I really enjoyed the class when we talked about being gay and the way people react to it. I think environmental factors may have a lot to do with if a guy or girl would feel comfortable coming out of the closet. Admitting you’re gay, I would imagine being one of the hardest things you would do in your life. If your parents are religious I would think a person would have a harder coming out to their parents. But if the parents seem to be more accepting in general of gay people, the kids would most likely feel more comfortable coming out. I feel like this goes with anything. You would never admit a personal secret about yourself unless you thought the people around you were accepting to the secret.
On the debate whether you are born gay or make the choice to be gay. I think it could be both. You could be born gay and you know it in your heart that you don’t like the opposite sex. The kids in class who identified as gay said they knew when they were around the ages of 9 to 13 when the realized it, but it took so many more years before they admitted it to their parents and friends. I also think that you could choose to be gay. Straight women who have been raped turn to be a lesbian because they no longer trust men, which would make it a choice to be gay. May be the women choose to identify as gay because they enjoy the company of women more, but aren’t really into the whole sexual part of being gay. There is no real way to tell whether a person chooses to be gay or is born that way.
Regardless if the person is born that way or chooses to be gay, I think, as a society we need to be more accepting to the gay community. When Sam did the PDA demonstration with the three heterosexual couples and the one lesbian couple, the couple that made me the most uncomfortable was the couple who was practically having sex in front of the class. People who live their lives word for word from the Bible need to get their head out of their asses and realize that times have changed. Just because a person chooses to be with another person of the same sex doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the same opportunity to be happy. I believe over time this will begin to change more drastically because before it wasn’t socially acceptable for people of different races to date or get married. This has certainly changed over the years. I just want gay people to have the same rights as we do to get married and have a real chance to be happy.

I don’t think I’d be able to stay silent. I know the people in the video were paid actors and actresses but I was getting extremely mad as I was watching the video. The things that the guy was saying were so ignorant. The Muslim woman was clearly an American. She had no accent in anyway. The video shows how racist and ignorant Americans have come since September 11th. We have this fear of Muslims. I believe it is really stupid. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Out of all the Muslims to be afraid, I believe women are the least intimidating. This maybe a little stereotypical, but the woman in the video seemed so harmless. All she wanted was an apple strudel. The people in the video that went along with the way the guy was treating the Muslim women were absolutely ridiculous. People need to realize that not all Muslims are terrorists and want to blow up our country. In the south especially, they have all these stereotypes for people and no flexibility to change them. They think one way and that’s it. I’ll admit that I thought this way for awhile, that all Muslims were bad. Then I came to Penn State and met some Muslims. They were just here for a better education and life. They were completely harmless. I also went to a World in Conversation meeting with the West Meets Middle East, which changed my opinion even more. The guys I was speaking with came to America with their own stereotypes of us, and their opinions have changed as they have been living here. And my opinion has certainly changed as I learned that these guys tried new things to try to fit in with our culture as best as they could. We as Americans expect people migrating to this country to do everything possible to blend in with us, but we should really learn things about other people’s cultures as well. We are people with generally one mind set and if you don’t fit into, then we believe you don’t belong here. If I was standing in the store and that guy from the video would have said something to the Muslim women I would have said something to him. I’m not exactly sure because I’ve never been in that situation, but there is no way I would have stayed silent. In my mind I would like to believe that I would have defended that she was an American even though she was wearing the thing around her head. (I can’t think of the word right now). I know I would have definitely left and told I would not return to give him my business. I really just don’t know how I would exactly act, but I would try to defend the Muslim woman.

