Now, I’m not saying that not having a diverse group of friends is a bad thing, but I lost my touch with people of other races and ethnicities. In taking soc 119, I can now look at people other than myself in a different light. I now understand that everyone is different. We all look different; we all live in different places and do different things. We all have different religions and jobs. Despite the differences, we all have the right to do what we want to do, when we want to do it, and how we want to do it. Clearly, not everyone will agree on things that other people do; actually, people quite often disagree with each other. However, the bottom line is that, when interacting with other races and ethnicities, I will try not to judge them based on things that they cannot control, but through the way they act.
Before taking Soc 119, my views of other races and ethnicities was somewhat muffled. In other words, I didn’t know what a race or ethnicity technically was. I didn’t know that there are differences between the two. Taking this class has definitely opened up my eyes to these differences. Also, before taking this class, I can honestly say that I’ve succumbed to using stereotypes about many different types of people. For example, stereotypes regarding skin color, religion, and even financial and social class. What the class has made me realize is that people tend to use stereotypes because they do not understand people other than themselves. That was my problem. I didn’t understand the way other people do things, and the values that they consider important. I grew up in a township that was very diverse, where I went to school with whites to blacks and everyone in between. As a matter of fact, most of my friends were not white. However, when I went to all guy, catholic, and private high school (comprised of mainly white people), and my group of friends changed significantly.
I would need the courage to say that I was oppressed and abused, and will need not only legal and physical support, but mental support as well. If I ever had to go through being sexually abused, I would certainly not be the same again, and I would need additional courage to be able to tell me story. This is one of the ways that we as humans can combat sexual abuse, through listening and talking. Yes, punishing sexual offenders very strictly is completely valid, but in order to prevent tragedies of sexual abuse from happening again, we need to be able to listen to people who have been through these situations, and to be able to talk about it so that it is an issue that does not get put behind a locked door.
Also, just the knowledge that somebody would be there for me if I needed it would make all the difference. Next, I would need my family to be standing in my corner for the entire ordeal. Family is everything. Friends can come and go, but family will always be together. Also, considering the fact that the person abusing me could be in family, would increase the importance of having the rest of my family united. Next, to transcend the abuse, everything would essentially fall on me. I would need the strength, courage, and will-power to not only stand up to the person abusing me, but to be able to contact somebody and admit that I need help.
Sexual abuse is an extremely touchy subject in our society. If you step back and think about it, nobody really sees, talks, or deals with the situation that we have. The underlying truth is that sexual abuse is very present in today’s world, and I think we as humans have a moral obligation to fight this ever growing threat. However, in most cases, we do not even know if somebody is being abused; we do not think of the victims when talking about this issue. Although important, we still talk about the strict punishment given to the perpetrators, instead of the stress which should be placed on the victims. If we don’t see or hear the victims’ pain, then, what do they need to escape from it? Not having been sexual abused, it is very hard to say what I would need to alert somebody of authority (if I were abused). However, I think the first thing I would need is a strong support system made up of family and friends who I know I can trust and who would be willing to do anything to help me. For me, trust is everything. This support system would be there for the victim so that they would have the strength to overcome their abuser.
Quite frankly, the entire scandal at PSU is a very complex and serious issue. Also, it is very hard to comment on it from each and very perspective, whether you are the media, the accused, students, or the affected, no matter what you say will be judged. Moreover, there is nothing I can say, as far as a judgment is concerned, regarding the other parties concerned. However, I will try to offer how I feel as a Penn State student. It seems to me that it is very unfair for the media and other people who are not Penn Staters, to judge us in a negative way. I take a lot of credit in the saying that you have to walk a mile in their shoes to understand what they are about. Yes, Penn State has a strong attachment to JoePA, he has been an institution in this University for years, and he deserves more respect than he was given. He maybe should have done more in this situation, and maybe a lot of things should have happened, but we will never know. Bottom line is what happened has happened, and the legal process will take place.
Also, it is different for people coming to America for a few months vs. the rest of their lives. If immigrants come to this country to become citizens, take advantage of the job opportunities, and live the American lifestyle for the rest of their lives, and do not make a single attempt at being able to understand the language, then it is very much irresponsible. Moreover, people who come here who don’t speak English and are not citizens, then they have no say in the matter. I will conclude with some personal experience with an immigrant. I am a beach lifeguard during the summer months, and my stand partner emmigrated from Bulgaria in 1996 to further his athletic career and to pursue his life goals. He went to college again in the States, got his teaching degree, and is currently teaching high school math, but he can fully speak English and does so on a daily basis. The times he speaks Bulgarian are his own choice as he is a legal citizen. (PART 3)
I was in Spain a couple years ago, and I know from experience that citizens of other countries respect when people come to their country and attempt to speak the language. Luckily for me, I knew pretty good Spanish so I definitely felt accepted by giving them the respect to talk to Spanish people in their tongue. Why can’t people coming to this country give us the same respect? In addition, I plan on studying in Germany in a few years in a study abroad program, but even though I’m of German descent, I don’t speak a work of German. I have also heard that many people in Germany can speak English, but does that mean I will go over there for a semester not knowing any German? No. I want to be able to speak to Germans in German, simply out of respect. I am living in their country and would expect the same motivation to learn the language for immigrants coming to the United States. (PART 2)
Every time I hear about the debate over whether immigrants should or have to speak English, it reminds me of going to Geno’s Steaks in Philadelphia. When you go into the restaurant there is a sign, or used to be a sign, that said “welcome to America, please order in English!” The man who owned the steak shop, Geno, got a bunch of heat for this which, in my opinion, is not validated. The accepted, first, spoken language of this country is English so any citizen of this country, whether immigrant or natural born, should know English. Now, I am not saying that immigrants who only know English as a second language have to speak it when they are around people of their own culture. If people of this country, as immigrants, are legal citizens then they have the unalienable right to speak which way they want, but they should respect that we speak English in America. (PART 1)
However upset I get to be when talking about race among white people, whenever the time comes to talk to people of color of color, I choke. I get nervous and worry that I am going to offend somebody, which quite frankly, happens a lot today. I wish this were different, and I could talk about race relations with races other than my own, but it is just my deep down emotion. Sometimes I even get upset and feel guilty in stage two, and can even bump to stage three. The bottom line is my fear of insulting someone always seems to outweigh my wish of furthering race relations. (Part 3)
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