Thursday, July 25, 2013
BERNAS | Chinese New Year Commercial - Family Reunion Dinner "Sek Fan" E...
I was told to write about how this video relates to what we are discussing in class such as privilege, race, class. I think the beautiful thing about this is that it does not relate to any of those subjects. Its not about society and expectations. Its not about violence and cruelty. Its about love, it is about cherishing what we do have. Being thankful for who we are and what is around us. In this the father says, "Son, little by little we will make it". The power of love can do enormous things, it can change lives. Love is something that takes our focus away from the harshness of society. Love, especially unconditional, can bring people to great lengths.
Sometimes we need that push. Sometimes we need someone to stand by us, to be with us, to hold us up. Doing everything alone can be difficult on one person. Being alone, I believe, can cause you to question your importance. Can cause insecurity and maybe even depression. Just by letting or showing someone that you care, it can change lives. The only problem i think with that is people are afraid to love. People are afraid to show it, to feel it. When you put in that much care for someone, sometimes it can be scary because love can cause pain. But it is a strength you gain, it is trait that should be spoken of often. When someone tells you or shows you love, automatically you feel important. No matter who it is, you are somebody special in someones eyes. So no it does not express the pressures of society but it expresses the nature of man. A nature that many people are turning into negative, into material objects. Its name is being used in vain.Rather than focusing on hate, why isnt love focused on as often?
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Do you know the ones you teach?
Andrade Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CwS60ykM8s
Andrade, I never heard about him before the video that was shown in class. He seems like a truly remarkable guy. He puts many thoughts into his students. The thing I love the most is how he spoke of the urban community kids. He didn't speak of them as hoodlums, thugs , or troublemakers but he saw them as "roses that grew past the concrete". He took his time to understand their struggle, he took the time to understand them as humans. He shows them things that they probably have never seen before in their lives, things that they probably didn't even imagine existed. Something that really captivated me about him is how hard he tries to make others understand how important these kids are to our society. People put names on them automatically without giving them the time of day to actually show who they truly are. He really struck a nerve on me when he spoke about Maya Angelou. He spoke of old, tiny , weak Angelou coming in between a fight of two men. Pulling them apart and tugging at them seemed almost impossible with her stature. But then he spoke of how she stopped it all. She looked into a face of a young man she didnt know and said " Do you know how important you are?". For his response, tears flowed from his face and that young man was none other than Tupac Shakur. Tupac, one of my idols, the way he spoke through his music captivated me. Telling me how important I am, and now i see where that all came from. He was a rose that pushed through the concrete and honestly, I see myself as such a rose too. All though I may not be from deep East Oakland or Compton or any of the "corrupted" cities, I did have a time where I forgot my importance, I did have a time when I honestly didn't care about what I did or didn't do. I didn't know who I was, I just knew what people expected me to be. I was a horrible person at one time in my life, but I was also lucky enough to have someone come to me and tell me how important I was and what I was capable of doing.
"Forget what everyone expects of you Crystal, if you build your own life then your life it will be",
I wanted to build my own life. I want something better for myself, I figure I am here for a reason, there's a purpose for me somewhere on this planet.
Andrade reminded me of someone very special to me. He reminded me of a teacher I had in High school, her name is Ms.Emery. I swear she is a teacher I will never forget. Many teachers in my High school would loath the "hoodlums", you could tell that the teachers didn't even want to put any hope into them. Ms. Emery showed us something different. She was a marketing teacher, she showed us how marketing is a big part of the making of society. Marketing the right clothes to wear, the right body to have, the American dream of having enough. It was a very educational class, but there was something passed that. She gained a relationship with ALL of us. She wanted to know about our lives, she wanted to know our struggles, stresses, what hurt us and made us sad. I guess you can say she ended up with most of the trouble makers and not purposely haha. But its almost as if she evaluated us. She saw how we communicated, the separate groups in the class and who had problems with who in the class. I remember one day, a fight broke outside of class right before the bell had rung. It was two of her students, I never seen this by a teacher especially with how small she was haha, but she ran out there as fast as she could and stood in the middle of the boys. She got hit, but she didn't back down. The thing I noticed that was different was the way she was scolding them. She didn't scold them like any angry teacher but she scolded them like a mother who was worried and who loved them a lot. She told us everyday how IMPORTANT we were. She showed us tapes on the black panthers, civil rights movements, on everything that showed us how we were now able to be students in a class. Another day that stands out is a day I really will never forget. I got to the classroom and the door was locked and she stood outside the door waiting for all of us. We all questioned asking why she wouldn't open the door. The bell rang and she looked at all of us and said directly," who is white?". We all looked at her weird while one guy raised his hand. She said,"Are you truly white? Did your ancestors discover this land? Did they come here on the ship?" He said no. And she stated " None of you are allowed in my classroom because you are not white, how does that make you feel?". We all stood in shock, not even knowing what to say. She told us that because she was not white she couldn't be in the class either. She then spoke to us about how hard our ancestors had fought for us just to be where we were, just to be able to walk through the door. They fought everyday just to give us what we had, but her question was how hard were we going to fight to keep it. How hard were we willing to fight to actually be in the classroom. At the end she ended up letting us in but when she said that I didn't have the right to be in class because of who I was, it changed me forever. I think it showed all of us how lucky we were to sit in those spots everyday to learn. She just opened our eyes to everything other people said we couldn't do and she stood up for us. She stood up to everyone who said that we couldn't amount to anything and all we wanted to do was stand with her.
