I think it is much easier for those with gay parents to come out of the closet to their parents because their parents know how they are feeling. Their parents can understand what is going through their minds and the feelings and emotions that they are experiencing. I think that most of the time, they will not be upset and will support and encourage their child. But there could also be another situation that could occur. If the parents had extremely poor experiences dealing with being gay, such as discrimination or something like that, they will probably be upset with their child’s coming out. I do not think that they will be upset that they are gay, but because the parents do not want their child to go through the same situations that they had to go through. I think that every parent wants their children to have better than what they had, and this situation is no different.
On the other hand, it would be much more difficult for a child with straight parents to come out and tell their parents that they are gay. This is because their parents are straight and they do not understand what the child is feeling or the thoughts that they are going through. The circumstances change depending on how open the parents are to people that are gay. If they are pro-gay and feel very strongly about working towards gay rights, then they probably will be happy for their child and do as much as they can to support and encourage them. Another extreme would be if the parents are very religious. I think that they will be very upset with their child and do everything they can to get them to change their minds, or they may even stop talking to them and force the child to live on their own. Some parents that are like this could also be angry at first, then realize that they want the best for the child and support them in the end.
As a daughter of straight parents, I could not even imagine telling my parents that I was gay. I think that they would be upset or confused at first, and then they would support me and whatever I wanted to do. My grandparents are the ones that I would worry about. They are more religious than my parents are and they may not accept it as easily as my parents would. But I think that they, too, would eventually come around because they know who I am and being gay does not change that. I think that this is true with a lot of families in the United States, where the grandparents are less open to things that the parents are. This is because as each generation is born, we start to get more comfortable with things such as gays and different races.

After watching the “What Would You Do” video, a lot of things were running through my mind. I would like to think that I would say something to the baker and defend the woman, but I am not sure if I would or not. For me, it is not a question of whether or not I feel the man was wrong, because in my opinion it was very wrong for him to refuse to serve the Muslim woman. But it is more a question of if I am outgoing enough to say something. I am typically very shy, so I do not know if I would have the courage to stand up to her.
Regardless of my being shy, I think what the baker was doing was not only illegal but morally wrong. He has no right to refuse anyone of something that they are willing to pay for. What also struck me was the extremes that some of the other customers went to. One woman was crying because she was with her friend who was also Muslim and it hurt her so much to think that her friend could potentially be treated that way. Another man that surprised me was the one that said his son just returned from fighting the war in Iraq. He told the baker that he was deeply offended by what he was doing. To me, I would have thought that the man would say the opposite and that he would applaud the baker in some way. But I was proud to see that he felt sympathetic toward the woman.
On the other hand, there was a man that told the baker he was doing the right thing by not serving the woman. It surprised me that when the host tried to follow him out to his car in order to interview the man, he told the host that he could not speak with him because he was not American either. This was embarrassing to me. I could not believe that some people take ethnocentrism so seriously that they do not even consider someone with darker skin to be American, even when they were born here.
Needless to say, there were a lot of emotions running through me when I was watching this video. I felt bad for the woman and wished that someone would step up and do something about it. I may be forgetting, but I do not know why anyone did not think to call the cops so that the baker would be punished for punishing the woman that had done nothing wrong except wear clothing that she was religiously obligated to wear. I know that this scenario was just a set up, but I hope that things like this do not often happen in America, or I will start to question what being an American actually is.

