There have been many things that I have learned from this class. I have grown intellectually as a person and emotionally. It is hard to narrow down just a few things that I truly take from this class. I need to try though. I learned that other races are just as racist as white people. I never really thought that way because I assumed that they knew and understand how hurtful it is when people are racist against them, they would not project that same hateful attitude onto other people, but I was wrong. Its an ugly cycle that needs to be stopped. Obviously it can never fully be stopped, but there can be steps into preventing that from happening. This is such a hateful cycle filled with hate and stereotyping. For example, I did not even know that Black people think that when it rains white people smell like wet dog. I have never even heard of that stereotype. This might be because I went to a white dominant school and live in a white dominant neighborhood.
I have also learned that Native American people are the poorest people in the country. I always knew that they were never really affluent, but I never understood the depths of their despair. It is truly heartbreaking. When the speaker from Leech Lake came into to talk to the class it was truly eye opening. There is so much oppression that we have imposed on them. Also, there is an extremely high drug, alcohol, and domestic abuse in the country. I was also shocked to learn that Native American women are the most likely to be raped. This is scary and horrific to me. Something needs to be done to help these people especially because we have been constantly squashing their dreams by taking their land.
Something that also shocked me was that there is still to this day so much prejudice against Jewish people. I never truly knew many Jewish people growing up. I went to Catholic school all my life and was never surrounded by a diverse group of people. This might add to the fact that I never saw much prejudice against Jewish people. Since I got to college, I have met so many people that are Jewish and I would have never thought that people were prejudice against them. Especially white people, because Jewish people are white as well. It was very surprising to me especially because I think everyone can agree that the Holocaust was so incredibly horrific. This cycle of hate and prejudice needs to stop. It is human nature to get ideas about certain people especially how they are perceived in the media, but if we did not do that America would be unstoppable. We would be so close as people and a nation.

Everyone has read Night by Eli Wisel and everyone has at least heard of the Holocaust. They know that it is a major mark in our history. There are people who have more knowledge on the history than others. You are taught over and over again about it in school. It was a horrific and horrible mark in our history. It is scary to think that people could have such hatred and go so deep inside the thought of this hatred. It is extremely hard to imagine such a thing happening again. This onset hatred is set in our history, but it is also in our present and future. I did not realize that there was such hatred today. I know that some people tell insensitive jokes. I know that this is a form of Anti Semitism, but I have never truly met someone who hates Jewish people. I have always gone to Catholic school so I have not met many Jewish people. I met a lot more when I came to Penn State, but I still have never met someone who truly hates Jewish people just those who are insensitive to the feelings of Jewish people.
As I am writing this paper, my friend down the hall had just finished no shave November and thought it would be funny to shave his mustache into Adolf Hitler’s famous facial hair. Although I do not really believe that he hates Jews, but some people are just insensitive sometimes. They do not know that such jokes can be truly offensive to some people. None of my roommates are Jewish so they do not take any personal offense to this joke.
This is truly a sensitive topic and I do not really understand how this hatred started. I know that people have hatred towards Jewish people because they are jealous. The stereotype of a Jewish person is that they are successful. Many people want that lifestyle so that is why they feel some sort of anger towards them.
I personally have no qualms towards Jewish people. They have a different religion then I do and that is fine by me. I almost believe that people have a bad impression on them and have a predisposition to hate them. I have never even thought that people still have hatred towards them. They are just a different group of people with a different religion. That is fine by me. Hasidic Jews seem to be peaceful people. I do not know a ton of people who are that ,but I have never heard of a lot of problems with them. They are people just like you and me and they have their own religion and beliefs. Anti Semitism is in the past and present tense and I truly believe that it should not be in our future tense.

