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Is Racial Identity that important?

Posted by Nathan Little in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Introduction 

As we are living into today’s society, we witness the poverty, and the discrimination that surrounds us. We sometimes question ourselves, what can we do to make it better? There are going to be some people who probably don't want to make our civilization better than it already is. Other people probably just don’t care. But other than that, there’s you, who would want to make a change. You, who would want to develop a bright idea that emphasizes your thinking. You, who would want to make that change not just for yourself, but for the other people who would love to  have the power to do so. You can make that change, because anyone can. If you just put your mind to it.

However, racial identity consist of every citizen, especially people who are known to be popular. “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you”. -George R.R. Martin. Celebrities are people whom everyone knows. People see celebrities as role models and icons. And they set that example to the people who are in need of help and are lost in life. However, celebrities need to enact and explain on there social lives for the people who wants to know more about them or if there curious to know about there life whether they need to a project or an assignment for school etc. Therefore, civilians won’t question or assume that they are a race that not right or any other opinion that’s not true. They have to reflect on there ancestry because there racial progress is there racial mixing to there children and family. The only problem is there appearance. Illuminating the thought on other people is the problem we are having today. And it’s something that need be fixed.

Not only that racial identity needs to be change, but intersectionality cannot wait either. Since our identities are so important, we also need to interpret it through everyone’s point of view in a way where we can accept each other for who we are. Looking back into the past, many people assume that racial identity isn’t that important. But it is if you think about it. But now that we are in the present, it’s more critical and more of a conflict. People today are moving into different countries coming in as an illegal immigrant, then sooner or later you're no longer illegal because of your identity. But coming into a new country trying to adapt having to deal with other citizens who look at you and identifies you incorrectly is not easy. Even though it’s misinterpretation, it shouldn’t necessarily be a huge problem, especially if you're trying to apply for a job or applying for something to support your family is a big deal. That’s when you would matter. Many people would wish that they can be supportive to whoever is in there life. Because in order to make that change, we need to be able to define ourselves. We need to able to say “I matter, because I am just like the rest of you”. It needs to mean something, not only to your peers, and not only to your family, but to yourself.                        

Furthermore, racial identity is so important nowadays because you’re not defending your rights and your race, but for the people who are in your shoes that’s living the conflict and wants to change that to a resolution. People who wants the same thing as you can make a huge difference in their lives, because not only your fighting for there equal right but conversing for who they want to be. It’s people like them that can make the world for the better.. However, racial identity fits with multiple conflicts essentially to discrimination, racism, etc. The situation can either sit on the positive and/or negative side depending on what you are seeking and how. If there is a concept where a woman who comes to the United States met someone who would soon become her friend and they asked “are you indian?” But you're actually Native American, that type of racial identity is not bad because it was misinterpreted in a confusing way. But if there’s another situation where you're applying for a job and get interviewed for the job, they automatically assume that you are indian instead of asking what race you are. That’s where racial identity comes in a negative way. That type of concept needs to be prevented.

To my conclusion, it is said that racial identity is a source of belongings, a source of pride, and a base of discrimination. It has been for awhile now, since it’s taking apart of our race and culture in society today. We know that a person who would value their own potential would want to conserve it. No matter if the person is famous, average, poor, etc. Because we are all equal and created equal. Just think, if animals of the world can exist for there own reason, what makes us think that they were made just for us? They could be there for the same purpose we are here. Our identity can relate to the weak, or to the power. To society, it depends on where you're living, and how you’re living. It’s a way for intersectionality to take apart of since it shares its form of debate and controversy. To the people in the world.         

The Twilight of Deities

Posted by Anthony McDonnell in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Introduction:

This essay, to me, is a survey of what it means to have or lack faith in the modern world. I myself am an atheist, but I can see the purpose of religion both to individuals and society. The landscape of belief has changed much in the past two centuries, and I have attempted here to chronicle how different thinkers and artists have viewed this seismic sea-change in our consciousness. Whatever your opinion is on this subject, I would advise entering this essay with an open mind towards the idea of the decline of belief (at least in the West) and the philosophical quandaries which arise from this.


Paper:

It seems that depression and the supposed absence of a deity or higher power are our current zeitgeist, the spirit of our age. A Marxist would chalk this up to the alienation caused by the capitalist system which dehumanizes the human person and relates everything to money. Meanwhile, a traditionalist conservative would say that the liberal reforms of modern times have destroyed humanity’s relationship with God by making “Man the measure of all things”. Whatever portion of the political spectrum you fall on, humankind seems to have collectively agreed that whatever used to reign from above has abandoned us en masse in the light of modernity and postmodernity. Some have reacted to this by challenging the accepted orthodoxy of the past, while other have clung ever more tightly to their constantly dying faiths.

