I think the majority of people would feel uncomfortable if they walked into a party if they were the only white person or only black person or whatever. I think it stems from something other than race though. In general, people are uncomfortable when they are the only one in a particular situation that stands out. It is just awkward. You go to a party to have fun and mingle with other people but instead you are immediately the center of attention. A lot of people like that, but in this situation is a little different. I rather stand out for what I’m doing or how I’m acting rather the color of my skin.

A big part of Penn State party culture does entail a lot about race. For some reason a lot of Greek life tends to be white. It seems to be just the way it is. A lot of the parties I go to are all white people so I feel like if a black person came they would feel uncomfortable because they stand out in a way in which they can control. No one wants that. We all go to the places and want to be comfortable so sometimes it easier to avoid the whole situation.

I do wonder how open black people would be to coming into Greek life. For some reason it is not the norm here and I wonder if we could start a trend of having Greek life become more diverse. People do need to start breaking out of their shell here. Everyone fits into the place where they think that they belong instead of pushing their boundaries and trying new things. Sadly, a lot of what people think about where they fit in here has a lot to do with race.

For me personally, I know that I have not stepped out of my boundaries much. I went to a high school that was almost one hundred percent white people and that became the norm for me. When I went to college it was the first time that I was at parties with people of different races and I actually really liked it. I think it is more fun to be around people that you have nothing in common with because the conversation is much more interesting. I don’t want to always talk to people that I know everything about because a lot of the time I am just making conversation to be polite. I don’t actually care what these people are saying because in the back of my mind I already know how the conversation is going to go. Sometimes these people that I am with are so similar to me that I get bored. Mixing with other races is a good thing.

I do not think race has a huge role in the difference between the ideals of men when it comes to interacting with women. At the end of the night we all are looking for the same things, which cannot be specific to one group of people.

A lot of times I believe that men think they are entitled to certain things from women. For instance, in a relationship men see a particular time line as to what should be happening physically in their relationship which is usually based off of what their buddy’s relationship has been like. After a certain amount of time a lot of men think they deserve sex in a relationship when in fact there are still a lot of people in the world who are waiting for sex until marriage. I have heard of people ending their relationships because they were not having enough sex, or it was not happening yet and they were in the relationship for a long time. This trend is something that I believe transcends race. It is something that males across the board can have in common and do not greatly differentiate from each other.

A lot of males think that they have to dominate the physical aspect of the relationship as well. They think that if they are not in complete control of it then they are less of a man. However, the complete opposite is what should be held to be true. In fact, females have the upper hand in the physical part of the relationship. They are the ones that should have the final say in what does or does not happen in physical regards in a relationship. It all comes down to entitlement and what a man thinks that he deserves from his woman in a relationship.

I also think that an unfair stress is put on the man in the physical sense of a relationship. Women have the upper hand, yet play it off like a man is so invasive. The truth is, when a man is drunk and sees they way a girl is dressed it gives off a certain impression that girls need to understand. A woman that respects herself will always be more respected by men. I think that a man of any race would agree with that. Women should make an effort to be more conservative. Society is moving to a place that says in order for a woman to be considered sexy she must not wear a lot of clothing. However, I think a woman can be considered sexy from the manner by which she carries herself and how she acts around guys. Personally I would never go for the girl in the room that is wearing the least clothes. I have a lot of friends that agree with that as well. Slutty is not sexy.

I don’t think guys are too picky when they’re drunk and looking for girls. I think a lot of this issue stems from people’s natural tendency to look for someone that is most similar to themselves. With differences in skin color a lot of times it is followed by differences in culture as well. I think the way the majority of people grew up they had a certain idea of what a life love should look like for their future and based off of their own family structure it more than likely consisted of someone of the same race. I do not think people are purposefully avoiding people of the race when their drunk because I do not think the thought process is that in depth.

Also, I think a lot to do with it has to do with where a person is hanging out. It is no secret that white people dominate the Greek life in state college. If there are people of other races it does not seem like that much therefore the majority of the selection has already been determined by who is at the party.

