The American dream in my opinion is a stretch. We all understand the American dream to be the idea that once you become an American or move to America, you have the opportunities in life to be more. Come to America and move up the ladder of success and bliss. Now is this true? I don’t think so. I don’t think it was ever true. Ion my opinion the American dream is just imaginary and if it does exist then it only exists to those who seem to be the same as the major race. With life experiences and being in this Soc119 class I’ve learned that the American dream is bogus. How can one person move up without stress? Lies!!! Plenty of people have worked hard in this country and better than many but yet only get so far to pay the light bill. Yet, we allow those who somehow cheat their way in life to make it. Let’s not forget that there are also so many obstacles in life that hinder our success. This could range from the shitty public school we have to the racism in job listings someone for a job. When it comes to schools we see that there are some that have close to shit nothing in education materials yet go across town to a different demographic of people and see that their school is they top school in the state. Hmmm How is this so when all education should be equal if public. When listing for a job ones race could potentially keep them from a job. Oh and lets not forget the school he or she went to and what that school represents. Some people go through that now here at Penn State. Good resume and a smart brain but hey you went to PSU and they had that scandal… I don’t think that position is open is what they may say. There are just some many things that block someone from moving up or succeeding in life. Im’ not saying its not possible to do so but its not easy. The American dream states we all get a fair share at the pie but we should all realize that we don’t. Therefore the American dream, to me at least is a joke. Plenty of immigrants come over in order to live a better life but hey it might not happen because they come from some specific country or follow some religion. So is it really better. Will that family ever come to a better standing in life. We don’t know. I don’t know. But they believe in a bogus and stupid dream that many of us have fallen into thanks to a country who lies about their history on a daily basis. Issues… I think yes. So a fake dream is what we are dedicated to face.

Obviously this is a hot topic on and off campus. I personally have had friends and family from back home and in different parts of the country contact me and ask what was going on, was I ok, did I need anything. But one question which did not come from my family or friends but from a student in our Soc119 class on Thursday was “How many of us would continue to stay and learn at Penn State?” I think that’s a very interesting and important question So many things have been going on which has made me wonder where I stand in this university. Would I stay or would I go? For the most part I believe I would stay. From all that has occurred in both the media to the riots and the administration, this does not represent the academic side of Penn State that I came to all the way from Ohio. So in a sense this does not affect who am I as far as a Penn State student goes. I’m here for the engineering not for the whole football pride. Sadly I have heard stories about Penn state students losing their internships because they go to this school although said do believe that this will pass and that things will go back to normal. But art the same time I do feel that as a whole the whole scandal has hit us all in the face. Most of us have awaken to a hurtful world and are showing ourselves in a way we have not done so before. I know that for myself I have become more vocal with my thoughts. I just think that now people need to understand that their actions represent not only themselves but also the school that they go to. The riots have not helped. Flipping over cars, light posts and hitting reporters in the head is not the way to o about things. It proves absolutely nothing. For the time being students need to be better about what they do and how they present themselves. Ask me again if I would still go to Penn state and I would say hell yes. There is so much pride and the school is still the same place it was prior to these events, if not better. This just shows that as a university tat we will come out stronger and students as individuals will provide more that they could have before. I know I will because I don’t want to come out of this school as just another student. I want to show off what I have to bring to the table. These events have affected me but they have also made me a better person.

