vlog

Venus boyz

This movie struck me as compelling because it really had a lot of focus on the feelings of these drag kings. It really dealt with their experiences and how they perceive themselves. It made me think about some things i never would have thought about before in terms of how these people regard themselves and what life is like for them. When they interviewed the drag kings and discussed how they deal with their acceptance in the mainstream it reminded me of our discussions on rappers. How they would be one way in real life but then in the studio they were a completely different person. They did this because society says they should only be one way and that's not often the person they feel most comfortable being so they have to put on a front when they are around others. One comment that really struck me from the movie was when one of the guys said early on that "gender should be what you make of it". This reminded me a lot about our conversations on race because there are so many different classifications that you shouldn't feel that you have to limit yourself to a certain identity and I never thought of gender in this way. It was an eye opening movie and you really feel the struggle for these people because many have experienced unjustified violent or mental abuse from others.

Pressure to be someone you are not

Being someone you are not is one of the main topics highlighted in the first chapter of the book reviving Ophelia. At a young age girls begin experimenting with several different activities. To start to shape themselves and become a certain way. But often what happens is that the way they've developed to be is different than the way society says they should be. Girls begin to feel a lot of pressure from society in many different ways such as through the media and their peers. All this pressure starts causing girls to feel obligated to be a certain way. So as they get older and become adolescence they start to become someone different. They dress and act in the way society wants them to and forget about their old selves. This often leads to unhappiness because this new person is not who the girl wants to be. They begin to feel more delicate and this is not a good because this sensation leads to bigger issues such as eating disorders.

White Privilege

The points that stuck out to me the most from the reading were numbers 12, 16, 17, 24, and 35.

Number 12 stuck out a lot to me because it represents how certain everyday wants and needs that we have can be very difficult to find if you aren't of the dominant culture. These things that should be easy to find can be difficult because everyone needs different things but all these needs can't be catered too. So the stores all cater to what is desired by the majority which just excludes many other groups of peoples.

Number 16 struck me because this is very saddening but its a reality for all parents who are of a minority. All children should have equal opportunity in America, its something that this country prides itself on, but in reality there are many individuals who don't adhere to this and treat children of minorities in a bad manner. This often results in a lot of stress in their parents because they constantly have to worry about the well being of their children simply because of the child's race which is something completely out of their control.

Number 17 struck me because it not only applies to just this example that she gives but to many other things as well. Often when a black person commits an act that is out of the norm or not considered to be polite, its often ignored or deemed acceptable just because of that persons race. This also applies to things like lateness because if a black person is late then its said to be ok or expected because that person is Black and therefore can't help it.

Number 24 also struck me because several times i've asked or seen people ask for the manager or person in charge and that person presented to me is white. And on the rare occasions where the person is not white i've seen surprised looks of disbelief on the faces of the person asking. It clearly shows that their is this expectation for the white person to be the one in charge since he is the one of the dominant culture. But this does not provide a lot of hope for equality because how can there be equality in the work place if the person in charge is almost always white and therefore can't identify with his employees.

Number 35 struck me since its something that is a very pressing issue that I will face in the work place as well as the schools and universities that I will be applying to for college. Often people who are of a minority may have their intelligence questioned and may not be seen as credible because its often assumed that the only reason they got the job was due to affirmative action. This isn't fair to the employees who are hired because they may or may not be hired due to affirmative action but regardless this shouldn't have an effect on how they're treated.

All these things often are taken for granted because they're so small and over looked by the majority of people who don't have to put up with not being able to have these privileges. Also many of the other points that McIntosh struck me simply because I'm black and often experience these things so it comes as no surprise that these points really resonate with me.

