Savage Inequalities: Life on the Mississippi

The nonfiction novel Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol shows the horrifying truth of the inequalities within the public school systems. It follows a school in East St. Louis, Illinois named after Martin Luther King Jr. I never thought about the symbolism behind even just the name of the high school until Kozol pointed it out. In the chapter titled Life On The Mississippi Kozol.writes, "The irony of naming segregated schools for Martin Luther King." The school is also described as, "full of sewer water and the doors are locked with chains. Every student in that school its black." Then it concludes, "It's a terrible joke on history." I feel like since the civil rights movement as we learned in history is "over", people kind of forget about any race inequalities. They say "look we have a black president" and think that we're equal. In the all black town the school system is horrible. It's not the childrens' faults that they were born into this school system. Blame the parents? Think again. Kozol states, "Blacks were drawn to East St. Louis from the South by promises of jobs." If history is to blame, then who's responsibility is it to fix the problem. My answer is the government backed up by its citizens. We have to start caring about other people, and stop only thinking about what's best for us. This school needs help. It needs funds and motivated teachers. This book has opened my eyes to show me that the civil rights movement is not over until people are not only equal by law, but by education as well.

Speech Codes on Campus

Colleges should definitely be allowed to ban certain speech on campus. Maybe the literal speech, but more symbolic speech. If you don't agree then maybe after this example you'll change your mind.
"Photographs from Delta Sigma Phi's party showed fraternity members in blackface and KKK costumes. Some even went so far as to simulate the lynching of a member in blackface wearing a T-shirt bearing the name FUBU. (The FUBU line of clothing was created by African Americans and marketed "FOR US BY US.")" ("Jim Crow on Fraternity Row", Tolerance.org).
This speech was clearly not showing a political idea, rather poking fun at the African American race. One picture has a white guy with black face paint on and a rope around his neck. These actions are not only wrong because they are incredibly insensitive, but because they portray illegal hate crimes that target a specific race. These reasons are why this type of symbolic speech should be banned on campus.
DePaul University, a college I hope to attend, is one of the many colleges that have these so called speech codes. It states that the college has the right to remove any "displays that advertise commercial products/services; advocate the use of alcohol or drugs; are discriminatory; unlawfully harass by abusing, assailing, intimidating, demeaning, victimizing, or having the effect of creating a hostile environment." (Fire.com). This speech code does not affect how I view the college. Although I can see the argument that this infringes on students' First Amendment rights, it does not bother me personally. I see it as the schools responsibility to protect all of its students, obviously including the minorities. On campus, the college should be able to make rules in order to protect its students. If the students don't agree with the college, they don't have to go to that school. If the situation above happened at DePaul, I think DePaul would not seek a harsh punishment for the students who put those pictures up. Instead they would force them to take them down because of the policy I posted above. It says that DePaul has the rights to take down and displays that are discriminatory or show harassment. The students might also get another punishment though for the act of harassment, because those picture portray lynching and other forms of discriminatory and nondiscriminatory harassment. I agree that the school should have the right to take those pictures down for those reasons, and also to carry out a minor punishment for the actions in the pictures.
FIRE, an organization that protects the rights of students, has its own beliefs on when speech codes are acceptable and when they are not. They think all actions displaying one's own ideas should be allowed because they are protected under the First Amendment. However, harassment is not protected and therefore should be banned. I agree with their ideas and think they are fighting for a good cause. However, I also understand why some school have certain speech codes and I personally don't mind them. I do think that some people would feel like their rights were violated and should then join with FIRE to fight for their beliefs.

