Blog #2

Last week we started to discuss about reading strategies. We all had different reading strategies, and we have learned them from our previous courses. However, it was a good reminder to learn more effective reading strategies. I liked to hear different voices, and find out the best strategies for effective reading. Highlighting the words that we do not know was very interesting for me because I usually do that and check the words right a way from dictionary or internet. I always thought that I am the only one who highlights the words because English is my third language and sometimes understanding some words or phrases is not easy for me, but it seems that other students highlight the words and phrases that they do not know. After discussing about reading strategies, we had very interesting activity. I liked that activity very much because it showed that how diverse and different we were. I was one of the students who was in the back line, and I was very proud of myself to be a first generation to go to college. It was very important for me to start from zero and made a progress everyday in my life. Although some of us might stood in the same line, but we all had different experiences. Those different experiences made us a unique persons in this small world, and be proud of who we are. I felt very good and honest about myself and sharing my part to just be a different person. As I mentioned in the class, the world is neither black nor white, it is just  grey, and we are neither good nor bad; we are just different and unique persons.

The nature of discrimination varies from country to country. In a countries, like Bangladesh or India, use a cast system which certain people or group have opportunities to have certain jobs or go certain schools. In other countries, specific quotas do not exist, instead, some other minorities are give certain preferences or selections. In the U.S, affirmative action refers to equal opportunity of employment and education for everybody. However, it seems that some people do not have equal opportunity to study, especially, minorities. Having equal opportunity, specifically, higher education for all Americans  has had a long history. African-Americans and Latinos are among the minorities who have given less opportunity for higher education. Many actions have taken to make sure that every body has equal opportunity in society, and make sure that inequality dose not exist in society. However, it seems that all those actions were not useful and inequality steel exists in our society. Taking actions such as “affirmative action” has not been enough and has been attacked from begging, especially by Supreme Court. In many cases, the Supreme Court of U.S, tried to eliminate inequality, especially in higher education, but the Supreme Court was not successful for many reasons. The main reason, in my point of view, is that some organizations that have power, systematically and implicitly advocate inequality because of social status quo. They do not want any changes because they do not see any problems. They blame and put the responsibility to the Federal government or other systems. Therefore, in my opinion, we have a long battle to eliminate inequality and discrimination in higher education.