When we discussed nepotism in class, we talked about how it lowers standards and takes away opportunities to those who may be more qualified to fill the job. I have to say that I partially agree with that. Nepotism is sort of a mirror to how our society works, but when it comes to whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, I have arguments on both sides of the spectrum because nothing, when it comes to ethics, is ever black and white; there is a huge gray area.
Nepotism offers a chance to those who are lucky enough to already have a foot in the door. Often these are already privileged people but we won’t dive in to that. These lucky people, with the skills that they already have get to fill a position that they were lucky to have special access to, as opposed to working hard and showing that they deserve the position. Let us not just assume that this “lucky person” has a low level of skill, because really you never know, but let us conclude that there may be someone else out there with better work ethic or more determination.
Nepotism shuts the door to the thousands of ideas and possible benefits that a new, and arbitrary candidates can offer to a company. It is often that the head of a company will give a job to his or her offspring in hopes that when it is time for the head of the company to retire, he can entrust his or her business to the person they know best. Obviously the flaw in this is that that person could very well not be cut out for job, and they only end up filling it because they wasn’t to “keep it in the family”.
But just to play devil’s advocate, I could argue that nepotism could essentially be harmless. There could be those odd times in which someone hires someone that they know, and coincidentally that person is what they are looking for. The only person fit to judge what is perfect for the position is someone who is hiring for that position.
Nepotism also cuts down the risk of hiring someone whose real personality comes out months into the job and he or she turns out to be a really crummy person. With nepotism, the person hiring for the position already has an idea of how the person works, and reacts in certain situations. It is disputable that this “lucky person” may not have all the necessary skills fit for the job, but his or her personality fits perfectly with the dynamic of the current staff, and with proper training and further experience this person can acquire those skills that he or she lack at the time of hiring.

Being that for most of my adult life I lived outside of Manhattan, I got to see the after effects of the September 11 attacks on the United States where it resided the most. Before that, I barely knew about the Islam religion or about terrorism, and suddenly, my 11-year-old self is being bombarded with correlations between Islam and terrorism. I saw with my own eyes, what this sentiment did to those young Muslim kids who barely knew what had just happened. Knowing that little kids are cruel and they don’t know the weight of their words, they picked on those kids who “looked like the bad guys on TV”.
I never knew what my stance was. I didn’t know if I should be patriotic and listen to what my country’s leader is saying or stick to my own roots. My mom’s sister married into Islam, her husband is Syrian, and for most of my childhood I was raised with my Muslim cousins and their family and I knew in my heart they weren’t the “bad guys”.
Years later, as an adult, I saw how this anti-Muslim sentiment was affecting my own family. My half Syrian cousin asked my mom if he could go with her to America and my Brazilian cousin responded saying “No, they’ll think you’re Osama’s son.” He was heartbroken, and even though he didn’t respond with any words, you could see it in his eyes how upset he was.
So I guess putting myself in a Middle Easterner’s shoes helped me find my stance on this war, but the shoes I placed myself in were 3 sizes too small and they belonged to Uziel Tauil.
I hate the fact that we’re in this war to begin with, and that the United States has lost reason for even being there. It sucks for our current president because he just walked in to a mess that he is trying to clean up without making an even bigger one. I think, as most people also do, that we are only still in this war for what benefits us, which is natural resources (aka OIL).
The United States needs to end its long history of having to go into war for the most miniscule reasons and giving the public reasons that do not make any sense. The citizens of this country are well aware of the motives behind this and it’s just about time that the United States came clean.

