Gay people are constantly being discriminated upon in this society. But the real question is why? I think the biggest reason strait people have a problem with homosexuality, is that they have trouble understanding why the person thinks the way they do. However, many people are not confortable with assuming that people were born this way. Many people believe that this was a choice and because god clearly states that marriage is between a man and a woman in the bible, people cannot be born gay.
I think the biggest way people are comforted with homosexuality is they believe that people are making their choice on their own, and with their choice comes consequences from god. However, many homosexuals rebuke this. They say, we did not have a choice to be gay. We were simply born this way. So, if gays clearly state this, than why do people still believe it? I think it has to do with the way people grow up and the culture they have surrounded themselves. They have grown up in a community that has preached that marriage and all real love, is between a man and women Many have seen nothing to change this view. So when they are confronted with homosexuality they quickly dismiss it as a wrong thing. Than, they try to figure out their reasoning and rationale for it.
They are comforted when they believe it is a choice, because if they believe that they were born this way, than everything they have been taught since they were little can come into question. Because they believe that marriage can only become with a man and a women, they see this act as a choice against god. This belief comes from the bible where many Christians believe and were taught this growing up as kids. If they are forced to learn that people are born this way it will contradict what they were taught and people have a hard time believing against it. This does not make it right but it does make them feel more confortable.
I do so believe that homosexuals are not always making a choice to love who they love, that they are born with that way. It’s a shame that many people do not see that they are the same as anyone else. People have to find reasoning to understand something they don’t know of. This next generation has grown up much more tolerant. These same prejudices will not carry on to the next generation. People should not have to be comforted when it comes to the question of homosexuality. They will soon understand that it is not a choice that they are making but, they are born this way.

The subject of abortion is a very delicate subject to begin with merely because there are so many different opinions, scenarios, and ways to look at it. Depending on how religious, or conservative a person is, or if the pregnancy was intended or not, there are loads of different ways to form opinions on whether abortion should be the right choice or not. And the correct way that abortion should be dealt with is to look at each scenario where it is an option and to determine whether it is the best alternative or not. In the case of rape causing pregnancy, it appears to me that abortion would be an obviously beneficial decision to help the woman who became pregnant from a rape. It should not be a decision that is voted on by the people in congress. A woman should have the right to do to her own body whatever she feels is necessary to keep her healthy and free. It is not hard to empathize with a woman with regards to her unplanned pregnancy due to a rape, or even just a complication with the method of conception that is being used. As a man, I can easily imagine myself in a woman’s shoes with an unexpected pregnancy, and I would be scared shitless. I would be unprepared, and potentially trapped for the next year with a baby in me, and then after it is born the decision whether or not I can afford to keep an infant with my career and my current income. An unexpected pregnancy could ruin the life of a woman, however this can easily be avoided at the expense of an abortion. As unethical, unorthodox, and inhumane abortion sounds like at first thought, once you think about the overall affect on a woman’s entire life an unexpected pregnancy would have it is impossible to rule out abortion as an alternative method of birth control. Ultimately, I feel that it is not the responsibility of the lawmakers to decide the fate of the lives of the unfortunate women who are forced to endure the awful experience of unplanned pregnancy. The other aspect of abortion is the fact that it could be used as an all-too-casual method of birth control, which would be an ethical nightmare. Having the option to of abortion as a more casual form of birth control would be the gateway to even worse ethical decisions that could be made, and I feel that this is probably one of the major reasons why abortion is such a taboo topic to talk about. In summary, I feel that under the right circumstances abortion has the potential to be a beneficial way to control unplanned pregnancies, so long as it is a controlled and monitored practice.

