Week 4 readings

Last week we were asked to make a presentation about the introductory paper we wrote about our identities. They were all awesome! I liked how everyone was able to share a little about our lives to each other. I realized that even if we all have our own identities, we still share the essence of being college students. These presentations made me feel better about being here at CI, because everyone has their on story to share which sometimes can help motivate another to keep pressing on. I really do appreciate that I as given a chance to share a little about myself to you all. What stood out to me about the presentations was that for the first time since I’ve been on campus, I did not feel alone. I was able to relate with many of my classmates. Although we came from different places and experienced different things, we are all in school for a better future. I feel like this presentation was the perfect opportunity for me to get out of my shell because I am a bit shy. Although we were all expected to present on the overhead projector, I really enjoyed the presentations given by the classmates who did not have a slide show. I’m sure they must have felt more nervous than those who did have one. Even if most of us did not really refer our identities back to the articles, I think we did a good job in explaining who we are and where we want to get to in life.

This week’s readings focused on dominant group privilege, inequalities at school and discrimination amongst minorities. When I was at Santa Monica College, I took a couple of classes that opened my eyes to the oppression that people of color still experience today. Like I have lived through some of the examples I have read about and I have also seen them happen to people I know and it makes me a bit upset. Because I feel as long as someone keeps acknowledging stereotypes the separation won’t end. The reading that stood out the most to me was called “White privilege and male privilege” by Peggy McIntosh because it gives couple of examples of how people of color experience a situation with such stigma and shame that someone from the white privileged group wouldn’t. An example of this can be having a group of young brown men walking down the block as the police rolls through. The guys might be seen as suspects and maybe stopped and be tagged with label of being gang affiliated or even for selling drugs. If a group of white men were walking down the same situation they would have been disturbed of even handcuffed because they are civilized citizens. This often happens back in my hometown. And lately prejudice, racism, and stereotypes have been ending many lives because of the ignorance that lives within the community of people who believe in justice but still decide to turn the other check when the person being victimized for their color is pleading for their defense. I really do hope that this inequality amongst all humanity stops one day.