“‘Whither is God?....I will tell you. We have killed him.”, asserted Friedrich Nietzsche through the mouth of a madman in a parable in his 1882 work, The Gay Science. At first, this would sound as if Nietzsche, a rather nihilistic, committed atheist, is celebrating the collapse of the old system of deities and spirits and hailing the new humanist outlook of our species. However, it soon becomes clear that, despite its author’s beliefs, this is not a cause for celebration: “‘How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers….Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?’” For the great bulk of human history, cultures and peoples have had deities and spirits and legends to comfort them in their worst and darkest of times. Faith was a light to many; that, despite the darkness of life and the tragedies of existence, there was something watching over you, something to comfort you, and another life that existed after passing on. In this newly faithless world, there is no comfort if what you believed was comforting you is gone. In fact, the very deed of killing God, Nietzsche seems to say, is such a mammoth undertaking that a group of hairless apes on a tiny planet would not be worthy of doing such a thing, especially when most of them are not sufficiently independently-minded and stable to fathom exactly what they have done.

In order to slay God, Nietzsche insinuates that humankind would have to rise to godhood in order to make it seem like slaughtering their deities was a good idea. And, in the minds of many, this is exactly what we have done. We have placed ourselves at the center of our existence and elevated humanity to a position that perhaps it doesn’t deserve. It presumes that humans are far greater than they really are, that we are more than just creatures lost in space. It puts political ideology before religion as well. While politics and religion have often intertwined over the millennia, religion has always seemed, in the end, to nourish the souls of our species more than mere politics. Perhaps the worst and most shocking revelations are that there is no reason why we are placed on Earth, that life and history is essentially random, and that all of our deeds are for naught. It is immensely horrifying to us that we argue, fight, and go to war and yet there may be no reason for such things in the end. Without a deity, without myth and legend, we realize that we are not important, and that, no matter how much we try to deify our species, we are still small and still striving for something to elevate ourselves above the mundane-in short, to regain our lost gods.

“Big Sky”, a song by the Kinks from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, is perhaps the ultimate “Death of God” song. “One day, we’ll be free, we won’t care, just you see…” croons frontman and lyricist Ray Davies after listing how “Big Sky” (re: God) does not particularly care about those beneath Him on Earth. Despite this strong desire for the eventual extinction of God and the freedom it should entail, Davies sings about the comfort and tranquility religion can provide in a world bereft of it: “And when I see you/And the world’s too much for me/I think of the Big Sky/and nothing matters much to me”. While religion can been seen as a mind-killer-making nothing matter to someone-it also gives help and love to those most in need of them. Like it or not, humanity’s identity throughout the ages has been dominated by religion and belief. Moving forward, we will need to square our own simian egos against the vastness of the universe and the strangeness of eternity.

In the absence of a higher power, humans often turn to political movements to nourish their souls. However, these ideologies fail to become transcendent, and are instead base and materialistic. Some put all their faith in politics, seeing a movement as undying, always finding new human conduits. However, deep down, humans know that these ideologies are ultimately earthbound. They lack the rituals, the comfort, the inner, mystical dimension of religion. They are merely something which we can latch onto in an increasingly chaotic world.

One final thing we should realize is that, no matter how great and mighty we become on Earth, everything down here is transient. Fame is fleeting, nations and empires crumble into dust with regularity, nothing is eternal-not even the gods. Rudyard Kipling was aware of this when he penned his poem “Recessional” for Queen Victoria’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee. This was at the height of the British Empire’s power, and the celebration would have recalled for a happy, slightly pompous poem. Instead, Kipling wrote a work which warned of the smallness of Earthly greatness in the light of eternity. “Lo, all our pomp of yesterday/Is one with Nineveh and Tyre”, he wrote, naming two once mighty ancient empires that have since gone extinct. In the final verse, Kipling uses the phrase “All valiant dust which builds on dust”. This wonderful, mystical phrase warns that, in the end, all human civilization is doomed. We simply build upon the remains of older cultures. Despite our advances in society and technology, we are not so high and mighty after all. It can be taken away at any time. We will never escape the lingering remnants of the old gods, always there to tell us that nothing lasts forever. Night will fall, and a new day will dawn upon the remnants of us all.


(Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm.) The Gay Science. N.a. n.a. Print.


(Davies, Ray Douglas.) The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The Kinks. Reprise Records, 1968. Vinyl recording.


Kipling, Rudyard. “Recessional.” 1897. Print.

Double standards: Who's to blame?, Nisa Hardin

Posted by Nisa Hardin in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Intro: ​For this essay, I wanted to attempt to connect my personal experiences with my work, but it was more difficult than I thought, because I was trying to better my descriptive writing skills at the same time. I ultimately decided to go in a different direction, making my essay something I'm truly passionate about and could see myself providing genuine thought towards, and in the end I was able to create something that encouraged analysis of the deeper meaning in my topic. 