The first African American gentleman seems a bit uppity by the way he is glaring at the cameraman. His very urban outfit screams unnecessary, and groups him into the standard hoodlum that usually wears those kind of clothes. The headphones indicate that he is a music listener, probably of heavy foul mouthed rap music and provocative hip hop. His sunglasses in the building do also say that he is shady and does not want others to see his facial expressions.
The next African American gentleman is automatically grouped in with the first ones stereotype because of his style of clothing and color of skin. He seems to hate authority by the way he sits while on camera, giving a “I hate the world” face while chewing on some object. His overall demeanor is very unprofessional and leads these thoughts to be shared by most.
The first white women is a well kept girl that was raised by a full family, a trait probably not shared with the first two. She seems like she enjoys knitting and going to church on Sundays. She is probably dating a nice gentlemen, and is receiving good grades in her classes. I am thinking she is a nursing major or something of that status. She is a probably a virgin, and keeps good relations with all of her friends. She tends to talk behind her friends backs but they never find out because of her always friendly disposition.
The first white kid is clearly a very studious individual. He looks to the camera with a uneasiness and appears frightened to be surrounded by the company that is in the room. He definitely has a high GPA and is looking to be an engineer. He spends a lot of his nights studying past the expected homework that he is given, and is enticed by a lot of Japanese comics, also known as Manga to the educated reader. His hobbies include chess, fly fishing, and video gaming.
The third African American gentlemen seems to be a burly guy who had to fight his way to the top. He had a rough upbringing and is always nervous about what people might say, so he covers up that insecurity with brute force. The tipped baseball cap hides his face, which could be because of his unwillingness to appear on camera or his possible dabbling in cannabis before the video shooting. He unfortunately has a criminal record which includes armed robbery and harassment. He is working hard to get his life back on track but finds it hard to take the thug out of the man.
The fourth African American gentlemen seems a bit perturbed, almost like he was just woken up and pulled from bed. His appearance is less than appealing and he clearly does not care about the thoughts of his contemporaries. I believe he probably has a nice mom that is pushing him to get out of his ways.
This woman seems to be a teacher, and very polite. She is probably a good baker and has a nice family. She has birthed three successful children and is now hoping to put them through ivy league colleges.

The majority of today’s Native American population has been forced to live on reservations where conditions are insufficient. Before this class, I was unaware of this injustice that is occurring to Native Americans. It is unacceptable how they are forced to live in these reservations where living conditions are comparable to Third World countries. To think that someday I could be in the same position of this group brings an unsettling feeling to me. Even the health of Native Americans is being affected by their current situation. They trail other Americans in life expectancy by about five years and they have inadequate health care. Most Native Americans rely on the Indian Health Service for health care, which only covers about 60% of their health needs. It brings fear to me to think one day our civilization could be taken over and forced into these conditions. It is known that the Native Americans were in this country before the English took over and this very well could happen to us. If this were to happen, both my culture and my dignity would be destroyed. I believe that crime rates would increase, suicide rates would increase, and unemployment rates would increase. I believe crime rates would increase because the state of mind of Americans would change and cause them to change their behavior. Suicide rates would increase because depression would skyrocket and as of now, Native Americans are 82% more likely to die from the act of suicide. I believe unemployment rates would increase because Native Americans now face high unemployment rates compared to other Americans. Also, I feel like I would face discrimination in the workplace and it would be difficult to obtain a job. If I were forced into lands with these conditions, I would fight back and do whatever I could to get myself out of that position. The citizens of this country should be doing more to help the Native Americans improve their life just because of the thought that either my future generations or me could be faced with the same problem. Now that I am more knowledgeable about their current situation, I want to do more to increase their quality of life. It is wrong how we have labeled ourselves as superiors and forced Native Americans into poverty stricken areas. There is nothing stopping any other country or group to try to do the same thing as the English years ago. I do believe in karma and we could very well be put into the same situation. This thought leaves me very frightened and I know someone needs to put an end to this injustice. It is wrong how Native Americans were forced into the reservations and will always be wrong.

I believe that affirmative action is imperative in today’s ever increasingly diverse society. African Americans and other less prominent minorities were so harshly discriminated against in the early 1900s that they were barely able to penetrate the workforce to grasp a foothold in the quickly developing society. The after affect of this segregation in society has had a strong impact on the socioeconomic status of minorities today. We saw in class that the majority of the lower socioeconomic classes are minorities, and this fact can be directly attributed to the discrimination against them throughout history. Affirmative action is kind of a way to help repair the wrongs that were done to minorities in the past. It is important that minorities are granted this affirmative action to basically give them an equal opportunity at getting a place in the workforce. At the same time however, I personally believe that if two people have the same qualities that adequately meet the criteria for a job then the minority should not be chosen just because of affirmative action. Also, if affirmative action is used and less qualified minorities are getting jobs over better qualified people then that is just the wrong way to look at the problem of minorities being stuck in the lower classes. And also when companies are looking for government money and have to meet diversity quotas then the quality of employee could drop if the employer begins to look solely at race and not about job skills. Affirmative action is also a form of racism, and it is racist against white people. From this standpoint affirmative action can be viewed as a form of racism where instead of minorities being the target, white people are the target. Affirmative is not about equality, it is still just another way to discriminate against races but it targets the majority. Why should a black person get into a college over me when we have equal test scores and I came from a better school with a better education? It is anti capitalism to use things like affirmative action. However, affirmative action does provide less fortunate people and minorities with an opportunity to achieve in ways that they never could have without it. Affirmative action gives gifted people who would have normally not had a chance to use their intelligence a chance to improve their social status in society in ways that they never could have without affirmative action. In my opinion the best thing about affirmative action is that it provides hope for people who would normally not have had any chance at all to get to higher levels in society, and the morale improvement in the lower classes that it can provide is crucial to helping them to keep improving and not give up on the chance of a better life.

