My opinion really did not change much after Tuesday’s and today’s lectures on illegal immigration because I wasn’t really against illegal immigration before these lectures so there wasn’t really anything to change my mind on. On the other hand, I did learn some new and interesting facts about illegal immigration that I do want to comment on. I have always supported immigration and to some extent, illegal immigration because I feel that these people are coming to America in search of a better life than they had in their country and not to just take our jobs and take money and other things away from us. I think that America is a great country and a place for opportunities and chances. So who are we to not allow people from other countries to come and experience this great country for themselves? They are extremely hard-working , like Sam said, none of them are lazy people because they don’t want to work; the people that come here want to work hard and end up doing jobs that many Americans have a chance to do, but choose not to. Also, I do know that many of immigrates do end up paying taxes through their job and where they live. So why shouldn’t they be allowed here? They are probably buying goods and some services from America and supporting our economy so this is a good thing. The theory that I found very attention-grabbing during class and was not aware of is that businesses usually support and need immigration, mainly illegal immigration, for the free market work as well. I never really thought of this but it does kind of make sense.. I also thought the TA’s, Eric; story was very interesting because I never pictured the process to be so frightening and dangerous. I figured it was a risk but nothing like gunshots and climbing trees. This just showed me what they would do to get here and what it takes. They are not all criminals, although, some are, the majority probably isn’t. We can handle the criminals just like we would with an American criminal. In my opinion, when people get mad and upset over immigrates and illegal immigrates, it’s because they’re jealous. They see another person working hard for the little money that they make. The average American is always complaining about not having enough money or not having a job, but evidently, they are not willing to work a low end job for the extra money. Immigrates generally do something that the average American refuses to do, and that’s put their pride aside for the bigger picture. I wish I could develop the mindset of an immigrate because I would be the richest man in the world with my opportunities.

In my opinion, I think the question should be “How does a person not benefit from nepotism?” In today’s society it’s more about who you know in the workforce rather than what you know about the workforce. It’s sad that this is what society has come too but its reality. If you think about it, this new trend is occurring all over America, from elementary school to even politics. It’s like a popularity contest. Just to play the bad guy for a minute here though if we were to go by what Sam said in terms of if nepotism wasn’t in play the he said that there would always be another candidate that was smarter, more talented, and better fitted for the job that would always mean that none of us would ever get employment in which case nepotism would be our only chance. I think that even if a person did have the will a drive to legitimately want to avoid all nepotism and begin a path to gaining things of all their own merit. I think that nepotism is such an engrained part of this society. For instance if we stop nepotism from happening in the job place than that would mean that a doctor whose child was shot would have to wait the same amount of time for surgery to be performed as a regular person, and that would never happen. Another example would be if a robber or murder were to take place at a police officer’s house chances are first there would be a much more prompt response to the situation and I think it would also be fair to say that there would be a much larger response meaning that more effort would be put forth to finding the attacker and making sure that this person came to justice. In the end this would be for a good cause, however the fact that it wouldn’t be an equal effort. Now is that bad? In general, I don’t think nepotism is that bad we can’t control it so we might as well accept it. I know plenty of people who then received jobs based off nepotism. For example, my dad, before he passed, had a job as a janitor at a hospital because he knew someone who worked there. My uncle received a job because of my dad before, so the cycle is always continuing. I know this summer, my aunt is helping me look for a job at her office, if she finds one then I will probably get it because all of her co-workers know me. I know here at Penn State, my advisor is always putting my name out there so I can meet new people and make connections. In a way, nepotism is form of networking, so people better start networking as soon as possible. Remember, if you can’t beat it then join it.

In my opinion, I think that a 29:1 civilian to terrorist kill death ratio is too intense and heartless in all cases. I think that it is not worth the lives of 29 civilians just to kill one bad terrorist. For my home country, the United States, to reveal this information is shocking and embarrassment because I thought we was better than and had more pride than that. We do have terrorists in our country but it isn’t worth killing 29 innocent people just to kill one stupid terrorist. These numbers don't add up to me, but I can see where that we are trying to get rid of terrorism as a whole. Sadly, the mission is easier said than done and calls for the U.S. to step outside of their comfort zone in order to reach this mission. When it comes to terrorism, morality is thrown out of the window and it comes down to going into a given place and taking out the bad guy no matter what the consequences. As luck would have it, when we look at what we did in certain places we should feel a sense of guilt and compassion for the number of innocent civilians that lost their lives and families. However as we've done over and over again, in the past we go on with our lives and deal with the fact that we killed this one terrorist. I don’t really agree with the method but things are what they are. If there had to be a number I would probably pick more along the lines of 5-10 for each terrorist and I am not in support of killing innocent civilians, but sometimes innocent lives have to be taken for a good cause, there just should be a boundary. But honestly, it is easier for me to say this online but if I was the country that was under attack, I don't know how I would react. Seeing so many of my friends and family members are dying because the United States wants to catch one bad person is not really cool with me at all. I’m glad that I am not in the place of the government and have to make decisions. I do not know how people can live with themselves knowing that innocent people are dying because of their reckless measures. I can only imagine how the soldiers must feel about this when they hear and see the acts because it can not be easy for them to kill innocent people. Honestly, I feel that no one should say who should or how many people should die in replace for a guilty life, it’s just wrong and the government is not God, no matter much they want to be. I’m glad I’m legally blind and I can’t go into the military because I would rebel against their demands.

