My opinion on illegal immigration has changed after this past sociology class. The most important aspect of illegal immigration that I was unaware of was how widespread it is. It directly affected at least 10 people in sociology class seeing as they have actually crossed the border or illegally entered the United States in some way or another. This is eye-opening to me because I had no idea just how many people are here illegally. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that they are illegal, but it is just surprising to me. I never thought about the way that we all affected by illegal immigration regardless of whether or not we actually are illegal immigrants ourselves. I personally am not an illegal immigrant. But I know quite a few people who have come to the United States illegally.
Illegal immigration is not always as violent and eventful as we imagine. We may imagine a family running across a sandy desert, dodging bullets and struggling to keep everyone safe. Some simply find loopholes in immigration laws and weasel their way into the country. This is pretty smart, but at the same time it is illegal. Unfortunately, we do not have he means necessary to control illegal immigration and put it at a level that we can oversee or simply eliminate it altogether. We could expand our legal immigration system to accommodate for illegal immigration, but this only encourages more people to enter the country – something we can’t handle with our available resources.
We need to come up with a whole new mechanism for controlling immigration in the United States of America. I think the most important thing about immigration is that we are unable to stop it. We can’t see where it’s happening so we have yet to take major action on illegal immigration that has been effective. Even the wall between Mexico and the United States was not extremely efficient, cost efficient, or effective. No doubt it was extremely expensive – but was it worth it? Did we effectively control illegal immigration with the erection of a fence on the imaginary border between the United States and Mexico? No. “Wetbacks” still make their way to this nation in thousands every year and we should take a definite stance on the occurrence.
Some people argue that immigrants take their jobs. Others argue that they are people too and deserve to be here as much as we do. Who’s right? I see both sides of the issue but I have to agree that immigrants deserve to live on this land. After all, we’re all illegal immigrants living on land that we do not own. What gives us the right to stay here and not other “illegal” immigrants?

If forced to think about a situation such that I would be choosing between getting what I deserved and nepotism, I would probably reconsider just choosing the easy option and taking what is handed to me. It is never fair to benefit from nepotism because it is unfair by nature. We are never entitled to something by birth. This was not fair when it came to the monarchy and ruling an empire. Therefore, it is not fair now. We are in no position to gain rights or opportunities that we didn’t work for. There are always people out there that worked harder to earn their spot and you should not be allowed to be on their level, occupying a position that you did not work nearly as hard to obtain. Obviously, not everyone works the same amount to get results in life. Some are smarter or more efficient and dedicate less time and energy towards a goal and still get the same result as people that work longer and harder. This is unfortunate, but at least it is legitimate. Nepotism is a whole new story. We don’t consider nepotism an immediate threat because you don’t even notice that it’s happening. This is weird because to me, it’s almost the most blatant thing occurring in this world. Most people are unaware but I am aware. This is bad. We need to stop it now. It needs to be handled appropriately if we want to make this world a better place. The world is a gorgeous state in the nation. We need to play a serious game of life and decide if we want nepotism or affirmative action or neither of the above in this world.

Nepotism shows up in a variety of real world situations. For example, if I wanted a job in a research lab, I would just contact one of my uncles or my parents’ friends and ask for a hook-up. This is probably one of the most unfair practices in America today. As immigrants, we come to this country to work and earn our spots in the world. We shouldn’t be around to take other people’s spots because of our connections. In a way, it seems fair when you do it because you justify it with the fact that you made the connections in the first place. That is important because it is probably the reason why nepotism is so widespread in this country. Affirmative action is kind of like nepotism because they both are giving people benefits that they did not earn. Affirmative action is more accepted in society because it is regulated by the government. This is probably another reason why nepotism is justified by so many people in this country.