10th Anniversary of 9/11

I never really understood September 11th until I watched the documentary "9/11". I was young when it happened and although I remember it every year, I really got what actually happened. This film made it all clear to me. I learned something about my country from this film. No matter what happens to the United States, it never gives up. The firefighters exemplified this in the movie when they continued to go back to the site over and over again, no matter what had just taken place. They were determined to do all they could to fix or alleviate what had just happened.
An article on CNN's website titled, "We Must Pay Our Debt to 9/11 Heroes," was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand views on post 9/11 effects. She states, "More than 30,000 responders and survivors from across the country have had to be medically treated because of their exposure to ground zero toxins." On that day in 2001, Americans rushed to help however they could. They all wanted to help save whoever they could and assist in the clean up. No one had time to think of how the conditions would effect their health in years to come. At the time rescuing a devastated city was more important. Senator Gillibrand is for a law that would ensure all these 9/11 heroes proper medical treatment to all World Trade Center related diseases and health defects. I have to agree with her. The firefighters and even just the ordinary people who came out that day and acted as our heroes cannot be forgotten or left behind. Although it has been 10 years we cannot forget what they did. As fellow Americans it is now our duty to help them as they have already sacrificed to help us.
How has 9/11 impacted my life today? I grew up post 9/11 and can't really compare my life now to how I lived before it happened. I hear that before 9/11 you could actually get on a plane with a bottle of shampoo. This change has to be one of the least significant ones. For me growing up post 9/11, I have lived with racism towards Arabs and Muslims my whole life. I can't compare to how it was before 9/11, but I do know that it is prevalent in my country. Just because my country sees them equal by law does not mean they do not face racism in their every day lives. I've always been raised to treat others equally and not to discriminate, but I also grew up around all the jokes. "That guy over there with the head-wrap... stay away he's probably got a bomb on him." Just because someone may say it in a joking matter, does not erase the fact that those stereotypes exist. The fact that someone finds it funny shows subconscious racist thoughts. How did America, the country where all men are created equal, get this way. 9/11 was such a tragedy to all Americans that perhaps they were looking for someone to blame for everything we lost. This seems counterproductive. After such a tragic event, America should be coming together and embracing everything it stands for. That is true victory. Not forgetting our core beliefs and starting to discriminate against others. Some say America has lost its integrity after 9/11, but I don't see it. The immense amount of firefighters and citizens that came out to help that day show what great character exists within our country. If America continues to discriminate or stand by as others do, only then will we start to lose our integrity as a free and equal democracy.

CAN SCHOOLS VIOLATE THE FIRST AMMENDMENT RIGHTS OF STUDENTS?

Can a school take away the first ammendment right of a student and then go ahead and say it was in the best interest of the student? Wouldn't the best interest of the student be their first ammendment rights? Well, no. Very often two values overlap eachother. In these cases sacrifices are to be made. I hope we would all want the kind of government that looks out for our safety and well being. We see freedom of speech as a way to ensure our safety as free people. But, what if that speech offset a reaction that posed a danger to society. Surely physical safety is as important as freedom. One would not exist without the other. So in order to get that balance, the governent is and should be allowed to ban certain "speech". We see this in schools. Certain language or even symbolic speech has the potential to hurt other students. It could directly lead to physical bullying, or lead to students commiting suicide. The school is doing a good job by preveting certain "speech" that might cause one of these. Freedom of speech is important, but safety is important too. The schools are acting for the better of the students by limiting freedom of speech to some extent.

I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish

The dedication reads, "To children everywhere. Their only weapons are love and hope...". I could tell I would enjoy this book after reading and agreeing with this cheesy but hopeful dedication. I picked this book up after participating in Hands of Peace this summer. A program where teens from Israel and Palestine come to Chicago for the summer and join with Americans in coexistence dialougues. The author of this book is a Palestinian doctor who despite of his traumatic and violent life, has chosen to advocate integration between both groups of people as a way to solve the conflict and achieve peace. He preaches that learning and understanding the other side is a key component in living in peace. I have to admit that growing up in a Jewish Day School where I have learned only one side of the conflict makes it hard to read this book comfortably. His memoir presents ideas that make me challenge previous beliefs I've held so close to me from a very young age. Ultimately if I have learned anything from the book, it's that conflict can be resolved by a mutual understanding of pain and suffering. Dr. Abuelaish believes that once the two sides can feel for each other and understand each other, they will want to find ways to negotiate and stop all the killing and fighting. I realized that this applies to me too. I should try to understand his points of view, and why he thinks that way. I don't have to agree with everything he says, but I can hear his story and try to understand where he is coming from. Although I have just started this book, it has already taught me to be conscience of all points of view. I think this has made be grow as a person to become less bias which will enable me to be a better peace activist. If you have any interest or connections to the conflict, I strongly recommend this book. It will open your eyes to a new way of thinking and give you hope that peace is possible in the Middle East.

