I have to say that I really did not like Sam’s lecture on the Middle East. Right from the beginning it seemed like he was being a little sarcastic about the Jihad video. Then for the rest of the lecture he was speaking about the position that the Middle Easterner’s are in and how it’s ok that they hate us or talk badly about us. The problem I had with it was that he was making every excuse in the book for them, but never once justified the exact same thing that is going on here. I feel like way too many times in our class it is also about how much we should feel bad for the other people. Before 9/11 there was not that much talk about racism toward Middle Easterners; however after the terrorists attacked us we started to feel differently. It is the exact same way that Sam was trying to make us see how they feel about Americans. Yet, we are still wrong and we should feel bad for them and they are right. Then he continued to show us the video of the cab driver that got his car crushed for stealing wood and he made the whole class feel really bad for that guy. But had Sudam still been in power that guy probably would have gotten his hand cut off for stealing. I personally would rather lose my car than my hand.

Also, my cousin served two terms in the Iraq war and he had a run in with a cab driver where I do not feel even remotely bad. The story goes like this, my cousin was working a checkpoint and a cap driver came speeding up to them. The first move was to shoot off a few warning rounds and the cab driver did not stop. As it got closer, the next move was to shoot for the tires, still no stop. The cab now got very close and since there was the possibility of a car bomb, they had no choice but to burn the car out and stop it themselves. After firing upon the car and finally getting it to stop, they went up to it to see why he did not stop. Turns out that the cab driver wanted a new cab and thought that if it was shot he would be bale to get it. Unfortunately, there was a women with a baby also in the cab. One of the bullets that were used to stop the cab caught the baby right in the head. If the cab driver had just followed the rules and stopped for probably 30 seconds everything would have been fine. That story personally for me changed my mind on the war forever.

Once I went to a professional soccer game and there were a decent amount of Spanish speaking people there. I was with my friend who also knew a lot of Spanish but they were unaware. He listened for a decent amount of time and it turned out that they were saying rude things about me and they thought that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. After that, I’ve never been comfortable when people are speaking other languages around me. I’ve even tried to talk to my sister about the situation and she had a similar experience at a nail salon. She was there with her friend who understood what the women were saying and her friend later told her that they were talking about her! That just seems really embarrassing. It’s a hard situation to deal with because I fully understand that this country is extremely diverse and there are a lot of other languages that are spoken constantly every day, but it’s hard to be comfortable in your immediate surroundings when you know that you are incapable of figuring out exactly what is going or being said.
The benefit of this situation is that is gives me extremely good insight on how foreigners feel when they are trying to cope with being in the United States. This is a new place for a lot of people and while trying to learn to speak the language of the majority, they also have to listen to all of the other languages that the other foreigners are speaking! I definitely am lucky to have grown up here; otherwise I would really feel uncomfortable when others are speaking different languages around me!
Although this issue does make me uncomfortable, I’ve really been trying to find ways to not feel that way as soon as I realize that others are speaking in a different way around me. I mean, I can’t automatically think that people are talking about me every time I don’t know what they are saying, that is a little ridiculous, but it’s hard. To make things a little easier I try to stop and think about if I was in their position. This could easily be their first day in the United States, how can I be uncomfortable with them for speaking the language they have been speaking their entire life?
An extreme amount of foreigners come to this country every day for various reasons, they could be trying to make a new start, they could be escaping from something awful where they are from, or they could just be here on vacation, so I know that it is pretty unreasonable of me to be uncomfortable with them speaking in another language around me. I could easily be in another country speaking to someone else in English and have the natives feel uncomfortable around me! Due to my situations it’s hard for me to not feel a little uncomfortable, but I’m definitely working on it.

When it came time for me to choose a college, honestly diversity never even crossed my mind. I come from Collingwood, New Jersey, which is a very diverse town in south jersey right across the Walt Whitman Bridge from Philadelphia. Growing up I never really saw my area as one for only white people or for only black people. So when I chose Penn State it was for everything that was not race; it never even crossed my mind that we are considered diverse. Personally, I do not think that University Park is all that diverse. If you take my discussion group for example, out of the say 15 people I think that we have four black students and one Middle Easterner. If you think that that is diverse then I do not know where you came from, but it must have been extremely sheltered. If anything when I first got here I saw much more white then I had ever seen before, a kid I know openly used the n-word in public freshman year and thought nothing of it. Another girl I know wrote a paper using Negro multiple times, honestly the nicest person I know, but she is from Georgia and saying things like that were alright by them. So maybe to them coming to Penn State is an eye opening diversity shock, but quite frankly it’s the opposite for me.

In my discussion group this week one of our TAs brought up the point that many half black half white people usually side with the black people in the group and she was shocked to find out that growing up I had/ have two mixed race friends that hung out with me and other white kids all the time. To me, I was surprised to find that she was that shocked. For me, I learned diversity much younger then most people who go to Penn State. Maybe playing basketball helped (because apparently a lot of black people are good as basketball), but I think that I still would have been close with the people I was with or without playing ball. One of the mixed race kids that I hung out with in high school came up here with me and joined the same fraternity. In our house he is one of three black people, perhaps that’s diverse to some people, but to me it was a giant drop off.