Visual essay assessment

1. In creative collaboration our group had some pretty good moments. We were very respectful of each other and listened attentively to what other members of the group were saying. This allowed us to have some pretty good ideas because we would have so many different ideas brought to the table and we could either use that direct idea or combine it with another. We did a good job of deep listening. This was a step in our journey to a shared vision. This was very key because since we each listened to each others ideas and stated our likes and dislikes the final resulting project that we had was approved by all of us. So since we all had agreed on the project and had a great enthusiasm about it mostly everything ran pretty smooth. the enthusiasm everyone brought to the table allowed us to think outside the box and come up with lots of great concepts to throw into the video. There wasn't much loathing of doing the work involved because we were all passionate about the presentation we were making. Maybe one thing i felt we could have worked on a little more was the equal participation aspect of creative collaboration. In this project I didn't feel there were many jobs to be done besides just taking the pictures, writing the essay, and putting it together in the video. So in some cases one person was assigned to a certain job but we all took part in looking over the material we came up with and making corrections as well as throwing in our ideas.
2. An area where I was trying to lead first came up on the first day when our group met. We were in the cafeteria looking around at the space we had to work with and trying to come up with ideas for our project. Every one kept talking over each other and putting out a bunch of ideas as well as shooting some down. So caused the tension to get really high in the group and people felt their ideas weren't getting heard. So I stepped in and told everyone to be quiet and told them that they could only speak when I pointed to them. That way everyone had to remain quiet while someone else was expressing their ideas. This worked out very well it brought some order to the whole process and people actually began listening to each others ideas. Another example of leadership appeared when Rachel took the liberty to start writing the essay. She went home on the second night and got the essay started by coming up with a strong thesis and intro paragraph as well as great points to touch on that would help flush out the rest of the paper. She then sent us what she had written through email so the whole group could look it over and provide feedback. This was a great move by Rachel because she stepped up and worked on a part of the project no one wanted to do but because of her efforts it turned out to be great.
3. I think some issues we had with Creative Collaboration were for one staying focused. Often in a project like this where we weren't given many guidelines and rules its hard to stay on task because often we feel lost. Also with commiments to self I believe one of my greatest challenges was ackowledging strengths and weakness'. But by the end of the project I was able to analyze what these were pretty well. Since I was the oldest person in the group and the only senior I had a certain power over the rest of the group which allowed us to get work done when I was able to tell people when they were supposed to talk. And one of my weakness' was not being very technological savy so I didn't work on the part involving imovie. With commitments to group it was very difficult to plan out what was the course for the day. if we had done a better job of this the project would've flowed better because we would have a strict plan for the day.

Everybody wants to be hard

Out of all the chapters in Hip Hop beyond beats and rhymes the one titled everybody wants to be hard caught my attention the most. The reasoning behind this is because this subject is one of the most important topics in rap music. Many of the themes in hip hop revolve around violence and men proving themselves to be better than others. This concept not only has a deep rooting in hip hop but in male nature as well. Ever since the beggining of time early males have been trying to prove themselves better than other males. Its in our nature to try and be the alpha male and act all macho. So its not unexpected that this shows up in rap music and many rappers spend a lot of time talking about how they are harder than the next guy. The rappers achieve this in many ways by talking about where they came from and what gangs they may have pertained to. They talk about their guns and how many people their willing to kill. Everybody wants to be hard is not just a them in rap but it has been in an important theme in the neighborhoods which have produced these rappers so it comes as no surprise that this theme is now one of the most leading themes in rap.

homework #8

One of my favorite literary works is Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley. Its a compiled book of short stories about an exconvict named Socrates. The stories all follow Socrates through his daily life in the tough area of Los Angeles that he lives in. I really enjoyed this book because I felt a deep connection to it. Many different themes in the book I could relate to my life and I reall enjoyed reading about Socrates and how he helped out many of the people in his neighborhood.

The authors of this book include myself for one. I bring my own insight and interpretations to the book so my experience reading it was different than any other people who read the book. We read the book in contemporary american literature class last year and for this reason the teacher ms. Oman and my other classmates were also authors because my view was shaped a lot by the discussions we had on the book in class. Also Walter Mosley is an author for writing the book.. Another more obscure author is the history of Los Angeles during this time which is key in the book because you need an understanding of this to grasp the theme of African American life during this time period.