It is a very difficult question to ask ourselves, should we take it upon ourselves to help people who are born into less fortunate situations? There is no simple answer, however there is an appropriate way to handle this situation. Even though nobody is responsible for people being born into less fortunate situations, everybody who is living in comfortable living conditions should be able to think about people like the ones living in Haiti for example, and sympathize with them as human beings living on the same planet. People sitting at home on their comfortable couches watching Sunday night football without a care in the world should be able to set some time aside and think about what they would feel like living in Haiti in the shoes of a person living in poverty and ruins of a country, barely able to feed themselves let alone their families. The impact that one person in America can have on a person in Haiti is unbelievable. The smallest amounts of money donated can buy medical supplies for hundreds of people, and simple foods like rice to feed families for long periods of time. Contributions like this take minimal time and very little resources away from most of us living comfortably in America, and we should feel a sense of brotherhood with the people in less fortunate countries like Haiti. Looking at the original question again, it is really nobody’s responsibility to help a less fortunate country with starving people. Responsibility is not the correct word to use with this. It should be people’s duty to help less fortunate people who have no good fortune. People should help each other out because we all deserve to have the same opportunities, even though some of us are born into awful circumstances. Its luck of the draw where you are born into, and it is not right to completely ignore the fact that people are suffering in a different country without a chance to improve their living conditions. People should be regarded as a single race, no matter where they are from or what conditions they are forced to live in, and it is simply ignorant to neglect the opportunity to make a huge difference in someone’s life for the better. If you cant take the time to help out another human being than you are really wasting your time on this planet because it is inhumane to ignore the sufferings of other people with callousness. Personally, I usually believe that each and every person should be entitled to their own opinion on everything, so not everyone can be expected to on the duty of helping people who are less fortunate, but it’s the people who help other people that make the world a better place.

What we as men are conveying through our preference for hairless women is that we are pressuring women into forcefully accepting the societal norm to shave their bodies and conform. It is not right that men have this strong of an influence where they can a completely determine what the societal norm is for the opposite gender. However, at the same time as men are influencing the what women are expected to do to their bodies, women have the opportunity to be independent and feel free to do what they want to their bodies. I feel like at the same time as it is an expected societal norm for women to shave their bodies, most women probably shave their bodies for the same reason that men shave their faces or maintain hair growth on the bodies, and this reason is that its another practical part of maintaining hygienic practices. In this light, shaving bodies could be compared to brushing teeth or getting haircuts. It’s just another practical hygienic practice. But also, if a woman doesn’t want to shave her body she merely doesn’t shave her body. Not all women shave their legs; it’s a certain demographic that this standard applies to. Plenty of women do choose to not shave their legs, and it is fine that they decide to do so. They should be entitled to their own opinions and their own freedom of expression however they want. This concept doesn’t apply to just women though; all people should be entitled to keep their personal preferences how they want them. Nobody should feel condemned to abide by anybody else’s preferences or live up to another person’s standards. A good way to think about this subject, is the phrase, “To each his own.” If people can empathize with phrase then they can realize that everyone has their own idiosyncratic personal preferences and things that they like to do that nobody else does. People should not criticize others for their personal life decisions. Nor should they feel that they need to abide by other peoples norms. The best example of this confidence and courage is the girl from Ohio State who had a beard. She was very aware that no other women have beards except for one thing, her religion told her that the body she was given by the creator was sacred, was should not be altered from its natural composition. This girl did not worry about what other people thought, or what other women did with their facial hair. She kept her own beliefs and did not judge other people for their interpretations of what she was doing. She handled the situation in a role model way in that she kept her personal beliefs separate from her judgments of other people’s beliefs.

Hip hop as an art form can be a very powerful and persuasive way to take pop culture, and use its widespread demographic fan base to send messages to the public. In the case of Omar Offendum, he uses his skills in hip hop to help unite to different groups of people who have very skewed conceptions of each other. In America, the general attitude towards Muslims and middle easterners of all faiths and ethnicities is very negative. In the Middle East, the people have no hostile or negative feelings toward Americans, even though we have had military forces in and out of the Middle East for the past decade almost. Through his song, Omar rapped about how our cultures should learn more about each other, and try to eradicate the ignorance that separates us. His main lyrical catch in the song was about how he is torn between his identity as a Syrian from the Middle East, and his identity as an American kid right now. The personal affect that his performance had on me was very powerful, and I felt that I could strongly relate to him as an American kid through our mutual love of hip hop, and from that empathy I realized that I could listen to his message and hear his message so much more seriously. Omar has seen both worlds first hand, America and his home in Syria, and he knows just what it is like in both places, so his message has that much more credibility to it, which helps him reach his audience much more effectively. After listening to him speak to us in class for only a brief period of time, I had a lot of respect for this kid. He is tackling an extremely difficult issue, and doing such a good job of it. He is an ambassador between cultures, and his message is universally applicable for all types of people to learn from. Hip hop as an art form can be used not only to unite America and the Middle East, but an artist can communicate any message they want and make it much more appealing because it’s through an art form. People would not want to attend a 2 hour lecture on race relations, but a hip hop concert, definitely. Regardless of what the context of the concert is, hip hop is such an appealing art form that people with no idea about the message or cause beforehand will leave one of Omar’s shows with a new perspective on people of different cultures and races. It’s this simple allure of art that is so basic, but so powerful that makes hip hop such a perfect way to spread knowledge on a subject like this.

