I feel that the major thing that made it offensive were the signs. Specially, the signs said: “We’ll mow lawn for weed and beer” and “I don’t cut grass I smoke it.” Both of those sayings are not only derogatory, but illegal as well. It is almost implying that Mexicans don’t do any work but take illegal drugs that are frowned upon in the United States. Also, it is implying that they cannot work white-collar jobs. It also says that they cannot be educated enough successful in this country. I personally do not have the nicest thoughts towards Mexicans. I grew up in a predominately white community and the very few that were of a different nationality were pretty ghetto, not educated, and did drugs and drank alcohol in high school. Also one of the cities in Rhode Island (the state in which I live in) has a high school that is rates one of the worst in the country due to poor test scores. The major nationalities in that town are Spanish people, specifically Mexicans and Ecuadorians. Due to these experiences growing up, I tend to have negative connotations towards people of Spanish decent. Sure there are some good people within these nationalities, for example, my roommate is Colombian who became one of my best friends, and my girlfriend is Puerto Rican. However, in terms of Spanish cultures as a whole, I find them to mostly, not all, to be quite ghetto. So when I see the sign saying those things, sure I can see how they can be offensive, but I do not really get offended by it because of my biases.
Another reason I can see how Mexicans can be offended is how the girls dressed at the party. They were mostly wearing sombreros and ponchos. Sam said in class that most of the people in Mexico actually do not wear what the girls wore at the party. Like I said before, it is pretty hard to relate to what they are feeling. Because I am a white male, I do not get discriminated at all based on my skin color and my nationality. I actually have several different nationalities such as German, French Canadian, Norwegian, Italian, English, Native American, etc. So if someone insults a certain nationality, I really don’t get offended as much as people, who have just one nationality, like my roommate and my girlfriend.
I was actually surprised on how much this event was publicized. I did not think the event was severe enough to go oversees to other countries. I feel like it wouldn’t be as bad if it weren’t for the Sandusky case. I think also, considering my past, I wouldn’t find it as severe. I do the things those girls do. A lot of people do.

I would say that the lecture was pretty interesting, but at the same time, I felt that most of it was common sense to me. I have a few friends at home that are quite open to me about their sexual life. So a lot of the topics strictly regarding sexual intercourse are familiar to me. I am actually still a virgin, but I hear many things from my friends, such as finding the g-spot for women, and how they prefer sex instead of men.
One thing that I actually didn’t think of was how women dress for men, and how men dress for women. I can see where the media can play a big role in how people portray, what sex should be like, and especially, women should dress for the man’s gaze. I definitely can agree that women try harder to please the male’s gaze, but I feel at the same time, men dress a certain way to please the female gaze. For example, why do you think men spend money on trench coats, suits, and other high end clothing casually? Yes I can see that some are for warm, like the scarf and the trench coat, but wouldn’t you agree that they could wear a thick hoodie for warm in the winter? Like I said before, I do feel that men do not try as hard to please the female gaze as much as females try to please the male’s gaze. I know when guys where suits, ties, button down shirts, and other dressy clothing that are sometimes worn casually, they are ten times more comfortable than what girls where. So many times do I see girls dressing up in the skimpiest dresses they can find, while wearing the highest heals when they go to the frat parties here at Penn State. They don’t even have a jacket to wear in the winter sometimes. To me that is going to an extreme to try and impress guys. Also, I would never be able to walk in high heels that most girls wear to frats, proms, weddings, and other formal events. Men just wear flat dress shoes for fancy events and sneakers for frats. I personally am more attracted to humble girls that are pretty but they do not even know it.
I feel that the media and other social websites intended for adult pleasure plays a huge role in how people should look. For example, most porn films the guy to dominate in sexual activity. Another thing is that there are many make out scenes involving two women to pleasure the male gaze. You do not see two men making out for women. I feel that social media and movies play a role in what is right and what is wrong. For the most part the lecture was familiar to me but I was not too familiar on how social media can play a role.

