Sunday, February 27, 2011

I woke up to this show one morning on pbs and thought it was a cute way to help kids spell words.

GSLEN

Reflection:


This website and article reminded me of the end of my Junior year of high school.  The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) decided that they were going to come to East Providence and protest near our high school because we have a Gay-Straight Alliance.  I remember when the school was told they were coming at the end of the week, thats all we wanted to talk about for the entire week.  The gays and lesbians of the high school were obviously not happy about this protest and the entire school was ready to protest back.  In the article that I read, the survey said that nearly 9 out of 10 LGBTs were harassed while in their high school.  Students also reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation.  I feel that the students in East Providence High School are part of that 1 out of 10 that feel safe while they're at school.  I actually know someone personally that was kicked out of her home by her own mother because she is a lesbian.  She loves being at school, she plays basketball, has friends, a girl friend and from what i see is very happy with her life.  The survey also shows that over the course of 10 years there has been an increase in support clubs such as Gay-Straight Alliances.  The pictures and the video that go with the article in the second like show how the students came together to rebel against the WBC.  I think that if every school had some type of support system for LGBT students then life would be so much easier for them and they wouldn't have a reason to feel fear as they walk through the halls of their schools.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Aria by Richard Rodriguez



Richard Rodriguez argues that through personal experiences during childhood, being bilingual as a young student, he struggled with keeping his public identity while trying to fit into the society around him. 

He talks about the troubles he faced as a child growing up speaking mainly Spanish, adjusting to speaking English daily, and adapting to the “American” way of life.  He felt that he would be more comfortable speaking in class and just being a part of the class if the teacher was able to speak at least a little bit of Spanish to him.  Not being acclimated to the English language also made him apprehensive of speaking out in class.  He felt that by speaking English in school, he was leaving the person he truly was behind.  He also felt that speaking English more often he would be offending his family. He talks about the troubles he faced as a child growing up speaking mainly Spanish, adjusting to speaking English daily, and adapting to the “American” way of life.  He felt that he would be more comfortable speaking in class and just being a part of the class if the teacher was able to speak at least a little bit of Spanish to him.  Not being acclimated to the English language also made him apprehensive of speaking out in class.  He felt that by speaking English in school, he was leaving the person he truly was behind.  He also felt that speaking English more often he would be offending his family.  

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Peggy McIntosh: White Privilege

Quotes: Choose three quotes from the text and explain what they mean and their relevance to the text.

Quote 1: "whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others this is seen as work that will allow 'them' to be more like 'us'."

This quote from McIntosh helps better understand what Delpit would call the "Culture of power".  White's see themselves as the ideal race and that everyone else has to conform to their way of living, speaking, etc.  One of the points McIntosh makes is that a white person can swear or wear "second-hand clothes" and not be looked at as a bad representation of their entire race.  How ever, if a black person dress and speaks like that, they are looked at as an entire race and that gives that race a bad name.  McIntosh's 26 points are very similar to the 5 rules that Delpit talks about.  This is relevant to the text because it shows how white men have an "advantage" over everyone else.  As McIntosh says, whiteness can protect a person from hostility, distress, and violence.

Quote 2: "I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions that were passed on to me as a white person."

A person who is born into the culture of power is going to know the codes and just assume that everyone else around them knows that codes.  Like Dr. Bogad said in class, if a teacher who is in the culture of power asks a student who isn't in the culture of power, "Is it time to be playing with that puzzle right now?" The student won't understand that the teacher is really asking.  If we do not teach the children at a young age that there is more than one way to talk to people and that there is a certain place and time for each, then the cycle will keep going.  The children will never learn to try to break that barrier of the culture of power.

Quote 3: "Men's unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged."

This shows that men, especially white men, are not willing to admit that they have special privileges when it comes to jobs, property ownership, credit etc.  White men also have a code that they follow but don't seem to realize they are doing it.  It shows that in a society, men will acknowledge that women do not have the same rights as them but they will never say that they have more rights than women.  This goes along with the ways of the culture of power.  Those who hold the power do not realize that they hold it until explicitly told.

Monday, February 7, 2011

First Post

Hi everyone! My name is Amanda Cabral. This is my second semester at RIC as a Health & Phys. Ed. major.  I play volleyball in the fall & like to play basketball & softball too.  Sports are pretty much my life.  Im liking this semester and that we havent had too many classes because of snow, but i hate parking!! Hope to have a good semester!