I definitely have to admit that SOC 119 was the most interesting, eye opening class that I have even enrolled in within the 4 years I have been in college. This class teaches so much about society, the way it is and the way that it should be. Views have been looked at from all races and religions. As you can take notes on what the different beliefs are, you find yourself having a stronger feeling and sense of what your own beliefs are. before enrolling into this class I was highly unaware how the unequal situations that are still happening around the world due to racism. My mind was constantly going off in different directions in this class and I found myself to be thinking in a way that I never thought I would think. Because of this class I now know that African American people believe that whites smell like dogs when they are wet. What other class would you learn that in? Getting the chance to skype with people in other countries was also very interesting. It was great to hear what they thought of Americans and how they live their everyday lives. I left 100 Thomas after every class period with new thoughts and new ideas of how I can do my part in making today’s society a safe, equal, and exciting place. The “needy penis” lecture stuck out to me because it was a “fun” way that Sam and his wife got their point across by. Along with having fun and joking around, they were able to show us what we needed to be shown. This lecture showed the difference between male and female orgasms. We were taught that because of this difference sexual assault happens, when you may not even know it.
Discussion groups were definitely a great thing to have! This gave us the chance to voice our opinion and discuss these opinions with the few other students in our sections. Because the lecture was so huge it was hard to get the chance to hear what everyone had to say. My discussion group is full of a great group of students and it was absolutely wonderful to get the chance to hear the different beliefs of everyone. Overall, SOC 119 was an amazing class. I learned so much information that I believe that everyone in this society should be aware of. I plan on taking the information that I have learned in this class over the past few weeks, and use it when living my everyday life from now on. I now know how important equality is. I strongly believe that this class should be a “must take”. Thanks Sam for a great, exciting semester!

I definitely have to admit that SOC 119 was the most interesting, eye opening class that I have even enrolled in within the 4 years I have been in college. This class teaches so much about society, the way it is and the way that it should be. Views have been looked at from all races and religions. As you can take notes on what the different beliefs are, you find yourself having a stronger feeling and sense of what your own beliefs are. before enrolling into this class I was highly unaware how the unequal situations that are still happening around the world due to racism. My mind was constantly going off in different directions in this class and I found myself to be thinking in a way that I never thought I would think. Because of this class I now know that African American people believe that whites smell like dogs when they are wet. What other class would you learn that in? Getting the chance to skype with people in other countries was also very interesting. It was great to hear what they thought of Americans and how they live their everyday lives. I left 100 Thomas after every class period with new thoughts and new ideas of how I can do my part in making today’s society a safe, equal, and exciting place. The “needy penis” lecture stuck out to me because it was a “fun” way that Sam and his wife got their point across by. Along with having fun and joking around, they were able to show us what we needed to be shown. This lecture showed the difference between male and female orgasms. We were taught that because of this difference sexual assault happens, when you may not even know it.
Discussion groups were definitely a great thing to have! This gave us the chance to voice our opinion and discuss these opinions with the few other students in our sections. Because the lecture was so huge it was hard to get the chance to hear what everyone had to say. My discussion group is full of a great group of students and it was absolutely wonderful to get the chance to hear the different beliefs of everyone. Overall, SOC 119 was an amazing class. I learned so much information that I believe that everyone in this society should be aware of. I plan on taking the information that I have learned in this class over the past few weeks, and use it when living my everyday life from now on. I now know how important equality is. I strongly believe that this class should be a “must take”. Thanks Sam for a great, exciting semester!

November 27, 2012. I thought that class today was extremely interesting and I was taught a lot of information that I was never aware of, such as soldiers are ethnocentric (by choice or by being forced into it). I also thought it was very surprising that soldiers and citizens that support them are actually fighting over personal security. Sam discussed that we see things the way we believe them to be because we see things through our own lenses, but if we all took the time to put on a different set of lenses then we would be given the chance to see things through a different perspective. As humans I believe that what we see is what we believe to be true. Being able to look at things through a different lens than your own (whether you believe the other lens side or not) is a talent that we should all have. It not only helps you decide what side to take but it also helps you think outside the box, and maybe even appreciate the different morals/ values people believe. The world would absolutely be more peaceful of a place. There would be less violence between nations and people and people would never be looked at negatively for their beliefs. Americans got the lesson after 9/11 that when their country feels threatened by another country, the Government does whatever it takes for all citizens too feel safe and secure in their own homes. As for small terror attacks that happen around the world over basically “nonsense”, the attacks would happen less often is countries just understood the things other countries do and say. What is it going to take for countries to realize terrorist attacks are not the answer? When will the murders stop happening? How can we get the point across that we all need to start being able to look at the different sides of every story? Yes, of course we are all not going to agree with what each and every one of us thinks but compromising is always a good thing. I believe that we lack in the education that gives us the chance to open our eyes and look at different perspectives. When Sam mentioned that it would take four times the resources that are available for each person on Earth to live like an American I was absolutely shocked, considering that means we would need another four more planet Earths for every one of us. This is a perfect example of how lucky we are to live the lives we live every day. It shows you basically how “selfish” we all are. Taking what we have for granted is a big problem a lot of us most likely deal with. There are homeless, starving people everywhere that would die to live the life the majority of us live.

