I entered the lecture with the same belief that you held. I was very much surprised to hear that white women are the main beneficiaries of affirmative action in the United States. The issue raised on the Oprah show was very interesting. Sam's question the class regarding how do we go about solving the problem was also something that I really left the class thinking to myself, how can we possibly fix this problem? Who wants to do something that could possibly negatively affect themselves or their own family to truly benefit someone else? How bad do things need to be in order for someone to do such an unselfish act and perhaps even volunteer to help make a difference, to change the way something is currently going? That's a deep step, and a school like Harper, and it's students and faculty are certainly fighting a long uphill battle.

Sam presented a very interesting, albeit controversial point of view regarding affirmative action. I found his comments to be very interesting, and found myself agreeing with him on many of the topics. I was not aware of who was truly benefiting the most from affirmative action in the United States. The majority of people, including myself, thought that affirmative action benefited people of color, specifically blacks, the most from affirmative action. Sam pointing out that in essence affirmative action is a piece of policy that in general tends to assist white people more than people of color. I really found it interesting that white women were receiving the most benefit from affirmative action, which then allowed them to pass those benefits on to their children, their spouse and so on.

Many people believe that affirmative action is also thought to be more widespread and poignant than it truly is. Sam displaying that only 10 percent of the people receiving a job is based on affirmative action was very enlightening. People do not realize that these issues are very much overblown. This was very interesting to me, because I had been diluted with the fact that affirmative action has a much bigger impact on the people living in this country than it truly does.

I agreed with Sam completely when he was discussing how he feels about being a libertarian. His statement regarding as little government as is possible, with more equity being the most important thing. The visual he presented with the white student, black student and brown student, and their respective locations on the stairway was an excellent visual. Affirmative action is a little bit of a way for the black and brown people to get a little bit closer to the starting point of a white person, of course that is a generalization. So the student who attended Harper High, the school that was in very poor condition, is going to be significantly further behind the student who attended the high school in the suburbs that was a much better facility. How do we go about fixing this incredible differences between the school systems? The more important question, and problem, to me is how this problem is even possible to be solved, when it's such a repeating cycle.

The circle goes like this, often times: Poor parent has a child, child grows up in poor community, receives poor education at poor school. Poor child, because of lack of opportunity within his community (school etc) takes low paying job if he is fortunate enough to even graduate high school. Poor child remains poor, has child of his own, and the cycle repeats. How do we go about intervening and stopping this cycle? More importantly, are people willing to give a little bit to someone else, even if it could possibly work against yourself?

This was an interesting response. When immigrants would come to the United States in the early 1900s they were often asked to change their last name to become more Americanized. Also, many of the first generation immigrants to this country didn't have much knowledge in English, just as Hispanic immigrants today do not. Therefore, when they would give their information to the representatives at Ellis Island the people working would do their best to spell out in English the way to spell the last name. This resulted in many last names being shortened, and spellings being different between families. It's interesting to think about, but I bet that is what happened with your family as well.

Immigration is such a hot button issue in the United States at the moment. It seems to be that most of the country is very much misinformed about how immigration to the United States is truly occurring. People seem to be very upset that so many immigrants are coming to the United States from Mexico and Asian countries. Most people believe that these people are coming to the United States, and refusing to learn English. Many people believe that most of the immigrants who are coming to this country also got here illegally.

Both of these notions are false. Historically immigrants to the United States tend to lose their culture more so when immigrating to the United States than any other country around the world. Studies show that by the 3rd generation child of an immigrant, they essentially speak none of their native tongue, and are speaking English exclusively. This is in no way indicates that people are coming to the United States and not learning English. These people are coming to the United States for opportunity. They are coming to the United States to make a better life for their families, so they can thrive here and chase the American dream. This is no different than the vast majority of our ancestors thought a hundred years ago.

So many people forget that in the early 1900s there was a boom in immigration to the United States from many European countries. These people then came to the United States and became isolated within the towns they moved to. Hence the different sections of smaller towns that have established Italian sections, or Irish section. I know in particular my hometown has different sections, even until this day. There was a section of town that the Italian immigrants moved to. The majority of the catholic churches in my town are located there. There is also a section of town where many of the Irish immigrants moved into. When they first relocated to the United States it took a significant amount of time for them to assimilate to each other, however, eventually over time these people all melted together and began seeing each other as one.

The Hispanic and Asian immigrants to the United States in the current day will also follow along the same path as the immigrants of the early 1900s did. The children are taught in the public school system, where they are exposed to and learn English at a very young age. They will interact with white students within their schools, and it will become the norm for most of the students. Over time the community will completely assimilate and the immigrants of 2011 will be just another member of the community by 2051, where as Sam said in lecture before, white people will be a minority.

I thought it was really interesting how Sam brought up the hypocrisy that so many people have regarding new immigrants to this country. The idea that so many people want the new immigrants to completely as Sam said "shed" their culture, their language and so on, yet so many of these people don't want to live near them. I thought it was pretty interesting, and true to the point, when Sam said that living in diverse community for white people is very different than how people of color define a diverse community. Coming from a community that is over 95 percent white, I imagine living in a community that is 50-50 would provide a great deal of culture shock for me.