I believe that there are a few difficulties that would challenge us from putting us in the shoes of someone else, such as the Arabs. How we live, survive, think are extremely different in our minds. I know for me, religion is a big factor. We see Muslims think different, and society does not really do a great job showing how they really think. For example, the movie that they playing in class about how the Muslims are invading all the different countries, and performing terrorist attacks, does not help in terms of sympathizing or empathizing for those people. The media shows them as insane people doing things that are inhumane. Not only are they one sided, but also they don’t show how the citizens in their country act. It’s all about al-Qaeda and their attacks. I do not agree with attacking in general, though there are times when it is necessary, but with constant one sided stories, what else to think but badly about the Arabs. Once a bad image is in our minds, it is almost impossible to change it.
Another thing that is hard to grasp is how the Arab citizens’ lifestyle is like. We are used to people in our country trying to take care of us, giving us a sense of security. We can say what we want, do what we want, and not have to worry about someone trying to kill us for doing so. In those other countries, survive becomes more complicated, and harder to do. You cannot speak out against your government nor can you protest if you want to survive. Also with constant wars going on, it is almost impossible to image how they have to deal with losing so many loved ones and what they have to go through to keep alive. We never have any wars fought in our country. We do not realize how lucky we are. Since we do not have these experiences it is hard to relate with Arabic people.
Also when we see someone attack us, all we have is hatred towards that country. We do not take into consideration what their side of the story is, or if it is everyone in that country that thinks that way. I know if someone ended up attacking my family, all I would seek is revenge. My own hatred would definitely impair my ability to sympathize or think about the other person. The same goes with Americans. After the September eleventh terrorist attack, people have become envious over Arabic countries, because all they want is revenge. We never stop to think what we might have done to cause them to revenge our country. We think one sided and it is quite difficult to branch away from our current thoughts. How would you like to have someone tell you how you think may be wrong after believing it for so long? It isn’t easy.

I do not believe that homosexuality is a “special” sin. In fact I do not believe that any sin is considered special. What a sin is a sin, they still break the rules of Christianity. I believe that most people laughed at the other sins because, normally, we are familiar with homosexual behaviors in the Christian church being considered a sin. Also, in current society, the idea of homosexuality being a sin, or wrong, is unjust. Therefore, when you talk about this matter, no one will laugh. However, most people probably have committed half of the other sins and began laughing because they are guilty of them. I knew I was laughing because I did half of them. I was like oh … I’m going to hell. I do have to say I am Catholic, but I tend to sin often, make many others. Do I tend to follow natural urges? Yes. Do I feel bad at times and ask for forgiveness? Yes. Looking back, I probably should not have been laughing at the sins I committed, but to take account what I did wrong and try to improve. I should feel guilty, but I do not. I cannot explain this, but in God’s eyes, I am sure he is not too happy.
Another thing to clarify is that, in the Catholic Church, God does not disown, or ignore homosexuals, He just does not approve of homosexual actions such as intercourse. The main reason is because of marriage. Catholics feel that God created men and women to be attracted to one another, get married, and have children. Marriage was intended to be a religious ceremony. With homosexuality, the religious definition of marriage is broken and the idea of having children is unnatural without the opposite sex. So mainly, homosexuality is not a sin, it is homosexual sex, making out, etc. The idea of sex, making out etc., before marriage, is a sin regardless of sexual orientation. Also, Catholic Church emphasizes marriage on being able to produce a child. For example, the only way to break up a marriage in the Catholic religion is to get an annulment, which can only be made if the one spouse cannot have a child. Since you cannot have a child with two men or to women, the Catholic Church will not marry you.
Also, the Catholic church feels that homosexuality is a choice because God would not have allowed two people to be attracted to each other if they were not capable of naturally producing a child. Whether not I actually believe this, I do not know. I feel that some people can be born gay, but others choice. Since nothing has been proven to my knowledge with scientific evidence, I cannot make any assumptions. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, homosexuality (the action upon it) is not a “special” sin, because all sins disobey God.

I know that rape can be a touchy subject for most people. I do have to say I cannot really have much empathy for this subject. I definitely can say I feel bad for those who have been raped but since it has never happened to me. I only know of one person that had been rape, and she is always very timid. She is a karate student that I taught and the reason she is there is to get over her fear of guys. She did not like to be touched, especially by dudes. I always wondered why she could not just get over it. I do not mean to be inconsiderate, but it was an unfortunate event that cannot change. Like I said, I cannot relate so I would not know the full affect, but I would think that I would move on. What happened, happened, and the only thing you can do is to be more aware, not scared. The more scared you are, the more vulnerable you look.
I have more sympathy for others depending on the situation. For example, Sandusky raped many little children that were not able to defend themselves. They were also too young to know what to do given the certain situation. I feel extremely bad for those children.
On the other hand, there are many cases where someone was rapped after a college party. These college parties usually involve drugs or alcohol. I do have to say that the situation is unfortunate for the girl or guy who had been raped, but I have that much sympathy for that person because they should have known better. Everyone knows that college parties have alcohol and drugs there, and people who do go need to understand that they are vulnerable. These people should never be getting to the point where they are delirious. They cannot control themselves, and because of this, there are consequences. It is almost like saying a severe case of karma.
I am personally undecided about abortion. If someone just decided to have sex and the girl happened to get pregnant, I do not feel that abortion is right. However, it would depend on the situation when it comes to rape. If a twelve-year-old child ended up getting raped, then I feel that abortion is necessary because it is unsafe for a child that young to have a child. There is a great possibility that the baby may end up being disabled in some way, and the other would have serious health risks. For the girl who might have been raped after being too drunk to realize what had happened, I do not feel that abortion is necessary. It was her decision to get that drunk, which had consequences.