Essay: Addressing the issue of double standards in this era will incessantly be something that impacts us all, but we rarely focus on the real problem at hand, and that’s who is being affected most and why. Some factors in particular such as race, religion, or the place one grows up in can play a role in how much a person experiences the many forms of double standards. The idea of undressing the topic and confronting it’s issues is, in this era, abnormal and almost taboo, which is ironic because the concept of double standards contributes greatly to what we are taught and what we teach, and before you know it it's become the norm. Blue is masculine, Pink is feminine, ballet is for girls, martial arts are for boys, and so on; until the invisible rules placed on certain religions, races, and genders cloud the judgement of whose who use double standards to perceive others. Phrases like “Boys will be boys”, “That isn't ladylike”, or “Man up!”, are all products of the enforcement we put on double standards, so much that we fail to realize that it has been ingrained in our minds from birth, clinging to us throughout the years, and obliviously passed down to the next generation.  

The deal with double standards is that it isn’t being dealt with. This could possibly be because in a way we know that trying to equalize justices between race, sex, economic status etc. would be too difficult an abstraction for the world to comprehend, and uncovering the ugly truth behind that system would do more damage than good. Double standards live everywhere, but it’s rules adjust depending on where it’s centered. In America, for example, there are a number of groups that face pretty particular double standards. These issues are often written about, and the variety of writers’ articles about the double standards they face displays much of the cause and effect. Barbara Walters, who at the time was just starting out as a young journalist, was well aware of her limits as a woman in the world of politics and became known for speaking out on things that were to be considered “bold” for women to discuss. In an interview, she states, “If I said to a politician, ‘Yes, but you didn’t answer my question,’ it sounded terrible, If a man said it, it didn’t sound terrible.” What Walters faced as a female in a predominantly male line of work was an experience similar to many other women before her, and presumably women today.  

Situations such as male vs female are not always so black and white, however.  Double standards can be narrowed down to something as particular as pregnancy and motherhood, according to a mother of one in North Dakota. Known as Gabrielle Pfeiffer, she describes her knowledge of double standards and how they haven’t really changed since they were created, only modified to fit today’s insatiable society. In one of her popular articles, Pfeiffer points out a well-known double standard: “As mothers, we see it the most. There was a time where most families stayed together, the father worked outside of the home, and the mom stayed at home as a homemaker. The dad would take their sons hunting and fishing, and moms would teach their daughters how to cook and clean. Back then it was the norm, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right way.” With the example she used, Pfeiffer was able to demonstrate how people have decided to deal with double standards decade by decade as a whole from her perspective. Women get the reputation of being bad mothers if they don’t fit the outdated double standard, and although some might not find it bothersome, those who attempt combat against the backlash of it don’t have many to fend for them.

In some way, shape and form double standards affect the mind and sense of belonging; in other words it can take a great toll on one’s identity. While the concept of double standards pairs well with stereotyping, an equally abstract idea that we are well acquainted with, it’s a reflection of what we are responsible for creating.



Citation:

Capretto, Lisa. "The Sexism A Young Barbara Walters Faced When She ‘Asked The Tough Questions’." Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 04 Aug. 2015. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.


Bahadur, Nina. "5 Things Women Are Judged More Harshly For Than Men." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Mar. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.


Harrison, David. "America's Shameful Double Standard." PravdaReport. Pravda in English, 07 Jan. 2017. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.Harrison, David. "America's Shameful Double Standard." PravdaReport. Pravda in English, 07 Jan. 2017. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.


Advanced Essay #3 : Identity

Posted by Lydia Anderson in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Intro

For my essay I wrote about the identity issues that a lot of Native Americans face. Since Europeans first came to this continent, they have been oppressing Native People. Through hundreds of years of oppression, cultures were hard fought to keep. My essay talks about how Native People claim their identity in a society designed to oppress them. For this essay I wanted to look more into Native American People. I recently re-watched a documentary called Reel Injun. It's about the portrayal of native people in popular movies and film.The movie often connected back to how these movies painted these stereotypes really hurt the communities that today, live in large parts, poverty. My essay is largely inspired by this movie because it goes in depth about stereotypes Native Americans experience.

Essay

In October of 2014, a protest was held in Minnesota against the Washington Redskins for their name. The Native American people in attendance shouted “not your mascots!” during a sunday football game in Minnesota. The message of the football team known as the, ‘Redskins’ is considered a hateful and insulting name to native americans. To many people, it perpetuates a negative stereotype surrounding Native Americans. For hundreds of years they have been victims of hate speech and harmful stereotypes; any of which, native youth are fighting to shed to this day. In an article she wrote for The Guardian, Ruth Hopkins talks about the harmful stereotypes that white people (Pretendians) formulate that hurt and offend Native People. “By supporting generic, false stereotypes that encourage a belief that Natives are monolithic, all Pretendians commit cultural genocide and contribute to the erasure of legitimate, unique, ancient indigenous cultures while spreading misinformation about us.” Native People have faced this erasure and now, they’re finding ways to reclaim their identity.

