Crash:troubles in the world

Crash is focused on showing the racial problems in the world today. I was able to see how certain races judge each other and put each other down. The movie touched on many things like prejudice, stereotypes, and conditioning. In the movie it showed how one's actions can come back around to affect you. The racial tension in Crash is very heavy. The people who you would think are good they turn out to be bad or do something that contradiction your perception on that character. Also, the people who seem bad do something good.

The stereotypes in the movie are easy to find. In one scene, a white woman sees two black guys walking pass her and her husband. She gets scared and grabs a hold of her husband. Without even knowing who the black guys are she judges them. Another scene of stereotyping in the movie is when the same woman gets mad with a Hispanic male changing her locks and just because he had tattoos she thought he was a gang member and he would sell her house keys to a gang member.

Fear plays a significant role in the movie. At the beginning of the movie a black couple gets pulled over. The cop abuses his power and molested the black woman. The black man was scared the whole time, he feared for his life. The woman was mad at her husband for letting the cop do that to her, but I personally think that the black man action were the best for that situation.  

The movie showed some of the problems that people have with each other today. People aren't always as good as they seem. You truly see who people really are in pressure moments like when the white cop picks up the black guy. They are in the car and they go at it for a little and the black guy tries to show the white guy what he was laughing about. The white cop prejudged the black man and ended up killing the Black man for no reason. We thought he was a good guy at the beginning, but he ended up being like all the other characters in the movie.   

Anger was apparent with the white woman at the end of the movie when she realized that she was angry for no reason. She would push her friends away and when she needed them most they vanished.The only one there for her was her house maid who she realized was her only friend. Anger was also shown by the white man when talking to the insurance woman. The man got mad at the lady just because she had a black name. This can also relate to colleges and jobs today. Sometimes they cut the number of applications just by the keep of name the person has. This is something that needs to be fixed. While watching this movie showed me that we as people have a lot of work to do before we get to where we want to as people.  

Crash: Explained

In the movie Crash we are force fed all of these stereotypical situations in which each main character has some connection with another. By force fed I mean that there are so many instances where prejudice or racial tension is being put into effect. Some races that clashed were, whites and blacks, whites and East Asian, and Hispanic and East Asian. During these tensions one person made an action while the other person didn't like the action and attacked their identity. This is like what we talked about in class, where we are mad at their action but we take it out on their identity. Now, another thing present in the movie was the cycle of prejudice. A way conditioning was shown was when the black detective's brother places his traveling piece on top of the dashboard. This is conditioning because he is making Ludicrous believe that the statue actually brings safe travels. Thoughts and expectations is shown when the white lady sees two black guys walking toward her. She thinks that the guys are going to harm her so she grabs her husband which is another step in the cycle called avoidance. There was a whole lot of verbal dehumanization during the movie, but one that stood out to me was when the rich black guy told ludacris that he is a disgrace to him and his race. This stood out to me because it makes you think and want to think about how the world sees ourselves.  Finally, there is physical violence. A good example is when the younger white cop shot a black man in his car because he thought the guy was going to pull out a gun. This shows almost every part of the cycle in that one scene. He thought and expected for him to pull out a gun, the white guy tried to avoid the black guy by kicking him out da car. They both were verbally dehumanizing each other. But then the white guy ended up doing physical violence. Officer Tommy Hanson demonstrates that the race or intentions of individual officers are only a symptom of a larger societal problem with regards to race. Before he shows that he sees it first hand with his partner, at the time, when he abuses his authority and molested aa black women and doesn't get in trouble for it. The only reason the cop didn't get in trouble was because the chief was corrupt and let stuff slide because the black chief didn't want to lose his job. Unfortunately, Officer Tommy fell to the same problem when he killed the black man because of a social problem with regarding to race. In conclusion, Crash was a good movie to open my eyes to a prejudice works that we live in, and to show it with extra obvious stereotypes makes it seem even more worse than it is.

Crash

In the movie crash, racial tension is an on-going vibe throughout the whole movie. Throughout the movie we encounter many situations which include racial slurs, belittling actions or just rude thoughts. The first event that blew my mind and made me drop the distractions and focus on the movie was the scene when the two guys come out of the restaurant and come across a white couple. Almost at immediate sight of the pair of black men she (the woman in the couple) reaches for her partners arm for safety. This act alone places the men in a stereotype-- black men are trouble. Then the way the characters ALL have some sort of connection amongst themselves makes the movie and the racial situations so much more interesting and attractive to the brain. The movie makes a complete circle and it revolves around the cycle of prejudice. Throughout the movie in every encounter and hardship, a person's identity is made the target. The movie itself speaks strongly on how our generation behaves today when heads butt-- identity is targeted. Also, the movie portrays many stereotypes of cultures and in a way tries to hide them but only makes them more obvious to the viewer. The movie itself is extremely powerful and if exposed to many people can open up minds and change the "advantage based society" we live in for the equality of all, or at least based on credentials with a fair and just opportunity.

