The nepotism stuff is hard for me too, because I have benefited from nepotism. However, I try to look at it as I am luck to have this opportunity, and I am going to take it. I won’t feel bad about taking it, and I cant be upset when someone else benefits from nepotism over me. Someone is always going to have more, and someone is always going to have less opportunity than someone else. All you can really do is, take any good opportunities that come your way and help people who you feel deserve to be helped. Maybe if you are given an opportunity through nepotism, you can help give someone with less opportunity a chance to benefit from your nepotism. Pay it forward as some may say.

Affermitave action is one of those things that I have depated about with friends, and mostly came to know about it during the time that I was graduating from High School. I was really upset when I found out that some people of certain races were given benefits, and preference over others who were just as qualified. However, during this class, I have learned that some races are more likely to have opportunities, and benefit from nepotism over other races.

It was funny that Sam talked about being a libertarian, because I am a libritarian, and have based my views on live and let live Ideas. However, during this class I see now that as a human race we are going to do things to keep our friends and family at the top. However, as a white person woman who has benefited nepotism feel that if I did not take these opportunities that I have been given, then someone else will. I don’t agree that I feel that I deserve it more than others, or that I feel entitled to nepotism. I see the opportunities that I am given, and take them with great appreciation. However, I have not gotten many of my opportunities due to my family per say, but through connetctions, and contacts that I myself have made. Then I think back to what situations I had the chance to meet these people. I have a family that gave me the option of living at their beach house, and a car to drive, and nice close to wear so that I was presentable, and so on and so on. This leads me to feel bad for those less fortunate to not have these same opportunities.

I am glad that Sam touched on the fact of criteria for affirmative action, because I think that part about affirmative action that bothered me the most, was that it benefited people based on race, and physical differences, and not those of social differences. So my friends in high school, who were half black, half Hispanic, and half native American, who really looked no different then me were able to check that ethnicity on college aps, while I was stuck putting down that I was white. And they had all the same, or more opportunities that I had while growing up, but because of their race, they had a leg up on me. I would say that I could agree with Obama about the fact that affirmative action should be used as long as it includes social class, and not color. However this leads me to people who play the system of being on financial aid, and all of that stuff, and I am not going to get into all of that right now.

I completely agree. There is so much that we don't know. The government hides so much from us, and right and wrong can become very blurry. Such as conspiracy theories, and all that. Also I was thinking about how immigrants who are exploited and are forced to work for less than minimum wage could be considered the equivalence of modern day slaves. However, they do choose to come to this country, and choose to work for less than this amount. We are controlling the borders, but still letting enough immigrants to come in? What is too much and too little, and what is right and what is wrong. How much wrong do we let slide to achieve what we need to achieve? This has been an issue since we got here, and began killing off Native Americans for their land. As Children we are thought that the Indians helped the pilgrims grow food, hunt. And that they all had turkey dinner together and gave thanks. This story is about as real as Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.

In the beginning of lecture 13 Sam once again brought up an eye opening view that most of us would have never even thought about. The fact that, our ancestors and the first people to colonize America were in fact immigrants themselves. Instead of assimilating into the Native Americans culture, we killed them and took the land for ourselves. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that if I could go back in history, and change this, I wouldn’t. America would not be even close to the way it is today if we had not taken this land for our own. The question for me is, if we had gone about it in a more civilized way, what would our country be like today. The Native Americans may have not been willing to share either. So I guess it was survival of the fittest. Even though it was not right.

The one point that Sam made about Immigration and business was very educational for me as well. I have honestly never thought about immigration too much, or was never that educated on the subject. The story about the crops made me feel that immigration is needed because if people are paid under the table, then they can be paid salaries that are below minimum wage. Although I feel the need to do this to support our countries economy, I also see that exploiting any person is wrong. So its one of those double edge sword things for me. I know its not right, but it works. But going back to the slavery thing, freeing slaves caused us to pay for the services that they gave us for free. I guess it’s different because immigrants choose to come to our country. But do they choose to be exploited?

The other point that was discussed about immigration happening in waves made me laugh, because it kind of touched home for me. I moved to FL to help a company, but the guys who started the company used to live in Ocean City Maryland, and worked for the same company that I worked for there. When they wanted to hire people, they hired people who they knew, and trusted. So now there is a group of 12 of us all living in Fl, and we all are from Pa. or Md. Its funny because everyone knows us as the group that’s all from Pa. or Md. So its kind of like we all immigrated to the same place because of opportunities, and the people that we knew. Its different than moving to another country, but as an analogy to what Sam was saying, we all moved in a wave to the same place. And we did it because of the networks that we had in this location.

I agree with what you are saying. As weird as this sounds, this lecture reminded me of the movie Cone Heads. When the daughter was born, and raised on earth, and she had never known the customs of whatever planet they were from. Then she was culture shocked into her planets culture, and was forced to live as they did right away.
I know this example seems far-fetched, but if you were uprooted into a foreign land, didn’t know the language, or the culture, you would want to live in an area where other people had, or were still going through the same type of transition. Also if we were all more excepting, we could learn from them as they learn from us.