For years, native americans have been forced to adhere to western standards of living. This by and large, has had a negative effect on a native communities. Jekeva Phillips wrote, “For Native American people, identity in many respects is a foreign word. Faced with crippling poverty, violent  abuse, and severe alcoholism, Native Americans are kept in a position of dire straits with the American government, and a position of pity with the American public.” Native American people in many ways have been forced into a kind of box when it comes to identity. Forced to be the stoic, brave, warrior or poor, drunk, and unemployed. This stereotype has made Native People feel trapped without many ways to address their identities. In some forms, it makes people turn to ways that may not be helpful to the native communities.

Many Native American tribes require proof of native blood to a certain fraction. To many Native People, they look more white than they do native. In an editorial by cultural survival by an unidentified author the person says, “Identity is an extremely complex issue. Certification of blood quantum is usually required in order to be legally identified as Native American, and some tribes require a certain blood quantum for membership. Informal constraints within the tribe also affect identity as some tribal members with full-blood quantum consider tribal members with mixed ancestry not to be truly "Native American."” This also creates a loss of identity for Native People, not solving the problem of identity within the community. However, some people within this community, have provided an answer.

Hopkins wrote an article for The Guardian, talking about what blood quantum represented to her and many other Native People. “Natives today agree that blood quantum is not the sole determinate of Native identity: kinship is key, because no true Native is an island. We have grandparents and cousins, blood roots and homelands.” Where she finds her identity in family, others find it in culture. “Today, local communities or reservations devote resources to perpetuating oral traditions, their Native language, and activities they regard as traditional.” These ways to experience their identities has helped many Native People with finding themselves.

Ultimately, the way that Native American people claim their identity is up to the individual. For some people, it's about being with your family, experiencing traditions with family. Others find it in their culture, in being apart of their respective tribes. With all the harmful stereotypes that Native People face today, it is important for them to have the ability to point to something tangible for identity. Identity for Native People will continue to evolve. However, it can always connect back to family and culture, whatever tribe you are apart of, identity can be found within the family and culture.









Advanced Essay #3 (Identity and Child Abuse)

Posted by Hayley Barci in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

​My message for this essay is how negatively impacting a child's life at a young age can impact the development of the identity later on. identity can take time to form, sometimes even someone's whole life. When someone at a young age gets a negative vibe from someone, they will continue it on to someone else as they get older. People will see them as bad people. Someone will be able to develop their true self around a positive environment. I want people to make a change for children's lives based off of the fact that it can impact their lives and their identity.  

Hayley Barci

1-10-17

Child Abuse

The identities of children need to be developed over their experiences, The people around them can impact them as well as what they learn from them. However if their experiences were negative and put against them, it can impact how they create the self that fits who they are as people.

My father was, and still can be abusive towards me, however however I was thirteen and my parents were about to go to court, and I was a little concerned on how my father was treating me. He would threaten me, curse at me, and he would yell continuously. I then searched verbal abuse, I fit within almost all of the symptoms. I’ve never felt such fear as when I’m around my father. It’s really a cycle, my father was physically abused when he was a child, he would get hit with a belt, get hard shoes thrown at him. Somehow, that continued on to me, my theory was because he didn’t know how to cope with his past, what he has to deal with, so therefore, he takes it out on me. There are children all around the world suffer from child abuse, and people need to be more aware and stand up for what's right. We don’t want the cycle of abuse to continue throughout people’s families, we want children to peacefully be able to see the world through a positive lens. However, even throughout my experiences, I’m still trying to figure out who I am as a person. One’s identity should be cherished, not abused.

Identity is built upon experiences, environments, and the people you are surrounded by, all of these examples contribute to developing your true self. However, sometimes these things can become somewhat of a disaster to an identity. One’s self is also developed based upon experiences, and learning new things in our lives. Edward P. Jones wrote a story about a little girl on the first day of school, he quoted,”Mama, I can’t go to school?” The little girl stood still in shock as the woman her mother speaks to says that she cannot apply to the school she wanted to go to. Children are at a young age where they never really learned that much about who they are, their capabilities, and their true self.

As it was said earlier, identity takes time to fully develope, sometimes maybe even most of someone’s life. Thandie Newton once said during a TED Talk,” we are not born with a self, an identity.” She realized that we as people don’t know who we are the day we are born. It takes experiences and learning to develop a sense of who you are, and your identity. She also explains her own experiences to find her own identity. Your experience while finding your identity can be different from the person you're sitting next to. No one’s identity is the same, no one’s learning and processes are the same.    