Americans for the most part are not lazy but when it comes to do hard labor. Yes we are the laziest people ever. We complain constantly about the lack of jobs pout their and how illegal immigrants are taking all of our work. Well let me ask you this, “ What are you doing about it?” Nine times out of ten, when there are hard labor jobs out there, people don’t go after them. I don’t see Americans sitting on the corner trying to scoop a job no matter what the pay is. I see Americans relaxing on the couch waiting for their check to come in from the government or for the food stamps to be sent. In my opinion some Americans need to get up off their ass and do some work. Maybe its just what appears on the news that I’m going off on but still. How often do we see actual Americans, those who are legal and without a job, out on the street looking for a pay; no matter if the pay is little. It’s better than nothing. This kind of thing has been going on since the beginning of time. Ever since civilization really kicked off people have been capturing and trading slaves and making them do work that they thought they were too good for. Learn to do your own shit and stop being lazy. Americans are a classic example. We had slaves way back in the day, then fought in a civil war when the idea came up that having free labor was going to be illegal. God forbid that were to happen. No let’s not put EVERYONE to work but instead make others feel inferior and those who are lazy sit on their ass. So yes Americans are lazy. I give major cool points to those who come to another country for a better life and do all they can to provide for their families. If the role were to somehow switch and it were Americans out there, we wouldn’t do a thing but complain. Most of us are too caught up in having soft hands and sitting in a chair all day. I think this may be because we hold ourselves on a Pedi-stool and always think that an office job that’s clean and organized is the way of life for us. Yeah its for some but not all of us. I think that when we start school they should let kids explore all levels of employment and carry that on until high school. Thanks to our school systems not being consistent and showing kids that your not always going to be that top 1%; we as Americans have become lazy and dislike getting our hands filthy, starving for the sake of our family and picking up a job we know will get some food on the table.

I don’t think a Black centered world would be all too different from the world we live in today. My only thought that would be different would be that Black people or people of Color would be where the “White” people are. In our history the ”White” people have taken control by forcing their thoughts and views upon the land and people that they conquer. If the world was centered around Black people then I could only imagine that it would be the Black People instead taking over other land and then pushing their views on the natives. This would continue up until present day and truly I see no reason as to why a Black centered world would be any different then now. At the moment we have a Black president who is also half white yet nothing is seriously different where one would feel a total change in their life. I myself am Black and I couldn’t think of anything being too different except the roles being switched. Black people would be on top while the “white” people would be at the bottom. Major different? Yes an no. Yes because roles are being switched but at the same time I say no because would this not be expected. If we were to start the whole world expansion and conquering we would think that those different from us are a threat. Therefore we would have slaves too and then those slaves would rebel and then we would all be “equal”….hahaha that’s a stretch seeing that no one is equal today no matter what the laws say. In a black centered world I can only feel that things would just be more centered on the African way and not so much on the “white” way of pop culture and caring about who dates who. I used to watch this cartoon that air-ed on TV called Black Panther. It was a show about this country in Africa that was ahead in technology by ages and was controlled by this superhero who would be chosen by whomever could beat him. Only the members of that country could compete and therefore the people controlled the ruling. It was basically America but without all the bullshit of politics and arguing of stupid crap that makes it look like a popularity contest. I think that had this world come out to be a Black centered world then it would look something like that TV. Or I could be wrong and we would still be doing the same thing that we do today with just a change in the skin color of those who are in charge. People fear that all hell would break loose but who is to say it will. We are no different than the other races. If given the same opportunities then we would probably do the same thing.

Why do women dress a certain way but desire to be treated another way? Well one side of me would like to say that is at the fault of society. All over the place we see women dress in the skimpiest of outfits yet when a guy walks up to a girl she desires to be treated with respect and kindness. Note that before I continue I would like to say that all women should be treated with the upmost respect no matter what. For no reason should a woman be disrespected in any way by a man. With that being said I do not like the fact that girl do follow societies “ways” by dressing like whores half the time. Take Halloween for instance. Every year here at Penn State the girls get dressed up and wear almost nothing. Which in my mind is insane. Say you’re a girl and what do you do on Halloween. You dress up as lets say a cheerleader or a librarian and then head out to some party. Ok, so now you have put on the persona of a whore and when a guy comes up to you and says some naughty stuff then he gets in trouble and treated like an ass whole. Understandable at some point but still, the woman initiated the treatment by what she put on that night. So lets go back to something that could be more applicable to people. If you look around campus on a nice day girls are wearing bikinis on the HUB lawn and walk around with their breasts and ass hanging out. Does this make sense? If I, a man, approach you in some way that you would not like because it does not match who you are then why do you dress in a way that says hey I “get down” in a bad way. If you would like to be treated with respect then you should dress in a way that’s not so revealing. Be yourself and not what some anorexic lady on a magazine looks like. She is not real. How many people in real life do you see wearing a size 0. Not many! Overall the way women dress is based off the fact of society and the man centered world that we all live in. Had it been woman centered would thy dress different. Probably but we don’t know that for sure. In this society though men push a certain image into the minds of woman asking them…. Better yet urging them to be something that shows off their assets and not their ambition. Their mind set is what should be shown and not all of their body. So the reason as to why women dress one way and request the behavior of something else… well that could be a lot of things. Society, men, parents, their own choice. Who knows but that individual woman for herself.

