The Color of Fear Reflection

        The Color of Fear actually made me think. It essentially made me think about the term "racism." I found myself thinking about how in many cases, I myself acted like a racist without even meaning to. The movie also informed about how as a society we are in a way arrogant because we always want to think that our understanding of something is the right one. The one person that I felt I had a strong connection with was Loren Moye. I had a connection with him because he has some of the same beliefs that I do. He argued the fact that there should be no difference in society. He stated that everyone should be equal. He also said that people of color often complain about being targeted about their  race by people of color too. He says that people should stop racism no matter who it is targeted towards.
        One of the topics that I found to be very interesting was the topic of what it means to actually be "American." My previous understanding of being "American" was that anyone that came into this country can be American. However the people in the movie showed me that even though Americans see America as a great place, not everyone believes this. Instead of making people keep their culture, the "white man," doesn't accept any other culture except for theirs. According to Hugh Vasquez, when a person comes to the United States, they have to throw away their ethnicity away. This also correlates towards one of the readings that we had to read as well. This also relates to the reading, "The Arab Woman and I" because it says that American society as a whole likes to optimize a person for their culture. In the reading, it talks about how a "veiled" Arab woman is highly noticeable. However, Mona Fayad illustrates to the audience if she isn't wearing the veil, then would people even realize that she was an Arab woman.
         In conclusion, this documentary taught me three important aspects concerning racism in our society. The first one is that if you want to end racism, you have to be willing to stop any sign of racism. Second, as a person of color, I should keep my family's traditions and pass it down to my children. Then finally, I shouldn't let the color of my skin be a reason for not achieving my goals. Instead, I should find the desire to be a better person.

The Color of Fear

I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would. My initial thought was that this was going to be a boring discussion about racism. However, this film turned out to be very interesting and brought up great points about race. The scene that stood out to me the most was the conversation between Victor and David. Victor talked about how being American equals being white. To become an American you have to give up your ethnicity and culture. Just as we talked about in class, the United States is a melting pot and in that pot everybody becomes the same. Victor also talked about how white people always want people of color to be more human and act like them. In other words, to be human is equal to being white in this sense. David could not understand the concept of white privilege and said he never felt special just because he was white. David refused to listen because he did not want to listen or realize what his people have done to people of color. David had not yet "waken up white". "... I did little to improve the world but instead help to make it and unwelcoming, uncomfortable, and unfriendly place for some" (Arminio, 124). His lack of cooperation led Victor to getting angry and yelling at David. This seemed to be the only way to get the point across to David. When other people tried talking to him it would go in one ear and out the other. By the end of the film everyone had changed in some way. David came to realize his white privileged and in general everyone gained a better respect for the different races.

Geoffrey Ofori-Dwomfuo
Diversity and Social Justice
Glenn Cassidy


In 'The Color of Fear' which was directed by Lee Mun Wah and published in the year 1994. It was a gathering of nine people of different races for the discussion of race. The show had two African Americans, two Hispanics, two White Americans and three Asians including the director, Lee Mun Wah. They all stayed together in one home even though a participant among them was very racist.Lee focuses on the role that racism plays to keep the whites in their dominant positions during the discussion.
Roberto Alamanzan defined America to be a whole continent in its distinct way. It consist of people with different cultures. Among those cultures, only one is accepted which is the culture of the whites. For one to become an American, he or she must throw away his or her culture and accept that of the whites so they could fit in. From my point of view, America is a nation which is hoping to acquire unity but is refusing to give up power. People claim they want to end racism but are scared to give up the privileges they are currently receiving.
David Christensen found it difficult to accept the struggles a person of color endures in the country just because he or she isn't white. Christensen believes people of color are humans like the whites  and every human goes through struggles at a point of their life. He believes people of color go through these struggles frequently than whites because they allow it. Sometimes the assumptions we make about others come from what we have not been told (Beverly Daniel Tatum). Christensen is blinded by the privileges he has because of the fraudulent behaviors of his forefathers.He seems to find it difficult to understand why all races can't be classified as humans. He didn't realize the privileges he had until Victor Lewis talks about the privileges people of color do not have. Christensen began to burst in tears for his entire life and fortune was based on the foundation whites built for white race only. At the end of the show, Christensen had a better understanding and acknowledged the struggles a colored person must go through in order to succeed in the United States.
Even though I'm an African American, I sometimes prejudice people of my race. It's weird how I feel safe walking in a white neighborhood at night but feel threatened when walking in a neighborhood of people of my race. I also agree on the fact that the system in U.S is strongly in favor to White Americans though the nation was built by the labor of black slaves and Asians.

Timeline presentation blog

There were different things that I took away from the timelines that each group presented including ours. Most groups started off the same way and ended differently. Most groups started off with the idea of how the European-Americans came to America. Eventually, the idea of slavery was also brought into the timeline. The overall theme that I got from the timelines is that there is a struggle getting to the top and in some way or another the European-Americans have something to do with that. I really did not see any groups get sources from different sites. All the groups pretty much used the same website, but took that information in a different way. Each group also similarly explained that it is not only African-Americans that were suffering. There were other minorities that had their own form of oppression. Some differences, in the presentations were the way they were presented. Each group had a specific way of presenting that would correspond to their theme. Although, the events were similar to each other. Like I have stated before, each group took each event differently making the meaning of it different then what others would think it would have to do with.

The True Colors

During this week, we watched a documentary called “The Color of Fear”. This was mainly focused on the perspectives and views of one race towards another. It was a discussion over 3 days shortened to 90 min. This documentary made me realize about how much racism can affect another group of people and we could fail to understand how it does so. This video alone taught me many things.

