We are all immigrants. I am white and i still believe we are all immigrants, mutts even. No one is really a true American except the Natives. I remember the other day my boyfriend had made a comment about basically being white and the fact that immigrants need to get out of his country. I had asked him what he was and he responded saying he was Irish and German. So i then said, so you don't identify yourself as American, but in the case of being white in your country you then call immigrants non-American even though he had technically referred to himself as an immigrant since he said his ancestry was irish and german. In fact, most of my friend as say they are Italian and when you really think about it should we be identifying ourself as Americans? People in Italy are Italians. People in france are French so why do people in America not call themselves American when asked what they are? It is pretty ironic when we then label immigrants. We are just a bunch of mutts in my opinion!

First thing that I thought of in the beginning of the lecture was the idea that
‘every culture if going to write their history books in favor of them”, the idea that it is the vision we ideally want to see, not so much what we want others to see. Why would we want our people to hear about the death and despair. It made me think of how true this is especially in the news media. Think of what we see on the news about the war in Iraq or any American story about foreign countries. We are always better than them. We are always just America the great and freedom riders. We help third world countries and build schools to give chances to poor children. The war is made to look rational, helpful and like we are not the bad ones. We are made to view Iraq and Iran as made up of bad people. It is made to look like they are all terrorists over there and that their government is corrupt and the country is just out of control. Thank god America is so in control and is based on freedom, right? We rarely are exposed to the views of the foreign land that show the country in light. We won’t hear about the good things they are doing. We will not see them glorified. Our history books will not show the death and destruction we have caused over there. Why would we want our people to see that, and our government doesn’t. But on the other side, In Iraq and Iran I am sure they only want their people to see the good and that America is the bad ones. They do not want terrorism seen in their history books, they want the Americans labeled as the “Christian Invaders”, trying to forcefully convert their people. Every culture will do this. The truth is hard to admit. The truth of how cultures have gained and maintained culture is altered. History can not be changed, but it can be covered up. It can be hidden and sugar-coated. It can be directed in anyway a controller really wants as long as it has followers. There are something’s we just can not control. I wish the news could be more truthful, as an person who furthered their education, I know that the news is sensationalized. I know not to believe half the crap I hear and to read between the lines. I know to view the news in a critical way. But what about the population that is not educated that way. It is almost like they are brain washed to view the news in a way to highlight America. They thrive on the American pride and way of life. Why would the government want to educate people to not believe the news. Plus the government also steers the news information in favor of the government.

I agree that the future needs well-educated citizens, but how is that even attainable will nepotism always thriving. Well-educated means a good education and going to college. Bu thinking of the inner city school Harper, which only 40% of the students are expected to graduate compared to the 99% of suburban students who are expected to graduate. Then of those 40%, which of those actually get the chance to go to college. Maybe AA could help those who do graduate, but i feel like it is not pushed to graduate. The necessity of a degree is more and more important as society gets more competitive. Some will never get to show their talents and skills before of the start they had. Some are set up to fail. It is sad, and sometimes i fear that inequality on the future society will only get worse and worse. Even right now it is so competitive to get a job with the crumbling society. It feels like nepotism is even more involved in getting jobs than ever, which means social inequality will get worse. It is kind of scary and what is there to do about it? An educated society i have always felt is important for the future, but what are we teaching out future other than it is not what you know but who you know.

One of the most shocking things of this lecture was definitely the video of the study of “Trading Schools”. It is true that it isn’t really talked about and how to really to bring about greater social equality. The numbers and percentages given out throughout the video were pretty unsettled. It came clear that there was definitely a huge inequality comparing the schools, even though they were barely an hour away. I went to a suburban school. In the video one of the girls, from the suburban school had said that “ it was just a given that they would graduate high school”, which 99% of them would compared to the 40% from the inner city school. I remember thinking that too when I was in high school. It was more like why wouldn’t I graduate? The bigger question was what college was I going to pick if I wanted to go? I was pushed to go to college by my parents for sure. I was a little more rebellious to social standards so I tried to act like maybe I was not going to go to college, but I knew I was going to go. I knew it was expected out of me and I was being given the opportunity and not every high school graduate would have that. When I was in highschool, I took this Digital Imagery class. It was honestly the coolest class. We had great computers and tons of digital cameras and technology to do our projects. We had ton of final presentation tools, colored printers and never had to pay extra to mat our work. I would make presents for my mom just for fun. I ended up majoring in communications, specifically advertising at psu. I remember taking that class in high school and thinking to myself how much I loved it and that I wanted to make something of myself in that area. I have always been very creative. Any class I had that would have a project was my favorite. I would go to the craft store and my mom would swipe her credit card so I could get all the stuff I needed to make a killer poster, I was anchored into college. I was set up to graduate and go to college and get a degree. I had endless opportunities to do whatever I wanted. I never really stopped to think whether I deserved it or not, I just assumed I deserved it. When I saw the video I kind of felt bad and a little mad. But then I thought could I really blame myself for accepting the opportunity, why wouldn’t you take it if it was given to you? Why would I make life harder if I was given the chance to make it easier? It seems like nepotism will always exist, and AA is needed. I really do not know how to solve it. Education is a start, I guess