I personally do not think that being gay is a choice. If being gay were a choice and so many people were against gays and there are all this gay bashing in the world and all these problems, why would someone choose that lifestyle? Although it is becoming more and more accepted in the world, so many people are so against the gay community. If you wanted to start a family and there is this great debate about gay marriage, why would someone choose to live with that hardship? I have a family friend that is gay and her parents are extremely against that life style. The parents believe that she is going through a stage in her life that she will eventually go through. If that is true why has it been so many years that she has not “grown out” of? This girl is not lashing out at her parents it is just how she was born. She is a nice girl and she would not intentionally hurt her parents. Also, so many people say they realized they were gay at such a young age. The kid in our class said he knew he was gay at the age of five. If someone knew that he was gay at such a young age, how can you say that they make that decision? How could such a young boy decide to choose a path for the rest of his life at such a young age? It is a very difficult decision for someone to come out, it is very personal and it is even harder for someone to come out to themselves. I know when I was five years old that I was not making any choices about my future.
I think that some people find comfort in the thought of gay people choosing to be gay because they do not want to know that their friends and family could be gay. They are biased and they are misinformed. They are scared that people they love will produce gay people. They do not want anyone different from themselves. They think that they want to seem unique. They want to be considered different and a forward thinking. So many people were quieted so many years ago when they said they were gay. Since it is more respected in society, they think that people are trying to be in the “in crowd.” Many of the people who are against gays are very likely gay themselves. They want to squash those feelings. They are embarrassed and will live a sad and lonely life. They are uncomfortable with the thought that they could be that way and feel the only way to cope with their feelings is to hurt others. That is why they think that gay people choose to be gay.

It is easy to say that you are pro choice or pro life. I find that it is not that black and white. There are so many gray areas when it comes to rape and abortion and empathy plays a major part in these things. You have to see what you would tell your mother, daughter, or sister if they got raped. You have to take into their consideration and their feelings when these issues and problems arise. I think that it is important that people have the ability to do what they want with their bodies, but if you make policies saying that you are pro choice that means that anyone who gets pregnant can kill an unborn child and terminate their pregnancy. I do not think it is fair that someone has the power kill an innocent child before they have the chance of living. Every person has self worth even if you are unborn. If you say that every teenager who has sexual intercourse with out a condom or any type of birth control and gets pregnant and they feel like they aren’t ready to have a child doesn’t mean that they should have the ability to terminate someone one that hasn’t had the ability to live yet. Or in another case, if a couple just is not ready to have the baby but they are financially stable, but they want a honeymoon a little longer does that mean that they should have the ability to kill an unborn child? I know that if a young child is raped or a woman is raped it is a sensitive subject. I get that it is a horrific thing that I will never fully comprehend because I have never been in that situation. I just feel like if they could make a law where only a rape victim could get an abortion maybe that would sit better with me. Being able to take an unborn child’s life because it does not fit into your life plans at the moment just doesn't make sense to me. My good friend’s mother was a victim of a rape and she had her daughter and if she did not have her child I would have never had that best friend in my life. Abortions are also horrifying and trying experiences. They are extremely emotional experiences and if a child of rape has gone through such a horrific experience that is a lot of pressure to have that emotional toll on top of the rape for the rest of their lives. I feel as if people regret having abortions for the rest of their lives and they will always think what if. How will their lives be different. These are just things that people can think of before they get an abortion.

I do not find him scary at all. He seems very approachable and friendly. I am a short white girl and I do not get intimidated of people of different races very easily. He does not come off as mean or callous in person and I feel like he is easy to talk to. He wouldn’t be a member of the staff of the class if he were not approachable. I went to a small Catholic school with three or four Black people and around five Brown people. I went to class with them and talked to them, as they were my peers. They were my friends even though they were extremely a minority. There may have been some prejudice in the classroom, but none that I saw. Some people are more hesitant towards black and brown people because how the media portrays them. In movies, they are constantly being portrayed as the bad guys and they are helping attach a stigma to that stereotype. Someone could be an extremely good looking black or brown person, but other people have in the back of their mind that they could easily be trouble or violent. Also, in pop culture, a good majority of black celebrities are rappers. A lot of time rappers rap about violence, drugs, and sex, which only helps the stereotype along, that they are dangerous. When people have an image in their head and those people help the stereotype along it only brings fuel to the fire and makes people believe it more. Having known a lot of black and brown people, I know this stereotype to not be true especially the ones I have come in contact with. Sure, there will be some that fit the stereotype. That is like saying that all cheerleaders are dumb blondes and not being able to find one cheerleader in the world who does not fit that description. That does not mean we should believe that all black and brown people are like that.
At the end of the day, we have to look upon ourselves and see why these prejudices are making us believe something that isn’t there. Is it because we are afraid? Why is it so easy for us to just jump to conclusions when a lot of people do not know personally black and brown people because they are so scared of the stereotype that they surround themselves with their own race. They know and understand their race so they feel most comfortable with it. Since I went to a catholic school mostly white dominant, I have more white friends than black and brown friends. This does not mean I am closed off to the black and brown race. If I needed help with something I would be able to go up to that black TA and ask him for help. The world should be able to do that as well.

