White privilege - Megan Thompson

A privilege is a "special right" given to a certain group of people, kind of like an advantage given to someone. White privilege is just like an advantage or a special right, but given to white people. Back when everything and everyone was still segregated there were water fountains, restrooms, even certain parts of towns just for white people, all of those things were so much nicer than the ones they had for blacks. That could be a part of white privilege, because whites had nicer and better things than black people, and only because they were white. It isn't something that you can choose, it is just something you are born into. We need to bring awareness to those of us who don't really know much about it. As a white person, that knows a lot about this topic and doesn't agree with the way whites obviously have more privileges than blacks, they could be a social activist in their community by starting to spread the word that they know what is going on in the world around them and that it needs to be addressed. In one of the packets we read by Jennifer Holladay, White Anti-Racist Activism, she wrote about an event that happened, she was looking for a house that she had never been to before, so she was driving slowly so she could see the house numbers, but was then pulled over and the officer thought since she was a white woman driving down Rosa Parks after dark that she was looking for drugs. The next day when she went to work she was telling a coworker about what happened and the coworker said, "You just never have to worry about those things, do you?". That was just one person that knew that white people were being treated better, imagine all the others that know but don't speak up about it, i would bet that theres a lot. It has a huge impact on our lives because a lot of people are being treated differently than others. In the Declaration of Independence it says, "All men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", so why doesn't this apply to us now? We need people to stand up for what they believe in because there is a huge break in this country and even other places and it needs to be fixed.

Race and Criminalization

From all of the videos and readings, I have learned that mass incarceration now is a lot worse than it was 100 years ago. In the Ted Talk video with Michelle Alexander, she was talking about how “there are more African American Males in prison now than were enslaved in 1850” (Ted Talks, 2014).

“In 2004, more black men were denied the right to vote than in 1870.” (Ted Talks, 2014). This really got to me in a way because when you think of that time period around 1870, you think of all the slaves and how they had no rights what so ever. Now, in America, we are supposed to be free and have a whole bunch of rights, it is part of the first amendment in the Constitution, but for some reason people are being thrown in prison for stupid reasons and then get out and cannot vote, can’t apply for food stamps or other types of government assistance, they are denied these rights given to them from the Constitution. Clearly, we are not as free as the government and others make it seem.

In the letter written to Angela Davis by James Baldwin, An Open Letter To My Sister, Baldwin talks about how “America is on the edge of absolute chaos, and also suggests the future to which American interests” (Baldwin, 1970). Today, with candidates preparing for the election, to me at least I would definitely believe that there is some type of chaos happening, for example, just last week Trump had to cancel his campaign rally because there was so much fighting and what not going on.

Community, Social Justice, and Arts as Social Activism

To me a community means people helping each other out when they need it. I want to be able to go to my neighbors house and ask if they have extra milk, without being afraid to knock on their door. Going on walks around the neighborhood would be awesome if you did not have to worry about hearing sirens all the time everywhere and hearing gun shots. Unfortunately some people have to deal with those kinds of communities. No one should have to be afraid of going to sleep because their house might get robbed, or letting your kids sleep over at a friends house because something could happen at the friends house. That is not a community.

To me social justice is power to the people, so when the government fails to do their job with justice the people take over. Social activism ties in with social justice. I think social activism is to be apart of something within the community. The purpose of social activism to me is to bring awareness in a community. America has social issues that exist. Some that I see are racial justice, same sex marriage, men being "stronger" than women, whites vs blacks, and religion. For my project I think I might focus more on same sex marriage. I have a few friends that are bisexual and transgenders. Even though same sex marriage was legalized I feel it is still a pretty hot topic.

