Overall, my opinion on illegal immigration has changed due to the fact I did not know much about it to begin with so what I learned has definitely shaped my opinion. My dad had always told me to not be against illegal immigrants. They come here and work for a ridiculously low amount just in order to make a better life for their families. They are really proactive, respectful people, and as Sam said, no illegal immigrant is lazy. They do not have the luxury to make as much as Americans do which is why even the littlest pay (or what we consider to be the littlest pay) they will gladly accept. All they want is for their families to be able to have a better life and I think that is what the most of us would want out of life. I used to work as a waitress a lot and it seemed that every dishwasher in every restaurant I worked at was in illegal immigrant. They would ride their bikes to work but they were always highly respectful and kind to me and the other workers and never got into trouble because obviously they would be deported back if arrested. When I look back I remember all of them being such hard workers, one of the first employees to be there and always the last to leave. It is inspiring to see the work ethic that they carry day in and day out. We as Americans truly take so much that we have for granted and it is a shame that we treat illegal immigrants with such hostility and disrespect. We pride ourselves on being the melting pot but then if something Is not benefiting us in every aspect we have a fit. I always thought that illegal immigration was a huge conspiracy by the government. We are the richest country in the world but we can’t find the money to build better walls to ensure not illegal crossing? It did not make much sense to me, however, it began to seem like I was somewhat correct when we learned how business plays a huge role in the determination of illegal immigrants’ status. I think it is pretty disheartening, but not surprising, to hear that business interests more than anything shape our immigration policy. Whenever business needs more workers they go to the government to get policies to allow more immigrants for cheap labor but once they have an abundance of workers and the economy is better they make immigration harder. No one wants poor people unless we need their labor. Illegal immigrants are undocumented so of course we want this because then they can be paid the least amount possible. This just shows the greed that Americans are fueled by. We do not want illegal immigrants to have any rights, however, they are expected to keep our business’ prospering.

I was surprised when Sam played this video in class because Dave Matthews used to be one of my favorite bands growing up and I did not see how he could tie it into and relate it to class. The most ironic part is I never knew what the song was truly about. This alone shows that America does not acknowledge the current state of Native Americans or hold in our consciousness what we have done to them. Native Americans came to America first before we were ever here. Then we came and slaughtered their race with no remorse. Everyone agrees that the Holocaust was a horrible occurrence in history but then at the same time do not even take into the account the genocide that we took part in on the indigenous people of America. We not only killed the Native Americans for their land but then continued to persecute them throughout history and even have the audacity to continue to still persecute them today. Dave Matthews’ song really is put into perspective when acknowledging the context. I think the reason I never realized what it was about previously was due to the fact we are not taught about what we did to the Native Americans, at least not in depth. America likes to point the finger but then when the blame is on us we go into hiding and do not care to take the blame. I think Dave’s song is the American people talking to the Native American people. “What were you expecting, no room for both” is insinuating the arrogance Americans have assuming that we expect and deserve their rightful land. We do not care if it was theirs because it is ours now. This is ironic considering America prides itself on being “land of the free, home of the brave.” We have a “this land was made for only us” attitude and we feel like we are obligated to getting what we want but if anyone ever tried to take something from us we would refuse to stand for it. “Your land is gone and given me and here I will spread my wings” is a reference to the fact that we stole their land and we will prosper and have our “American” dream regardless if it means that we have to kill their dream in the process. “What this you say you feel a right to remain then stay and I will bury you” is pertaining to the fact that Native Americans feel they have the right to stay considering they were on the land first but Americans will make sure to hush their voice because we’re the majority and they are the minority. We will make sure to use our power to shut them up. Dave Matthew’s song now will make me think twice whenever I listen to it and tell people in actuality what the lyrics are really about.

I’m pretty surprised by some of the comments on here that some white girls would “never” date a black guy. Although I never have dated a black guy, this by no reason means I never would. I really do not see how a white girl stating that she would never date a black guy is not racism. The truth is you cannot help who you fall in love with and why should this truth stay confined within race? Love is blind but most people forget this, hence why America’s divorce rate is so ridiculously high. Although a black man and white woman may not be able to relate on race, there are many different levels and aspects that go beyond the color of one’s skin. To not acknowledge this is completely and utterly ridiculous. I really do believe in getting to know people before labeling, judging, and automatically riding them off due to preconceived notions. There are so many more important qualities to take into account about your significant other than race. Race should never be the determining factor. A man is a man for how he treats a woman and I feel bad for people who do not see this because they could be passing by the love of their love based solely on the fact they do not have the same color skin. My dad’s best friend is black and he quickly turned into a second father figure and best friend of mine so I learned at a young age that discrimination is wrong. I do think this has helped me in many ways grow as a person and open up my mind because I know many white girls who will not date outside their race due to the fact their parent’s would never have it, which is completely wrong and fucked up on the parent’s part in my opinion. My parents would never confine me to only falling in love with white people because they realize how wrong, stereotypical, and judgmental this is. It is pretty pathetic that people think skin color reflects character. It’s 2011 here people, time to open our eyes to the actual truth. I will say, however, that I have noticed that many black women do have a problem when a black man and white woman are romantically involved. This would not be a deterrent for me though because there are also white people who think this is wrong and I would be dating him for me, not for everyone else. People care way too much what people think. Although I have never actually dated a black guy, I have been attracted to black guys so it could be possible in the future. I will always keep my mind open to all races when it comes to love.