The Lesson 12 lectures were interesting, and identified completely with my point of view on gays and lesbians. I have always been the type to feel that if people are not doing anything to harm anyone else, and as long as I am not doing anything to harm others, that we should all live our lives they way we choose without judgment and let others live the way they want to as well. I’m not gay, and I wouldn’t expect gay people to judge me for being straight, so why should we Judge them for being gay? I think the biggest thing is that people don’t like what they do not understand. Or if they do understand it, they may conform to society and completely go the other way becoming anti-gay. Like Sam said in the lecture about the guys whom were gay bashers coming out eventually as being gay.

I really liked the way Sam incorporated religion into the second lecture because I had always identified myself as a Christian growing up. However I remember the moment that I realized that I was not. I believe in god (higher power) whatever you choose to call it. However, while I was walking on college, a guy from a church came up to me on the street and asked me if I would call myself a liar, and I said “no”. Then he asked if I had ever lied, and I said, “Well yeah, maybe white lies to protect peoples feelings.” He replied with, what would you call someone who lies ? and he started pointing out that technically I was a liar, and a thief, and looked at other people with lust. He then ended with “ well that is why Jesus died for our sins”. And I remember thinking at that moment how that sounded really dumb and that I may slip up and make mistakes in life, but I have never done anything harmful to others, and I never have done anything out of malice, and this guy is saying that I’m a liar, and calling me out for having sex before marriage! At the end of this little talk, he had actually talked me out of being Christian and made me think about how I want to live my life as a good person, and by the golden rule. Not by judging others or making them feel judged, the way he was making me feel judged. So when gay people are being judged, and hated by Christians for loving another human being that makes Christians the hypocrites. Because they are basically saying that if a man killed another man and asked Jesus for forgiveness then he could go to heaven, but if a gay man did not ask for forgiveness for being gay (because he should not have to) then he would be denied?

I agree with you about the experiment done about the dolls. This video made me very sad. It’s hard to imagine that even a black child would see being white as being good, and more beautiful. I feel like the media is predominantly white, so when watching TV, and when choosing famous people to look up to, the choices of the minority is much smaller. If the media was 90% black people, the world might see beauty in a different way. The part about the video that really hit me, was when the girl responded that the white doll was better, and when asked about what doll looked like her, you could see how it hit her. She paused, and was taking in the fact that she had just put herself as a black girl into this negative category without even realizing it. I think that media should focus on integrating races. I remember the version of Cinderella staring Brandy made no sense when it came to race and the cast. Cinderella was Black, her mother and one step sister were White and the other one was Black. The part that really stuck out as odd was that the king was white, the queen was black, and the prince was Asian. However, I think that what they were trying to do was really cool.

In this lecture Sam talked about people of color living in two worlds, I never really thought about it like that, but I guess I see why black people try to manage their white culture. I have always thought that it was an education thing, and I guess in a way I am correct. The more educated that people of color become, the more they act “white.” I have a few black friends that actually identified much closer with white people growing up. However when she got to college, she actually started to spend a lot more time with black students. I know see that she had not really Identified herself as black, and was in the pre-awakening stage before college. When she found a group of black students who she identified with, and who were on the same level as she was, I think that she was “awakened”, and found her place within her culture.

While watching the lecture, I wondered, “what about people who are adopted?” and as soon as I thought it, it was answered. Also the story about the black girl crying over being called dirty brought back a memory of mine. When I was in Elementary school, there was an Asian girl who was adopted by two white parents. She had a brother who played baseball with my brother, so she and I would play together during the games. I remember thinking about how she looked different than most people, and I asked her why her nose was so flat. I realized after I asked her that she had never thought about it before, and she became really upset. I felt so bad, and tried to take it back, but the whole had already been dug. I guess that I may have been the first person to point in out to her that she was different. I did not mean it in a mean way, just more of a curious way. I was an observant, and curious child. This story stick in my own head as a time I felt bad for hurting a girls feelings, but I wonder if she remembers this as a time when she was asked about her race, and differences.

I couldn’t believe the results of the doll test. I would assume that girls of color would want to play with a doll that they identified with the most. I remember getting the Samantha (American Girl Doll) because we shared the same name, and had the same hair and eye color. Seeing the % of girls choosing the white doll was shocking, and saddening to me.

I have mixed feelings on this blog, some bad, some that could offend, and some that are personal situations I’ve been in and around. The fact is that we all should be happy with who we are. There are times where you are put in a situation, where you would have to respond a certain way; and then completely different but in a similar scenario. For example a black friend of mine hates the “N” word, used in any form: such as a white friend singing it in a rap song. Now I understand where he could be coming from, but the fact that most culture and blending of our society, force us to be confronted with this particular situation almost everyday. Now here is where I feel it’s a little messed up. This friend will use it all the time to greet a white male, black male or an acquaintance of one of these males. Followed by some sort of secret handshake. So where do we cross the line there. Should I be offended when he calls one of my white friends, the “N” word, or tell him to stop wining so much when it is sung a loud; and wasn’t in anyway trying to offend him. Just a thought I had when I read this. I feel like these sorts of scenarios should be dealt with in the easiest way possible. Don’t feel offend about yourself if you don’t respond in the same way twice. It all depends on other people’s reactions.

That is a really interesting insight for me. I am white, so reading your feedback from the lecture gave me a second look at things. I agree with what you are saying completely. Its just like how when we are younger, we are treated differently based on our gender. If we were not told what is appropriate behavior for a boy versus a girl, we would all probable be a little more alike. If black youth was not told to basically accept how the world is, maybe there would be more change.