This is a great question, I’m not black, I’m from the Middle East and it’s a whole different culture from here. Most of the families there are very traditional and most of the people would stick with the religious rules. So if the community knew that you are gay or homosexual there is a big chance to see people offend you by saying. But people should know that this is not because that people are ignorant toward homosexuality rather than it is an issue with the idea it self. Most people believe in Islam by heart and they would do whatever prophet Mohammad said. And as Sam said it’s a sin to be homosexual in most of religions even in Christianity so it’s not only about Islam. Another thing I should mention is that even though gays aren’t welcomed in my community but there is always those people who will do their best to help gays or homosexual because we believe that homosexuality is a choice that people make and they make excuses to justify their actions and some of them think that they were born with and I say to them that for every disease there is a cure even homosexuality.

i cant lie about it. This class is the best class I’ve ever had in my college life. I didn’t ever felt loving any class before but now I feel so bad that this semester will end and I think that I still can learn a lot about life from this great professor. This class did not make me change the way I think rather than making me more open toward talking about race.
Also this class made me think more about other races and now I think I have more respect to other races and ethnics even more to other religions than Islam. Throughout my college life I have faced so many racist people but I couldn’t find a way to stop them or at least to say something really powerful to them but now I think I can do so. Other things I learned is that I should never judge people by their appearance or by their race or religion. I also liked how Sam always wants to explore more of everything, which is the same of what I’m doing now. I realized also that Penn state is a multiracial culture and it’s important to know more about every other race and try to understand other culture.

I think that the “ what would you do ? “ clip was really interesting for me as a Muslim. As a stereotype in the Arab world people, might think that the Americans think of Arabs as terrorist. While we see in the video that not all Americans think like that which is so good. I felt really bad for this kind of discrimination toward Muslims and I would feel the same If I saw this kind of racism in my country toward another religion. If we want to analyze the movie more we can see that some of customers didn’t say anything and I think they did so because they didn’t want to get in trouble and everyone know that everyone is by his own and it’s non of their business to get involved. They might be supporting the cashier but we cannot really tell whether they are with or against the unpleasant incident. In the other hand we saw the two ladies who stood against the cashier and I really liked their action against him and they were really confident talking to him while the others stopped and watch the cashier talking really bad toward the Muslim woman and they didn’t do anything like the two ladies. And I think if you saw something wrong and didn’t stood against it then it means like if you are okay with it.

As a Muslim I take Imam Ali who was the cousin of prophet Mohamma as a role model in my life. I learned from him that you should stand against any type of oppression even if you were all alone but you should not ever hide the truth. So from this great man I know that if I were in that situation I would never stay away and think that it’s none of my business. But I would stand and take action against these type of people and I think that the customers who didn’t like what happens and said nothing but having some weird face expression like if they don’t like what they are hearing, are mostly to be oppressed in the future because if they were in the same position as Musilm woman they would still don’t know how to defend themselves. After all I really hope if I were in that situation I would do the right thing and stop any racist cashier. Even thought I could be alone as a Muslim but I think there are so many good guys out there who do not like to see this kind of racism

For the Sudanese clip I thought it was really interesting to see how they got out of the bubble and how they reacted in the United States. I thought it’s funny rather than insulting and we can learned from that that there is nothing such as the best country in the world. Everyone in this world think that his culture is the best because he is used to it. Even if we were born in a poor country we would still love it

In terms of respect I can’t say a lot about that because I already agree with 80% of what the Hijab girls in class. Because I’m Muslim and I think it’s not only about respect but if you think of it the other which is if you have a meeting with your boss or for a job interview it’s 100% guaranteed that women and men will wear something appropriate as a term of respect and the same goes to when a Muslim girl who wants to pray she must wear something really respectful because you are facing god. And, if hijab got nothing to do with respect, then why does nun wear something like that?

When we watched the Sudanese clip in class everyone thought that they live a horrible life and some students thought at first that those Sudanese men were really ignorant but after we saw how he miss his country so much and he like the social life there I realized that there is no perfect country. It depends on where we were born. For example if you were born in china we would assume that china is the best country and the same goes to United States and other countries. It’s all about putting ourselves in other’s shoes.

I completely agree with Sam that this is the most needed class that we had. In fact this lecture is the most interesting lecture we’ve ever had during the semester. Even though I’m Muslim and but still we have similar issues toward Christianity and Jews. Unfortunately we see how Christians think that Islam is different and weird. And some of Muslims think the same as well toward Christianity when it’s all the same, the same thing goes to every religion and every race around the world. It’s wrong to make false assumptions on others just because we don’t know about their culture. As a personal experience I came to the states and I had in my mind that Americans are different in everything and I was annoyed at first and I had a culture shock. Then I started to know more about the American lifestyle and the culture here. Although I see a lot of weird things everyday but I don’t say it’s wrong or crazy as I used to. In fact I think it’s cool to see how different the American culture is than my culture. So far the class gave us a really huge opportunity to see the world in a different way and it’s really eye opening class.

When I read the article and saw what I saw I smiled for a second. I didn’t smile because it’s funny rather than on how stupid are these people and I’ve met a lot of people who are the same as those. Unfortunately we have a stereotype that the cute little girls should always be white and blonde and that’s no surprise even the black kids think the same as we watched in class. I watched the movie last week and I thought that rue is really cute girl she was very nice and kind. I just want to know why would they that about rue. Why couldn’t they think that it’s good that black and white collaborate to do the good? As my life goes by, I discover new things in the United States, and as a international student I had the impression that the white are better than the black and the Asians. That was three years ago, but now I completely felt that the opposite is right. I’m not saying that all the white people are racist. I’m saying that a percentage of the racist white people are way more racist than the black people or the Asians. But after all I think they were expecting something and the opposite happened and It’s just an opinion “ for some of them”

Actually I felt somehow bad after watching the video and that’s because of how white people think that it’s impossible for a white kid to steal a bike. Or they think that he could’ve lost the key to unlock the lock or anything but stealing the bike. While the poor black guy once he had been looked at the white people made a false judgment that he is stealing the bike. Most of the people who passed by the white guy and the black guy were racist, at least in my opinion. But for some of them they might have thought that it’s risky to go and talk to either one of them and might thought that they would get in trouble if they asked them to stop. Therefore, I think the white family had been in the same position as others but now they are a family and it’s more risky to get involved in such a thing. If I were in that place with my family I think I would go away so that my family wouldn’t get hurt because he might use the tools against me! So why would I put my family in such a situation.

After reading this article I felt so lucky and I’m glad that I can speak English and Arabic. I never thought that its an advantage but many of my friends told me that really would like learn another language beside English and they think that I’m genius because I know two languages. Beside these benefits I think that if you knew two languages then you can think in two ways. And I’m saying this from a personal experience. Simply when you learn a new language simultaneously you are learning a new culture. And sometimes I think like Americans when I speak English. But when I speak Arabic it changes automatically. Another example, when I take math classes I think of it twice first in Arabic perspective and also in English perspective. It might sounds stupid but I’m 100% sure about it. As a middle eastern from Kuwait I think we Arabs in general are smarter in math and science classes but this got nothing to do with speaking two languages it’s simply because we invented most of it and that’s why we have big background for these subjects. After all its really interesting article it showed the benefit of being a bilingual speaker I’m proud of my self ;)