During the first part of the film, the discussion was based on the idea of being “American”. I, for one, never noticed that we live in a continent called North America, yet people in the United States of America are the only ones that can be called “American”. You can relate this to our class discussions about the past where Mexico once owned the parts around California. Then, those we consider “Americans” took it and made laws to prevent the Mexicans living there from becoming actual citizens of the country. In reality, the land of so-called Americans had settled here because of a man who was named Christopher Columbus, someone who found this inhabited land by accident and claimed it as being his discovery. In fact there were many people already here who were the REAL americans. The “americans” ended up driving the natives out and claimed this land as their own. So, how can we call ourselves true americans when we slaughtered, imprisoned, and abused the natives that were originally here in the first place? How are we truly americans if we didn't originate here. These are questions i still have and hope can answer soon

One of the main things that stuck out to me in this movie was the change in David throughout the film. In the beginning, while people were sharing their problems with the group, he constantly said that he understood them and he understood how they felt. This shows how he thought he would understand everything about what they are going through and subconsciously listened less to what the others were saying because, in my opinion, he assumed that he already knew everything. It wasn't until the near end when he gave an example about his daughter barely short of her goal. He questioned how his daughter didn't get the extra points to get that grade she wanted. Someone responded that what if she was just told to try harder next time, and he said that he wouldn't feel as if the decision was fair. That's when he realized the way he had thought about other people from  other races weren't the same as those people were actually experiencing and feeling.

This relates to the reading “Moving Beyond White Guilt”. Just like this reading says, David possibly believed that “The more I learn about racism, the less time other groups have to take to convince me that it is a problem to them”. I believe that just because you learn about a certain problem doesn't mean you ignore the experiences of that racial group. This is why many others seemed frustrated with David during the movie while he kept saying things like “I know” or “I understand”. They get frustrated because he CAN'T possibly know. No matter how much people read up on black problems, they won't fully understand unless they themselves walked in the black man’s shoes. The closest someone could possibly get to understand a race’s struggles, they would have to hear that from a black person themselves.

In conclusion, I have taken away many things from this story. First, America isn't filled with true Americans that originate from this country. “Americans” are here because they accidentally found this area and decided to take it. Secondly, Everyone has their own opinion towards how they treat a situation towards others and how they treat things toward themselves. Its best to get a understanding about a situation about racism by listening to a group of people in a given group and hear their views on how they are treated. Everyone has a story, it all just depends on how it is told

The Color Of Fear

The documentary The Color of Fear was very different from what I was expecting. I came into the documentary thinking is was going to be the same old black and white and boring videos we have watched before in our class. Surprisingly, it was not as bad as I thought. Even though the topics and activities they did were stuff I had done before prior to this class. What made it seem interesting was the lighter skinned black guy in the documentary, Victor. He was very emotional and brought up good points in an active way which brought discussions alive. The main scenes that stood out to me were the very emotional ones. Seeing people get emotional woke me up and got me to want to know what was happening. I don't really think that the Asian-Americans and the Hispanics changed their viewings of this problem. None of them were like, 'wow I never knew that about your culture' or 'thank you for correcting my view points'. A guy I felt most connected to was Loren Moye. He understood and knew what Victor was saying, but was not a big talker. Like Loren, I feel the pain of most African-American children but I do not speak up as much as I really could. One main issue discussed during the documentary was white supremacy, and mainly how some white people do not know that they are privileged. One of the white males, David Christensen, feels as though he is not privileged and that he had to work as hard as every other culture to be successful. Like David, Jan Arminio was unaware that being 'white had advantages over people of color (Arminio). "I decided to use the work ... and its relationship to the oppression of people of color..." (Arminio, 126). In this documentary people's viewpoint of what it means to be American is discussed among the group. Some viewpoints were that to be American you have to give up your old cultural ways, being born and raised in America, having freedom of choice, and one of the African-American men said that you have to be white to be American. My viewpoint of what it means to be American is someone who was born here or if he/she wasn't then someone who is willing work hard and contribute to America's success. How I would identify my identity is an African-American. I am also part white and Native American but I do not automatically use those groups mainly because I do not want to be known as a white American. Not saying something is wrong with being white, but when I have been raised by African-Americans and born by an African-American I should be black. Unfortunately, I look white so I get categorized as a White kid. Towards the end of the document there was a lot emotions from David. I believe this emotion comes from the realization that the world he has been living in has been all a lie. Similarly, when Victor would get mad it was because David was not understanding the struggles of a black man.

The Color of Fear

I thought this film was interesting because there were so many people who had different point of views toward how certain races were and to see them connect with each other at the end of the movie was a special thing. When Victor Lewis made the point on how a white man will never know the feeling of constantly being watched as a black man  is. It stood out out to me because it's very true, a white person will never know what it's like to be a statistic because they have the PRIVILEGE of being white. Since society is dominated by White men, they won't have to worry much about being in the public eye because their white. "They step into a world that's theirs". Everything else is considered to be an outsider and all eyes are on them.

 Personally I felt connected with how Victor felt and I agreed with his statement because most of the things he said happen on a daily basis in society. Although Victor is portrayed as the angry black male in the movie, I can feel the same way because it's frustrating to be treated or judged unfairly simply because of the color of your skin. White people have the benefit of just being on top of this so called podium, while the darker your skin color the lower you are on the scale. Anyone would feel this way because it's a human reaction. Nobody likes being mistreated and undervalued.

The group worked to get past this by just listening to each other which is how I believed they began to connect with each other. I felt that once they just listened that they began to be aware of each other's situations and they imagined themselves in the other person's shoes.

The term "American" in this movie was defined as just being white. My definition of what it means to be an American was completely different before I took this course. I thought it meant that we stood together as a whole. Essentially, I figured race shouldn't have even been mentioned because we all should be considered as a whole instead of an individual. It's definitely changed over time because I've learned so much about our country's history and how people try to act like certain things never happened. Everything I learned before about this country was a lie and was bended further than it needed to. An American now to me is considered to be white because I now know this is a white mans world.

Color of Fear reflection

The Color of Fear movie really made me think. It made think about how white perceive racism and the privileges they are born with. In the film it showed the white privileges that

David Christensen had. He thought saying that he doesn't have a problem with Blacks, Asians, and Latinos would change the problem. He came out and said that everyone has a color so naively thinking that he's right. He’s not getting the main point that all of the other races were put down by his ancestors and are still being put down to this day. He think one person can change the fact that we are being put down and thrown under bus not just because of our skin but where we and our ancestors came from. A lot of the things he was saying was coming from guilt and regret of what his ancestors did to all of these people. He’s still proud of being white. In a movie I watched in Mr.Riley's class a documentary called Hidden Colors. David Banner said he ask a white person if they were racist and he said no he then asked if he if he would do anything to bring the black community up and give up what you have to help us out he said no. So this shows that all whites may not be racist but they still are benefitting because of their racist ancestors. Also you can be subtly racist if you laugh at racist jokes as i read in the book(Jan Armino).