The class on the “needy” penis did not make me uncomfortable at all. On the contrary, I found it really insightful in how men and women interact through sex. I often have conversations with both my male and female friends about this topic and I was really excited that this topic came up. I was, however, really annoyed with the immature giggling because this is college and we should be able to discuss topics without acting like third graders.
On a lighter note, I was really excited that Sam and Laurie were so open about their relationship and shared their stories with us.
When I talk to my friends about the male and female dynamics we always talk about how it would be if the roles were reversed. Most of my male friends are reluctant about putting themselves in the shoes of a female.
It goes back to the conversation about how it’s a male centered world and how women are expected to succumb to the needs of the penis. During those conversations, we always end up discussing why the case is that the penis rules. We don’t ever come to the conclusion to why that is so.
I think that it’s really important that men begin to understand things from the perspective of a woman. Like the lecture said, having sex is a similar task for a man and a woman. However, how men and women get to that point or to that level is different and extremely complex.
I think, and this is probably just the fact that I’m a female, that men need to stop being selfish and needy, and realize all that women do (especially sexually) to satisfy them. It’s important for them to do able to do the same and realize, like we said in lecture, that it doesn’t stop when the guy is done.
But besides that, I’m currently reading a book in which all the men (except one) are hit with this unknown plague and they die, leaving the women to run everything that the men used, to. What is really interesting is that the book isn’t about how a women centered world is so much better in all sense. It actually does not differ from a world containing men. The only difference is the rubble and damage that happened when the men, who were pilots. drivers, etc… just suddenly died.
It really goes to show that everything stays the same regardless of the world being centered around a specific gender, what’s important is that both genders begin to explore and accept life through each other’s eyes.

I find this article to be incredibly interesting and to be honest I am not that surprised. As the years go on, we gather more knowledge about the world around us. Education is becoming more accessible around the world through conventional means of education or with efforts from people to educate those who cannot afford to go to school or whose government does not provide it. This accessibility of education allows for us to explore what lies beyond what our ancestors have passed down to us. Learning about such subjects as science helps develop in people the possibility of another means to the creation of Universe instead of the idea of a creator, or multiple creators.

I was raised in a very strict Roman Catholic household, like most South Americans, so the idea that God did not create the Universe was pure blasphemy in the opinion of my elders. I began to be cynical about religion right around the time that I moved to the United States. Before my arrival here, I knew absolutely nothing about other religions, I only knew that they merely existed and that they were off limits to me. Once I started to go to school in the US, I came across all different types of people and their religions and suddenly I began to question my own upbringing. I was taught to fear God, and to live by the Ten Commandments or else! I began to see the cracks and gaps in Christianity and wondered why I should continue to believe in something, I (or anyone else I knew for that matter) had never seen or experienced. I found that my prayers were never answered and those for whom I prayed, were still suffering.

As I became more educated in both science and the cultures around me, I began to shape my own belief. Much to my family’s disappointment, I started refusing to go church and only had my First Communion to shut my Grandmas up. Now, I am as unaffiliated as those 15% in the United States, according to the article. To this day, I am not sure if this “enlightenment” came about because I was exposed to so many different cultures in the United States, or if it was bound to happen as I grew into the person I am today.

Regardless, I think this is a great thing to be happening. In my opinion, religion was just formed to explain the unexplainable, to answer the questions that everyone asked but could not answer with the knowledge they had back then. I hope that one day the things we are taught by our religions become myths just as ancient beliefs have become myths to us, today.

I was really moved by the video, and was nearly to the point of tears. I could not help but to feel bad in a sense because the children are so innocent and already they are so prone and expose to the ugliness of differentiating race and skin color. Society has set this normalcy to white skin and from such a young age, children are already making the association. This will only lead to the insecurity that brown and black children deal with everyday.
I think that it affected me so much because I’m mixed and from a really young age I wanted to have really light skin and blue eyes because I thought that that was the desirable look. I would say that my skin and features are a good mix between white features and black features, except I have really curly, kinky hair. I grew up as a child with the same insecurities and uncertainties as the children in the video, which it probably the root of why I was so sensitive to it.
My brother on the other hand, looks darker than I do but we mainly have the same facial features. He went to a predominantly white elementary school in the United States (I attended elementary school in Brazil) and the other children, from as early as kindergarten, would pick on him for his “chocolate face” or his “dirty skin.” This is another reason why I was touched by the video; my brother means absolutely the world to me and to have him be belittled like that when he was so young, is really the saddest thing.
Some of that insecurity can come from parents. My mom also gave me a lot of unnecessary stress about my hair, when she had dark skin but soft wavy hair. Everyone always got on my case and laughed at me for having “black” hair but lighter skin. For the sake of the children, we need to stark making a revolution. Whether you are white, black, brown, or whatever, we need to start making our children feel like they are beautiful just the way that they are. We should start integrating all different types of dolls into their toy collection so that they start learning, from a really young age, that there is no “nice” or “good” dolls—just dolls that are all sorts of colors and all fun to play with.

