Response 1: I am a colored person and I am of the Latino community. I have had many experiences with people of the homosexual community; first off, my experiences have been pleasant and absolutely nothing has gone wrong. In my life, I try to stray away from prior judgments and stereotypes. So, when I meet a gay person I see them as a regular individual, because I do not associate their sexual orientation with the content of their character. That being said, the gay people I have met in my life have been of different ethnic backgrounds and have had different personalities and characteristics. I strongly believe that being gay is not a choice, but a biological drive, just as my attraction to girls is natural; I did not choose to be straight. I have had gay friends, and I have also befriended people who knew he/she was gay but was too embarrassed to reveal it to the public; which I also feel is awful. A person should not be ashamed of who he/she is. One of my experiences was with a one of my mother’s co-workers, a teacher who teaches at her school. His name is Juan and he is a homosexual Puerto Rican. My mom is friends with him and she told my family and I that it took her a while to come to the realization that he was a gay Latino; because to her this was such a foreign concept. Being a devout roman-catholic immigrant from the Dominican Republic, my mother didn’t really comprehend how a fellow catholic Latino could be homosexual. I, on the other hand am a lot more open-minded and educated on that topic, so I didn’t judge him for it. Nor did I judge a friend from high school who “came out of the closet” our sophomore year. He was very delighted that his group of friends and I didn’t treat him any differently after he revealed that he was homosexual. I do not see a reason to do so. That is why I believe all laws against gays should be abolished; it is not correct, that in 2012, we, as a society, still have an acceptable form of open discrimination. As far as my family and culture goes, they are very close-minded and ignorant to the gay community. Most Latinos are Christian and believe that being homosexual is wrong. My parents have already told me that they are now accepting of gays because they believe it is the right thing to do. Other Latinos are not so compliant, to be honest. I wish this would change, because then we could move forward, as a more educated people; not a society stuck in the past.

: In Sociology class, we were shown the top salaries/average incomes of different ethnic groups in America. The graphic taught us that on average, Whites and Asians tend to earn more money than Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. To be honest, as a Hispanic, I was not surprised. There are many different reasons for why these statistics are the way they are. For starters, the institutionalized discrimination in America plays a major role in this (for Whites and Blacks especially). For whites, they arrived to a land inhabited by fairly peaceful people, and forced their way on to owned land. This gave whites a sort of “head start” against the other ethnic groups, but also began the demise of the Native American people (which is why they are dead last by a large margin in these rankings). Once Whites established themselves in this country, they brought over African slaves to further their domination upon North America. This began the suppression of the Blacks in America. Blacks and Native Americans make up the bottom two tiers for similar reasons; the two groups have been suppressed for the longest in this country. For example, a slave had nothing to his name, and later in his life was named a free man; he may be free, but he has nothing to his name. How could you possibly expect this man to compete with a former slave owner. Now, translated into modern times, blacks that can trace their lineage to former slaves have been many generations of relatives who lived a disadvantaged life and had to work extremely hard for what they had. This is evident in many urban areas in America today. Free slaves made huge migrations to modern cities in order to find work; these areas tend to have a lower socioeconomic status, because the slaves who established these neighborhoods began with very little resources. Native Americans (the few that are left after a massive genocide), share a similar story. An oppressed people forced out of their land and forced to live in “reservations”, which almost essentially assures they begin a working life with very little resources. For Hispanics (which I am), there are different reasons. During colonization many of today’s Hispanic nations were completely stripped of their resources by larger nations, which made it very hard for Hispanic nations to establish themselves (and their people) economically once they gained independence. Now, I’m not making excuses for these cultures, because many people of these ethnicities do work extremely hard, despite their disadvantages, to make an honest and good living for themselves; but, it is psychologically hard to be surrounded by disadvantaged people and try to imagine yourself getting out of it. In the case of Asian people, I attribute their successes to numbers/population (as Sam mentioned in class), and their Confucius values; a set of morals that strongly promoted hard work and ethics; the slaves and Hispanic nations did not have this. Ultimately hard work can take individuals out of an unwanted position in the socioeconomic latter (in my opinion), but your starting position fully dictates how much work you will have to do in order to reach the top

