I think that hard work and having money go hand in hand. You have to work hard if you want to have money. Sure, some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths, but most of us in this world have to work to achieve the things we want. When talking about immigration, you do need to have money though and unfortunately the main reason people are trying to immigrate is so they can begin to make money for themselves. It’s almost like what came first the chicken or the egg, and you can go around and around and still come up with no solution. People want to make money so they come to America, however to obtain citizenship here people need to already have money. This is why so many people do it illegally. I love America, and I do know deep down that letting in all the immigrants who want to live here would definitely hurt our economy, however, I think that if people want to live here, who are we to tell them they are not allowed. If they will take our jobs, then they are either better suited or require less money so they are more attractive to employers. That is just the way business works. I find it really annoying that some Americans are unemployed and collecting unemployment, when there are many jobs to be had. A lot of people think that these jobs are beneath them and only for illegal immigrants to do, like picking pears like Sam showed in class. It just does not make sense to me that people who collect unemployment think that these kinds of jobs are beneath them. I’m a person who wants to earn my own living and not rely on the government for any help. I guess a lot of Americans don’t feel the same way I do. I’m not saying all Americans are lazy or anything but just a little more snobbish than people from other countries who are dying for a shot at a good life in America. That’s why I think we shouldn’t have such hard restrictions on who is being let into our country. People should have the freedom to move to wherever they want. I know this is somewhat of an ignorant attitude as I don’t know the logistics of everything that would happen if this were legal, but it’s just what I believe.

I think that its whatever you feel more comfortable identifying with. I have a bunch of mixed friends but they all tend to indentify more with one race rather than the other. Most of my mixed friends identify with being a person of color. I’m not really sure why that is, but I guess it’s just what they feel most comfortable. One of my best friends from home is half black and half white. Even though we grew up in a primarily white community, she calls herself black. She is mixed, but she just feels more comfortable identifying with her black side. I think that she’s a rare case though. Most people will probably be more comfortable identifying with what their community is. If you’re mixed and black and white, and you grow up in a community with mostly black people, it’s quite likely that you would identify with being black. Likewise if you were half Asian and living in a primarily Asian community. In race relations class, we are split up into the black and brown team and the white team. It is not like this in the real world though. There is not someone separating us into teams like that. It’s a wonder then why we do feel the need to identify with one race. Like the kid in the video said he identified as Latino and it sounded like he got sort of offended when Sam called him white. People identify as one thing and are proud of it. I have another friend from home who is black, Puerto Rican, and Italian. He has actually experienced the negative effects of racism. He usually just laughs and is like I’m the colors of the rainbow, so really no one can hate me. He identifies as black because he is from a part of the city that is mostly black. I also think that people may identify with whatever they look like mostly, the exception being the boy from the video. If you have more “black” features, like we talked about in class, then you would probably identify as black. If you have more “white” features, then it’s likely that you would identify as white. Eventually as time goes on, there will be so many mixed people that hopefully people won’t feel the need to identify with a group. Hopefully one day we can all just identify as individuals.

I don’t think it’s ok for either group of people to say rude things about each other. I think that sometimes though, white people may have an easier time laughing at themselves and their color. I feel completely comfortable making fun of being “white” in front of all different races, but I know that people of different races do not always feel as comfortable with it. I used to work at a store back home with mostly black people. I was one of the few white girls to work there. They used to make fun of me and the middle class neighborhood that I’m from. Some of the boys called me cheerleader, because I was just a peppy white girl to most of them, until they actually got to know me. When I first started working there, I would have never felt comfortable making fun of them, or stereotyping them in anyway like they did to me. I don’t really know why, but it seemed like it just wouldn’t fly with them. Eventually, I got to be really close with most of the boys I worked with and we talked about race. One of the boys, who I’m now really good friends with admitted that when I first started working there he thought I was racist. I was pretty shocked, but glad he admitted it because it really explained a lot about the way I was treated when I first started working there. Darren, my friend, said that it was because he was used to white people being racist from the area that I live in. I didn’t really believe this was true since I associate with those people everyday, but then again, I guess they wouldn’t be racist against me. He told me some stories about encounters that he had with people and I was really surprised to hear that some of the things that were said to him would even come out of people’s mouths. I think that a lot of people of color have really bad experiences with racist people, so they almost have more of a right to be defensive. Because of this, it’s easier for white people to be taken as rude. It’s definitely not right that black people say rude things about white people, but I think that it’s not made as apparent so people don’t even realize it. When the boys I worked with made fun of me and called me cheerleader, I laughed with them. I wasn’t offended at all. I think that I can laugh at that because I haven’t ever had an experience where someone made fun of me in a really cruel way. I’m not saying that black people can be more rude to white people, but I just think that it might be more noticeable for white people to be rude to black people.