    I also got something out of the whole talk about being American. In the film they talk about how the country is so confused on what being American really is. Americans are people from the Americas. Everyone from the United states strip people of being call american even being from North America or South America. Such as Mexicans, they are American. They are from North America but we don't consider them American. They also discuss the slight similarity of being white, American and human. These words are so closely related because this is how white americans see themselves. And by how whites saw other races they thought they were the only pure humans. This is where we get the close relation between those words and how if you are not one of them you are not perfect in the eyes of the whites.

    I also saw that I felt a sense of a relation with Victor because he said that he feel out of his comfort zone when around whites because of what they did to other races and how we are treated now. He and Loren also believe that stereotypes take away from especially black. In Riley's class we discussed how whites try to go around saying the N word even though saying other words that can mean the same thing targeting blacks such as words as thug or too street. These are stereotypes that take away from blacks just because stereotypes that whites make about us. Victor also made a good point about how whites more comfortable around whites or people with similar skin as them. He said that he may have more advantages than Loren just because he's lighter than him. And this might cause conflict between them and this is another way whites keep blacks against each other at all times. So this video said a lot to me and kept my mind open to all things they were talking about.

Summary Of Timelines

     After reviewing everyone's timeline individually and in class, iv'e come to notice a lot of similarities and differences between them all. Most of the timelines had similar information, they all mainly spoke about (my groups overall topic) "conflict". I say this because in each section of each timeline you find that conflict is impossible to dodge. It can be conflict with the Latinos and how they had riots to prove a point, or it can be conflict within the Asians and how they got told to just leave. Conflict to officially be called ... (american) ranged drastically between all timelines. Differences I've seen are mainly in the information, though many people spoke about struggles between the peoples, others like myself have spoken about the success that came from that struggle. For example the Latinos when they got out of slavery due to the uproars. The timelines were very similar but some varied. Unlike Mr. Cassidys' slide, we all manly talked about the struggles and conflicts in different races and their history. This is what ive got from the various slides.

Presentations blog - Daqwan Moore

After seeing every groups blog, I did recognize that there were all different themes. I also recognized that every group had similar events included into there timelines. At the same time, there were also a couple ones that I did see that didn't pop up as often, but was very important. Though all of the groups information came from the same website for the most part, we all had very different perspectives of them. One very important thing I noticed was, out of all the events chosen not one event effected the white man, yet a lot of them did privilege the white man. This informs me that even though black people weren't the only people that faced challenges they had to overcome, the laws that were enforced always and always will privilege the white man. So you know what that means to me? We still have a long way to gain justice for every race. You can sit and ask yourself, why do these two people have the same event but aren't telling you the same thing? Well this is because we all have different perspectives and to the simple fact that one law can affect a race in many different ways. What is said and what is shown based off of the person who made the presentation. They show and talk about what THEY believe they should show us. Every group had a different theme, but I feel as if the way the events were expressed and talked about in the presentations all the themes chosen could be placed under the same category. In a way they did all link toward each other. One thing about these timelines I already mentioned which I had a firm thought about, was the fact that the law system favored white men without a doubt. Something I think that I took from these projects and think other people would benefit from is to not put your trust and faith in the history books. What is in the history books is what some man believes that we should know. In most of these history books it makes it seem as if the only people that faced hard times were African Americans. Yet, in these presentations I saw Latinos, Asians etc. The history books only tell you half of the story, and many things are hidden from us in society.  

Immigration Perspective

     During the presentations, I saw a lot of similarities with my group's presentation. However, they had different points about the subjects. The matters that I saw similar were the points about slavery being "illegal." Everyone also had a point to make about the hardships that all ethnicities went through. This told me that all minority groups went through some form of oppression. I also saw that each minority group had some form of triumph. All of the groups did a good job, but the presentations felt very tedious and people lost attention during the presentations. However, some of the points made were some of the things that I never would never have thought of. The reason for this simple. Each group had a specific theme and each one tried to follow it as best they could.

    The themes that the groups developed corresponded with what they were saying and their presentation. Every time they brought up a minority group, their theme was constantly present and was easy to follow. This kept the presentation fluent and easy to follow. This taught me that I can relate to others opinions and understand their point of view. Through other presentations, I also learned something new about the subjects and a new perspective. Something I was surprised about when Mr. Cassidy was explaining that the whole bus boycott was a planned scheme. I thought it was an incredulous plan. I was always told that Rosa Parks was an innocent woman who was standing up to the "man". The fact that some other woman was supposed to follow through with the plan is still mind bobbling to me. However, I do applaud Rosa Parks for taking on the challenge and following through with the plan. 

     This exercise also taught me to bring all of our ideas together to fit one specific theme. This helped my group come up with a successful timeline. We managed to illustrate the everyday struggles that each "minority" group may be going through. This finally taught me to appreciate the kind of generation that I live in. Through this project, I was exposed to a truly dark chapter of U.S. History. Throughout the last 100 years ago, people have been victims of extreme prejudice. This project showed me how government even showed me how government played a major role in these struggles. Without the triumphs and sacrifices made for each the minority groups, America will still be a hostile segregated country.

timelines coming together

           After watching all the presentations, I notice that all of the presentations showed that all races besides whites went through many problems when trying to become a part of America. Most of the groups talk about how Native America were being pushed around by white people and how they had to overcome the torment of the Europeans. Each group did a great job on finding and putting the information together to support  their themes. I notice that groups would use the same information in their presentation which made the information repetitive and I also noticed that the same info can be used to prove different topics. It was interesting to see the differences in some of the choices the other group had with choosing what parts of history were  important and it was also interesting to see some of the things the groups left out. I never knew women had it so hard throughout history, it was even more shocking to find out that white women had almost no rights and even were referred as the property of their husbands back in the day.

