One would never think of a party that is Mexican theme or any themed as a matter of fact offensive. I don’t find the idea of a Mexican themed party offensive. I would myself dress up in sombrero’s or something and go to one. What made the whole concept of it wrong or offensive was the boards that they were holding. The stereotypes created in what the boards said where the cause of the issue. It definitely is not okay to say “ will cut grass for beer and weed” . The stereotypes of what the boards said creates the issue. Not all Mexicans do that. So it was the root cause of the issue.

The United States of America is one of the most diverse nations around the world. It probably tops the list of the highest number of diverse people that comprise of the citizens of the United States. I come from India (where I have lived basically all my life), where 95% of the population is Indian. So I can see and notice the amount of cultures and different races that America is comprised off. It is amazing how much diversity we see here and still have so many issues with the immigration laws in the country. People, especially the government, usually see it as a problem, but immigration also comes in with lot pros other than just cons.
Yes, a lot of people express their concern regarding illegal immigration being a big security issue. And I do see that. A lot of security threats occur to any country who sees illegal immigration. The United States does see a lot of it. So I can see why a lot of people will consider it a threat to their personal security and their country’s security systems. But not all immigrants come with threat right? Most of them come to the United States for a better living and to provide a better living for their family. Which doesn’t look like a threat to me at all.
Why we make it an issue is because according to most Americans, all kinds of immigrants take up the jobs that were for Americans. That is absolutely not how it works. Sorry that immigrants make the efforts to build something and make something out of all the opportunities they get. Americans usually sit there and don’t try and don’t do anything big out of stuff because they haven’t seen the shambles of life people live in, in other countries.
Maybe the best solution is to have stronger immigration laws. But make it easier for those people who want to come to make a change to their lives. Before just deporting every illegal immigrant you find, maybe talk to them and find out how they got here, what they are doing with their lives? Some of them must have come in to the country as kids when they probably couldn’t even spell immigration. It doesn’t seem too fair to deport these people right?
I guess this issue needs to be looked into with a more personal aspect as well. Maybe that’s the most reasonable situation.

The lecture that Sam gave on Tuesday about homosexuality was pretty great especially since it was talk about in the light of the elections, where gay and basically civil rights have been a big issue. Even though Maine and Maryland opened its doors for gay rights but a lot of people are still uncomfortable with it. I have thought about this topic a lot and I cannot pick point whether I think whether a person is born with it or chose to be gay. There are so many situations I have known of and I have heard of and they are all so different that I cannot say which factor is really what makes a person gay. I have heard stories about a child who realized at the age of 4 that he was gay, maybe he was born with it, since for a long time he used to pray to God that he wanted to like girls. But I also know people who have chosen to just turn gay because they arent happy with their past experiences with the opposite sex or they just get attracted to someone or like someones personality and they are of the same sex. But I dont know why that honestly has to be a discussion topic and why people need to think so much and so hard about it. I think its high time that people need to suck it up and accept the fact that LGBTA exists in the world and it is completely normal. It is not about whether a person is born with it or chose to be gay, its whether they are happy or not the way they are. I am sure the person who was born gay is equally happy as the person who chose to be gay. But they will be happier if we actually accept them into society without judgmental thoughts and ideas. Being gay, whether born with it or chose to be it, is a way of life and by taking away their rights to be married and live happily ever after or something is just inhumane. However going back on the topic of choice and being born with something, everyone in the world choses to be uncomfortable with the gay community. Why do we choose to be against a way of life that people want to live. Why cant we just let people be happy the way they are and they want to be?

Even though I cannot vote in this country, the minute I heard Mitt Romney quote at the presidential debate about “Binders full of woman” it just became so obvious that he has never actually thought about what Sam just asked in the question. The republicans need to ask themselves the question of what if it’s their wives or daughters or grandchildren who cannot make the decisions for themselves whether or not to keep a baby who was brought in world through rape. What if she is just 16? Is it fair for her to ruin her life just because of a policy?
The republicans thinking just are just naïve and it surprises me that got elected for office with such downright naïve thinking and can one day actually be the President of one of the super powers of the world.
It all should be down to the women and their families who are going through the situation. It’s about choice. Nothing like that should be forced on person. I have actually heard so many women; even those who aren’t even from America actually say that they are scared for their lives if the republicans actually win this election. In the end I believe that every woman should have the right to choose. Nobody should be able to force such decisions on them. In fact, if people really want make policies regarding women and their livelihoods, they should probably go and help the women in the poor countries or where women need help through the parental planning programs and help these women who don’t have access to proper health care reforms.

