post reading #4

The exercise we did on Wednesday morning was very interesting because it made me recognize how fortunate I am, by letting me now the advantages I have, moreover by letting me know the disadvantages I have because of my skin color. One of he privileges I realized I had was thanks to my parents for getting an education when they were younger, for instance having more than fifty books in the house, my mom have a profession as a marriage and family counselor, and us always having food in the house. The disadvantages I had I realized were not in my control, such as people judging my capabilities based on my skin color, background, and disabilities. I also thought how I remembered my disadvantages more than my advantages till they came to my attention. I remember when I was in eighth grade and I was having a hard time focusing because I cannot focus for a very long time, and my teacher told me basically that I was not gonna go to college and basically anywhere. The experience that I got from this and my eighth grade teacher though is that people are ignorant, and one has to learn to ignore them and nobody really knows your full potential because they cannot base it of your skin color, gender, sexual orientation, or your where you came from.

Advantages and disadvantages though can have various types of meaning, for instance now I am going to discuss the structural privileges that I possessed and the ones that I did not. The structural privileges I felt like I possessed were that I lived in a good neighborhood, I attended private schools, and got my first job as a lifeguard because I knew the people that were hiring; all these advantages helped me progress farther in my life, when things could have been completely different. The disadvantages I received was that because my skin color and where I went to school they thought less of me because I was not white. Another example is that most of my family still lived in low income areas and that just because I had all these advantages my family did not and was looked down on by society.

Reverse racism is a very complicated subject because one can never really reverse racism unless it never happened in the first place. Black girl dangerous reverse racism I feel is also wrong because she is just listing everything the white people did we would be doing back to them and the only difference is if we did it the racism would be reverse and the white people would not be at any advantages and the people of color would. I agree with the second reading because she is also saying that we can never truly reverse racism because the only way one can truly reverse it is if one fought racism with racism and if one does that no one is really winning. Racism is a very tricky subject because in reality it will always exist and someone will always think there better then someone else with no actual proof.

WORD COUNT: 521

Pre reading #4

From when a person is born and old enough to recognize what is going on around them they see the different opportunities that they have that other kids do not, whether they are good opportunities or bad, they notice. To me this has a lot to do with the privileges that not everyone has, and your skin color plays a large role in what privileges a person gets and what privileges a person does not get. The definition of privilege to me is an opportunity that only a certain person or a specified group gets and is not equal to everyone. An example of some privileges that a certain group gets is if you are a Latino there is a grant if you are the first in your family to go to college that will help out with your tuition of course with certain specifications. Another example that has to do with society, is that when I was growing up I noticed that at my grandmas house there were no street lights when it got dark, on the way home that night I asked my mother why there were no street lights and why it was so dark, she said “Mijo, its dark because the city does not put up street lights because the people that live here do not care enough about their community, so neither does the city” I noticed then that I was privileged even if they are just street lights. I felt privileged because I did not live in a low income area, and that my family did well, and it was then where I started being grateful and I still am. 

The truth is that having privileges does create racism in a sense, because for example the white kids are getting more then the colored kids are vice versa. One cannot give opportunities to a specific group and not expect the others to be upset. Everyone can be racist because racism is just anger at a certain specified group. For example when white kids make fun of a Latino or a Black person, the individual that is getting teased has anger not only towards that one person that is making fun of them, but associates them with all white people and not just that one person, and I know that from personal experience. This is absolutely wrong on both ends, but eventually the person learns that it was that individuals ignorance and not the whole race. Racism is a very complicated subject and always will be.

WORD COUNT:421

pre post #3

Ever since I was little and I first saw the census I was confused because I did not understand why it mattered what my ethnicity was. I asked my mother when I got home  that day and she told me it was just so they know how to categorize me, and that she did not understand why it mattered either. Even today when I look at the census I am not sure what to mark, because I am just not one ethnicity but three. For example on question 8 I would have to mark a couple things, such as “Yes, Mexican, Mexican American” then I would also have to put another Latino group which is Honduran. For question 9 I have no idea what I am supposed to mark because I am not White, Black, American Indian, or Asian, and they do not offer Latino as a race so I am absolutely confused. When I look at the census I think that it is to general and that they do not offer enough categories for an individual. I blame the census for the ignorance that people have today about races, because when someone is enrolled in school you have to fill out a census and when you fill it out thats when the ignorance starts unless someone learns otherwise. Most people do not learn otherwise until college. When I was younger I went to private catholic school from first to eighth grade and there was only about maybe ten dark kids and at least six of them were black so they identified me as black. From about second to eighth grade they picked on me for being a different skin color than white with many degrading names, and I blame the ignorance of people that do not take the time to learn about race and the different types. I feel that society has a huge part to play in that and little things such as the census that only gives a couple of races is the basis of that because if the government or society did not care about skin color or ethnicity in that matter no one else would. Everything you do in life from applying for a job, applying for school, getting social security, everything that matters in society you have to fill out a census and say what ethnicity you are and nothing is going to change soon, we care to much about peoples skin color and where they come from.