In some extent it’s not that women have no respect for themselves, it’s that we have different culture norms. It’s normal for us to show a little skin now and then. For Arab women it’s not. I feel like its more women wanting to feel sexy or confident. For Muslims, it’s almost as if it’s a sin to show their hair or so much of their body. It’s comparing apples to oranges. I know when I get dressed up to go out; I’m doing it because I like to look good. If I get hit on at the bar or something of that nature, it’s just adds to it because I’m certain I do in fact look good. But at the same time, I feel many girls with low self esteem do dress a certain way just so guys will look at them and give them complements. I guess I’m contradicting myself in some way. It depends what perspective you look at the style of dress for women to determine if it is a male dominated culture. The word slut is thrown around all too often. Guys want us to be sexy and the girls call other girls sluts. I think I’m confused about how I actually feel about this topic. I don’t really know. I feel like Muslim women judge us because they have a completely different set of culture norms and vice versa. We don’t really know how the other women feel and the only way to know that would be to spend some time in each other’s shoes.

When mostly white schools don’t have metal detectors and Hispanics or black schools do, it goes back to the White Supremacy. People think white people wouldn’t do that and that the drug problem in our country is at the fault of black and brown people. My high school was pretty much all white kids. We had probably about 10 black families in our entire district. I never did drugs but I could tell you exactly which kids were dealers. Only one out of the 15 dealers that I knew of was black. The black people in my school weren’t ones that were stereotypical. There were definitely upper middle class, and probably the whitest black kids I have ever met. Some of them were adopted and have white parents. Others moved from Philadelphia to get out of the city and go to a better school. I only live about an hour outside of Philly so their parents would commute there every day. We didn’t have metal detectors and the drug sniffing dogs didn’t come through very often. In my 4 years at my high school, I think they only came once a year. However, there was a district about 15 minutes away that was very poor; most of the students were Hispanic or black. They had metal detectors and cops around campus at all times. There were 3 shootings that I know of there. And the dealers from my school would get their supplies from people of that school district. I think this relates back to the video we watched about the bike stealing. Over 100 people just walked by the white kid trying to steal the bike, but within seconds the black kid was being told to stop stealing the bike. I’m not sure I would say anything to either of them. Not because I would let the white kid go and try to stop the black kid but because I’m a passive-aggressive person. I don’t like confrontation, so I wouldn’t want to upset either kid by accusing them of stealing a bike. I also think this makes me naive because I would most likely think to myself that it was their bike, but they had lost the key or forgot the combination on the lock. Another thing I would like to point out is the comment made in class about girls being more likely to cross the street if they see a black guy coming as opposed to a white guy. If I’m walking alone late at night and I see a guy of any color walking towards me, I’m crossing the street or pulling out my phone to call someone. Rape doesn’t discriminate. I don’t immediately think that a person would try to rape someone, I’m just doing it as a precaution to save my own ass.

I would like to start off by saying that I really enjoyed yesterday’s class. It was a good having the veterans talk about their experiences over in Iraq. I also want to give a shout out to Aaron for sharing his personal reactions about the war and continuing to support the war even though he’s been through so much dramatic situations.
I don’t have a twitter so I don’t know exactly what was said. I’m generally a moderate conservative and I’m a full supporter of the military, but not so much of the actions of our government. I support the soldiers who are overseas on orders from the government. I tend to disagree with the reason why the government invades other countries. The most obviously reason why we invade other countries is oil.
I think we are so easy to defend our countries’ military because we feel that we need too. If someone questions our patriotism we don’t want to be the ones who seem non-American or a traitor against our country. We see liberals who don’t support the war as people against America. If the soldiers were to know that their people back home don’t support them, I feel like they would have a hard time with the reasons they are fighting this war. I don’t believe people would fight as hard to try to stay alive. Another reason for being so quick to defend the military is because I’m sure everyone sitting in the room yesterday knows at least one person that is enlisted in the military or even someone who has been overseas. In my graduating class, 18 people out of 231 went into the military. 9 of them have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. It hits very close to home and pisses me off greatly when people don’t support the war. You don’t necessarily have to support the government’s reasons for send the troop into the various countries, but you should at least support the people who are over there fighting.
Sam kept repeating last night that we need to have empathy towards the people in the countries that we are at war with. Now I realize that America is seen as the “World Bully” and we invade all these countries for whatever reasons, but shouldn’t other people have some sort of empathy towards us? At least the innocent soldiers who are there under orders. I wanted to ask this question yesterday, but I didn’t want to seem like an ignorant American while talking to that guy.

