White people are not against affirmative action they just belief it affects black and brown people more. Saying that colleges pick them over some because they want to be diverse and same goes with big companies that need to diverse themselves because it is actually better for them. It is better to be born white than any other race in the entire world. If you are born white you are set for life and the chances are higher than the rest of the races to achieve and succeed. Like same explained it over and over again so many times that it was shoved into our brains, white people are more likely to succeed in almost everything but some sports. Being born white is one great thing that could happen to any person because they are born with the privilege of all these doors open and black and brown people get less opportunity and have to work even harder to achieve the same as some white people.
Sam through out the entire year has given endless amount of examples about statistics that white people are usually more successful and earn more money than the rest of all the minorities. Even when everything was exactly the same, white people still were superior to the compared races and that is because of all the previous racism there was in the world that put minorities in unequal ground and made it what it is now.
But another thing that affects affirmative action is who is in the top of the mountain, and usually it is a white guy in a fancy monkey suit. They are the ones who decide who advances and who does not because they are threats or not capable of handling moving up. Usually people who advance are people who are like the people up top, because psychologically people like people who act and think like them. That's how the world is and we cannot really do anything about it. This is one thing I learned from a speaker, opportunities come mostly if they like you the rest is what have you achieve on your resume.
I thought affirmative action was towards minorities on most occasions, but then Sam made me realize how wrong I was. He has been opening our eyes about society, and this is a big one. I found out that affirmative action affects mostly white people because in this world it is one of the best things that can happen to you, with the abundant amount of chances and opportunities that are given to them instead of minorities and proving that they are capable and willing to do the same or better job.

I did it the second piece of chocolate after watching the video about slavery in the ivory coast and chocolate farms. The video did open my eyes to what is happening in the world about chocolate and i had no idea, people were being beat, killed, and put to work like animals to gather the thing we love eating to treat ourselves. I ate it before sam told us to eat it and only not to eat if you are going to live without chocolate for the rest of your life. and he is right about that, because if you decided not to eat it and then later that day bought some and ate it, showed you learned nothing from the video.
He explained that almost every single piece of chocolate has traces of slavery and even the technology like our phones and computers can be traced to slavery, but we do not realize where our stuff comes from, but only think what we are going to do with it. But i wish i could do something for them, i am just one student who is still learning and do not have the funds to go fight for their freedom, but if i did, sure i do whatever possible because every kid and man/women deserves their freedom.
sam did not force us to eat that chocolate he was trying to deliver a message to us, his students, that this is real life and what we should do. yea people felt bad eating that chocolate, but that is what sunk in the message and kept it our mind, but it will be forgotten and that is the tragedy of our society. The video ended with a man who was saved from slavery saying he would not have nice thing to say to us who eat the chocolate and that we are eating his flesh every time we enjoy a piece of chocolate, and he is right to be angered from it. since he works hard and has no gain from it.

Americans basically do not want to do hard labor jobs that undocumented mexicans do because they believe they are better than picking vegetables for a low wage. They are not willing to put the effort to pick up the vegetables because they can be using that time and hard work for a scheme to become a millionaire which in the end will not work. This goes with the education americans are getting, most are graduating from high school and then some are proceeding to college and getting degrees. With those they want to get jobs that are much higher paying than hard labor and low wages. Plus the united states is a pretty rich nation with a great economy, which may be declining now, which makes americans go for the better paying jobs and that do not require hard labor, they want the easy way to become rich.

The undocumented citizens, mostly mexican, take advantage of the job availability that big industries need so they can compete with the market and get the produce out there. The workers have a big reason why to put themselves through the hard labor they do in the united states and that is to provide to their families back home. Also, hispanic and latino people are known to be hard working and reliable, that is why they can be used for jobs no american wants to do. If american do not want to do the job, why do they complain so much about these people coming in here and doing them a favor. Most of them pay taxes, and i know americans do not like paying taxes, and probably in comparison, there are more americans not paying their taxes than illegal immigrants.

States like Alabama making laws against illegal immigrants seems just ridiculous because they are just hurting themselves and the big food companies that need workers to gather the produce being made. even in the long run this looks like a terrible idea, because this is making a shortage for these products and price will probably go up, and people will be unhappy, and then they will complain, and then realize, Crap we need them to do this for us.

THere is definitely more latent racism in the white community than in the black or hispanic community. why is that? well it is because white people hate it when they are called racist for what they just say it even though they did not mean it in that way at all, but they said it. Even though they try their hardest to not say anything racist to anyone but sometimes it just comes out accidentally and makes some jaws drop. The other side is people of color are racist sometimes but they never get called out upon it. it is just how it is, in this society people of color can not be racist even though they can say some ridiculous things. The reason is because they get discriminated all the time and their ancestors were discriminated and so on that they think i can not be racist because i am black, or latino, or asian. so most of the white people are very careful to what they say around people of color because they can pull the race card on them quickly and then they are deemed racist. i have certainly pulled that card on certain occasions or just to screw with their heads and kind off make them feel bad, but that is only to friends or people that make fun of my english.