The discussion dealing with pregnancy, rape and abortion had a lot of minds spinning especially my own. In today’s society a big discussion is whether or not a women should be allowed to have an abortion if she gets pregnant while she was raped. Abortion is a very touchy topic and a lot of people get very emotional and aggressive when discussing this matter, especially if it is dealing with a women who was raped and got pregnant. We all have our own opinions and most of the time we don’t want to think our opinion is the wrong opinion, or that we should maybe open up our opinions. We believe were always right, who doesn’t? one of the opinions I hold deeply is that I am absolutely against abortion. I strongly believe that if you are old enough to have sex you are old enough to know how a female gets pregnant, and you are also aware that there are several ways to prevent from getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant. If you have an “accident” and have an unplanned pregnancy there are many, many stable, good people couples that would love to have a child of their own but are unable to. We are taught that murder is illegal and if you murder someone you will have consequences to pay…wait, isn’t abortion murder? It just drives me crazy that we can “kill” an innocent baby, yeah of course the child might not be fully developed (if even developed at all), and the child doesn’t have feelings like a normal human being, but to me that does not matter. What matters is that “thing” you are killing is a human and that is not okay. If you get pregnant and feel like you’re not mature enough to raise that child, then guess what, you’re not mature enough to be having sex.
HOWEVER, Sam went off and wanted to know what we thought about if the female was raped and became pregnant. As they always say, “theirs an exception to every rule”. Yeah it might sound dumb considering I just went off about how abortion is murder and should not be allowed but rape is different. The female did not willingly give herself a chance to get pregnant, the sex was under her own will. Knowing that there are many young girls who are raped is the reason I agree that then in that circumstance the decision could be made. I do think it would be great for the child to be placed for adoption but at the same time looking at that child knowing how it was conceived is a heart breaking thing. Maybe my opinion on this whole thing makes absolutely no sense at all, but it’s what I think and how I feel. Hopefully someday this topic won’t need to be discussed at all. I can only hope.

Just seeing him on the street I would not be intimidated or think anything negative about him. When I first saw him I thought to myself how he seemed real chill and like a fun kid to hangout with. Just because of the fact that he is African American, has long hair and has a unique hair style does not make h unapproachable what so ever. Just looking at him he seems like a well- rounded person. For me to sit here and say anything negative about him by looking at his looks/ style would just be absolutely wrong. I feel like there are definitely people in today’s society that would look at him and get nervous or scared because you don’t see people like him every day. Sam mentioned in class that how comfortable you feel around a person is how you judge and base your opinion about them. In today’s society people are very quick to judge, even without knowing anything about the person, and if any of us say that we never did that before..your lieing. It is definitely a big problem, but at the same time it’s a problem that I don’t see being fixed, ever. The people who don’t know you are always the fastest people to judge. Some people may also look at him and believe that he is a “trouble maker” because they might think he has that “gangster” , “badass” look towards him. A big reason as to why people have a poor attitude towards blacks is because the media always plays them to be the “bad guys”. As we mentioned in class a few weeks ago, you can probably not name one movie where the white person is the bad guy with the black guy as the good guy. Unfortunately, people really base their thoughts and ideas on what they see on television, not realizing that half the stuff they see is not true. If people could just stop judging others on something so simple as their looks (skin color) it would make the society that much more of a better place. No matter what we wear, look like, or our skin color we are all humans and we are all special and beautiful in our own way. I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where 95% of the people are white, and when I saw this kid I wasn’t nervous, or uncomfortable. I feel like as I got older I was able to get a better look at things differently and realize the reality of life. If their was a way we can all take notice of people of the different race and understand their side of their story their wouldn’t be half of the racial problems in the society as their actually is, I don’t think people realize how big of a problem this actually is.