Many people also fear what their parents would think about the people that they decide to date. I know for me personally it is a huge factor. I’ve never actually brought it up but I know that if I tell my parents that I’m dating someone they automatically assume that the person is white. It’s not their fault, but if I was dating someone of another race I would have to specify to them what race the girl is because I know that they automatically are thinking that the girl is going to be white. My parents were raised in a different time. We had neighbors that were a biracial couple and they would tell my parents horror stories about things that people would do or say to them and my parents do not want me to have to go through the same thing which is why the would be hesitant if I dated someone of another race.

I personally do not know how I would handle dating someone from another race to be honest. I think it would be hard to subject myself to that much criticism from other people and honestly I do believe that every person has their “type” that they are attracted to and I always seem to find myself being more attracted to white girls. If I were to go for someone of another race I would have to be head over heels in love with them and who is to say that their family would approve of them dating someone that is white. Different families all have different belief systems when it comes to dating.

I would have a hard time trying to empathize with Jasiri-X because he himself was not empathetic at all. I actually found him to be quite offensive. The whole time he was saying that he preaching the message of equality for all people but that was a total lie. He was actually a huge hypocrite. The whole time he was talking he kept referring to us and them, us being black people and them being basically everyone else. The only way he found to be equal would be to put down all other races and empower black people, which is far from how anyone should think equality can be achieved. He said he was educated on the topic but I think he is so stuck in his own thought process that even an education cannot break him from that.

The most surprising aspect of his talk was the song about the black kid that was shot to death. He talked for about ten minutes on the racial issues behind the shooting and how the shooter was not actually white. He went on for all of this leading us to believe that he was just sticking up for the black kid, but then at the end of his song he made a really big dig toward white people saying something along the lines of how freedom only works for white people and to experience equality you have to be white. This was so surprising because it was such a violent and drastic statement and he literally had just finished saying how the guy was not even white so white people should not have been even mentioned in the song.

To me it seemed as if he was preaching more of a message for hate than for equality. There was not one instance where he could describe empowering one group of people without putting another group down. In all honesty I could not even take him seriously when he said that we (black people) struggled through slavery. Yes that is true but who are you to say that you struggled through slavery when you do not even know if any of your relatives were slaves nor have you ever experienced the amount of hard work a slave had to do. The only connection you have with them is your skin color. You were not actually there so you have absolutely no credibility when you say that you were connected to that.

I believe that we can emphasize with other races but the answer to making everyone equal does not, nor will it ever, come in the form of putting down a group of people or giving handouts to a different group of people. It is a long and slow process.

I think affirmative action and nepotism should be considered in two totally different ways. It is not set in stone that companies do or do not have certain principles in their mission that expel or accept nepotism but they do in the case of affirmative action. People who are applying for jobs can see that even on some of the companies profiles it shows whether or not it is an equal opportunity job, which is strange that at this day in age they would still have to specify. This also makes me question the other companies that do not mention anything about it on their website.
The big thing with nepotism is that no one really wants to stop it. People say all the time that it is a way for white people to advance in the workplace because they have high ranking positions but people in all races would use this method. If black people were to become the dominant race in corporate America they black people too would want to use nepotism because it could help them later on too. Why would you want to get rid of something that at some point in time could give you a short cut?
Yes I think it is annoying that someone could get a job over me just because of the simple fact that they know the person they are interviewing with, but at the same time, if I were to be in their position I too would want to have that advantage so I cannot blame them for that. It is a cruel reality, but lets be honest, one of the perks of picking Penn State for college was knowing that it has a huge alumni support that are more than willing to help the students find jobs. It is all over every information sheet that you get when you are deciding to come here or not. This too is nepotism. However, we would not say anything bad about it because we are using it to put us in a position that can potentially help us out later on in life. We all would love to have that easy way to get a job and if you say that would not take a handout in this situation then you are probably lying.
I think people complain about nepotism because they are either not benefitting from it or they think that in some way it is not fair. But honestly, nothing about the job market is fair and all of us know that going into it. It is all about who you know and whether we like it or not, or think it is beneficial to us or not, we all have to accept this as the reality of how the job market works.