           The reasoning for the differences between each of the presentation were because of the theme they chose. Each group had to choose info to back up their theme. All the presentations were good, each presentation taught me something that was important that me or someone in my group looked over. I think for each group 1619 the arrive of African slaves was an important fact. That was known as the first and worst thing that ever happened for African Americans. I never knew that slavery for Africans went on long after it became illegal. This project helped me to learn how people in society choose what is important from what is not. A prime example of this would be the textbook. In textbooks, people choose what is important and what is not. This is a problem because everyone is not getting to learn about their history.      

Presentations Review

These presentations showed me that not only black people have been oppressed throughout history. Other ethnicities have had it bad, such as Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Most groups had similar events across the various histories. For instance, nearly all groups included the event where slavery was illegal. In hindsight this wasn't the most important event in African-American history. Even though slavery was illegal, slavery continued for several more years afterwards. Although we had similar ideas and events each group had a different perspective on the history. These perspectives lead to the various themes the groups came up with. One thing we all learned is the that history is told from the white man's point of view. We don't learn about African-American, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American history simply because White people have not lived it. Instead we are forced to learn everything about European history and nothing about our own.

Immigration Timeline

Looking at our project and one other group's timeline, I see a lot of similarities. Sadly, not everyone posted their timelines so it might be hard to discuss about all timelines and presentations. One big thing which is similar is our themes. Their theme was, "An Uphill Climb of Persecution" while my group did white supremacy. These two themes coincide with one another by showing the discrimination of many groups. These were picked most likely because they were easy topics. Almost everyone in the class is part of at least one of the discriminated groups, so each of us feel the pain. Being able to actually witness and live through this persecution makes it way easier to connect and discuss the topic. A difference I saw in the timeline was the talk about all immigrant groups during each time period. It only showed one immigrant group per time period. The timeline that was very similar to my group's timeline surprised me with information about the number of Native American solders used in the two World wars. This was surprising because I believed that the Native Americans only fought for their tribe and not a whole country. Unfortunately, these Native Americans were forced to be in the war, which wasn't talked about during neither timeline. Not one other group has a full timeline to show but the close to finish one I get to see has most of the same dates. Mainly because the dates were the first ones on the website provided but also because of our similar theme. Most dates on African American history and Native American history I've seen before, only because of my culture and a previous class. Some thoughts that this exercise brings up for me is why haven't I heard a lot about Asian American history or Latin American History. I believe this is very new to me because White America tries to hide all other nationalities' accomplishments so that their forgotten in history. We are just now starting to hear about African American history because the white man has began trying to "erase" all the negative history THEY caused and allowed some African American history to be wrote down. The reason I know some history about Native Americans is because I took a course called "Two American Warriors" and it discussed a lot about the mistreatment from the white society. Mainly how most of the Native American soil was stolen from them by the WHITE man. In conclusion, the timelines made in groups were so connected in many ways, but different through the themes each group discussed.

Timelines- similarities and differences

A big similarity is the fact that all of our information came from the same sources, but they were all put in different patterns and themes according to every group. Most of these differences come from the simple fact of different point of perspectives, the groups had to put 5-6 different personalities on the same page, which obviously would create a huge mixture of ideas and views across the board. The different themes produced aren't shocking, coming from all sorts of different backgrounds it was bound to happen-- jumping from both extremes of the spectrum of the issues of race and history. Many felt strongly moved by different events and those certain events and emotions sparked different themes come time to explain our studies. What surprised me immensely was all the LEFT OUT history! Not just skimmed or barely touched, but completely put aside and disregarded. We learn that something as simple as writing history is a huge advantage, because now "our" story is told while "their" point of views and inputs don't matter at the time. Whether it be from blacks, Latinos, or whites, but sadly the majority comes from whites. If we know how unjust the system can be, why feed into it? Why keep letting the victorious side tell the story? Why not all of us share our side? Because somewhere in the middle is the truth! 

Timelines

Some similarities between the timelines were that we all used to same information. We all took the readings that Cass gave to us and pick out what we thought was important. The difference is through us all using the same information we used it differently. Groups used what they got from those readings toward their theme, other groups used what they got from the readings and they explained and pu more effort and energy into it. Also a difference was that we used the same readings to make different themes. We all shared some similar points but in the end had different themes and ideas for those points. I already knew when Obama became president, and that a Hispanic became a supreme Court Judge. I also knew that all races went through hardship and hard times to get where they are now. I also know that through those struggles that most races had to go through white people did not. Most white people had it easy, and had to go through no struggle to do anything. What I did not know was how hard and how mysterious, and under the radar white people drive to keep their race on top, to keep anyone esle from getting close or ahead of them. I learned that everyone coming or wanting to come to America paid a price wether it was blood or deaths of their race, people from all places when coming to America they all paid a price. Instead of us coming together and try to out crown the whites we are at war with everyone who has things in common. Also I learned and witnessed  what Cass was saying about thoughts and understanding. What Cass did we he gave us am the same  readings and I'm those reading it was all the same, he gave it to us to decide what was important and what was a common theme. I learned that everyone's understanding and thoughts on things are very different. We can all be exposed and taught something is the way it is but some people will still ask questions about it. This brings up the question of who controls our daily lives, what race does not struggle. For me the answers to these questions are the same that white people are the controllers behide every race that white people will for the most part get away with whatever they do and when a black person does it it's wrong.  White people the the history books never struggled. They never struggled like minorities and non popular groups in this society have to struggle today. My question to you is why do we let them treat us this way?

Geoffrey Ofori-Dwomfuo
History of Race Presentation

 My fellow classmates and I were assigned a task to create a timeline of past events ,which was to our interest and associated with race. We were to perform this task in groups, therefore exposing us to great ideas from great minds with different perspectives. My group's timeline was focused on white supremacy and inferiority against minority groups. Many minority groups have and are still be treated as lesser humans as compound to whites. Minority groups are not seen equal to the whites, even though the Declaration of Independence tells us otherwise. Obstacles have been put in place to prevent the equality of whites and the minority groups. Hidden meanings are being placed in media, which are degrading the minority groups.