I thought it was interesting when Sam started the lecture discussing how liberals generally want to live in a more diverse community rather than conservatives. It isn't something that really surprises me, however, but it is very interesting. His comment regarding immigrants and natives wishing that they would completely shed their culture, language and former identity, however they don't wish to live near these people. They want people to completely embrace Americana, but they are not people who wish to live near these people. I thought that was really interesting and thought provoking.

In regards to church worship and the differences in race throughout the church each week isn't surprising me at all. So many churches are founded often times based on the race of a certain people. Particularly the Southern Baptist church.

This however got me thinking about my own personal belief systems. I am a registered democrat, and consider myself to be liberal. However, I am not sure how I would feel if I were living in a community that is predominately African-American, or predominately Asian or Asian-Indian. I don't have an issue with those people, but coming from an community that is 95 percent white it would be an incredibly large culture shock to me if I were placed into a community that white people are the minority. I'm sure that I would eventually be able to adapt and not have any issue living with people of color in my community, however, I am sure that it would take a little bit of time, and there would be initial shock for sure.

The idea that Sam was explaining in regards to the rap music was pretty interesting. The idea that the ways things just move across the world is very interesting. The gestures, movements, rhyming, rapping and so on simply is starting in one part of the world and works its way across to the rest of the world.

Sam discussing the idea that in 2050 the United States is expected to be roughly 50/50 white and black is really interesting. I knew that the population of people of color has been rising, I did not, however, realize that it was growing at that rapid of a rate. Sam then asking whether or not you feel a certain way about that, did indeed provoke certain feelings in me. I don't know what I would think about that, how I would feel about it. It would be different, very different. I am, however, a little bit skeptical of how they can forecast something that is so far away from now. The idea of predicting the population of a country, nearly 50 years ahead of time, seems like it might be a little bit of a stretch.

The lecture made it pretty clear that everyone kind of goes through their own type of stages regarding how they become aware of race, react to race, and interpret race. The stages of white people was really interesting because it was something that like you said, pertained to me. I was able to easily picture myself in the certain stages that he discussed. I placed myself in the 3rd stage, where I am beginning to realize the injustices of people of color and getting angry often times at my own race.

I have a hard time feeling guilty about my race (white). I feel that it wouldn't be productive for us to feel guilty about our race since we were not in a position to choose our race, and we didn't have a say in the matter. I'm sure you drive by other people on your way to school who are white and also walking to school. I think it's completely okay to feel bad that these people aren't as fortunate as other people, but I couldn't feel guilty about it. I just have a hard time feeling guilty about something that I didn't choose or have any control over, but I understand your point.

I agreed with a lot of Sam said in this lecture, I also believe that I am currently in between the second and third stages of white people. Sam saying that white people are essentially instructed, or learn quickly, to not discuss race couldn't be any more true. The thoughts of what if I say something wrong, what if I say something that (inadvertently) offends someone, or, worst of all, what if someone thinks I am a racist? These are all thoughts that I have had, and I assume many other white people have also had. One of, if not the, worst thing you could call a white person is a racist. To me, a racist is a word that has so many negative connotations to one person. Racists are often thought of as unintelligent, as I tend to think about them (how could someone who is so naive to think there race is superior, simply because of skin color be intelligent?), they are looked at as feeble minded and uncaring as well. Unsympathetic, narrow minded and unintelligent. Those are adjectives I believe many people would use to characterize a racist person. These are all things people of all races wish to avoid being thought of as being.

One thing Sam said, however, that I did not agree with was the idea of feeling guilty because of my race. I do not believe I have ever felt guilty about being white, and certainly would not think that way in the future. Race is an uncontrollable thing that we have no say over. I didn't ask to be white, just as an Asian or African-American didn't ask to be that particular race. We are all dealt the cards of life, and we are each forced to play our own hand to our best ability. I don't find it productive, or useful to make myself feel guilty because I was born into a white family. Coming from a relatively wealthy family, I also do not find myself feeling guilty because I have not had financial issues throughout my life. I find myself incredibly lucky. I find myself very fortunate. I do not, however, feel guilty about those things. My parents worked very hard to put our family in the financial situation we are in, and I refuse to allow their hard work give me feelings of guilt. I am fortunate, but not guilty.

I was able to relate to Sam's comment regarding the white student not being able to use the word black to describe the TA he wished to talk to about attendance. I myself have found myself struggling to come up with the politically correct words to describe someone from another race without offending them. As Sam said, situations like that, where it is so much easier to refer to someone as black, we should not bite our tongues.

I think Sam was saying that had the GI Bill been equally distributed between blacks and whites, the African-American population would have also moved into the suburbs, and therefore they would have been more interconnected with the white population at that time. Instead, however, many of the African American soldiers were unfairly denied their loans, and grants. The whites on the other hand, were given their loans and grants, used them effectively, moved to the suburbs. The grants and loans allowed the whites to become successful in the suburbs, which then resulted in better schools, because they were able to pay higher taxes, which resulted in the continuation of white dominance. It directly correlates back to the King of the Mountain analogy. The whites were on top, wanted to maintain their position on top (ethically or unethically), and unlawfully denied many African-American GI's the right they earned to receive their loans and grants.