I was inpatient in Fairmount hospital  multiple times, and many of the girls I was with shared their stories about their parents/guardians abusing them. But there was one story in particular that caught my eye. It was the beginning of the summer of 2016, and I was just one day from leaving inpatient. I shared a room with this one girl. She seemed to be calm enough to talk to her.  We began talking and we ended up speaking about our abuse stories. She then began talking about her mother, her father was never in her life, and because of the abuse she suffers from trauma. She would have several different outbursts, and because it put other lives at risk, she would have to be strapped onto a bed overnight or until she calmed down.

I began to get to know her a little more about her mother and what she did to her. Her mother would hurt them by punching and kicking her and her siblings. Her mother also barely gave them food, but when she did, her mother would make her and her siblings eat it off the floor. As she spoke these words flowing out of her mouth, I could see the sorrow within her voice. This is one of many experiences of child abuse.

These are a couple different stories of kids/teenagers who are or were suffering from child abuse. These stories connect to a matter of their identity and how it impact their lives. Each child was impacted in a different way, they don't each have the same reaction to other people’s actions. When it comes to one’s self, it can depend on the person and their experiences.

“Backing me into the corner until I was whimpering and crying, he would just walk away, satisfied with my distress,” This was a quote from a girl named Fiona, who decided to tell her story. She explained her idea of abuse by also demonstrating  her own experiences Her story was mainly about the verbal abuse she and her mother had to suffer from her step-father. She wanted the message to be known that abuse is no right in any way, shape, or form. Her purpose was to also encourage other children to stand up and speak, so that there can be positive changes before it impacts their life permanently. Just because it’s emotional or verbal, and it’s not physical doesn’t mean that it’s not abuse. Sometimes verbal/emotional abuse can have more longer term effects than physical abuse, however that depended upon the child.    

“We reported my dad to the police but there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him.” This story was spoken from a teenager named Tia, she suffered from sexual abuse provoked by her biological father who had just gotten released from jail. He would touch her in inappropriate places where he shouldn’t be. When she finally had the courage to tell her mother, they pressed charges against her father. However due to “the lack of evidence”, he got away with doing what he did to his own daughter. There are several different forms of abuse. However, they need to make sure that the abuser doesn’t treat other children the same way. The kids who were already suffering from the causes of abuse, need justice, they need some form of relief that the abuser will not strike upon other kids.  

There are several different effects of child abuse, like for example,” The most serious cases of abuse can end in death”.  Like it was said earlier, it’s depended upon the child and how they react to the actions of people surrounding them. People need to realize, that standing up for a child, can save their life, their sanity, even their identity. If children are treated poorly, they will react poorly to his/her actions. As they try to grow their ‘self’, they will struggle, they could turn to drugs, or even suicide. So therefore, identity is something that doesn’t happen in one day, it happens with time and patience. The developing of one's self, times time, and sometimes even most of someone’s life. When a child is getting abused, they will not be able to fit to the self that fits who they are and their personality.

You can make a change in many children's lives. One of the first steps to helping a child is that you can recognize the symptoms within their behavior. You can look up the symptoms on many websites like Nemours Kidshealth, can explain what child abuse is, different forms of it, and the symptoms as well. You can call for help to hospitals, police, and other emergency contacts. Another way you can change a child's life is when you speak up, and encourage them, and teach them what’s right and what’s wrong with how they are being treated. Patience is another way to help a child gain their strength and even their true identity back. Taking time with the child, take things one step at a time and help him/her cope with what they have to deal with. Identity is truly important in a child, don’t let them suffer because of someone else’s actions.    

Sources:
http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/child-abuse.html
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/fighting-for-childhood/childrens-stories-about-abuse/
Embracing Otherness, Embracing Myself- Thandie Newton TED Talk

Selves in Theater

Posted by Alexa Lahr in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Introduction: Theater uncovers your many “selves.”  Playing different characters makes a stronger person and grows their compassion for other “selves.”  I tell of my time in theater and how it has grown me and my “selves.”  I got the idea for this project from the video we watched in class.  Then when I “free wrote” about my life in theater, I just kept writing and got this piece.  Then of course I edited to get this final product.  This is a different structured essay then many of my other papers. I felt like it was necessary to talk about the meaning of selves more throughout the essay. Instead of doing the story in the beginning of the essay I did it in the middle.  I decided I should just try something new and see how it goes.


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Selves in Theater
As an actress I have to play many parts and put myself in different people's bodies.  I have to form my body into many different characteristics.  My body is like a etch a sketch to the theater.  Walking around a space, I am given a task to form my body in a certain way and to start acting like a self that is not my own.  Sometimes to get into my character I have to do a “roll up” and “roll down.”  This is a theatrical exercise where you “roll down” one vertebrae at a time as yourself and “roll up” as the character you are playing.  Theater can be an escape for people like it is for me.  I have always felt safe playing someone else.  It always came naturally to me to express and put on “other selves” through theater.  For me playing different selves helped me develop my true self.