I do not think the United States had the best way of giving aid to other countries. It appears that we have our own interests at heart when we are helping these people such as increasing our economy or increasing our democratic relations with these people so that we can in turn have them help us if we ever need them. I think we put on the impression that we are doing great things for people of other countries but really all we are doing is keeping them in poverty longer and suppressing them so they do not become more powerful than us.

I think the saying “If you give a man a fish he eats for a day but if you teach a man to fish he eats everyday” is applicable here. We send so many things to poor people of other countries but we do not know if they even need it or know how to use or even have the means to use it. Whenever we donate things to these people we automatically think of what we would want to be receiving but in reality if you are in the position to be donating to poor people then you generally do not know what a poor person would actually want or need.

We keep giving them things that we think will benefit them but in all actuality it really hurts them. Instant gratification is great and everything but it only lasts for an instant and these peoples’ problems are much deeper than that. Instead of sending them a bunch of food that will eventually perish or they don’t know how to cook we should be sending people there with seeds to teach them how to cultivate and farm the land so they can start growing crops that will come back year after year and they can harvest to feed many people.

I believe the United States will always have its own special interests at heart. We use our own companies, our own shipping businesses, everything of our own to carry out these missions so the majority of the money that is donated to help poor people in turn comes back into our own economy. This is not helping other people. This is only helping ourselves and making our wallets and waistlines bigger. If we truly wanted to help the poor people of places such as Haiti we would be sending people there to teach the people of the country how to live and stand on their own so that can pull themselves out of poverty. It would unite them as a country and bring them together much more than any donation could ever do. It is the only way for these people to start receiving long-term benefits.

I do not think the United States had the best way of giving aid to other countries. It appears that we have our own interests at heart when we are helping these people such as increasing our economy or increasing our democratic relations with these people so that we can in turn have them help us if we ever need them. I think we put on the impression that we are doing great things for people of other countries but really all we are doing is keeping them in poverty longer and suppressing them so they do not become more powerful than us.

I think the saying “If you give a man a fish he eats for a day but if you teach a man to fish he eats everyday” is applicable here. We send so many things to poor people of other countries but we do not know if they even need it or know how to use or even have the means to use it. Whenever we donate things to these people we automatically think of what we would want to be receiving but in reality if you are in the position to be donating to poor people then you generally do not know what a poor person would actually want or need.

We keep giving them things that we think will benefit them but in all actuality it really hurts them. Instant gratification is great and everything but it only lasts for an instant and these peoples’ problems are much deeper than that. Instead of sending them a bunch of food that will eventually perish or they don’t know how to cook we should be sending people there with seeds to teach them how to cultivate and farm the land so they can start growing crops that will come back year after year and they can harvest to feed many people.

I believe the United States will always have its own special interests at heart. We use our own companies, our own shipping businesses, everything of our own to carry out these missions so the majority of the money that is donated to help poor people in turn comes back into our own economy. This is not helping other people. This is only helping ourselves and making our wallets and waistlines bigger. If we truly wanted to help the poor people of places such as Haiti we would be sending people there to teach the people of the country how to live and stand on their own so that can pull themselves out of poverty. It would unite them as a country and bring them together much more than any donation could ever do. It is the only way for these people to start receiving long-term benefits.

The fear of death becomes more prevalent the older I get. It seems that I always think of my life as a timeline and it is hard to imagine it coming to and end. When you are little the thought of death does not even cross your mind and you feel as if you are eternal. However, when you get older you feel as if there is a clock ticking down and you try to do as much right in your time as you possibly can. For me it’s just so hard to imagine not being here one day. When the lights go off in body I pray that there is somewhere else that I go because I don’t want to just vanish.

I think for me personally it is not the fear of myself dying it’s the fear of everyone around me dying. The thought of losing one of or eventually both of my parents scares me to no end. What do you do when you don’t have parents anymore?
The same holds true with my sister. I have no idea what I would do without her but a time will come when one of us has to be without the other. It is truly the hardest reality that we as humans have to accept. The fact that we are not eternal and that our time on Earth is limited is the strangest concept.