When we were discussing in class how peoples beliefs are based on assumptions instead of facts I did not find myself surprised what so ever. I believe that in today’s society a person believes what they want to believe and don’t really care what the other side has to argue. i will even admit that I am one of those people. I just believe that we all have our own beliefs for a reason, and these beliefs make us the type of person we are. I think our beliefs can also be based on the people who are closest to us. As children we are raised by our parent or guardians beliefs and they shape us into who they want us to become, it is just up to us to keep those beliefs going. When Sam had us answer the question of how many children we believed got kidnapped by a non-family member each year. The class average was over a thousand kids where in reality it is only a hundred and some. Sam then mentioned that our answers weren’t based on research that we saw, it was based on what we believe to be true, and what we believe to be true we usually always believe is true. It was also mentioned in class how television shows and video games mislead people into thinking what happens during things these are true. Let’s face it; in almost every television show the black guy is the bad guy where the white guy is the good guy. I feel like a big reason people say a white person would get a job position (or anything else) over a colored person is because of the negative beliefs people have on people of other races. I mean doesn’t everyone believe their race is the best? However, I can’t tell you how many times I heard “if I was white I would of gotten away with it.” Hearing that statement rings my ears! Although it might be true that white people get away with things more often than colored people, it still does not mean that white people don’t get in trouble, or don’t have to face certain problems. I am white, and I have been pulled over for speeding twice and both times I received a fine. I think a big problem in society is that we aren’t educated enough, and not shown the real facts on different information. I do believe that races are always going to compete with each other. Listening to Sam’s lecture made me realize that before I put my input in on something, I need to know the facts about it. There are always going to be problems with people believing false information, but if we can all try to take action, the world can start to become a much better, friendlier, happier place.

Although I was really bothered by the way the people were acting towards the white kid stealing the bike versus the colored kid, I was not surprised at all. In the video, the people were basically walking right by the white kid when he was trying to steal the bike, however as soon as they showed the colored kid people were surrounding him, questioning him and making phone calls to the police. It seemed as if the people were more worried about helping the white kid get the bike unlocked. The video then showed a “good looking” woman trying to steal the bike. In this case people weren’t questioning her, or threatening to call the police, one guy actually gave her a hand and helped her try to get the bike. Sam then had the class answer the question if the people who treated the white kid and the colored person differently are racist, and answering the question I couldn’t help to ask myself how they can’t be? I believe that the way the black kid was dressed and the way he was acting very suspicious defenitly had a lot to do with the way people acted too. The black kid had that “gangster” look to him where the white kid actually did look innocent. I think if you had a white kid who was dressed in baggy clothing and a backwards hat, the people would have treated him the same way they did to the black kid. Although seeing the difference in the scenarios look as if these people are absolutely racist, how can we be so sure? In today’s society the black guy is mostly always shown as the bad guy, where the white guy is the good guy. I think this has a huge effect on the reason why people treat blacks differently, and as for the woman, who would ever think in sweet, innocent, good looking woman would steal a bike? No one. Watching this video really opened up my mind. It’s just a prime example of how the world today still has so many problems that needs to be fixed. I try to think about what I would do if I was in this situation. I strongly believe that what people say they would do and what they actually do is not the same. I know that I am absolutely no racists but thinking back to the way that the black kid was acting I think maybe I would call the cops as well. The way people act when they do something wrong is a big reason why people would call and report them or not. So I don’t think the people were actually considered racist, I think they just noticed the different behavior between the two kids and that’s what caused them to take action.