Although I enjoy a majority of Sam’s lectures, I can agree that this “Christian Invaders” lecture was one of my favorites so far. I think that Sam made a point to say this was his best lecture of the year due to the fact he made the class specifically look at issues stemming from the American vs. Muslim conflicts from the Muslim perspective, which I guarantee a majority of people have never done. Many of Sam’s points resonated with me and demonstrated views that I never took into consideration considering this was the first time I when I took a clear look at the world from a Middle Eastern person’s eyes. In many ways, they have the same ideals as Americans and want all the same things we do. To be happy, respected, have the freedom to practice a religion of their choosing, to have a family, to enjoy a good life. It is easy for us to stereotype all Muslims as the radical suicide bombers and of course it is not difficult to fear these fanatics. But we do not come to terms with the fact that these are the extremists of Islam, not the common person. If anything, the common person is justified in fearing Americans. Looking from the common person’s perspective, many of them have seen war all their lives; war in their country over their resource. Wars going on in their land for their oil killing their people, this is something Americans could not even fathom and most of the time do not even care to acknowledge. The United States has developed its whole economy on their resource. It is beyond clear that the Iraq War is about oil. The U.S. is dependant on foreign oil by the sheer fact that our largest reserves in ANWR comprises only about 43 days worth of oil. But America tries to hide the fact that that is the reason why we are there. In our eyes we justify being there because of “radical” ideas, when in actuality these threats are miniscule compared to the majority of the Islam population. When viewing America it becomes evident that we are a Christian nation. George Bush and President Obama are both Christians and although we’re obviously made up of many different kinds of religions, this is what the majority of citizens practice. So it wouldn’t be too far to conclude that Muslims believe that Christians are after their oil, considering we are in retrospect. Our majority is after their country’s resource where their minority (radicals) are after our majority (America and our freedom). Taking this into consideration it seems as if their assumptions are just and ours are merely stereotypical reactions to our unfair taking and exploitation of their natural resource. Americans seem to have a much different take and refuse to see the blatant, ugly truths amongst the bullshit justifications.

Previous to the lecture I acknowledged the fact that it’s must easier being a guy than a girl, in the dressing up sense at least, after countless times of getting ready, doing my make up, and wearing heels and uncomfortable clothes. I always thought it was unfair and have made comments like, “it’s so much easier to just be a dude.” But that’s really as far as I got. I acknowledged that the difference appeared to be pretty extreme but never really thought or got into why this is. Therefore, after the lecture, I was able to really think about why things are the way that they are. It became clearly evident to me that not only is male the standard in daily life, but men are even the sexual standard. Guys have truly done a great job of getting women to believe this is the way they are supposed to act and dress, if they want to get a man at least. This sexual male driven society become more and more obvious when viewing media. Women are portrayed as having to be “perfect.” In TV shows they are always dolled up and made to look the part. Shows like King of Queens portray a very good-looking young woman with a fat husband. Although this is fine, do we ever see the opposite? The day that a good-looking man was with a fat woman would be the day that pigs fly. Men expect it all without giving anything in return. Magazines directed at men are purely superficial like Playboy while even magazines directed at women like Cosmo “teach” a girl the appropriate way to be (we’re expected to wear heels on a boat in bikinis, duh!). It seems like younger and younger now girls are dressing to impress boys. Even porn portrays how women are expected to be sexually, always ready and willing with no questions, oh and let’s not forget wearing ridiculously revealing lingerie with heels. But no one thinks about the fact that porn is made BY men FOR men. I didn’t even think of this until this was brought up in class. No wonder why men do not know what women really want as it appears they don’t really care, as long as their satisfied, who cares what women want right? I say wrong. It was amazing to be to find out that 70% of men climax during sex and only 35% of women do. Where did we go wrong here people? Women get the brunt of it all. We have to wear uncomfortable, ridiculous clothes to impress the men that aren’t even concerned with our satisfaction. This seems more than unfair. Women are automatically wrong when they don’t want to have sex when no wonder we don’t want to. It is time for women to take the step towards sticking up for ourselves. When we’re called needy, let’s remember how needy the penis is.

