He was behind 3 other people, all of which were African American. As he was standing there, the cashier started calling trying to get the attention of the sociology teacher. When my sociology teacher finally realized this and gave her his attention she called him to the front. He thought it was because he needed to tell her something at first but quickly realized that it was because she was planning on ringing him up. He suddenly became stunned and immediately retorted to this absurd notion that he should be allowed to cut line. The cashier didn’t understand why he was so “unsettled” by this. It was completely typical behavior for white people to cut in front of blacks in the grocery line, among other things. The n word among other insulting names are still common jargon down in the south. It’d be nice to think that all of America, that all of the world, is just done being shallow and pedantic, but that isn’t the case. As much as I wish I could be naïve and believe that the world is over all of this racism, it’s not even close. SOC119 has taught me that. So to hear that segregation is present more now than ever just isn’t as shocking to me as it should be. And that’s all the more heartbreaking.

It used to be acceptable for white people openly discriminate against minorities strictly due to race. If you were white, you could walk down the street and call racial slurs to someone of colored skin without worrying about repercussions. This primitive behavior made it acceptable to segregate pretty much everything. This included supermarkets, buses, even schools. It was as if those of colored skin tainted everything they touched and everywhere they went. Even though this behavior is completely bizarre in my mind, its not as if this attitude has completely diminished. Unfortunately it’s quite prominent in today’s world. I remember recently, my one sociology professor shared a story with me before taking this class. So I was still relatively blind to what racism and prejudices still existed in contemporary society and I believed the best in people; what a joke. Well my sociology professor went down south not to long ago to visit family. He was down there for a month during the summer break so he had a little bit of time to immerse himself into the community but he said there was even some things that he could just never get used to. This instance came to the top of his mind. He went to the grocery market to do normal food shopping, and felt as if everything was like any other supermarket. It wasn’t until he went up to the register to check out that things became shocking to him. He was in line for a normal register where a white person was the cashier, not that he picked the register for that reason.

For example, I had to carry hay out to the chickens every morning, so instead of being able to sleep out and value friends more than work, I made sure to be home every night a grew a sense of responsibility. I like how being born into a wealthy family has put me amongst other wealthy family’s where I created connections. I don’t resent it. I can’t say that I am strong enough to walk away from nepotism, I have watched kids who are. I find nepotism comforting and convenient, I embrace it.

Eventually he ends up pursuing a career as a construction worker until his body is too old to take it anymore. Faced with two completely different lifestyles it’s easy to point out how neither individual was able to choose what kind of family they were born into. This lead to creating a psyche that valued different things and gave them different lifestyles. If the poor man had been motivated to become wealthy, he could have pursued a higher education and created connections for himself. Visa-versa, the wealthy child could have chosen to step out on their own and start a life without her family’s help. Since I find myself relating more to the wealthy individual, I can understand his/her lifestyle. I very much appreciate the way that my father was an alumni here and how that could have helped in getting me in. I also like how he raised me doing chores that most people wouldn’t dream of making their children do.

I never knew the exact word given to “connections”, but nepotism seems to fit is as best as the next word to come along. A few weeks ago, if one can recall from then, that we had a lecture discussing whether we believe if one benefits from factors within their control or outside of their control, this question yet again stumbles into my mind. When it comes to nepotism, I can’t help but think of whether this can be something within one’s own control. To better explain, one is born into a wealthy family considered pretty high up on the socialite ladder, the child of such a family goes to an amazing prep school and then the family name gets them into an amazing ivy-league college where they are offered a full time position in a stock firm before even graduating. On the other side of the fence, a young individual whose parents left him for dead grew up in an extremely poor neighborhood where street smarts were valued more than academic smarts. Because of this, he never has the finances, opportunity or motivation to go to a good school or even continue on to a higher education.

Uncomfortable is a term that I don’t know how it makes me feel. So when confronted with the question about any issue, about being uncomfortable, I become unsure of how I feel. I can say that I disapprove of some of the things that were said during the lecture of “the needy penis”, so yes maybe it did make me “uncomfortable”. After boiling it all down there are a few feelings that arose from within myself. I enjoyed most of what Sam and his wife had to say, but some of it also upset me. I am an outspoken individual so I can openly confess that I am one of the few women who is actually fortunate enough to have an orgasm majority of the times that I have sexual intercourse. With this said, I would like to address the fact that the presentation made it appear as though so many women need sex to be a certain way, like an emotional, sensual, in depth experience.

It has become more acceptable in some areas that females are having plenty of sex before and/or after marriage. Females are becoming more and more independent, and due to this new found self, embrace their sexual status more. This has caused plenty of girls to be one hundred percent comfortable with their sexual activity, and also caused girls to view sex in a less emotional manner. There are many females who would prefer to bring a guy home, do the dirty, and then have them leave. No necessity for talking or foreplay, just straight sex with no added baggage. A perfect example of this is the movie that was recently released staring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher titled No Strings Attached. The values that are apparent in the beginning of this movie have become the ideals of many people today. So to give the idea to so many people that girls view sex in a certain light I believe is misleading and that is what makes me “uncomfortable”.

I can only speak for myself and the other women that have confided their feelings on such an issue in me and say that this is not always so and by telling 700 individuals that this is usually the case, you’re stepping on thin ice. People change throughout the generations, society and social values reshape all the time. So the ideology that females need more time to warm up to sex or that girls do view sex the same as guys is only looking through a one way mirror. I know I am also in a biased position and that as a young adult in college who have guys with overactive hormones around me constantly that I would naturally be on the other side of the spectrum but I am trying to make my point valid. In today’s world there are still a significant amount of people that believe in double standards for men and women when it comes to sex, but as you can already see where I am going with this, times are constantly changing.

To the best of my memory, this man said “watch where you’re going curry-muncher”. Now growing up in a loud home, among a bunch of people with a type-a personality (including myself) and learning to cut my own path in life, I had picked up quite the cajones along the way. Without even think twice my voice rose to a level loud enough for at least people within a 30 foot vicinity heard me over the music say “Excuse me you pathetic POS, who exactly do you think you are insulting a beautiful lady with slurs of a food that she is actually allergic to. You couldn’t get a girl as gorgeous as her to even dance with, you’re lucky enough the she brushed your arm you ugly f***.” Thinking back on it I’m sure there was a more responsible way in which to handle the situation but it was a reaction, I couldn’t just let some jackass hurt my friend in such a barbaric manner. So I know what I would do/have done in such situations. Now all you can do is look in the mirror and ask yourself, what will you do?

When reflecting on my own actions, I can remember a specific example. I hadn’t had many black individuals in my high school, but before moving to the suburban area that I still call home, I had lived in the depths of Philadelphia. Here I met an array of people, from many backgrounds. When visiting the city one weekend, my best friend (who’s white), myself (I am also white) and our friend Sarah (who is of a middle-eastern descent) decided to go out on the town. We went to a common club (which will remain nameless as to not change anyone’s opinions of the club due to the actions of one individual) and started of the night having a blast. We danced, we met people, and were just all around enjoying ourselves. This bliss was soon brought to a halt. While moving from one dance floor to the other, we ran into one of the club promoters on the steps. As soon as my friend (the middle-eastern one), which was the one who had actually made physical contact with this man, was about to say sorry, the man blurted out the most heinous thing.