This essay basically talks about the lack of equality between white and black Americans, even today. It gives the viewpoint that the racial struggle in America has primarily been a struggle for innocence. I found it very interesting that this essay pointed out that each race, black and white, has such a huge investment in this struggle. I know that we do indeed have this investment that many individuals don't even realize. I didn't think about this until I read this essay.
My agenda item: What would happen if both races would focus their energy in a different direction? Maybe trying to help both blacks and whites see each other as equal instead of struggling against each other?
C.P. Ellis was about a man who had always struggled to make it through life. No matter what he seemed to do, it just wasn't enough. When he joined the KKK, I think he finally felt important and felt that he belonged to something worthwhile that he could get something out of. He developed a deep hatred for black people while he was a Klansman. I think that he decided to hate blacks becuase he had to take his anger and hatred out on someone and blacks were the easy target in that time. Eventually, he ended up changing his views towards blacks becuase he realized he was just being used and brainwashed by the upperclass white men. He eventually began to change his views towards blacks and actually began to like them.
My agenda item: I think that many individuals who feel like 'outcasts' look for a place to belong and want people like them--therefore they will think, say, or do anything. Why? Is this good or bad for our society? What problems could this potentially cause?
"About marriage" was basically about how the feminism movement has actually hurt women by "cheapening" wedding vows, making it easily for women to abandon their traditional roles within the family, and by making it wasy for husbands to abandon their families. Personally, I think this is just all a bunch of garbage. I think that the author uses feminism as an excuse for why men leave their families. What is wrong with women going out into the work force? Absolutely nothing. What is wrong with women wanting to contribute to a family by going out and working? Nothing again. Feminism has actually helped the family and women in general rather than hurt anything.
I really enjoyed reading this poem. It was about a boy, Junie, who had died from the complications of AIDS. In his rememberance, his family decided to piece a quilt together so that they could remember all the good things about him and his life. AIDS is often viewed as a "bad" or "degrading" disease and some people and familys often disown or quit talking to a family member or friend with this diesease. Junie's family, however, accepted it and ultimately loved him. I think this poem is a prime example of a family coming together in a tough time to remember the good things about an individual's life.
I really thought that the Martin Luther King presentation today was a very worthwhile experience for me to attend. To be honest, I didn’t really think that I would get much out of it. I mean, I learned about Martin Luther King Junior in elementary school—well at least the basics—and what more did I need to know? However, I thought the theatre department did an excellent job in their production. I didn’t really realize how talented some of the people were that we had here at Seton Hill. They really did a great job getting the point across. I really thought that the PowerPoint presentation that was presented was really moving. I like how it showed all of the good things that the most prominent people throughout the world have said and done. It really made me think about what I could do to make a difference in our world. It put a new spin on Martin Luther King’s birthday in the way that it made me think about what I could do and how I could act towards others so that I could continue doing what he fought so hard for.
“Envy”, by Bebe Moore Campbell, is a narrative essay about her own life when she was a child. Raised by all women, her father was basically absent from her life. One day, after her grandmother and mother moved her to an integrated school, she heard some other children talking about their fathers and the things they did or didn’t do. One girl in particular, was talking about how her father made her a dollhouse. This, along with the other children talking, caused Bebe to “snap.” All she wanted was love from her father and him to come and be with her.
My agenda item is: Can the absent of a parent figure, either mother or father, cause a seemingly normal, shy child to one day “snap”?
I think it can. When children don’t talk about the things that bother them, I think built of anger and aggression towards that parent can cause a child to do things that are uncharacteristic to his or her normal character.
In “Talking Freaks”, Gamson studies the cultural battles over family and sexuality hat are waged on daytime talk shows. He views these talk shows as a place to look at visibility processes. In the way our society is trying to move today, I personally think that most of these talk shows give the “different” groups of people a bad name. A certain quote Gamson included in his essay is as follows:
“Activist guests seeking to establish the acceptable middle classness of gay and lesbian families are set off again, and are increasingly displaced by, working-and poverty-class guests…”
I think that these talk shows focus on the extreme cases only, and are basically giving different groups of people in our society bad names and sterotypes. Instead, these shows should be looking to promote boths sides of the issue.
But yet again, what actually gets high ratings on TV? So my agenda item is that our society is compromising the well-being of others just to obtain a "high rating" for a program.