I personally am glad that Sam enlightened most of the class today, who seemed to be unaware of the fact that race and ethnicity are two distinctly different labels, which society normally (and unconsciously) groups into one. Basically when we see someone’s face, we automatically assume something about him/her; what race category he or she falls into, and from there, we make judgments (essentially) on his or her culture/way of life. This was proved in class today, as Sam put different pictures up and we were asked to guess the person’s race. The two that stood out the most to me, were the one that asked which one of the two faces were Russian. Automatically, I knew Putin was one of the faces, and I also thought to myself, “why would Sam ask this question?”. That’s when I remembered that in the Siberian region of Russia exists many colonies of indigenous “eskimos” who appear Asian and/or Native American in their facial features. That is why I knew the correct answer to this question; that both faces were Russian. But, if were to see one of the face of the woman on the street, we wouldn’t normally think that. The second picture test which spoke volumes to me, was the one that asked which one of the faces was Latino. I, being Dominican (Latino)- know that Latinos come in all colors, shapes, and sizes- so I again, asked myself, “why would Sam ask this question?”. The faces included an indigenous tribe member of South America and two boys of African descent (the two choices I thought threw people off the most), but again, I have met many Latinos in my life, and I realized that they were all Latino. Being Dominican, I know that many African slaves were brought to the island of Hispaniola after the arrival of Columbus, so there is a large black population in the Caribbean. I assumed Sam was referring to these two sub-cultures, and that’s how I was able to answer the question correctly. The indigenous face was from the mountains of Peru, and the two boys of African descent were from Cuba. Many people were appalled when Sam said that all of the faces were Latino, including a man who appeared Caucasian that was from Mexico. As a Latino, I’m happy that my peers were educated a little bit on my culture and the people of it. This also had an effect on me personally because; I am a Latino of color who appears mixed. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have thought that I was melato, Indian, Middle Eastern, or Egyptian (that one has become popular recently). But I am Dominican, so it was delightful to see that my peers learned that Latinos come in a variety of colors.

I believe free will has had a lot to do with where I find myself today. In every situation (unless it comes down to life or death), we essentially have a choice or a method of how we are going to deal with that given scenario. For example, although there is a direct correlation between SAT scores and annual household income, there are many confounding variables that could affect this relationship. For example, I am a firm believer in the saying: the school does not make the student, but the student makes the school. I have seen many students who attend disadvantaged schools for most of their lives and go on to prestigious universities and achieve great things. Just because you go to a disadvantaged school, does not mean you have to automatically give yourself a disadvantaged future. Which is why I believe that the relationship between SAT scores and annual household income can be misleading in regards to free will vs determinism. Just like many students have said in class, it is all about the mindset of the individual; is it more difficult to have a good and proper mindset when your environment is extremely undesirable? Of course it is. But is it impossible? No. In the past, one could argue that government was completely against them (for people of color), but nowadays it is hard to make that case. Though, most people of color start at an unfair position in the economic ladder, is not impossible to climb up; many have done it and are currently doing it. In my example, both of my parents came from a third-world country (Dominican Republic) in which they strived and worked their rear-ends off to become professionals in their country. They then came to a new country (the United States) and essentially had to do it all over again; by learning a new language, re-earning their degrees via entrance exams, and supporting a family. If you were to go back to my parent’s hometowns, you wouldn’t think that any of those people would have any chances at becoming professionals in the economic superhouse that is America; but my parents did. This was the example set for me; if you want something, and are willing to sacrifice and work for it, you can have it. Is it harder for minorities to achieve these goals? Yes. But again, it is not impossible; and if you continue to tell yourself it is, you will only make it harder on yourself. Now, are there people who desperately need help? Yes. But many of those people put themselves in that positions via free will; they either are drug addicts (or former), or had children they could not support (in the case of Tammy). This argument can go back and forth, but I honestly believe that free will played a major role in helping me, and others, get to where we are today.