Sam wasn’t lying when he said this was going to be an amazing lecture. In my personal opinion, it was the best class all semester long. I know last Thursday was a little dry and boring and I was pretty disappointed. I posted a tweet saying “#Soc119 is boring as f*ck right now, Come on Sam!” and he retweeted me and I can tell that he was very offended, but I was telling the truth. I know the tweet was a little mean and harsh and I want to apologize for it because it was kind of unnecessary. But, today’s lecture totally changed my mindset and made me look at sexual intercourse and females emotions a little bit different. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the topic because I was eager to learn about the needy penis and what it actually meant. Also, I wanted to learn more about how females view sexual intercourse. In my opinion, the female body is extremely complicated and difficult for no apparent reason. Females in general are just complicated, complex, and unique creatures. A guy will never fully understand the female mindset but he can understand the fact that it’s completely different from his and accept the fact that females are going to have different views, values, and opinions. I realized that males are really needy just like females but in completely different ways. The guy’s needs are pretty simple to satisfy but it depends on the female’s mindset. A guy will be happy when he gets laid and ejaculates. To him, it doesn’t matter if the girl is satisfied or ejaculates because as statistics showed in class, only 33% of females ejaculate from sexual intercourse. With guys it’s more of being selfish thing, as long as I get mine then I don’t care what the female does. As a male, I’m sort of like that because let’s be honest, once a guy is horny his mind is elsewhere. But in most cases, from my own sexual encounters, I’m more satisfied when I see the girl is happy. One reason being is I’m not selfish when it comes to sex, if the girl felt comfortable enough with me to give me that honor then I’m going to show her an amazing time, no faking involved by the way. Another reason is the fact that I feel like the man during and after sex because I hear and see a lot of positive feedback and when you receive positive feedback, people come back for more. However, there are times when I’m like I don’t really care about if she’s satisfied or not, I know I’m happy so that’s all that matters. I wish the female body wasn’t so complicated, but in a way it’s a good thing because it keeps the guy on his toes and he can’t be too comfortable, it makes sex more interesting.

I think interracial relationships are beauty, bold, and different. There are a lot of ups and downs in an interracial relationship. If you’re really going to commit to a interracial relationship then you have to be ready for the drama that comes along with it. It’s seems like society looks down on interracial relationships, because it’s not the “norm”. When I see a interracial couple, who truly in love, I automatically respect them as a couple. It shows that their love for each other is real and nothing that society says or do can come between them. The negative feedback that they receive is crazy, and even hurtful. I heard some very racist stuff about interracial couples that had me pissed. In my opinion, people have the right to date whoever they want too and nobody has the right to judge. I’ve noticed that older people are the ones that are quicker to judge and react to interracial couples. The younger generations seem to be open and accepting to it. I know many of people who would love to date outside their. A lot of my white male friends want to date a black girl; a lot of my black male friends want to date a white girl or a latino, and the same goes for females as well. But, they’re scared to do it or they aren’t allowed to do it. Some of the fear comes from within that person, like the fear getting rejected by the other person, and some of it comes from society’s outlook on it. You also have to think about that person’s family. If your family is against then you can’t really engage in an interracial relationship, unless you want to deal with your family constantly being angry at you. For example, I’m not allowed to date a white girl because my family would be pissed. Partly because of my cousin, he was in his senior year of college and he dropped out because of a white girl. Her family really didn’t approve of them dating, so they stopped her while she was in college. So with that said, he dropped and got two jobs, at Kentucky Fried Church and Burger King, so he could pay her tuition. My grandmother is still very upset about that decision because he messed up his life for that girl. I think it’s a shame because it messed up my chances of having an interracial relationship that my family would support. I wouldn’t mind dating a latino or white girl, I want to try new things. I was never interested in white girls until I came to Penn State, then my eyes got opened. They’re everywhere you turn lol.

