End Racism.

     This week we watched the movie "Crash." This film portrayed racial tension among black, white, Mexican, Persian, and Asian people. While watching this movie I thought that the main theme was racism, but towards the end I realized that the theme is also people's fear and avoidance of racism. Many people think that if they don't explicitly make racist comments, or call someone out because of their race, that they are not racist. In the movie, Crash, Sandra Bullock's character demonstrated a married women who had a gun pointed at her face and had her car stolen. Earlier, she was implicitly racist for holding onto her husband's arm as soon as she saw the two black guys. Later, when she got home, she was explicitly racist for telling her husband that she thought the Mexican locksmith would give a copy of their key for one of his "gang banger friends." Neither one of these reactions is okay. 

     We have to realize that the news and media make the world seem more dangerous than it actually is. The doctor in Oprah said that only 3% of rapists/crimes are done by people of color. This means that 97% of them are white. Also, in the movie characters assumed that the Persians were Arab just because of their skin tone, facial hair, and the tone while speaking. Some people assume that because someone is Muslim they have some sort of terrorist affiliation, but only 6% of all terrorists are Muslim. The rest are white. This is not what most people think. It’s because of the media that they think this way.  Countless times have a seen people look at others in a certain way because of the color of their skin or an article of clothing. This is not right. We should not make any assumptions before we actually talk to the person. 

Racism is Wrong.

     This week  we talked about racism, which branches out into two parts: implicit racism and explicit racism. Explicit racism is an open, negative act towards one's race. An example of this is the Klu Klux Klan,  who don't try to hide their hate. Implicit racism is the opposite, and an example of this can be statements written newspaper that aren't deliberate. 

      In addition to racism we talked about race with an emphasis on the idea that one of the first characteristics that people notice about each other is the color of their skin, and other physical features. In class we classified different balls into different categories. The class recognized that it's difficult to place them into proper categories in which each one belongs because each ball has multiple physical traits. This demonstration is similar to people. You can't place people in specific categories. For example, just one person can be placed into numerous categories: female, Persian, long hair, dark hair, oval face, brown eyes, coffee/milk colored skin, and list goes on. This proves that two people may have a few similar physical traits, but a group of people can't be placed into definite groups. To me this is extremely disturbing. It's important to realize that everyone is the same on the outside, but has differences on the inside, therefore instead of trying to guess what someone's race, ask them about their aspirations. 

Monopoly: Being Rich Doesn't Mean Being Happy.

This we talked about old money and new money, and the idea that once you start out as lower, middle, or upper class, majority of the time you will stay in that class. An example of this was seen in class when we played Monopoly in groups of four. Player one was high class, player two was upper-middle class, player three was middle class, and player four water upper-lower class. The player that started in the upper-middle class stayed in the that class, and the same happened with all the rest of the players. This is very similar to real life as well. If you are born into a rich family, or you inherit money, you will most likely spend the rest of your life being well off. This occurs because although all the players spend approximately the same amount of money, the upper class player has more advantages compared to the lower class player, such as higher income and the easy way out when they are sent to jail.

We also learned about the difference in being an upper class citizen and a middle or lower class citizen. If you are an upper class citizen, your kids have to start going to a prestigious pre-school, then a private secondary school, a membership to an expensive country club, and a lot more. The cycle continues with generations to come, until your last name is one that will always be remembered.

All in all,  I think it's important to live your life as best you can. Work hard in your career, and enjoy it all in one. Don't compare yourself with those "above" you because having a lot of money doesn't always mean they have a lot of happiness.