What do the words “affirmative action” mean to you? Is this another political term thrown around way too much? Have you felt impacted by its effects?

Affirmative action, also called positive discrimination, is defined as a policy that favors groups who are discriminated against in order to help them achieve equality and success. This concept is mostly an issue in education and employment, where at least in this country, the Caucasian race and male gender has predominantly occupied. Groups that fall under affirmative action include minorities in race, gender, sexuality, religion, age, disabilities, and politics; however, for the large part it mostly focuses on the first two or three.

To me, affirmative action didn’t play too much of a role in my life until the past year and a half. What sparked this realization was entering the process of college applications. In deciding which schools to apply to and how to make the best of my application, I discovered that some schools treat your application differently just because of a check mark you put in the race section. Because of affirmative action, each school sets a rough quota of admissions for each race and gender, and it can be unfortunate for the individual when too many people in the same category as him are competing against him.

Another example of affirmative action in an ironic situation is in

scholarships provided for people of certain groups. For example, earlier this year I saw information on scholarships for people who identify as Black, Hispanic, Native American, LGBT, or disabled (Blackrock Founders Scholarship); in addition, the Morgan Stanley Richard B. Fisher Scholarship aims for the same criteria.  In one view, this is great: people who sometimes have less chances for acceptance and employment, through these opportunities, can now aspire to have equal ground. On the other hand, is this fair to other races? Why are we not seeing Caucasian scholarships?

For obvious reasons, affirmative action was created as a mechanism to even the playing field and create more equality. One assumption is that in order to rid of stereotypes, people of lesser advantage need to have pathways to succeed and methods in which to propel forward. Affirmative action does create diversity – it is logical to have a minimum and maximum amount of each type. The policies in themselves started with good intentions, but just as almost any other kind of policy, there are flipsides that really can’t be solved.

The fact is that in “positively” discriminating, we are still discriminating. There is no way around it – we are still acknowledging that there are significant differences. And that, in my opinion, is something that humans can never get around, because everyone will always be different; we should view it as a good thing. We cannot call ourselves an equal society unless we do not decide things based on race.In some cases, calling out minorities and offering help almost seems demeaning because there is some underlying, if not intentional, insinuation that people think this group needs affirmative action in order to succeed.

Just a few days ago, The Supreme Court once again ruled in favor ofeliminating racial profiling in admissions to universities. In an article by USA Today, it is reported that the case originating from Michigan was successful and that many other states, including Oklahoma, Arizona, New Hampshire, Washington, Nebraska, California, and Florida already have such bans. It will be interesting to see which other states follow suit.

Some conservatives during this argument predict that lowering affirmative action will actually increase the success of students of minorities. As much as I connect with some of the problems of it, I can also appreciate why it is still so necessary.

Without affirmative action, people who are at the bottom of the chain may never find a way out. Some people, for instance, really want to study at a university, but they have no means of funding their desire. Scholarships created for them specifically can ensure that even though they come from less-supported backgrounds doesn’t mean they can’t arise from the problems, and it also limits competition so that more aid can be distributed. Only by creating student, social, and financial pathways can discriminations be less severe. In my opinion, only by increasing initial affirmative action can we really decrease the gap between minorities.

What are your opinions on affirmative action? Are there any flaws in the pros and cons?

From the time I was born until I was about 3 years old, I was a baby of predominately Chinese language. Because my parents immigrated from China, this is no surprise. I did learn some English (my first word was “no”), but as far as the American culture, I was not too well versed. That’s why when I entered preschool and the outside world, I was in for a ride, for the rest of my life.

I don’t know if you’ve thought about it or experienced it before, but second-generation children have grown up in a very weird situation. For the most part, we’ve learned a second culture entirely on our own, and it wasn’t easy. I remember going to friends’ houses and wondering why they put napkins on their laps, eating steak at a friends house and wondering why they used knives, and not understanding some of those  fancy phrases my teachers used.

Through the years, I picked up the culture and language, and now I am the opposite of what I used to be; now I am completely American, trying to hold on to Chinese culture. Even today, after 15 years of learning, there are still things almost every day that I don’t know, things that my friends say that I’ve never heard of, and things people do that I can’t understand.

The reason I am telling this story is related to what I did on Sunday: I attended the inaugural conference of State of State, where speakers delivered their thoughts on what the state of Penn State is and where it is going. One part of the day was devoted to racial diversity, and one of the speakers was Jackie Guo, a senior here who told a story very similar to my own. She said one thing that I agreed with completely: she feels completely American and goes through life forgetting she is Asian on the outside until she looks in the mirror.