I have never understood why people insisted on wearing saggy pants. It is not attractive and it does not help you walk any easier. Personally, when I see people with saggy pants I think that they are sloppy. Or maybe they are just trying to look a certain way and have a “badass” reputation, so sagging their pants is a way for them to do this. I grew up going to a high school that was predominantly white. But this did not stop my classmates and older students from sagging their pants. I always wondered why they did this. It never made sense to me. They would walk too slowly down the hallway and going up the stairs was out of the question. But for some reason, all of the people that sagged their pants were seen as “popular”. Everyone in school wanted to be like them, so they would sag their pants too. So soon enough most guys in my high school wore their pants like this, and somehow they were respected for it.
I understand that they had a reason for passing this law in Alabama, but I do not think an actual law was necessary. Like the article said, there are many other things that the state could have been worrying about such as high unemployment, crime, and foreclosures. I would also agree with the article when discussing all of the other things that are disturbing in our modern culture. But we are not putting a ban on everything. In my opinion, this law is just going to be another one put on the list of stupid laws that every state has.
I think that it is ironic that a black man is the one that came up with this law. I have this opinion because I usually see that black people are the ones that are sagging their pants. I like that this man wanted to ban sagging your pants even though people of his race are mostly the ones that are doing it. I would also like to know the reaction of the citizens of Alabama when they heard about the passing of this new law. I would guess that the reaction was different for black people than it was for white people. I also think the reaction would have been different had a white man come up with this law. It probably would have been seen as racist and it most likely would have made national news.
Like it was in my high school and Sam says when introducing the article, sagging pants has definitely been a part of the white suburban culture. People do this because they want to seem different from the rest of society, which in turn makes them more like black people. I think that people need to rethink what makes everyone so different because we may not be that different at all.

I grew up going to a school that was predominantly white students. It was a small school, but most of us were white and we had only a few students of different races. My town is located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. It is kind of a rural area, but it was not a very rich community. I can remember only one or two times during high school when search dogs came in and looked in our lockers. I only heard rumors about things that were found, but the biggest rumor seemed to be that drugs were found in an older student’s locker. This student was white. I do not know the actual outcome of the dog search, but I do know that this student went to jail a few years later.
There was a town right next to mine that was predominantly black students. It was a poorer area because it used to be very populated during the days of the steel mill, but now it is very run down. They recently constructed a new high school in this town, equipped with metal detectors. Because I never went to this school and did not have any friends that were students of this school, I never knew if they had drug searches or anything like that. I only heard of violent crimes that were committed because they would reach my community. I used to hear that if you wanted to buy drugs, then this community was the place you should to go. My parents always warned me not to drive there because it was not a safe area. So growing up, I avoided it at all costs. It was a place that kids and adults were afraid of. Whether or not we had a good reason for this fear, I have no idea.
I could say that we were afraid because we knew of crimes that had been committed there, so that gave us a good reason. But I believe that there are crimes happening everywhere, some we just do not find out about, like ones in my community. I do not think it is fair that there are metal detectors and extra precautions taken in predominantly black schools but not in predominantly white schools. I think that a student is a student, and they need to be looked after no matter where they live. On the other hand, I can understand that the extra precautions are taken in areas where we know there is more crime. But it seems unbelievable to me that all of these areas just so happen to be predominantly black. I think that we just do not know about the crimes that are committed in predominantly white areas, so we do not take extra precautions here.

I also grew up in a small town that was mostly dominated by white people. I graduated in a class of 142 students, and there were three students that were black, one that was Korean, and one that was Hispanic. I had never really thought about how unique this situation was because I had always grown up with it. While I was in elementary, middle, and high school, it had always been normal to me that most of the other students looked like me. But I never thought anything was different about the other students that did not look like me until I was older.
Coming to college, there were a lot of things I realized that I did not know would affect me. I actually had people of other races in every class with me. This was a different experience that I did not really know how to react to. I think that I did keep an open mind. I never judged people based on the color of their skin or their accent or anything that was different than how I am. I think that this did have something to do with my growing up in an area with little diversity. I did not know how these people acted differently than I did aside from the rumors that I heard or things I had seen on TV. I didn’t think it would be right for me to judge them without getting to know them first.
I think that students that did grow up in areas that are very diverse had a different aspect when coming to college. They had experienced people of different races before. In my opinion, their views on whether or not they judged people of other races depended on their previous experiences. If they had a negative experience, then they might be very nervous when it comes to having other races in class with them. If they had a positive experience, then they may feel happy or even comforted by it.
By going to a high school that was mostly dominated by white people, it almost makes me feel sheltered. I did not get to have any regular contact with those of other races, aside from those few students that I did not talk to much, and so did not know anything about them. I wish that I had gotten these experiences because now I probably would not feel as uncomfortable around them as I do. But then I also would not be as open minded about them as I do. So it is almost like a double-edged sword, in that it will still take me some time to get used to it. But I have definitely seen an improvement.