Ms.Emery was my personal Andrade and I was very lucky to have an experience like that. We were not just a class, we were a family. We stuck with each other, enemies became friends and she was just our light of hope in a big room. I wish everyone could experience that.
Andrade, I never heard about him before the video that was shown in class. He seems like a truly remarkable guy. He puts many thoughts into his students. The thing I love the most is how he spoke of the urban community kids. He didn't speak of them as hoodlums, thugs , or troublemakers but he saw them as "roses that grew past the concrete". He took his time to understand their struggle, he took the time to understand them as humans. He shows them things that they probably have never seen before in their lives, things that they probably didn't even imagine existed. Something that really captivated me about him is how hard he tries to make others understand how important these kids are to our society. People put names on them automatically without giving them the time of day to actually show who they truly are. He really struck a nerve on me when he spoke about Maya Angelou. He spoke of old, tiny , weak Angelou coming in between a fight of two men. Pulling them apart and tugging at them seemed almost impossible with her stature. But then he spoke of how she stopped it all. She looked into a face of a young man she didnt know and said " Do you know how important you are?". For his response, tears flowed from his face and that young man was none other than Tupac Shakur. Tupac, one of my idols, the way he spoke through his music captivated me. Telling me how important I am, and now i see where that all came from. He was a rose that pushed through the concrete and honestly, I see myself as such a rose too. All though I may not be from deep East Oakland or Compton or any of the "corrupted" cities, I did have a time where I forgot my importance, I did have a time when I honestly didn't care about what I did or didn't do. I didn't know who I was, I just knew what people expected me to be. I was a horrible person at one time in my life, but I was also lucky enough to have someone come to me and tell me how important I was and what I was capable of doing.
"Forget what everyone expects of you Crystal, if you build your own life then your life it will be",
I wanted to build my own life. I want something better for myself, I figure I am here for a reason, there's a purpose for me somewhere on this planet.
Andrade reminded me of someone very special to me. He reminded me of a teacher I had in High school, her name is Ms.Emery. I swear she is a teacher I will never forget. Many teachers in my High school would loath the "hoodlums", you could tell that the teachers didn't even want to put any hope into them. Ms. Emery showed us something different. She was a marketing teacher, she showed us how marketing is a big part of the making of society. Marketing the right clothes to wear, the right body to have, the American dream of having enough. It was a very educational class, but there was something passed that. She gained a relationship with ALL of us. She wanted to know about our lives, she wanted to know our struggles, stresses, what hurt us and made us sad. I guess you can say she ended up with most of the trouble makers and not purposely haha. But its almost as if she evaluated us. She saw how we communicated, the separate groups in the class and who had problems with who in the class. I remember one day, a fight broke outside of class right before the bell had rung. It was two of her students, I never seen this by a teacher especially with how small she was haha, but she ran out there as fast as she could and stood in the middle of the boys. She got hit, but she didn't back down. The thing I noticed that was different was the way she was scolding them. She didn't scold them like any angry teacher but she scolded them like a mother who was worried and who loved them a lot. She told us everyday how IMPORTANT we were. She showed us tapes on the black panthers, civil rights movements, on everything that showed us how we were now able to be students in a class. Another day that stands out is a day I really will never forget. I got to the classroom and the door was locked and she stood outside the door waiting for all of us. We all questioned asking why she wouldn't open the door. The bell rang and she looked at all of us and said directly," who is white?". We all looked at her weird while one guy raised his hand. She said,"Are you truly white? Did your ancestors discover this land? Did they come here on the ship?" He said no. And she stated " None of you are allowed in my classroom because you are not white, how does that make you feel?". We all stood in shock, not even knowing what to say. She told us that because she was not white she couldn't be in the class either. She then spoke to us about how hard our ancestors had fought for us just to be where we were, just to be able to walk through the door. They fought everyday just to give us what we had, but her question was how hard were we going to fight to keep it. How hard were we willing to fight to actually be in the classroom. At the end she ended up letting us in but when she said that I didn't have the right to be in class because of who I was, it changed me forever. I think it showed all of us how lucky we were to sit in those spots everyday to learn. She just opened our eyes to everything other people said we couldn't do and she stood up for us. She stood up to everyone who said that we couldn't amount to anything and all we wanted to do was stand with her.
