Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Hate Crimes

When I read about hate crimes I get really emotional because of the way people are treated just because of there race or gender and even there ethnic background. Hate crimes usually occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group. After reading this article I became outraged and very upset. I can’t believe that someone would do something like attack a cab driver just because he has a friend or buddy in Iraq. “While Singh was driving Vázquez home, Vázquez started calling him a terrorist and threatened to kill him, according to court charging documents. Singh said he worried for his life and the lives of other motorists as he drove down Interstate 5 at 60 mph.” I don’t understand why he would endanger himself or why the guy even said anything at all. Just because you feel a certain way about something or someone does not mean you have to voice it. This is also not the first time this has happened. People say rude and mean things on a daily bases and there has also been other attack’s just like this one on other cab drivers. “On Sept. 13, 2001, Farwest Cab driver Kulwinder Singh was assaulted and accused of being a Middle East terrorist by an intoxicated passenger he picked up in SeaTac. Raymond Isais Jr., 21, of San Diego, pleaded guilty to malicious harassment.”

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Monday, November 12, 2007

Racism

After reading this article I was shocked and disappointed to read that people would even get scared just by hearing someone speak a different language. This makes me see how ignorant and naïve people of the United States and even other countries can be. It also shocks me to read how the airlines handled the situation. I understand that there are certain precautions that we now have to take since 9/11 but I also feel that in this situation they were taken a little too far. I don’t understand why they would land the entire flight, making all the other passengers delay their flight just because someone heard a group of Iraqi men speak Arabic. I feel that the airlines could have done it in a more timely and professional manor.

“These are some of the most pro-American people around,” Garcia said. “There’s no reason to suspect that these people were a threat on this airline….This is the face of prejudice and racism that happens today.” This article shows you how far racism has come today. People are scared of just a language from a race that only a small group of people did terrorists acts. These men that were accused of doing nothing wrong are good people who are helping our country fight the real enemy.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_iraqi_passengers_lawsuit.html

Word Count (219)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Sex and Power

Sex and Power in Chile

After I read the article “Sex and Power in Chile” I realized how much I did not know about that country. I also learned how much they have gone through as a country and how much Americans take for granted. It’s always great to see another country start and take charge. I like to see other countries making changes like electing a woman president and trying to grow for the better. Michelle Bachelet took the first step to help improve the live of woman and the people of Chile. She is showing the men of the country that woman are capable of doing things other then taking care of the home; Woman can help change and create a better Chile. Michelle Bachelet did experience her ups and downs with people criticizing and digging into her past. “She is a woman, she acts like a woman, and woman don’t know how to exert authority…..she is a socialist, agnostic, and daughter of a general assassinated by the dictatorship. She is separated, with children from different father; her youngest was born when she was single. She is seen as unpredictable in her friendly, feminine, maternal ways.” I still just see it as if the people elected her then I feel they are ready to see change. The part in the article that really interested me was the part about the book called “The Open Book of Love and Sex in Chile”. Chile is known to be a strict catholic country and finding out that the country is not so conservative after all is interesting. “Rajevic (author and journalist of the book The Open Book of Love and Sex in Chile) showed that Chileans aren’t ads conservative as believed; youth lose their virginity earlier that the Dutch; different family models exist; homosexuality, though illegal, is widely accepted……political powers for many years refuse to adopt a divorce law, although a majority of marriages had resulted in separations and almost half of all children were born outside of wedlock. It wasn’t unit 2004 that the divorce law finally passed…” Chile is going through a lot of different changes and by electing a female president show the start of it all. I feel that this is just the start for Chile and that we will see many more changes from them in the future.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1734

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Bridging the Gap

Today I read a news article in the Seattle Times about multicultural conflict and how we should start bridging the gap between racists. (http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=1473157&date=19920131&query=intercultural+conflict) It really got me thinking about race and different cultures are in reality different. They talked about, in the article, how we need to not only educate students about different cultures but we also need to start educating teachers as well. I feel that I have to agree, if a teacher is going to teach a student not to judge other student then they have to stop judging as well. Racism has been something that has been passed down from generation to generation and now we feel the need to try and put a stop to it all; but in order to try and put a stop to it all we need to work on the people who we look up to, our teachers and parents. “Many agreed that efforts to eliminate interracial conflict among young people have to include adults.” It all starts in our homes and then makes a way to school. One thing that I feel that we should really work on is when a person from a different culture does something wrong you automatically have a grudge against that whole culture but when someone from your own race does something wrong you only get made at them for a second. I feel that we should take our time to get to know someone from a different race to we can learn and hopefully in the future there can be little to no racism.
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