"A House Divided Against Itself Shall Stand" (Blog 7)

Our class studies of racism seem to reveal to many that America is still racially divided, despite the societal focus on equality of races which has been expressed by both the classic civil rights leaders and the rising protest groups forming in the light of misconstrued gun control verdicts which have been interpreted as attacks on our colored brothers and sisters.

Abraham Lincoln famously said "A house divided against itself shall not stand." This has been proven false in the context of civil rights though. America has been divided against itself for over 200 years and still achieved great success, despite the outright battles for equality between minorities and the white majority. If people look different, they believe that they are different, and each human ego puts itself above all others. Each man instinctively believes they are superior, and this is what creates racism and bigotry.

Racism is likely to be an eternal issue, as the inner workings of the mind of man generate it, and the mind of man is slow to change. What can be done is the greater majority of humanity can be taught to conquer their instincts and hold each human in an equal light, to treat others as oneself, and create from this divided house a whole home.

"Racism without Racists" (blog 7)

While researching the Ferguson Riots, I came across this article, which I find to be quite interesting. This article is a little too long to post but here's the link for anyone who's interested!

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/index.html

Racism has become a huge topic of interest lately. Between both the shooting of Michael Brown and the death of Eric Garner, many Americans around the world have been protesting anti-racial sentiments.

Soon after the protests began, psychologists conducted an experiment by showing participates two photographs, one with two Caucasian men in an altercation, one with a knife, one unarmed. The other photograph depicted, again, two men fighting, although this time, a Caucasian man with a knife, and an unarmed African-American man.

When asked to identify the armed man in the first photograph, participates chose the man with the knife. When asked to identify the armed man in the second photograph, many participates chose the African-American. Again, the African-American was unarmed.

Why would they chose the African-American?

This all comes down the an unequal grasp on racism. According the cnn.com, "Whites and racial minorities speak a different language when they talk about racism, scholars and psychologists say."

Now what does this mean? Well for instance, white citizens confine racism to acts of racial hostility, not discrimination, which was seen in the knife fight experiment. But racism is more than just showing hostility. Again, it's discrimination, segregation, racial profiling, targeting minorities for inexplicable reasons, etc. 

I believe that racism is a huge aspect that has only been uncovered within the past few weeks, Once the statement was released that the Officer who killed Michael Brown, Darren Wilson, was found not guilty, many anti-racial protest lashed out. Why is America just now jumping on the anti-racial bandwagon? We see this kind of stuff all over in melting pot communities, such as New York City.

My other question would be why are the citizens of America using violent protests? In my opinion, it's only making things worse. I don't even believe protesting is necessary. America needs to open her eyes and realize that this isn't the 1940's anymore. Racism shouldn't exist anymore. Each and every citizen is considered equal and shouldn't be undermined because of the color of their skin.

Racism (blog 7)

          According to google, racism is defined as the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Reading the story "Tonto and the Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven" and watching the videos of diet racism and race/off, clearly explain the idea of racism throughout. Both videos tend to use humor in order to portray the idea of how racism occurs everyday, and it has occurred for years now. An example of how racism was shown in the video diet racism, was how the woman said she would never date an Asian man. An example of how racism was shown in the video race/off was how he was talking about the Ferguson case. This case was all based on racism because a cop hurt an innocent and unarmed man just because he was black. An example of racism used in the story is how the main character was being judged by the store clerk in 7-11 because he was Indian. This is what racism is and how these examples support the idea.
       
          In my opinion racism is a very horrible thing and I think people need to stop and think about what they're doing. Many people are used to judging others so there's times where they don't even realize they're doing it. A quote that I always like to think about when it comes to racism is that "you shouldn't judge a book by its cover," because it's what's on the inside that counts and not how someone looks. Everyone looks different on both the outside and inside, that's what makes us all unique. Even if people look different they are still just like you, we're all human and we all have feelings. So my question I leave off is how often do you judge others, and how can you become better?
          

