I was very surprised to find out what I did last class about illegal immigration. I always just assumed it was a bad thing that people did not want other people doing because they work harder and for less money, which is understandable. But at the same time, these people are coming to the United States for a better life and everyone should be entitled to have that opportunity. So the question stands, who should decide the criteria for illegal immigrants. And my honest answer is I have no idea because no matter who decides the criteria it is going to be a problem. If business people decide, then it is up to the economy and how hard current American workers are working. This adds for severe fluctuation and unfair changes that affect everyone. If the government decides there is no possibility for fluctuation and if the economy needs more or less workers, than it is going to be a lot more difficult for changes to be made. Obviously immigration cannot decide or there would be no immigration at all, and other countries cannot decide because then everyone would be coming to America. So there is really winning, but I guess what would make the most sense is to have the businesses work with the government basically how we are doing now with possibly a more organized and fair system. The amount of immigrants allowed in should comply with what our economy needs, because too much or too little could obviously be really bad. The criteria to determine immigrant’s legality should be they have to prove they are working legally and have working papers. They should also not have a record coming from their previous country because the last thing this country needs is a more criminal. Other than that I think whoever wants to become an American citizen should absolutely have the right to live and work here. America provides opportunities that other countries do not, and you cannot blame immigrants for wanting to try to live here. As long as they doing everything correctly and following the system immigration should really be a non issue. It only becomes a problem when people are sneaking in illegally with no intentions of ever becoming legal and just living under the radar not paying taxes. That is when intentions become bad because having the privileges America offers means giving back to the government that is providing it for you. It means working legally, getting paid on the books, and working your way up just like everyone else. It becomes impossible for illegal immigrants to work their way up because they can never legally document anything, meaning they will never get higher paying jobs or educations because you need to be a real citizen to do that. As long as actual citizenship is a goal there should be no issue.

When learning about the history of Native Americans throughout high school, it never once dawned on me the severity of what was actually going. It was explained in such a sugar coated, matter of fact manner. It would be gone over in class by the teacher saying so we came and they gave us corn and we taught them different trades and took their land. But the brutality and actual reality of what went on was not discussed. So after lecture today, when Sam explained what actually went out on in a way that made the white people seem like the bad guys for once I was shocked. I was shocked at the fact that I went through an entire American education school system, and not once was it ever explained honestly to me. I was shocked that these people live how they do, when we were the ones that took what did not belong to us. We took their land, and then made them the poorest and most miserable race of people living in the United States and maybe even the world. These people have been brutalized for generations upon generations, and why is nobody stopping it today? They deserve to be the richest and safest race in the United States as compensation for what we took, and instead it is the complete opposite. I do not understand why America is okay with allowing Native Americans to live the way they do. They have been so miserably unhappy for so long and it makes no sense that nobody is acting to change it. I find it appalling how America can worry so much about the quality of life people are living all around the globe, and go in and spend our money to try and fix it and help these people, and meanwhile there are people being forced to live worse off right in our own backyards. The fact that Native Americans are living in worse poverty than the people in Haiti, and we are spending so much effort to help Haiti and not them is beyond my comprehension. This lecture was eye opening and mind blowing and it something that I will not soon forget. The way Sam acted everything out, it held my attention throughout the entire lecture. He put the entire problem into perspective and put it into terms that I could understand. This goes back to my other point of how this was not taught well enough in high school, something this important to society and this tragic should be known so that maybe the situation could improve. Without lectures like the one Sam gave in class today, American students will continue living blindly in the lies that the American education system spews out at us.