Like all the others who have commented above, we all are taught to go by the famous saying don’t judge a book by its cover. But honestly, sometimes it’s hard to actually follow it until you have a different experience with the person other than a stereotypical one.
I personally used to create a stereotype just from what I had heard, but however my views changed after I got a chance to know different races better. That’s when I knew that there is no point in following those stereotypes. And it is definitely not fair and the right thing to do if we judge people by their appearances. We all make stereotypical conclusions judging from ones appearance. I just did that after watching the video, and I feel like I can give details about it. It’s embarrassing and wrong but we still end up doing that. When I look at the first two people, I make conclusions looking at the dreadlocks and the black and I just am assuming that they have grown up in a neighborhood with the same kind of people around and from the large headphones with them I am just going ahead an assuming they listen to rap music.
The third blonde girl seems to look like she is from a very good neighborhood, and looks like she is from a wealthy family too just judging by the way she is dressed since she has a sort of sophisticated and well dressed look.
The next guy looks like he might be from a middle class white family. I cannot really tell much from his blank face expression.
The next person, an African American is also a bit confusing to talk about it. He doesn’t look like he is from a poor family since he looks like he is dressed well and put together. He seems more approachable to me, compared to the other two African American guys. And looks like he would be more willing to talk to as well.
The lady in the end seems to be nice middle aged lady who maybe could be a teacher. I am sort of guessing that she is Sam’s wife. I have always known teachers to have a humble personality hence they are easy to approach and have conversation with. Going by how she is dressed, she seems like a simple lady with a clean appearance.
Even if I am making those judgments by just their appearances, I wouldn’t stick those mindsets in my head without actually talking to them.

Being for a different country, I haven’t known much about American history or their culture. This class has been really helping me gain some insight on the Native Americans and their history. The exercise in class that Sam showed of people and the next generations being pushed of the land didn’t make any sense to me at first. I absolutely thought that yes being pushed off the land was awful and shouldn’t have happened to the person, but if the person didn’t fight back for it, then his children or grandchildren have obviously no right on the land. But when Sam put it in the perspective of it being a car your family owned and then being taken away, that’s when I begin to relate to it. But it really got to me when he made us realize that this is what basically happened to the Native Americans. This is how they lost their land, their way of living and the space that they owned and deserved. It was appalling. And when Sam began the exercise, nobody could have imagined the scale at which it could have happened. There were just so many people who were just taken off of their lands and made to live in barren old lands in the middle of nowhere.
It is appalling and sad when you just sit it and watch it happen. But it would be even worse just to be in their shoes, to be the generation just got kicked off of their lands. And couldn’t even do anything for their kids and grandchildren. As we passed a generation, the situation got even worse and we did not do anything about it. We just let it happen. Every time. We laughed about the exercise first, but then the seriousness of the issue came up when we heard the story from Aman, the native American who visited class. His story gave me the chills, the song played by Sam in class also did. I am a big fan of The Dave Matthews Band but I just never heard the lyrics of the song played in class with so much emotion and feelings. It made me so sad and upset. But the question is, is that what we are going to do? Just sit and empathize about the situation of actually take action to help fix even a bit of the wrong doings of our ancestors?

Being for a different country, I haven’t known much about American history or their culture. This class has been really helping me gain some insight on the Native Americans and their history. The exercise in class that Sam showed of people and the next generations being pushed of the land didn’t make any sense to me at first. I absolutely thought that yes being pushed off the land was awful and shouldn’t have happened to the person, but if the person didn’t fight back for it, then his children or grandchildren have obviously no right on the land. But when Sam put it in the perspective of it being a car your family owned and then being taken away, that’s when I begin to relate to it. But it really got to me when he made us realize that this is what basically happened to the Native Americans. This is how they lost their land, their way of living and the space that they owned and deserved. It was appalling. And when Sam began the exercise, nobody could have imagined the scale at which it could have happened. There were just so many people who were just taken off of their lands and made to live in barren old lands in the middle of nowhere.
It is appalling and sad when you just sit it and watch it happen. But it would be even worse just to be in their shoes, to be the generation just got kicked off of their lands. And couldn’t even do anything for their kids and grandchildren. As we passed a generation, the situation got even worse and we did not do anything about it. We just let it happen. Every time. We laughed about the exercise first, but then the seriousness of the issue came up when we heard the story from Aman, the native American who visited class. His story gave me the chills, the song played by Sam in class also did. I am a big fan of The Dave Matthews Band but I just never heard the lyrics of the song played in class with so much emotion and feelings. It made me so sad and upset. But the question is, is that what we are going to do? Just sit and empathize about the situation of actually take action to help fix even a bit of the wrong doings of our ancestors?

