Offense in the dictionary is defined as: A violation or breaking of a social or moral rule; transgression; sin. In the case of Chi Omega and the Mexican themed party, the “moral” part of this definition comes into play. No one may claim that the signs held in the picture of the sorority are illegal, after all everyone is entitled to freedom of speech. However, when it comes to the morality of being an accepting, highly educated college student, these signs are degrading, embarrassing and offensive. Not only are these signs taken offensively by Mexicans and Latinas, but by the families of the girls in this sorority, the 40,000 other students at Penn State and the half a million alumni that are now tied to this racially ignorant incident. Penn State is a breeding ground for some of the world’s most successful human beings, and holds such potential for each and every student. It is sad to see this potential thwarted for those who could so ignorantly and unknowingly offend an ethnic group of thousands. I think the most upsetting and disconcerting part of this whole situation is that out of every girl in that picture, not one thought to pause and ask themselves if they want to be associated with such a derogatory sign. After all the signs were clear as day, dead center of the picture, and posted on Facebook with exact names tagged to faces to each girl in the picture. This picture is offensive because not one girl involved is of Mexican descent, meaning no one in that picture really knows anything about Mexicans or their lives. If any girls in Chi Omega took Soc119 they may have heard the heart-wrenching story of Eric, our TA, and his crossing-the-border escapades. That may be the closest connection any of those girls have to a Mexican, and even that did not make anyone think twice. It is offensive because yes, many Mexicans do mow lawns. For weed? No. For beer? No. To support their families overseas and give themselves a living that they were not so blessed to have handed to them on a silver platter and sent to Penn State ? Yes. Many Mexicans take over jobs that American’s find themselves above, and too good for. They manicure our lawns and make our houses look nice, why is this such a bad thing? Why is this a worse job than being a plumber, a landscaper, a garbage man? The reason this picture is offensive is because it is such a degrading stereotype so blatantly openly. That Mexicans mow lawns and smoke weed. A stereotype is an attitude held towards a specific group of people, solely based on their membership in that group. This negative stereotype, aimed to target the tens of thousands of Mexicans in our country, and even at our school, is highly offensive. Anyone at Penn State I would hope to be more intelligent than to succumb to these aggressive acts of ignorance, but unfortunately that is not that case and it is at the expense of many successful and hardworking Mexicans.

This specific class definitely resonated closely with me. In Judaism if your mother is not of Jewish descent, technically you are not a Jew. In my case, my mother is a Catholic and my was father raised and Mitzvah’d a Jew. Growing up, my parents did not impose either religion on me and my siblings, they left it to our digression as we grew older what we want to do in terms of religion. This being said, I never particularly pursued religion or dug into my Jewish roots, personally. However, growing up I attended a camp for 6 summers, and for those who don’t know, going to camp is a very very Jewish tradition. Many Jewish teens and children spend every summer growing up at some type of sleepaway camp, although I did not go for this reason, I was constantly surrounded by Jewish people and some of my closest, lifelong friends from this camp are Orthodox Jewish. Attending this camp gave me such a personal tie to my half religion and really taught me so much about what it means to be a practicing Jew, and to make it a part of your life. As I grew closer to these friends, I really got an inside view of how significant this religion is to their life, and their personal meaning of life. My closest friend, Rachel, is moving to Israel this summer to live for a year and attend a seminary and learn how to spend the rest of her life devoting it in the name of her religion. Rachel always tried to explain to me how important it is to protect the sacredness of Judaism. She constantly told me that she knows she cannot marry a non-Jew, not because she is against not being Jewish, but because she feels it is each Jew’s personal responsibility to keep her religion alive. She taught me about anti-antisemitism and how for as long as her religion has been around, every other ethnic and religious group have condemned and hated it. She has friends and loved ones not of the Jewish roots, but when it comes to her marriage she will 100% only marry Jewish because she wants to help carry the religion through generations, and she cares too deeply about it to let it dissipate into history. This being said, as someone who has half of her roots from Judaism, this class meant a lot to me. I may not be a practicing Jew, but it is in my blood and a part of me. I found this class informative, eye-opening and truthful. I hope that if any students in this class had negative, unjustifiable hatred towards Jews, or the religion as a whole, may have been enlightened and realized this hatred is only hurting our society and ourselves.