I believe free will has had a lot to do with where I find myself today. In every situation (unless it comes down to life or death), we essentially have a choice or a method of how we are going to deal with that given scenario. For example, although there is a direct correlation between SAT scores and annual household income, there are many confounding variables that could affect this relationship. For example, I am a firm believer in the saying: the school does not make the student, but the student makes the school. I have seen many students who attend disadvantaged schools for most of their lives and go on to prestigious universities and achieve great things. Just because you go to a disadvantaged school, does not mean you have to automatically give yourself a disadvantaged future. Which is why I believe that the relationship between SAT scores and annual household income can be misleading in regards to free will vs determinism. Just like many students have said in class, it is all about the mindset of the individual; is it more difficult to have a good and proper mindset when your environment is extremely undesirable? Of course it is. But is it impossible? No. In the past, one could argue that government was completely against them (for people of color), but nowadays it is hard to make that case. Though, most people of color start at an unfair position in the economic ladder, is not impossible to climb up; many have done it and are currently doing it. In my example, both of my parents came from a third-world country (Dominican Republic) in which they strived and worked their rear-ends off to become professionals in their country. They then came to a new country (the United States) and essentially had to do it all over again; by learning a new language, re-earning their degrees via entrance exams, and supporting a family. If you were to go back to my parent’s hometowns, you wouldn’t think that any of those people would have any chances at becoming professionals in the economic superhouse that is America; but my parents did. This was the example set for me; if you want something, and are willing to sacrifice and work for it, you can have it. Is it harder for minorities to achieve these goals? Yes. But again, it is not impossible; and if you continue to tell yourself it is, you will only make it harder on yourself. Now, are there people who desperately need help? Yes. But many of those people put themselves in that positions via free will; they either are drug addicts (or former), or had children they could not support (in the case of Tammy). This argument can go back and forth, but I honestly believe that free will played a major role in helping me, and others, get to where we are today.

Response 5: In Sociology class, we were shown the top salaries/average incomes of different ethnic groups in America. The graphic taught us that on average, Whites and Asians tend to earn more money than Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. To be honest, as a Hispanic, I was not surprised. There are many different reasons for why these statistics are the way they are. For starters, the institutionalized discrimination in America plays a major role in this (for Whites and Blacks especially). For whites, they arrived to a land inhabited by fairly peaceful people, and forced their way on to owned land. This gave whites a sort of “head start” against the other ethnic groups, but also began the demise of the Native American people (which is why they are dead last by a large margin in these rankings). Once Whites established themselves in this country, they brought over African slaves to further their domination upon North America. This began the suppression of the Blacks in America. Blacks and Native Americans make up the bottom two tiers for similar reasons; the two groups have been suppressed for the longest in this country. For example, a slave had nothing to his name, and later in his life was named a free man; he may be free, but he has nothing to his name. How could you possibly expect this man to compete with a former slave owner. Now, translated into modern times, blacks that can trace their lineage to former slaves have been many generations of relatives who lived a disadvantaged life and had to work extremely hard for what they had. This is evident in many urban areas in America today. Free slaves made huge migrations to modern cities in order to find work; these areas tend to have a lower socioeconomic status, because the slaves who established these neighborhoods began with very little resources. Native Americans (the few that are left after a massive genocide), share a similar story. An oppressed people forced out of their land and forced to live in “reservations”, which almost essentially assures they begin a working life with very little resources. For Hispanics (which I am), there are different reasons. During colonization many of today’s Hispanic nations were completely stripped of their resources by larger nations, which made it very hard for Hispanic nations to establish themselves (and their people) economically once they gained independence. Now, I’m not making excuses for these cultures, because many people of these ethnicities do work extremely hard, despite their disadvantages, to make an honest and good living for themselves; but, it is psychologically hard to be surrounded by disadvantaged people and try to imagine yourself getting out of it. In the case of Asian people, I attribute their successes to numbers/population (as Sam mentioned in class), and their Confucius values; a set of morals that strongly promoted hard work and ethics; the slaves and Hispanic nations did not have this. Ultimately hard work can take individuals out of an unwanted position in the socioeconomic latter (in my opinion), but your starting position fully dictates how much work you will have to do in order to reach the top.