When hearing about the Native Americans and all the problems they were having with financial stability and suicide rates, I felt bad for them, but I also felt like they should be doing more to better themselves. I come from a comfortable home, my mother is a nurse and my father is a dentist. I have never had a problem with money and I always had a stable financial situation. I did not have much knowledge about what it is like to live a life of poverty. I do know the emotional and physical toll that that all brings to a person. By thinking that they were able to just benefit from bettering themselves is a presumptuous thought. I do not know their full situation. The video I watched in class was eye opening. I did not how terrible their situation was. Seeing that man push that car to put give in their television for money was a shock. It truly opened my eyes and I realized that by not knowing the true situation of Native Americans is ignorant. They are in such a slump and all the poverty and problems trickle down throughout the years. It is not fair the Native Americans were stripped of their land. They have a right to their land. The thing that I find most intriguing is that they are so enriched in culture. They have so much history and so many rituals which shows that they are not letting their poverty take over something so instrumental in their lives.
It is not only frightening but it is hurtful to think that in the future we will end up like the Native Americans. We will be stripped of our land and we will have extreme financial trouble. It is devastating to think that because of these financial problems, that my peers and people I will know will commit suicide. The suicide rate will continue to go up and up. Since my people do not have a true and profound culture, we will be left with little. There will be not left for us. We will lose our land, our people, and our culture. This could be a reality for us. We need to band together and help the Native Americans. We need to show them support so that they can prosper. If we do not help them than their problems will only grow worse. If their problems progress, this can happen to us as well. We need to help each other out financially and emotionally. If we sent in counselors to help with teenage suicide rate we can truly help them. If we do this now we can really make a difference. If we help them now, and we could possibly be put in that situation they would help us out as well.

Everyone has his or her own economic situation. My mother is a school nurse and my father is a dentist. I went to catholic school all my life and I never really had to worry about money. My parents pay for my schooling in full. This does not mean that they pay for everything. I have to pay for my own personal needs and I have to pay for graduate school when I graduate from college. This is not because my parents cannot afford to pay for my graduate school it is because they believe that I should pay for it myself. I will learn hard work and motivation for my future. I live in New Jersey and a lot of people in my area have the same socio economic status. Since we are all on the same level financially, it is not difficult to talk about money and other things regarding money. Going to Penn State University, I never really knew what to expect. I knew that I could not be as open about money anymore. My one roommate has a stricter budget while my other roommate gets three thousand dollars spending money every semester from her parents. It is slightly awkward talking about such things with them because they have different pocket money. My one roommate constantly is eating out at restaurants while my other roommate has a hard time with grocery shopping. We do not talking about money often because the bottom line is that it is awkward. The rich people feel uncomfortable because they do not want to make people feel less privileged bad about themselves. In reality, they should not feel guilty for their what they have and what was given to them. They should be able to talk freely, but that is not how the world works. No one wants to offend anyone else. It is similar to someone calling you prejudice. No one wants to say the wrong thing or make anyone feel bad. As for the people who are not as well off, they feel uncomfortable. They feel like they are not as lucky and they might feel envious. They might feel like the people who have more money are trying to show off or be cocky. Some people do try and take their money and use it to show off. People with money should be able to talk freely of their wealth, but it is not common courtesy to brag about it. They feel too awkward to talk about it and that is the main problem. Also, it is an unconventional topic. People do not normally talk about such things. Also, when people admit to being in the lower end of the socio economic ladder, people have more sympathy and empathy for those people. No one shows any empathy for people who have a lot of money because they feel that they are able to fix everything with their money.

When I think about the household income rates and poverty rates I explain the group differences by saying that it is a little bit of everything. We talked about it being because certain groups have better connections or some races just work harder. There are always exceptions to these statements. Sure, I can say that people who have a lot of money will inherit a lot of money so they will be successful. Life does not always work out that way. Or we can say that a certain race just works harder than another group and that is why they are successful and I am sure that is true in some cases, but it cannot be true in all cases. This is not a black and white problem in America. There are so many factors that go into this that affect how a person can be successful. Some people come from absolutely nothing, but they end up making millions of dollars. An example of this is the movie the Pursuit of Happyness. That is a story about Chris Gardner who is an African American living in the United States trying to make a life for him and his son. He is struggling and he is living in poverty for the majority of the movie. Through his persistence, a corporate big shot takes a shot on him and he ends up making millions. Not saying this is that common of an occurrence, but it does happen. This can always go the other way, if a person is born into a wealthy family and are able to use their wealth to make connections and to use their money to make even more money. It goes both ways. I am not sure why blacks are on the bottom then Hispanics then Whites then Asians. I am not sure why that is the order. It could be any number of things. It could be because Blacks do not have much access to opportunity. It could be because are more likely to hire people of their own race. I am not sure. There are so many possibilities. In class, the Asian girl in class said that a lot of Asians come over from their country already educated. I think that, that has something to do with it because they are ready to work and they are already wealthy in their countries. Native American may have the lowest income because they are all forced to live together on reservations and they only have each other to survive. If you do everything on a reservation it is hard to expand your business and it is difficult to move for work. These are serious problems affecting our every day life. It not only affects our parents, but it affects our grandparents, our future children and us. It may be difficult, but there are a number of thing contributing to this crisis and we cannot truly pin point it on one thing.