I thought it was really interesting to hear a lecture about racial differences and culture from someone other than Sam. Although Sam has an incredible, vast depth of knowledge on the matter it is always interesting to hear things from another perspective, specifically that of a minority. When I first realized we would be discussing race, and the different levels we each may fall under, I thought this lecture would be redundant and sound like what we have been hearing all year. But instead, the new lecturer not only went into much deeper analysis, but gave personal experience and had us follow him via pictures and stories through his own stages and getting out of such a singularly “black” mindset. The guest speaker opened my eyes to my own journey through racial recognition and I believe I fall under stage four. Growing up, I have been raised in a house where everyone on this Earth is equal. No one race is greater than another and no person is superior. This is a value that I am incredibly thankful of my parents to have instilled in me at a young age. Because I have been accustomed to see everyone as equal, I did question my peers when I would hear racial remarks, words and phrases and always take them with a grain of salt. In 7th grade I met one of my best friends in the world, Diondra, a middle class black girl my age. We hit it off, and this truly gave me evidence to prove my parent’s theory that no race is different than any other. As I grew up, my mother would bring home stories about the devastation of the children’s families in the center city Philadelphia schools, and my father would tell him about the poverty of the adults who he teaches at night. My sister has never dated a white man before, she claims to not be attracted to them, and it has never been a problem in my house. For whatever reason, you could say by family is a very “black” white family, we are incredibly accepting of others. This is not only what qualifies a level four stage, but I believe this class is truly what made me apply my mindset to all races and people for that matter. SOC 119 has made me grow as a person, and put aside any and all preconceived notions and judgments I may have ever held of any other race, and to take them for who they are, what they do and what they are capable of. I am so thankful for this class to have brought me up to level four and I strive to achieve level 5, a complete sense of awareness and equality between me and everyone else in the world. I really enjoyed the guest speaker and what he brought to the table for all of us.

Driving home from the mall one day my junior year in college a best friend of mine in the backseat spoke up and said, “Hey, guys I have something to tell you.” I turned around casually and asked him what was up, figuring it would be a joke or something of minimal importance, but was surprised when he responded bluntly with, “I’m bisexual.” We all froze for a moment, to process what exactly he had said and the first thing I could think to respond with was, “cool!” I’m not sure why exactly I chose that as my response, but I wasn’t sure what the proper way to answer that statement was. Throughout my childhood it had been almost an assumed feature of our friend, seeing as he has been flamboyant and “out-there” as long as any of us could remember. We rarely heard him speak seriously of girls or relationships, and could not name any that he had been in. The issues never really arose in our friendship, we just let him do his own thing and share with us what he chose to. As high school went on, some people grew more curious than others and would ask us, his close friends, if he was gay and we genuinely did not know what to say, besides no, we’ve never been told so. Three years later, our friend is entirely comfortable with his sexuality and admits that he has always known he has been gay, for as long as he can remember, and that although he once claimed bisexuality, he is in fact purely homosexual. Because I have such a close relationship with somebody who is gay, I feel strongly about the negative associations of words like “faggot” and “homo.” I also feel offended when heterosexuals so vehemently claim the gay people choose to be that way, they are not born that way. This angers and frustrates me because I have directly asked my best friend about this. He himself is gay, so who could give a more accurate response? He always answers this question with, “I wish I could choose,” or “I’d love to marry a girl someday, it just doesn’t work like that.” He genuinely wishes that he was attracted to women; his body is just not genetically designed like that. I think that when people claim gay people choose to be that way, it is a statement developed from pure ignorance. After all, if you yourself are not gay how could you have any idea if it is genetic or a choice? If you do not genetically feel attracted to the same sex how do know this is true of everybody? I believe people who are so sure that gay is a choice say it to comfort themselves out of the fear that perhaps they may bear a gay child one day. Or perhaps gay children give these people a strong sense of discomfort and they use the “gay as a choice” to defend themselves and shield their discomfort. Whatever the reason, being gay is not a choice, it is a predisposition and those who choose to deny that are denying it to protect themselves and are not truly thinking of someone on the other side of the matter.