I took a class ( not the same one but an HDFS class) and i remember there being a topic one lecture about LGBT adoption and the fact that not many states allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt. It doesn't make much sense considering the studies that show that adopted kids with LGBT parents have higher self-esteem than children of heterosexual parents. It is ridiculous to make the assumption that that they would grow to be LGBT if their parents are. That is just ignorant. There are so many children out there that need to be adopted and are crying out for love and couples are being denied because of their sexual orientation. Their sexual orientation is not a measurement of how they could give a child in need a wonderful life. My best friend is gay and he always talks about adopting. I am all for it and i support any LGBT couple or single to adopt a child in need.

The other day I was at dunkin donuts with my mom. We were going through the drive through and it was very early and my mom wasn’t in the best of all moods. We were ordering and the employee was an Indian girl. She repeated the order three times to make sure she got it right, and my mom started to get annoyed. It was difficult to understand her through the microphone. Well when we got to the window and paid, they did not give my mom her coffee and never even range it in even after repeated it three times. Well lets just say mom mom was not very happy and told the girl to forget it and we drove off. My mom is 62 years old, and has always been very accepting of all races, but I think this was her bad day and she started going off about “them” needing to learn better English and stop taking over dunkin donuts and why is it do hard to order a simple cup of coffee. I was annoyed too, more for her I guess. I kind of felt bad for that girl too. She was maybe just having an off day, like many of us have all had. Maybe she got into a fight with her boyfriend before work and she was upset. Who knows, but either way she slipped up at her job and she got called out on it because of her ethnic background not because of her just being a bad employee that day. When I watching this lesson Dr. Richards had said that globalization is upon us and we will always have to interact with forgein people so why not learn Chinese? He had said you can increase your earning power by learning another language. He is definity right with that statement. The benefits of learning another language go beyond just making money. Everyone should learn another language. My mom was in a bad mood that morning, but she is also stuck in her ways. I sometimes feel that older generations have a harder time dealing with and accepting multiculturalism than the younger generations do. But that in itself is important. It means it is getting better and I hope that it keeps getting better along with race relations. It is time to get on board and get over it. I have taken Spanish for many years and I plan on teaching my children from the very start. Many studies show that learning another language is best when started at a young age. I believe that to be true. I mean many of my friends have children now and a lot of the toys they play with speak English and Spanish. It is up to us to produce a better generation than our own and teach them the importance of race relations. Learning another language is crucial!

That is a very interesting study, i am actually going to try to find it on youtube, you should send it to Dr. Richards if you havent already or tell it to him. I think that could make a very interesting point and thinking tool for race relations. I completely agree that parents, expecially in this day in age, need to have a conversation of race. Little kids can be quite mean. My friend, who is white, had an incident with a little white girl and her son who is half black. It made her cry, but her son is only 2 so he didn't understand but he can sense it. She fears his future experiences in school. For her sake and all the other children of mixed races out their, i hope parents educate their children better on race. I feel it is important and a sign of showing your respect for your peers. I know I will put in the effort with teaching my kids about race when I have kids of my own one day. That is all we can really do at this point is work on the future generations and educate them.

