Blog Post #2

 

Last week we had an interesting discussion in class. I really enjoyed when we spoke about white privilege. I didn’t realize some of the things that were in my “invisible knapsack” until I spoke about my personal experiences and some things just happen to come to light. It’s so funny how such a small thing can go without being seen by myself unless someone tells me. What really caught me by surprise was the activity we did together outside.  I never thought I would have ended up toward the front of the line. When we began I assumed I would end up somewhere in the middle. Since that day I have really been  thinking a lot a bout that. I feel blessed in some ways to have had the opportunities I have had thus far in my life, and I have a different outlook on my life. I feel very grateful for that experience in that activity because it truly was an eye opener for me. I hope we get to do more activities like that soon.  I think a lot of the class possibly experienced an awakening of some sort after that activity like I did.

We had some very interesting readings for this week. The first I honestly had to go back and forth a couple times to understand it better. Reading about the Diversity Rational and seeing how the Supreme Court ruled it was ok for Universities to use race as a deciding factor made me want to keep finding out more. When u look it up, funny enough a lot of the first articles that appear are about being white or a white male in universities. I read an article on nyulawreview.org called “White like Me” and it states “…the pursuit of diversity does not only benefit minority students who gain expanded access to elite institutions through affirmative action. Rather, diversity also benefits white students who grow through encounters with minority students, it contributes to social and intellectual life on campus, and it serves society at large by aiding the development of citizens equipped for employment and citizenship in an increasingly diverse country. ” Tying this to the second article, so my question is, why are white people still doing better in school?…(in lamest terms) as its stated in the second reading. I’m not sure why, I can’t seem to draw a good answer because I did go to mainly white schools and to be honest a lot of the people I knew that were hispanic as well, that went to other schools didn’t finish school. Why? I feel like there may be some sort of cultural factor. Seeing how easily it is to be pushed down by your color or your race I’m not surprised if people happen to be discouraged in the process of their education. I can say that I feel some societies believe being different that way is a stigma sadly. Answering a previous question on my last blog, I can relate to when the magnet program was almost taken out of my high school. The school I went to was primarily white, If you go visit you will see mainly white people on the banners outside of the school. You see absolutely no diversity there. The whole magnet was made up of minorities. In my group specifically we had mainly black and latino and we had all known each other since elementary so we were a pretty close group of people. I’m thankful the  magnet was never removed though, who knows where I would have end up.