After witnessing the timeline of the other groups, one can infer ,that all groups had one main enemy in common. All groups spoke about how the whites were the main reason for the occurrence of these events. Unlike my group and the others, the timeline of Ramses Minus paid less attention to the events of the African-American history. I believe they were more focused on the minority groups excluding African American history because the history of blacks has overshadowed that of the other minority groups, even though they were also as affected as the blacks.

Each group was to create a theme to their timeline. It seemed to me that all the various themes were aiming for one goal. It had to do with minority groups being taken advantage of by the dominant group and this needed an end to it. It was quite surprising to realize that Hispanic/Latinos and Asian Americans were also once maltreated by the White Americans. I always thought African-Americans and Native Americans were the only minority group who suffered in the hands of the whites. I always used to ask myself, why Latinos were always involved in terms of groups, who were maltreated by the whites. Asian Americans never came to mind. I always saw them to be foreigners unlike the Africans Americans who were brought here and the Native Americans who already stayed here before the whites. This project has thought me a lot about the minority groups and why they were seen as minority. This project is really an eye opening experience. It also answered questions to which I had false answers to. 



Our History(Presentations)

Our presentations made a huge statement about our nation's history. All the ethnic groups in today’s America have gone through discrimination, prejudice, and racism since their start in this country. Especially Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Each group suffered from a series of laws that our government forced upon them. I think that everyone realized the key ones that were absolutely absurd. Generally, everyone had put the same ones down with very little deviation from other groups. The funny thing is that we all chose different themes. I think we all realized what was wrong with the laws this country made from then, and what is wrong with today. We have made a lot of progress but we have a lot of ground to break in this still to this day. I think everyone needs to work together to solve this problem, because not one person or small group of people can do it alone. You have to have supporters and you need to have people on your side or else what you are trying to accomplish will not be successful.

I can relate this back to the movie Crash. Not one person is innocent from this. We all discriminate. It is just highlighted because white men do it a lot to get the upper leg in society. As shown in the movie we all associate stereotypes with groups of people. There is not one group in today’s world that is innocent. No one is perfect, so asking for everything to go away, is almost near impossible. But we can make it almost completely perfect to the point that no laws are associated with race, and nothing like this happens again in history.

Presentations

       Looking at everyone's presentations I see some similarities but it seems to me that there are more differences between all of them.  The timelines that the groups have put together all hold valueble events and times in which these events happened.  I noticed how the more dominant group, which in this case happens to be the White race were barely talked about.  Not one group mentioned any sort of struggles that whites may have gone through.  Does this mean that white people or should I say Europeans didn't face any hardships?  Not necessarily but this tells us who actually wrote the history.  I say this because if I were to write something about myself I don't think I would include anything bad either. In fact I may make it seem as if I was the superior one as well.  

       You see, every group was introduced to the same links of history, whether it was African American history, Asian History, Native American History, or Latino History.  So therefore we all had the same amount of information for each race or ethnic group.  Each group's timeline consisted of the important events or better yet the events that we felt like we needed to include.  What I realized is that we all for the most part had different significant years.  Why is that? I don't think that's a question that can be answered.  

        So the point im getting at here is that history is in the hands of the beholder. Every group had different years that we thought should be included as well as the  years we thought should be excluded.  This means that whoever contributed into the writing and rewriting of history wrote what they interpreted.  In this case, each group interpreted something different.  We all had our point of views and we all had to come to an agreement.  

Diversity and Social Justice

Out of all the presentations there was one common thing I noticed and that was how dominant certain groups were in society. So the topic I thought that was  mainly being concerned about was superiority. However, all superiority was heavily dominated by white people. It seemed like they were almost in control of who they wanted to live in their country  even though it originally wasn't there's to begin with. All groups did a good job by expressing this period in history and it all connected in someway.We learned about  all the different acts being placed on different ethnic groups and backgrounds and what the results were because of them. The Theme seemed to never change because the main point in all of them talked about how dominant each group was and how it influenced American history. I learned a lot from all the timelines because I never knew how much authority white people had over other groups. I see how we refer to them as a dominant group in society based on what they did in the past to shape the nation. In the same breath, it makes me question how they have right to believe other groups or colors are to be watched at all times. It also showed that this makes them contradictory because they feel like the innocent people but if you bring up history it clearly shows that they basically stepped on people and used them as a crutch to get what they wanted. Even if that meant killing other people, they wouldn't be deterred from building their nation.

This project taught me to be more grateful and to work harder in life because the system we live in is made for certain people to fail. It taught me that in some way we are all being enslaved because there's always going to be a  white man dominating society unless we do something to change. I notice that times are different now but there's always that term "history repeats itself" and unless we do something about it this will happen.

Perspective on presentations

    In the presentations I saw a lot of the same things we put on our own presentation but they had different points about the subjects. That's what made ours different from the others. But things I seen similar were the points about slavery being illegal but not banned. Everyone also had a point to make about the hardships that hardships went through. This told me that people care for the things other minorities went through other than just blacks and hispanics. I also saw in all of them the strives these groups made even though being held down at the same time and overcoming. All of the groups did a good job in explaining but was very repetitive and made people in the class restless about hearing the same. But some had good points I wouldn't have thought of in the my own mind. The reason that we had all of these different points about these subjects are because of the sheer fact that people have different opinions about the same issues throughout history.

    Themes that the groups came up with corresponded great with the presentation they did. It ended all up coming around and hitting that main theme they stated at the beginning. This helped me get a better understanding of the point of their whole presentation. Also with these themes it helped understand how I can apply this to my life and maybe share this understanding of these issues with others. This taught me that I can relate to others opinions and make something out of them. Through other presentation I also learned something new about the subjects and a new perspective. Something I was surprised about when I heard it was that the whole bus boycott was planned. I thought it was spontaneous and not all thought out. I didn't know that Rosa Parks wasn't even that old. I thought with this all going all I thought she was an elderly woman too tired to move out of her seat so she arrested because of that. I also didn't know that some other woman suppose to follow through with the plan but things happened and Rosa Parks took on the challenge and followed through with the plan. This was very mind blowing because it could've been someone else's name we would be talking about or the plan may have not went through. That made me ask many questions of why Rosa Parks and not anyone else or if she made the plan work and the biggest question what would have happened if it weren't her.