My thought on affirmative action is simply that it is unfair and just not right. Affirmative action basically stated that white people get what they have and where they are because of the fact that they are the white race. This gives white people a poor look at and does not give them credit for all the hard work they put into their work to make them where they are today. But what we need to realize is that not all white people are considered rich, or even close to it. Although whites are up the top of the pyramid there are absolutely whites at the bottom of the pyramid classified with the Hispanic and blacks. I look at my father for instance, he is the owner of a car lot and would never be where he is today if it wasn’t for the long hours over the past twenty five years he put in. the reason he is considered “well off” isn’t because he owns a business, it’s because he’s a hard worker. The type of business a person has doesn’t matter, if you don’t put the time and effort into it then your business will never grow. When we look at how people mention that people are picked for jobs because of their race or background, I really don’t believe it. I mean yes of course there are definitely people out there like that but for the most part I feel like the most qualified person will end up getting the job in most cases. When you are hiring someone to work for you, you usually (or at least should want to) pick the person who will help your business grow. Although they say that affirmative action does not help whites, I still believe that it is necessary because there are still a lot of people in the world who base people on the outside, not on the inside. It could definitely be unfair in many cases but in the end the society could absolutely benefit from this. Like it was mentioned by a student in class, white people really don’t need help and support in this society today. The minority groups are the ones who need help in today’s society and affirmative action could help them. Having Sam relate everything back to slavery opened my eyes and made me think, think ways that I never thought I would. I always was told terrible stories about slavery but Sam put whole new information and thoughts into my head. I guess I never felt so strong about affirmative action because I never really had to, but I know that if I was of a different race, affirmative action would be something very special and mean a lot to me.

When we were shown the different average salaries for different races, I was not surprised that Asians and Whites were on top. Statistics showed that Asians were on top with incomes at about $64,000 a year, whites followed with $54,000, then Hispanics with $37,000, and blacks at the end with $32,000. Asians are known as very smart individuals where white people are known for wanting to be the best in everything, which makes them very determined to succeed. Like we mentioned in class, Asians tend to be very wealthy and more to America because they have the income to do so. Another aspect that I think influences this is that Asians and Whites tend to be more educated, and for the most part it seems that they are usually the ones who attend the “good” schools. I also think it is safe to say that the majority of the time a white or Asian person will get hired over a black of Hispanic. I believe a major reason as to why Hispanics enter the United States is because they are able to receive a higher income with less harder work that they would be doing back home. The major reason is supply and demand. When almost all immigrants enter the United States they most likely have a low education under their belt, and coming here without a college degree makes it very difficult to succeed. Finding a job these days with a college degree is hard so forget about no education background what so ever. Thinking of why blacks are at the end I can’t come up with a good explanation. I am actually very surprised that they are behind Hispanics because I thought for sure they would be last. In another class I am taking this semester we went over a study where blacks were one of the highest in single parent houses, this could possibly be some of the explanation as to why they have the lowest income. As for what the future brings, I honestly don’t think these numbers will ever change. People get what they deserve, and when you are hard working and determined you will succeed. I personally believe that Asians and whites will always be the ones who are more determined and take their work most seriously (for the most part). However, I would not be surprised if blacks eventually pass out Hispanics, because sadly in today’s world I feel like Hispanics would be the last race to get hired for a job, I feel like people feel that they could take complete advantage of Hispanics due to the fact that we all know they are making a lot more money here then they would be where they are from.

Mohammed Nasim’s story is very sad but at the same time I am not surprised by this at all. After September 11th, 2001 the United States changed as a whole. I look at myself and know that I am not very familiar with all that is happening in the world but I do know that like many other citizens when I hear something that hurts the United States, I hate everything that has to do with it. Although this is not the correct thing to do, it’s just how we all are. Hearing this story definitely changed my thoughts though. What we Americans need to realize is that their not all terrorists, we can not base a few peoples actions on the entire country. When listening to the fact on Mohammad was taken away from his family for several years it really bothered me. I could not imagine the pain Nasim or his family members felt. Then when it went into detail about how he was hung from chains and it was mandatory that he received electric shocks , when he was being looked at the wrong way I realized how important it is to keep up on the facts. Because just like Mohammad a lot of people are looked at the wrong way just because of where they are from. We are all humans and we all need to be treated the same way, and we all need to remain innocent until proven guilty. A mistake is a mistake but I feel like they happen way to much in Afghanistan due to 9/11. I also do not agree about the level of fear that American citizens have for these countries. I think it is an absolute shame, but at the same time do we have a reason to be afraid of all those people? A friend of mine was sent over seas to fight war on terror and when he returned he always talked about how children in those countries would walk up to them and hand them a bottle of water (even if it was all they had), he always mentioned how happy they were to see the soldiers and how they treated them the way an American would act toward a movie star. Because we have the privilege (for the most part) to live in the type of government we live in, I think we should want to help other countries that are struggling. Yeah maybe helping other countries don’t benefit us but as humans we should feel that much better with ourselves knowing we made a difference. However, the United States Department of Defense needs to figure out a way to track down those people who are definitely a threat to us Americans, and need to figure out a way to make sure that they are indeed a threat, not just because of where they come from.