, with the voice that they hear on the phone.

The world would certainly be a very different had the human brain stayed the same as those of other monkeys. Although we are all monkeys, we do have the ability to think and to be conscious of oneself and being, making difficult to live as freely as a monkey whose brain is not as large or evolved. If are brains were the same, there would not be any technological advances or cities that have developed today. The “living free” monkeys have the advantage of no distractions that plague the human society based on our constant need to make new and better things. Without these devices and advancements, the monkeys that live freely only focus on what they need to do to survive. Whenever someone observes non-human monkeys in their natural habitat, the monkeys do not seem to have any worries about anything they need to do during the day or what they need to accomplish to achieve happiness. They seem to be happy if they are alive and are content in just floating and swinging through their environment. Humans do not seem to have the ability to live as freely as other monkeys due to their constant thinking of the future. They think about who they are as a person and try to make themselves better based on how they observe other people. In the video, it interested me when they were talking about how as humans we try to be happy with our lives by going about the daily activities in our lives, but if we are not we go to other humans to talk about the problems that we think we have as if that professional human is more content and live their life better or more freely than anyone else. I had never really given a second thought to why people really went to the therapists. I never had to guess that the people who went were there to talk about some sort of problem he or she had trouble overcoming. The video, as well as this class in general, really makes me question everything that I take for granted by what I’ve learned, been told, or experience. Some of the things we do every day, as shown in the video, or the things that we have fought against other people throughout history seem so trivial looking at through this perspective. If we are all monkeys, monkeys that are 99.99% genetically similar, there is no reason why any of us should attack anyone else. Whether they have a different skin color or call their religion a different name, all humans are essentially the same, striving for a similar goal of happiness and acceptance by others. In order to be happy, I don’t feel that we need to give up all of the things that make us different from our smaller-brained monkey relatives, but to take a page out of their book just experience the day, utilizing the larger capabilities of our brains not to outshine others, but to create things that will make things more efficient for everyone else on the whole.