Putting myself in the shoes in the shoes of a Middle Easterner definitely changed my view of the War in the Iraq. The media gives America such a one sided view of the war, we see images like the ones shown in the class of soldiers giving little kids candy and hugging them. Then they show images of violent protesters in the street and all of the violence occurring. With images like this it is close to impossible to think, hey maybe we are the ones being unfair. To be put in the shoes of a college student in the Middle East was really quite life changing. People everywhere are just trying to their lives, being happy, and being successful in life. We never really take the time to step back and think about the lives that other people live. We are all so focused on our differences that it was nice to realize that we all do have those common similarities no matter where we live or what God we pray to. The way Sam shaped the lecture in how we are fighting for their oil, and killing their own people for their oil made me feel ashamed at how unfair we are being. I was getting angry just sitting in class while he did those short impressions of whose oil is it, and how were just going over and simply trying to take what is not rightfully ours. While I do understand that our economy is based on oil, I do not understand how it could have gotten this far. Why didn’t anybody stop and say… hey maybe we shouldn’t build our entire economy on a resource that we don’t actually have? And the worst part is, American actually believe that we may have enough oil here to not need the Middle East. I was shocked when I found out that we only have enough oil to last for 46 days! The fact that we were practically lied to by the government to make us think that we were going over to Iraq for reasons like protecting our nation, and to stop terrorists; and it is actually about taking their oil makes me doubt the reasons why the government does anything that it says it does. Not all Middle Easterner’s are extremists, and not all Christian’s are extremists either… but now I really understand how both parties involved would believe such things. The media and the government are so construed and many people never even get the chance to actually see why and or how this happens. Sitting in this lecture and being shown the hatred and wrong doings are both sides of spectrum was a lesson I will never forget.

I am a white girl, well half Puerto Rican and half white…but still most would consider me white girl. I obviously come from a mixed family so dating out of my race is something that I never even considered as out of the ordinary. I have black family members as well as Hispanic and Jewish. Where I grew up my group of friends were mixed with black, white people and brown. So when asked the asked the question if I would ever date a black man, my response is of course! And I have many times before. I am equally (if not more in some cases..) attracted to black men as I am to white men. In all seriousness, black men tend to dress better and I like the swag that black men have compared to white men who think that they have swag. Because my family is so mixed I would not have any trouble bringing home a black man, or a man of any race for that matter. They are very supportive of who ever I want to date as long as they make me happy. I really feel like skin color makes no difference in terms of attractiveness because a good looking person remains a good looking person so matter what their race is. If a person can make me laugh, we have a lot in common, they are good looking and we have a good connection a person could be purple and it would not matter at all to me. Race barriers between dating simply limits the pool of amazing people there are out there to get to know. Dating someone of another race allows for you to learn about another culture, another type of family and a whole different lifestyle. It adds excitement to both partners lives and really is the best way to truly learn about another race. Of course, with dating someone of another race there are problems that you face. I have faced great adversity from members of my own race and other races for dating a black man, but as long as both partners are serious about each other it should not really affect the relationship. People that are against it, and speak out against to you, are just stupid and they are the ones missing out. So to answer the question, yes I would date a black man because I have done it before and the relationship was just as amazing and relationships I have had with white men…So to all my white girls out there who have not dated a black man yet I encourage them to try it. You guys may just be pleasantly surprised and learn more about yourself and another race.

White privilege is something that I never even heard of before this class. I come from a town where it was very diverse and I never really encountered any sort of racism or discrimination because it was so mixed. It never occurred to me that anything accomplishments, or anything else for that matter had anything to do with the color of my skin. I found this concept to be a shocker at first. I guess because of the environment and way that I was brought up I really thought these sort of problems were mostly a thing of the past. Looking back this is a very naive viewpoint. As this class has taught me I was very, very wrong in my thinking. While it is nice to believe that white privilege does not exist, soc 119 has taught me otherwise. I think that is disgraceful that this problem is still occurring. It is awful to think that people of color have to work harder or do different things, whatever the case may be...simply because of their skin color. It is actually mind blowing that society in today’s day and age is still so simple minded and ignorant. We have come such a long way from technology to culture to just about everything. The fact that we as a people can not move past such pointless and counter productive ways of life is a huge problem. Any person, no matter what their race, ethnicity, color, size, anything should stand an equal opportunity to do anything. I would personally be embarrassed and feel an overwhelming sense of guilt if I had even the slightest inclination that I got a job over someone else because I was white or I got a better loan because I am white. The worst part is I probably would never even know for a fact that this had anything to do with it. At the same time, I do not even know what I could do about it because white privilege is not something that is an open topic. A employer would never tell his interviewee that he or she got the job because of their skin color. So how does one go about changing this problem? The only thing I can think of is to start informing younger generations of these occurrences and over time the problem will hopefully lessen and disappear. It is awful that this is one of the only ways to do this but the generations now that are still partaking in such disgraceful actions are not going to stop. The upcoming generations are our only hope for improvement, and hopefully classes like soc 119 continue to educate and inform the youth so we can make positive changes in an ignorant society.