To be completely honest, I probably would not approach him right away considering his appearance. I came from a predominately white school and never really had any contact with black culture. When I say predominately white school, I mean there were only two black people in my graduating class of a class of one hundred and ninety two. And those two black people acted whited because of the amount of white influence on their life throughout the years of living in the country. I also have kind of racist parents and friends, so I have always been eerie to approach someone of a different race because I had mostly only heard bad things about them. There are so many racist jokes that go around throughout the town that it is almost an every day occurrence that a joke is said. Even my Colombian roommate was surprised when he came up to visit me in Rhode Island.
I do not really think that everyone in a different race is bad. One race is not worse than another. I feel there is an equal amount of “bad” people in each race. Because of the amount of influential thoughts about the other race, I am more skeptical to approach someone from another race. It is not that I think they are bad; it is more that I do not know what I should say to him because I do not know if I am going to offend him or not. I also feel he could look down upon me thinking “who is this white boy who is trying to talk to me right now.”
It also depends who I am with. The ironic thing is that most of my friends here are not white. I have met most of my friends through someone else. I find it to be easier when a different racial friend and he introduce me to someone of that same race than it would be if I were to approach that person by myself. I can see how he or she talks to his or her friend so I know how I can act when I talk to them. I am really good at figuring out someone’s personality based on how they dress or act, but this mostly applies to white people. I have a harder time figuring out how a black or brown person acts since I am not used to their culture. For example, the question that came up in class about how many white people ask the person how he was able to get his hair that way was about twice a weekend versus zero from black people kind of gives an idea about my relation between white people black people. I am not familiar with black culture so I would probably ask as well, but with white people I don’t need to considering I know most of my culture that I don’t need to ask.

If I were in the Native American’s place, I would probably feel the same way towards the ones who took it away from us. When I answered the clicker question about if someone where to take something from me, am I entitled to get it back, and I choice yes. However, I did not say yes when it came to their children and other generations. I felt that it is the responsibility of the ones who had it taken from them to get it back and not anyone else. Thus being said, I can’t really make an accurate accusation of what is right or wrong since I did not really take the opposing viewpoint into consideration. Also, whatever was your parents gets past down to the next generation. Thus, whatever is your parent’s is inherently yours. Therefore, if someone takes something from your parent’s they are also taking it from you, and future generations. I now feel that anyone within the family has every right to get whatever back, whether it is land, money, dignity, etc.
If I were the victims of this circumstance, I would not only get upset of the misfortune that would be happening, I would also get angry, though not at myself (speaking in terms of the race as a whole). I would most likely go straight to blaming others for the misfortune. In a way that is true. Native Americans did have the land first, and due to more technology and numbers, Americans easily were able to take over, in which they did. Native Americans could not stand a chance then, nor can they stand a chance now.
I was quite hurt to know that us Americans do not have the consideration for Native Americans, especially after the guest speaker told about his story. I just wanted to help out in any way that I could. I do not understand why everyone else in American society does not feel the same way as I do. For example, in recitation, nearly half of the people who spoke stated that they could not relate to the Native American’s situation, and therefore, couldn’t empathize or sympathize. I was quite surprised, especially the story about the thirteen year old committing suicide due to unfortunate family events. Although I cannot relate, I can only imagine how much that emotionally scarred him.
Especially me being of white decent and middle class, I definitely have everything easy and could not imagine living in the conditions of the Native Americas. I go out to eat practically every day and spend money like it is nothing. I will not be able to have that luxury. I mean cutting spending is one thing, but when health becomes an issue, it gets serious. Americans as a whole should be more aware of what we are doing to Native Americans.

I would have to say that my biggest decision in life was a mixed of both free will and invisible strings that attach it. The invisible strings narrowed my decisions, but I was able to decide by my own free will after. For example, when I was looking for colleges, none of the RI public schools offered my major. This would be an example of determinism to narrow my decision. But as far as free will, I could choose to go to any school outside of RI that did have my major.
I feel that there is an equal balance between free will and determinism. People can argue completely for one side, which in case they are right, but in reality it’s a little of both. As far as free will, to some extent, in every decision that you make you do have a choice on what you want to do. For example, of someone has a gun to your head and you had to choice between one thing or the other, you do have a choice on what you are going to do. You really can’t decide to do anything that you want if you were put in that situation. If someone has a gun to your head, you are limited to what the choices are available in that situation. You are not completely one hundred percent free will. Honestly, you are not going to decide to watch TV when a gun is pointing to your head. You have to decide what to pick one of the options that are given to you.
These limitations are what I think of when I hear invisible strings in some sense. Not necessarily with a gun pointing to your head, but the idea of making decisions based on what is given. For those people living in the trailer home that we saw on the screen, they don’t have any money. They don’t have a father or husband. They don’t have a good job location. Thus, they are limited to what they are able to do. Looks definitely play an important role in society. If you are fat, short, have bad teeth, etc. you are less likely to become a president, a super model, or even to find a job. These circumstances will constraint one’s free will in life. However, this family can make decisions that are based on free will. The child only wants to be a couch potato. He has no desire to work or get educated. That decision is solely based on the kid’s laziness. Lower class people can become more successful in life but it would be more difficult for them.
I have to argue that the whole “anyone can get into Harvard if they tried hard enough” statement is false. No matter how hard a mentally disabled child works, or an uneducated child that cannot process information clearly, they will not get into Harvard. In this situation, strictly determinism is holding them back. That is why I feel that free will is separate from determinism. You can’t exactly say one supersedes the other.