I actually have thought about that a lot. What will it feel like when your body is shutting down and the world around you is going dark? We have no idea how, where, when, or why it will happen and we will never be able to determine that. That’s the biggest problem for humans. It is in our genetic structure as human beings to always be searching for an answer and so far this seems to be the only thing that we have not and will not make progress on. I do question however which is great, the fear of death, or the fear of the unknown.

I firmly believe that there has to be something after this though. I can’t find an explanation as to why everything is here and works the way it does. It has to come from somewhere.

I think the fear of death forces me to get past my issues with people and try to love them all the time. I’m terrified every single time I get in a fight with them that that will be the last thing we ever share, a stupid fight. People say they live without regrets but I want to die with no regrets. When the lights go out in my eyes I wish that I could be on good terms with every single person in my life and that no one has hard feelings toward me.

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that all the newspapers said that God didn’t exist I would be really angry. First off I would not believe what is being said. There are always going to be people who do not believe in God but that does not mean that he is not there. We as a population will never come to a full consensus as to whether or not God does or does not exist. It truly is a matter of faith.

Honestly, if I saw that in the newspapers I think I would totally and completely lose my faith in humanity. I do not understand why there are people who fight so hard to try to tell people that there is not a God. So many people have had encounters with God and there is so much to our history as human beings that points toward a greater life form. I do not know what religion has the absolute definite answers, but at the end of the day I truly believe that they all point towards one true God. There is something out there greater than ourselves and greater than our understanding that we cannot truly experience until we go into His kingdom at the end of time.

I went to Catholic school all of my life and I can honestly say that the Catholic faith has brought so much joy and comfort into my life that I would never agree with someone who is trying to rip that away from me. Newspapers could report anything they wanted but that doesn’t mean I have to believe it, just like they don’t have to believe in God. People really do need to learn to start seeing other people’s viewpoints instead of thinking that their way is the right way. No one will ever be able to prove that there is not a God, and for as long as I live there will always be someone on this earth that believes something is up there.

Also, if believing in God makes a person happy for their time here on earth than who are you to try to stop it? No one should feel justified in taking away another humans happiness. Say your true passion was music. I would not be justified in saying that music was stupid and it wasn’t real and then took all the instruments of the world away. By doing this I would take away someone’s happiness and that is not right to me.

Religion is such a sensitive subject in the world today and honestly it is ridiculous. The root of all the religions in the world all point in one direction and the bottom line is that we are all going towards one true God.

After class today I also thought it would be really cool to visit Iran. I was completely mind blown by that video. To me when I think of Iran I think of a dessert and people wearing those full body wraps. Not to sound ignorant but I have no idea what they are actually called. As we went further and further through that video I was more and more surprised at what I saw. The people were partying their butts off and doing all sorts of cool things. It was so interesting.

To me the most surprising thing was what they were wearing. I always expected that everyone in the Middle East wore those wrap things all the time because from my experiences in America with people from the Middle East that is always what they were wearing. However, the people in this video were wearing jeans, and button ups, and all sorts of stylish clothes. I had no idea any of that went on there. While we were watching the video the more and more places I saw in it, the more I was starting to think how much nicer Iran looked than American cities. How surprising it that? Somewhere that I always though was a terrible dessert country with nothing but small towns that struggle to get by actually looked like one of the nicest cities in the world. I just think that it goes to show how ignorant we are to people and places in Middle East ever since this war started.

It makes me think how ignorant we are being about a lot of other places in the world. We always talk about how scary the Chinese government is and how there are tons of problems and at least I never hear of people traveling to China for fun. It could be the most amazing place in the world but we would never know because we are too afraid to try it.

I think it would be so interesting to have played that video but not have said anything about it being Iran. Let people try to decide where it is and see if they would ever guess if it actually was Iran or not. I bet the majority of the people in class would have never guessed that that is where the video was made. I know I certainly would not have guessed that a city that looked like that could be in Iran.

Overall I was completely mind blown from that video. I was so not expecting Iran to be that cool and have such an awesome party life. The people do not seem scary at all. They actually seem a lot nicer and more fun than the majority of Americans. I would defiantly like to visit Iran now and see what it is all about.