I do not think that people feel guilt about their current positions knowing the disadvantages of the freed slaves. I think that people have come to terms with the way things are in the world and if everyone felt guilt or remorse for how they got to be where they are today then we would never advance. I am aware that this is a bit of an insensitive answer but we need to stop focusing so much on the past and try to advance ourselves as a society because we can not change the things that happened in the past. Yes, it is beyond wrong that white people used the disadvantages of slaves to get ahead and it will never ever be justified. People will never able to say that it was okay or that it did not happen the way that the statistics prove it did. I never knew before taking this class how white people used slaves to advance themselves, and it frustrates me knowing that this happened but guilt is not the way to fix something. But with that being said the focus should be on the future and not guilt from the past. Society as a whole needs to understand more about race relations and then we can finally begin to move forward without guilt. Facts like these should be taught along an be common knowledge with black history and racism, the problem needs to be addressed from the bottom. It is like the King of the Hill example Sam gave in class, it is wrong but that is the way society is, but it was done on purpose to keep people down which is where I think the guilt truly comes from. The fact that this continues to happen on even a smaller scale is what we really need to feel guilty about. People were not given a fair chance and they still are not being treated in full equivalence. We cannot change the past, but discrimination right now is still oppressing all different groups of people. People are still struggling against similar obstacles even years later. I have to admit that I feel that it is embarrassing to America and to what this country is supposed to stand for. America is supposed to be a place where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed to their own fullest potential. It is disgusting and disgraceful that this has not happened yet. So while guilt for the past I feel is not helping the situation and people should be able to proud of the positions they hold in their lives… the guilt should come from the shame of knowing that same problem has not yet been fully fixed.

I think that white people are more reluctant to admit discriminations because of guilt. White people have years and years of slavery, stealing land, and just plain open discrimination against EVERYONE else except for themselves. White people have done wrong to everyone from colored people to Asians. We have years of acts of hate of our ancestors, family, everyone knows someone who knows someone else who may have been a part of one of those acts. All of those problems are still in everyone’s minds and are still a weight that is carried on the shoulders of all white people. Even if a white person is joking around and to his or her friends of another race, if it gets out of line that person can turn around and flip out about every thing because, that’s just how it is. White people can only joke so much before its wrong, because where does the kidding stop? People of color have no reason at all believe anything a white person says if they judge by he history that whites have. Not that I am saying we would go back to the way things were, but all it takes is some ignorant jerk to make others think so. There is still racism, there are still prejudice groups, so white people are not in the clear yet and probably never will be. As long as there are white supremacists groups around, and the numbers that Sam shows us in class on white advantage stay the way they are then whites should be reluctant to admit discriminations. White people have no excuse to go out and say or do as they please in relation to this topic. Until society as a whole changes and improves at e genuine level, not a politically correct level, then this hidden discrimination thing will continue on. Maybe in a few generations when our society is so mixed that nobody can really say anything about race (which I believe will happen) then maybe this will not be a problem anymore. But that’s years and years of mixing races before the discriminations are genuinely gone, and not just being covered up by trying to do or say the right things in front of people of other races. Doing it this way just makes it awkward and everyone knows that it is not always heart-felt which defeats the purpose. It is a system where nobody can win right now, and nobody is correct because either people are fake about, real about it, or blatantly racists. There middle group is still too small, and a majority of people who are fake about it are fake about it because they are guilty for what their race has done to others.