WORD COUNT: 414

post reading #2

Race like I said before is a very interesting topic, and one of the most diverse in the world. One cannot really put a definition on it because its more of a point of view or opinion than anything else. If I had to come up with a definition for race though it would have nothing to do with someones skin color, and something to do with where the persons family came from. When someone fills out a census that is one of the many questions they ask you and I have always asked myself why does it matter. When I think about it though Race is a group of people that share similar background, such as food, language, religious belief, and there ancestry. What I do not understand though is how can a color such as Black be a race. Black is a color and nothing more than that, when someone says African American though, that is a place where a person came from and has culture tied in it with the word. It describes two things, where your family is from and where someone lives at the moment. I also feel that when someone say race they are not really looking for something specific, but more of a general aspect. Ethnicity is a totally different subject though and I feel like that could be tied in with nationality. Nationality and ethnicity are the same thing in my opinion because when a person asks an individual what ethnicity they are I feel like it is more of there immediate background, such as where your mother and father are from and where your ancestors are from. I feel like there is not much of a difference between race and ethnicity, the only difference I feel like is the way the individual asks you when the question has come up. There are only two ways that it can be deceived though positively and negatively. Even if where you live is where your from, it also has to do with the feeling of acceptance that someone gets from the group of people. Like in the reading though even though he lived in America he did not like associating himself as American because he did not feel any cultural tie with the group of people. All these words come down to emotion and feeling though, because no matter we are still human and in order to belong one has to feel right about their culture.

WORD COUNT:412

pre reading #2

The definition of race is ethnicity, and the definition of ethnicity is traits, background, allegiance, or association. In these definitions it does not say that your race has to do with the color of skin a person is, and I feel thats what society determines race to be.  When someone asks me though to define race it is a very complicated question because there are so many emotions that conflict an answer to actually decide what race means specifically to me. When a person says race though the first thing that does come to my mind is the color of someones skin and how that actually does define where a person comes from. For example when a person is black you associate them with a culture that has black people in it, such as African Americans. Another example is when  one sees a brown person when your in California one automatically thinks Mexican and that their whole family is Mexican even though that person can be a minority of things. If someone went around the world though and got definitions of race from different countries everyone would have a different opinion because everyone has different experiences with race. The experience that someone has with race is what gives that person that definition of race. So the definition of race in California might be a different definition in China. 

Personally though race to me means where your roots, where your family is, and what rituals, religions, and beliefs one might share with someone else. When someone ask me what race/ethnicity I am I do not say Mexican, Honduran, and Jamaican because of my skin color, I say that because of the similar beliefs I share with those people and thats where my ancestry is from. The signs of respect we share, our food, our religion, and many more is what makes our race, not the color of skin I am. My father was born in Honduras and my mother was born here, so race has always been an interesting topic to me. People ask me what race I am almost everyday because my skin color does not give them enough information to base a ethnicity off of. Race will always be a complicated subject because there is to much history involved with it and to much emotion that comes with the word race. They used to enslave people based on what color a person is, and they still be little people on what color one is. So race as one can see will never be just black and white there will always be shades of grey in my opinion.

WORD COUNT: 439

Post Reading #1

People always say racism is gone and we live in a world were everyone is equal and has the same opportunities, I wish that were true. The truth is though that if your are a different skin color than white one has to work a little harder and through more obstacles to prove themselves. There are events in history that prove my exact point and a bill that was just passed two years ago that shows that we are not as close to equality as we think. On January 6, 1969 the official strike of students at San Francisco State College began. The students resulted to a strike for more than one reason, the main reason though was because the black students at that time felt the college was mistreating them by giving there Black Studies Department not as much as much as all the other departments. The strike was such a huge event that even the American Federation of Teachers took an interest because they felt that the students had done such a good job in standing up for what they believed in, that they also had too. This strike went on for two and a half months with daily confrontations, until both parties made an agreement on March 20, 1969. In this specific situation it only harmed a specific set of people the next example affects a whole state not just a college. In Arizona there was a bill that was passed in 2010 that stated the no ethnic studies classes were allowed to be taught anymore in any on the colleges in Arizona, which included for example Raza Studies, Asian Studies, Black studies, and many more. They  said tat it establishes more racism by putting each race into groups and teaching them how they were oppressed which is nonsense. These two events have similarities because in each one of these events they are showing racism in both these issues. The only difference between these two events is that in 1969 they were only attacking one ethnicity and presently in Arizona they are attacking all the ethnicities. The other issue is that in both situations these people like learning about their ethnicity and how much they have struggled to get this far. In my opinion in both of these events its the white race trying to not let us educate ourselves on how far we have gotten as an ethnicity no matter what ethnicity you are. People always say knowledge is power, so I think in both these situations they are trying to take the power away.

WORD COUNT: 429