I also believe that we are moving to a society where we are more understanding of each other as all the communities grow together. Even though racism is still around and will be for years to come it will eventually decimate into nothing because we will be all multicultural, but how we are we almost find someone to hate upon, which sounds terrible but it is the truth. we find someone to put the blame and hate them for no reason, but hopefully this all changes for the better.

Most of the time we use racial profiling in the intent to describe a person and not to be racist. it is far easier to picture a person when your friend says " my hispanic/latino" friend instead of saying brown hair brown eyes, because so many people fit in that category. Of course some people still use the offensive slurs that go with african americans, hispanics, and asians. Those people are purposely trying to offend minorities by attacking them in a racial way. Using them in the right way, gives the clearer image of who you're talking about, but do not assume a brown person is automatically mexican, because that is called profiling and should not be done.
But let us say we are telling a friend a story of something that happened to you and it involved some strangers. how would you go by describing these people as you tell the story? most of us would go by using some racial labels on these people because it is far easier to say than describing every single feature of the unknown person.
The point is even though they are unnecessary to use racial labels to describe people or tell story it helps to give the image to the listener. People might find it offensive when people use racial labels to describe people but they are not intended to be offensive. Even if a white person does it, people should not get mad at him because using the white is still giving them a color label but no one gets offended by it. If no intention to do harm was intended no one should point fingers and label the person racist,because he can do the same thing when the other does it in his stories.

I will have to completely disagree with this question on many reasons. First we never asked women to sacrifice their comfort when they go out for us, they do it because society pressured them to wear high heels and short dresses. They choose by those invisible strings that control us to decide, i will wear this really nice short dress with these high heels to match. Movies, the Internet, television shows like jersey shore influence us that to attract guys, girls have to dress in short revealing dresses that we enjoy looking at, not going to lie. The sex appeal that we get from all the media around is driving us to do just that. Girls are pushed to be wearing slutty short dresses to catch the eyes of guys. That is what pushes people to think that’s how i will get a guy tonight, but honestly girls do not need to go all the way to sacrifice comfort to impress us. If you are wearing heels that destroy your feet then why wear those and not some other shoes that do not hurt? But why are women going out if they are uncomfortable! That is illogical, dumb, and should not be done by anyone. If you are doing it to attract the hottest person in that room, I have seen it, girls do not need to wear very short dresses for them to attract guys, because they come either way or not. Also it results on being a bad night because they are uncomfortable.
If i had to sacrifice my own contort to go out to parties i would not go out because it not enjoyable and i be in a bad mood all night long because i am wearing tight clothes i do not enjoy wearing. As guys we have to dress nicely to stand out in the crowd and attract the girl. But again it is society that pushes us to do this and it is a men driven world in a way. Guys can wear classy clothes to a party but women cannot, sounds a bit unfair. But do not go out if that is the cost to go to a party and complain about it later.

Race affects what people think of us criminally. Stereotypes are there for a reason and not just a made up thing. Sure they are wrong for people but they have build themselves up because each race contributes to them. Might be a little racism but thats what we do, we judge people by their skin color, the way they talk and stuff like that. I've been stereotyped before. My own girlfriend parents, after i introduced myself, told me not to steal anything because i was of latino decent. i was so shocked by this, that i had to walk out for a bit until i cooled off because i wanted to give a good impression on them, and let it go by because i do not suit that stereotype. Hispanics and blacks have build the stereotype of stealing this from everywhere and anything they can put their hands on. Its like a tiny snowball that builds up as it falls down the mountain that it accumulates so much, that you can hide it and turned into something huge that everyone sees.
Let us say there is a black person coming towards you at night, what does the person do? walk to the other side because you assume he is a criminal who wants to mug or rape you. but how do you know those are his intentions? that is the classic example of a stereotype because you assume he is a criminal just because of his skin color, but although statistically blacks are more likely to be incarcerated. That does not mean they are all rapist or muggers or dangerous people. Some are extremely nice that do bad decision because of there current economic status. They are trying to get out of the slums but by that they often pick the easy path than actually studying hard and stuff like that.
All these statistics reflect some truth about all the races and their criminal status. But its so crazy how we judge everyone around us based on those sterotypes that people are naturally bad because of their race. That is not true at all, few fit those stereotypes people believe in and most are completely the opposite. I will admit I have stolen stuff before but nothing major or from anyone I know.