This exercise also taught us to bring all of our ideas together to fit one specific theme. This helped us come up with this project to make it a successful timeline of all the everyday struggles that these ethnic groups went through and maybe still go through. This finally taught to appreciate the kind of life I got now because my life could be way more worse because less than 100 years ago all of this extreme prejudice was even in laws and allowed people to segregate us from whites. Without these breakthroughs and sacrifices made for us America will still be as screwed up as it was before.   

Crash Blog Post

In the movie, Crash, it explains how different races have their own stereotypes and how people are affected by them. There are many scenes that caught my attention during the movie. One of them occurred during the first part of the movie in which a guy was buying a gun, and was denied because of his skin color. I believe this scene was exaggerated, but that does not mean that people do not think about that in their mind. This just comes to show that no matter what you get, whether it is citizenship or social security or any of those things, you are not truly American if  your skin color does not match what their belief of an American skin color is. I also fall into this category because there are times when I am ignorant towards another person's ethnicity. I prejudge them and allow my mind to make stereotypes about them that are not true. Another scene that caught my eye, was the scene of when the officer was searching the couple that he stopped over. The officer was mad at the black supervisor that would not have a doctor diagnose his father correctly. Due to this, he stopped over a couple who did absolutely nothing and wanted to search them. The cop inappropriately searched the wife and was waiting for some out-of-order response from the husband so he could arrest both of them. In all fairness, if the wife was being respectful to the officer and just stayed inside the car then what the cop did would not have happened to her. However, this does not justify the fact that what the cop did was wrong. Fear was definitely present in this movie. An example of this, is when the guy was driving recklessly and the cops started to chase him. When they pulled him over, he started acting erratic and the cops really wanted to pull the trigger. Luckily there was a cop that saved him. I really believe the root of all the anger presented in the movie is based on how people treat others with prejudice. Anger influences the actions in the movie because when people are angry they sometimes let the anger get a hold of themselves. This is presented in the movie when the store owner has his store vandalized and he believed it was the locksmith that did it. Therefore, he went to the locksmith's house to go shoot him, but luckily his daughter came to save him with the cloak (The bullet was a blank). There was conditioning present in the beginning of Crash, when the white lady comes closer to her husband, as they approach black men. This was conditioning because she believes that the black men are dangerous. An example, of thoughts/expectations was when the guy who molested the wife of the man during the stop over was the one who eventually saved her life, by helping her get out of the burning car. Avoidance occurred in the movie, when the cop was trying not to talk to his mother and get his brother. Verbal Dehumanization was constantly present in the movie. One that really stuck to me was the one where the Persian guy was just trying to buy a gun and was denied because of how he looks and he was called an Arab who lives in a mud hut. An example, of violence in the movie was when the two black guys went to go rob the white couple. An example, of institutional bias is when Shaniqua, the insurance supervisor, denied the man, who just wanted to help his father, insurance. A life-threatening act, that no one could probably forget is the time when the Persian guy was going to kill the Hispanic locksmith. Tommy Hanson's character proves that the way that officers act is not based on personal feelings towards another person, but the fact that race continues to reinforce the stereotypes that are present, which make the officers act in a certain type of way.

Crash thoughts / Life

While watching this extravagant movie, many mixed emotions overwhelmed me, and many concerning thoughts came to mind. As I'm sure many of you may agree, I found the two black men in the beginning of the movie to be hypocrites. It's very self explanatory why I came to this conclusion. The two men where walking by a white lady and she hugged up on her husband for what seemed like "protection" from the two black men. The two men speak upon what they have saw and later "prove" why the stereotype is a stereotype in the first place. The two me pull out weapons and rob the lady and her husband for their car. This is one of the main things that stuck out to me in the movie. This is because of how accurate it is. Everyday you may hear about a black man getting arrested or killing someone things of that nature, but then blacks wonder why people generalize all of them as the same. It's because they give people a reason to believe that those things are true.
     To conclude, I find that this movie was very well made. I feel as if it covered all aspects of stereotypes,racists, and generalization. The conclusion(s) I came up from watching the movie are, people give other people a reason to generalize you, people give other people proof that stereotypes may be accurate, people give other people reasons to call them racists. All of these things are done by the person who is accused. I am not saying that everybody is like this but from the movie a majority, and in real life a majority as well. We are all hypocrites who do things that make us and the people like us look a certain way.
   

Crash Blog

   

     This movie was a huge eye opener for me. Not just racially but it used every single stereotype I have ever heard of for every ethnic or racial group that was in this movie. Between the police harassment towards people of color, and between the Muslim and Hispanic people being stereotypical as well. I have always seen racism and did not really pay attention to it very much. But then I watched this movie and I was so surprised by this. I have never really looked at anything in this way and never have gotten this perspective at any point in my life.
     Other than being a great story this was a great life lesson. Everyone has problems, everyone has flaws and no one is perfect in any means. By far, the only innocent person in this movie that was not guilty of anything, was the guy that fixes and puts locks on doors. He was a great man and you could see that through the way he treated his wife and especially his daughter. This made me get actually into very deep thought about it where I was at practice after school and it actually made me lose focus a little bit where I really need to focus. I was really able to actually see a lot of the struggles that every ethnic and racial group goes through in a way that was made into a very good movie versus being a boring documentary with a monotone guy speaking and describing what is going on at the time.