During this week in lecture, my view on war has changed, especially after class on Thursday. On Tuesday, we talked about how US soldiers were willing to kill 29 foreign civilians in order to save one American life. I do not agree with this statement at all. I think that all of our lives are equal to those that live in other countries. Not one life is worth 29 others. What makes this concept more difficult to believe is when you say that that one life is someone very close to you, like an immediate family member. In this sense, you would kill as many people as necessary in order to save them. I think that there is a level of selfishness in each of us here in America, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. We like to say that one American life is worth only one foreign life, but that is not always true. We are willing to kill more foreign civilians than American civilians simply because of where they are from. When we go to war in foreign countries, we are not there permanently, so we do not know personally the civilians that are killed. In America, if affects us more because we may know them personally, which will put a strain on us emotionally, to know that one of our own has been killed. It makes me think about how it would be if our roles were switched with another country. How many Americans are they willing to kill in order to save a native’s life? This is a very strange concept to deal with and ask questions about, because no one would want to admit their answer.
Class in Thursday was very interesting. It really made me think about the motives behind war and how people act toward others. I think the part that affected me the most is when Sam showed us the videos from Iraq. The first video was of the soldiers running over the car because they caught civilians stealing wood. We then found out that this car was the means for how one of the civilians made a living. My heart went out to him and I could not believe that our soldiers would take that away from someone. Then Sam explained it in a way that made it seem fair to both sides. He said that the people stealing wood were doing so because they were trying to feed their families, not because they wanted to do anything wrong. The soldiers were also doing what they thought was right and what they were told to do. I had never thought about war this way. Both sides are trying to protect their families and friends, not just trying to hurt other people.

One thing that has really struck me this year is what we are talking about currently, inequality within the workplace. This is something that I had never really considered before. I thought before that white people had an advantage over those of minorities while applying for jobs, but I never realized to what extent. I like the examples that Sam gave us in class when he put two girls in the front of the room and explained that they had the exact same resume but one was black and one was white. At first, he said that the black girl had 5 extra points that helped her to get the job, just because she was black. He asked how both girls felt about this and they were both indifferent. Then he explained that they were both on a level playing field, but the white girl was 50 percent more likely to get the job just because she was white. The black girl said that she would have to work harder in order to get the job over the white girl. She was not angry, she just accepted this fact.
This really affected me because of how calmly she said this. I was so surprised that she did not get upset or angry about this fact. She simply accepted this as a fact in life that she has lived with and will have to live with for the rest of her life. If I were in her shoes, I would have been very angry about this. It is unfair that I would have had to work twice as hard as someone else to get the same job, just because my skin was darker.
I am not sure why this situation affected me so much. I think it may be because I was able to put myself into the black girl’s shoes. If I did not know how to do this, I probably would not have cared so much. I hope that we can have more opportunities to discuss situations like these during this semester. I also had never thought about how white people could possibly have a disadvantage just because they are white. That helped me to remember filling out job applications that asked if you are Hispanic or not Hispanic. It really made me think about why they ask these questions on college and job applications. I do not think it is fair to ask about someone’s race or ethnicity upfront. This does not determine the person’s work ethic or how they can communicate with others, which are qualities that companies look for in applicants. I hope that later this semester we are able to further discuss these factors in the workplace.