This statement was powerful because it’s true for a lot of people in America. When people ask me what I am, I say American. But of course that’s not what they meant by their question. There’s actually a really funny video called “What Kind of Asian Are You?” addressing that awful situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJkN5HbQ

Jackie also touched on international students at Penn State: the sheer

number of them, how they aggregate in packs, and how they sometimes seem as if they aren’t trying to fit in with American culture. People judge them all the time – I’ll admit that sometimes I feel strange walking by a big group of Asians speaking Chinese and alienating themselves from other people. However, she brought up a great point – they are here to learn about the culture, maybe pick up some, but eventually go back to China. So why should we impose the standard on them that they have to assimilate completely?

Another speaker on race at Penn State was Abiola Ajibola. If you don’t know who he is, he is the person who sparked the Tweet “Dear most of the black community at penn state: the hub is not your playground, please stop shouting, and dancing and playing music.” We all reacted strongly to that statement, calling the girl insensitive and racist. But it was very interesting to see it from the point of view of the man himself.

Abiola said that he had been listening to music with a friend, and music is his biggest passion in life (he’s also a DJ). He was really happy, so he got up and danced, and soon his friends joined in, having a good time. He admits that this in itself was an insensitive act because he did not consider the people around him trying to study. Abiola humbly suggested that maybe this girl and people with opinions like that are not insensitive, but simply miseducated.

I agree with the opinions of both speakers; I think it’s great that Penn State is filled with so many ethnically diverse students and faculty. We need to learn, as Jackie said, that not all people of non-Caucasian race feel that they are non-Caucasian, and considering people like me as not American sure feels weird because I am as American as anyone. And for the international students, we need to learn to accept that they aren’t always here to become one of us, just like if you were to visit a country for a year or two, you may not be trying to be exactly like them. Like Abiola said, we are miseducated about each other, and that is the first place to start change.

My perspective on race was changed by this conference, and I hope I have shared some interesting points with you. Also, shameless plug: you should go to State of State next year! You’ll learn so much and start to think about how you can change Penn State too.

Because my civic issues blog explores racial controversies and America’s state of racial acceptance today, it can go in many directions. This week, after learning about disparities in health care in my HPA (Health Policy and Administration) class, I decided it would be an interesting aspect of racial outcomes to look into some more.

Before now, I had never really thought about race as one of the biggest determining factors for one’s health. Sure, I knew that where you live and how much you earn play huge roles in it, but I did not know just how dramatically race comes into the picture too. It’s a proven fact that people of non-Caucasian race have higher rates of hospital visits, mortality, and disease such as stroke and diabetes, but little had been researched on why this happens. People speculated that it is possibly due to the fact that individuals of some races live in communities that are too far from good hospitals, but a further look proved that this is not the case.

When someone asks you to define America, what do you think of? One of the first thing that comes to mind for me is the phrase “melting pot.” I decided to take a deeper look into just what our melting pot looks like.

America has 45,785,090 immigrants currently, which is a mind-blowing number. Out of the 313.9 million total people, that makes 14.3%. But what I learned next after finding these statistics shocked me: when ranked by percentage of foreign-born population, America is only the 65th country in the world. That means there are 64 other countries that experience more foreign immigrants than we do (but to give us some credit, we account for 19.8% of the world’s total immigrants, which means although we have less percentage, we have greater diversity). The country with the highest percentage is United Arab Emirates with 83.7%.

The reason I bring this up is that while looking through the news the other day, I saw that Swiss citizens have voted to put strict quotas on how many immigrants are allowed into the country. The Economy Minister of the country, Johann Schneider-Ammann, claims that this may be due to a loss of trust in the business and politics “elites.” Additionally, the Swiss People’s Party speculates that this decision was based on a fear that their culture is “being eroded by the influx of foreigners.” Historically, Switzerland has been a very attractive country to immigrants, especially during the World Wars. They must have reached a point where they believe it is too much.

After reading this, I wondered how this relates to our situation in America. Many U.S. citizens believe that there are way too many immigrants in the country, and they fear the same thing the Swiss do: that the culture is being eroded. However, if we take a step back and really look at it, we have far less than Switzerland, whose percentage of immigrants is 28.9%, double ours. Imagine walking into a room of 20 people in the United States. Depending on where one lives, the number will vary, but on average there are about 3 immigrants. If this were in Switzerland, the average would be 6. That is a significant increase.

