White senator discovers family's African-American roots....responce




Marley, Rosie, Tay, my dad (talking politics), Grandma Avrit, Ryan. (in the back) Ariel and my mom

 

I think that it's great that the white southern senator is excited to meet his African-American cousins. I know when I first met my African-American cousins I was excited, but also a little bit nervous. I thought that they wouldn't like me or i wouldn't be cool enough for them. It's intimidating to meet someone for the first time. I wanted them to like me, and they do like me, but I was really careful about what I said around them. I didn't

want them to think I was racist if I said something wrong. They were cool and by the end of the night we were all cracking jokes about eachother. It didn't matter what race we were by the end of the night, we were family and that's all that we cared about. Families poke fun at eachother all the time and that's what we did.  I think that it's cool to have family of a different race. They bring a kind of diversity to the dinner table that people don't normally have. I think that more people should have a mulit-racial family...it's just more fun! I liked the quote from the article, "It's often said that a real Southerner can 'claim kin' with anyone." I think that this is really true. I think that anyone can be part of your family, you just need to learn to accept people.

Rosie (Tay and Tracy's friend) and Taylor







Mojo...Our Class Pet!



Mojo!!

 The turtle Mojo is the official class pet. He's cute and little and LOVES to talk about Issues!! He's an All-American turtle!! He's been in class for a month now and he really enjoys it! If you want to meet Mojo he's usually on my desk every day in class...just come over and say Hi! He loves meeting new friends!!


WE LOVE MOJO


Mojo eating





Drawing of Mojo meeting new friends

 

Speaker From Today...Thoughts....

After listening to the speaker today I felt conflicted. I thought that the police were helpful and not here to just convict people. If the police were here to help us than there wouldn't be so many wrongful convictions. I think that it's just horrible for people to be wrongfully convicted. I wanted to cry when our speaker was telling his story. Being convicted of a crime at age 17 that you didn't commit was so sad. I felt for him and I felt bad when he talked about adjusting to the outside world. It made me think of the Shawshank Redemption. It was so hard for the men to adjust to life outside the prison after they were set free. It would be so hard to be away for song long and then have everything change. We were talking about things changing in Theatre this week. When you move away from a house and you go back to visit it you start to think: "That didn't used to be the wall color." "That shouldn't go there." "These people set the room up all wrong." You want things to be the same as when you left, but that doesn't happen often. Things change as people grow older and grow apart from things. Things change to adjust with growing times too, that's why the world changes when people are in jail or prison. The outside world doesn't just stop because they are away. It would be nice if it did so the people who were away could feel like they didn't miss anything. I can't even imagine having to adjust to a world that I didn't know. I would feel scared and lost and afraid to walk out of my house. I am a person who doesn't like change and I would feel super overwhelmed by the world changing around me. I felt so bad for all the people who were named on the cards. All of these people were convicted of a crime they didn't commit and that breaks my heart. I don't want people to lose faith in our justice system and that makes my want to cry. We are supposed to have a great justice system and that makes me just feel like Americans are failing at justice. We should fix whats wrong so we can not have as many flaws.

Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause...How I Like the Book So Far

I started reading Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause By: W. Stuart Towns. It's about the south and how they don't like the north and the fact that they lost the Civil War. I started reading this book knowing that people down south didn't have too much respect for the north, but I found out that they are extremely hurt by the fact that they lost the Civil War. It just bugs the crap out of them. A quote that stood out to me was "There are many shared memories we Americans cherish: Paul Revere's ride, Washington crossing the Delaware, Jackson at New Orleans, Custer at Little Big Horn, and Teddy Roosevelt charging up Kettle Hill in the San Juan Heights all come quickly to mind. The mythology and memories of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Pea Ridge, and countless other battles and skirmishes, gallant leaders, heroic soldiers, faithful slaves, and staunch women on the home front form a similar mosaic of legend for many white southerners." (xi). It's funny how these people just won't let go of the past. It's like the past is the only thing they have, which isn't true at all. They have wonderful country side, they have great comfort food, and they have really good music. They shouldn't be living in a past that wasn't even good for them. They lost everything they had worked for before and during the war. I mean I feel bad for them, just because they lost so much, but at the same time, these are the people who owned slaves and treated them poorly. I think that those who are dwelling in the past are just upset because they lost the war and they want to be "Rebels" and raise Hell (It's kind of what Southerners are known for). I can't tell if the author likes the south or not yet, he mostly is listing facts. I think I'll have a better understanding when I read farther into the book.