I think I agree with Sam when it comes to this topic. When he was asked this question, he explained that it is way easier for a black or brown person so play the card of being discriminated against, and maybe try to put the fault of their shortcomings on society, or the fact that they are black or brown. When it comes to white people, it is not as easy to say that they did not get a job “because they were white” or because society just favors people of another color.
I am a Latina, and my entire family is of Latin descent and as “brown” people I will admit that we, as in my family at least, sometimes but the blame on society or on “white people”. I know this is definitely ignorant, I will not deny that, but it’s a mindset that our culture has adopted, in a sense, when we moved to the United States. In our native country there was no “white” person putting us down, if we were poor, we were poor and that was it. However, living in American provided us with a scapegoat. It’s sad to think that sometimes we cannot just admit our own mishaps or shortcomings, but we rely on this “inequality” crutch.
I cannot personally speak from a “white” perspective, obviously. However, after watching the video about Tammy, I saw how it was easier for her to admit it and just accept her poverty than express how unfortunate it is. She was in a sense proud of herself for living in the conditions that she lives in currently. She talked about how her father was poor and that was just how her family was, and that if he were to see her now, he would be proud about the fact that she is at least trying. In addition to that, she said she refused to accept welfare. This proves even more the whole “pride” factor, as in she would rather live in poverty and be proud than accept help for her condition.
Unfortunately, the public perception is that white people are on top and the minority is on the bottom. If a white person is at the bottom of the ladder, then sometimes it is looked as if something is not right. How often do you hear or see a white person saying that they’re poor because they’re white? This is sad, but unfortunately true.

This is a really tough question to answer seeing as that both sides of the argument has some really good points to think about. The reason we can’t live to just live like the monkeys and other animals do, is the simple fact that we have a conscience. Conscience is the driving force behind all the marvels and discoveries we have made so far as long we have known to exist. It’s the fact that we can think about all these different aspects of life and try to make sense of it that we interact the way do; that we do the things we do. Conscience makes us fear the unknown and drives us to invent all these gadgets to discover all that is unknown to us. As monkeys, the only thing you’re worried about is finding food and reproducing. However, as “humans” we worry about how well we are living, how great our food can be and how good we look in order to find a “soulmate”. Those worries are the reason we find new ways to dress, new products to put in our hair, new chemicals to put on our faces and bodies. If we were to be living like monkeys we would wear no clothes, eat whatever we find and most likely never shower.
Even though conscience is what has brought us as a civilization to build, invent and discover so many things, it has also brought us a whole word of hate, anger and fear. We think so much about what others think that we push and push to be the best. We begin, like the video said, to worry about what is going to happen to us once we die and what we can to do now to ensure that whatever is after this short life of ours is paradise. We create gods, and then fight over whose god is better and if there is no agreement, hate is born. Conscience drives us to fear and eventually hate all that is opposite or strange to us.
In my opinion, I would love to live like a monkey. I can perfectly do without all these marvels and discoveries we have made for ourselves. I will never exactly know what goes on inside the mind of a monkey, but it seems to me that they are doing way better than us. Without this “conscience” I would spend my days going from tree to tree searching for bananas (but maybe that is a bit of a stereotype against monkeys, maybe they do not ALL eat bananas), and picking fleas out of my offspring’s fur. But you never know, monkeys may have all the same worries that fill our minds. They may feel alone and hate all the monkeys that don’t think that the god of the bananas is the best god ever.