I thought it was profound to hear one of my professors speak to over 700 students about such an incredibly touchy subject and to speak so passionately about it. While Sam was talking about abortion he had my undivided attention and I was genuinely interested to hear his perspective on this subject, because thus far I have highly respected his opinions and statements on topics we have covered throughout the semester. It’s not often that a teacher, an authority figure of extreme value to the class, speaks up about an often disregarded topic. Not only did Sam speak about abortion, but he clearly stated his stance on the issue. He believes that when it comes down to it, no other individual can force choices upon a woman and her own body. I could not agree more with Sam. Regardless of if I personally would choose to abort my future child, I strongly agree with Sam in that who is to say I can or can’t do make that choice? That is to say that if Romney were elected for our next President and he is against abortion and I did not vote for him, then a man who I had no say in ruling our nation would dictate my future motherhood. I do not believe this choice should be left up to our democracy of a nation, I believe the choice should be solely that of the future mother; specifically because the person mainly affected by this child is their mother. If God forbid a member of my family or a close friend of mine were to be raped and impregnated, I would first and foremost be devastated, but my next thought would be what now? Is my 23 year old sister going to birth and raise the child of her rapist? Is my 48 year old mother who has sent three children off to college going to birth this child because the law forces her to do so? I am strongly against this potential law for obvious reasons. No one’s personal choice about their body should be made by the voters of a nation, but should be made solely by the affected individual. I also am in strong agreement with Sam in the sense that this pro-choice law should not be a tool of ease used by teenagers who get impregnated a time or two for lacking the use of birth control and want to rid of the responsibility. This pro-choice stance should be implemented to ease the pain of rape victims who cannot mentally bear the thought of raising their rapist’s child. I would be genuinely interested to hear someone’s stance with an opposing view to see if I can understand arguments from the other side of the coin.

When Sam stated that many of our beliefs are based off of misinformation, I could not agree more. I am constantly astonished at how many people use unreliable resources to fuel their knowledgebase. It is scary that as a nation we are ill informed about so many different beliefs in our world. The scariest part of it all is that our beliefs shape our actions. Our attitudes and perspectives of the world control how we treat our world and what we do in our lives. If we believe all the wrong and false information, how are our actions true to us? How are we being fair to society and the world? I do not believe that I am different than much of the world, in that I’m sure I do hold many false beliefs. Our misinformation is a vicious cycle, and personally I believe a large contributor is social networking. When one “fact” is stated online, it takes only instants to spread worldwide and have millions believing this fact to be true. The reverse however, of disproving a fact is not so easy. Many are so quick to assume that what we read on Facebook and Twitter must be true because otherwise why would it be there? I’m sure many students will learn who the next President of our nation is via their Twitter feed. Although I do acknowledge that I am very similar in that I may hold false beliefs, and often I take misinformation from misleading sources, I accredit myself for following up when I hear something that doesn’t sound right. When I hear a statement that sounds peculiar or far-fetched, I do not hesitate to follow up and research it, and often during this process learn much more about the topic. This would be a great strategy if I did this for every topic I heard about, and not just suspicious sounding ones. I think I am a medium between those who listen to virtually no news, read no papers and never follow up on a statement, and those who are entirely self-reliant on their information sources and make sure they only listen to things of utmost accuracy. As a nation we need to combine forces and start spreading truth amongst our society. It can be so dangerous to a nation if a vast majority of citizens have no true knowledge of issues like Presidential candidates, environmental dilemmas or race relations. Since we are a democracy it is essential that we as the people are accurately making choices because we control the direction of our country and its success. I believe that to begin this turnaround, we need to emphasize the more pressing issues of our country and stop stressing pop culture and entertainment because the stress of those issues are what fuels our lack of motivation to learn truthfully. As individuals we need to take personal strides to educate ourselves how we see best fit, and most accurate.