In relation to Dr Jones’ statement on story-telling, it’s all about rumors. I thought the experiments he conducted in class were extremely interesting. He was able to openly demonstrate a lot of flaws we, as the class (and partly as a society), have when it comes to communicating with each other. For example, when people were bidding over one dollar to get a one dollar bill; this just shows that sometimes people do things just to “one-up” someone else. This happens in discussions as well; people will try and speak over each other and will never truly hear the opinions of others; we cannot advance like that. That is also why people unconsciously change stories while hearing them. Even if it is small, people will morph a story into what they want it to be. Dr. Jones states that this is because people of different races think differently and therefore will have different perspectives of the same story. If only we could hear a story and see it from the narrator’s perspective, maybe rumors wouldn’t be so shambled. Dr. Jones went on to say that for some people telling, a very climatic part of a story is difficult (maybe because it “strikes a nerve”), and if that part is not told, the entire story changes. For example, if a white person tells a story that involves the “n word”, they may not want to say it, or even mention it, and therefore will leave it out of the story altogether. That same example actually happened in class, and it was the first major change in the story telling experiment. Which brings me to my next statement; people shouldn’t be so uncomfortable with words, especially if they’re not being said in an offensive manner. Dr Jones suggests that we give these words too much power over us, and this is why they can affect us so deeply. I completely agree. Racist words govern how so many of us act; this was extremely evident during our lecture on political correctness. One girl unknowingly offended someone with a term that actually sounded like it was politically correct (colored people). In my opinion, the girl had a right to be offended, but she was also too sensitive. These words only have as much power as you choose to give them. You can’t heal all of the ignorance in the world, because we’re all ignorant in certain aspects. That is why you can’t hold innocent ignorance against some people; choose to peacefully educate them instead. Dr Jones tackled many major issues in our society by clearly demonstrating them to us via his interesting social experiments and the lessons I took from them were: walk in someone else’s shoes, hear people’s opinions, and learn to accepts others for what and who they are.

I personally am glad that Sam enlightened most of the class today, who seemed to be unaware of the fact that race and ethnicity are two distinctly different labels, which society normally (and unconsciously) groups into one. Basically when we see someone’s face, we automatically assume something about him/her; what race category he or she falls into, and from there, we make judgments (essentially) on his or her culture/way of life. This was proved in class today, as Sam put different pictures up and we were asked to guess the person’s race. The two that stood out the most to me, were the one that asked which one of the two faces were Russian. Automatically, I knew Putin was one of the faces, and I also thought to myself, “why would Sam ask this question?”. That’s when I remembered that in the Siberian region of Russia exists many colonies of indigenous “eskimos” who appear Asian and/or Native American in their facial features. That is why I knew the correct answer to this question; that both faces were Russian. But, if were to see one of the face of the woman on the street, we wouldn’t normally think that. The second picture test which spoke volumes to me, was the one that asked which one of the faces was Latino. I, being Dominican (Latino)- know that Latinos come in all colors, shapes, and sizes- so I again, asked myself, “why would Sam ask this question?”. The faces included an indigenous tribe member of South America and two boys of African descent (the two choices I thought threw people off the most), but again, I have met many Latinos in my life, and I realized that they were all Latino. Being Dominican, I know that many African slaves were brought to the island of Hispaniola after the arrival of Columbus, so there is a large black population in the Caribbean. I assumed Sam was referring to these two sub-cultures, and that’s how I was able to answer the question correctly. The indigenous face was from the mountains of Peru, and the two boys of African descent were from Cuba. Many people were appalled when Sam said that all of the faces were Latino, including a man who appeared Caucasian that was from Mexico. As a Latino, I’m happy that my peers were educated a little bit on my culture and the people of it. This also had an effect on me personally because; I am a Latino of color who appears mixed. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have thought that I was melato, Indian, Middle Eastern, or Egyptian (that one has become popular recently). But I am Dominican, so it was delightful to see that my peers learned that Latinos come in a variety of colors.