Crash: prejudice

Raekwon Strickland

September 30,2015

Diversity and Social Justice

Mr. Cassidy

    In the movie we watched called Crash it was so much stuff going on in the characters lives. Too many things to see everything the first time you watch it. But when we went back and saw certain parts I was mind boggled by how everything connected and worked out to bring the story back around full circle. But the things I did see were the stereotypes presented by the characters. Such as the two young black men in the beginning coming out of the restaurant. Ludacris one of the men was complaining about how unfair the world is and how blacks should have equal rights. When he saw the white woman start to hold her husband when she saw them he acted as if he felt offended and told his buddy they should be scared because they were the minority in this situation. And then yet they carried out the stereotype and did exactly what the woman thought they would do and that's rob them. I felt this was important because people do this all the time. We complain about how unfair stereotypes about us are and how they prejudge us and you know we do, we fulfill those stereotypes. There were also racial stereotypes when the same woman that held her husband when the blacks robbed them was racist when the hispanic came to change their locks she wanted to get them changed immediately because she said that he would sell the keys to his “gangbanger homies”. This was another instance of stereotypical thinking.

    Racial tension was seen when the cop needed insurance for his father. The lady couldn't give his father an insurance claim and he attacked her identity. He asked for her name and she said “ Shaniqua” and he came back and said big surprise. He said this because he knew she was black because she couldn't give him the insurance. This showed racial tension because he used her name assume that she was a black woman. And because he was made upset by a black woman he automatically took it out on another black woman by sexually assaulting her. This showed the tension that he had with black people.

Well fear had a big thing to do with race. A good example is at the end of the movie when the cop killed the black man off of fear of what might happen. But it could have either race and fear or just based on pure fear of losing his own life. Many things could have happened it could have been a white man in his car and the same thing could ended in him killing him either way. So fear played a huge role in what happened no matter what race.

The in the movie was pretty serious resulting in mistakes that could have been made and resolutions to their problems. Such as the white woman who said she always felt angry. She was angry because she didn't have any true friends around her. The only person she believed was her true friend was the woman that took care of her and cleaned her house who just happened to hispanic. This opened her mind to anyone that isn't white to just give them a chance and get to know them as a person.

Prejudice

Coming into this course I never thought I would be so intrigued in learning about the things that go on in the world that I live in. So far with this readings I believe that this generation has developed a hatred for new and unknown things in life. Our generation is afraid of things they do not have a description for. I feel like this is what drives racism in today’s society. The fear of what we do not know. Seeing a man of color down the street, then crossing the street because you’re afraid of your perception of this man. He could easily be a man with a great personality but you were afraid of what you thought of him. Acts like these is what ruins our generation, this is what drives people to think it is okay to cast out the people who are different then them. We need to notice that our generation is messed up, and we need everyone to contribute to the change we need to make for generations after us. Making a difference in one small community will have no effect on what’s going on in our world. Our culture is unaccepting of things that are unordinary. Seeing someone on the street and not being able to automatically point out their gender is something that is unordinary and that person will be pushed out. Which is why I believe all problems in the world root back to the fear of difference.

As people in the United States everyone is assigned to a category. Sad to say, but true. These categories demoralize us as humans. As James Baldwin said “ a black woman in Africa, therefore who has not experienced white racism, does not think of herself as black or experience herself as black, nor do the people around her. African, yes. A woman, yes. But not a black woman.” By these he meant to say that when she came to the United States, she was categorized by her race and is now a black woman. Just like a Norwegian man from Norway. When he comes to the United States what he learns is that he white and the privilege that comes along with being a white man in the United States. Understanding his privileges he will now be glad to attach it to his identity. Both scenarios are the same with the woman from Africa and the man from Norway, however, because of the privileges our culture has given to different races. The lives of these two people will be completely different. Privilege and difference cause major problems in our culture and if we don’t do something about it, nothing will ever change.

Honestly this class has shed light onto topics that are so delicate to our society yet so valuable. This class has discussed those that are dominant and those that suffer the disadvantage that allows us to prosper is such a nation. The class discussions alone bring up so many important topics that show us different perspectives of our judicial branch of society that limits men of color from achieving greatness quote and our competitive society. The class has discussed how men of color face more severe consequences and punishable actions while "Americans" have most the freedom they could want when committing similar or even more severe crimes such as mass murders, hate crimes and acts of brutality. The class has shed light on very delicate topics of race and how unjust is for the low class people of color. Our system is created and developed to maintain the poor, poor and the rich, rich.our system has done a great job at covering the weak links to their masterpiece of segregation but people demand change and newly enraged "Americans" want equality.