First of all, I want to give a shout out to the guy that asked why black people smell so bad when they sweat and had enough courage to do it. I’m sure there is some biological reason as to why black and brown people say white people smell like wet dogs when we get wet. I have never heard anyone tell me I smell like a wet dog. Or in my 21 years of living, I’ve never noticed a single white person smelling like a wet dog but I have noticed that black and brown have terrible body odor when they sweat. I think we noticed the smells of people of other colors because it’s so different from the way we smell. People of the same race smell the same and people of different races smell different. It even goes as far as not just black Hispanics and white people who smell different from each other. My down stair neighbors are Indian. Whenever their doors opens it smells like curry outside for at least fifteen minutes before it airs out. I’m not sure that it’s the people that actually smell like curry, or it’s from using it so much in their food but either way I notice the smell of it because it’s not something I’m used to. I’m sure people who are Indian never notice the smell of curry on other’s because they smell and use it so often. I think the general lesson that comes from this is that we all have some sort of odor to us; we just don’t notice it because we smell it every day. Not only do we as people smell different but our homes also smell different. I know that my house and even my apartment have a different smell then my best friend’s house and apartment does. These are the type of small things that is going to keep racism alive. Little kids are going to notice while they play with kids of different races that they smell different from the kids of the same race. It’s a small thing but it could influence the way they think about the races as they grow up.
I think it’s weird that after living in a mostly white community for so long that I’ve never heard this before. In my high school we would have a few colored families move into our district every so often from the city. Most of them tried to fit in, but there was always that one who would say things about the white kids so I feel like I should have heard the wet dog thing from them before because that’s when I noticed that black and brown people smell when they sweat.

I don’t believe discrimination will ever go away. Although white people will be the minorities in a few decades, white people will still control most aspects of just about everything. I think it’s going to be extremely hard to get rid of white supremacy. Possibly, in about 50 years, it may lighten up, but I don’t think it will ever completely disappear. White people have this sense of entitlement and it will continue to be passed down from generation to generation, so white people will always be at the top of the mountain, pushing other races down.
Because white people are at the top, they will tend to hire other white people because all people always feel more comfortable with people similar to themselves. If this continues, there will be no way to end it.
On the other hand, if people were open to ending white supremacy and discrimination, we would need to allow other races to have the opportunities to reach the levels that white people are at. In a company, instead of promoting a white person to the hire job position, a person of another should be given the chance to take the job. If everyone gave just a little to a person of another race, it could help to create a fight against discrimination.

I feel as if the sports are so defined by race is because not many people are willing to go outside of what is expected. In the case of Jeremy Lin, he gets so much recognition because he’s an Asian from the D league who graduated from Temple. So many black NBA players do the exact things he does almost every game. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade have awesome games, but suddenly an Asian player has a good game and it causes this “Linsantity.” Every sport has some sort of stereotyped and I believe people just go along with it. If a black child growing up wasn’t exposed to baseball, then why wouldn’t he try? It’s the same with white children who plays baseball, but aren’t really exposed to basketball. Hispanics are good at baseball, but not football. Black people play basketball and football. White people play football baseball and hockey. Hispanics play baseball. My high school was primarily white and our basketball team sucked. Every black student in my high school was on the team, which were about 6 of them. And even some of the black kids were bad at basketball because they grew up around white kids and played the same sports that the white kids did. We used to get our butts handed to us when we would play the primarily black school in our division. They would usually double, if not triple our score. I believe baseball is a primarily white sport because when it first came to the United States, blacks weren’t allowed to play so naturally it would continue to appeal to white participants. Baseball also spread to Hispanic countries by students returning from American colleges and soldiers who were stationed there. Ice hockey was evolved to adapt to the icy conditions in the northern United States and Canada. I’m sure there are other reasons as to why sports are primarily a certain race, but I feel like it is just the way children are raised now. Kids growing up in a city are more likely to play basketball because the cities don’t have enough room to have a football field basketball court or a baseball field. A basketball court is the most likely court that the kids will have to use. In the suburbs, there is plenty of room for kids to play football and baseball. Also, kids see a professional athlete that they look up too and will want to play the same sport they do. A black kid is more likely to look up to a black professional athlete as is a white kid to a white athlete which will continue the segregation in sports. I also don’t foresee it changing anytime soon.

