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Week 2 September 7th


Photo credit: YouTube-RasTafari TV

In today's class we watched the film "White Like Me". It derived from the idea of an older story that became a movie called "Black Like Me" and it is very interesting because it is the movie's perfect opposite from what I can tell.
The author was a lot like myself, as he was brought up in a situation where race was not a question or a thought. Every color of skin in my eyes, while different, was essentially the same. No one person was bad or more menacing just because they weren't the same color as me. A bad reputation was earned, not expected. I am a Spanish American and in the schools that I grew up in, I was the minority. African Americans and Asian Americans were the majority in every school I attended. I was completely unaware of the stigma surrounding my school and my "side of town" as it were. As I grew older, I became aware that I went to the school that was on the wrong side of town and that there were rumors of daily shootings and gangs. Which, by the way, is hilarious considering I only saw a total of three fights as I grew up on the "wrong side of town". I felt safe in my neighborhood, we played hide and seek in the dark of night without a thought and we made memories and friends that would truly last a lifetime. I feel strongly that racism is a horrible consequence of our ancestors and I'm sad that it exists, more than that, I'm sad that this movie made me see that even I can do more. Being aware of racism and not EVER participating is not enough. I must gather courage and I must say something. I often say "If you see something beautiful in someone...speak it out loud" and the flip side of that is just as important. If I see something terrible in someone like racism...I will speak it out loud.

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