I think Americans simply just do not like people or things in general that are different than what they are accustomed to. Morevoer, I think this is especailly true if Americans view these differences as something that may be threatening or disruptive towards their own environment and life style. I think our "survival of the fittest" instincts kick in when it comes to immigration. I think many believe if immigrants enter country, they might somehow get ahead of us by using back door methods or stand in the way of our own progress. We begin to feel threaten if others are reaping off our resources or getting jobs and benfits we "legally" worked "harder" for. I think people in general just feel that immigrants ultimately rely on freebies and are lazy; so in turn, they boost up the numbers in our poorer population. As a result, society becomes overcrowded by people deemed as useless and these people "dirty" our streets. Consequently, as immigrants flow inwards, certain living areas become more underisable for American residents. Foregin tongues begin to become more prominent than English in those areas as well. And think about it, how annyoing is it to be sitting on a bus next to someone yapping away on their phone. Now isn't it about 5 times more irritating if that person is talking over the phone in a differnet language? Now what if everyone on this bus was speaking in different languages in an "American" city? I think a typical American resident, unccustomed to such diverity may start to feel uneasy or even threatened/scared in such an area. One may even start to get angered that such an area exsist because a thought such as, "Hey, you're in America, learn and live by our dominant language," may cross the mind... or "Why haven't they made efforts to fully assimilate to our culture if they want to live here?" But then fear might once again come into play as an individual thinks about what the consequences might be if he or she were to voice such a thought out loud. This is why I think all the hype around immigration just all comes back to fear. The fear of someone invading your space, pushing you aside, or taking what is "rightfully" yours. As a result, we mark immigrants as bad people that cause a chain of unwanted occurances here in America. We do not take the time out to learn about each person's story and discover their true reasons for wanting to stay here in the United States. Often times, they just want all the same things we do -- a healthy family, stable income, and a pleace to sleep and eat. However, i think we all have just taugh ourselves that if immigrants get the same things that we want, than they must be taking away from Americans that are more deserving. We keep up the divide of "us" and "them" instead of just marking everyone as people. This ensures we continue to get what we want first while slamming the door in the faces of those who come second.

I am not surprised that Native Americans are one of the most poorest and most underprivileged groups in the United States. However, the class presentation did make me think twice about the legacy that we are leaving for future generations. For many centuries, America has become known as the place where anyone would be able to come and make a successful living not having anything more than the clothes on their back. However, I believe the success of others in this country was ultimately at the expense of destroying the lives of its original inhabitants. This so-called “free land” that allowed everyone to start from scratch just took away everything that that the Native Americans ever worked for. It’s kind of like that picture that Sam showed us in class of the young white boy climbing over the black boy in order to get to the top. Once the white boy got there, he refused to give the black child a hand up. Everyone has essentially been given a leg up thanks to Native Americans without turning around to help them in the process. America is also known as a very individualistic society. A man is measured by his success by the feats he is able to accomplish. Native American societies are a very community oriented society. But one has to wonder, how can a community work when there are so many broken systems within that society. Some argue that the reason why the Native Americans are the poorest is because of their blatant and strong refusal to integrate into what we have deemed as ‘American Culture’. But I think that’s quite funny since I think they are the ones who are closest with America’s true origins.
In addition, one thing that also came to my mind was the disenfranchisement of the Native American People. Representation of this group is rare and few in between. Even if the issues of this society like its rampant alcoholism, poverty, gambling, domestic violence, little education, and dysfunctional familial units are brought up to the public’s eye; Native American’s have no prominent public leaders to advocate for them. In other words no leader has emerged from the Native American community. And the people that have power have abused that power to cover up their society corruption. Any future attempt to try to re-vitalize this culture has to start from within their community. Furthermore, he government has done so much to minimize the impact of their imperialism on the Native American Culture. Unlike their African American counterparts, the struggle and attempted extermination of the Native America have never been acknowledged. Unlike their African American counterpart, there was no movement to acknowledge the Native American slavery. Any attempts that were made for reparations resulted in a system that encouraged disenfranchisement, poverty, and the constant dependence on a corrupt system.

part 2: Furthermore, I think it encourages people to actually investigate how countries have gotten to their current conditions instead of just thinking their role as a donator ends when their money hits a collection can. However, I can also see how extreme pictures of children suffering can kind of set off an alarm for others to donate. It kind of gives you a major reality check that others are dying simple because they do not have things that we take for granted each and everyday. But I think this just primarily represents a scare tactic that guilts to get involved as oppose to actually wanting to make a change. And where does money out of guilt get you at the end of the day? Ernso was right in saying that showing someone how to do something instead of simply doing it for them has a more beneficial impact. I think campaigns really need to start focusing more on the positive instead of the negative in needy countries so people can actually see they can make a difference and go beyond just giving the simple monetary donation.

