I definitely think it would be much more difficult to come out to straight parents compared to gay parents. There are many reasons, but I think the one that outshines all is similarity and familiarity. My parents are straight, and as am I. So I am basically following their example. Now, if my parents were gay, it would be much easier to be gay also because I have a living example, and I am not going against something that is unspoken about or unheard of. It is the example that they would be setting. I think the similarity factor plays a large role. If I was gay, and my parents were straight, I feel like it would be much harder for them to relate to me and my situation. Whereas, if I was gay and my parents were gay. I’m sure there would have been many times and occasions where the topic of homosexuality was brought up and discussed, instead of being swept under the table and unspoken about. I almost feel as though if you are raised by gay parents you would feel more comfortable sharing things and be more encouraged to speak about things. Since homosexuality is such a controversial issue, the fact that it’s so close to you (being in your family) makes it so much easier to deal with it and face it. When people are so verbal about being against homosexuality it seems as if it means that they have never wrestled with the thought and really sat down to think about and have empathy for people who are homosexual. With every boyfriend I have ever had, I have always been very attracted and interested in him. For a gay person it’s the same thing! They are just attracted to the same, and why can’t they? This is a free country and people should be permitted to feel what they want, do what they want, and LOVE who they want. Why should society come down on them because they are different? Why does society have to shun things that are different? It always frustrates me because everyone always says, “be different”. But it’s so hard to be different when society puts such a heavy weight on your shoulders for not blending in, and for not doing what everyone else is doing. Homosexuality is different, but most people are just more attracted to people of the same sexual orientation as them. Who is society, and people who are against to come in and verbally abuse people for their attraction, an attraction that really seems uncontrollable? I believe that if everyone took a little time, and had a little empathy for others, they would realize that it’s okay to be gay, and there is absolutely no reason to waste time hating on it, especially since it is inevitable.

The topic of police brutality makes me sick. The fact that they have the authority and power to stop anyone on the street really pisses me off, especially since a majority of the time it is due to racist causes and reasons. The United States was formed because people did not want to be oppressed anymore. So how is it, that today, hundreds of years later, we are still not free? How is it fair that a cop, just because he or she has a badge can stop someone: black, white, latino, anyone and search them. Especially without probable cause, and that can’t be because your black or of color. I understand the responsibility of police offers to keep our cities safe. But, keeping them safe also means respecting their natural laws of liberty and happiness. That means respecting privacy. It is unfair and silly, considering the morals and foundation this country was built on, to stop a person who is probably just trying to get from point A to point B, simply because of their race.
With lots of power comes entitlement. Power is such a strong thing and when put in the wrong and right hands can cause people to change for the worst. As shown in the Zimbardo studies people are not good at doing the right thing with enormous amounts of power. In most cases they follow negative and bad instincts forgetting their morals and the appropriate way to do things. That is the trade off with power. You give someone power and can only hope that they do the right thing with it, especially since it is so easily taken advantage of. I feel like a lot of police officers take advantage of all the power they are given by the law. I think it is unfair how in NYC if a cop catches you smoking weed and you don’t show them the drugs you only get a ticket, where as if you didn’t know that fact and show them the drugs because they ask, you get a more intense and more expesive charge. Its like the people protecting us are always trying to trick us and deceive us. That isn’t the morals of our society and it should not be how people act when they have a badge.
I feel really strongly about the “stop and frisk” policies that have been adopted in the US. I find it disrespectful and against the law. There is no excuse for stopping someone on the basis of color. None. People of color are the same as us, and just because they wear their pants low, or walk with swag doesn’t mean they are holding a weapon or are a threat to anyone!

I think the fact that people in government are spending the time, resources, and energy to pass a ridiculous bill like this is sad. How could governmental officials have time to spend on an issue so purposeless? There are so many important issues that need to be talked about and figured out, so where does saggy pants come in? Why is this important? Who cares? Litearlly, who cares?
First off this country was founded on the basic principles of freedom. Every person who is a citizen of the United States of America is free to express themselves. So, I guess my question, is how can the government forbid them from wearing saggy pants? What’s the definition of saggy pants? What, is the problem with people wearing their pants a little low? If someone wants to pull their pants down a little lower to fit into a trend or just express themselves in that way, why can’t they?
Saggy pants. Governement is spending precious time, while people are starving, being taken advantage of, struggling, thirsty they are worrying about people wearing saggy pants. They are worried about a stupid trend that will probably be out of style before this bill can be passed. What is the point of wasting time and focusing energy on this when there are so many other pressing issues that need to be addressed immediately. Immediate attention is required for other issues, not people wearing saggy pants. I would love to know what the consequence of wearing your pants saggy is? Is someone going to come up to you and give you a ticket because your pants are at a certain measurement? And even more importantly, who is going to monitor us? Who is going to go around making sure everyone has their pants at the perfect length in the back? “Saggy pants police”?
I find it personally offensive that the government is even considering passing this bill. It is just so stupid. Its almost shocking to me how incredibly stupid it is. I think the government should spend their time and creative ideas trying to stop the issues that are actually negatively affecting the people of this country.
People wearing saggy pants are not offending anyone, are they? They are just wearing their pants a little lower. So leave them alone.
The only excuse I can see from this bill being passed is racial. Usually, saggy pants are connected to thug life, rappers, maybe people of color. So if anything is is just another example of the deep rooted institutionalized race. Its so institutionalized that now its affecting who and how to wear your pants? That is sad and pathetic. Its shocking and unfortunate that this exists and that people really do waste their time with stuff as meaningless as this.

