please read the previous post if you haven't yet, as it is full of things, i know its dense, but i do reference it a bit and it is very magical!
so. lets get the facts down.
I'm all for racial equality, its just. not. at Berkeley high, there are clubs and events JUST for Latinos, or Asians, or blacks..but people from various European countries- we get none of that- and I'll bet if i tried to make a club, I'd become 'racist'! it's infuriating. if we have 'African American studies' then we can't we have 'Scandinavian' studies? sure, my ancestors weren't slaves- they were just dirt poor and not allowed to work because they were Irish, or Scottish.
if they have 'Pacific islander and Asian club' why is it racist for me to want an 'Italian' club?
i mean, its kinda annoying. ever year, i see the posters for 'Black Grad.' and other things that i can't be a part of. i don't fit into the tiny bubbles formed in this school. its a mixed school, pretty even, but...
a lot of the kids are so defensive, and it gets on my nerves. if a teacher moves a students seat, and he's[student] black and she's not, she's suddenly 'racist'. the word is thrown around a lot, used to describe 'unfairness' now. it used to have a deeper meaning. it still does, i 'm not saying that real racism isn't around- it is, and that's bad. but lately, it seems that EVERYTHING is biased, not for light skeined people, but against them. I'm lucky to grow up in Berkeley, where debates fill classrooms, the Obama mobile drives around-yet some still have McCain stickers. it is a very divers place, but i just feel so alone, so un-included when i see signs for the Asian/Pacific Islander Association.
but back to bubbles. i told someone in one of my classes about filling in 'other', i felt rather proud you see, and she said(she's my friend) that why did i do that, they need to know that stuff.' i replied 'well, i didn't see a bubble marked 'Italian-Scottish-Swedish- American' so i filled in other. i don't fit in a bubble, and i most likely never will. nor will practically anyone in this country or many others. we live in a changing world. lets live up to it.
i really, truly urge PPLto fill in other, because there is no bubble labeled with what you are.
i long for a day when the PPL that look over the tests realize- on every test, the 'other' bubble is filled in. every test. i know, in my mind, that this will in all likelihood, never happen. but i keep on dreaming. i too, dream of a colorblind world, a world were no one understands why race or religion would be grounds for discrimination. i know that this won't come to pass until the Millennium( ask your nearest Mormon if you don't know what i mean) but still, that it's coming. maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. but i have faith that it is coming. and i hope that I'm ready when it comes.
well, now i have finished my little bit about messages to the world and such.
happy stuff of today: i kept my gal: only swear three times. I've been having a problem with swearing, and decided to try to stop. i allowed myself three today, and i stayed within the limit. i feel very happy.
i found a copy of 'Undertown' a manga I've been wanting to read for months, at the library. i also got a few ideas for SOD during PE. that reminds me!
the last week, we've been doing a tournament in PE, volleyball of course. well, yesterday, the team captain was gone, so I was the sub -captain! me! the best part?. we won both games. I'd been praying to do better- get over my fear of the ball, and i did better. today, we played the second place team( we were in first) and, well. the score was-
42-25.
we had that 42. i even scored 6 of the points! i feel so very, very happy!
well, thats about it.
so, anyway, more later
Showing posts with label opinions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opinions. Show all posts
Friday, October 17, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
what has the world come too, and other random thoughts
the other day, i went to see "yellow Jackets' a play written by a BHS grad, about BHS in the early 90's
one of the main plot parts, was a boycott of the school paper, the jacket, because a teacher found something that she deemed racist. it turned out that it had been plagiarized from a police report, but the idea is still there.
and i find myself asking 'why?'
why do people hurt others? why do we find it necessary? i know i'm not perfect, but....
it just makes me want to cry. so many lives have been destroyed for stupid reasons.
a friend of mine in a class i take, is half(or quarter, i don't recall) Arab. after 9/11, his 'friends' turn on him, calling him things like terrorist. a 9 year old had to suffer through this. it makes me ill, just the thought.
maybe its human nature to divide people into categories, try to make them fit into the little bubbles on standardized tests, black, white, Latino/a, Asian, other.
but it also human stupidity.
a folly, a lie.
no one fits into a bubble.
people see me, and think 'she's white'
but i say, i'm not.
i am American, Italian, Scottish, German, Cherokee, just a little.
white'' is not a race, it is a bubble.
a person from Mexico may look like someone from Costa Rica, but they are very much different. they have different customs.
people distinguish between the different African and Asian countries a lot now.. but not so much the European ones.
you are just 'white'
so i say, no, i am not. i have a mix, not of 'black' and 'white', or whatever you think of when someone says 'mix'.
race is not in your genes.
it is a shared idea, a shared lie, created by society.
i have a color, but that is not who i am. i am who i am, i am a mix of my heritages, a mix of my family history.
i am myself, no matter who tells me anything else.
i urge you to fill in, on that next test or quiz or what have you, the most often overlooked bubble, the one you look at, fill in, erase, and fill in how you look. fill in, other.
for no one fits inside any bubble besides that one.
as for hatred and violence because of 'race', i see it like this. we are all decedent of Noah, of Adam, and ultimately, of God. or, if you don't believe in that, we all came from monkeys, who came from something else. we are one family, brothers and sisters, so many generations back. sibling fights and squabbles are normal, see my below post. but this, all the hate and awful things in the past thousand years and beyond, particularly what has happened and is happening in the past 50, is just ridiculous. just plain stupid and hateful and wrong. let he who has not sinned cast the first stone. love one another as they self. heck, thou shalt not KILL. these are words that most of man kind fails to see, or, fails to listen to.
i believe that the world could learn so much by going to a library, to the children's section, and picking up a picture book. in those books, the true morals are simple to find.