Forms of our ideals

In these readings, it shows that people's  ideas of one another are all from a matter of perspectives. It's all because of how we were brought up in the world. At first, we are characterized at a young age. We can't do anything about the way we start looking like at birth. Life isn't like a character creation scene on a role playing video game. We didn't choose to be black or white, curly or straight hair, or even if we are a boy or girl (Harro 46). It was because of pure luck that we were born as we are.
As we develop during our youth, we hear many people call us many different things. when we are young, we could be called cute, handsome, and things of that sort. However, in this society, segregation is common. A child could notice this in many places throughout their childhood. One place I believe many people notice and learn about the idea of segregation is at a school. In Social Studies, kids learn about Christopher Columbus interaction with the Native Americans. Also, the idea of black people being slaves towards white people based on the color of their skin. They also learn about Martin Luther King and how he lived through a time of violence and civil war just because of black people trying to become equal with white people. Sadly, there is still signs of segregation deep under the surface
One example of segregation being apparent is the multiple cases around that deals with the problem of police brutality. There were many cases of this where the police attack a black man (or woman) and get out free because the police officer(s) appeal of the incident being an act of self defence. The news then announce the question of whether or not it is a sign of racism or not. Flaring up unnecessary controversy between all those who are curious about the topic.
Relating to the topic of the media, there is many reasons to believe that news and social media fuel the people´s thoughts. For example, as we discussed in class, the riots in baltimore this year. If you closely listen to what the news casters were saying before the riots even started, some said things like ¨no riots has occurred as of yet¨. This shows how they were clearly provoking and expecting riots to happen around the city of Baltimore. So, if there´s people to include in the cause of the Baltimore Riots, it's the media.
To conclude, segregation and ideas that root from it can come from many sources. It could be from our parents, with them telling us who to watch out for and the kind of people to respect. It could also be from school, where we learn about segregation and violence that came from it. Thirdly, we could get our ideas from the news, who feed us passive forms of discrimination to make us think badly of an situation

The Reading

What I got from these readings is that everyone goes through struggles of their own. Whether it's from racism or from gender discrimination, everyone(even myself) goes through struggles. Some major, and some not so big at all. I have had my share of struggles as well having a sister with special needs. As much as I would love her to be a normal girl, I love her very much and will always feel blessed to have her as a sister and see her smiling every time I come home from Leahy House on the weekend. I also think that there are a lot of hidden struggles that not all of us see other people going through. Being persecuted for being poor, even rich, cause not all rich people are happy, in fact a lot of them are actually miserable in reality. There are actually a lot of poor people that are happy and more satisfied with their life than most rich people.  Also, every ethnic, racial or social group has their own share of struggles. Everyone has gone through their share of struggles and some people still do. Italians and Irish had their share of struggles as well. The Irish went through a lot of discrimination in the 1800s. Especially during the Civil War when most of the Irish were coming to the U.S. Then, the Italians started to come into the country during the early 1900s through the 1920s. This is why the Mafia became a thing in the United States. They would band together to protect themselves and make money while they are at it. Now a lot of people hear " Oh, I'm Italian," and more times then not, people would think, "He's in the mob, he's dangerous." But, in reality, the Italians are not the only ones who had anything to do with organized crime. There are the Yakuza, Triad Society, American Mafia, Sicilian Mafia, Russian Mafia, Irish Mob and more groups. It was not only the Italians and the Sicilians back then and the Russians, and other European and Asian gangs were very powerful and dangerous back in the day

