The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard shows the lesson of equality and mercy. The landowner offered one denarius, and the workers were grateful and willing to work for exactly that much. Those workers were apart of the first group of workers. However, when it came to the last group, who only an hour, opposed to the workers who worked all day, got paid the same amount. This is equality, however, not doing the workers in the first group justice. This relates to how Jesus offers mercy to whoever he chooses. Not only the ones who sins the least, or attends church the most. Whoever he chooses to provide his mercy.

The Parable Of The Good Samaritan

The Parable of The Good Samaritan has many meanings in the text. Within the story, the lawyer asks Jesus what he has to do to obtain eternal life. Basically asking him, what he has to do, in order for Jesus to allow him to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Like as if, there were certain steps and tasks that must be done in order to obtain eternal life.

However, Jesus understands that it's not a matter of what he needs to do, but a way of living life, in order to obtain eternal life. The parable also includes someone getting robbed, stripped and beaten. A priest and a Levite pass by without helping him, however, when a Samaritan passes by him, he helps him. This is ironic, because you would genuinely expect the priest or levite to help him and not the samaritan because of their reputations. However, it turned out to be the other way around.

The Color Of Fear

     The movie “Color of Fear” was great. I credit the person who came up with the idea to have people of different races in the same room. The reason why this is such an ingenious idea is because now that you have Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and Whites all in the same room, they can discuss their perspective on racism and how it affects their life. The main argument or the one I feel stood out the most was the one between the “angry black man” and the white man who was clueless about racism. The black man was infuriated. Not in a lethal way but in a “tired” way. In other words he was upset because the white man was not understanding him, and was acting like black people didn't have the position they wanted in life because they didn't work hard enough. Just by him inferring that more than likely set the black man off as it would I if I was in that situation. This is why I relate myself to the “angry black man”. 

     I would categorize myself along with the angry black man because I am very much like him when it comes to topics like this. I tend to get infuriated when somebody doesn't understand me and even more angry when somebody tries to explain something they don't understand. In other words I would have reacted the same as the black man. If you don't understand where I'm coming from when I'm explaining something, please don't make it seem like you do. The white man acted as if he knew what black people went through on a daily basis but in reality he was oblivious to the whole thing. If you don't understand then I will try to explain it even more. The white man acted like he understood but interpret it for something it wasn't (not working hard). I don't think the black man was at fault for reacting in a loud tone it's very frustrating trying to explain something to someone that hasn't experienced what you are explaining.

     To conclude, the white man did end up letting down his guard and actually listen to the people of different races and I truly believe he understood where they were coming from. At the end of the day that's the main goal, you can't end racism at one time, but if you open up one persons mind that will continue on to other people in his family and so on and so forth. Then racism will reduce in the world.

Transgender - Daqwan Moore

Throughout all of the discussions we have had in class with all different types of identities this one was the less informative but yet the most interesting to me. It made me think and question whether I really even knew what a transgender person was, even after Brianna had told us what makes a person transgender. For example, she said a transgender person can just wear pink and not change any of their body parts and identify as a transgender person. So while I was sitting there I thought it through and began to come to the conclusion that a transgender could just identify as gay, and ended up questioning myself to why they had to be transgender because it's nothing different, unless you change your physical vitals, but Brianna said not every transgender changes that. Then, she went on to say that to be transgender is something you don't choose, and you know if you're a transgender as soon as you figure out what a transgender is. There's this love commercial that comes on tv a lot and it shows all different types of people and it's about love and accepting everyone. In the commercial it said, "I couldn't change even if I wanted to." When Brianna told us it wasn't a choice... I disagreed right off the bat. I thought being transgender was a person coming into the world and wanting to totally change all their physical vitals and to the opposite sex and wanting to wear clothes of the opposites sex etc. But I started to think harder and harder, so I said to myself, well I am not a transgender so I may not be able to feel it out or think it through unless I actually go through that type of experience because Brianna said she realized because the clothes she wore just didn't feel right and that she just wasn't happy etc. 