My first role in theater was when I was 8.  This form of art helped me through a time I was going through puberty and other life changing challenges in my life.  The theater group I am a participant in, “Yes!And… Collaborative Arts,”  gives people a chance to grow up and figure different things out in this world.  For instance, over the summer we put on a play called “Paper Trail.”  This play was about six different situations that were going on in the world including the Stanford rape case, Flint water crises and the political debates involving Trump and Hillary.  We took these situations and three additional ones and acted them out through various theatrical genres. We portrayed the Stanford rape case as a 1950s musical; the Flint water crisis was portrayed as a movement piece; and the political debates as a abstract theater piece.  In the Stanford 1950s musical rape case, I played the rapist Brock Turner.  This was definitely a different experience for me having to play such an intense character.  At around the time I found out I was going to play Brock I found out about my friend getting raped.  This was a very hard topic to talk about but I felt the need to play this role to bring justice to my friend.  Being inside the head of such a awful person made me think of this world differently. It helped me grow on my thinking of the rapist and my knowledge on the Stanford rape case.  I learned about how Brock's family impacted his acts and the different influences in his life.  I also learned more about the white privilege and the fact that white men are less likely to stay in jail for heinous crimes.  An instance of white privilege is demonstrated in these song lyrics...

“THE LESSONS LEARNED DON’T BE CONCERNED YOU’RE TOO WHITE TO BE PROPERLY CONDEMNED

OHHHH WE SAID IT. IF YOU WERE BLACK YOU’D FIND YOURSELF IN JAIL

WE SAID IT.

BUT YOUR PRIVILEGED CLASS

GONNA SAVE YOUR ASS

POCKET CHANGE WILL PAY FOR YOUR BAIL.”

These song lyrics from the play came after Brock found out he was receiving only a 3 month sentence,which is much shorter than many black people would get.

Theater has always been a way to cope, a way for me to step outside of myself.  It is a way for me to stretch myself and put on many different masks to uncover my identity.  For me the theater has always been that safe place.  Theater isn’t the outlet for everyone though.  Some people feel awkward or even stage fright.  This is okay, as there are many other methods of stretching your “selves,”  the point is you need to put yourself into other “selves” shoes to grow.  Even though the theater is a safe place for me, there are still actors and actresses that get confused in the process.  Some start to lose and get confused who their true “selves” are.  The thing is, how do we truly find ourselves and answer the question everyone wants to know: who are we?  We play so many roles in life depending who we are around.  Erving Goffman in the Performed Self video claims,“We display a series of masks to others, in acting roles, controlling and stageing how we appear.”  No matter who we are and no matter how secure we think we are as people it is normal for us to adapt to who is around us.  We as actors and actresses in this world want to try and fit into the right roles of a group of people.

Theater is a means to open our eyes and jump into many different selves as well to uncover the challenges others had to go through to be who they are.  This will help us not to get lost and grow vain and unconcerned of others, rather it empowers us to grow compassionate towards other and to grow into decent beings.  I can say that I would not be the same person I am today without theater.  I do not think I would be the caring and compassionate person I am today.  Using my theater skills I am able to put myself into other’s shoes, which is the key thing to do to grow in compassion for others.  In conclusion,  theater is a powerful medium in uncovering “many selfs” within an actor and actress, but it also an effective tool in growing more compassionate towards others as you are called to step into their shoes.

"Erving Goffman and the Performed Self." YouTube. N.p., 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.https://youtu.be/6Z0XS-QLDWM

“Paper Trails: Finale Of Stanford Peice” 2016 Brooke Sextonhttps://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1nGRElZ5_kyVP_v0vxLSlPWMRKsAEMTJHy670dRrq4z4/edit?usp=sharing

Tragic Events From a Browser

Posted by Joshua Turner in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Introduction
This essay will show how tragic events that we see on a browser can affect people in certain ways or forms and how we react to the tragic events that happened in the past.

Essay

For my thesis, the deaths of tragic happenings from a browser makes us feel closer because it feels like we are actually there witnessing the tragic happenings with our eyes. For my essay I am going to talk about how Tragic events that happen that are in your browser will make you feel closer to that tragic crisis. Now there still tragic things happening around the world to this, but I am going to talk about certain tragic events that have happened. In the article Ghost in the Machines, it points out how we feel closer to the That have died that are our browser. In Ghost in the Machines, by  Jenna Wortham notes the significance of the mass shootings: “The mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino felt, somehow, closer to our lives because they played out on our screens and in our browsers.” The reason I chose this quote is because it shows that even though we were not there, but since we see it from a browser it makes us feel bad for those people who were in that tragic happening.


The world going on the internet shows that we do not ignore the tragic things that happened in the past and even the present. From Ghost in the Machines by Jenna Wortham notes the significance of us not ignoring the people who died: We have seen how people used social media to ensure that Americans did not ignore the deaths of people like Freddie Gray, Walter Scott and Sandra Bland, amplifying them into a rallying cry for justice. The reason I chose this quote is because it shows that people that we do not know, but they still have an impact in our lives somehow.