Before I came to college, for me it was always about determinism. Free will had never seemed to work for me. In high school, I just partied it up and barely study and just lived my life the way it was given it to me. I basically took advantage of what I was born into because I took it for granted. When it came to high school grades. I was honestly just lucky. Once I came to college, everything was very different. I had to live here by myself, and unfortunately, I took advantage of that too when I came to college. Penn state being the party school, just got to me. And freshman year, it was a great time for me but not for my grades. That’s when it hit me, and it all became about hard work. I had to make of what I had. I worked really hard for the rest of the semesters in school to really be able to make a difference and fix my grades and do a lot more. I got myself involved and got internships and that’s when I realized that it is all about what you make out of it. So it was all about determinism for me. Because it actually showed me the results.
But then, after the talk in class about free will vs. determinism, my views changed. I was all about determinism but not anymore. Now I feel that it has to be a blend of both free will and determinism. They go hand in hand. Why this change of view point? Because I realized I couldn’t have made anything out of life without having been born and brought up in the environment I was in. I got the privilidge to be born in a well reputed family that had access to a lot of resources such as good family life, good schools and educational systems. Even though there were a few choices of life that I made wrong, but at the same time I could fix everything because I had the chance and the access to resources to do so. So I understand why Tammy is not able to do so, and why she gave up after trying as hard as she does. Because she has used the resources that she had access to. The only thing she could do is not let her children lose out on the determinism they have and let them make atleast something out of the free will and determinism that they have access too.

I wasn’t surprised at all after looking at the racial statistics regarding average annual household income at all. Asian and white people being on the top isn’t very shocking based on the racial statistics. It showed that Asians were on the top with a average household income for $64,000 followed by white people, with an average annual income of $54,000. Being an Asian of Indian origin, I can see why in America they are on top of the charts with the racial stats. When Asians chose to migrate to America, they come in with a lot of ambitions. Usually, only rich Asians are able to send their kids to the united states since education is expensive and basically considered a business in this country. What is promoted among the asian culture is to pick up those careers and develop yourself in the mainly recognized fields that is Medicine, Engineering and Finance which are also one of the highest paying careers in the world. You will barely see any Asians in the field of print journalism or liberal arts which is where usually the White people strive through. The Asians who aren’t that rich, arrive in the states with a lot of ambition and work really hard as that’s the attitude pushed forward by Asian families. That is absolutely the reason why jokes are made on Asians saying that “if you are good at something, then there is definitely an Asian better than you.”
The whites have already established themselves in this dominant nation, hence they are the ones on top as well. There is also a factor of luck which falls in here, that’s what leaves the blacks and Hispanics a little behind. Luck plays a big difference in ones role. Here it makes a difference as to which family one is born into. The Blacks were treated as slaves for a long while and were the ones who have been the lowest income groups (here with an average annual household income of $32,000) since it has been taking them a while to establish themselves in the country even though they have been here for a very long time. Hispanics are also one of the lowest household income groups ( annual average household income of $37,000) because when they migrate to America, they come into the country with almost no money or education. A lot of them are illegal immigrants and come to America which is the closest to them as a place where they want to fulfill their dreams but unfortunately the lack of education and knowledge and income sets the back.

I have been born and brought up in India, and even though I am not Sikh, I was born in Punjab where the Sikhs are from and follow the same religious text as they do. I might cut my hair, and believe in shaving my legs but I completely understand and believe in their religious beliefs and thoughts as well. Sikh women are considered to be the prettiest in India, they just manage to have the best features and are the ones who believe in keeping up with the status of being the prettiest. They don’t get haircuts, however, they keep up with their lady appearances up very well. But for Balpreet that doesn’t seem to matter at all. She is the one who actually follows what the Sikhs bible, that is, the Guru Granth Saheb says. In the NYDN article, a reditt user says, “I wish I had a soul a quarter as beautiful as yours” and I completely agree with this. What the readers of NYDN is absolutely astonishing. They have no right to judge so hard on what people choose to do and how they want to be. They obviously won’t be even half as happy as she is. Saying “ew” to natural phenomena’s of life doesn’t make sense to me at all. Obviously the readers think it’s a case of personal hygiene. I think well if guys don’t shave and have armpit hair there is no personal hygiene there too right? It doesn’t make sense to me honestly, just because she is aa girl does she have to do what the society expects her to do? No, not at all. And their choices is what makes each and every individual different from each other. A guy can shower and be clean and I am sure she does that fine too. Society just puts up these norms of how a person should be and should live like. Honestly, that’s what creates mindsets in out head of what is good and what isn’t or what is right and what is wrong. She is not doing anything wrong by being the way she naturally is. And nobody should be judging her because, we were all born that way, the only thing we did was that we made different choices. She chose to believe in what her religion actually says. Are you judging her for believing and following what her religion really says?