Discrimination

We read in the book of Privilege, Power, and Difference about how people are afraid of the unfamiliar. In some form or way, we all have that natural tendency to question or avoid those who do not look like us. A prime example, of when this happened to me is when I was in downtown on my way home and I saw a man who had an amputated leg and was on crutches. My first thought was, how does he live with himself knowing that he can’t walk or anything without support? I then thought to myself, what if this was me, what would I do, how would I feel about myself? Sometimes we never know that we are in the category of being afraid or curious about the unfamiliar, but when we take that second glance or ponder about that person then we fall under the category of being afraid or curious about the unfamiliar. There are around 54 million people with disabilities who are abused inside and outside of their home which often leads to them dropping out of school or not pursuing their dream because they’re afraid of being ridiculed by others (Alan G. Johnson). The time when someone brings up one of the “special” terms such as sexism, racism, heterosexism, and others people tend to try to avoid those topics if they are the people who are dominant. For example, men who hear the word sexism or male privilege become so uncomfortable and tend not to talk about the topic (Alan G. Johnson). The reason they feel uncomfortable is because they tend to think that it is a personality issue rather than an issue of the whole group. We also tend to give a negative connotation to words like these which make them uncomfortable for the dominant to talk about. For example, whenever someone uses the term racist, people automatically think white and that is not true because there are other people of color who are racist too, maybe even more severe than the common white that we talk about. The same thing applies to Muslims, when people say that Muslims are terrorists, when in fact the term terrorism does not only apply to Muslims. Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims (Google). Terrorism applies to all those things that the news and other media try to hide when they say mass shooters, school shootings, and rampage killers. These people aren’t from the Middle East therefore, they aren’t terrorists. Terms continue to get misused and instead of always thinking about the dominant group when we use terms such as terrorists, racists, and sexists we need to start thinking about everyone and think about how to make a solution to these prejudices rather than always calling out names when these terms are used. Not all people fit into these terms and it should be understood that some of these people did not start or continue this prejudice, they were just born into it (Alan G. Johnson). “You can't judge a book by looking at its cover” (Bo Diddley).

Our generation

What I got from some of these readings is that we must be ourselves, we must love ourselves. Its hard now to be who we are, because we want to fit in, we want to belong so bad so we change who we are to be loved. Like coming into a new school, I came here from a mostly white school and I did everything I could to fit in. I changed myself to what I had been seeing at school to try and fit in to try and belong to something. When we belong to something we fell whole we feel loved because that's our home away from home.  Kirk and Okazawa-Ray said that we are most comfortable being themselves and we are until we are faced with people we don't know then we try to be different so they can try to accept us. Social classification how human beings label and classify other human beings, as Kirk and Okazawa-Ray said. We classify ourselves into so many different things, the world all ready judge's and classifies us as black, and poor, but we use those things and classify ourselves into different sub groups like light-skin and dark-skin. We are discriminating againstead ourselves. Prejudice, we as black people are  badat this  in my eyes, we look at people are before knowing it we judge them and make assumptions based on what they look like. We all have done it walking and them seeing a group of black people who look ruff and thuggish walking toward us so we get scared and either walk faster past them or cross the street. They maybe the nicest people ever but we made a prejudice  decision based on stereotypes and other racist things we hear all the time. Everytime we judge or we assume something about someone we are being prejudice. Conditioning through what Johnson says is that young kids are conditioned into being  racist, prejudice. That's true kids are not born racist, they are taught through parents and other people around them. The psychological view is that kids under 5 years old retain lots more information, they may not be able to say it but it's in their head and they will remember it. Like if the mom says dirty jews around her kid that child will remember it and think and live as if jews are dirty.

What I learned William Dukevicz

William Dukevicz            

          What stuck out to me the most was the first chapter we read. There were two different type of level. Meso and micro. Meso is the older level. Micro level is the younger level. At the Meso level is like the high school level. In high school you are supposed to be somewhat mature. When you're in the Meso level you're supposed to know how to act and stuff. For example kids in my school act like they're younger. They be acting like kids that are in middle school. In my point of view you're supposed to be a little grown up at the Meso level. In the Micro level Is when you're at a young age. When you're at the micro you don't know how to act if something big happens in your life. At the micro level it's not your fault because you're at a young age and you don't know how to overcome big challenges in life. For example if your parents divorce and you a child at the age of five years old you might be dry upset for a long time , that could affect a child in the micro level for the rest of his or her life. What else stuck up to me in class was the movies that we watched. They stuck out to me because when I watched those movies when I was a child I didn't notice the words and music the characters were actually saying. Now when I'm older and I watched and payed close attention to the movies i feel a different way towards those movies. What the mermaid said in the movie can change the way a child acts completely. When a little kid watches this they will just be entertained but some of the things that is said can get stuck in the back of there head and once they grow up they can act a certain way. The mermaid said all you have to do is worry about your body and worry about how you look. The way she said it meant that nothing matters in your life except your body. Also the monkey video. The music in the monkey video was swing jazz music. That video was pretty racist because I think the bear said " cuz" and he was referred to the black guy and the lion spoke proper English and was looked as the white guy. As a child you don't notice these small things but once you get older you can start to see different things that happen. This is what I learned and what I interpreted the last couple of days in the readings and in class.