One of the first things that came out to me was at the very beginning of the lesson. The idea that even at the age of four, people of color have to experience being thrown out of the pre-awakening stage. It really made me think, since i have never even thought about it before. I tried to think back to when i was in pre-school and what i thought when i saw someone of color. I am guessing i did not give it much thought since i am now having this realization that pre-schoolers are sitting there confused on why exactly that girl called her dirty because of the color of her skin and realizing that there was a difference. That just boggles my mind. But i believe it. Especially now a days i feel like little kids are in settings where they are in classrooms of many races so they have to notice. They probably over hear their parents and elders and have to make some sort of guess that they are different. I wonder at that age how it feels? I am white, so I feel as if my experience was much more different than my peers of color. If anyone has any stories that they can remember at that age and experiencing the realization of differences I would love to hear them. As I said, I never gave it any thought and now that I think about it I want to hear more! I wonder how that little black girl grew up and how that comment changed her life. She may forget the story, maybe, but that interaction will forever change her. It will affect her life in various ways. One being her own attitudes and beliefs. It is a shame that at the young age she had to learn to tolerate being teased for it. Little kids can be pretty careless and thoughtless at that age, as they really do not know any better. My friend is white and she has a 2 year old son, Kai, who is half black. The other weekend she was down the shore with her boyfriend’s family and of course she had Kai. Now the boyfriend is white and not the real father of Kai, but he has taken on the role and is wonderful with him. He loves Kai very much and I am thankful she found a good guy that accept her and her son. There are many people who had things to say about her and the fact that she has a son that is half black, but she is strong and she will teach her son that. Anyway back to the shore story, well her boyfriend’s 7 year old niece took notice of his darker skin tone and his curlier hair and put it together that he was black. She then proceeded to question my friend on why she would want a black son and that she didn’t want them to come to dinner because she didn’t like black people. That her friends would make fun of her. This little 7 year old actually made my friend cry and she is 23. Kai had no idea what was going on, only that his mommy was upset and he was getting negative reactions. He maybe young but he had to of sensed it. Later the little girl got in trouble by her parents, but of course that is not going to help. It was not going to change how my friend felt and the worries it put in her head about when he gets older and what he is going to think. I know she will tell her son at the right age about his real father, but her fears will not be able to stop the experiences he may have in the future.

That is a great great great poem, one of my favorite I suppose. It always makes you wonder about that other road and what life may have been like. Certain choices affect our lives, but factors and forces beyond our control also affect our lives. We traveled a certain road due to determinism and we continue to choose certain roads because of determinism. When I read this post it really made me think of the poem and how true the poem is to when thinking of race relations. Maybe everybody should stop and think what it would be like to travel a different road and what your life may be like.

Firstly, I had a sub-reaction at the beginning of the lecture that got me thinking. Dr. Riachards had pulled a boy from the class named Avery and was talking about freedom versus determinism. At one point Avery had said along the lines of “I’ll stop acting black”. From the other side of the screen I was sitting there saying to myself what the hell does he mean that he will stop acting black? How do you not act black? Or how do you act black? I was puzzled for a little while till I thought of a comment my friend had made once. My good friend is a gay white. His partner is African American. My friend and I were talking one day about his relationship and his partner’s parents. We were talking about how his parent’s reacted when he came out of the closet and also his partner’s parents took it. Well apparently neither of their parents took the news well and both semi went back into the closet as terrible as that is. It honestly breaks my heart when I think of the lack of support both of them receive from the people that are called family and supposed to love them. Anyway, I was asking about what his partner’s family was like and he was telling about the mom and what not and then started talking about the dad. He get a little tense and upset talking about him, I guess the dad was especially unaccepting of the homosexual lifestlye. Then my friend had said “he is so black”. I was puzzled for a little bit. What the hell did he mean? Of course I asked him what in the world he meant and he was like you know. Of course I had no idea. He kept saying you know, the way they talk and their swager and what not. I mean I seem to oblivious to that stuff most of the time, but ever since that comment I tried to figure out what he meant. I mean any race has their way I guess and that makes them them, but why does that make them different? That is like someone saying to me “stop acting so white”. What the hell do you mean I am acting so white? When Avery said that it got me thinking. Even a black person refrenced that he could stop acting sooo black, but could he really? No. I do not think anyone can act out of their race. That is who you are and you should be proud of it and never try to not act in that manner. I still am not sure what my friend meant by his partners dad was so black. I mean at first I was like what, his skin is really black? That was not it.