Free will and determinism exist and play a role on everyone, but they interconnect always. Yes you have the choice to pick, but you cannot decide a persons current race, economic situation, ect. Sam had the perfect example of free will during last lecture class. Where he figuratively put a gun to a kids head and asked " if you raise your left hand, I will shoot you". Sam gave him a clear choice that the kid could decide if he wanted to live or die in that moment. Everyone has the free will choice to decide if they buy the newest car, or the newest 3D television. But when stuff happens, like an accident and no insurance to pay for it, or getting laid off in this hard economy, the decisions they took affect them. You can choose to do whatever you want to do, but those choices can later come back and haunt you.
Some decisions are made for them and people cannot do anything about them. They cannot decide which race they are born, what family they are born into; a rich one or a poor one, they cannot decide what they look like or what personality they will have. Some people are just born with smarts or talented than others and that can allow them to go far if they have some financial money from the parents to help them out, but without it, only the very lucky can achieve it.
I was shocked when sam told us about the SAT scores and affecting what jobs we will get. I was really trying to remember what I got in those lousy exams, and how it would affect me now.It is scary because not all of the people can afford a good education for their kids and that’s not a choice people can make. Not everyone gets a nice neighborhood to be raised in with good kids and a great school to go to. What we get from the beginning and what we do with it is our free will to do the right choices in life to become successful.
It is what society makes us think that we can achieve anything if we put our most into it, but in reality not everyone is like that. Some people are lazier than others, not everyone has the money for an education to fulfill their dream job. and what i do not understand is why do students pay so much to go to penn state for arts, golf management, teaching, when there are better colleges for that which are cheaper. But society just pressures them to do so, so they can party all the time and then graduate and be in debt already.

I completely believe that evolution is where all creatures, plants, and bacteria come from. Scientist say we share 96% of our DNA with chimps but doesn't mean we evolved from them. The Human evolution goes back thousands of years and those who survived passed the selective genes to their next generation and so on. Making it possible to survive the rough terrain humans used to live back in the old days. Every single species has their own evolutionary patter that we can trace by the remains of its ancestors, same goes with plants and bacteria.
it is very easy to show how evolution takes place, medicine is a very easy example. Why do you think we have to make new antibiotics year after year for the same infection ? it is because they evolve to be resistant to what we throw at them and then they pass it on and the medicine becomes useless. Darwin, the father of evolution, saw it first hand with the finches in the galapagos island. The ones that could not survive died off and the rest who could, thrived. Little thing called survival of the fittest, whoever is more capable of surviving the terrain will survive while the other dies off.
Evolution is crazy how it works, without it we would not be where we are at, have nothing we use on a day to day basis. Evolution gave us the brain power capacity we currently have, humans just learned how to use it for an advantage over other animals. We learned and applied all the concepts to invent things to aid us to survive Humans are still animals, let us not forget that, we are just divided from the rest for our ability of free will and thought. But who knows if animals have that, it has not been proven they do not have the capability of thinking like us just in their own language.
i could go on forever about evolution, but people who say they do not believe in evolution and were just poofed into existence are just ignorant. People cannot just say it does not exist, there is no proof about it. but in fact there is such an abundance of evidence that they are blinded by what they believe, look at all the museums that display it for us. If you believe Adam and eve were the ones who reproduced and made the entire human race, through a bunch of incest, i will not stop you think whatever you would like, just saying.
Labs have been able to produce the first cells ever to be on earth from an experiment and that is what happened billions of years ago. Those cells were what started everything on earth. Given time of billions of years the end result was what we see today, millions of species of animals, plants, and bacteria everywhere. But, only in different parts of the world, because that is where they adapted to survive and live.

Let me tell you all a little bit a about me. Born in Argentina and I have lived in four different countries in my life and I have experienced the culture. I have received all kinds of crap from everyone for being latino, that I just find insulting people think that. If you ever get the opportunity to go for yourself, I would recommend it. Also, I know my engllish is not very good, so do not give me a hard time just because my grammar sucks.
The one thing I want to learn before soc 119 comes to an end is why do we have to categorize people by their race. Why can’t we just simply just put it aside and look at the people for what they are and beliefs. Look at any world map; it was all formed by some kind of war for power, converting people into their religion, or resources. That’s how countries were divided and even continents, because of their culture and being different than others. People back then just thought they were superior to others and dehumanized others. That’s how slavery started and will never end, because it still goes on even though we never see it around here.
Also, most people who talk about always relate it back to racism. Why? There is more to race than anyone can think about. People have to start looking outside the box instead of the same thing over and over again, because racism is not what race is all about.
One more thing I want to learn is where did all these stereotypes come from. I just hate how people assume anything about anyone that looks differently than them. The one I hate the most some people, not all, assume since I speak Spanish that I am Mexican. Seriously? Are people that narrow minded that they think there is only one country in the entire world that speaks Spanish? Lets not make asses out of each by assuming and take the time to ask, before opening our mouths without thinking. The media in the united stats also contributes to the problem. The one I could name of my head is south park, although hilarious for what they do, the kids watching south park learn from them.
But on the good end again, I want to seriously learn how can race bring us closer to each other to stop the hatred between people for being different (not talking about personality here). Learning from other cultures bring us closer to each other and I want to learn a way to achieve, even though it may seem impossible now, maybe not in the future. Can we finally unify and just be called the human race? Instead of just creating subcategories?