After witnessing a visual illustration of what our nation has done to it’s indigenous people, I feel disgusted. When we are educated when we are young, we are taught that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered America by accident. We are told that when he arrived he met people already occupying the land and we are made to believe that we befriended these people and took them in as our own, both learning from their traditions and teaching them ours. It is sad that we are never really educated about the injustice of this or taught that these people were not treated fairly, and kicked out of the land that they had cultivated, loved and created. Before this class I never really deeply thought about how we got to be where we are on this land. It just seems acceptable to assume that my people have always lived here, and so should I. But what about the children of the Native Americans? I’m sure that when they were growing up centuries ago, they never expected to be kicked off of everything they knew and loved and told to begin again in a strange place. The Native American grandchildren were starved of a precious land that their ancestors had worked so hard to create, and they would never even get to see or appreciate it. I think this lesson has really made me view my stance on being an American differently. I am still extraordinarily proud to be a part of such a strong nation, but it deeply saddens me that I come from people who viciously ripped the world out from another people. The only reason I am where I am today is because of that, so I now take it with a grain of salt. If I were told I had to leave my home and live somewhere else, and if I refused I was fought, I would not know what to do. It would be devastating and I would feel like my world was slipping out from under me. It is not fair, right or just what we did to the Native Americans. It saddens me even more that the people who first occupied this place my people call home are now the poorest demographic in the country. What does this say about the character of our country? Not good things. It is upsetting to see the videos and pictures of the Natives in the conditions they live. It also broke my heart when we had the Native Shawnee guest speaker and he told us of his 13 year old cousin who ended her own life because she could not handle the devastation of her own. In many ways I feel my race is responsible for these tragedies and it makes me want to act, and change the lives of these people. This lesson really opened my eyes.

The biggest decision I have made so far in my life has been to come to Penn State. As cliché as it sounds, the college that you choose, or don’t choose, to go to get truly be a determinant for the rest of your life. Growing up, my parents always reminded me that the college I choose has a significant impact on the path I choose in life. They educated me on the different types of colleges, different majors and the options I have available. They also stressed the importance of standardized testing and doing well in high school in order to achieve my goals. From my very first day of school, my parents always expected me to do well. They did not so much advise me to, or check up on me and my homework every day, but it was an unspoken rule that I am a part of the family, and my job is to be a successful and hardworking student. My parents always reminded me of their college experiences. They met at Temple as Journalism majors, and now my father is a lawyer and my mother a teacher in Philadelphia. They both decided against journalism after working in the field for several years and went back to years of school to earn the degrees they wanted to further pursue. My father always stressed the importance of choosing the right major. He illustrated how my mother and he had to pay thousands of extra dollars to get the degree they later decided was the best fit for them, and neither of them truly love their professions still. Growing up, I always felt pressure to determine exactly what I wanted to do for the next 50 years at such a young age, and I still feel this pressure of choice. I think this aspect, of knowing what I want to do and when is determinism. Yes, I can go to school but I can’t go without the goal of eventually earning a degree in some department, that is the point of school and something I have to achieve by going here. Going to college in general is a combination of free will and determinism. It was through my choices that I earned good grades, worked hard, successfully completed the application process and met Penn State’s criteria. However, that being said, without the socioeconomic status of my family and the fact that I was born into a nice suburban town I more than likely would not have Penn State in my reach. Although it would be possible, I would have absolutely no way to finance school if I came from a 3rd world country, and if I was a different race, I may have faced innumerable struggles growing up that I did not face as a white woman. The fact that my parents were well raised and educated played a huge role in my upbringing. These deterministic factors also played a large role in my Penn State decision. Overall, my choice to go to Penn State was undoubtedly 50% determinism and 50% free will.

