23Jun10

I went to a mostly white school and had a relatively high GPA (don't ask what it was because it was so long ago I don't remember) nonetheless, I was able to float between different cliques in high school but never was able to float into the black clique. I was labeled off the bat because I had lighter skin and "good" hair. It was not my fault. I didn't ask my parents to make me. But because of that I was never able to fit into the black clique. But in my group of friends, I was the "token" black girl. I was also told I acted too "white" for a black girl. I have no idea what that means and to this day, I still have no idea what it means.

22Jun2010

So I just finished watching the first lecture and I feel compelled to comment on how the little black girls kept picking the white dolls. I remember as a kid playing with white barbie dolls. I do remember as a child asking for a doll that was darker skinned and got the whole why do you want that doll? I still got the doll but never really wondered what the big deal was. I just wanted the doll because it matched me more than than the other dolls that I had been playing with. I still have the doll to this day and realize that I probably only played with it a few times because of what the reaction was when I originally wanted it. What I found most interesting with the doll experiment was that it essentially was white supremecy.

So I still haven't figured out which stage that I am in. I really have no idea. And no matter how many times I watch the lectures, I still can't figure it out. Eh, guess I will always be stuck wondering.

I still can not get over the fact that a church group was teaching young black boys what to do when they get pulled over. What does a 5 year old know about getting pulled over by the police? He does not get to drive for another 11 years. It reminded my of a co-worker who literally was not involved in what happened but simply got brought in by the police because he was with some suspects in a murder. They were his friends but he did not know what had occurred from the time prior to his friends committing the crime and them getting picked up for it. He ended up being in jail for a few days and almost lost his job over it. But I recall have a conversation with one of my other coworkers about it and saying I hope this is not true and there is no way that this coworker would ever be caught up in something like this. A third coworker came over and invaded our conversation about it and she only heard the fact that I said he probably needs better friends that would not put him in that type of situation and she proceed to berate me saying every black man knows what it is like to be in jail. I was completely taken aback by such a ridiculous and bold statement. I guess because she is 100% black and I am only half, she expected me to be in full agreement with her, when in fact I was completely appalled and berated her back by saying and this is why we as a people can not complete anything. Black men and women are taught that the police are out to get you no matter what and if you act "white" you are no longer part of the black community. After that, I could not talk to the coworker anymore because of how stupid she sounded to me. Now it could have been that fact that she was 18 and still acted like a child but I guess I will never know.

16Jun10

When Dr. Richards asked who are you, the first thing that came to my mind was soldier-medic. I did not even think of my height, sex, what my job is, race. None of that came to mind. I guess it has been ingrained in me now that when someone asks who are you, my response is immediately, I am a soldier-medic. It was not even a question what to answer.
I have no idea what stage I would be in or is currently in. I did not even know that there stages. Guess you learn something new everyday. When Dr. Richards was describing how he helped a disabled student go to the bathroom, I immediately thought of work. How many times have I had to help a patient go to the bathroom? At first, when it was a male patient, I would always try and get a male tech to help because I was embarrassed. I did not want to touch some strange man's penis (even with and only with gloves on). I was afraid I would see something I did not want to see. But there came that one time when a male tech was not available and I got stuck doing. I had no idea what to do. I knew the obvious that the penis goes into the urinal but I did not know about this whole shake to get the last drops out because I obviously do not have a penis. Then it became, oh shit, so how many times do I shake this stranger's penis before it becomes something else. I figured out that I would just use the edge of the urinal to do the shaking. Now I am that point where I have attitude, you have seen one penis, you essentially seen them all. Albeit, they are different shapes colours and sizes. Now, I am the tech the other female techs run to when a patient feels it necessary to, how can I put this appropriately, enjoy the pleasuring of oneself (yes men in the emergency department will attempt to masturbate and it is so gross) to walk in the room and demand they stop their inappropriate behavior. Of course when I walk in, I intimidate them so they know not to attempt this behavior again.
I never realized that white people never thought about the fact that they are white. I guess because society told me that I had to “be black” or at the very least act black, It never crossed my mind that white people did not think the same way. (Kind of like my friend who speaks three languages and I am dying to know which one he thinks in). I just assumed everyone saw their race and thought about it. Well I put my foot in my preverbal mouth with that concept.