I think the lack of diversity at Penn State is a huge issue. Just looking at the statistics yesterday made me think. When the International population more than doubles the African- American and Hispanic population together, that’s sad. I really noticed how white Penn State was until yesterday. The lack of diversity can causes many problems, like racism and can also cause people to be in group. So when you see a person that looks at you on campus, we’ll say hi or what’s up, or shake their hand, just some form of communication. That’s why when the African- American have an event, like Meet the Greeks or a step show, or a party, you’ll see all of the black people come together. Also, sometimes people associate themselves with people as the same ethnicity because of the way that they’re brought up. Some people grow up in neighborhoods where their race is considered the majority or the domain race. So when people come to a University, like Penn State, they tend to just stay with their own kind, probably because they haven’t been exposed to anything else. I know it can be hard sometimes to talk to people of different race, because you don’t want to offend them in any way, you don’t know what their interest are, and you don’t know much about their culture. Racism can also play a part in why people are scared to break the color barrier. I went to a school for 9 years, kindergarten through 8th grade, which was 99% African-American, so everyone was comfortable with each other. But once I got to high school, I was considered part of the minority, and I wasn’t used to that. My high school was very diverse and we had a lot of cultures, ethnicities, and races. It felt weird to me at first and it took me some time to adjust to it. In the beginning, I would just always be around people who looked at me because that’s who I felt comfortable around. But after a while, I joined the football team and start meeting new people and getting to learn about different ethnicities, and it was cool. After a month or two in high school, I had friends of every kind of ethnic background. I was just so excited to learn new information and interesting facts about people. After awhile, I was considered white by my Caucasian friends. So the wide variety of culture at Penn State didn’t faze me at all. The main people I hang out with are Jewish, Russian, Italian, Indian, and Irish, I’m the only black guy out of the group, and I don’t mind. I still have friends, who look like me, but I’ve stepped outside the box, I just wish more people could do the same.

In order to save our scarce resources, I think we should go green and reduce the number of children people have. I know in China that there’s a limit on the number of children a couple can have, because their country is over-populated, and it works it for them, for the most part. I know a lot of people with more than 5 kids and they really can not take care of them. They use government money and use scarce resources like they are nothing. People don’t really realize how wasteful they are with certain things. They don’t really realize that we are close to global warming and our population is going to double some day! Another thing that people can do is go green. Going green is not just recycling, but a lot of other things too. Here are some examples we can switch all our lightbulbs to CFLs (or at least switch a few), switch one appliance to an energy efficient model. We can stop using disposable bags, buy some reusable bags, buy an inexpensive reusable water bottle, and stop buying plastic disposable bottles, wash laundry in cold water instead of hot, turn off lights when we leave the room or don’t turn on lights at all for as long as we can, open our curtains and enjoy natural light. We can drive the speed limit, and combine all our errands for the week in one trip or better yet, walk or ride a bike to our errands that are two miles or closer. We can turn off our computer completely at night. We can pay as many bills as possible online. We can reuse scrap paper. Conduct a quick energy audit of your home. Before buying anything new, first check your local Craigslist or Freecycle. Support local restaurants that use food derived less than 100 miles away, and learn more about the benefits of eating locally. We can line dry our laundry and lower the temperature on your hot water heater. Unplug unused chargers and appliances. Switch to shade-grown coffee with the “Fair Trade” label. Use cloth napkins daily instead of paper. Repurpose glass jars as leftover containers and bulk storage, especially in the kitchen. Five-minute showers – make it a goal for yourself. These are just a few things that I found on-line that I saw as helpful. There are a lot more actions that we can take to save our scarce resources. Following the steps that I’ve listed is easy, but it’s a little more expensive to do. But, what’s more important? Saving a few more dollars in your budget? Or saving future generations and making sure they live a healthy life because the decisions you’ve made? Think about it.

I was never really conscious when I choose my seat in my class. I sit with two of my floor mates most every day or when they decide to come to class, and one is Indian and the other is Jewish. And when they are not in class then I sit by myself and people chose to sit next to me if they want too. I don’t really have a problem sitting next to people that are of a different gender, race, ethnic background, etc. I don’t really hang around people that look like me on a daily basis. Most of my closest friends are white, Jewish, and Indian. I like being around people that are different from me. I like diversity and I like learning about different cultures and traditions. I think being around people that are the same as you is boring, you don’t learn anything new. Of course from time to time, I chill with them just so I can talk to people that can relate to me but it’s not an everyday thing. I think my like for diversity came from my high school. Like I said before, I went to a very diverse high school, well diverse for Philadelphia. The school was located in the middle of the city (Center City) so we had kids from over the city and even New Jersey attend. The school was like 60-65% white, but that isn’t bad for a Catholic school. Most of the colored community was in third track classes, and I was in first and second track so I can’t really be picky about whom I sat next to. And in most of my classes we had to sit in alphabetical order, by last name. So over the years, I’ve gotten used to being around different kinds of people and it transferred into college. I know some people who hate sitting next to people that they don’t know and they won’t sit next to people of color, especially if there’s a group of them. I think it’s because they lack social skills and they are being very racist. I’ve seen it done to me before. One day, I was sitting by myself and this white guy looked at the seat next to me, then looked at me and just left to find another seat. It might have been a coincidence, but I think he left because I was black and he was white. I’ve noticed a lot of racism at Penn State. I thought for a school that prides itself on diversity that it would less racism occurring. I’ve been a victim of obvious racism yet, I think it’s because of my size, but I’ve seen it done to some of my friends. I think the world should pass this racism stage, but I guess some things will never change.