Ms.Emery was my personal Andrade and I was very lucky to have an experience like that. We were not just a class, we were a family. We stuck with each other, enemies became friends and she was just our light of hope in a big room. I wish everyone could experience that.
Into The Wild; Intersecting our direction
Although I have yet to finish the book, I have noticed so
far the passion of this guy. Its different. Although he may be looked at as a
lazy guy, someone who never did much in school or work, I think he was that way
for a reason. HE knew exactly what he wanted.
Education is important , that is what is instilled in us
from day one. Work hard in school to receive a paper that says you are allowed
to work. That tells the world that you were accepted by a school to be able to
make a living. I think Chris knew this. His views on it just wasn't like
others. Things were being handed to him left and right for him to continue in
school, for him to work hard. But he didn't take it. He didn't follow society's
ways. Maybe he just wanted to find his own way, maybe he just knew what society
was trying to force him to do.
I think Chris was passionate about life. Not so much the way
of life where all you do is work and school, like what most of us do but i
think he was passionate on the fact of living and not having to be told the way
he should live. The strain society puts on us all causes this country to just
be a big blob of stress and anxiety disorders. Expectations, expectations,
expectations. "Live the american dream". But what is the American
dream? Is there even one?
Chris knew exactly what he wanted and what he was doing.
Maybe he didn't want to live by the rules that are put on us from day one. He
probably just wanted to LIVE. No judgments
no criticisms , no identity, just life. That's all he wanted. Why should
it matter who Chris was, just as long as we know he lived and what he did was
all that he wanted.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Passion & privilege
How do passion and privilege coincide with each other? How do two separate and different things connect? Do they connect at all?
Passion, a thing you cant go one day not thinking about. Something that you love so dearly that when you do it the ground beneath you disappears as every thought turns into to serenity.
Privilege, feeling as though you have the right to have this, do this, or say this. Looking down upon differences and feeling higher than most.
How can something so beautiful and something so ugly be brought into one?
Im guessing the privileged are passionate. They have a passion for what their opinions. They have a passion for how they feel about certain things. Maybe they might even have passions for things like art and music. But their passion is given simpler than others im guessing. Maybe because they feel they deserve the feeling of passion? Maybe because they just THINK they are passionate.
In any case, I guess you can find passion anywhere. In the good and the bad. Passion is all around us. Its just the way passion is created and what we are passionate for that makes us different than others.
How does this video speak to you?
http://vimeo.com/64410009
I often find it hard to keep myself motivated to follow my goals and dreams without the struggle of wanting to venture off into the new. I feel at times that I have so many eyes on me, so many opinions of "what she will do next". So many expectations that need to be filled coming both from loved ones and society and sometimes all I want to do is fulfill them. All I want to do is see my parent happy saying that I did right.
I feel held back at times. Wanting to find myself in this big world and yet so many people telling me I cant do this or I cant do that. Whats their reason for telling me I cant? For protection. I'm being held in this tiny little box, that my mind fights through every day to protect me from a world that I have yet to find. Keeping me sheltered in and saying this is the safest way for me to live. But when I am on my own, when I make my own decisions and if I ever happen to fall, who will be there to help me up or who will be there to help me.
Sometimes I feel like I am running into all of this blind folded. Not knowing where to turn and what I cant see. But then at times I have that shed of light. That little piece of light that shines some of the way, my motivation. Its the only thing that keeps me walking through the world I am not able to see completely.
I often find it hard to keep myself motivated to follow my goals and dreams without the struggle of wanting to venture off into the new. I feel at times that I have so many eyes on me, so many opinions of "what she will do next". So many expectations that need to be filled coming both from loved ones and society and sometimes all I want to do is fulfill them. All I want to do is see my parent happy saying that I did right.
I feel held back at times. Wanting to find myself in this big world and yet so many people telling me I cant do this or I cant do that. Whats their reason for telling me I cant? For protection. I'm being held in this tiny little box, that my mind fights through every day to protect me from a world that I have yet to find. Keeping me sheltered in and saying this is the safest way for me to live. But when I am on my own, when I make my own decisions and if I ever happen to fall, who will be there to help me up or who will be there to help me.
Sometimes I feel like I am running into all of this blind folded. Not knowing where to turn and what I cant see. But then at times I have that shed of light. That little piece of light that shines some of the way, my motivation. Its the only thing that keeps me walking through the world I am not able to see completely.
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