While I watched this video I felt not only angry at the United States for wrongfully imprisoning this man, but for taking five years of his life. After the attacks on September eleventh everyone was shaken and up in arms. America was so concerned with finding the people involved in the attacks that they obviously made some serious errors in judgment when it comes to imprisoning those they thought were involved. My heart breaks for this man because he lost so much time and was so wrongfully mistreated. I am not extremely adamant on watching the news every night because I feel it only makes me disappointed and sad with what is going on in the world. I am the first to say that I do not know the most on what is going on with the war on terror, but I do know that after the September eleventh attacks the United States of America changed completely. What America needs to realize is that not all people in Iraq and Afghanistan are terrorists. They are people just like us and we need to look at them as brothers and sisters and not enemies. I watched this video and thought imagine if that was my father who was captured by Americans and tortured. Imagine if my own flesh and blood was taken away from me for five whole years. So much happens in a child’s life in five years. That is longer than my college career. If that happened to me, I would have nothing but negative things to think of when it comes to Americans. It is bad that we denied him access to his family, but the fact that we also tortured him is a direct reflection on our fear towards those people. We try to enforce power and pain on those we fear the most. This ongoing hatred and fear back and forth needs to stop and the only way for it to stop is for Americans to start working together with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other countries we are involved with. We are all humans. We all have human dignity and deserve to be treated with the same respect that we treat Americans. If we do not torture American prisoners, we should not be torturing prisoners over seas. When video chatting with that man in class, he said that his people are not afraid of Americans. Why should we be so afraid of them? We should be focusing on how to make a relationship with them and then we can truly prosper as a country. This war will never end unless we make changes. It is not right to disrespect people over seas. Everyone is equal and everyone should be treated that way. That man in the video has the same amount as human dignity as you and me. We need to punish those that kill innocent people ,but we can not victimize all of those people for something that they were not involved in.

There are many ways that hip-hop and art in general can bridge the gap between the east and the west. Hip-hop in itself is an art. It can take on many different forms. It is a way of social expression and also is a way to get a point across. So many people in today’s society listen to rap and hip-hop to feel a certain way. Whether those feelings be big or small, important or unimportant. Rap is a form of self-expression. Such artists as Jay-Z and Omar Offendum. Omar uses this art form to not only express himself, but to educate others. He mainly talks about Syria in his work and how innocent people are dying because of a war. This is a prime example on how music can change everyone and affect everyone in some way.
Music is a hobby that pretty much anyone can enjoy. I have never met anyone who says that they do not like music. Everyone has his or her own preference whether it be rap, country, classical, etc. There are so many options and so many performers and artists use their gift to get a point across. There are so many options and if more performers made their music about social issues, I feel that the world would be a different place. So many people worship musicians and if they used their talent for getting out social issues I believe that the people who listen to their music would truly be more aware of what is going on. They would be more educated and knowledgeable, which would help those places. When everyone is educated about the struggles of other countries, I believe America bands together and help those countries. It could truly bridge the gap between the east and the west.
This also applies to artwork and other forms of art such as film etc. They can really make an impact on a person. If used in the right manner and directed towards the right person, it can really bridge the gap between the east and the west. We can learn from each other. We need to use each other as a platform for finding common ground and similarities with other cultures. Listening to Omar rap and the man we skyped with I truly realized just how little I know about that culture. I went on Omar’s Facebook and listened to more of his music. By listening to him rap, I learned so much. I listened to like two or three songs and in those two and three songs I learned so much that I did not know. I learned what it is like to be a man from Syria and having to bridge his personal gap between the east and the west. It was truly inspiring and it just showed out art and music can not only inform but inspire and educate anyone who is willing to listen. His music inspired me to be more open and look up Iranian culture and educate myself so I am not walking around with my eyes blindfolded.