I think that the messages that teach kids of all colors and socioeconomic classes that dark skin is bad and light skin is good is a very complicated answers that has various different reasons behind it that are not easily definable. This is probably why they still exist as a whole due to the fact it is not easy to define and people do not exactly know the answer. Although some reasons may be more obvious than others, there is definitely underlying issues that are harder to acknowledge when they are subconscious. A lot of it does have to do with the media and what is portrayed to the public as good and bad; however, the media is the easiest to point our fingers at when in actuality there are many other contributing factors. As we were talking about in class, many Disney films, cartoons, and even toys did not have minority characters portrayed in general. The Disney princess has never even been black until fairly recently. It is really sad and troubling for me to comprehend that a majority of the black kids in the video we watched in class chose the white doll as being “good.” They have to be getting this message from somewhere and there is no denying that. Media is obviously where the general public hears about their information so this is the obvious choice. But what other reasons could there be behind this? I feel like a lot of it also has to do with how one is raised by their family as well as their environment and surrounding influences. Many older people have seen first hand the prejudice and discrimination that has gone on in this country, which is why many minority grandparents think it is better to be as “white” as possible whether that mean skin wise, hair wise, or just overall look in general. The sad thing is, we have learned in class about the privilege of “whiteness” which is why it must be hard to completely embrace one’s different roots and culture. In America everyone wants to be “normal” and fit in as much as possible so they can be treated the way that anyone deserves to be; as an individual that is judged for their character. Especially being a minority in a predominately white area, the distinctions become more noticeable. It also does not help that people continually enforce stereotypes like black people are “ghetto” and get in more trouble and white people are goody two shoes that are soft. Stereotypes and prejudices amongst us everyday are a major issue because they can become accepted as the truth, especially on young impressionable minds that do not know any better. These messages are very complex issues that really need to start to be talked about and addressed in order to make sure they won’t exist and hurt people.

I think that the messages that teach kids of all colors and socioeconomic classes that dark skin is bad and light skin is good is a very complicated answers that has various different reasons behind it that are not easily definable. This is probably why they still exist as a whole due to the fact it is not easy to define and people do not exactly know the answer. Although some reasons may be more obvious than others, there is definitely underlying issues that are harder to acknowledge when they are subconscious. A lot of it does have to do with the media and what is portrayed to the public as good and bad; however, the media is the easiest to point our fingers at when in actuality there are many other contributing factors. As we were talking about in class, many Disney films, cartoons, and even toys did not have minority characters portrayed in general. The Disney princess has never even been black until fairly recently. It is really sad and troubling for me to comprehend that a majority of the black kids in the video we watched in class chose the white doll as being “good.” They have to be getting this message from somewhere and there is no denying that. Media is obviously where the general public hears about their information so this is the obvious choice. But what other reasons could there be behind this? I feel like a lot of it also has to do with how one is raised by their family as well as their environment and surrounding influences. Many older people have seen first hand the prejudice and discrimination that has gone on in this country, which is why many minority grandparents think it is better to be as “white” as possible whether that mean skin wise, hair wise, or just overall look in general. The sad thing is, we have learned in class about the privilege of “whiteness” which is why it must be hard to completely embrace one’s different roots and culture. In America everyone wants to be “normal” and fit in as much as possible so they can be treated the way that anyone deserves to be; as an individual that is judged for their character. Especially being a minority in a predominately white area, the distinctions become more noticeable. It also does not help that people continually enforce stereotypes like black people are “ghetto” and get in more trouble and white people are goody two shoes that are soft. Stereotypes and prejudices amongst us everyday are a major issue because they can become accepted as the truth, especially on young impressionable minds that do not know any better. These messages are very complex issues that really need to start to be talked about and addressed in order to make sure they won’t exist and hurt people.