I think that we make major decisions so quickly because of the fast paced world of technology and media that we live in. We skim websites, newspapers, blogs, all while chatting on facebook and texting at the same time. Information is spewed at us at the speed of light and we are forced to choose in an instant what we believe or how to react. This fast paced life that we all lead is what causes us to make decisions on whim without investigating what we hear further. It is our responsibility to investigate what we are told further, and not just be influenced to make a decision by the first piece of information we hear. I know that is difficult to imagine looking up everything we hear and trying to find it’s source, but as a communications major I have learned that this is a NECESSITY in order to make informed decisions.
People do not care enough to take the time to think decisions through, or to look up facts. Thus leaving the majority of society to make decisions influenced by what our professors, the media, colleges, friends etc. are telling us. Half the time, people do not even know what they are talking about. They hear someone talking about something, and relay the information to someone else and then by the time it gets to you there is no way of knowing the accuracy of what they are talking about. Even the news does this, take the case Sherry Sherrod, her situation is oddly similar to the example Sam gave in class. The nation, even the WHITE HOUSE took the first piece of information they heard and ran with it. Nobody, not even the Obama administration bothered to fact check before jumping to a conclusion. In her case, it was not just jumping to a conclusion though...it was forcing this woman out of a job. Forcing an innocent person out of job because some idiot edited a video tape and put it on youtube. Now that is making a major decision way too quickly.
But we all do it, I even did it with the example Sam gave in class. So whose to blame? I say ourselves because at the end of the day, being an informed citizen and making wise decisions falls onto our shoulders. While it is difficult to stand up against the fast paced world we all live in, just knowing not to believe everything you hear is an important factor in making decisions. I think we all just need to take a step back, breathe, and think for a moment before we speak. If everyone took about 5 minutes before responding to a question or forming an opinion, we would all be a great deal better off.

I feel like determinism had a huge impact on how I got to Penn State. Both of my parents went to college, but neither one of mine expected me to go very far. Growing up, I was never forced to do anything. My parents were very lenient and they always told me that my best was fine, no matter what my best was in societies standards. They encouraged me to do what made me happy and forget about everything else. This may have had an impact on me going to Penn State because after I figured out what it was that I wanted to do after high school, even though my family cannot afford Penn State; it was going to make me happy so I had to do it. My town was a mix of a urban and suburbs, so I had the opportunities that good schools provide but not everyone even knew about them. You had to fight to get into advanced placement classes, and many people did not take them.
I never had any interest in school until I came to realization that I was bad at sports. When all my friends made the softball team and I didn’t, that was when I decided to focus my attention in school—so I would say that was a determining factor in helping me come to Penn State. I focused all of attention on school, and stopped worrying about what was “popular” in my high school because I was going to go to college unlike about 30 percent of my grade who would not. I worked really hard to get into the advanced placement classes, despite my guidance counselor who thought that they would be too hard for me. It felt good to prove my guidance counselor wrong, and it also felt good to go home and tell my parents all that I was accomplishing without being forced to do so.
It was very difficult for me to do well in school considering I was friends with a majority of the kids who were not college bound. They made fun of me when I would study, and give me a hard time when I did not want to go out. This was frustrating, but I think this also helped with my getting to Penn State because I knew in the end I was going to be happier. And I was right, they are at home working and I am having the time of my life at Penn State. There were many factors that tried to get in the way of me ending up at Penn State, but the choices I made were smart ones and I was able to work through the obstacles that determinism was throwing at me.

Everyone likes to avoid conflict, and for the most part people enjoy making other people happy. I feel like political correctness is a skewed way of preventing conflict. People think that if they express their ideas or opinion that are different from others that it is not politically correct. When in reality, I feel as if that is what our society would benefit from having less of! Our world needs honesty, not some white man hiding behind fake visage of acceptance. People need to get everything out in the open, and have real quality discussions with people of other races. How else is the race issue ever going to go away if people are so concerned with being politically correct that they are not being honest with one another?
Maybe it was just the way I was raised by my parents, or the community that I grew up in, but I am not afraid of other races. I have never worried about being politically correct when talking to someone of another race because I never really thought of anyone’s differences as something to be ashamed of. At the same time, not being politically correct to intentionally hurt someone is another story. But to me, that is just someone being a racist jerk. The issue of being politically correct changes when the intentions behind it are not good ones. If someone is trying to be politically correct in order to not hurt someone, or they do not exactly know what to refer to another race as than I understand why they would try to be politically correct.
That is why we need to approach the topic of political correctness in a new fashion, in a way of political openness. Where people can be honest about if a certain term bothers them, and correct somebody is they are wrong without being insulted. This would be a huge step for society if we were able to do this because political correctness is a way of hiding behind ignorance. Ignorance is NOT bliss, people need to correct others when they are wrong and accept the way other races want to be treated. This comes back to issue of honesty between races, what good is being politically correct if you are going to turn around and make a racist comment when the other person leaves. Political correctness needs to come from heart, using proper terminology for other races and wanting to learn about them needs to be a genuine act or this issue of race will not go away. So why do we need to be politically correct? Because people are too ignorant to take the time to actually CARE about other races than their own, thus preventing them for being able to be open with one another.