https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7 Made for a English class, looks at many different sources and covers whether or not I believe we have move forward or not with race issues in america en-us 2017-12-06 14:28:26 UTC 2025-04-17 18:11:13 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Balance.png ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/213713313  "If it's not like me I don't like it." I feel as though this sums up the mentality of many oppressors really well. Many times people are oppressive because they are ignorant and don't like change. Most people find change to be scary. From a small change to a large change. If you don't understand something it can be hard to accept it. Although there are some concepts such as; we are all humans who feel the same emotions, that shouldn't be something someone has to take time to realize. The video that was selected for me under this project for the Washington post, talked about how people used their differences to tear each other apart. As well as how it feels to hear the N-word used against you. It digs into the person and makes them feel less than human. (photo credit- JessieStam on devianart)

 Jessiestam. “Torn-Apart Heart.” DeviantArt, jessiestam.deviantart.com/art/Torn-apart-heart-459372927.]]> 2017-12-06 14:34:37 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/213713313 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/213727351 This slam poetry piece is very powerful and shows the oppression of a group that many seem to not realize are oppressed. How Asians are always given the secondary roles never the main lead. Something that is quite true in Hollywood currently but changes are being made by some and once more outcry starts then I believe this issue will no longer be faced. In the poem it is said "Thought my skin was what I was worth." in a way I feel as though this connects the oppression faced by the Asians with the oppression faced by the African Americans without discounting one or the other. Both are important issues that need to be faced and many of both those groups feel in that similar way. How many seem to only care about how much they are "worth" based on something as stupid as skin. It talks about how there are derogatory terms used against these people and how when faced with the question "what kind of Asian are you?" the answer regardless to what is said always seems to be "What ever you want to see" because people perceive them with such a stereotype that even when someone doesn't fit the stereotype they are expected to conform to the way people want to perceive them. They say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." But for these people the eye of the beholder is a critical analyzing eye that is trying to stick a stereotype to them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoP0ox_Jw_w&feature=youtu.be]]> 2017-12-06 14:57:17 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/213727351 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/214252503 The reason the n-word is used by people of African american ethnicity is because of context, relationship and meaning. It's normal for oppressed groups to use derogatory terms ironically. Such a the b-word being used by women Ta-Nehisi brings up how his wife and her friends call each other that, but how if he, a man did that it would be considered inappropriate. Just like how his wife calls him honey and that is fine but, if some random woman in the street he doesn't know called him that it wouldn't be fine. He states its about context, something I feel is very important to people because in this day and age anything can be taken out of context and blown up to be larger than life. This part of his explanation makes me think back to how I lost a friend to her not realizing the context of what I said and not letting me explain. To this day we still are not friends simply because she hadn't heard the context of what I had been saying. I also feel as though the point of context hit home with a lot of others in his audience too because if you think back to it you can most likely think of an incident where something you said was taken out of context. His point on relationship made me think of how two adults I know, one white and one African american jokingly will call each other the n-word and the word "cracker". They have a relationship they have had for a long time and don't insult each other when they do it, although if someone else said it they would both be upset with that person. Also if someone heard them out of context they would be mortified! (I know I was the first time I heard them do it, my mouth was open in horror and they saw the look on my face so they explained how it was a joking thing in their relationship) Ta-Nehisi also talked about how reverse racism works. he states "when you are white and born in this country everything is in someway entitled to you." How white people created the word and now they are being told they can't use it. He talks about how there are things that African Americans can not participate in that effect their entire lives. How "I can't sing along to a song because it says the N-word and I can't say the N-word, is very insightful to the world of a minority." and that "people can actually learn a lot from refraining." I believe that people shouldn't say the N-word or any derogatory term for that matter. ]]> 2017-12-07 18:07:51 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/214252503 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/214503561 This article by Toni Morrison holds a powerful analyzation  to Mark Twains Huckleberry Fin that reallys speaks truth about volumes of the novel. How as reading it the reader feels in "the moments when nothing is said, when scenes and incidents swell the heart unbearably precisely articulated, and force an act of imagination against the will." In those moments when you want to put the book down to be able to look away they way one might when watching a movie, is in a way I believe America handles the issue of racism. Humans seem to do this horribly ironic thing where they see something that needs help something that should need change and then they look away. Like right now there is slave trade going on in seria devastating, horrible things are happening in the world and right now America has just turned its head away from those issues and made sure to blow up some other cover-story to keep others heads from turning and seeing this horrible truth that others need help and all is not as well as we make it out to be in the world. Because of this turning of the read this 'looking away from the movie screen" America should hang its head in shame. What kind of people are we as Americans are we if we preach freedom and equality for all and then see someone in need of help and just turn them to our blind side. We our a country of hypocrites who are to cowardly to act on our words that we the people will help. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn amazing as said in the amazing troubling book It "forces an act of imagination almost against the will." You can't just look away and that is something we in American need to realize today.]]