I read all the Harry Potter books and absolutely loved every second. So, when my friend told me about the Hunger Games Trilogy I was psyched. Finally 3 books I can read. I read the Hunger Games on a flight home from Colorado, and it took me 2 days to finish. I read the second book in between classes, and it took me 5 days to finish. Needless to say, these books are incredible. The story is so fantastic and so far-fetched that it drags in your concentration and interest in every page. Being a loyal fan, I had to see the movie. I saw it last weekend (opening weekend), waited in line for an hour, and enjoyed every second of the movie. The directors brought the film to life. Most of the things I imagined in my head while reading were depicted on-point on the screen. It was a fantasy world come to life. I dragged a lot of my friends to this movie, most who had not read the books. They asked all sorts of questions, but overall enjoyed the movie a lot. One of my friends even called it one of the best movies she has seen in a while. Personally, it doesn’t bother me when people who don’t read the book and just go to the movie have strong and outward opinions, because at the end of the day they are kind of ignorant. But when I read the tweet of in this article about the girl saying “why does Rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie” it pissed me off to no extent. First and foremost, who f’in cares? So what if shes black, so what if shes white. At the end of the day its skin, flesh, with blood underneath. How could someone base their attitude on the movie because of a characters skin color? Esepecially, when her skin color was correctly depicted from the novel. I think its ignorance, sad and unfortunate that someone can be so stupid and uninformed that they make that comment. And all the other tweets of people who were upset by the fact that actors and actresses were black. Look around, there are people of all different races, and at the end of the day the biology is the same people. Its frustrating to me that people still get caught up in these pathetic and closed-minded ways. Reality: people are people, and people have different skin color due to adaptive purposes. I think if people were more exposed to race and relations with different kind of people then the whites they clearly are only involved in. Then maybe, just maybe they would be a little more accepting and realistic and open-minded, which would ultimately lead to a better life and deeper understanding of people and this world. People who shut themselves off are hurting themselves more than the people they outwardly criticize and discriminate against.

I grew up in Westchester, NY in a town that was all white. There were maybe 5 or 6 black families, very few Asian and no Hispanic. I was raised by a Nanny, who was from Trinidad and Tobago. She really opened my eyes to race and in an area where racism was very prevalent, eliminated it. Maybe not eliminated it but she definitely gave me a different side. I loved her more than anything and we were always together. She used to tell me stories about her growing up in her home country, and about when she moved to America. She would tell me about her culture, including things like Carnival. She would make me her native dishes, curry was my favorite. I know growing up with her I always wondered why she was a different color than everyone else around me, but I think the respect and love I had for her made forget about that factor. I think from a young age we learn about the history of this country and the split between whites and blacks. We learn about slavery and the inferiority blacks were deemed because of their skin color. I think that’s a huge reason racism exists to be honest. Because when I learned about those differences I remember thinking to myself, I’m white, and realizing that I was white. I think this class really threw me through the stages. In the beginning I thought a lot about how I was white, and then I hit that stage that makes you angry that your white and have all these privileges. Especially when we discussed institutionalized racism, I was really angry and upset about the unfair justice system and how that could still exist. But then I think about how racisms is such an unconscious thing at this point, because throughout life we learn these little things that stick and cause us to be racist even if we don’t want to be. Obviously the only way to change that is to have motivation and ability, which many people don’t tend to have. I thank God everyday I was fortunate enough to be raised by a women of color, and such rich culture. It has made me a better person today, and has also made me enjoy this class to a different extent.

Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion not based on any facts. This usually means that prejudices are NOT good. They are simple judgments we make from things we hear, or witness, that influence our opinion of others and situations. Usually negatively. Obviously, as humans we need an orderly way to organize our thoughts and the things we see daily. So we create schemas that act as representations that are usually hardwired. I think one main parts of this article is instead of sticking to these hardwired ideas we have to remember that they are not always right. That comes with experience and the motivation/ability to actually adapt our behavior and take the time to think about the prejudices we have, where they came from, why they are there, if they are right (which in most cases they are not). These prejudices are not easy to adjust. Especially, because people just automatically make these schemas. In the brain it is an unconscious automatic process that usually goes on without the conscience of the person making the prejudice. This is very problematic. That is why the best way to get rid of the prejudices is to remember that it is an unconscious process and take the time to revise them, and actually think about them. This will allow you to make better decisions and live a life that is more reflective of the truth instead of these unconscious organizations. In the article, it states that the people most likely to make these revisions are people with more diverse experiences. This makes sense because these people have seen more and experienced different cultures and are therefore more qualified and able to make true judgments instead of faulty prejudices. One serious problem with prejudices is that they form so easily. In a matter of hours you can create prejudice that sticks. They become convenient in everyday life, because they help your mind process the massive amounts of incoming data. But these easy prejudices fail when the situation becomes more complicated. Because those prejudices are not accurate and do not represent reality it becomes problematic when applying them. They devised a strategy called “tit-for-tat” to measure the success, which only became apparent after a white, but was constantly high. It shows that prejudiced strategies ARE SUCCESSFUL and rational but only for a short time. They require adjustments and time to re-evaluate their meaning. If people do not learn from these mistakes, and alter their prejudices then they will be unable to adjust their behavior and will respond to partners in a more differentiated way creating racisms and unfair judgments based on skin, and other factors that should not play a role. Far too many times people make irrational judgments just based on looks, which in turn reinforce prejudices. Basically, we need take the conscious step and actually think and adjust our unconscious prejudices to help make them apply to more complicated real life situations.

I think that I have never taken a class like this in my life. There are so many topics, so many ideas, so many feelings, so much thought that goes into everyday as I sit and listen and then carry around with me. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing that has stuck out at me the most since so much has. I think the overarching theme, is that white supremacy is still very much alive and powerful in this “land of the free” and because of that every single non-white citizen or not suffers. I think that is what I found most shocking. I can’t really put in words the way I felt after reading the incarceration piece online and in the shadow boxing with race book. They were just too sad. It makes me sick to know that our legal system, which is so rooted into our government, is corrupt by race. How could something that preaches justice, liberty and freedom for all be so unforgiving and unfair towards the majority of the population. How can we be responsible for holding 25% of those incarcerated in the world, the majority of them being non-whites. How could we change our prison system so that it doesn’t promote rehabilitation but punishment and social annihilation? Its so scary to think about the fact that when prisoners come out of these horrible places they can barely find a job, have to renew ties with their family, and have to live with the stigma of “social outcaste” for the rest of their lives. And, the fact that most of these people belong to this “caste” are non-whites is so unfair and hard to think about. To think that in America we might actually have our own corrupt caste system where the untouchables resemble prisoners, who are non-whites. So basically, non-whites are still being oppressed just in new ways. We rely on the law to take care of us and protect us, through rights but in the end do they? For someone who is black and needs help from the law, what are they supposed to do? When in reality they are innocent but because of their skin color are considered a suspect, and are constantly under watch and discrimination. What is a non-white running to a cop? Probably someone assumed of doing something unlawful and illegal. That’s scary. Its scary that non-whites who need help can’t even seek it because they are not welcomed by the judicial system to use it. I think that is what made me the most scared and annoyed. I find it shocking that today we still bare the brut of yesterday. And all this deep-rooted racism has never ended, it just disguised itself among a governmental system, which is looking more and more like the enemy everyday.