I have very mixed feelings when it comes to using improvished children to draw attention to countries in the need. I think the very idea kind of implies that Americans are not willing to help others unless those individuals are suffering in the most extreme conditions. However, I know I have definitely seen individuals give food to homeless people that are questionably overweight or sparing some change for someone in line who doesn’t want to break a twenty for a low cost purchase. And I think the reason why Americans do this is because we can ourselves relate to those situations so we do not mind giving up some money. Showing pictures of emaciated children just makes us aware of how different we are from people in other countries and how our own situations do not relate to theirs. Therefore, I think one might even be less likely to donate to the cause because they do not see how they personally can connect to it. Also, one might think that their simple spare change will not be able to help the extreme situations of other people, so why take the time out to donate. For example, after seeing Ernso video of regular people just trying to get by and make a living for themselves, I felt like, as a college student, I was able to have more compassion for those individuals as opposed to guilt for their situations. I think I was way more motivated to somehow get involved because I was not being feed the typical pictures of needy people. It made me realize that there are other methods of donation that can go a lot further that simply giving money.

part 2: I was honest and told one of my partners after the second time that intercourse on its own doesn’t really get me there, and a lot more foreplay is necessary… and he nearly did a back flip! He was very well endowed so I think he couldn’t believe someone had actually said that to him… as IF his size was not enough…. And I think THAT is another issue all in its own. I know quite a few men that think that just because they are bigger, they do not really need to do much before hand, just go a bit faster and the deed is done. And that just makes me think to myself: “Gee… well did you ever think that all of that excess kinda hurts, and you should actually be even more sensual and slow so women can have the time to glorify your XL as you see fit???” …..I could tell he felt such a big blow to his ego and he wanted to talk and evaluate every single time after. In a sense, I appreciated his willingness to communicate more, but he approached everything with a defeatist attitude, so what was even the point? I told him I was happy with him, but that was not enough, he just questioned everything afterwards and just always felt paranoid and just become sloppier… making me regret even saying something in the first place. I think men just need to be educated more on the subject so talks like that can go more smoothly and women need to stick up more for themselves so everyone doesn’t feel like they are inadequate.

I think hearing more points about my own sex we more enlightening during the lecture. I think we as women have generally always know that men are instantly ready to go while we can sometimes take a while. However, I do not think we have recognized how are willingness to satisfy the “needy” penis has ultimately caused women to take a back seat to pleasure. I know so many girls that think it’s okay to fake it day in and day out. “hey, I might not have truly orgasmed, but at least I had fun.” And I know I have been guilty myself. However, Sam’s wife is right, when do we get ours? By faking it, we’re just telling men that they are doing exactly what we want them to do and that they are awesome at it. So why would men ever really see the need to change that if we do not speak up? But I think the lecture made a good point in noting that we have been tricked into thinking what the standards of sex are; if we’re not meeting them, then something is wrong with us. I feel like this can just be so hard to work around even with communication.

I strongly believe that this article accurately depicts how there were will be a decreased interest in religion or at least practicing religion in the future. I think at least here in America, I believe it’s written all over our rebellious and tech-savvy generation that religion is not at the top of our worries these days. Many claim that they are religious and haven’t stepped into a place of worship in years or they don’t uphold the lessons of their religion in everyday life. And quite frankly, I do not see the point in anyone claiming that they belong to any religion if they only SAY they are I guess a Catholic who believes in God but they do not practice it. Showing such a lack of interest in faith would only trinkle down to their children until eventually everyone is completely ignorant about the subject or they completely do not care. While many others believe that with science and modernization, it’s a little far fetched to believe someone in the heavens created the world we know today exactly how religious items such as the Bible depicts it. Take my family for instance, highly religious and actively involved in the church. I was baptized at a young age and did youth choir and ministry from age 8 to 16…. At the age of NINE I told my parents I did not believe in their god and to this day I don’t… despite all of my teachings, despite being a non-believer yet becoming president of the my church youth events and teaching bible school and running our summer church programs. I just don’t care… but my parents forced me to remain active in the community. However, I did not put up much of a fight because I can see why people in a sense value faith in their lives. I’ve seen people claiming that faith was the only reason they were able to overcome so many trials in their lives. And if that’s what you need, then fine, that’s all dandy. I’m not saying that there isn’t necessarily a god, but I think it’s stupid to put so much time into organized religions. Why does there need to be a label on all that? Why can’t you simple be a human believing in some unknown thing? Because at the end of the day you ARE only human and I don’t care what your religion says because as a HUMAN you do not know diddly squat about what happens after you die. I feel like putting titles on things like that just do more harm than good especially with so many wars around the world like in Northern and Southern Sudan that are being partially fueled by religious turmoil. I happily look forward to the age of dying religion… there are way more important things to focus on.