'Spotty' is one of my favorites.
the story is of a little brown and white spotted bunny, who is left behind when the rest of his family goes to have a birthday part and their grandpa's, because grandpa doesn't think bunnies should be spotty with blue eyes.
so spotty runs away, and it begins to rain, and he is found by mr. brown, a bunny that looks just like him. spotty goes with mr. brown to eat and dry off, and meets mr. browns family. every bunny looks like him, blue eyes and brown spots...but in the corner, spotty sees a small, white bunny with pink eyes. her name is whitie, and the family says that because she looks different, they hide her, because grandma bunny thinks that bunnies should not be white with pink eyes.
spotty tells the browns about why he ran away, and that his family all look like white, and he knows now that it is all the same, they are all bunnies, and should love each other, and the browns pull white from her little corner and kiss her and are happy, while back at spotty's house, the family feels very bad for not taking him to the party, and look for him.
they return home, and decide to look again in the morning. the next morning, rosie, one of spotty's sisters, sees the browns, who are leading spotty home, and every one rejoices, and everyone kisses everyone, and have a party, with spotty bunnies sitting with white ones, and tall bunnies next to short ones, and they eat carrots, with spotty right in the middle of it all.
anyway, make your own conclusions.
but i like to think, that back in kindergarden, kids knew the important things in life, friends, family, love, dreams.
thats all that truly matters.
i think one 'dennis the meni\ce' cartoon sums it up nicely.
its dennis, and his friend, jackson, who is 'black'
the caption is dennis sayng, "mom, this is jackson, and we're almost the same, only he's left handed.' or something like that.
so think about what i've said in this post.
God bless the world. No exceptions'
anyway, more later
one of the main plot parts, was a boycott of the school paper, the jacket, because a teacher found something that she deemed racist. it turned out that it had been plagiarized from a police report, but the idea is still there.
and i find myself asking 'why?'
why do people hurt others? why do we find it necessary? i know i'm not perfect, but....
it just makes me want to cry. so many lives have been destroyed for stupid reasons.
a friend of mine in a class i take, is half(or quarter, i don't recall) Arab. after 9/11, his 'friends' turn on him, calling him things like terrorist. a 9 year old had to suffer through this. it makes me ill, just the thought.
maybe its human nature to divide people into categories, try to make them fit into the little bubbles on standardized tests, black, white, Latino/a, Asian, other.
but it also human stupidity.
a folly, a lie.
no one fits into a bubble.
people see me, and think 'she's white'
but i say, i'm not.
i am American, Italian, Scottish, German, Cherokee, just a little.
white'' is not a race, it is a bubble.
a person from Mexico may look like someone from Costa Rica, but they are very much different. they have different customs.
people distinguish between the different African and Asian countries a lot now.. but not so much the European ones.
you are just 'white'
so i say, no, i am not. i have a mix, not of 'black' and 'white', or whatever you think of when someone says 'mix'.
race is not in your genes.
it is a shared idea, a shared lie, created by society.
i have a color, but that is not who i am. i am who i am, i am a mix of my heritages, a mix of my family history.
i am myself, no matter who tells me anything else.
i urge you to fill in, on that next test or quiz or what have you, the most often overlooked bubble, the one you look at, fill in, erase, and fill in how you look. fill in, other.
for no one fits inside any bubble besides that one.
as for hatred and violence because of 'race', i see it like this. we are all decedent of Noah, of Adam, and ultimately, of God. or, if you don't believe in that, we all came from monkeys, who came from something else. we are one family, brothers and sisters, so many generations back. sibling fights and squabbles are normal, see my below post. but this, all the hate and awful things in the past thousand years and beyond, particularly what has happened and is happening in the past 50, is just ridiculous. just plain stupid and hateful and wrong. let he who has not sinned cast the first stone. love one another as they self. heck, thou shalt not KILL. these are words that most of man kind fails to see, or, fails to listen to.
i believe that the world could learn so much by going to a library, to the children's section, and picking up a picture book. in those books, the true morals are simple to find.
'Spotty' is one of my favorites.
the story is of a little brown and white spotted bunny, who is left behind when the rest of his family goes to have a birthday part and their grandpa's, because grandpa doesn't think bunnies should be spotty with blue eyes.
so spotty runs away, and it begins to rain, and he is found by mr. brown, a bunny that looks just like him. spotty goes with mr. brown to eat and dry off, and meets mr. browns family. every bunny looks like him, blue eyes and brown spots...but in the corner, spotty sees a small, white bunny with pink eyes. her name is whitie, and the family says that because she looks different, they hide her, because grandma bunny thinks that bunnies should not be white with pink eyes.
spotty tells the browns about why he ran away, and that his family all look like white, and he knows now that it is all the same, they are all bunnies, and should love each other, and the browns pull white from her little corner and kiss her and are happy, while back at spotty's house, the family feels very bad for not taking him to the party, and look for him.
they return home, and decide to look again in the morning. the next morning, rosie, one of spotty's sisters, sees the browns, who are leading spotty home, and every one rejoices, and everyone kisses everyone, and have a party, with spotty bunnies sitting with white ones, and tall bunnies next to short ones, and they eat carrots, with spotty right in the middle of it all.
anyway, make your own conclusions.
but i like to think, that back in kindergarden, kids knew the important things in life, friends, family, love, dreams.
thats all that truly matters.
i think one 'dennis the meni\ce' cartoon sums it up nicely.
its dennis, and his friend, jackson, who is 'black'
the caption is dennis sayng, "mom, this is jackson, and we're almost the same, only he's left handed.' or something like that.
so think about what i've said in this post.
God bless the world. No exceptions'
anyway, more later
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