Crash blog

The movie Crash gives off many messages and morals throughout the movie. In this movie, some stereotypes are proved wrong and some are proved right. For example, early in the movie the two black males were walking in a white community, talking about racism and how it affects them. However, proving the stereotype that all black males are dangerous, the two males robbed an innocent couple at gunpoint for their vehicle. This action caused the victim to heavily believe in all the common stereotypes of people of color. In the movie, racial tensions are present. When the latino male was in the white family house fixing the lock, the white female owner of the house, made a big deal of the fact that the man was a latino. She implied that since he is latino, he is up to no good. The latino man heard her conversation with her husband causing tension. Fear represented in this movie is when the white women grabbed her husband when she saw the two black males. She grabbed her husband once she saw the two males because she was scared. Scared of her thoughts and interpretations on people that look like them, causing her to be automatically afraid. Examples of anger in this movie, is the part when the police officer who was turned down the assistance he wanted for his father, by a black woman, then transfers that anger against black woman into an event later that day. That event being stopping and searching a black couple for no good reason. His anger led him to then molest this innocent black lady.
An event that represents conditioning is the early scene of the woman being afraid of the two black males. She knew nothing about them, just that they were black males. She was conditioned to believe all black males are up to no good. An example of verbal dehumanization is when the same lady insulted the latino locksmith. She verbally dehumanized him because he was a latino. Officer Tommy Hanson’s character shows the bigger problem we have in our world. Tommy Hanson was a good man in the beginning. What happened at the end was because of the thoughts and expectations officer Hanson had about the black male passenger. These thoughts and expectations led him to shoot this man for absolutely no reason. Even a character we thought as the good cop, turned to be caught in a prejudice act.

Crash: Cycle of Prejudice

There are many stereotypes that are presented in the movie.  Some in which African Americans usually always steal or rob someone.  Also, people may not look at this as a stereotype but i think that showing that white people are racist is also a stereotype.  I say this because all whites may not be racist.  At the beginning of the movie the white couple were walking pass two young African American men.  The wife from the white couple got a little startled, in other words nervous or scared.  She acted like that because she automatically assumed that the African American men were going to do something to them.  Another instance is where the hispanic guy was fixing her locks at home and she happened to see his tattoos and siad they were gang tattoos.  So she complained to her husband that the hispanic guy was going to give their keys to his "gangbanger homies".  Toward the end of the movie the "good cop" picked one of the African American men up because he was hitch hiking.  Then he ended up getting all defensive because deep down inside thats what he was conditioned to do.  He ended up killing the black guy because he thought he was pulling a gun out of his pocket.  Like I said in the last question, the good cop feared that the African American man going to pull out a gun on him so he reacted and ended up killing him.  I also think that fear was installed in the black couple at the begging of the movie as well.  Other then fear the black couple had anger too, because of the situation that happened with the cops.  Anger caused the husband to fight the men trying to rob him and stunted the black couples relationship.  The racist cop who molested the wife did that because prier to the situation he was angry that the black woman couldn't or simply wouldn't help his sick father because of his attitude.  So therefore he took his anger out on another black women who had nothing to do with that situation.  Conditioning was represented when the good cop shot the black man because he automatically thought he was pulling a gun out.  Thoughts/Expectations was shown when the white woman thought that the black men were going to do something to her or her husband.  Also when she thought that the hispanic man was going to give her keys away to his "homies ".  She also showed avoidance when she held on to her husband's arm in fear.  The bad cop showed verbal dehumanization when he was talking to the black lady who worked in the office saying that she shouldn't have had her job because she was black and that she was lucky to have it.  

Stereotypes in Crash

This movies begins with a stereotype. Two officers are involved in a car accident with an Asian woman. The female officer makes fun of the Asian woman's accent. The female officer says "blake" knowing the Asian woman was saying "brake". The next instance of a stereotype was when a white women grabbed her mans arm right after she saw too black people. She automatically assumed that two black people were dangerous. Ironically, the two black men car jacked the white couple, reinforcing the stereotype that black men are dangerous. When the white couple got home they were getting their door locks changed. The man that was changing their locks happened to be Hispanic. The white woman believed that the Hispanic locksmith would sell her house keys to his "homeys". In the movie this woman expresses a lot of that hate because she is so lonely. The next example of stereotypes in this movie is when the black couple get pulled over by the racist cop and his rookie partner. The racist cop takes advantage of his authority by making the driver get out of the car for no suitable reason. When the black man's wife gets out the car things turn for the worst. The cop once again misusing his authority begins to search the black man's wife. As he's searching her he begins to touch her inappropriately and ends up molesting her. As a black man there is nothing much he can do for his wife. If he stopped the racist officer he would've risked sending him and his wife to jail. All the stereotypes in this movie are produced by either hate or fear. Just as the movie begins with a car accident it comes full circle and ends with another accident involving the same Asian woman.

Crash Movie Review

This movie presented a lot of stereotypes, and conditioning. The first sight of that that we see is after the first car accident when she is speaking to the asian lady and is making fun of the way that she talks and vice versa for what the asian woman said to the white woman. Throughout the movie they are referred to as "Chinamen" and "Chinawoman". Then the movie presents the conditioning with black males on the same side of the street as a white woman and she curls up to grip her purse, cross the street or grabs her husband. Sandra Bullock's character is a very vulnerable woman who believes almost anything she hears when it comes to stereotypes. She believes that all black men are bad and that all hispanics have homies who go to jail and get tattoos. But the hispanic man is literally doing nothing wrong except for trying to provide for his family. Doing his job gets him targeted by a store owner who believes he robbed him of his money because of who he is. We see multiple stereotypes about how hispanics have a cousin that does everything and that black people are always looking to rob someone. When in reality it is not true. We are also introduced to Don Cheadle's character who is in a sexual relationship with a latina woman and he knows that his mother does not approve of it. Terrence Howard and his wife are in a situation where his wife gets molested by a white cop and is put in countless situations where he can either stay passive or fight back. We get to see both sides of this as well. We see how some racial issues and problems change in the long run. This movie was very beneficial to me because I never fully understood how bad these issues were. The movie never had a moment where there wasn't some type of racial slur, prejudice, and conditioning. The movie is very powerful and left an impact on me.