I know that Penn State prides itself on being a very diverse school and on being available to everyone, but to me I think that it is mostly white. I did not choose this school because is was “diverse” I chose it because it was a good school, I think that is what should be most important, race should not matter.

I feel as though this question has already been brought up multiple times in our class, but I do not see as to why it should have been or continue to be asked. Personally, I can trace my ancestry back to Ellis Island and then to Poland, Italy, and Ireland. My people were not even present in this country during racism and I think that the majority of the people living here now can probably say the same thing. When slavery was abolished our population was 31 million; in the last census it was 310 million. Even if one could trace it back, our population is now ten times the size; over 175 years and 280 million more people the direct ties to slavery are dead or at the very least close to it.

Do not get me wrong; slavery was a terribly awful event/time in our country, but all that I am saying is that none of us even has the slightest idea what it would be like to live without a computer or TV let alone in the time of slavery. We should never forget the cruelty we were capable of, but do you think that German kids feel guilt from the holocaust? I have personally had the opportunity to meet real life Germans and when that was brought up it seemed as if no one has ever asked them the question before. I think that the problem we have in our country is that we have a very hard time letting go of anything that happens to us. Instead of working to make our country better and more equal we consistently bring up what makes each of us unique or “better” then the next person or race and the cycle continues. Things like affirmative action and political correctness should not even be necessary. Yet we find ourselves constantly either hating someone or trying way to hard to “like” him or her. There are still many war vets from Korea and Japan that are still very racist to the Asian population as a whole because of some people that I am sure the Asains never knew personally.

So no, I do not feel one shred of guilt. I feel sad that that happened to those people and I am happy that it no longer does. However, I know many black people that are on the same economic lever or a higher one then I am. My ancestors came to this country poor in the late 1800’s, and as foreigners they were hated on pretty bad as well. We need to move past the past and start looking into what we can do to make a better future. I sure as hell know feeling guilty will not help any. There should be more equal opportunities, there should be people checking up to see if anyone’s rights, white or black are being violated. We are all living here now, but we wont be for long, we should be wasting our time hating each other for no reason.

A lot of people take life for granted. Even the little things that we are able to do every day or that we may not even like to do (such as school work) are some people’s hopes and dreams. We live in the most developed country in the world, even our poorest have it better than a lot of whole countries yet I bet very few us ever stop to think just how lucky we are. My family does not have as much money as some people do in this country, but we have enough to be able to own a house, a couple cars, have health insurance, and go to college. People in the Ivory Coast are living as slaves right now as I type this on my two thousand dollar computer. Sam gave that example of the kid in Haiti working for just a dollar a day. The world is just fucked up. The one clicker question asked us if we feel guilty about this, to that I answered no. I am saddened that those people happen to be in the situation they are in, but I don’t think guilty is exactly the word I would use. I literally have zero control over 99.9999% of the events and actions that take place on earth. I can do my part to make sure that the people that I come into contact with and those that I can have an effect on are treated with respect and honor, but quite frankly those people are in the Ivory Coast. I know I could be buying fair trade chocolate and what not, but honestly I cannot for the life of me remember the last time that I even purchased straight chocolate, but I digress.

I can’t think of and eloquent way to put it, it just plain sucks. Even though we do not realize it we have just about everything we need and then some. We may want to have more and work hard to get more for ourselves, however just basic needs wise were set. I guess that’s why I couldn’t believe it when my dude wearing his blue tooth and some designer glasses had the nerve to say that he couldn’t afford buying something from a store at double price if he knew Wal-Mart employed slaves. We as Americans just don’t get it. We truly don’t understand how well off we actually are, now you can say I’m playing the ignorance card, but I think its just the society card. We live in a place were someone like Snooki can make millions of dollars a year to be a drunken whore, why should we think that our lives are good enough when someone so clearly equal to us has a life like that. What it all comes down to is that we always see the good and very rarely see the bad. If we were seeing things like that documentary every week, I think that we would all just shut up and realize just how lucky we actually are. I know everyone of us in that class did on Thursday.

I don’t know how much I agreed with Sam’s king of the hill example. To begin with, he stated clear rules and then didn’t follow them. Maybe in a crazy primitive time that would be ok, but I seriously doubt a society would go allow a ruler to continue in our current time. Look at Egypt for example; guess who is no longer president? Also, I have played the game before and if he was standing on top of the table and we were playing for real his ankle probably would have been swept in a half of a second. Listen I understand that he was trying to make the class interesting and explain how a minority can dominate the majority, but in a class room environment I don’t know if it was the best way to do it. Of course you students are going to listen to you if you tell them do go stand somewhere, their not thinking that they should be fighting for a crown; they think that you are trying to visually make an explanation. For Sam to then say “Why did you listen?” “Why didn’t you move?” come on, if he wanted that to be the example then I guess we should all just sit in the lecture hall and talk and not pay any attention at all. We could just overtake his class, I’m sure his department head would like that. Maybe it was just me, but I wasn’t a huge fan of his example.