I feel this is a very hard idea to explain. I have a couple of ideas that may explain the poverty or rich levels. Speaking specifically about the idea that rich people have to work in order to get rich, I feel that is a somewhat true statement, but at the same time false. Some people do work hard for their money. I know Sam stated that the whole idea of Sociology is the idea of the society as a whole and that personal experiences do not represent everyone, but if you were to gather everyone’s personal experiences about their parents working hard to make money, then that will take up a good chunk of classroom, and comparatively, to society. Granted this would be a small chunk, but I feel it should be taken into consideration.
However, I definitely feel that there are connections. Those who are rich end up getting a better education because they can afford it. Thus, they will become smarter and go into a profitable career that they either worked for (keep in mind they paid for this education that they worked for), or were able to network through others who are rich. Rich people tend to hang around their own social class, which is how they are able to network so well. Although there are cases where people get rich from working for their money, the majority of the people I can argue get rich from either being born into wealth or marry into it. As Sam stated, when the poor become richer, so do the wealthy.
As far as ethnicity, I feel the argument can be similar, but at the same time a little different. The “first” people (not taking into consideration Native Americans) in the United States where white immigrants. These people from that time came from wealthy countries, France, Germany, England, etc. They were able to bring some of their wealth here, or they were able to work up their wealth over a period of time being here. The other citizens, such as African Americans and Hispanics came later to the United States, and when they did they were not treated well and were already poor. Only fairly recently did they “gain” some wealth, but since the white people control most of the higher income, they are having a hard time trying to catch up. As far as Asian immigrants, they have to be extremely wealthy to get to America, and like the United States, the wealthier citizens end up being smarter. So they end up coming to America wealthy and smart, of course they will be able to find a profitable job. I feel that a major aspect of immigrant’s wealth is based on how well the education is in their original country. China strongly focuses on education; whereas someone from Haiti will have a harder time. Those without a good education will struggle to become middle class never mind wealthy.

I feel that people are entitled to their own choice and opinions about how women should look. I feel that the girl who let her facial hair grow that was displayed in front of the class is strong to go against what typical society feels. I know she gets a lot of harassment for what she believes in. She is quite a role model. The way she told everyone in what she believed in was very moving and quite persuasive. To be honest at first, I was making cruel comments on what she looked like. I did not know anything about her religion and her beliefs, which is why I was so judgmental. This clearly indicates that I need to be more aware and open minded about other religions and beliefs. I definitely feel ashamed of myself for thinking what I did when I first saw what she looked like.
Society today feels that people should have a certain figure. If you look at models in fashion shows, victoria secrets, or beauty pageants they all look the same. It is pretty much imbedded in our heads when we are young in what you should look like. For example, Barbie Dolls show a certain figure with beautiful hair and thin hourglass bodies. Guys are shown to be strong and masculine, like GI Joe. You don’t see a doll that is pretty overweight, or a male action figure/doll that is thin and lean. Nor do you see girl dolls that have hairy legs. This is an indication of what society thinks whether you are male or female. Because of this, if you decide to veer away from the social norm, you will most likely get harassed and ridiculed, just as I did to that girl who was displayed on the screen in class when I first saw her. This causes people to get surgery on their bodies, implants, or even just shaving their legs.
I personally would not date someone who doesn’t shave her legs. Maybe society has imbedded what is socially normal into my head. I honestly am not ashamed about what I think. If someone decided not to shave their legs, to ever cut their hair, etc. I probably would think to myself why, and honestly may judge them a little at first, but I kind of can see where they are going and would respect their decision. I would probably think the same as I did with the girl on the screen or the one in class announcing she does not shave her legs or her armpits. I find it somewhat disgusting, but that is what I think and what the rest of society thinks. Usually when I see someone not cutting their hair, or maintaining an “attractive” experience, it seems like they are just not hygienic. I now can say that the class is showing me other points of view that I should be more open to, because what I think sometimes is not “right.” I thought the girl on the screen was just a person who doesn’t want to look “clean” and had no thought about religion. I was wrong to judge.