I am glad someone else is realizing these things about the class. I am talking about how he said it was the best class before and we have seen the Oprah video before. I am not sure if we just re watched an entire lecture or what, but like you said it is very interesting still. The Oprah video just shocked me. To think if I did not grow up in State College but rather near Harper, things I know now I may never of learned or experienced. I was lucky enough to graduate high school and get into Penn State, but if I went to a high school that did not have the luxuries State College had, I may not be in college today. This class really makes you think.

Unlike the professor I actually think Affirmative Action is good. If we lived in a perfect world then I would agree with the professor but since people actually think they are better than others for how they look or they were raised, affirmative action is needed. He is right that it is not fair to give someone a helping hand when others need it more, and the only reason they get help is for one thing that differs them from others. Since people do not treat people fairly, I will say it should be less government interference than there is now, but it is needed. I wish all companies were fair and did not look at someone’s name and turn them down for a job, just because it may be ethnic and then in turn they will not be white. If companies were not doing it I would see no need for affirmative action because the better man or woman should always get the job. I understand the counter side of affirmative action, someone of color may get a job over a white person because of the color of their skin when in fact the white person was more qualified. When a system is in place, there always problems, but to me I think the fact that someone of color getting a job over someone white is a better problem, then colored people not getting any jobs at all. I am a white person saying this, although as I said the better man should always get the job, the world is not perfect and we must overcome these obstacles however we can.
The Harper school video was just saddening. There is a situation where government funding and its system are flawed and wrecking areas, because no education can be given because no funds are there. It is unfair that a school that has no funds can only receive them if they increase test scores and graduate rates. How can a school increase test scores if they can not get any new things to teach their students. Small things like current textbooks and enough teachers to teach a class are what some schools need to get better. But since they can not receive funds until they get better scores, they are in a standstill and the only place they can go in down. A school 50 miles away from Harper had plenty of funds and they produced smart bright students. If those kids grew up 50 miles away they would not have the same advantages, but they would be the same bright children, they just need time to learn. Without an education a person can not move up in the world, unless they are just incredibly lucky

I have been saying this in the last couple discussions, if we as a nation become more educated racism will decrease. Individuals do not need more education but rather more individuals need education. How many people in this class can go out at night and still believe immigrants are bad for the United States, and still act racist towards them? they probably don't because everyone in this class is learning the truth of immigration and how it truly benefits us. I am not saying everyone has to take this class to not be racist towards immigrants, but the more people that are educated will understand immigration and therefore not be mean or discriminatory to other races and cultures.

I hate to think so many Americans could be racist, but racism exists and more now than ever it is directed at immigrants. As sad as it is I can’t believe all these people can be so ignorant to what immigration does and how it mainly benefits our society. People could just hate change so much that they cannot stand other cultures invading what they believe is our own culture, no one else’s. But if they just hate change there would be no need for discrimination and racism but since it exists we have to assume there is just a natural hate of immigrants from some Americans. Growing up we always hear our elders talk about how immigrants are taking over, and soon will be the majority, and since they say it negatively we believe immigrants only take and give nothing back. Immigrants as we learned in class are essential for our society to exist. It is said a lot that immigrants are taking all of our jobs, but without any education they cannot take the jobs that are desired, but rather take the blue collar jobs because they need no education, and only need one day of training to be skilled at the position. We should not complain about immigrants taking these jobs because they have to be done, and if they want to come here to do those jobs why should we stop them. If people would just become educated and get the more desirable jobs then there would be no complaining for immigrants taking jobs. If immigrants don’t want to get an education, let them work to make a living, we as a society should want to become educated to resolves situations such as this. The more we as a society become educated the less and less problems we will have.
The problem with immigrants is half them not being a part of our society so their labor goes un taxed and does not benefit society, and half ignorance from Americans. Everyone taking this class knows about the genocide that took place in this country before we started our society. Knowing that we know we are immigrants so we have no rights to turn people away, considering we came here at one point as an immigrant. There is racism and discrimination towards immigrants because people believe they do not belong here, but if they were educated they would understand how the United States came to be, racism would diminish because immigrants would be welcome. Saying that we still need to limit immigrants to stabilize our economy and society, if we have to much population it would do us no good, so there is a need to stop people at the border, but we should not stop them because of their race or culture, but rather to keep our society stable.

The Corinthians slide was extremely interesting, although I know not everyone believes what they believe in, but when we witness so much cheating, drunkenness, fornication all the time, how can anyone get into heaven. With that said how can some people attack homosexuals but then not in turn attack drunks or cheats. Like you said people who use the religious excuse for not agreeing with homosexuality is dumb and if they truly disagree with all of those things, they should equally attack them all. Because at the same time they are attacking something I cannot attack them, they can have their own beliefs but they must back them up, they can't just discriminate.

