I attended the Sotomayor-Obama era workshop on October 14th where they talked about how the roles of minority are affected/changing over time. The room was overcrowded and there were too many power point presentations than needed. One professor spoke about the increasing population of minorities and why it is essential to know, another spoke about her experiences as a multi-racial woman. I felt that the conversation dragged along and not every question was answered clearly; towards the end of the workshop Prof. Fernandez spoke and she made her lecture more interesting. Instead of talking about how minorities would affect the government, she spoke of how minorities are affecting America’s culture in a negative way – i.e. stereotyping. Racism can not be only found on whites v. minorities but also racism within a minorities’ own culture (light skinned dominicans v. dark skinned dominicans) Stereotyping is a universal problem; it doesnt just affect our social lives but also political. Obama and Sotomayor went through numerous criticisms before they proved everyone wrong that a minority too has a voice in the government. One of the questions raised was can the recession be blamed on the increasing population of the immigrants which affects health care and whatnot, but i think it cant be blamed to immigrants because they are the ones who fuel the economy.