July 6th, 2010 8:16 PM

It is crazy to think that I never really had any type of positive opinion about affirmative action, yet as you pointed out, I go to Penn State. Just the little bit of how you said it has impacted you in getting a job for the summer I could definitely relate to, yet never even considered comparing that to affirmative action. The networking opportunities that arise after attending Penn State are ridiculous and honestly not to use them is dumb, but it is just really crazy to think that two things are so completely similar but thought of in completely different ways.

July 6, 2010 8:00 PM

After listening to the lecture this week that fact that white women are the ones who are greatly affected by affirmative action really made me think. I had always been one to think that people of color were the ones who were helped most by it, but really stopping to think about it, affirmative action is helping out the majority of Americans. For example, there are more women than men in the United States, and there are more white women than colored women in the United States as well. The fact that the white women is the majority of the population in the United States makes me laugh since 10% of affirmative action is going to help the majority. Many people may argue that women’s wages are lower than a man’s even when they are performing the same job, with this being said I had another thought while listening to the lecture. My parent’s are in there fifty’s and right now my dad makes a lot more money than my mom. I think that this is true for a lot of people my age. Many years ago it was expected that the man be the main bread provider for the family and often expected that the woman stay home to raise the children. As we have seen in more recent years this expectation has started to go away. I feel that it is a lot more popular and often times expected for both parents to work in order to provide for their households. As of right now men are making more money than women because, perhaps…this is just a thought, because they have had longer, less interrupted careers than the typical woman. Since the expectation for women to be in the work force as well as their partner I am hoping that by the time I am my parent’s age, I am twenty right now, that women will be making the same as men or even more since technically there are more women in college right now than men which will hopefully lead to more women in the work force than men in the future. This is all just my ramblings so I honestly have no clue, but that’s just what I think may end up occurring. On another note, I never thought about how nepotism and affirmative action are actually so related. They essentially are the same thing it just doesn’t sound as much like a handout to me when you consider it in terms of nepotism. My dad always says with half sarcasm, “It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know.” I have found that to be true for my life as well. Many of my friends who have already graduated ended up getting jobs strictly because of someone having a connection.

July 4th, 2010 12:17 PM

While listening to this weeks lecture the way in which Sam made the comparison of an immigrant compared to a poor college roommate. I had never thought about immigrants in a way that hit close to home like that. Luckily my roommate is one of the wealthy people and it is incredibly easy to live with her because there is never an awkward moment with money. But his way of comparing it to a situation I have, having a roommate, was a great way to think about it. You want to have a roommate who is helpful to you, not one that is not, which is why people only yell at the immigrants when they aren’t helping us out. It is crazy to think how much business controls the immigration policy because it really shouldn’t be that way since the immigration policy affects everyone yet business is what dictates it. When Sam said, “Nobody wants poor people, and nobody wants strangers. Because strangers are odd” I couldn’t help but agree which makes me feel terrible, but in all honesty strangers are awkward. As I heard about the story of Congo and him biting the illegal immigrant and how an assemblyman sponsored “Congo’s bill” I was outraged. I couldn’t believe that they were willing to spare the dogs life and not really even care about the illegal immigrant who was attacked. Yes, they were giving him a nice sum of money but this assemblyman basically is saying that the dogs life is more important that the illegal immigrants, which is not right. The rant we saw throughout the lecture, I tried to tolerate, but the comments people wrote were sickening. I understand that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be here but if big business wants them here, they are going to be here. We can not fix this no matter what policies we put into place because the big businesses want them here in order to help them with their business. I have a tough time figuring out where I stand with this issue because I agree that they are illegal and shouldn’t be in the United States but if they aren’t going to ever leave then I just have to accept that. On top of that we were all immigrants at one point to the United States, that’s what makes us the “melting pot” that we are. On that note though it is true what the man in the video stated about how if there is an ex convict who travels across the border and I decide to hire him to help me he should be deported and I should be arrested. If these are our laws then we can’t throw them by the waste side just because business wants us to.