, for one, agree with Sam’s theory which states: you have to first, recognize someone’s difference, and make it part of your reality (really focus on it), to ultimately end up accepting that difference. Even though this seems incorrect and odd, it really is the only way you can become comfortable with a difference. The only thing Sam’s theory was missing in my opinion, was that a person actually has to want to deeply accept the difference; by this I mean that, you can’t just say you want to accept a difference for the sake of society or just because ‘it’s the right thing to do’, you, as a person have to actually want the difference in your life. The second step would then be for the person with the difference to become comfortable and accepting of it. Because if the “different” person isn’t comfortable with his/her difference, he or she can never hope for anyone else to be accepting of it. For example, if a person were to suffer from a terrible accident and somehow become permanently paralyzed, or even someone who is diagnosed with a chronic disease; that person must be comfortable with their sudden change (which is extremely difficult to accept), in order for other people and society to let that change become their reality. In my experiences it took a lot of maturing before I was able to realize that Sam’s theory is indeed true. For example, I have a little cousin who suffers from autism. Obviously, I’ve known him since we were very young and I remember being a child (innocent and ignorant as most children are), and no knowing exactly what disease he had. My parents would try and explain it to me, but I could never fully grasp it until I was of age. Finally, when I realized that he was born with this disease and I was a bit more knowledgeable about it, I was able to become comfortable around him and let the disease become part of my reality. Today, when I see my cousin, I treat no different than I would treat any other family member. Mentally a lot of people in society are still children; in the sense that they are innocently ignorant to a lot of differences in the world. Not because they choose to be that way, but because they were not taught the differences and/or have not been exposed enough to them. As Sam states, we must consciously expose ourselves to differences and focus on them, in order to realize that they exist and ultimately, accept them. Though I fully agree with this, I will admit that it is quite difficult since society teaches you to ignore differences, because if we point them out, it may offend others.

I am a colored person and I am of the Latino community. I have had many experiences with people of the homosexual community; first off, my experiences have been pleasant and absolutely nothing has gone wrong. In my life, I try to stray away from prior judgments and stereotypes. So, when I meet a gay person I see them as a regular individual, because I do not associate their sexual orientation with the content of their character. That being said, the gay people I have met in my life have been of different ethnic backgrounds and have had different personalities and characteristics. I strongly believe that being gay is not a choice, but a biological drive, just as my attraction to girls is natural; I did not choose to be straight. I have had gay friends, and I have also befriended people who knew he/she was gay but was too embarrassed to reveal it to the public; which I also feel is awful. A person should not be ashamed of who he/she is. One of my experiences was with a one of my mother’s co-workers, a teacher who teaches at her school. His name is Juan and he is a homosexual Puerto Rican. My mom is friends with him and she told my family and I that it took her a while to come to the realization that he was a gay Latino; because to her this was such a foreign concept. Being a devout roman-catholic immigrant from the Dominican Republic, my mother didn’t really comprehend how a fellow catholic Latino could be homosexual. I, on the other hand am a lot more open-minded and educated on that topic, so I didn’t judge him for it. Nor did I judge a friend from high school who “came out of the closet” our sophomore year. He was very delighted that his group of friends and I didn’t treat him any differently after he revealed that he was homosexual. I do not see a reason to do so. That is why I believe all laws against gays should be abolished; it is not correct, that in 2012, we, as a society, still have an acceptable form of open discrimination. As far as my family and culture goes, they are very close-minded and ignorant to the gay community. Most Latinos are Christian and believe that being homosexual is wrong. My parents have already told me that they are now accepting of gays because they believe it is the right thing to do. Other Latinos are not so compliant, to be honest. I wish this would change, because then we could move forward, as a more educated people; not a society stuck in the past.