In class we learned about eight different ways to show social activism. First we looked at writing as social activism. We looked at a blog called For Harriet and this showed gender and racial equality. Second we looked at spoken word and performance as social activism. I really liked the video we watched about Sean Bell, the three people that performed it was really into it and made it seem so real by having someone play Sean Bell, his soon to be wife, and the police officer that shot and killed him. It was just really cool to me to have them play them and show all the emotions and thoughts running through their heads at the time. After this we looked at storying as social activism. We watched a TedTalk video with Chimamanda Adichie and she talked about the different stereotypes that we have of different cultures. She said people feel bad for Africans before they really even get to know them (Adichie, 2009). Personally, I think that's awful. fourth we looked at music as social activism. We watched a music video by Public Enemy called Fight The Power and they were telling the blacks to basically fight back for what they believe in and what they deserve because they obviously weren't being treated equally as white people (Ridenhour, Sadler and Boxley, 1989). After that we looked at art as social activism. We watched a documentary on Kehinde Wiley. I really liked this one because once he found the women he wanted to use to paint he didn't use his own opinion as to what they should look like and the way they dress. He got several other peoples opinions on the backgrounds he should use and the dresses the girls would be wearing. Sixth we looked at art as social activism. We watched a video on the people in Harlem and they were telling why they dress the way they dress and what influences them to dress like that. Next we looked dance as social activism and we watched a video on Alvin Ailey. Finally we looked at sports as social activism. We saw a video about Mo'ne Davis called Throw like a Girl. I really like that video because I am a girl and I don't like the way we are portrayed to not be able to be "as good as the guys" in certain sports but, Mo'ne was even better than most of the guys on her baseball team and on her basketball team.

I personally really felt a connection to the spoken word because the people who performed it were really passionate about it and seemed very confident. Some things that inspired me for my own approach for the future project was just the passion that people had for the subject. To me, in order to perform your best at something you must really be passionate about it. A talent that I'd like to utilize would be writing. now, I'm not the best writer, but I think it was one of the few talents I do have. I think it would be cool to write about something that happened in the past and be able to perform it with a group of people. Some ideas I took away were how the group made it seem real, for example when we watched the video of the teens reenacting what happened to Sean Bell when one boy played the police officer that shot him, one person played Sean Bell and the girl who played his soon to be wife, they were so into it it was amazing.

Race Matters

Megan Thompson

The definition of race given scientifically and historically is not scientifically sound according to what I've learned. From the film The Power Of An Illusion, I learned that genetically we are not different (Herbes-Sommers, 2003). For 200 years scientists have been experimenting trying to find a difference but to this day they still have not found anything (Herbes-Sommers, 2003). Also, they said that there would be a bigger difference between two people in the same race compared to two people in two different races (Herbes-Sommers, 2003). For example, a white person being compared to a black person, they are more genetically alike than two black people or two white people. Race is a human invention (Herbes-Sommers, 2003).

The condition of race has been used to assault the black humanity in several ways. American terrorism such as Jim Crow and lynching have contributed a lot to this. Also, slave trade and slave labor (West 1993). My ideas about race hasn't really been changed, mainly because I already know about a lot of what has gone on in the past and what's going on now and I feel the same about any race just as I do whites. Just because the skin color is different and maybe their culture is different doesn't make me hate them or change my point of view about them, I feel they are just as equal as white people.

Who Am I?

I'm Megan, I listen to rock music and I would consider myself to be a depressed person. I love rock music because I feel like I can really relate to most of the songs. I like to be by myself a lot of the time and do things by myself, I'm this way because of the way I grew up and the environment I was living in as a young child. I never was able to meet my real dad, he passed away in 2006 so I will never get to meet him, I always wonder what it would be like if I did meet me, things like would he still drink as much and would he have killed himself if he knew he had a daughter. Growing up I lived with my mom and step dad and they both were really bad into drugs, so me, my brother, and sister all had to do things ourselves. I'm from a broken home in Gahanna, and I'm hoping to be in a happy and loving home with a family after college. Some things that I love about myself, one is my ability to stay strong and make myself be happy even with the background I have. Another is being able to do hair, like cut, style and color it. Something I hope to improve on is my body and weight, I used to eat when I was upset so I gained a lot of weight, and I'm hoping to lose weight sometime soon. Something that frustrates me about society is a really big topic, gay marriage, I feel that if you truly love that person you can do whatever. It's really upsetting to see people getting shut out because of the gender they want to be with. Like really? It's not that big of a deal just get over it. I want to have a bright, successful future. I want to either be a nurse or do cosmotology. Either way I want to be successful no matter how long it will take and no matter how hard it will be, I can do it.