I found this topic extremely interesting as soon as I saw: “The Lottery: A Blessing or a curse?” I started to ponder ways of how the lottery would ever be considered a curse to somebody. Sam’s description along with the article brought up various legitimate points. Everyone, including myself, tends to associate the lottery with automatic happiness and positive feelings. However, I have never thought about the fact that it truly is difficult to transition from one social system to another. Each social system is different and everyone behaves, thinks, and feels pertaining the social system they live in. Transitioning could not be close to easy because everything you know and live by is going to change. It is simple for people to grasp and acknowledge that it must be difficult going from one day being wealthy to the next day being poor. It would be difficult because one would be used to things one way and then have to change their whole lives and have everything they’re used to taken away. It is obvious this transition would be hard although it would be conquerable once one began to adjust. But, people don’t realize that in one day turning from poor to wealthy can be just as hard; changing social classes so quickly would be a huge adjustment altogether. It is automatic for us to think that it would be simpler going from poor to rich because it is everyone’s dream to be rich and a lot of people equate money with happiness. Indeed, for someone who is struggling to make it by through life would have a lot of stress off their back once they didn’t have to live day by day. But at the same time there also appears to be a lot of proof that the lottery does not always guarantee happiness, which in turn proves that money does not guarantee happiness. I agree with Sam that this is a sociological and psychological concept that many people could stand to learn because many people lose sight of what is truly important in life. Many people’s lives have gone worse when winning the lottery. It’s interesting to think of these things that could go worse in our lives that we never think about it when buying those couple dollar lottery tickets. Lottery tickets are sensationalized but in reality everything of what you used to know could change in negative aspects. I never thought about such devastating consequences such as friends and family turning on me or people acting different towards me now just because I had money that they didn’t. People’s true colors and greed come out when a large sum of money is involved and that alone would be a hard fact to swallow. Maybe people should learn to be content with what they have before they wish it away and do not have the chance to ever get it back.

I am surprised by the fact that as we get more education people believe that success is mostly a result of hard work because I would think with more education people would acknowledge the “king of the mountain” theory and this would sway them to realize success is not just mostly a result of hard work. More educated people to me means more understanding and tolerant from the mere fact that it really does make a difference how you are brought up and the environment you were exposed to on a daily basis. Educated people need to acknowledge that selfishness and greed is why the world is so corrupt.
But getting to the real question of why with more education people believe that success is mostly a result of hard work, I believe there are several different factors. I definitely agree with Lana that people were taught at a young age that you have to work hard to be on top. It is constantly drilled into our heads by our parents, teachers, coaches, and surrounding community that hard work pays off and nobody likes a slacker. This is not a secret. When we are young we have impressionable minds and believe what our elders tell us. On top of that, when it is told to people at such a young age and then repeatedly throughout our lives, that is a long time of believing the same thing; the longer you believe something, the harder it is to change one’s mind. This is why people don’t even attempt to change the minds of the elderly and just let them do their own thing or use the excuse, “It’s okay their old” if they do something politically incorrect. Then also adding on the factor that the younger people are, we obviously are not introduced to the concept of the king of the mountain and since there is no experience to register with that we go back to what we know which is what we are told consistently.
Furthermore, I think that another contributing attribute to this notion is because the people who have the chance to get the most educated, rich white men in retrospect, do not want to believe that their success came from nothing other than their own hard work and determination. Upbringing, your parent’s income, and your overall environment are huge determining reasons to one’s success besides just working hard but these are overlooked because people do not want to acknowledge that things are unfair, they would rather turn one cheek and accept that this is the way things are. The fact is that minorities do have less overall opportunity so hard work is not always the only determining factor to becoming successful; not everyone has that luxury.

I thought Sam’s lecture on “welfare” was extremely interesting and enlightening. Most people when asked what they think about when they hear “welfare” is poor people. I used to be one of them, when in fact is not even the case. In actuality rich people take welfare too. However, for some reason a majority of people automatically point at the poor. This is a huge misconception and stereotype. Farm subsidies topped 15.4 billion last year; cotton 2.27 million alone. Many people who have welfare are not poor and the best example of this if corporate welfare. Corporations receive the lion’s share of welfare tax subsidies. It is really scary to acknowledge the corporate power structure for what it really is. Welfare is not really what people perceive it to be. Nobody thinks of “wealthfare” when asked about welfare because people refuse to see the truth. It’s extremely odd that the average American holds so much disdain for the poor. They want to think welfare is helping only the poor people and then in turn make fun of the poor people for collecting the checks and being “lazy.” It’s so easy to scrutinize the motivations of the poor because it is easy to point the finger and people who are beneath you. It appears that if we are scrutinizing the poor at such a level then it would only make sense for us to scrutinize everyone on welfare, including the ones at the top end of the socioeconomic ladder. No one wants to call out the people on top because wealthier people are looked at as successful in our society, and we don’t scrutinize people who have “made it.” This same theory can be compared to people who get mad that legal immigrants don’t “learn English already” because “this is America after all.” Instead of people being progressive and productive with an educated opinion, they immediately point the finger. It seems more than obvious that anyone immigrating to a foreign country would try and keep their culture alive and be who they really are while teaching their kids what they learned growing up. This is mere human nature and anyone in a relatable position would want the same. People choose to be ignorant because ignorant is easy. We won’t acknowledge corporations taking a bulk of the welfare money and the ironic part is they do not truly care about the American people; they care about making their next dollar. Corporations already own most of the media, which is scary enough because they control the information flow that we view. It’s obvious by the picture alone, corporations do not care about anything but their image and making their company bigger, better, and richer. Next time I hear “welfare” I am more than definitely going to think of “wealthfare.”