What have I learned-Matt Moreno

     So far the reading that mainly spoke to me was the first one we did. Where it talked about the two different levels, Micro and Meso. What I really got from it was that the Micro level represents at a young age and I a lot of things can change your life at a really young age. Really big events for example like losing a parent can really destroy a kids way of life. He's really young so he would be really confused but at the sime have a sense of what's chappening. This can shape his life and his identity. At the Meso level I believe that's when your a little bit older like middle school and highschool and have a sense of what's going on the world. Things that can really show your identity would be like they way you act. For example if there's a kid who has a bad attitude and always gets introuble it sometimes may mean he has his own problems at home. Also the way kids dress can also identify there life. Usually when someone has really nice clothes or brand new shoes every month are usually called rich or spoiled, and when people have clothes from stores like old navy, gap and more they tend to get made fun of because of the cheap fake brand they wear. People make such a big deal on the brand and not on how it actually looks.
       So far I have been learning many things from class. The topic I mainly like right now is how many people in this world stereotypes people. For example when you hear the word immigrants what race do you immediately think of "Hispanics" of course but like our teacher cass said the other day most of the immigrants in New York are mad up of Irish people but people tend to still say immigrants are mostly Mexicans.
       I also learned a lot from the little videos of Disney that we watch. When we watched the video of the mermaids the dark and big witch was telling the mermaid that she only needs her body to be beautiful and not her voice. This sends a horrible message to the young girls out there who watch the Disney movies. They might not really understand what's happening or understanding it but it sends a message to them. Also another film we watched was when the monkeys where dancing to the swing jazz. That basically represents how African Americans were really interested into swing jazz and also the monkeys had a slang of a black man for example when the one monkey said cuz. Also the words of the song was saying "I wanna be like you" showing kids that it's basically wrong to be your self and be like other people.

Conditioning In Our Society

In class we have been talking about the two cycles of prejudice. These cycles are conditioning and thoughts and expectations. Conditioning in simpler terms is another word for brainwashing. We experience conditioning through numerous different outlets. Whether it be the news, social media, television, or movies. For instance, Mr. Cassidy showed us scenes from the Disney movies The Little Mermaid and The Jungle Book. In The Little Mermaid, Ursula calls really skinny people and really fat people desperate. She also insinuated that all women need are a nice body and not a voice. This is conditioning young children to think that they shouldn't be comfortable with themselves and what they look like. If children are conditioned to think a certain way they will never find their true identify. The second video we watched was from the Jungle Book. The first thing you notice is that the song is I wanna be like you. This teaches children to try to be someone they're not. The second thing you notice about the video is that the monkeys sound like black people and are listening to jazz music. One monkey even says "cuz". This is extremely racist because black people have been known to be called monkeys. Mr. Cassidy also showed us an experiment done with young black children. The experiment consisted of someone handing a black child a white doll and a black doll. The children were asked to choose which doll they felt was better, and a majority of the children chose the white almost instantly. When asked why they chose the white doll they said it was better. The children automatically expected the white doll to be better just because it is white. This experiment amazed and shocked me but I was also upset with the results. It showed me how soon conditioning starts with young black children and how we are trained to not love our people and accept who we are. This video was a real eye opener for me and I'm sure the rest of the class. One question I have is: how can we prevent conditioning at a young age? It may be impossible unless you stray from all types of media but even then people can condition you in real life. We might not be able to prevent conditioning but we could try to allow positive conditioning instead of all the negative information we are being fed.

Geoffery Ofori-Dwomfuo
Diversity and Social Justice
Mr. Glenn Cassidy



Identity
After reading the various passages which was focused on how identity is determined. Identity isn't only gained when you are given a distinct name after you've been delivered from your mom's womb. It's the conception and expression an individual procure either from him or herself or from what the world imposes on the individual. Over a period of time, the identity of people have been misread and has led to the separation and categorizing of people even though we are all made to believe we are equal under the law.
People of color are being looked down upon by whites, which is creating a false identity for people of color. Blacks are made to look inferior to the whites. Blacks are recognized as criminals and a life worth nothing as compared to a white man because our ancestors once served as slaves to the whites. People carry this mentality of blacks and are ruining the generation for our little who are one day to become the holders of the nation. It's believed, that a group is only when they are united. How do we strengthen our nation if we are focused on distinguishing people based on their race?. Prejudging of Blacks of being criminals could eventually lead to them accepting that identity.
Not only this but also, giving people identities because of their religion. Religion has a great impact on the identities of which are sometimes true and other times false. People presume that individuals of a religion are a great threat just because an individual of that religion caused harm to the nation. They make false statement out of fear. Therefore people of that religion are given constant supervision and treated like a felony. This doesn't only make them feel different, but it also makes them feel unwanted which could to lead to them taking wronging decisions against the nation.
Recently, a fourteen years old Muslim boy was arrested after a teacher decided that a homemade clock he proudly brought to class was a bomb. Was he actually arrested because the clock looked like a bomb or it is because it was being possessed by a Muslim? The teacher was given a conditioning that all Muslims are of great harm to the nation because they could be a terrorist. Also, the death of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen years old who was gunned by a white night watch man because he identified Mr. Martin to be a criminal for Mr. Martin was Black. The Whites have identified people of color to be worth nothing and are criminals so they should be gunned down.
We call our nation a free nation but are we actually free or only the white people are free?. It states in the declaration of independence that "all men are created equal" but why are Blacks still looked down upon?, perhaps two heads are better than one.