If most people who wnet to penn state were black, asian, indian, native american, hispanic, or any other type of racial group- it would be them who were throwing the parties. Most of the themed parties I have been to have been decades, toga, anything but clothes, anything but cups or anything else that people can think of. If you are goign to say that themed parties are racist- you would really just not be right, in my mind at least. Anyways, maybe that is just me and the people that I associate with that have never been to any racist parties. I don't know though, not to generalize, but most of the people that I have encountered at Penn State are not racist in the least and would not try and throw a racist party. I think that if they did people would feel pretty uncomfortable with it and not even show up.

Those people dress how they dress because they want to be perceived a certain way and dressing up like them is fine in my mind. Another type of party where you dress as a stereotype is the Jersey Shore party, which is where people dress up like the guidos that they see on the show. There isn't anything wrong with this in my mind either. I love that show. I watch it all the time. The people on the shows are perceived as dumb, macho, Italian types. They love being considered guidos. They all say that during the show. They think they are awesome and I'm sure that they wouldn't have a problem if you wanted to dress up like them. It would be incorrect though, if you ran across a guido and assumed they were stupid from what you watched from the show. Also to address the fact that it is mostly white people who throw the parties- most people who go to penn state happen to be white.

I don't really agree with that. I have been to plenty of themed parties in my day and not many of them if any would I consider to be racist. Stereotypes are seen at some. There are BET versus CMT, which is just dressing like people on each channel. However, I see nothing wrong with this. Maybe the problem is that there is a channel called "black entertainment." If it is just hip-hop then it should be called HMT or something along those lines. And dressing up like people on CMT is not wrong either.

I agree with the fact that I don’t feel any blame when it comes to what happened with the Native Americans. My ancestors came here long after the first settlers as well. However, I don’t think that just because your direct ancestors may have come here early means that you are to blame either. Those people did not have anything to do with it either. It is like saying to a child whose parent may have committed a crime that they are to blame. This is completely untrue and it is wrong to ever blame anyone for someone else’s wrongdoing. Just because they may be related does not mean that they had anything to do with it. It is a terrible thing that happened to the Native Americans. I definitely think that what happened should never have ever happened. I knew that there was a mass killing of their people, but I never knew that it was to the extent that it was. We talk about the Holocaust so much in school, that whenever I think of genocide, that is the first thing that comes to mind. Before this class, I would never have thought of American Indians as genocide. However, what is done is done and in the past. We cannot change it. It happened. I think that we need to not blame ourselves because we had nothing to do with it. Although I don’t think we need to blame ourselves, I do think that we need to do something to right this wrong that was done so long ago. We reap the benefits of their people’s lose. I think that the government should step up to try and change the way that they are living. I am not usually a big believer in welfare, and I believe that people should earn their own, but when you are starting so much lower than everyone else, you deserve some help. Our government essentially took away the wealth of the Native American’s ancestors and we our government should now try and get them back on their feet as a people. We should also put what happened to their people in our school textbooks. We shouldn’t just learn about Sacajawea. We should learn the entire truth, no matter how gruesome. It would probably make others feel more inclined to learn about why Native American’s are in the situation they are today. We should have more grants and scholarships to help get their youth out of trashy reservations and into schools where they can learn, get good jobs, and then better their community. Therefore, I agree that something needs to be done to help out these people, but I don’t think that we should ever feel blame for something our ancestors have done. We need to move forward and make it better not dwell on the horribleness of someone else’s actions.

I think that the line is drawn between being bisexual and just loving someone as a person comes down to if you have a sexual attraction to them. I think that you can be attracted to people without being sexually attracted to them. Sam says that he thinks that everyone is a little bisexual. Personally, I have never wanted to do anything sexual with any girls I am friends with or ever met for that matter. I love them to death, don’t get me wrong, but not in that way. We talked about attraction in class. I think there is a type of attraction that doesn’t involve you wanting to bone them, for lack of a better term. Sometimes I’ll meet girls and be like wow they are really, really pretty. Sometimes people are just really striking. My friends and I will be like “wow, she’s hot.” It’s something I will acknowledge, but never have I ever wanted to hook up with one of them. I’m pretty open to my feelings too, so it would never be like me holding back my feelings or anything. I think a lot of people who are sexually attracted to people of the same sex have some difficulty admitting it, especially if you are attracted to both genders. I can see how confusing that would be and am very thankful that I am not in that position. If I were bi, I would probably try to act exclusively on my feelings towards guys just because it would be easier than coming out as bisexual. There are so many negative connotations that come with being part of the LGBT community. I think it’s really important to let yourself act on your feelings and allow yourself to be your true self. Although, it’s easy for me to say this because I’ve never been sexually attracted to anyone of the same sex, so I’ve never been in that position. I’m really close with my girlfriends. I love them. You can love people without wanting to have sex with them. It’s like the type of love you have for your family. I consider my girlfriends to be like my family. Of course we want to live together, and maybe later in life too if none of us get married. This doesn’t mean that I would ever want to sleep in the same bed when we are living together. It just wouldn’t feel right to me, which is why I would never consider myself bi, even though I love my friends and roommates. However, with boys, it’s totally different. I have really good guy friends, and although they are only friends, there is always potential there. It’s different than my girlfriends because there is always some sexual attraction there. Unless they are my brother, there is always the possibility. I know some people don’t agree with that so maybe that’s just me. I don’t know.