Also, a slight tangent, but I didn’t fully agree with what he was saying about how the rich can just skate by and there are no options for the less fortunate, at least inside of our country.. For a couple reasons, first one of my best friends is very wealthy. His father essentially writes checks when it comes time for a new semester. That same father is also one of hardest parents out of all of my friends. He doesn’t get away with what ever he wants. Second, I come from the lower middle class; my mother took care of my sister and me for the first 6 six years of my life alone. I didn’t drop out of school, I did my homework, I got good grades. Money isn’t everything. Lastly in NJ at least before the economy went into the shitter, there was a program called NJ Stars. If you graduated in the top twenty percent of you high school class, the state would pay for you to go to the country school of your choice for two years. Then if after that time you kept you grades up, they would continue to pay for the last two years at any state school. You could come from nothing, work hard, and end up with a legitimate college degree. So when it comes to the United States one can still live the dream and get out of that gutter, they just he to change their mindset and work hard.

Political correctness in the world today is a completely childish idea. The entire reason why anyone even uses it is because the think that they have to make up for something that they had nothing to do with in the first place. People our age didn’t own slaves, yet if I, as a white male use the wrong word when addressing a black or should I say African American?, then I will be labeled as a racist. Yet, if the situation was reversed and I was called a cracker or honkey or whatever other derogatory term used against white people, it would be considered ok by most parties involved. I definitely agree that the people of our past have made some very serious mistakes, but it was the past. It seems like everywhere white people, and men in general turn; they have to step so softly with everyone’s feelings that they most of the time their best bet is to not speak at all. People worry way too much about the words other people say to them that most of the time the others are not being malicious at all. Also, the person who is getting mad is usually mad for all of the wrong reasons. They hear that they should not be getting called certain things then make a big deal if it does end up happening. I think that the words that are used are not the problem at all. What is a word? Honestly who care what people say, the part that should be focused on is the tone of the word being said. If someone wants to have the word “black” or “African” sound derogatory then they will be able to. However if one was to grow up using the word “colored” as their normal everyday term to describe black people then I think that that would be fine as well.

What seems to have happened is almost reverse racism. With all of the political correctness and affirmative action in place we continue a vicious circle of segregation. We should not be caring about race anymore, but instead of moving forward we make laws that keep us segregated. I understand that many people had to suffer because of the harsh mistakes in the past. I just do not agree with the direction we are heading when it comes to making people equal. If we were truly equal we wouldn’t need things like political correctness. People would just be people and not have to be so incredibly sensitive when it comes to their race. I know in class Sam said that we cannot get away with just saying the human race, but my question is why not? If all dogs can just be dogs and we can cross breed them and they are still considered dogs, why must we have racial barriers?

In our country today racial stereotypes are the last mountain that we as a nation need to climb to finally become a truly open people. This final step is the result of many generations of racial stereotypes that have been passed down from our great great great grand parents on down. Legislatively speaking, there were many laws passed that have changed how fair it is for people of color to be employed or receive rights, it is our thoughts of each other that are much harder to change. Personally, I went to a highly diverse high school, but when I first arrived at Penn State I was amazed at how cut off from the rest of the world and other cultures some students that I met were. One kid that I met even openly used the word “nigger” to describe black people and thought nothing of it. It was not until he arrived at Penn State that he even realized he was doing anything wrong.

What it comes down to is that for most of our childhood, we learn what we know from our parents and grandparents. Therefore, if one was to have an ignorant racist as a parent or grand parent and from age one on they were told certain stereotypes were true, then this is what they would believe until they were in a different environment. The big reason why racial stereotypes stick is because many people grow-up and live in the same place for the entirety of their lives. Under this thought, that same kid who was not corrected for his words until college, would never had been corrected at all and would probably end up having children, continuing the cycle of stereotypes that were taught to him.

Another reason people use racial stereotypes is because of their own insecurities. If one were to feel intimidated by someone of a different race, or if they thought that the person of another race was better then them at something; they would use a racial stereotype to cover this up and feel better about themselves. For example, if a black kid were better than a white kid at basketball, the white kid, feeling bad about himself would turn to making jokes about the black kids race because it is the only way he could still hold on to the superiority complex that has been implanted into him for ages.

The funny part about racial stereotypes is that none of them hold any water what so ever. Maybe a good number of people from that race abide by the stereotype, but it would also be the same way for any other race with that same stereotype. Still, until all of us as a country or even a world become educated to understand that we will continue to have obtuse stereotypes. We can now only hope that our children’s children are smarted then we are.

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