The underlying concept that Sam is trying to address is really that we should focus on people’s differences, and make a conscious effort to understand people and not misinterpret them or treat them differently because of their differences. I personally believe that no matter how different a person is from you, you should simply treat them as if they are the same as you, which is not exactly what Sam is getting at. We aren’t supposed to treat everyone the same, treat everyone nicely for who they are and their specialness and uniqueness. Sam made the reference in class about the girl in the wheelchair, and how her friends sometimes forget that she’s even in a wheelchair and will sometimes try to take the stairs, simply because they have chosen to ignore the fact that their good friend is in a wheelchair. This is nice, but it’s also ignorant to forget that your close friend is in a wheelchair. The way that they should look at their friend in the wheelchair is that since she is different, they cannot go forgetting about her differences. It’s nice to kind of forget about her being handicapped, but it’s not nice at all to ignore the fact that she’s handicapped.
Also, when attempting to eliminate differences by learning more about them, we can also learn that we are similarly different to others. For example, when you look at the small sample of radical Muslims who have been involved with the terrorist incidents, you cannot simply judge their entire race by a trivial sample of radicals. Same thing with PSU students and the incident last year. Not every PSU student has tendencies identical to Jerry Sandusky, but people somehow still stereotype the school as being less than it used to be, which is ignorant, and judged from a small sample. It is not right, and very inaccurate to stereotype like this.
People should be more interested in other people, and not as self-concerned as the current norm. By having an interest in other people, you can learn so much more about them, and yourself. For example, if one of my friends is not being nice to me, instead of avoiding them, I should ask them what’s wrong, or why they are upset. That’s just a personality issue though, and less of a racial issue, but it can still be applied to different fronts. To apply this to a racial difference issue, or to an issue of ethnicity you could just approach a person of color, and simply ask about their culture. Ignorance is the root of a lot of problems, so the key to fixing a lot of these problems is eliminating ignorance in the general public, especially racial, or ethnic problems.

In class during the last week my eyes were really opened with respect to just how sensitive people of different ethnicities were to even the most sensitive of racial terms. For example, not since about fifty years ago were African Americans treated with any extreme form of racism, yet the difference between the terms people of color, and colored people, seemed to really hit a nerve in some people. I wish that people could learn to put the past in the past, and live in the present. There are no current forms of racism that are even remotely prominent in America right now, and with affirmative action and equal opportunity employment being prevalent right now, I don’t think that any type of “term” like black, white, Asian, etcetera, should be considered offensive, unless a racial slur is used. For example if a person of a different skin tone called me a honky in a derogatory, intentionally offensive manner, I would probably be offended. However, terms like white, black, even colored, are just adjectives, and are not said with any intentional offense or harm. I feel that only out of ignorance can these mild adjectives be seen as offensive.
Also in class, I feel that the most key aspect that allows us to truly benefit and gain perspective from this race relations class is empathy. However there is so much ignorance amongst the general population that it prohibits this empathy. The ability to think not about what people are saying, but why they are saying it allows us to more fully grasp what they are thinking and feeling about the topic. For example, when a person uses a racial adjective or color like black or white, they are not always attempting to differentiate, or classify what social cast or category that a person fits into; they are literally just describing a situation in a mildly racially insensitive way. Instead of referring to someone as black or Asian to create a sense of stereotypic empathy, they should instead use an adjective that would describe more accurately the situation that is present to help create less of a feeling of racial separation, but a feeling of unity. Sam made the reference in class about saying that there is a “black kid sleeping in the stairwell”, when really he could have said there is a young man or woman sleeping in the stairwell, and it would have made zero contextual difference in the description of the situation, however it would help to racially unify the situation for people who are still somewhat naively sensitive to a racial signifier like that. I feel that the key matter to realize here is that racially, ethnically, socially, whatever, we are all in the same group of Americans here, and that to help create a feeling of unity we should try to reduce the amount of racial signifiers that we use in dialogue.