In the August before my sophomore year of high school, a challenge emerged. My dad had passed away. Of course you would read that and automatically think about how that would affect me in many ways. However no one, not even myself, was aware of the many challenges that went with this.…
The primary issue brought to the table by Tookie's supporters, myself included, is that he could be of more benefit alive than dead. Yes, there were other defenses of him made light of. But very few insisting that he would go down as the next Malcom X. That was a straw man created by his opposition, as was the noble peace prize defense. Most of Tookie's supporters knew the Noble peace prize nomination meant nothing. It was the right wingers on A.M. radio that took that point, made by, mind you, few people, and turned it into a huge straw man by making it out to be the primary defense of Tookie by his supporters. In case you've been in a cave since the year 2000; The Republicans have been known to do such things.The worst that has come out of this entire ordeal is that white America has proven that they know even LESS bout inner city life than what white America knew a generation ago.Viacom makes ghetto life out to be glamorous. Go to a ghetto. There's nothing glamorous. It's still as f'd up as it ever was. Don't let the music videos fool you. They're commercials. Nothing more. Commercials for sneakers, jewlery, clothing, cars; Commercials. Not a realistic portrayal of inner city life.What's happening because of this is that middle class whites see these rap videos and think, "Oh, why should I feel bad for black people? Look at these guys with their bling bling". The truth is, the only people with the 'bling bling' are rappers, athletes, and the drug dealers in ghettos that make up for about 2% of it's population. It's top ramen noodles and second hand clothes for everyone else. Turn the t.v. off, give Rush Limbaugh a rest, and visit South Central Los Angeles. Go in the morning, so you won't be too freaked out. Rather your view changes on Tookie's sentence or not, you'll likely, at the very least, have a different perspective on how the gang cycle really works than that of the perspective that has been drilled into your head by the advertising industry, the…
For school, the thing that has changed was my grades have improved so that I was able to get principal's list. My life has changed because I have found out about my true friends and my “fake” friends. The ones that I know more outside of school are my true friends but the ones that I don’t talk to at all is different. This helped me change the way I look at people and kinda prejudge. But hopefully this habit will just go away with time.…
Daphne Patai Readings on Animal Farm. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 1998. Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol. 68. Detroit: Gale, 2004. p116126. From Literature Resource Center. Critical essay…
My educational goals are to continue my education after high school by going to college for two years, studying criminal justice. I am currently working towards my goals by being in the Glendale Police Explorers Program. As of right now I am in the top 13% of my class and I am working on ending my senior year as top…
Before talking about my history, I have to say that my ancestral history is what prejudiced in my values as a good human being. From generation to generation, my ancestors passed down values such as dignity, respect, honesty and etc. Without them, I have to say that I would not exist today as a good human being. The American cities included in my history are Rocky River and Lakewood. Those two cities are located in Ohio. All my ancestors were born and lived in India. My history will include 3 generations.…
Growing up in a neighborhood where you were automatically labeled a “screw-up” or a criminal has affected my peers and I in negative way. Many generations before mine have been discouraged to further their education, simply because of the marginalization of our ethnicity and the neighborhood where we have grown up. There is a disconnection between the language of my education and the language of my culture simply because in the schools my peers and I attend, we are not pushed enough to realize our full potential. Meanwhile at home, [most being hispanic] we are told that furthering our education is the most valuable thing we do have in life. In our hispanic families, we have a lot of support to follow our dreams and do whatever we need to in order to be successful, and although that is very helpful for many, it can only do so much. If we were pushed like this by the rest of the world and not treated as though we do not deserve to be successful, we would push to do our very best all the time.…
My educational goals can be said to be broken down into three parts that are really the means to my ends which is the fourth and most important goal. First, Im working on getting good grades in every class, I want to work on having and maintaining a high competitive GPA. My second goal is to get my Bachelors in Political Science in an ideal time frame of two more years. My third goal and one that is out of my hands, one may say, is getting a scholarship. I know there is a large amount of competitive students in the school, who are well deserving of scholarships but I need this scholarship to alleviate my parents from their stress and hard work to keep up with my payments. The last and really my main goal, where my eyes are set and where I,…
Christianity has always been apart of my life. My grandparents, parents and siblings are strong christians and always encouraged me to become one. When I was about four I was at a Christian camp that my family had always gone to and I decided then that I would give my life to Christ. But honestly at four years old I had only given my life to Christ because that's what everyone else did. Through my early teenage years I had lost my connection with Christ. There were so many difficult situations I was going through that Christ seemed so distant from me and what I needed. But turns out what I really needed was Christ. At the beginning of my sophomore year I began to go to Young Life, and what a difference Young Life made on my life. Young Life…
People deal with problems every day, it could be something as easy to solve or it could be very difficult to solve. No matter whom you are, you will always have a problem to solve or a problem you would like to solve. A problem that I solved when I was little, led me to a problem I would like to solve now that I am older.…
My early literacy experience was not a big of a deal for me at an early age. When I was in school I always took a reading and writing course with a grain of salt, it was just one more class on my schedule. Literature did not really appeal to me in my early experience. I always think that why do I need to take a literature course in order for me to succeed in the future.…
Typically, people think of reading when they see a novel or a short story, but I think of reading when I’m out on the baseball field. When I hear the word “reading”, unlike most people, I think of a green grassy baseball diamond at night, with the lights lighting it up, filled with fans in the stands. Believe it or not, I read all the time on the field. I read the ball coming off the bat when I’m playing in the field. When I hear the “ding” of the metal bat and hard, rubber ball colliding, I know that there is a chance I could make a great play. I can see the ball getting bigger and bigger as in approaches me. I read the ball coming out of the pitcher’s hand, picking up the spin as soon as I can so I can know when and where to swing to make solid contact with the ball. I even read people’s body language when I’m pitching. I can tell a lot about the batter by how he’s standing and the facial expression on his face.…
English is not my first language. In fact, I didn’t learn it well enough to have a conversation until I was about 10 years old. I remember the embarrassment of being new to a country I called home after living in Mexico for years. Things changed quickly the first day of 8th grade. I remember being energetically greeted by a slender athletic man in his fifties in a muggy summer morning. The hum of the air conditioning as welcome sound as we found our seats in this room that smelled of being closed the last few months. His name was Mr. Goodman and he was, by most accounts, an “asshole.” This was a descriptor of which he was proud. Even the other faculty thought so. He was a strange man, but he had his reasons. Surprisingly, he was also one of the best teacher’s I’ve encountered to this day. He had a brutally visceral way of making you care about learning. His class would soon change the way I spoke English for the rest of my life.…
My memory of my how I became literate is and always will be a part of me that I will never forget. I suppose I heard the sounds around me and connected them with emotions. Crying, I noticed, got a quick response from my parents, and usually some food. My communication development was identical to every other child learning to talk. Listening. But everyone has a story behind their literacy. Mine was one day, when we were driving to the grocery store, with the radio turned on, my jam turned on. It was the ABC’s. This song was unexpected, not only because of its difference in the nature of the regular pop songs, but that it was a new song altogether. Nonetheless, I began to rock along with the catchy tune of the song. I longed for more and demanded it…
Writing has always been my most difficult part of English. Reading, on the other hand, is something I could do all day; however, with writing, I grimace just thinking about it. It was not that I did not have anything to say, because I actually have quite a bit to say. I just could never figure out how to phrase what I had to say in just right way on the page. My mom taught me to read and write at a young age. After that, I would devour any book that I could get my hands on. However, I have had trouble with writing since it became more than just my alphabet and numbers.…