Transgender Issues

The most I learned from our class discussion was the different terms related to Trans. I didn't know that trans could be used to describe people that don't necessarily fit gender rolls. For example a man that likes to cook and where pink could be considered trans. I always thought trans reffered to a male or female that wanted to be the opposite sex. But that's not always the case. Transvestites are similar to drag queens in that they both dress as the opposite sex. So someone like Dennis Rodman would fit into this category. However I learned the biggest distinction is between transgender and transexual. A transexual is someone who actually lives their life as the opposite sex. They are people like Brianna who not only try to look like women but also take hormones to physically change their features. The most interesting thing I learned was about the term tranny. I always thought tranny was the name to associate these people with but in reality it's a derogatory term. It's like calling gay people faggots or black people niggers. Now that I know this I'm going to try to stop using that term when reffering to trans people.

Crash

The movie we watched in class (Crash) was very informative. Throughout the movie i saw many different examples of prejudice, stereotypes, sexism, racism, etc. The movie starts with off with stereotypes. The first and most noticeable, when the two black males rob the white couple. It was confusing to me watching this scene though. The two black males were walking, coming from a dinner and were talking about how the waitress was being racist towards him because of his skin color. While talking about that he noticed the women of the white couple hug up on her husband. He interpreted this as a sign of prejudice because the women saw the two black males so she hugged up on her husband for protection. With that being said, as i was watching this seemed i assumed that the two black males were genuine and were just noticing how they were perceived in society. Turns out all the stereotypes and racism they recieved happen to be correct. The two black males ended up pulling out their weapons and robbing the couple of there car.

Later in the movie another stereotype comes into play, the stereotype that all hispanics are criminals. The white lady of the couple again pre judges somebody based off of their looks. Admittedly the man who was fixing the couple's door did look a bit off the edge, but that's no way treat somebody just because of their appearance. Turned out the hispanic overheard the conversation the woman was having with her husband and gave them back their keys because the women thought he would rob her. Throughout the movie you realize the judgements made about the hispanic were false and he ends up being a great man and father.

Fear, racial tensions, and anger are all present throughout this movie. Personally i feel like they all are related and cause and effects of each other. The fear of the other race and what they are capable of brings anger because you are unaware of what they can do. Then racial tensions come because you fear that race and are angry towards them so there is always a tension between you and them. Thus leading to racist remarks and pre judging people.

To conclude, this movie was great. It surpassed what i thought it was going to be. With all the different examples of racism, stereotypes, prejudice, etc it really challenged me to think about how i am in society. How others perceive me and how i judge others. I identify as black and that may come with its stereotypes, but i will work to prove those stereotypes wrong, and i will try not to judge others based off of second hand information.

Transgenders In Society

In our discussion last Friday, I learned a lot of topics that no one has ever mentioned to me. I got to meet a trans woman and got to ask her questions. At first, I was very skeptical about meeting Brianna. However, she was surprisingly very open about he decision to change. She talked about her life prior and post her transitioning process. She knew at a very young age that being a boy did not feel right. There have been debates about if the person knows they want a gender change when they are born or if it's how they are raised. After what she said, I believe it is determined when a person is finally becoming an adult. We also talked a lot about language with transgenders. I learned that saying 'Tranny' is offensive to transgenders. It is like calling a Caucasian person a 'Cracker' or a Hispanic person a 'Spic'. Other terms we learned were Trans, Transgender, Transexual. Transvestite, and Drag Queens. Drag Queens and Transvestites are like the same thing but Drag Queens often dress like the other gender for entertainment. Transgenders challenge the gender normalities, but they actually do not change their gender. But a Transsexual is a person who physically changes their gender. Finally, I enjoyed actually having a discussion with a trans person because I also learned to respect the sacrifices they have made in order to do something that they want. I have met a trans people before but never talked to them with a personal subject like this. This was a great experience and I actually explained to my aunts about the differences this weekend. This discussion has already had a major impact on my life.