I cannot say that I feel any positive way about terrorism in general. The word itself comes with so many negative connotations, that, to me, it would seem absolutely ridiculous to even regard the word as “positive” in any way. Lives have been lost, families shattered, and hopes crushed for this word. Terrorism. I personally don’t feel like Sam’s lecture was about terrorism though. Or at least it was not the main focus. He wanted to convey the idea that the United States was at war with Iraq over oil – not terrorism. A lot of people are under the misconception that we are fighting over weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons. Perhaps even the September 11th attacks are a common rationale behind the war. It is, however, primarily about oil.
Terrorism is only good for its ability to make people feel so strongly that they are willing to make generalizations about entire populations based on the actions of a few. This is unrealistic and just plain dumbfounding. Educated citizens around the world should be astounded at how much the public will buy certain things the government tells us. For example, the entirety of the American population is kind of okay with the war in Iraq because they think it is about weapons of mass destruction. We all know in the end that that is not the case. But with a word like terrorism being thrown around, not many people are willing to think past the dark cloud and come to a realization that we are not fighting over terrorism. If we were, we should have stopped a long time ago because the whole nation of Iraq is not filled with terrorists. Obviously we have placed a very harmful stereotype in our minds and used it to rationalize something as heartbreaking as a war that has killed millions of civilians and will continue to take its toll on our people until we come to a common realization and end this war.
It is pathetic that some people will argue that terrorism is a good thing because it teaches a country to band together and form a more cohesive force against dangers presented to them. Some may proclaim, all for one and one for all. This is unnecessary in a situation where terrorism does not exist and is simply unreasonable now. If we didn’t have to deal with terrorism, then we wouldn’t be so concerned about banding together to make a cohesive whole in the first place. In fact, the common threat we were all worried about disappears too. We really are left with less evils in this world and that’s how it should be. We aren’t in this to make a more cohesive fighting force for the United States. We are being counter-productive and hurting our nation by fighting this war.

I often feel incredibly uncomfortable when I am around people who speak a different language. It’s not about which language they happen to be speaking, but instead the fact that they consciously decided to speak a language that they knew I would not recognize around me. Personally, I would regard that as just rude. It’s one thing to not include me on your private conversation, but it’s a whole different thing to purposely exclude me and make me feel like an outsider by discussing things in a different language. In particular, I have seen people of different races switch between English and their mother-tongue when they are talking about people around them that they assume do not understand them.

For example, I once went to a nail salon and the women who worked there all happened to be Vietnamese. They obviously knew English because they addressed me in English and worked the counter. However, once I sat down, the woman giving me a manicure immediately switched to what I would assume is Japanese and started conversing with the women working around her. All I could interpret from the conversation was the tone they used, and it wasn’t pleasant. I could almost sense that they were talking about me or another customer in their salon. This is inappropriate for the proprietor of a business and should not be tolerated even if it is in a different language. People tend to not realize that just from tones and giggles, we can generally understand what you’re saying without even knowing the meanings of the words you use.

Now I’m not saying that every time that this occurs, it is negative. I’m sure people have perfectly normal conversations in different languages just because they are more comfortable doing it. It is frustrating for outsiders, but I suppose it isn’t offensive. It’s also important to figure out whether or not the people you are watching normally talk in English. It becomes an issue as to whether or not the person happens to be well-versed in the “universal language” of America. We should not find it offensive to have a different language spoken in our presence because America does not have a universal language. We need to be more accepting of other cultures and customs and appreciate them for their differences. After all, they are what makes us the melting of America. This is the idealistic view of how we want to see the world today and tomorrow. This is the idea behind America and is why we have such a huge multicultural population.

Why are interracial relationships a cause for concern? Ideally, they shouldn’t be any more offensive than any other relationships. In the real world, however, relationships between people of different races aren’t accepted as much as we would like. For some reason, people are extremely prejudiced against two people of different races that have decided to date or even get married. The idea of people of different races dating is probably relatively new to our elders because it only really skyrocketed in our generation. Our older relatives that often pass judgment on our choices tend to be more upset about interracial marriages. Many may argue that it is because they are more close-minded and less ready to give up traditional values than our generation. However, if you think about it, aren’t we a little close-minded about the older generation and their customs and beliefs?

It’s important that we take the time to evaluate whether or not interracial relationships are actually worth our concern. In fact, it is absolutely unnecessary to zero in on this particular type of relationship and treat it any differently than other relationships. On the other hand, most of us were raised in a family of predominantly one race. My parents, for example, along with their parents, and practically everyone in the generations above them married within their own race. I am probably expected to marry within our race as well, but I won’t let this consciously affect my decision. I possess and actively exercise my right to date people of whatever race I please and eventually, I have the biggest say in who I marry. I’m not really blaming my parents for raising me the way they did, but I can empathize with people that don’t have the strength to stand up to the elders in their families to defend their choices.