Crash: Emphasis on Stereotypes

        Most of the movies that I have seen, haven't had that big of an impact on me. The movie, Crash, has had a great impact on me due to the many messages the movie portrays. The movie has shown me how cruel the world actually is. It has showed me how hard it is for people to not change their opinions of those who they don't have a lot of encounters with. The character that Sandra Bullock plays is for the most part confusing to me. She is the only person in the movie that actually expresses all of her opinions towards all the nationalities that are common in the movie. Later on in the movie, she is seen self evaluating her current dilemma. She comes to the conclusion that she actually hates herself. I find it crazy because she has everything that a person could possibly need in the world. She has a maid that eventually sees as a person who is actually her best friend. She finds it mind bobbling because the person that she thought was her best friend, is probably having sexual encounters with her husband.
        The movie also focuses on how bad is good and how good is bad. When the LAPD officer John Ryan approached the woman in a very disrespectful manner, I thought that he was a scumbag that didn't know how to properly act like a man. I thought that he was a coward that just found it easy to abuse his own power for the better of his own benefit. Then his partner, Tom Hansen, showed great disgust with his partner which I was happy about because it showed that not all police officers are bad and abuse their own power. But I sure was mistaken. When we finished the ending we see that Tom Hansen is actually the racist cop. Tom without even giving Peter a chance to show him what he had in his pocket, just shot him dead. He then was portrayed as the bad cop. Then after John Ryan saved the woman that he violated, he showed great character and maturity. He showed this because he could have easily stopped trying to save her, but he did try because he knew what his job entitled him to do; to serve and protect the people.
         The character that Ludacris plays is a very ignorant person. Before hijacking the county general's car, he talks about how African Americans are constantly being oppressed by everyone. He talks about how they are constantly seen as criminals and people who are going to constantly  create harm to innocent people. Then he goes and contradicts himself by then actually hijacking the car and actually putting innocent people in danger. He then runs over the Asian human trafficker accidentally while driving away the hijacking scene. He also shows a scene of ignorance when he finds the people in the truck. He then drops the people off in an Asian community where there are no people available to help them. Then they walk onto the street the same way as they did onto the truck; clueless.

Geoffrey Ofori-Dwomfuo
Diversity and Social Justice
Glenn Cassidy


After watching the movie, Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis which was mainly based on people prejudicing others because of their race, religion, class or identity. Paul Huggis combines a variety of situations in which people have been victims and also culprits of these acts. He also displays the consequences of being stereotypical towards other people. Crash is a movie which makes one recognize the mistakes they execute in their everyday life. 
 At the beginning of the scene, Jean Cabot holds tight onto her husband because she saw two black men walking towards her. She feared something bad was going to happen but she hesitated to say anything because she feared it was going to turn against her as being racist. On the other hand the two black men were complaining about how the whites were always prejudicing them as criminals and always looking down upon them. All of a sudden they pull out a gun and does exactly what Jean expected them to do. This increased believe on her opinion on blacks. One might infer that the two black men either gave up and accepted the identity whites imposed on them or just robbed Jean and her husband because they felt blacks were and are still being cheated.
Not quite long after the robbery Jean had a suspicion of a Latino man who was brought to change her door lock. She supposed he was a gang member and an ex-convict because he had a tattoo and  was dressed improperly. This time she followed her thoughts and expectations because she wasn't going repeat the mistake she did when she saw the two black men, she suspected of being criminals, yet didn't say a word. Unfortunately, during this event her thoughts and expectations were wrong, he wasn't a gang member nor ex-convict. He felt broken upon hearing her words.
Jeans attitude prevented her from making friends because she always prejudiced people by the conditioning she was given. She only trusted and felt comfortable with people of class. She falls from the stairs and the only person to come to her aid was her maid who she treated poorly because she felt superior over her maid and felt the maid never did her work properly. It was only later at the end Jean realized how important her maid was.

Crash racism

The movie crash to me seemed like the actors tried way to hard to fulfill those stereotypes so it seemed fake. The movie was fakes to me no people would be that self-centered and not know anything esle about black people. All they knew about minorities is what the stereotypes tell about them. lived with whites for 14 years and they did not believe everything that the news did. Also they had their own thoughts and experiences with minorities. The black husband, what he wen through I can relate because we (minorities ) put our faith into ghe system into the police so they can stab us in the back. So then we fight against the police carry guns and takes our matters into our own hands because we know the police won't help. Then they lock us up. In the movie the actors cannot be that close, in any movie no group of people or that close and to mee that's what made it seem really fake.

Identity

Society itself has a great influence on who we are today.  People usually tend to follow their idol or whoever they look up to/admire.  Reading the Article on "The Complexity of Identity" makes me realize that people who are of the "dominant" race don't mention it.  A teacher in the article would ask their students to complete a sentence, "I am _____," and they would state their answer.  Some would say they're friendly, shy, assertive, intelligent, honest, and so on.  The teacher realized over time that students of color would mention their racial or ethnic group.  

What I learned

What I have leaned so far in the class and from the readings are the two different levels, macro and meso. Another thing I am going to discuss that we have covered in class is conditioning. 

  The macro level shows us that our development of character starts at a very young age. Why? As young kids we are affected by the events that take place in our life. For example, the absence of a parent or the death of a parent. Things like this are major factors in young kids lives and it adds to their self identity, shaping them for probably a more stressful, curious, wondrous life. Causing the kid to go through life wondering why me? A kid like this would probably go through life not trusting anyone or trusting someone will be hard for them. To where a person with both parents in their life may find it easier to trust people because they haven't felt betrayed at a young age. As a younging at the macro level you don't really have a full understanding of what's going on, why  you are acting the way you are. Speaking on that, this then sets you up for conditioning, which is also another thing we've been talking about in class. When your so young and your already "acting up" you become accustomed to this type of behavior. You then get to a point in your life where you actually understand your behavior isn't right, yet you continue to act the way you've been acting growing up. Oppose to the macro level I feel like this is an older stage so you can realize your actions clearly and react or get help to them. Another thing I have learned is how people use stereotypes to judge you. For example, a White person sends in a a job application, and his name on it is Jaquin. The job rejects his application because they think that's he's a African American. People judge you off what other people the same race or ethnicity as you do, off the mistakes that those people make. They fail to realize that everyone from the same place is not the same. Another thing I've leaned from this class is that a lot of us fail to realize who we really are. We all like to believe we are "known" and we are the coolest people wherever we go, but we all know in reality that's just not how it is. The kids that aren't identified or thought as of a cool kid they tend to get left out by the "cool" group. People like to identify who we are based off the type of clothes that we wear because it shows people how much money we have, or even whether we pay for lunch or not. So many different thing go into play when identifying your self or being identified by other people. In my opinion others people opinions on your identity doesn't mater because they aren't you and most people have no idea of what your family has or what they don't.