Another point to consider is that these statistics are only looking at first-generation immigrants. The second and third generations are sure to vary in different countries and affect overall diversity. However, analyzing the direct immigrants is a close enough measure of multiculturalism.

This article made me wonder if America will ever reach this point. In the past, America has put limits on groups such as the Chinese. Currently, we have quotas and make immigration without visas illegal, especially for the Hispanic population. However, I am interested in whether or not the majority of voters would vote for a significant decrease in the allowed amount of immigrants.

I think the biggest factor in any decision-making should be first considering it from all points of view. For example, someone living in a highly populated city such as New York may think we have exceedingly too many foreigners. However, someone in a rural town with little to no immigrant population would not see it the same way. And overall, we have much less percentage of total immigrants in the entire population. Moreover, where would we be without somewhat large amounts of immigration? I think people sometimes overlook all the positive effects immigrants bring here.

In Switzerland’s case, this is what would happen if there weren’t any immigrants:

A lovely football (soccer) team of 3. I know that there should be limits to amounts of immigrants, but it shouldn’t be set too low either.

In this article, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ec7dba88-925d-11e3-9e43-00144feab7de.html#axzz2tAyUJTvW, people argue that the Swiss are “inflicting a wound on [themselves]” and that this change will damage their economy. The Swiss government is also in favor of maintaining allowance of immigration, but the people thought otherwise, which disappointed the government. The bill has been passed into effect.

Although I don’t know of other countries with immigration caps, maybe there are some that can serve as examples. In the meantime, I will be interested to see the outcomes of Switzerland’s decision. Maybe America can learn from the Swiss early on – to see the consequences of both having too much immigration and trying to suppress it.

Article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-switzerland-immigration-20140212,0,4049597.story

Statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign-born_population

If you watched the super bowl, you might have noticed a controversial commercial  by Coca-Cola. The ad opens with a woman singing the first line of the national song “America the Beautiful.” Everything seems like a typical commercial expressing patriotism until another woman sings the next line in Spanish. Over the course of the song, different people sing in a total of nine different languages: English, Spanish, Tagalog, Mandarin, Hindi, Hebrew, Keres, Senegalese-French and Arabic. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8iM73E6JP8

Clearly, the goal of the company is to promote cultural diversity and acceptance of all people. America is a mix of cultures and races from all around the world, and Coca-Cola is saying that America is  beautiful because of it. However, as angry and profane posts on Twitter and other internet sites show, a large part of America disagrees. For example, users said things like, “You’re done. Pepsi all the way. Go to the Middle East and sell your product,” “F*** outa here you communist liquid,” and “When did coke get bought out by terrorists?” More comments against the commercial can be found here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/coca-colas-multi-lingual-super-bowl-ad-inspired-a-racist-mel?bffb

Last week, I wrote a blog post on how I think America has taken a large step toward embracing other cultures. After seeing these hateful comments though, I have changed my mind, at least for part of our country that I didn’t think existed in such large numbers.

I can see why people are offended and frightened. First of all, this song is basically like a second national anthem. It represents all America has meant to its citizens up to now, and some people interpret that as celebrating its white heritage and English-speaking origins. However, although everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I don’t have anything against those with opposing views to mine, I find many problems in the arguments.

To begin with, America does not have an official language, for those who used the hashtag #SpeakAmerican and complained that English is our language. Of course, the most spoken language has been English and can be considered the national language. However, by no means is it required or defining of the country.

Secondly, for those who say America has always been dominated by European descendants, they’ve forgotten that the Europeans weren’t even the first ones here. I’m sure the Native Americans felt the same hatred when Europeans took over not only their land but also their language, culture, and power in the country.

Lastly, the basic defining goal of America is its freedom and equality. This is why it is a melting pot and people from all over want to come here. Freedom of expression means people are allowed to express their religions, languages, cultures, and unique opinions. If not for this freedom, those Twitter posts wouldn’t be allowed either. In the commercial, and in real life, it is obvious the joy and comfort immigrants experience in their new country. Many immigrants I’ve met have stronger patriotism than native born, white Americans, because the freedom in this country means a lot more to them when they have worse experiences to compare it to, and they are very grateful to be here. They are also not here to take over the country; in fact, many try very hard to assimilate to American culture.

In the past, Coca-cola has promoted its product with polar bears and the phrase “open happiness.” This year, it took a risky chance, but I’m sure they are aware of this and are firm in their beliefs. If they didn’t want to make such a strong statement, they would’ve chosen a different song. Nothing in this ad was an accident, and none of the reactions were unpredictable.