Like some I was thinking that this Haiti Project would be just extra work for me but I thought again about what this project truly means. Most people here at Penn State don’t understand what it is like to not just live in a country like Haiti where the list of opportunities is shorter than ours but they also don’t understand what it is like to live with very low income and having to work you “ass” off to not even move up on the social ladder but to stay alive and feed your family. I myself do not live that sort of life but I do understand aspects of it. I understand that it takes a lot of hard work to get what you want. I understand that when your on the bottom of the social food chain then your list of opportunities become lower than that of the middle class. My parents have moved from being poor to being low middle class and now upper middle class. I am grateful that I have experienced pieces of it and have been given the opportunity to hear what I call “lectures” from my parents. Everyday I receive a lesson about some aspect on life and what it takes to do what I want and what it takes to do right. I believe that this project is something that will share the same gratitude to students who just don’t realize that the world is not just Mommy and Daddy’s beamer or benz and chai latte’s. The world is all sides of the spectrum and just because you live in a town where there are little minorities does not mean you have to go by stereotypes, which are normally wrong. It means you ought to branch out and learn about the world and its various cultures and struggles. In my personal opinion I like the EERNESA Project. This one deals with making solar powered street lamps that also charge cell phones. Me being an aspiring engineer, this sparked a great interest in me. Not only in the company trying to make a good product and push Haiti into a technological age but it is also teaching its people. These days it is so important to understand something technical. The world is growing with new technology supposedly every to years but in reality I believe it is doing so even faster and no country should be left behind. So teaching your employees how to do something with their hands and use the brains at the same time is definitely more important than going the cheap way out and paying for premade light posts. I think that it is sad that the banks will not support such a program knowing that this will make more jobs and better enrich both the community and the nation in itself. This project shows that although there may not be many opportunities we can make something out of nothing and move up in the world. I also had the chance to watch the video featuring Yvrose Noncent. The video discusses how she lacked ways of presenting her product and used old machinery and small quarters to produce it. Skimming through some of the other videos it seemed that this was a common factor. I think that all the entrepreneurs trying to produce clothing and fabrics just need better machines and tools to make the process of creating their product easier. I would also say that they would need a manikin to help show off their creations. I think with some careful planning Penn staters could come up with a way to pay for some tools to go down to Haiti or even grab some supporters to do just that. To me this project seems like it will be the real deal and open a lot of peoples mind. Both those who are ignorant and hide in the shadows.