During our discussion groups, I tried not to say anything about the white supremacy lecture. I feel as being a white person, minorities automatically assumes that I’m ignorant to their cultures. I’m as stereotypical of a white girl as you can get. I’m real pale, blonde, and have blue eyes. I try to stay away from race discussion as much as possible because if I don’t agree with something a black person would say, I think their first thought will be “this girls a racist.” My freshman year in college I lived in a dorm with 9 other girls, 2 of them full blooded Puerto Rican, 2 mixed with just about everything, 3 black girls, a Romanian girl, and another white girl. We had gotten on to a topic about immigration and I had said something that no one really agreed with (looking back on it now, it probably wasn’t a smart thing to say), but all of the girls besides the white girl attacked me calling me a racist piece of white trash. I was offended by what they had said but I knew it was because I was white. If one of the mixed girls would have said the same, I don’t think they would have been so upset by it. I later apologized to them for my comment. But ever since that experience I have learned to keep my mouth shut. It was especially difficult telling the group that I would prefer to have a husband and baby that was white as opposed to another race. I didn’t want to sound like a close minded redneck, but if my family wouldn’t accept that I have a colored husband or baby I don’t want to put myself into that situation where I have to chose between my family and husband/baby. Deep inside I think if I met the perfect man who happened to be black I would marry and have children with him, but I don’t want to have to be put in that situation so I would remove any possibility from that ever happening. I think all white people try to keep quiet during discussion about race simply for the fact that there is the preconceive notion that we are all ignorant to other cultures. Some white people are very closed minded about minorities but not all of us are. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that we have socially learned it is better to just keep our mouths shut. You don’t have to worry about offending anyone. White people shy away from the topic of race because if we talk about racism people see us of agreeing with it, but it a black person would talk about it, it’s more socially accepted.

I’m going to start off by mentioning I’m a white female and grew up in a small town. As embarrassed as I am to say it, my father was a very racist man. I’m not the same way. My best friend is Hispanic and I have friends who are black. I just find white guys more attractive than I do Asians, blacks, or Hispanics. If adoption was my only option to have a baby, I think I would choose an Asian female, or possibly a Hispanic baby, if I couldn’t have a white child. I don’t believe I would ever choose to have a black baby to call my own, especially if I was a single mother. I don’t think I would be able to handle how people would look at me if I was walking around as a white single mother with a black baby. I think my mom wouldn’t mind me having a black baby, but I know my grandmother wouldn’t approve and my grandfather would definitely roll over in his grave if he saw that. I also don’t think that I would ever choose to have a black man as a sperm donor because of the same reasons why I wouldn’t adopt a black baby. If I was married and at a sperm bank trying to find a donor to make a baby, I would definitely want similar features as my husband. I wanted to say in class that I wouldn’t have chosen that guy’s sperm, whose name I can’t remember right now, but I was sitting next to an entire row of colored girls and I didn’t want them to say any comments to me. I just wanted to be honest. I do believe that all the white girls that said they would have his baby; at least half of them were lying.
As for interracial couples, they don’t bother me. I’m a firm believer in doing what makes you happy. If you’re a white female and you like blacks, Asians, or Hispanics, do what you do. I’m not going to be the one to make a big fit about it. I mean in 30+ years, white people are going to be the minority, so who knows who long it will be until we are all mixed.