Who Am I?

It's a Monday morning, the sun is shinning, the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping... It is just a normal beautiful day. But as you walk to the bus stop, you notice someone out of place, you see a "Caucasian" male in your "black neighborhood". Did you ever take the time to ever think about how you may view someone else before you even meet or talk to the guy? Any characteristics, that you assume about the guy is giving him a "false identity".

The United States is a diverse country and in order to substain the amount of people and cultures, they must give people an identity,... A set of characteristics by which a thing is definitely known. In today's society, the people and the media tends to falsely identify people just because of their race. The United States is known for being one of the most racist countries. The racism dates way back even before the America was called the United States. Over time the names have been through an evolution and it had never left certain races. For example, words like terrorist apply usually to only one race and or culture... Arabs or Muslims.

Today, the media tries it's best to condition the people by thinking that certain words applies only to a certain people. When people heard the word terrorist, the first type of people to come to mind were Arabs due to the events of nine eleven. But when Americans commit terrorists acts, the media uses other words so this title can stay with this culture of people. On April 20, 1999, two seniors planted bombs around their high school and on the other side of town. The bombs failed to denote so they commenced with their plan to shoot up the school. After completing their task, they both end their lives with a bullet to the head ending their own lives. The acts that happened fulfills the definition of a terrorist but because they were white, the media called them the "Trench Coat Mafia". Another term illegal immigrants usually applies to Mexicans because of the stories from the border patrol, but in fact the most illegal immigrants in the U.S currently is the Irish.

The world is becoming more prejudice due to the "minorities" out populating the the dominate race whites. Until people minds expand to accept the diversity, life will be an ongoing process of questions. What do others think I am and want me to be?...Which social groups do I want to affiliate with?... Who Am I?

Faces of Oppression

Omar Osbourne
Diversity and Social

The faces of oppression are the ways we act and things we do to keep people down. These ways of oppression are effective towards a wide range of people. This system is what holds people back from achieving the best for themselves. The groups of people that are held back mosts are women, Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans etc... The faces of oppression divided the people below with the people on top like whites and blacks. It also divides the people within a certain group. The faces of oppression are divided into five groups exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural, imperialism, and violence. Social groups are made to identify a person into a group and with this it makes it easier to keep a certain group down. Exploitation is using the hard work of another race or group of people. Whites will mostly get the high paying jobs. Blacks and Hispanics will usually get the low paying jobs or not have one at all. Even if a Black or Hispanic is equally qualified company will give the white people the job. Marginalization is when a different race can't even get the job. Not allowed to move up in the social scale. An example of this is when Rosa Parks took a test to be able to vote. They failed her just because of her races. Marginalization stops opportunities for the right to exercise capacities in socially defined and recognized ways (Adam 39). Powerlessness is third this to me means that power is only in the hands of a certain few. These people want to keep their power so they use others to make them able to keep their power and keep the people below from ever being able to gain any power. Make them feel like the best they can do is garbage. Cultural imperialism is basically making your culture seem like the right one by preaching it, as the model of living and saying that others should try to live like that person. this category is where stereotypes are used to make one's culture seem better. I think an example of this would be headeral sexuals with gays and lesbians. Most headeral sexual think of themselves as the norms and gays and lesbians as different. Lastly is Violence. Using violence to show dominance and force their views on others. This keeps other races or groups scared and forces them to change or go through more pain. Examples of this are when blacks in the 60s would fight for equality and justice. Whites would use violence to stop protesting and kill the spirit of the black people for fighting for what they believed. All these thing contributed to the oppression of groups of people. I think people today should get educated about these things so we can change the system for future generations. I also think conditioning plays a big part in the oppression of people. Showing images that form a child's mind in a negative way needs to be changed. We should find ways to show equality for all in the media. Until these problems are solved we as a people can't move foward.