I feel like the messages labeling white as good and black as bad are hidden all around us in our society. I remember back when I was younger there was an episode of the Looney Tunes depicting something to the likings of the ugly duckling. There was a tiny black duck anxiously trying to fit into a beautiful family of white swans. Are they directly trying to add a racial spin on the story? Honestly… in my opinion, it’s hard to say. I feel like older cartoons depicted a lot of borderline instances that made me question what type of message they were truly trying to put across. However, they always used comedy to make everything appear as if it were “okay.” There was another episode where characters in different books were becoming animated and interacting with each other. The white male I think on the cover of Rip Van Winkle was taunting and messing with a black character on the cover of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I don’t remember exactly what he had done but it was something that definitely caught my eye and made me angry, especially for them to use a book as controversial as that…. But then… way later on in the episode, you see the character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin getting back at the white character. Thus, I guess making the initial incident acceptable in an “eye for an eye” and comedic stand point… Nowadays, I do not think there are so many instantly controversial/questionable situations in cartoons. However, I do agree with what someone said in class, we do not see too many people of color holding strong/ starring roles on television. Oftentimes, colored people are just the sidekicks or best friends supporting the main character and always have something funny to say as the cool and laid back character --- basically still resorting to the old method of using comedy to justify questionable instances… We are in a predominately white society, so it does kind of make sense why there are so many programs that place white people as the main characters and such, but I think people fail to realize this may have an indirect impact on how people measure their own adequacy and importance in real-life. And even when you do see colored people more in the media, it just seems like there’s an absence of typical black culture and they are light skinned. Like you so rarely see people wearing braids in magazines unless you are specifically purchasing a black magazine. You rarely see dark-skinned females in commercials advertising beauty products unless they have high-check bones or typical white structural features… It’s like you have to be subjected to media/and programing specifically for blacks in order to see them in a positive or strong light… otherwise, they’re just not seen at all, have a mediocre role, or are “white-washed.” As a result, I think so many people grow up, INCLUDING colored people, see people of color as ugly because they themselves do not want to be left in the background or not in the main stream as our media kind of depicts. And the media is not entirely to blame… If you just took small children that knew nothing of racial conflict or ever watched/listened to any form of media and placed them in a room with 20 people that reflected America’s racial make-up and asked them what group they wanted to be in, I wouldn’t be surprised if they gravitated towards the whites simply because there are more of them! Everyone just wants to fit in with the majority for the most part… making white good and colored bad.

part 3: Sure, go ahead and make up non-racist groups to show that you’re proud to be white just like other minorities have. But to start babbling about how you need to make a stance because you're no longer getting the same privileges and indirectly "struggling" because others are gaining a better footing is downright stupid... Especially since so many minorities have DIRECTLY struggled for way longer in order to quench the thirst of white conquest and greed for centuries! Let's just take the land of native Americans, enslave blacks, make Hispanics do our dirty work, and call all Indians terrorists... hmm yea... that should do it... oh wait, those minorities are actually starting to recover!!... like really... get off your high horse, get over it... it's not even like you're sharing the lime light but getting a taste of how everyone else feels...

part 2: With so many labeling white people as the dictionary definition of "Americans" - as Tim Wise noted, we've all grown a very distorted perception on our society and the privileges that these "privileged" people should and shouldn't have. America is a Cultural MELTING POT... AMERICANS are of different cultures and backgrounds that should not be solely thought of as white people and whichever races fill in the cracks. If the majority is becoming more like the minority then that's a good thing! There will no longer be a need to use either of those words. For some people in this article to even complain about the presence of black panther members at voting polls intimidating voters is also ridiculous. You have the choice to turn your head to all that, IF it really did go down or in this day and age, call police officials to come to your aid. What about blacks that couldn’t turn their head to literacy tests that used to be at polls a few years ago purposely preventing them from voting all together? No two wrongs, don’t make a right, but to cause so much of a fuss over that kind of stuff when its not happening to whites in a lesser degree is stupid.