At the beginning when Sam was talking about the extra five points for the black woman, I think that if I were her then I would have been angry. I would want to get the job because of my qualifications and the hard work that I had done, not just because my skin was dark. It is difficult to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to think about situations like these, but I am sure that this is how I would feel. If I were the white woman and I knew that people of color were getting a benefit for a factor like this, I also would have been upset. I would want to be paired against candidates that I had a fair opportunity against.
As for the names, I think that this is very unfair. Just because a white woman has a “white” name does not make her better than a black woman with a “black” name. They have the same qualifications on their resume. I believe that it is wrong that white women are 50 percent more likely to get the job just because of their name. Going along with the qualifications on their resume, the two women probably had similar experiences when they were growing up and looking for experiences to increase their qualifications. As a woman going through the same thing, I know how difficult this is. But for these two women to have the same exact resume seems to me like they had the same opportunities while they were growing up, or close to it. There is no reason for them to be discriminated against because their lives could be almost identical.
I think it is sad that the black woman thinks that she needs to work harder in order to be able to compare to the white woman. The only thing the white woman has that makes her more qualified than the black woman is the few letters that are used to identify her. She could be extremely less qualified than the black woman. But, because of her name, she will get the job. I think what the black woman said about her need to have better qualifications is great. It is amazing to me that she is willing to work harder than someone else in order to get this job. If I were the one doing interviews, I would hire her solely based off of that fact. She took something she knew was unfair and decided to work harder in order to get what she deserved.
This class has helped me to realize that there is a lot of racism still in our country. It is getting better, but not going away. This example has helped me to see that once again.

I think it is true that most people believe that sports are dominated by different ethnic groups. Like Sam said in class, it is rare to find a hockey player that is not white, just like black players dominate the basketball courts. I, personally, as well as some of my friends who I have asked about this topic, have never really thought about it before. I always see that good basketball players are mostly blacks and talented hockey players are white, but I do not know why.
It could simply be because of genetics. Maybe different muscle groups are conditioned better in black people versus white people, which makes them better at different sports. I am not sure how this would be possible, but it could happen. It could come from the type of work their ancestors did long ago. For example, the ancestors of black people could have done tasks that involve a lot of leg work, so now their legs are conditioned to be able to run faster and jump higher. The ancestors of white people could have performed tasks that work out their full bodies equally, so they are able to handle full-contact sports such as hockey.
There could also be factors such as where the athletes were raised. Most of the poorer areas of large cities are inhabited by blacks. I am not sure why this is, but it is almost inevitable in every city. It is much easier for the people that live in these areas to play basketball because it only requires one thing: a ball that bounces. You can wear whatever you have, and it is not an absolute necessity to throw it through a hoop. You can throw the ball through whatever you have and call it a basket. So, it is much easier for those that do not have much to be able to play basketball. On the other hand, white people who have grown up in wealthier areas are more inclined to play hockey or other sports that require a lot of equipment simply because they can afford to do it.
Another factor that could contribute to this difference in race in sports could be what other people are interested in. For example, black people may play basketball and white people may play hockey simply because that is what their friends are into playing. I think that the difference started out like I said before, where black people played basketball because it does not cost much, and white people played hockey because they can afford it. I think that it happens now because it is something like a tradition. It has been this way for years and no one wants to change it now.

I think that white people shy away from race, but only to a certain extent. In my opinion, many white people do not talk about race because they want others to believe that they do not take race into consideration when they judge a person. They also may be trying not to get into an argument and are therefore avoiding the topic of race. There could also be many other reasons.
Although it is easy to judge a person by the color of their skin, it is not always the best way to get to know someone. By looking at the color of someone’s skin, we are stereotyping and may think that we know this person without even talking to them, just because we know the characteristics of others in their same race. A lot of people judge based on race, but they do not want others to know that they do this. They may be considered racist, and then they would be judged in turn. I think that white people shy away from the topic of race in order to avoid being judged themselves.
I also believe that white people are afraid to talk about race because they do not want people of other races to become upset with them. The girl in class was a perfect example of this. After she chose the person in class with the darkest skin, she was afraid that she would get beat up after class had ended. White people are afraid to talk about race because they do not want anyone else to be upset. I think that this comes from the history of America. The ancestors of white people are the ones that put blacks into slavery. Now that blacks have the same rights as white people, they are able to speak up about how they are feeling. I think white people are afraid that if they upset a black person, they will try and get back at them for what our ancestors had done.
This can also be true with other races, but there is not as big of an example as there is for blacks. The main point is that white people avoid the topic of race because they are scared. They do not want to upset anyone or make anyone think they are being judgmental so they avoid the topic altogether. I think part of the reason could be because white people are ashamed of what their ancestors have done in the past, and so they are trying to make up for this by trying not to judge a person based on the color of their skin. It may not be right, but this is how things are perceived in our country.