Everytime we go on to our browser, there are new tragic deaths being posted on the internet and we pray that it is not one of our friends or family members were in that tragic event. Here is a quote that supports this statement: With the exception of our friends and closest kin, we typically encounter news of deaths through social media. It shows that there are new tragic events happening every single day and we hope that it is not the people we love that are in that tragic event.

Tragic events can show us that what we watch can affect you as a person. What this means is that what we watch can have affect your life in a small way or in a drastic way for some people. For some they wouldn’t even care about what happened to people in that tragedy. It could have been your friends or even one of your family members, but some people do care because they feel bad for the people who were in that tragedy. What I am saying is that the tragedies that we see on our very own browser can affect one way or another.


Advanced Essay #3: What Makes Us, Us

Posted by Ethan Halprin in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Introduction:


My goal for the paper was to be patient in my writing, and to learn something about either my writing skill or the topic I wrote about, or both.  I think I did a good job not rushing too much, using techniques like reading out loud and listening to the advice from the video we watched in class about how writing is all about revision.  I could have spread the writing out better rather than working for longer periods of time for certain days that way I could pick up more easily, however I wanted to write when I was in the best mood or had an idea.  I learned I can be a patient writer, but not to the point of starting from scratch.  I’d rather change and delete and change and delete, until the paper is how I like it.  I think that can be seen if my paper is compared to my rough draft.

Advanced Essay #3:  What Makes Us, Us


What is the ultimate factor in figuring out our own identities?  Objects can be useful in explaining identity, by personifying them and showing how identity is determined through change.  In an example of a scenario from the video, “Who Am I?” by Amy Adkins, the idea of persistence of identity is brought up.  The video says that the “I” is always changing and is made up of many things, so it is extremely difficult to explain identity.  This essay will explore the most important pieces to all of our identities, and consider the question, “What types of changes cause a change in identity”?  

In the video, a ship made of many planks of wood is constantly being repaired with new planks.  The process is very gradual, but eventually there are more new than old planks, and after even longer the boat is made of all new planks.  Physically the boat is completely different than originally.  However, its identity remains the same.  After a 100% physical change, there was not a point in time where the ship was not itself anymore.  The meat of what makes up our identities is our experiences, memories, and actions.

The past does not go away, and links people to previous versions of themselves, making our experiences an important element of Identity. More experiences are added to our lives along the way, however the old ones are always there, a constant piece of us throughout changes and additions to our bodies and minds.  Going back to the ship analogy, the reason it can identify as the same ship as it was before any repairs were made is because of its experience. Physically it is 100% different when all the planks are replaced, similarly to how a person is physically much different after a long time.  

Suppose there are two people who look alike, even identical twins.  They both identity as separate individuals, and have their own identity.  Physical characteristics have some measure in defining us, but they are not totally unique or long lasting, and actually mean less to us.

20th Century Moral philosopher Bernard Williams proposed an experiment.  The premise is that two people would swap brains, and then have to decide if they would want the body they had originally came into the situation with to be rewarded and the body with their mental content now to be tortured, or vice versa.  Practically everyone asked this question chooses the body where their mental content now is to be rewarded and their old body to be tortured.  This shows that physicality does not define our identities as strongly as our experiences and memories, because we see more value of ourselves in our mind than body.

Hank Green in a Crash Course Philosophy video opines his thoughts on identity, reasoning that, “Personal Identity persists over time because you remain in the same body from birth until death.” The body changes, but the important thing to draw from this quote is that since we are in one body all this time, we can be identified by our past and actions we made.  We all have our own unique actions that remain the same, and speak a lot about us.  Our actions show where we stand, and express our desires.

Identity is based on experiences, memories, and actions, because they are all tightly linked to us regardless of anything.  We are all recognizable by these three things, all enveloped by our experiences.  Our experiences defines us because they are everything that has happened to us in our entire lives, through all changes.  In a change of identity, our experiences still defines us because they are never wrong in telling us about ourselves.  How could they be? They are our life story.  

Work Cited

Adkins, Amy. “Who Am I?.” Youtube. TED-Ed, 13 January 2017    <https://youtu.be/UHwVyplU3Pg>.                   

Green, Hank.  “Crash Course Philosophy #19.” Youtube.  PBS, 27 June 2016.  13 January 2017. <https://youtu.be/trqDnLNRuSc>.

Advanced Essay #2

Posted by Taytiana Velazquez-Rivera in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

As a writer this helped me reralize that everyone learns different and the self set goals we make for others and ourselves.


