Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tim Wise on Fire...

Taking the main points out of  two videos and a particular website would normally seem pretty tough for me. However, when dealing on topics that i had always been thinking about, because some things never seemed right to me when i look at some thing in a different light. First starting off with white privilege, i always new something was wrong, when i would get the stink eye when i wearing a hood. Over the years i find myself taking my hood off when i see pretty girls walk by me so they don't get intemiadated. Any who, that is not the point, my point for this is blog it is pretty hard to miss the topic of discussion for this week. Me going to Rhode Island College and also being African American does not seem to be the perfect candidate to be President of the United States.

In these videos that we watched the main aspects i took out was that no one can look at any person as an equal, regardless skin tone. What took me back for a second was like i stated at top  i have always thought something was fucked on how people are looked because of skin tone, (pardon my french) but that's just frustration because now i am learning about my intuition i always had since i was like 10. Barack Obama is the man, i say this with pride because he will be the reason why African Americans can have a better name. I say this because in the video they compared the worst President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama. Tim Wise is on FIRE on this point, that everyone gives wayyyy to much credit to white people even if they don't deserve it "white privilege" and if they are the most insanely over praised moron in the country, meaning former President Bush. Since Bush is white the country felt comfortable  with him as head of the country. Now if Bush was black but the same complete person inside and out, and the country knew about the same background Bush had in the past with drugs and Alchol and shitty grades, Bush would not even stand a chance. Now seeing that i started out at a community college this point is also throwing gas into my now blazing fire inside. The people of this "awesome" country don't let other minorities that come from low or ordinary lifestyles get decent jobs. A white male that went to a community college and has no field experience still has a better chance than i do in getting a job when i will graduate with a bachelors degree in education. Yeah i am free, yeah i can do somethings that i please, but I'm not equal. This blog isn't written out of hate, but now i realize that my intuition should of never been seconded guess. The culture of power is the downfall. Just the name "Culture of Power" is messed up seeing that it is singular and not plural, until then i feel equality will just be a word i can continue to laugh at like i have always been, but now will more reinsurance because i am learning the great stuff in the world.

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, schools are not segregated anymore, but still are. How so, in the New York Times Article we had to read was talking about how school start segregated even though they aren't anymore. Where you live, the job you have to support you family determines if your going to a school that is decently diverse. Fortunately i had this privilege to have a family that is white and live a nice part of town, so i can have a better education, that schools down my street. I seriously just laughed out loud when i wrote that last line. The article also explained that these students, when put into BETTER schools they got BETTER grades. NO shit, go figure. People must of forgot that everyone needs air to breath, and when you get cut you bleed the same color. Truth be told cause i can go on rambling about this for days because ive seen it at its best from my view and i see it at its worst taking down one of my best friends, because his more couldn't afford to live up the street more with two jobs and 4 mouths to feed. Where you live determines alot, unfortunately.


Steve Colbert has a pretty good points.

8 comments:

  1. You're rant kind of sums it up! The part you wrote about Bush struck me as really accurate. It's really messed up, but very true: if Bush did what he did as a black person, it would become a really racial thing, but of course, since he's white, that's not the case.

    Related to what you said about the schools people can go to, I just looked up data about the school I work at in Smithfield for a paper I'm writing. There are 302 students. 8 of them identify as something other than white. Don't quote me on this, but I think I heard that 17 out of the 302 recieved subsidized lunch. The school I volunteer at in Providence has 96 percent of students recieving subsidized lunch. 92 percent are students of color. I'm a pretty conservative person, but even I think something is seriously wrong with that.

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  2. When you were talking about how he compared Bush to Obama is made me think about what we talk about in class. How normally when a black person does something bad, they immediately represent every single black person out there. But when a white person does something wrong, its just that they prob. have some sort of issue. But in this aspect, they both are presidents. You can't compare them in different lights. For once, the white person looks like the bad guy and the black person is doing something right. Just made me think about how rare it is to see in today's society.

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  3. I agree with Mary. Your rant definitely summed up everything that we had to watch and read. I agree with you on the Bush and Obama comments. Why should Bush have still been accepted for his bad background just because he is white? America says that we are equal, but I still don't see it in some places. Great post.

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  4. Great post Billy! I agree with everything your said and in fact I think I am going to use your blog in my post...hope you dont mind :)

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  5. I agree with you too & i extended off yours for mine. (:

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  6. I think your post relates a lot to one of Bob Herbert's main points; integration needs to be looked at for integration sake. This means that its not just about color, race or ethnicity but about poverty and ALL kinds of things that segregate people. Any segregation no matter what the reason will of coarse hinder a person's education which then leads to being unsuccessful in society. I think your situation relates to Delpit greatly, you saying you take off your hood so you don't get looks as if you are a punk or ciminal because of your skin color makes me think of you conforming to the "culture of power." Also you admit that you are privileged in ways because you have a white family and were able to afford to go to a nicer school. I really liked your passion, I could almost feel the emotions that you went thru when typing this. What is crazy though is that this class has opened my eyes to becoming more aware about all of my "privileges" as well as what would be considered set backs. My question is, now that we are aware of this how are we going to react to it and are we going to let this social stereotypes hold us back?

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  7. Billy this post is awesome, I really could really feel the emotions you were having while writing it - like Alycia said.. You definitely summed everything up your points were really well written and they really made sense to me..

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  8. Billy, I entirely agree...and I used this post as an extended comment for the Wise talking point.

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