Oppression And Prejudice In Our Society

Throughout all of the class discussions, readings and activities that we have done so far in our class, there is a correlation of oppression. The readings talked about certain ways a person would react to certain circumstances. Fro example, when a person is alone, we learn the fact that a person feels most comfortable when they are alone. Whenever we are alone we learn the following things; our preferences and likes/dislikes, hardships in our life might show how we might act differently, might feel more comfortable knowing that they are with people that have the same reason for being there. This is the Micro Level of one being themselves. The next level is the Meso Level; Community Recognition, Expectations, and Interactions. The areas where these people in this level strive in are; big crowded areas where an individual is constantly asking who the person is, where people experience the most confusion and conflict, common questions surrounding their: Appearance, Behavior, and Language/Accent, the community can be both geographic and emotional of people asking an individual of his/her origin and connecting it to what the area is known for. (Newark-Violence), and finally when in community level, individuals often compare themselves against trying to prove they are better than the other (Spanish Person-That Doesn’t Speak Spanish.)

Throughout the past week, we looked at all of the conditioning that happens throughout the process of prejudice. When we saw the video surrounding "The Jungle Book", I was extremely surprised to see how many subliminal messages the videos conveyed. From what type of music they were playing in the background and the way the monkeys were dancing to the music. Also, the thing that caught my attention the most was when the monkey admitted that he wanted to be just like the little boy. It just showed me how many things we have overlooked at when we were littles that we thought we just interesting or enjoyable. The other thing that interested me in class was when Mr. Cassidy wrote down words on the board and wanted us to describe what nationality we thought of. When he wrote down, "Organized Crime," I automatically thought of Europeans due to there being a mafia/mob concerning the area that we live. Then he eventually went in-depth to discuss the point that local gangs can also be considered organized crimes because they do everything that a leader tells them to.

I would like to talk about the three levels of which people experience more.

What other videos from our childhood had subliminal messages?

Oppression in this world today

Raekwon Strickland

Mr.Cassidy

Diversity and Social Justice

9/20/15

    In the text we read throughout the week I learned a lot from the book and also classroom discussions. In class we talked about the cycle of prejudice and so far 2 parts of it. The two parts are conditioning and thoughts and expectations. The conditioning part of this cycle is used as another word for brainwash. This could be good or bad. In school it is good because we learn about brotherhood and a sense of community with one another. It can be bad such as when a parent raises their child. They can tell the child anything they want or to pass along to the next child. A parent can tell there kid that blacks are bad and dangerous this is bad conditioning and is getting a kid to believe that a whole race is bad or inferior to them. Thoughts and expectations are a huge part of the cycle of prejudice. We talked about everyday roles in society and saw if men or women was the main person we thought of having that job. Such as doctor and nurse. Most people said doctors are male and said nurses are female. This is prejudice because it's basically sexism making a certain gender have jobs. Making women inferior to men. We also talked about words and the first race or ethnic group that comes to mind. When terrorism was written everyone said Muslims or Arabs even though white people are terrorist to this country sometimes too.

The book taught me a lot as well. In the book called Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. I saw how the micro, meso and macro works in our everyday life. The meso level is our comfortability with ourselves based on who we are and what our problems are in life. This will determine how we will act our everyday life. The meso level is how others see us everyday and ask who we are and where we are from. This will show the way others treat us in our school, churches, or work every day based on what they think of us. And the biggest level is the macro level. This is how the world see us and this how we get racism or any other isms that exist. The world sees us off of what others that look like us do and automatically assume. Media does a good job at making a certain people look bad and look down upon. They make all blacks look bad and used to make blacks look less than human making pictures of us look like monkeys. They also do this to arabs and muslims making them all look like terrorists and dangerous to America. This is a bad way to look at them and is very prejudice to them to be look upon as a terrorist everywhere they go. These can also be called stereotypes of how people see us through  media brainwashing them. What can we do to to change this prejudice in the US and all over.    

My Beliefs On Conditioning

During Last week in class we've recently discussed only two steps of the cycle of  Prejudice, the first step of which is called "Conditioning." We've have been shown videos, clips rather, from the movies "Little Mermaid" and "Jungle Book." There are some what I'd like to say as subliminal messages in both of these clips as the class as a whole has pointed out together. In Jungle Book, there was the the monkey who was telling the child that I want to be just like him in every which way possible. To me what this is saying to me is that if you believe that if someone is better than you, you will automatically try and change yourself into a different image than what you are. This brings me to the messages I got from watching the clips from little mermaid, where the octopus lady was saying that people who are obese, skinny, or ugly are among the "desperate" people. However, if you weren't any of those you would automatically get what you'd like or rather get somewhere further in life because you have an advantage. Given the phrase that Mr. Cassidy gave us for conditioning "Essentially brainwashing" I believe that this conditioning is why we have certain Thoughts/Expectations for people, such as Mr. Cassidy said "Certain terms are for a select group of people." However, contrary to this belief some things don't make sense to me. For example, I know how that there has been proof of what socialization has to do with people's identities. In other words if we are shaped on how society sees us, as a product of our environment, or even a product of our religion, etc. then how does these subliminal messages, as I see, effect us as our main source of conditioning concerning other people. Like how when Mr. Cassidy gave us the term "President" most of us said male, and how he said "Nurse" most of us without hesitation said a female. In conclusion, I believe that could be a result of what we've been watching and hearing and what our society's have been shaping us into, which is why we think about people the way that we do, how we've been conditioned.