> 2017-12-08 14:40:56 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/214503561 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/215424315 "Loving this country does not mean singing it's praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right. To stand up against the status quo that's America." President Barack Obama announces at this speech. In this country having him as a president has moved us forward monumentally even though we at the time may only have seen it as little leaps and bounds. He was the first African american president this nation has seen. He was the president to legalize gay marriage and these are only two of many other accomplishments. I am independent voter and have very strong opinions and views. I honestly do think President Obama was a decent president. He is a human being too and makes mistakes but, having has our president had moved us forward in a monumental way. He was our first African American president a ground breaking step for racial equality. As we move forward in years to come I would like to see other ethnicity's with good views who will help our nation get voted into power. "Racial history still cast it's shadow on us." he said, today as a person alive now even I can still see and feel it's affects on others around me. I hope that one day we will be able to step out of the shadow and come into the light that we are all equal and that we will just look back at those times with distaste for what happened and respect for those who changed it. ]]> 2017-12-12 14:32:08 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/215424315 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/215462686 "1-3 black men born in 2001 one will be incarcerated in their life time." This is my generation my life time. It could be someone I know. I actually already know someone who was just sent to jail. An African american man I work with who always was the nicest person to me. He always took my overstock without complaint and sent me happily on my way. He is in jail now. I it because of the way we set up society that we let white men get way we most crimes they shouldn't when they are the perpetrators of the most deadly crimes in America. Think of all the lives that are locked up and in a way thrown away all because we punish harsher to petty offensives made by African Americans because of the color of their skin. ]]> 2017-12-12 15:36:49 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/215462686 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/215817884 This ted talk was extraordinarily personal to me. I am native american, from the tribes Iroquois Piscataqua Mohawk and Micmac. I speak a little Mohawk less than I should know honestly and sometimes find myself battling myself. I don't "look native" I am told. I do if you know what to look for but, to the average eye you see the European in me. My mother is French, Irish, Scottish and German. My father On the other hand holds my native blood as well as some more French and German as well as a little Irish. So I am a mix of things from all sorts of places. My mom raised me teaching me about my history from Scotland and Ireland and my Father taught me of my native roots. So I hear "you don't look native" all the time. Because I have blond hair and my skin is light. But if you look at my father and his mother you can tell they are native people. They have faced the discrimination that I am often not faced with due to my looks. I still hear the comments though what is said to my family and others I am close with and still know the issues my people my relatives are faced with. I see these things and face all sorts of things myself, on one side I am told I am not native enough for I do not look it. My native blood percentage is high although you can not see it in my face until you look at the way my noise is or the cheek bones and even then most people don't realize its a native trait until I tell them it is or another native recognizes it in me. I have to watch what I say. The way natives are represented in media as best said in the ted talk "we are continually represented as the leathered and feathered vanishing race." If you say the wrong thing to one of your own as we all come from the same mother earth it could end in consequences.  How do you see Americas first people? Do you see the struggle of what our ancestors have gone through and still see us as the modern people we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2bs1TTc4gk]]> 2017-12-13 15:00:43 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/215817884 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/216494595 The name of the article itself even seems to have an underlying hint of something in it, for how do we know all of a group wants something gone when it may just be the majority. I personally would like to see these stereotypes gone too. I am very sick of reading and seeing in media such as books and TV shows the way groups of people are portrayed. These ten stereotypes that Mexicans are faced with make them seem like lesser people. Make them appear less human to use so we can cast them aside without a second thought. Who wants to be portrayed as dirty and poor and like their bodies are only something to look at. Mexican women are often portrayed as nannies, or women with bigger boobs and butts or lazy. When many people think of the word Mexican they think of the food and ponchos and cowboy boots and hats. Ponchos are actually more common in Peru and your more likely to find cow boy hats and boots in Texas. Why do we have these stereotypes of these people dealing drugs when their government has had a huge issue with it and it has caused tons of issues for their economy? And then there is the issue of all Mexicans in America being portrayed as illegal immigrants and as lazy. These stereotypes are so untrue that it's almost painful for me to list them because I wince thinking of the way it negatively effects so many peoples everyday lives. Mexicans are not all poor yes they have some people that are but, so do we in America. One of the most rich people in then world Carlos Slim is a Mexican man. Why can we not just look at each other as equal humans? My cousin born in America here in New Hampshire is half Mexican and when you bring it up with her she becomes furious because the stereotype is so strong she doesn't want to be associated with her own blood. Its wrong to put labels on other human beings we all have feelings. People are not a piece of clothing for anyone to label . People are not possessions and at one point in America groups of people were treated as possessions to be owned and sold. We are all human, blood flesh and wild spirit. The only thing that differs is the amount of love or hate a person holds and gives out to the world. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/10-hollywood-stereotypes-all-mexicans-want-to-debunk/]]> 2017-12-15 14:40:06 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/216494595 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/216832791  "the good news is if racial prejudices is something we learn than it is also something we can unlearn." This article holds some thing alike to a key, a beacon of of hope for America's society. Hearing this quote made me think of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Huck learns from Jim and although the socity he is in trains him to learn one way as he gets to know Jim he unlearns some of his prejudice. "There's only one way to work our way out of the box we find ourselves in. We need a new conversation – one that includes equal measures of hope and pain, threat and opportunity, conflict and resolution. We need to train. We need to start talking about it without fear of making a mistake. Only then can we get to the society we aspire to live in.We need to start sharing stories – some personal, some painful. It's the only real way that we can change what we've learned. The human species is a remarkably adaptive species, thanks to our brain and mind. It's time we start exercising that gift." Huck getting to know Jim as a person is the only reason he ends up loosing some of that horrible mentality and grows morally. The Book itself was ground breaking in a way of it made people have these hard conversations there there were no way out of. Maybe now in this time it is time of another book like the adventures of Huckleberry Finn. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-28/america-has-a-big-race-problem

]]> 2017-12-18 02:43:59 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/216832791 ryley_edgell https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/216834115 "what are you" This poem holds the power of how people are grouped in ways and if you are mixed you are seen as half, when you are a whole person not a "war torn nation fighting for sides" Just like in the slam poetry piece "What kind of asian are you" this poem adresses stereotypes and how no matter what is said no matter how someone answers people assume based on appearance and stereotype. "How my genes fit me and not about the pockets of culture I hold."  How instead of "What are you?" people should ask "What would you like to teach me?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-nS8wgQNRk]]> 2017-12-18 03:00:18 UTC https://padlet.com/ryley_edgell/pkwnthz5qoz7/wish/216834115