July 4th, 2010 12:16 PM

After reading your comment I felt like we were in the same boat. This issue happens to be one where I can never truly figure out where I stand. I found it especially interesting from hearing this issue from a business perspective because I too had never thought about it in that way. I also agree with how you stated that at one point many of our ancestors were doing the work that no one wanted to do and were looked down upon, but now they are just Americans. I don’t know if that will happen with the illegal immigrants we are dealing with now, but it will be exciting to see what time will tell.

June 30th, 2010 5:54 PM

I agree with you completely about how as people go to college their minds are much more open to multiculturalism. In the high school I attended I could literally count the number of black people on my hand. Not that I have any issues with anyone who is black, the area I grew up in just wasn’t very populated with black people. When I came to school here, even though many may not think that Penn State University is very diverse, I found it to be eye opening and a great opportunity to meet people I wouldn’t ordinarily interact with in my hometown.

June 30th, 2010 5:31 PM

After listening to this week’s lecture the LGBT Issues lecture stuck the most with me. I started to think about how ridiculous it is to claim that gay people flaunt their gayness. Not only are they just displaying affection in a way that is normal or comfortable to them but also they are also essentially doing the same thing as straight people. It is kind of outrageous for people to think that because they are straight everyone is supposed to be straight and if you are not you are not only choosing to be gay but you are also wrong in your “decision”. Another problem is when people say that you are choosing to be gay. I’m a straight person and my entire life I have known I was straight. I feel that if someone had the same feelings as me they wouldn’t choose to be gay because they wouldn’t be attracted to the opposite sex. If gay people grew up with the same mentality of having feeling for the same sex as I have had for the opposite sex then more than likely they knew of these feelings their whole life and would be hiding their true selves if they didn’t act on it. I will never be able to fully comprehend what being gay is like but if I can compare it to being straight it really isn’t a big deal. You fall in love with a person, what does it matter if that person happens to be the same sex as yourself. As Sam brought up in the lecture, businesses are on board with gay people and it’s only a matter of time that everyone will realize how irrelevant a person’s sexual orientation is to their personality and overall characteristics. Another point that Sam brought up in the lecture was that he found it ironic how people who have struggled with minority struggles, for example people of color, are not nearly as accepting to the gay community as they “should be”. I find it kind of ironic too. I’m not going to sit here being a white straight person and say that the two are similar and if you are a person of color you should be more accepting of gays because they are going through a similar struggle that you faced, because I can’t place myself in either one of your shoes. I do find it odd though that if you are familiar with someone constantly judging you based on a characteristic of yourself, why would you want to wish the same onto someone else? I will say that being a person who is white and straight and hasn’t had any major controversial issues that have “held me back” I am completely willing to accept anyone of a different sexual orientation because I feel that if people are willing to accept my decision to like men, I should be willing to accept and respect their liking to the same sex.

June 23rd, 2010 9:39 PM

I think you bring up a very interesting point about how racism in taught even if it is just by letting the girl know that what she said wasn’t appropriate. If we let our children grow up saying that black people are “dirty” without correcting them and then the black child teaches the white child that he or she really is not dirty, that is the color of his or her skin, I wonder how our attitudes would be changed. If instead of correcting our children for not being “politically correct” or “appropriate” we would let them handle these confrontations by themselves?