There are plenty of people that hold a more conservative view on the topic and will always choose the more traditional route. I have the utmost respect for these people and their priorities, I would just like to respectfully disagree with them. It is probably really tough to just be in an interracial relationship in public. I’m sure these couples constantly feel the need to justify themselves and their actions to ignorant people, but the truth is, we shouldn’t have to defend who we want to date or marry. It’s nobody else’s business except perhaps your family’s, but that is a unique problem for each person and only they know how to handle in properly and with the least damaged caused as possible. We shouldn’t feel the need to justify our actions in this world as long as they don’t affect the lives of people not involved. We shouldn’t feel accountable to the world for our perfectly natural feelings towards one another, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, etc.

PART 4
In a way, it’s sad that more of us feel no guilt about being of a certain race. What did we do to deserve being in the position we are in right now? We could have been born into a different family with little or no money and a history of disease. There’s no way to control what we feel guilty about, but it’s unfortunate that we don’t feel guilt about this topic.

PART 3
When we were talking about this in our discussion group, we came to the conclusion that there is a definite distinction between feeling guilty about something and feeling empathy for a group of people. We may not necessarily feel guilty about the Native American situation, but certainly there is the opportunity to empathize with them about their plight. I don’t know if I would necessarily take any action on the matter, but I would say that I empathize with the Native Americans and I think they have a legitimate reason to be upset at the people that removed them from their lands and placed them on their reservations. I would go so far as to say that they have every right to come knocking on our doors some day with a paper saying they have the rights to this land and asking us to explain ourselves. We took their land and that was wrong. For some reason, though, I don’t feel guilty about it.

PART 2
I can see why one could argue that this generation is making a conscious choice to live on Native American soil and therefore prone to feel the same guilt. However, I feel like we are in a position in which we can’t realistically pick up and move to a different location just to make a statement about Native American rights to the land. We tend to feel less guilty about living on the land because we didn’t directly take it from the Native Americans. The truth is, though, that we are responsible for keeping it from them right now. If it weren’t for us living on this soil, the Native Americans would have what is rightfully theirs and there would be no issue in the first place.

PART 1
I have to admit, it would make sense to feel guilty for being of a certain race (especially white). However, I don’t think I have ever felt significantly guilty about being Indian. If I were white (or any other race), I still don’t think I would feel guilty about the color of my skin or the actions of my ancestors. Everybody has a choice to commit actions that they can feel guilty or proud of. When the first people that came to America displaced the Native Americans already living here unfairly, they made a choice that I would assume they felt a little guilty about.

As our population grows at an astronomical rate, we often don’t take the time to think about the implications of our actions. At what point do the “contributions” we make to this world outweigh the resources they take up? By this I mean where do we cross the line from actually benefitting the world with progeny to carry on our legacy and delve into overpopulating the planet with people who abuse the resources available to us and contribute little or nothing to benefit the population. This is a serious question that we need to start thinking about if we want to maintain any control we might have over our futures. If we let this situation get out of control, then ultimately we suffer and the world is left in the hands of our wasteful progeny.

Of course, there are certainly members of the generations below us that will contribute more than enough to earn their place in the world. The issue arises when taking into account that for every productive person in the world, there are at least twenty people using more than their share of resources and not paying for it. We need to fix this problem now before it escalates out of control.

The Chinese, some may argue, may actually have the best plan in terms of controlling overpopulation. They limit the number of children allotted to each family to one – and you’d better hope it’s a son. The Chinese have been known to smother their first-born daughters to death with hopes of having another child and it being a son. The sons carry on the legacy of the family and keep the family name. They are very valuable, especially to families with immense wealth or power that need someone in the next generation to take over the family assets. This becomes a concern when a daughter is the only child of a wealthy Chinese family because she may be viewed as weak or unfit to wield power in the public’s eye. Alas, I digress, the Chinese control their overpopulation with limits on how many children families may have. If you think about it, over time, the overall population of China will have cut in half because every mother and father may only have one child.

Perhaps a similar system would be helpful in America. At first glance, one may dismiss the idea of controlling how many children each family is allowed to have as communist. However, there is some value to be sought from the Chinese in terms of their overpopulation control policies. We need to adopt something to save the resources we have left and prevention of overpopulation is, in my opinion, the first step. Recycling and reducing the use of disposables will play a significant role in our near future in we want to be able to sustain life on this Earth.