Color of Fear

The documentary, The Color of Fear, was about a group of men on a weekend getaway. They take part in an outspoken dialouge on ethnicity and race. The documentary features two African Americans, two Latin Americans, two Asian Americans and two whites. Towards the beginning of it all, the groups did not communicate or get across to each other, until the topic of "privilege" came up. The white men, not understanding the advantages they had in society became ignorant, while the Africans Americans got infuriated at how oblivious they were on the subject matter. They told the white men that African Americans and white men start off in completely different locations. For an African American to get the respect that an average white man gets takes far more work. Another situation the African American rose was how the word "American" was used in societies. He mentioned that in order for someone to call themselves "American" they had to sacrifice their roots, their ethnicity and their identities. On the third day into the social experiment, the white man was found crying because he could not relate to the people around him. He noticed how hes on a higher social level and on that social level, there is a massive amount of privilege. In this documentary, I can relate to the angry black man the most because he was getting aggravated that his point was not getting across how he wanted it to. Everything being said, this film blames white privileged men for the nations problems. 

Heterosexism

The discussion involved many points of view, some that I didn't even know were there. The discussion did, at times, leave me speechless and lost in my own thoughts as to how a person could be so simple or even so complex in terms of sexuality and gender identity. There are categories that I have never even heard that were brought up, but that only made me learn so much more. The world is cruel, when you get the short end of the stick of course. For us, heterosexuals, our "taste" is the norm, we can kiss females in public, we can hold hands with a female in public, we can grab a girl in public, even show some public display of affection (PDA) without having people yelling "ew go somewhere else with that gay sh*t" (as I've heard before on the streets of Newark). Heterosexism privilege is very much alive just like the privilege a man has over a woman or like that of a white man over a black man. We never did anything to gain the privilege and they never did anything to lose it, yet it's so frequent in our lives but we're so blinded to it that it's scary! A simple word as "fag" for heterosexuals can be a simple joke while for a man who identifies as gay, it can bring back dark memories of their time when they were mocked, scared, or even lost in their personalities trying to fight to be "normal". The discussion allowed me to take a step  back and really see how scary it is to know you're not "normal" or that you're "ill" because you like people that don't fit what society thinks you should like. I also noticed that many of our speakers first dropped subtle comments before they were willing to completely expose themselves and that alone speaks greatly on fear of being ridiculed and feeling distant. 

Different Pathways

From what I understand of this passage is that women have it way harder then that of which men have.  But the biggest difference between Emma and Taylor was their class.  Both of them had good GPA's, went through college and the whole 9 yards.  But one of them started to work somewhere and didn't get paid enough to pay off her $10,000 in dept.  So therefore she had to move back with her parents and eventually she was in a relationship and she had to move.  I said she had to because the way things were going, she really didn't have a choice whether she wanted to move or not.  The other girl was in a better position because her parents were economically stable you might say.  So she didn't have to worry about anything she can do for an advantage.  Because she was the advantage.   

Sexuality

Before this class discussion I knew the basics about sexuality. I knew that people were either straight, gay, or bisexual. However I learned that people identify themselves as more than just these three sexualities. One of our guest speakers identified as queer. At first I thought queer was another derogatory word for gay people. Our guest speaker said the gay LGBTQ community is trying to take this word back for political use. Similarly to how some black people try to take the word nigga back. I learned that people who identify as queer can be attracted to both men and woman. At a glance queer seems the same as bisexual. The main difference between queer and bisexual is that queer is more of a political term. Queer is used to describe anything that is abnormal. Our guest speaker described his family as queer because they support their queer son and are not a normal family. Class that day informed me about the experirnces of various sexualities people identify themselves as.

Armstrong - Daqwan Moore

One argument I can immediately point out and relate to class is the taking of different paths. We discussed in class one day how some people are more privileged to better paths than others. For example, the richer white kids from better areas with nicer names that work hard. Opposed to the broke black boy with the ghetto name from a terrible area. They both work their behinds off but that white kid gets a head start, and doesn't have to work as hard as the black boy with the same credentials for the same job. The more wealthy folks are the favored by society. What I really think the author means to take different paths is simply that different people are forced to take different paths, which can be based off the persons past experiences etc. The author mentioned three different classes. Those classes being the achiever, the striver, and socialite. The socialite class being the highest, which makes them the most privileged of the three. This puts these college kids at an advantage of making more money coming out of college than the less privileged because they're parents can afford to pay they're tuition for college. Rather than the less privileged kids who have to take out loans to make their way through college. Therefore, these privileged kids start out at an higher salary, because they owe nothing. The author points out to us that sometimes it's just the path we are given and have to live with it until society decides to justify this. 

Sexuality Discussion

Throughout the class about gays in society i felt extremely uncomfortable. I personally accept the classification of me being a homophobic. Whenever i hear or am around a person who likes their same gender i feel very uncomfortable. I am straight and was raised straight by a straight family so i may have been conditioned to be like this. I don't have a problem with gays but when they are affiliating themselves with me or speaking to me i feel awkward like im being cluttered. Even though they may not be attracted to me in that way i still get that feeling like im being "checked out" much like how a lady would feel walking through the cafeteria at our school. On the other hand the discussion was decent. I went against my ways and tried my hardest to understand what they have been through or what they have to deal with on a daily. The man who classified himself as "Queer" seemed very passionate about how he is. It seemed as if he accepted it at a young age and has a non profit group to help people like him accept it. The reason i bring him up is because i can respect what he is doing. Even though im straight, from stories ive heard i can tell it may be a hard time to accept your sexuality at a young age and hes helping youth to do that. Another person i would like to speak about is the young looking white male who said he was gay. I dont have much to say but ive came to a realization that being gay isn't as drastic as it use to be. He is the vice president of a company. Seeing the way he was on a time crunch and how he wore a suit with a nice watch is telling me that he is in an important position and he makes a good amount of money. Noticing this made me understand that because you are gay you are not limited to certain things. May this be because he is white? Im not sure, but seeing a vice president of a company being openly gay is a eye opener in my book. To conclude like i said im not a big fan of discussions like these since i feel uncomfortable about gay people, but i gained a lot of knowledge by paying attention to the speakers.

The article blog#5

In the article, it talked about the differences between the lower class and the higher class when it comes to college. Class is the main factor in and before college. In college class is the difference between someone having to worry about food, money, or a social life. Upper-class student do not have to worry about their tuition is going to get paid therefore and giving them more of a chance to do better in school and be able to make more connections with people socially. In the article it stated how trajectories are basically the outcome of a person in a certain class after they leave college. Based on what their social class was when they entered College will affect their social class after they leave college. This meaning people of lower class families were able to send their children to college, in most cases the child from lower class families will have to take out student loans already putting that child at a disadvantage from people who are in higher class families.

     " student loans have existed in one form or another for the century... Not anymore. The states have pulled back, Grants have shriveled in value, and loans have become the way most student's handle most of the cost of college"( Garcia, Lardner, And Zeldin 174). This is basically saying that the student loan system has changed for the worst. While lower class students have to pay for it, upper-class students only have to focus on just going to school. Class background is another factor for people in college. For students from upper-class families you can see that they are the ones that usually don't try as hard in college because they know that they have their wealth or a job to fall back on after college. For wealthy families colleges for the experience and after is when they start to work. But for people from lower class families work starts when they enter college because their education most likely is the only way they can earn a living. College use to be thought of as a way to game the necessary tools to move up in society/ social class. But College is just a reflection of what are society is today.