June 23rd 9:30 PM

After hearing this weeks lecture I was completely taken back by some of the topics that were brought up. I should have written down everything throughout both lectures that struck me, because there were so many, but I’ll just start where I remember. As Sam mentioned all of the cities and their population of different races and how depending on where you are coming from I thought back to last school year. In my class last year we were “forced” to do a race relations session for a grade. I went into it expecting it to be uncomfortable but I’m not someone who really shy’s away from speaking my mind so I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised. We were in a small room with about eight of us and we just started talking about random things that had to do with race. One of the questions that was given to us was if we thought, compared to where we came from, if Penn State University was diverse. To me Penn State is a lot more diverse than where I am from. Another person in my group was from Pittsburgh, which is where I am from, and I was expecting him to say something similar. He went on to tell me that it wasn’t at all diverse to where he was from. I was really confused and asked him where he lived in Pittsburgh and he told me he went to a city school. I live in a suburb about 10 minutes away from the city. Where I live it is mostly white, this made me really take a step back and realize that even if we live ten minutes away from one another we are living totally different lives and having totally different experiences. That’s really crazy to think about. Another idea I found interesting during this lecture was when the person in the classroom asked the question about how you can tell the difference about a black person being homophobic versus a black person being homophobic because of his culture. I find that ridiculous that a country could actually want to stone someone for being gay, but if you grow up in that type of environment you can’t really help but be shaped to think anything but that gays aren’t “right”…this is also outrageous that a country’s beliefs can be that personal. I never really noticed it until Sam brought it up but it does seem like there are a lot of black people who have a hard(er) time accepting gay people than other races. I find this interesting because of what he was saying in lecture about how they can want everyone to be accepting of them but then they go and turn around and discriminate towards a minority.

June 20th, 2010 6:45 PM

I find your post to be very interesting. I am a white person and to be completely honest before this class didn’t think about my race on a daily basis. I live in a mostly white area and just continued on with life not thinking about it. When Sam mentioned about how white people never really talk about their race I could relate a lot. While he said that we are given more opportunities because of our skin color I accepted that but thought about affirmative action, like you said. Then also thought that affirmative action doesn’t compare to the advantages we probably receive. I find it really hard to even express what I’m trying to say because I will never know what it’s like to not be white but to answer your question as to why we would even wonder about not having all of the privileges we have…to me it is because I want to understand. I want to be able to understand how well off I do have it, to appreciate it more and to understand that maybe my idea of how other races are truly affected is probably not right on. I want to be able to know if what my idea of being a black person and how black people are treated is accurate (I assume it isn’t) but I want to understand how another race lives in order to be able to just simply understand. I know this will never happen but even for example, if I had a black friend that I could ask literally every question that came into my mind without feeling as if I were being perceived as racist, as I do fear when I talk about race, I feel as if that would help me to gain a better understanding.

June 20th, 2010 11:38 AM

While listening to this weeks lecture as Sam began to tell everyone that white people don't talk about race because they don't want to be considered racist I found myself agreeing with him one hundred percent. I’ve realized that when I am around people who are a different race I find myself not behaving how I ordinarily would. Not that I speak of race often but while around people of a different race I try even harder to not talk about race at all. I could really relate to when he was talking about when students want to talk to his TA and you don’t know how to go about identifying which TA without using their race. I always feel as if I am offending them even though it’s just a physical feature I would otherwise, such as the guy with the blonde hair or brown hair. It’s very odd that we can refer to other physical features like hair color or eye color and no one thinks twice about it, but when we use the color of skin to describe someone it causes people to be uncomfortable. I like how it matters in which instance it is okay to use the description of race, if you are using their race in a derogatory way or when it has nothing to do with what you are trying to say it obviously makes sense that that is not okay. I have never felt guilty for being white, because I did not choose to be white so I don’t believe I have anything to be guilty for. I don’t know if maybe I feel this way because I am white and maybe I would have a different perspective if I were a different race. I have felt bad because of certain things that have happened in the past, but to be completely honest I don’t feel guilt. I was not the person who caused that to happen so I don’t know why I would feel guilty, which makes me wonder why we have to feel guilt in order to go through all of these stages. I hope I’m not sounding inconsiderate but that is just how I think about it. I don’t like that “you can never talk yourself out of being racist”. I hope that is not true. I feel that a lot of people are always looking for some reason to become angry with someone, no matter their race. I never knew that black people thought that white people smelled like wet dogs when we got rained on. I think that’s funny, I have never heard of that. Also I never knew that there were a lot of white people who didn’t use washcloths.