Blog 6

Jacob Riis' photo in How the other Half Lives shows the struggle of the poor. The gap between the rich and the poor was at it's all time highest during this period and the rich had no idea how hard it was to find food to eat or even warmth. Poverty has been one of the biggest battles human kind will ever fight and it's not an issue to us because the rich "cant" help. When Ebola and ISIS were  worldwide crisis' everyone panicked but Ebola was fixed with treatment but only Americans were cured because in Africa they did not have the money. Everyone forgets that we have a worldwide crisis that we cannot escape and it is poverty.

Blog #6

     

         This photo was taken by Jacob Riis. It is named "Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street" from his famous book "How The Other Half Lives." The photograph shows three young boys who look dirty and tired huddled together. These boys are most likely not Arab either, people call them Arabs because of how dirty they are. One doesn't have shoes on, all have shorts on and  the white details above them make it look like winter.

A Life Revealed

During class we discussed the photographs of poverty taken around the country. We discussed the tough times that these people endure throughout their lives, such as, the Migrant Mother. On this note I decided to research photographs of hardship in another area. The photograph on the left is twelve year old Sharbat Gula, the photograph on the right is thirty year old Sharbat Gula. If you look past these beautiful eyes you can see the expression on her face, the one that automatically tells you she has been through a lot. That deep intense look in her eyes that no one should have at just the age of twelve years old. This is her story.

She was a child when her country was invaded by the Soviet. Her village was completely destroyed burnt down to the ground. She was perhaps six when Soviet bombing killed her parents. She lived with terror every single day since. At night the dead were buried. And always, the sound of planes, stabbing her with dread.“We left Afghanistan because of the fighting,” said her brother, Kashar Khan.  “The Russians were everywhere. They were killing people. We had no choice.”Shepherded by their grandmother, he and his four sisters walked to Pakistan. For a week they moved through mountains covered in snow, begging for blankets to keep warm.It is the ongoing tragedy of Afghanistan. Invasion. Resistance. Invasion. Will it ever end? “Each change of government brings hope,” said Yusufzai. “Each time, the Afghan people have found themselves betrayed by their leaders and by outsiders professing to be their friends and saviors.”  This lady is one of many that has never felt safe. 

Poverty and Christmas(6)

   Christmas is pretty contradictory when you actually take time to think about it. The "meaning of Christmas" is an idea that gets tossed around a lot, whether its from your relative or the TV trying to sell you something. And since it's so ambiguous to me, I really don't attempt to act like I know the right definition of what Christmas should be. It's easy to get caught up in the commotion and endup dissatisfied  with the entire holiday spirit idea. It happens to me pretty much every year. Until one specific thing reminds me of what I think, in my opinion, Christmas should be about. Through my mom I end up helping out at the Riverhead Toys for Tots drive every year, and even though I really don't do much, it reminds me of something I wish I stuck to more often.
   If you don't know, Toys for Tots is a charity drive that does exactly what it sounds like, giving presents from Santa to children who probably wouldn't get any otherwise. They don't always get what they want obviously, usually it goes by age group and you get what you get, but that being said I've never seen a single kid noticeably upset over their gift. Every single child and parent lights up at this event, it's hard to explain. There's just something so genuine in it all. And as played out a message as it is,  we need to learn from things like this. We all  get so wrapped up in  our definitions of Christmas , we take the purity out of it. It should be a time for simple, unadulterated happiness. The kind that really only happens when you're a kid, but still, happiness. That doesn't mean just our own, it also means going the extra mile for anyone we can. We're talking about poverty and charity in class so obviously this has probably been on everyones mind.  The holidays are a good excuse for us to go out of our way a little more than we normally would. So, with this much poverty on the island, it's easy for us to reach out. It's not easy for everyone to enjoy the holidays like we do.  Christmas is an increasingly commercial holiday, and an increasingly complicated one,but the "meaning" should be anything but. For now it should be simple, just help everyone have a  good day.  That should be universal