16Jun10
I work in large urban hospital and I can tell you, the same thing happens there. Our interim nurse manager and director of nursing are white guys and they are the easiest guys to talk to and get problems solved. But I see how bad white people treat each both to each other's face and behind their back. I know I work with a majority of women (which is like being in high school all over again). People talk about their personal lives in patient care areas that are completely inappropriate and embarrassing to be sitting near. Their personal business is out in the air for everyone to hear and then it turns into gossip. It absolutely crazy. And in the current Army unit I am with, the same thing goes on. I don't understand why it goes on. It kind of reminds me of voting. When I went to vote, every white friend asked me who I was voting for. I told them it was none of their business. But when my friends that weren't white, never asked. I personally could careless what a person's skin colour or sexual orientation is (though I am hoping Don't Ask, Don't Tell gets repealed asap). I was never taught to look at either. Just the person as a whole.

9Jun10

I used to get all the time from my friends in high school that I was the whitest black they had ever met. I had no idea what on Earth they were talking about. Now as an adult and working in the health-care field, I totally understand what they meant by acting black. Unfortunately, so many people us the ER as a primary care facility or for non-emergent issues that it has become a norm to have what is called hallway beds (essentially, there are stretchers in the hallway to treat patients. I know its so wrong and I don't agree with it but there is nothing I can do about it). Nonetheless, on many occasions, I have had to put a black/brown patient into a hallway bed and their immediate response is either "I am being put into the hallway because I am black/brown" or "this is where they put people that have no insurance." Mind you, we are level I trauma center and are always busy no matter what time of day it is. I used to say no this is the are we have available to treat you, if you don't like it, you can wait for a room back out in the waiting room and your wait to see a physician will be even longer. I cannot count on my fingers or toes how many times I've heard black/brown patients complain about the way they are treated and claim its because they are black/brown. But they fail to recognize their own outrageous behavior of screaming, yelling, cussing, and simply acting a fool. They find this behavior completely appropriate. It drives me absolutely nuts when black/brown people act the stereotype that is associated with them. I hate how boys (they don't deserve to be called men) wear their pants so low that I can tell what underwear they are wearing and/or exactly what the shape of their butt is. Little do they know this cultural trend came out of the jail system that was a nonchalant way of advertising gay sex. I have to laugh when I get hit on by them because I point out you are advertising gay sex and they get all huffy and upset.

So why is it that black/brown people are disproportionately represented in the prison system? Is the criminal justice system racist or more lenient to whites? I am not sure if the criminal justice system is racist or if the police departments are taught to specifically target black/brown people. It does seem that whites receive more lenient sentences than do black/brown people. If we look at the news media, people that are caught making meth (meth labs, selling, using) are disproportionately white. But if you look at drugs such as marijuana and crack, the majority of arrests are of black/brown people.

I work in an ER in center city Philadelphia. We get a lot of prisoners (newly arrested or from the actual prison system) that complain of some "emergency" and essentially get a ride to the ER. We recently had a prisoner that came in complaining of some vague complaint (which is pretty typical). The prisoner was arrested for marijuana possession and intent to sell. I was able to talk to the two police officers that had the prison in custody about the justice system in Philadelphia. I had no idea that many of the criminal judges were very liberal and allowed criminals to continually have a break until the criminal kills someone. Then it becomes a huge ordeal and the criminal gets put into prison. Even though the judges have access and see the arrest report during and prior to the hearing. There are criminals with huge arrest records that are increasingly more and more violent acts. Yet, they are continually given a break. And then people wonder why Philadelphia is getting more and more dangerous. The government of Philadelphia has recently been allowing Philadelphia police officers to live outside the city limits if they have been on the force for at least 5 years. And guess what?! There's a huge exodus of Philly police leaving the city limits. I understand that prisons are overcrowded. But why is it that there are people on death row for 20 years and get to use the appeal process? I believe that once you are convicted, you are shit out of luck. You put yourself in that situation and committed whatever crime that got you on death row. Once on death row you should be executed within a year and not be allowed to live out your life on the taxpayers expense. Get rid of people on death row faster and there could potentially be more money to help with prison overcrowding.

