November 2011
5 posts
Gran Torino Analysis
Everyone knows or at least have heard of a person like the character Walt Kowalski in the beginning of the movie, Gran Torino. Walt is the typical ‘had a rough life and doesn’t know how to deal so blames it on others’ racist. Unfortunately, little aspects of that Walt remind me of my grandfather. My grandpa grew up in Germany and left right as the holocaust was starting. Many could say...
Unit 5- The Economic Gap in the US
Prompt: How should income be distributed in the United States? What should the balance of welfare programs and high taxes be to low taxes and unlimited earnings? Should CEO’s make that much more money than their lowest employees? Would a different system of distribution help stop the cycle of poor and impoverished or just enable the lazy?
In the past month, the news has been all over a...
Harvard Debate
Watch the Harvard debate (attached) and write a blog post responding to it and its issues, citing moments from the debate at least twice.
As the granddaughter of holocaust survivors, I often think “that could have been me.” It was not my grandparents wrong doings that had them in that terrible position, rather just bad luck. This feeling that “could have been me” still comes up constantly. When I...
Unit 4- Problem vs. Issue
Essential Question: There are a variety of notions surrounding discrimination in everyday life throughout these various chapters. We have a tendency to feel that all of the issues presented in this book are evil and negative in some way. The better challenge and mental exercise is to evaluate them as social issues, up for debate, and not only social problems that inherently require a solution....
American History X
Before Derek went to prison, I hated him. I immediately got the sense of how strong and powerful he was, and hated him for being able to preach values that I am against so well. I hated that he instilled racist values in his brother, his friends, and other teenagers. However, after he developed as a character I realized that he was not the leader, but rather a victim as well. Through...
October 2011
4 posts
Affirmative Action
After watching an online Harvard lecture (http://www.justiceharvard.org/2011/02/episode-09/#watch) all about whether race should or should not play a role in a an admission decision, I was left with a lot to think about. This subject was particularly relatable because I am going through the college admission process right now, and am often thinking about what is ‘fair’ or not in this process. This...
Unit 3
In my RCG class, we discussed the famous Abercrombie dilemma in a chapter in our book called, Personal Voices: Facing up to Race. I have heard of the reasons why people hate Abercrombie before, it is because the store only hires white people for sale floor jobs. At first I was also offended by this. However, after deep thought I began to see where the company was coming from. From my...
My Ancestry
When given the task to find my ancestry, I began to look at the stories of my grandparents also, so I included that in here. My skin color is white, however I would not classify myself as the average 10th generation American girl. My mom’s mom is from a small village right near Hungary. When my Grandmother was my age she and her family were captured by the Nazis in Poland. Forced onto trains,...
My Unit 2 Contradiction
In my RCG class, we read many chapters in my Unit 2 section, and I agree with most things the various authors had to say. However, when I read the Oppression section, I had a big problem with one of the author’s ideas. The author was clearly a feminist, and although I am a firm believer for equal woman rights, I often have problems when feminists become extreme. The author claims that men who open...
September 2011
3 posts
Crash
The film Crash is full of examples of the complications of Race, Class and Gender within various contexts (The notion that stereotypes and generalizations tend to become more dynamic as the individual’s context changes). Write about the way the movie as a whole connects with our notions of difference and circumstance from Unit 1. To do this, provide specific references from the movie as...
Differences
“What does ‘difference’ when considering issues of race, class and gender really mean to society at large and potentially to various individuals within that society? What did you take away from this unit about difference that you may not have considered before? What seems to be the connective thread and broader complications of “difference”?
Throughout my readings I have found that difference...
My First RCG Moment- The 'Mexican' Dilemma
Hello Tumblr,
I experienced my first RCG moment in San Diego. Down there to visit friends, I assumed San Diego was just like LA. In some ways, I was right- the nice views, the relaxed atmosphere. But in other ways I was wrong. In San Diego, there is a greater Mexican population. When I asked about this, one of my friends responded in a light tone, “Don’t call us Mexicans. When you hear...