In regards to political correctness, the whole necessity of it, in my opinion, comes from how afraid we are of and careful about expressing our true opinions. In order to not be seen as “ignorant” or “racist” we use political correctness so that we’re satisfying everyone’s preference. While I think we should not go out in to the world with the intentions of not caring one bit about the words that come out of our mouths, we should not be afraid of expressing what we are thinking about.
If we are not shy about what it is that we are thinking or believing, it can maybe lead to a fruitful discussion. If we are lucky enough to be in a conversation with someone that is open-minded and not afraid to speak their mind (which is rare these days), we can learn from their point of view and they can learn from ours. Expressing our thoughts without censoring them with political correctness is risky, I will not deny, but it is the only way that a conversation can ever sprout. How are we supposed to get to the bottom of the race issue that we discuss every day in class if we continue to “watch what we say”?
I am, in a sense, glad that we have eliminated political correctness from our discussion groups. This whole SOC 119 experience is supposed to shock us, infuriate us, enlighten us, and maybe offend us, but that is exactly what racial relations do. In order to discuss issues and maybe solve them, it is necessary that we put everything out on the table. These can be “racist” or “ignorant” comments that may offend people, but hopefully we can get to why those comments or beliefs affect us so much and hopefully, we can get to how we can go about eliminating that “racism” or “ignorance”.
I do not mean to advocate that we should strive everyday to say what comes to us and not care that it offends someone. I just mean that we do not have to always make everything so vague that it can apply to anything and anyone. If I am not being politically correct and I offend someone, I would hope that that person speaks up and tells me so that I can learn and tangibly see how my beliefs and thoughts can affect someone. I would love to have a conversation with someone about it and hear his or her side of the story. This is the only way we can learn hands on. There is no way that a healthy (or maybe unhealthy) conversation can start if we “sugar coat” everything. There needs to be some kind of “shock factor”.

When it comes to identifying and describing my race, I am always so incredibly unsure what to say. I was born in Brazil where the issue of race, skin color, racial characteristics and such was seldom a topic that I heard being discussed as I was growing up. My maternal grandmother is of Italian descent and my maternal grandfather descended from African slaves. My father’s traces back to Spain, I would assume, due to my last name, Garcia. When I came to the United States, the closest thing I could connect to was being Latina, so I have stuck to that ever since. There are numerous differences between Brazil and other countries in Latin America, but when I fill out a form there is no “Brazilian” option. So let me create my own Brazilian race for the sake of this question, and to characterize us Brazilians.
Personality-wise, Brazilians love to dance, to party and to have a good time. We love music and television. We enjoy home-cooked meals and we center most of our lives on family. It is completely normal for a son or daughter to live with their mother or father for most of their lives. We are loud, and not ashamed of what we are, it’s something all of us learn, no matter your skin color. For the most part we are very religious, be it Catholicism or Christianity. Those are the nice things. In all honesty, some (KEY WORD: “SOME”) Brazilians are too lazy to make something of their lives, and chose corruption and delinquency over hard work. The poor youth gets sucked into selling drugs and pick pocketing to make enough money to feed their family. Once they see the money flowing in, they no longer feel the need for education and stop going to school. Unfortunately, many Brazilians believe that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
When it comes to physical characteristics, Brazilians come in all shapes and sizes. In the north of the country, which is closest to the Equators, you see a lot of people whose ancestry is from African slaves as well as Native Brazilians. Obviously in the Amazon, the majority of the people are either Native Brazilians or Native blood mixed with other blood. As you travel towards the south, the skin color becomes lighter as the average temperature drops. In the South of Brazil, there is a huge amount of Brazilian whose bloodline traces directly back to Germany. Even the city where they all live looks like it belongs in Germany. There are people of Japanese decent as well, especially in big cities like Sao Paulo. There are people with dark hair, light hair, red hair, curly hair, straight hair, kinked hair; all the above.

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