White Like Me...Denial

I do not agree with these assertions. I don't think that racism helped white people at all. I believe that racism was a tool in an attempt for white people to help themselves, but I don't think that it worked. I think that if a white person is not a racist, than they can’t benefit from racism. The people who even come close to benefiting from it are the white people who are racist. Those who are not racist don’t gain anything by being around racist people or activities. They would want to stop racism and prevent one group of people from getting everything. In the article Tim Wise says “we teach history as an uninterrupted string of linear progress, where things were really bad, but slowly got better, and are always improving when it comes to race,…” (62). He’s saying that everything we learn in history about race is wrong. It did get better. Look at the 1800s than look at today and tell me it’s not better. We have a President who is not white, we don’t have slaves, and people who are black don’t have to sit in the back of the bus, if that’s not improvement than I don’t understand the meaning of the word.  I really don’t think this article was all that convincing. Wise talks about how members of his family owned slaves in the 1800s (they lived in the South). He then says that they should have known that it was wrong and that he doesn’t like them for keeping slaves. The truth is, people back then, especially in the South, saw slavery as economic growth. To the South a life without slaves would kill the economy, no one would work as hard, and they wouldn’t have as many workers. I’m not saying that slavery was right or good in any way; I think it was disgusting and horrible, but I can’t say that the people back then should have known better. Wise says “Their acts are neither excused by the times in which they lived, nor the passage of time since.” (66).Their acts should be look at differently because of the times they lived in. You shouldn’t judge these people as if they are people living today, they had a different mindset. It’s the way they were raised, the place they grew up, and the time period they lived in. Slavery was more about economics and status in society than about anything else. People are selfish, doesn’t matter what race you are. It could have easily been the other way around in slavery. People will look out for number one before looking out for others. I know this from my own person experiences. People help out themselves first. It’s just the way the world works, if you don’t look out for yourself you get swallowed up. White American enslaved Native Americans long before they enslaved black Americans. We never helped out Native Americans, I haven’t heard of one white person helping out a Native American. I have heard of white people helping out black people. I just personally didn’t like this article and the way the guy just had to say how horrible white people were for having slavery and all of the other things they did to black people. I also don’t like how he said we made no progress in history and that it isn’t getting better, when the truth is that things are getting better for black people in America.

But that's just my personal opinion.

If I Were A Poor Black Kid...Responce

I agree with this article, because I believe that anyone can do anything that they set their mind to. If anyone works hard enough than they can do anything and achieve big goals in life. I think that the author used good ideas to express what he thinks about being a poor black kid. I'm not poor, or black, so I can't speak on behalf of those who are poor and/or black, but I think that if they saw that they could be anything they wanted to if they just worked hard, than they would want the chance to do that. I know that there are many poor black kids that have been on shows like Oprah who dream of going to college and getting fantastic jobs so they can have money for their children. I read a book by Horatio Alger Jr. called "Ragged Dick, or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks". This book was not about poor black kids, but it was about kids who are poor. These kids had nothing and they found that if they worked hard and had the aspiration to be amazing, then they could do anything. I saw a musical called "Bowery Boys" that was based off of the book "Ragged Dick". The lead character Dick Hunter (played by my friend Brian) really wanted to be a business man. He worked hard and found new ways to make money, with the help of his friends Bronski (played by my friend Christian), Mickey (played by my friend Andrew), Squirt, and Mary. All of Dick's hard work payed off when he got a position working for a Mr. Marshall Fields.
This is what poor black kids should be doing. Working hard and finding a way to make it in the world. America is not an easy country to make it in, you don't hear of many rags-to-riches stories anymore. Anyone can make their future brighter, you just have to know how to start the spark.



"Mary" and Brian




Brian rallying the boys




Christian, Johnny, and Brian




Christian As Bronski



"Ragged Dick"

The second article I read was a response to "If I Was a Poor Black Kid". I understand where the author is coming from, but I just don't see why he thinks that it's so far fetched to think that someone who is poor and/or black could work hard and succeed in life. I just don't think that they worked hard at all and they are just upset that they didn't. Some of the things said in the first article are things that a white middle aged man would say and do, but that doesn't mean that poor black kids can't say and do them either. I just believe that everyone's future is in their own hands and other people can't do anything to change that.



Christian

 


Andrew, Max, and Christian



Brian