I always heard people say that black people were better at basketball simply because they are black and I honestly never gave it any attention. Mostly because the majority of the people in basketball are black. It’s very interesting to think about it from the perspective that the reason there are so many more black players than white players is because of where they grew up and the resources available to them. I guess the reason I never thought about it was because I was never a big sports fan, and the question never really applied to my life or interests. But now when I think about it from a sociological point of view its clear that people of race who live in low socio-economic areas have more access to public sports places, such as basketball courts, baseball fields, soccer fields and others. They have to find some activity and with those resources free and popular amongst friends it is clear that they would take advantage and become very good in that area. Especially in areas where it is respected to be good at a sport why wouldn’t people take advantage? It’s funny to think about hockey and the ratio of black to white, which is barely even there. But equipment is expensive and ice rinks are expensive to be a part of. And there is no ice in very warm areas, which explains why blacks from Africa don’t play and are not exposed to this sort of sport/ activity. I think this is a problem because people don’t have the opportunity or motivation to think about the fact that race is not a part of sports. They don’t think about it because no one brings it up and it is unspoken about. Which makes sense, because I know before class I didn’t think about the fact that blacks are better at basketball because they were the majority. People, especially in this country do have racist beliefs and without the question being posed no one would think about it. I think if people had the necessary education to think about race is a mixture of where your from not the sporty aspects and biological explanations to sports race. Biological explanations make no sense to blame people being better at certain sports to biological purposes. I think if society was posed with the question more often what makes someone better at sports than someone else there would not be so much confusion, racism, stereotypical thoughts, and discrimination in society because people would understand that available resouces is more important to think about in terms of sports ability than biological genetics.

I guess I would consider myself as an atheist because I don’t believe in any specific religion and I don’t believe in God. From a young age I was forced into my parents beliefs and upbringings of Christianity. Every Sunday at 8 am I was at mass, sitting and patiently waiting for it to end. Distracting myself in any way possible so I didn’t have to focus on what the priest was saying. I was baptized, I received communion, and I was confirmed. Once a week I was forced to attend Christian school, where once again, I would distract myself until it was over. I memorized all that needed to be memorized to pass. But is that right? Should I have to memorize a prayer if I don’t want to? No. And that’s probably why at this point I don’t believe or accept Christianity. I know there has to be some greater force out there. Something that created and keeps this enormous universe in motion. Something that created us, human beings. Something. But what? I’m not quit sure. This semester I am fortunate enough to take an introductory religious studies class. I am currently learning about Hinduism and Buddhism. These religions make more sense to me. I don’t think you can point to one God, or Jesus and say, you created the world. For me there’s not evidence so why should I believe it? I guess I’m missing the faith part. But in Hinduism and Buddhism they believe in an underlying force, and that force being within yourself. That makes sense. We are the ones who inhibit this earth therefore we have to be force. We have to find it in ourselves to be better people and to keep this place going. And then maybe when we die we’re reborn in one of the billions of other planets and galaxies out there. I just think personally that it’s within ourselves, why look out and believe in something that really has no truth when we can focus inward. We have free will, meaning we have the power and opportunity to make better decisions and live a better life. I started believing in this more when I started doing yoga. Getting in touch with your body moving and understanding our breathing really does make you feel present. I believe that presence can help anyone feel more alive and appreciate life more. Life is such a beautiful thing, and we have the power the make life better or worse. I guess I believe that this planet, this galaxy, this universe is moving to a force a force that can be recognized deep within. A force that we can choose to accept and live with or we can ignore, its up to us not God.

I have personally never been one to strongly believe in God. I was baptized in the Catholic Church and was raised catholic. Aka I was forced every Sunday to attend mass where I would count the lights on the ceiling. Basically, I have no faith in religion that is standardized and to be honest corrupt. I do have so belief and faith that there is a stronger force making everything work but I think its on more of a personal level, more of an “inner self” level. But anyways, I think it was very interesting to step into the shoes of people who do believe in religion and live their lives according to a scripture and the stories of people. Especially since being raised in the religion that I was I’m technically supposed to believe in God and Jesus and all the disciples and such. But I really do wonder what people who believe that God put them on this earth, and God made them who they are, gave them the features they possess, and the qualities they possess. What do they think when they look in the mirror? I know me personally, I’m not crazy about my wild hair, not crazy about how damn pale I am, definitely not into my cup size. And as an white American girl my weight always raises an eyebrow. But its what I got and it’s what I live with. I’m not quit certain if any of my traits had evolutionary advantages. Maybe something with my skin but then again what could that be….But for people who have this strong faith and believe that they were hand crafted by God, what happens if you don’t like something about yourself? Realistically, there is always something that can be changed. Hips are always just a little too wide, eyes just a little too close together. I mean no one is perfect especially when we compare ourselves to people who appear perfect (thanks a lot photoshop). Do they blame God? Blame themselves? Who is to blame for these traits that make us uneasy and unhappy when we look at ourselves in the morning. I know me personally; I’m just like damn it. There isn’t anyone to blame since I don’t really believe. I guess I could call up my Grandma and yell at her for the Irish she gave me. Or call up my Mom’s side of the family and tell them I’m a little upset with the French-Canadian in me. But then again, what’s the point, nothing is going to change right? I’m going to wake up in the morning and look the exact same as I did. I guess I just want to know how people do view themselves and who they blame for the way they look?