I think more arrests occur to people of color due to racism and due to the fact that they’re more police in urban areas. It’s clear to see that racism is still alive in the world today. There are still people in this country and all over the world that have slaves and that view all black people as ignorant, dumb, and thugs. The common stereotype for a black male is mean, thuggish , dumb, ignorant, and a drug dealer or an athlete. I know people in my dorm hall that are openly racist. Last weekend, I went home and I heard he openly expressed his views on black people. When I came back to school I was told everything. Immediately, I got mad and extremely offended by the statements. I wanted to confront him but everyone was holding me back, because they knew I was going to hit him. If a 19 year old, white male, have these views on people of color then there’s no question that some white policemen also feel this way. It’s mentalities like this that makes the playing field unfair for people of color. Most perceive the common stereotype to be true with everyone and that’s far from true. I know a lot of people who break the “norm” for black males, I’m one of them. I come from a bad part of Philadelphia, but I’m very different from my peers. I know drug dealers, I know drug users, but I also know people who went to college and got away from that lifestyle. Where I’m from, there are always cops around there. They’re always trying to catch the drug dealers in the act. They randomly search people that are walking the down street. They target large groups of teenagers because they assume that they’re a flash mob. The police act nasty towards young people, but are nice towards older people and the one white family in the neighborhood. Cops only attack areas that are near “the projects”, like North Philly, South Philly, and West Philly. If was to travel up to Northeast Philly, you’ll barely see cops up there. Because them neighborhoods are mainly filled with white and rich families. Cops automatically assume that drug distribution and usage don’t occur up there, which isn’t true at all. I know a bunch of white kids from my high school that sold drugs, used drugs, drunk alcohol in public places, but they didn’t get in trouble because the cops was too bust in the urban areas. It’s obvious that racism and stereotypes are still alive and the neighborhood you live in can make the situation worse. Racism will continue to be a major problem in the world if people don’t change.

The choices that I’ve made and determinism affected my life in many ways. I’m going to start off with determinism. I’ve been through many encounters in my life that I had no control over. It all started on August 13, 1992, the day I was born. When I was born, I was a premature baby with many problems. Part of the problem was because of my mom. My mom tried to give birth two times before me, but they were unsuccessful. The doctors said it was almost possible for my mom to have kids because she had severe kidney problems and diabetes, but these problems didn’t stop her from trying. She wanted a kid so much, and her and my dad wouldn’t stop until it was successful. A couple of months later, they had me. I barely made it through alive, but I’m here today. I’m considered a miracle baby by most people. Two years later, my mom passed away from kidney failure. I never got a chance to really know my mom because I was so young when she passed away, but from what the stories that I’m told and the pictures that I’ve seen, she was an excellent mom. I always wish that I had the chance to really meet her and just have a one-on-one conversation with her. I hear stories all of the time about how we look just alike, we act just alike, we think the same way, etc. I just wish I had the opportunity to actually see it. After my mom passed, my dad kind of went into a bad direction. He was in and out of jail and he was so torn up inside over the death of my mom. I think she was his first true love and he couldn’t believe that she was gone. Due to that fact, my aunt (my dad’s sister) raised me. She raised me like I was her biological son for sixteen years. Until, she passed away in 2009 from cancerous tumors throughout her body. She always tried her best to give me everything I wanted. She sent me to Catholic School for twelve years straight, she made a lot of sacrifices for me and I really appreciated it. She’s didn’t have to do what she did but she did it out of the kindness of her. She was definitely my second mom. Most people aren’t fortunate enough to have one good mom, but I’ve had three great ones throughout my life, and without the wisdom and morals that they in stored I wouldn’t be the young man that I am today. I’ve had many problems with girls and friends that affected my life, but that was done through my own free will. You can’t control everyone’s actions, but you definitely can control your own.