When I hear that someone is on welfare, I do have a connotation of what type of person that is. I hate to say it and I hate to even think it. I was raised believing that I can do whatever I want if I put my mind to it. I was raised believing that other people can do whatever they want if they put their mind’s to whatever they wish to accomplish. My views are somewhat changing. Only somewhat. People who go on welfare are taking money from the government if they need it. If they need the money, I am all about it being given to them to help put food on the table and keep their children in school. I think our country is so great because we have a welfare program, which keeps many families off the streets. It insures a lifestyle. You do not make much from welfare so the lifestyle it insures is not much, but enough, which is exactly the point of it. From that standpoint- welfare seems wonderful. However, many people who collect welfare are not in dire “need” of it. Some people are lazy. Some people think jobs are beneath them so they hold out for ones they think are suitable. One of my uncles was laid-off a few years ago, just when the economy started to take it’s turn. He was 60 and close enough to retirement age that he made the decision to stop looking for work. My aunt still brings home the bacon as a kindergarten schoolteacher. He made a conscious decision to not go back to work. However, from what the government knows- he cannot find work. He is cheating the system. This is the kind of person who is completely taking advantage of welfare and one of the people who gives it a bad name. He and my aunt remain middle-upper-class and go on regular vacations all over the world. This bugs the heck of out of me because I lose a good amount of money every year in taxes from working at minimum wage jobs just to scrape some money together to pay for college, car insurance, and any other expenses I may have. My lost money is going into their pocket. I believe in family first before anything else, but in this case it is so wrong what my uncle is doing. It is extremely frustrating! A different uncle I have, one who is less educated, working blue collar jobs his whole life was also laid-off a few years ago. My aunt kept her job as an emergency telephone operator. He began collecting unemployment. He is actually looking for jobs, but the annoying thing is- he has found jobs and not taken them because he believes them to be beneath him. Meanwhile, he and my aunt just vacationed in Hawaii. Please riddle me this, how do you collect unemployment, yet have enough money to take vacations? I believe in hard work, and if you have the means to work- then you should. As annoyed as I get at people who collect welfare without just cause, people who need it should absolutely be entitled to receiving it. In no way are they animals. Humans are humans and if someone thinks they are better than someone else because they don’t need to collect welfare, then they are sadly mistaken and are no friend of mine.

I completely disagree with what David Brooks had to say about Avatar and the White Messiah theme that many movies possess today. In the movie Avatar, it is the white society that is the one attacking the Avatar creatures which are the peaceful, tranquil, and ultimately superior race. It makes white people look stupid. More specifically than white people, it makes Americans look quite ignorant. Throughout the course of the movie, the American people are looking to gain money and power by taking resources that are necessary to the Avatar’s way of life.
We, as a people, are portrayed as a greedy and ignorant bunch in the film. It reminds me somewhat of how many other countries view the United States. The worldwide known joke is that all the United States cares about is money and power. Call me ignorant, but I believe this to be quite untrue. I care. I am concerned with others and not only myself. I know this to be untrue of other Americans, but I also know it is untrue of all other peoples in the world. I think that the rest of the world needs to stop attacking America. I know that we as a country are not perfect, but who is? What is perfect for that matter? I do not think that you can even really judge people as a country. It all comes down to single individuals.
There is one individual in the film who leads the Avatars to victory against the white people. Brooks labels him as the “White Messiah.” However, I believe this to be false. While saving the people, he is not white. He becomes one of them. He learns their ways. He sees what it is like to be one of them. He falls in love with one of them. He ultimately becomes one of them after seeing that their way of life is superior to our own. If anything, the film shows to be accepting of all people. It shows that people should be willing to learn about people and things that are different than them because they could find something that is really good. The protagonist in the movie is Jake. Jake shows that learning about these creatures opens his mind and his heart.
Although I do not agree with how Brooks relates the movie Avatar to the “White Messiah,” I do agree that many movies have a “White Messiah” in them. I think that you could probably find this in any culture though. I have not seen many Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, Italian, Russian, or any other cultures movies, but I am sure that if you watch any films by other cultures you are guaranteed to find that the hero is someone of that culture. It is what is most commonly found.