DO THE RIGHT THING

In the Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing, he portrayed many of the black stereotypes of the 1980's. It compared how different races one another and the relationships between them. In the book Native Son, Richard Wright invented the character Bigger, a black young adult involved in a gang and responsible for murdering a white woman. At the end of the book he wrote a piece How "Bigger" Was Born explaining how he came up with the character Bigger and all of his actions. In this piece he talked about the risk he took in portraying all the black stereotypes. People critiqued him and wanted to know why he couldn't show black lawyers and business men. By using Bigger to analyse his thoughts and what made him to these controversial and stereotypical actions, people now looked at the problem that led Bigger to do that. Just like in the movie it focused on the black characters and events that led them to do what they did. By making a plot around a day in a black man's life, one looks past the stereotypes and understands for the first time what caused that black man to do what he did. Both pieces relate because yes, they do contain stereotypical actions, but they show that those are not the core problem. A common understanding between races on what makes them feel the feelings that cause them to act a certain way will help the problem. If people are willing to change how they act towards one another than these stereotypical actions will go away.
I got something new out of this movie. It showed that it is not impossible for blacks and whites to understand each other, but that each side needs to make the effort to do so. Radio Raheem shows how love and hate coexist within someone, but that individual has the power to choose which one to live by. Buggin' Out viewed the wall in Sal's Pizzeria as a symbol of racism towards blacks because they were not included on the wall. Sal's intention however was not to show any hate towards blacks, rather to show pride for his ethnicity, Italians. Sal did not understand how his intent had a different impact of Buggin' Out. The end of movie resulted in violence, but what did that accomplish? It just showed both sides' disapproval of the other, but not why. If nonviolent action occurred and both sides made an effort to talk, negotiate, and understand the other side, the problem could have been fixed. I believe the core problem of hate, prejudice, and discrimination is that two different sides don't understand the one another. It appears they are so different because at first they look different. However, often both races want the same thing and have the same values. They just have a different ways of showing and interpreting them. I think the movie wanted to show how violence did not accomplish anything. To show the emphasis on violence in the movie, I believe Spike Lee refrained from using guns. Some scenes could have been a lot quicker with a simple bullet shot, but by using intense physical human contact it emphasized violence even more and made me view it as ludicrous.

Power- Document 7- Schools For The Community

Karriema Jordan was a black girl in the eighth grade fighting to change the school's curriculum to help develop an identity for black students. One effective way the school handled it was bringing black teachers into the schools. These teachers cared more about the kids and were less focused on just being there because it was their job. They also started teaching a broader range of history on third world countries as well. Karriema Jordan now learned about African history and other black history instead of just European history. Learning about important impacts her ethnicity had in history gave her and many other black youth an identity. This made them proud to be black, and when they embraced themselves it led them to start striving to do great things. She says, "You weren’t an outsider in your own school. They were part of your environment. I mean, they were black. You can identify with them and they can identify with you." These teachers really made a big change in Karriema's attitude toward school. She felt more connected and was more interested in her studies now because she was studying something more meaningful to her. She felt connected to her studies. By having black teachers and learning about her culture Karriema found that blacks are just as important, just as human as anyone else. Being a minority only holds you back when you think you can't do something because you are a minority. If you have an strong and proud identity and believe you can do great things for yourself as any other human than you will have a much easier time achieving those great things in your life.