“Proficient literacy”

In the warm brown fluorescently lit dining room, with stacks of textbooks and papers. My brother was across from me getting really frustrated doing his english homework after flying through math, while I was kind of the opposite. The three lined cinnamon apple candles flickered in the middle of the table covered with green lining; their smell was masked by the smell of arroz y gandules and pastellios, not to mention the delicious smell of the sofrito my mom had made to use in these things, freshly cut cilantro and peppers, among many other ingredients. I was trying to finish my shape, multiplication and identifying rays and lines so I can go in the kitchen and help because i love the smell of the “classic Puerto Rican food” that most people thing we eat everyday, while i glanced towards the kitchen to make sure she wasn’t done I noticed my brother enticed by the flickering of the candle as he held his paper closer and closer until it caught fire. He threw it on the table and my mom came rushing over smacking with her cooking mitts.

“I am sick of this bull shit she stated, Tati go get the children's

Dictionary”. “Okay” I responded not knowing why her anger was directed to me. She took the book and flopped it on the now charred table-cloth and paper. “Flip and point to anyone” she said, I flipped a few paged and pointed to car. “Matt say that word”, struggling I saw his mouth reform over and again, “fars” he said. Frustrated, but trying to calm she said “Okay, it takes practice you can’t try to hide or destroy your homework every time it get’s too hard, c makes the ka sound” At that moment, I realize my mom wasn’t going to let my brothers disability get in the way of him learning. It was weird to see her have to teach him different and that he didn’t learn the way most people did, I didn’t know why I even assumed he was supposed to learn like me.

People often define for themselves what is proficient literacy, but what is to one, isn’t the same to another. In most cases, figures of authority determine the definition of proficient literacy and hold every person learning from them to that specific standard. As, Mark Rose said, in ‘I just want to be average’,  “Students will float to the mark you set” which is true, like in the class he was mistakenly in the standard’s were set low, but if you set them high you’ll get someone willing to work. Setting individual goals of learning is more important than setting a set in stone mark for everyone, to reach at a certain time. My mothers definition of proficiency was different for my brother and I.  She knew the difference and she knew we couldn't learn the same.  My brother had set a low mark for himself, however my Mom set one way above what he thought was capable of, helping him float to the mark realizing a mark set was temporary and changeable.

Again, when the ‘students’ are expected to do the minimum by the ‘edler’, ‘wiser’ person people can become discouraged and Like in How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Gloria Anzaldua said “when not copping out we know that we are more than nothing.” Which took me back to the look on my brothers face a month after my mom pulled out that dictionary and word slipped and skidded off his tongue with ease, no fighting with the letters and vowels and I saw confidence. In this moment my brother knew what he was capable of more on literacy, he knew he could advance and understand if he tried. Self exploration with a push is important of the beginnings of literacy.

Sometimes, when we let the learner, reader, the student find and indulge in literacy themselves, we  allow for, that ‘proficiency’. Like in How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health stated, "We use challenges a lot in our work, because they give you something tangible to aim for and a sense of achievement once you’ve completed them. It can help you develop your skills, or help you discover something new," says Wilkinson; this goal setting system is an idea that can be in ones thoughts. However this is a self defined achievement, which has nothing to do with cultural capital, but every indivisual persons ambition and self defining proficient literacy.

Although figures of authority often decide on, what is the ‘standard’ for proficient literacy, it is important that once one begins to explore literacy in the simplest form. With time comes the understanding of code-switching and the belief of ‘cultural capital’ however with the fundamentals of literacy it is just a person testing the limits and floating to the marks the authoritative teaching figures set for the  learning students. As long as students can meet the glorious feeling of  being literate  they will crave full literacy and raise their previously sets of proficient literacy.


Advance Essay #2

Posted by Christian McCormac in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

Advance Essay #2

  • Christian McCormac


While transferring from my middle school C.W Henry in the Mount Airy area to my recent high school Science Leadership Academy, I would say that I learned a new way of living from what I knew during middle school. While in middle school my daily routine consisted of waking up everyday at 6am, my mom dropping me off at school, to my mom picking me up after school was over and taking me home. I never got the chance to explore what was around and discover new things. Now since I am in highschool and my high school is located directly in Center City, it definitely gives me way more opportunities to get outside and see what the world has to offer. Going to SLA, I would say gave me a lot more freedom to be my own person and discover new things, that I really never knew about before as a young kid in middle school. Going from my middle school to SLA definitely was a huge change in my lifestyle. It also gave me a better outlook on how I live my life and what I should be looking at forward to. Coming to school everyday definitely got me out of my comfort zone. When I was in middle school I remember how the teachers and staff treated everyone like prisoners almost and not like human beginnings. You could tell that the teachers and staff there weren't as passionate about there job as the teachers and staff at Science Leadership Academy. I remember in 8th grade during the winter we didn't go outside for recess for almost five months. That mentally killed me not being able to go outside, run around, and breath some fresh air. Now that I am high school, the teachers and the staff are more reasonable and treat you like a human beginnings. High school people are more accepting for who you are and how you live. It’s not like middle school where you have to line up just to walk to a class that is the net door down.




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2016-17

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