The topic of homosexuality always seems to come up, I am glad we are finally talking about it. The issue is everywhere, with the idea of is it a choice and can they get married? And do we call it a marriage or a union? Personally I do not care about gay marriage, or homosexuals in general, as long as they are civilized and are nice, who should care? The religion side of the argument I can kind of understand, because in all honesty, the standard of living is heterosexuality, because we need to reproduce. There can be numerous amounts of homosexuals but without straight people, reproduction would not occur, yes woman could still be inseminated, but the idea of heterosexual families should still exist as well. But about the religious side, it does make sense, and does not make sense. How being a drunk and a cheat can keep you from heaven as does homosexuality, but they only take on homosexuals. It is insane how they can target and harass a group of people who just want to be themselves. If they attack you, you can attack back, but not once to my knowledge as the gay community bashed or targeted religion.
The idea of someone’s sexuality is important in their life, but someone else barging in to tell you how to live is, by not being gay is not right. It was like during the civil rights movement, when people decided to tell a black person that being black was not alright. As we know, it is not a choice to be gay, it is one owns sexuality. I recently too media ethics, and in that class we learned that if it does not enhance or go with the story it is not needed. One class we had a story about a black gay soldier who died in Afghanistan. The story was really about a soldier who saved other soldiers and sacrificed his own life to save them. Newspapers decided to take the story in a different direction and just talk about his homosexual life, and his black culture. His culture and sexuality were important but that was not the story, the mans race or sexuality did not save those people, the man himself did.
Last word on the topic, gay people should be able to get married. Just as we saw in lecture, how is it ok for unfit people to marry, who will divorce in a year, and not ok for two people who love each other very much, but happen to both be men. If they want to live the rest of their lives together they can, just as two women can, or two of the opposite sex can. We say we live in a free country, but we put people down for being human. Just because they are gay does not mean they are less than us, it means they are different in one way. There is still two million other things about a gay person that make them similar to straight person, but no one looks at those

I can not believe black people want to be whiter, I understand why they might want, since media portrays white, or tan skinned as beautiful, and black is not. But to actually buy bleach to become white just seems crazy. I am a white person so I can not really grasp why they would do it, but I thought as we become more educated about life we understand that color does not matter. The baby doll thing was interested to me as well as I am sure it was to everyone. Like you said the one girl looked like she wanted to say black, because she understands herself a little bit, but also knows the trend of the media and went with what she thought was the correct answer, what we wanted her to say.

Nothing was more eye opening than the girl like me video. I have seen it before, and it always makes me wonder how something like this can happen. As the professor said it is a sign of white supremacy, to basically mind control young black girls and boys, to think they are less than their white counterparts is sickening. I still can’t understand how young girls and boys can learn this; they are so young I didn’t think media could persuade them yet. I do not think it can be anything besides media, since whose parent is going to say their race is worse than the white race. Is media so corrupt to favor white people and oppose colored people that by age six, children actually believe the black race, which is their own race, is worse than the white race? Not only is the black race worse, but they believe the white race, by using the baby, is nice and better. It is something to really think about.
The LL Bean topic was very interesting because I had an experience dealing with clothing lines that may or may not be racist with my friends. When I was younger my friends were black, and every time I wore a Tommy Hilfiger shirt, which was not often, they would say I was racist because I wore that line of clothing. They were young and ignorant just as I was, and they had no idea why wearing Tommy Hilfiger clothing may make you racist. If you don’t know Tommy Hilfiger said some racist things on Oprah in 1996 and because of that, if you were supporting Hilfiger so you may be a racist. They were young and were told by their parents not to like the clothing, they did not know anything about the news they just learned from their parents. Now in 2011 they know they were dumb, because the head of the company may of said those things, but just because I wore the shirt doesn’t mean I support him, I just happen to have one of those shirts.
I never saw the story of the 101 year old woman being mugged until the lecture and just as the black man thought, that is crazy someone would attack a 101 year old defenseless woman. The story was crazy but the responses were interesting. The stereotype is that black people are loud and obnoxious, yet the black mans response was calm, and said correct things about the incident. While the white man was screaming his head off, he made a few solid points, but since he was yelling no one will take him seriously. The crime was probably not racist, the man probably just wanted some easy money, but it is true that it is almost always considered racist when its white against black.

The racial identifiers subject caught my ear as well, I hate when people use race to add something which is usually nothing to a story. In the Media Ethics class at Penn State one of the questions is always do we print that a person was gay if the story is not about it. Although it is not a racial identifier it is a identifier that is not needed. I mean how often do you hear the story, the straight person received the medal of honor. It adds nothing to the story and no one cares if they are straight. It is the same with gay and all racial identifiers. Like Sam said, if the story is about it, yes talk about their race, but when its just a story and you add a racial identifier, it is absurd.

I have always understood why there should be some white guilt; I mean the white race did awful things to get to the top of the mountain. But, until this class I never thought it was so widely thought that white people should and do feel guilty. I grew up in State College, Pa, and was friends with all races. I knew of slavery and things that happened to colored people and not to whites, but growing up with everyone being equal I never thought of having any guilt, I am just a person not the spokesperson for the white race. There were poor black families but there were also poor white families, so I never thought that white people could feel guilty, when people in our race are doing just as poorly. I want to know how prevalent this white guilt is in people, because I never have felt it, and I am a white person. I like to consider myself educated since I am at Penn State, and since I have been taught to be more tolerant and understand the past without pointing fingers and labeling people, so the guilt just is not there since I know I am suppose to live in the present not the past. The political correctness issue about white people being quiet could not be truer. Not only do white people stay quiet they also stay out of business that is not there’s. I understand why white people want to be silent, I mean if you insult the white race, it isn’t exactly racist, but one slip up when talking about another race, and you are labeled as a racist. And we know in the world today, once you are labeled something it sticks with you. As interesting as everything always is in the lectures, the thing Sam said in the lecture about how black people torture white people. It comes up in TV Shows all the time, but personally it has happened to be numerous times. When I was 12 years old hanging out with a few of my friends, a few were black, and I was telling a story and I said the kid was black in the story, and instantly all in unison started attacking me, telling me it is African American. They were my friends so I knew they were kidding, but they kept at it, and of course I was laughing, and all of them with a straight face kept at it. After a long enough time I gave in an apologized, and of course as soon as I did they laughed and said just joking. They did it all the time, sometimes more convincing then others. It was not just a thing they did to me either, since I was a friend I was not tortured as much, but with other kids they would do it until the kid was begging apologizing.