Everyone is entitled to his own beliefs, but I hope that people will rethink what this country really stands for. It is reasonable to be against too much multiculturalism, but it is not reasonable to falsely call people terrorists and communists. The future is unclear as far as the cultural path America is taking, but attacking with rash and angry comments surely won’t get it far. I believe America is very beautiful, but not in cases like this one.

For the first installment of my civic issues blog focusing on racial diversity in America, I want to start with the basics. What is the current state of our melting pot of cultures? Is it simmering comfortably or boiling over the top? How does the answer change when looking from different perspectives?

Ever since its foundation, this country has been a place for people from all different parts of the world. With immigration increasing dramatically within the last century, the predominant European percentage is shrinking. The nation has had to place quotas on amounts allowed from different countries, and extreme diversity has become part of its identity. Politically, all races and cultures are accepted, and racism is largely considered a thing of the past. However, it is unarguable that there are still disparities in how different people are treated or viewed. What I wonder is what everyone thinks deep down, instead of what they show on the surface to be socially correct.

Back in September, as part of my freshman seminar, I was required to attend an event called “World in Conversation.” This is a program home to Penn State, designed to open up honest discussion about race and culture. The design was as follows: a group of around ten students register for a certain time and room to meet, and the participants cannot see the identities of others signed up. At the event, two moderators, current Sociology 119 students, act as observers as well as participants. The floor is open to any thoughts about the topic, and since ideally none of the students knows each other and likely will not see each other again in such a large university, honesty and confessions are accepted.

During this hour, we covered a huge variety of topics, but the ones of greatest significance to me were peoples’ levels of awareness and acceptance. My group was predominately white females, but each of us came from very different backgrounds. The majority grew up relatively close to a city and had been exposed to many other cultures before seeing the ones at Penn State. However, there was one girl who grew up in a rural area and had never seen more than a couple of different types of people, and she admitted that coming to such a diverse school definitely was hard to get used to and was something she’d never had to experience. For her, the culture shock happened in her own country by coming into contact with outsiders – the opposite of culture shock. This was such an interesting concept to me.

As a second-generation child of Chinese immigrants, and having lived in three states with a huge amount of diversity, I’d never thought twice about living among people from all around the world; it seemed natural to me. However, hearing everyone’s stories really opened my eyes to the fact that some social problems related to prejudice are not because of ignorance or racism, but because some people truly are not aware of others’ differences and do not know how to handle that fact. It was humbling, and it also reassured me when this girl said that she still did not have hard feelings and was learning to live this way – it’s nice to hear that people are so accepting even when never taught to be.

In our group, there was also a graduate student from South America. Her opinions and observations were so influential to the way I now view not just our country but specifically central Pennsylvania. She described it as safe and beautiful; when asked if she had ever felt like an outsider or a subject of racism, she replied that she only felt welcome. She told us that many people reached out to her or worked at making her feel equal.

Although sometimes there are still racist acts, I think overall there has been a huge shift in Americans’ ability to accept people from other countries. The melting pot is at just the right mix, and the majority of racial problems are in the past. So many more opportunities are available for those in minorities; for example, I’ve come across many college scholarships tailored specifically for them. For the rest of my blog posts, I’ll be exploring more detailed subjects within diversity, but this general one has shown my core belief: not only has America come to accept diversity, but we have so much that there is almost a reversal in who really are the outsiders.

For my civic issues blog, I have decided to write about multiculturalism, which falls under the big topic of race. Living in America, I’m sure many of us see it as a norm to walk into a room and have representations from countries all over the world. We like to consider that we have now accepted all cultures into the melting pot of our own.

With this blog, one thing I am going to explore is different viewpoints on America’s mix of people. Some people like it, some people hate it, and some people haven’t really even been exposed to it, depending on where they live. One experience I can draw on is a discussion I participated in called World in Conversation last semester, where many people of different backgrounds had a confidential talk about their opinions and views on race.

Another idea I want to explore is whether or not we have truly moved past racism. I will also go into the history of America’s multiculturalism and just how that has shaped our country into what it is now.

Lastly, I want to discuss the controversy of assimilation and the psychology of individuals who must go through this process. For immigrants who want to be successful and fit in, it is usually their goal. On one hand, it can be damaging to their original culture, but on the other hand can combine to make a sort of hybrid culture. Obviously since my own race is a minority and I am a second generation child, I have my own stories to relate. I hope you enjoy reading and let me know if you agree or disagree with any of my opinions!

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