This is not anything to surprising to me. My best friend’s mother’s side of the family is Jewish. They are African Americana and believe they are the lost tribe of Israel. There are black Jewish people so that’s nothing that is to shocking. I guess it is surprising because the tribe was found in Zimbabwe but then that might make more sense to why we have black Jewish people living here in America. If they have such similarities to Jewish people they are most likely Jewish. It shows how much the world for the most part is really diverse with different cultures and religions being spread around the world.

That is crazy that this kind of thing is going on in the 21st century. How can you possibly ban someone from going to their prom because of their sexual preference? That is so wrong on all levels. I think the school needs to re evaluate and think what kind of image they are trying to have. How can they possibly tell this couple they can’t go to prom because they are lesbians who make these rules? Homosexuals are already going through enough and trying to fight for their rights and now you’re putting rules on high school students? Seems kind of backwards to me.

I don’t really see the problem with this. I feel like things might be more leveled and people of both minorities and whites will both be in control. Our president is white and black. I feel like there will be no major event where minorities will have the most power and whites will be under. We are supposed to be growing as a nation and finding hot to become one. Where not suppose to be worrying about who should be more powerful or not. On the list of the world wealthiest person the top 5 people are not all even whites which shows that minorities are doing what they have to do.

Although I believe that illegal immigrants are hard workers. I don’t believe that they should get free government services such as health care. They do need to pay taxes like everybody else so they can get health care and other services. It’s not fair that citizens and legal immigrants have to pay taxes but they are receiving the benefits of it. We do need sometime of change to regulate things and make things fair. I don’t know what type of system the government can come up with but one needs to be made up. They need to start regulating things. The illegal immigrants are basically stealing from those hard workers that do pay their taxes.

Having a lot of family and friends that are Nigerian I know that it can be pretty difficult for people to get their papers especially when money is in the picture. People need to learn that it is not that easy for people to get their papers. I don’t feel like illegal immigrants steal jobs from American citizens because most of the times they hold the jobs that American citizens don’t want to do. Illegal immigrants although it is wrong they are still hard workers and deserve the same respect any other hard worker gets. They should try and get their legal papers because at times they have the same benefits and opportunity that legal immigrants get.

When it comes to the topic of child slavery I am also clueless of what the second step might be. Most of my clothes are made in foreign countries and I’m sure they might be made by some form of modern day slavery or through sweat shops and it is WRONG on all levels but as an individual I don’t think there’s anything I can do that will make any type of impact on supporting these companies that make their clothes trough sweat shops. Growing up in the American society and not ever being aware of how most of our clothes are made its hard to just stop wearing these clothes cause it’s like where does that leave me.

I think the end goal is to be open minded and understanding about things we might not experience personally. Just because I might not go through something or experience it doesn’t mean I won’t be able to have an understanding or see where the next person is coming from. This is a very good question because we have been in class for a whole semester and the point is to leave being a little more open minded and understanding even if you don’t change your beliefs or morals. We are trying to make the next generation better and not worse than the generation we are in now. If people don’t start talking about these things and being aware then we will never break the cycle and history will keep repeating itself. Sometime we have to look at the bigger picture in life take off our shoes and put the shoes of other people on whether it is a black person, and Arab person etc. As educated students we have to learn how to start being open minded about certain situations and just take ourselves out the shell for a while add see where other people are coming from. When people start to do this I think the world will be a better place and there will be more of an understanding through cultures. We can fix the whole world and not everybody will ever be willing to conform to such ideas. Sometime you have to just sit back and listen without putting your opinions in and see where everybody else heads are and just listen. When people start to do that like Laurie said that light bulb on top or heads will light up. I don’t think I was an unreasonable person before this class and with certain topics Sam does bring up my little light bulb does light up and even though I might not have thought anything of a certain situation before I say to myself “wow that’s a good way to look at that situation” There isn’t an end goal for everybody per say. Every individual is different and everybody has a different time of when their light bulb my light up and some people’s light bulb might never light up. People have to reach that understanding by themselves as much as we can talk about race relations as long as the person is not willing to let go and understand they will never do it. Race relations want people to be able to be comfortable to talk about certain race problems without being scared or feeling guilty. Sometimes getting you light bulb to turn on might be hard depending on the circumstances someone might be in. People getting certain beliefs and morals engraved in them at young ages like Prussian Blue the twins that are white supremacist but have been brought up in that culture and they probably don’t even understand why they have those beliefs.

Although I understand why you may feel mandarin might not be a relevant language to learn. I have to disagree with you. The reason why they might want to start teaching children to speak mandarin in high school is the same reason why they teach high school student Spanish or French or Arabic. China and America have a lot of business that they do together. For someone who was trying to make a career in the business world might want to learn to speak mandarin so it can improve their communication skills when doing business. Certain languages are good to know in certain fields (although English is the most used language). I am a crime law & justice major and I want to work for the FBI and when I met a representative from the FBI they said learning Arabic might improve my chances of getting the job. A nurse living in NYC might want to learn Spanish so they can communicate with their patients who can’t speak English. I think learning a certain language depending on your field might be very handy.

I believe that some men do try to conform to what society perceives them to be. From the way they dress to the way they talk and even to the way they may treat women. In the African American society men who are mostly popular and the society I grew up in are always rappers or basketball players. I know too many black men that aspire to be rappers and basketball players without even thinking of getting the right education first. Even when it comes to the way they dress most of the fashion trends start with celebrities and then young men start to try and dress like this. I remember when I was growing up back in the Bronx guys caring about “being fresh” (having the brand name clothes). It had to be Jordan’s, Gucci’s and Prada’s on their feet. I think the only difference between the way men let society/media affect and the way women do is that women take it more serious because they want to be “beautiful and more accepted”

The play in class today was good. These are topics that a lot of females probably go through on a daily basis. When the question what does it mean to be a woman is asked? I answer there is no one response to this questions. All women are different in their own way. There is no one look, feature or anything to be considered a woman. Long hair, short hair, tall, short, these are all attributes of being a woman. But being a woman is different in different cultures across the nation. That’s a pretty difficult question to answer. I consider myself a woman because I am independent, I was born with breast and a vagina but there are so much more things deeper than that. Hollywood and the media don’t portray women the right way in most cases. I know in the black community women are portrayed to have wide hips and a big but and are most of the time thicker. And in the Hollywood community women are often slim, with nice long hair. Depending on the culture you are brought up in and the community you’re a raised in the way you maybe see the way a woman should look might be different. I think women all over the world need to learn that there is not a certain way all women should look. We have to love ourselves the way we are first before anybody will love us. Not everybody likes the look of the “ideal woman” whatever that look is suppose to look like. In Nigeria young ladies are often slimmer this is often a symbol that they are hard workers and their mothers are raising them well to become hard working women. When they become women they tend to get thicker which is a sign of wealth and success. Across different cultures women are portrayed differently. For the most part women in Nigeria are suppose to be the one who cook, cleans, raise the children and often don’t have a real career. Even though there are still women who don’t conform to this like mother who is a single mother making more money than my father will ever see. The media plays a great role in the way women are portrayed in American society though. Growing up as a child all my Barbie dolls were slim with longer hair and flashy clothes in there nice pink cars. Girls grow up wanting to be like the models they see on TV and in magazines. If people start telling their children about self love at a young age it might help them to learn how to be more confident in themselves. Women will always be beautiful in their own different ways.