Welfare is one of the hot issues of America. We all know that welfare is something that a lot of people are on but we all don’t know the truth about welfare. The questions from the video asks “In what way does welfare discourage people from getting a job?” Well, in my opinion and what I know welfare discourages people in quite a few ways. One way welfare discourages people from picking up their lives and getting a job is by giving them too much money. Now I know that I just said too much money yet when I say that I don’t mean like a million or enough to make someone upper middle class or even middle class. Welfare ranges from state to state. I know that when I took Econ 102 with Mateer it was stated that the state of Hawaii has their residents receive welfare of around like 40,000 or so. My number may be wrong but I’m pretty sure that they pay a lot higher than states like Texas who pay approximately around 20,000 or less. Being paid this much is sort of an issue because if I am living in a place like Hawaii where I’m making the same amount of money that someone who just might have come out of college and retains a salary of 40,000 a year then why would I put forth the effort t to do work. So in my opinion, yes people do become lazy on welfare because they are receiving “free money” I’m not saying that this is true for everyone of welfare cause as we know and what we have learned in class; most people on welfare are white not black, and children, not adults. So with that being said it is easy to say that the people on welfare have a higher probability of needing it rather than just using it for gain. Overall though I feel that receiving “free money” can make someone not put forth the effort to get a job or even keep one because they know they are getting that “much needed” check. I apologize for not knowing the necessities and true knowledge of welfare but al of what I am saying is my opinion and to a degree what most people know about welfare. Although welfare has its’ bad it also has its’ goods. Welfare helps people in need get back on their feet and become a better person with then makes a better community and society. I would not say get rid of welfare but I would say that we do need a better way of cracking down those who abuse it to better help those who need it. Without welfare I believe that the amount of homeless people in our nation would increase higher than ever before but with it, people can retain hope and keep the so called “American dream” whether it is something that is true anymore or not.

From class I learned that we are all basically one race in a sense because our ancestors from long long time ago came from essentially one place and then branched out. Like it or not though our ancestors "evolved" in order to adapt to their environments therefore giving us the appearances that we have today. Now days we try to say someone is this race or that race no matter what.
With the advances in technology I believe that it could possibly get worse. Think about it. Today we have DNA testing to find out what nation or race you are or at least what you could possibly be. If technology keeps better, as it will, people will try to categorize everyone into different races by any little thing they can pick out. This could be done either by a gene or some blood cell in the body or god knows what. With the new technology to come this could be a good thing because we could finally categorize people in the correct way instead of saying someone is black because their skin is dark. As we have learned from class and the reading this is false. Sadly real life does not point that out to us all the time.
On the flip side of this idea though the new technology could be a bad thing. If there are finer categorization involved with the new technology then what happens if people are put in a category they feel does not apply to them. I’m pretty sure that there are people who would not like to be Black or Asian or Hispanic; this applies to the racist people of the world who think that one race, theirs, is better than any other when it is not. With such results of being put into a category that he or she dislikes could cause a lot of conflict in the world. In my opinion I would also say that if one found out they were a certain race then they could do all they could to make a so-called pure race or alter themselves in some way. Simply said, things could get ugly.
For me, I technology will sooner or later tell us who we really are but I think we ought to scrap the idea of race. We all probably root back to ourselves and one of these days we are all going to be mixed into one race with all the interracial dating and marriage occurring like it did secretively in the past. Yes ladies and gentleman, for those that did not know there has been interracial dating, marriages and sadly “raping” occurring for years upon years so don’t be so shocked when someone tells you this. But going back to the subject at hand, Technology will in fact define who we are in the race factor. Will it lead to go or bad well that depends on what we do with the new information. Do we accept it and become informative in our new cultures, ethnicity and race or do we throw it all away as if nothing happened and possibly revert to “devilish” ways.

Interracial dating is not a bad thing in my mind. Like Sam said in class we are all basically one race. I am black and my mom has urged me to not date a "white" woman or anyone else other than black. Well let me correct myself. She said I could date but I couldn't not marry. I dont think that is right. If i truly like/love someone although they may be a different race then it should not matter the color of my skin, just as it should not matter what religion she may be if me and her do differ. The fact is that if we care about each other in ways that we should be together then so be it. I understand the fact that people want to make a "pure" race but I think we need to all understand that none of us are pure in any way at all. We are all mixed with some other race/ethnicity. Let the truth be told that I would prefer someone who is not "white" because I would like to relate with another minority.