The cycle of socialization shows how people get put into these socialized public groups. The first step in the start of socialization is being socialized before being birthed. People judge by who your parents are and how their lifestyle is. If your parents are black and living in the heart of the hood, people already socialize you as going to be nothing more than your parents. When born we get put into these categories either the minority or majority. The specific categories are gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, cultural group, ability status, and age. As we can see, we get put into all these groups without even being able to control it. Second, we get socialized by who are friends, teachers, and how we act. This is relevant to our class because this is the stage a lot of us are in. For example, being a student at St. Benedict's Prep carries great recognition and has a lot of value when people see our transcript. Third, is where we associate ourselves, extracurricular activities, religion, work, etc. These communities bombard us with messages telling us who has power and who doesn't. Not say they are always wrong, but they give biased opinions to the community members. Also, in that stage of outside communities, is the cultural socialization. We get brainwashed by our culture. For example, Christian's focus on keeping people as heterosexuals and doesn't really like homosexuals. Next, is the process of enforcing these socializations. Its wild to believe that people who try to think outside the box and go against the system gets punished, but unfortunately the system keeps how they punish underground. Mainly to keep the system looking like the good guy in every situation. A great example is the news channels, they only show what they think people want to see. Never showing the big issues around America and the world. The result of this cycle should be obvious. The cycle is made to have the majority group always win and keep the minority down. The system loves to talk about the poverty and drug issues but they are the ones bringing the drugs and keeping prices high. A way to fight back against the system is to join together with agent allies and help each other become the agents. There are five main reasons why a lot of us are still in this cycle: fear, ignorce, confusion, insecurity, and power or powerlessness. The fear of the punishments targets would face if they opposed the system. The ignorance comes from neither the targets nor agents really knowing little about the oppression in the world. The system is very confusingand that's what they want to happen. The people controlling the system don't want the community to figure it out, they just want people to live in it with no questions asked. People are insecure about oppressing the system because of how little the rebellion is. No one is really brave enough to stand up against the system. Lastly, the people with power can't help that they have powd, it is only because they gained it through the old system which hasn't changed. The powerless will always be powerless because of the existing system.

Thoughts On Conditioning

During the course of the week we have spoke about the term "conditioning". We've learned that this term is another word for brainwashing. Mr. Cassidy has showed us a few videos on child animated movies (i.e "The Little Mermaid" & "Jungle Book") and we as a class collectively pointed out what we thought to be forms of conditioning in these children movies. In the little mermaid we saw that the witch like women was inferring that people who are ugly, fat, or extra skinny, are desperate people. Also she was inferring that women with a nice body and gorgeous looks don't need potential in order to A. Get what they want, or B. Get somewhere in life. In the second video (The Jungle Book) we came to the conclusion that the monkeys singing are symbolic of black people, we came to this conclusion by listening to the type of music that was playing ( Jazz ), and the sounds of the voice. All in all though I helped to come to these conclusions, I strongly oppose to the way Mr. Cassidy portrayed them to effect the youth that watch it. Mr. Cassidy claimed that youth are getting brainwashed without even knowing it by watching these movies. Though it is a strong claim I feel as if that isn't completely true. The definition of identity is, "to associate or affiliate closely with a person or group; to establish an identification with another or others." The reason I bring up this definition is because I feel this definition implies that identity is given to us by the people who surround us or our society. Now, you may be wondering what that has to do with conditioning. If our identity is given to us by our society and the people we are around doesn't it make sense that youth are conditioned by the real world things around them? To further elaborate, I don't find it logical or accurate to take a video and desifer it with adolescents and claim that what we see is what the youth see. After watching the videos in class Mr. Cassidy wrote words and we said the first race that came to mind, or the first gender. I admit when he said criminal I said Black, and when he said Terrorist I said Islamic, but what I don't admit is this is due to the cartoons I use to watch. I find it hard to believe that a child enjoying his/her show or movie is being brainwashed during the course of it. The real reason why my peers and I said the races of genders we did was not because of our youth cartoons, but more or less because of the world we live in today. To conclude, we are not brainwashed by the things we've watched before, but because of the world and societies we live in today.