The fact that nobody wanted to identify themselves as “rich” in my eyes was normal. There were several people who raised their hands, but it is obvious that at a school like Penn State there are tens of thousands of extremely wealthy students. I think the fact that no one volunteered says a few things. It says something good in the sense that we maintain a certain degree of modesty. It is ironic because although we may not raise our hand in class and say “I am rich!” We have no problem wearing several hundred dollar shoes, clothes, bags, cars etc. People flaunt their wealth everyday but when it comes to verbalizing it, we choose not to. I think this is just a line that many do not want to cross, mostly for fear of being cocky, rude or conceited. I would never even consider raising my hand to answer this question. I do not consider myself wealthy, but I know that compared to 90% of the world I would be considered coming from a wealthy family. It is a very interesting concept to think about. Something Sam said in class agreed with my statements, that the people who are really truly top 1% rich will never flat out say it. I have personal experience with this one percent because over this past summer I nannied for a main line family in Villanova, PA. They were billionaires who owned a huge jewelry store and watch industry. Every moment I spent with them it was more than clear that the family had more money than knew what to do with, but I never once heard them speak of it. They never mentioned their wealth or any type of fortune, or even referred to their financial status. I don’t know why this is, but I think because we label ourselves and can pretty accurately guess someone’s social class just from observing their clothes and cars, so it is frowned upon to actually say it. There were a few kids in class who raised their hands to say they were wealthy white families, and to be honest when I saw the people who did it I thought it was obnoxious. I don’t think there is ever an appropriate time to flat out discuss your wealth, especially when being compared to those less wealthy or from a different social class. The exception to the rule, however, I would say is SOC119 because if we ever were going to discuss personal wealth, or the wealth of others, it would be in this class because it is something that goes unsaid, like racial dialogue. It was interesting to hear Sam say that even those who consider ourselves poor at State College are in actuality some of the richest in the world. It really makes you look at things differently.

The fact that nobody wanted to identify themselves as “rich” in my eyes was normal. There were several people who raised their hands, but it is obvious that at a school like Penn State there are tens of thousands of extremely wealthy students. I think the fact that no one volunteered says a few things. It says something good in the sense that we maintain a certain degree of modesty. It is ironic because although we may not raise our hand in class and say “I am rich!” We have no problem wearing several hundred dollar shoes, clothes, bags, cars etc. People flaunt their wealth everyday but when it comes to verbalizing it, we choose not to. I think this is just a line that many do not want to cross, mostly for fear of being cocky, rude or conceited. I would never even consider raising my hand to answer this question. I do not consider myself wealthy, but I know that compared to 90% of the world I would be considered coming from a wealthy family. It is a very interesting concept to think about. Something Sam said in class agreed with my statements, that the people who are really truly top 1% rich will never flat out say it. I have personal experience with this one percent because over this past summer I nannied for a main line family in Villanova, PA. They were billionaires who owned a huge jewelry store and watch industry. Every moment I spent with them it was more than clear that the family had more money than knew what to do with, but I never once heard them speak of it. They never mentioned their wealth or any type of fortune, or even referred to their financial status. I don’t know why this is, but I think because we label ourselves and can pretty accurately guess someone’s social class just from observing their clothes and cars, so it is frowned upon to actually say it. There were a few kids in class who raised their hands to say they were wealthy white families, and to be honest when I saw the people who did it I thought it was obnoxious. I don’t think there is ever an appropriate time to flat out discuss your wealth, especially when being compared to those less wealthy or from a different social class. The exception to the rule, however, I would say is SOC119 because if we ever were going to discuss personal wealth, or the wealth of others, it would be in this class because it is something that goes unsaid, like racial dialogue. It was interesting to hear Sam say that even those who consider ourselves poor at State College are in actuality some of the richest in the world. It really makes you look at things differently.