2Jun10 13:35
The term ethnocentrism is one that I have heard many, many times. I have witnessed people that I called "friends" display the worst forms of ethnocentrism. To the point where I was embarrassed to be their friends anymore. And it didn't matter that I made the effort to explain to these "friends" anything, I was just wrong for being sympathetic. It would drive me nuts that I socialized with people that were so hell bent on their ideas were the right way, I simply stopped talking to them. They would text and email and ask why I refused to simply acknowledge their existence. It has even occurred during the last 10 years that I have served in the US Army. I had a lieutenant that had come back from a tour in Iraq and we used to get into heated debates over Islam. He insisted that part of the Seven Pillars of Islam was that Americans were pigs and infidels and should be murdered, yet this lieutenant was NOT fluent in Arabic. He had no clue about Islam, but was essentially brain washed by the media, maybe by some briefings he had or gave that all Muslims were evil. After I certain point, I looked at him and said you are a moron. It is no wonder radical Muslims hate us, you are a perfect example of the stereotype they have developed to get others to join their group and fight. Unfortunately, many soldiers I have served with and have gone to Iraq (at the beginning of the invasion) (I have yet to be deployed) and come back with this attitude. It is a sad state the our service members are being influenced. Don't misunderstand, I am not saying that all service members have this attitude, I am just using my experience thus far. The video of the tankers crushing the Iraqi car is a perfect example of how that can be used by radical Muslims to continue to stereotype American soldiers.
The media in US also continues to perpetuate the stereotype of Islam by deliberately editing out the positive things that US servicemen are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are brigades of soldiers that are attempting to fix the infra structure of both Iraq and Afghanistan. They are trying to change the agriculture of Afghanistan from that of the highly profitable opium fields, to ones that can feed and clothe their families and build the economy. In Iraq, Iraqi citizens go to the US military hospitals, battalion aid stations, and even the medics to get medical aid that has collapsed because of the conflict ( it is not officially a war because our Congress has not declared war on any nation). There are many examples of US service members doing many positive things to aid both Iraq and Afghanistan, but our news media chooses not to show this on the evening news. The US media has focused on the death of American service members, but have completely neglected the Iraq or Afghani citizens that have died along side the American service members.
I am the farthest thing from anti-American. I love my country and would have not enlisted to protect it. I just have a huge issue with how the US doesn't make a conscious effort to change the stereotype that radical Muslims have developed to recruit more radical Muslims to their cause. World peace will never happen, but if people at the very least take a moment to make an effort to understand others, our world would be a much better place.

I started to watch the same program but I totally had to stop. I understand that in this universe we are not the only beings but I find it hard to believe that other beings created us. They may have had some influence in how we ended up today. (I totally sound like a crazy person). I definitely believe in evolution and considering I am a biological anthropology major I plan on studying our evolution. Chimps and humans are so closely related its crazy, even though we are two completely different species.

I do remember watching the "Colour of Friendship" movie on the Disney channel. When it started, I was expecting to see an African girl with dark skin and not a girl with light coloured skin from South Africa. It did not even dawn on me that the apartheid in South Africa had shaped this young South African girl to think the way she did. If only the everyone in the world had an experience like those two girls, the world may be more of an understanding place.

wow! I live in Philadelphia and never heard that story. (guess I should turn the news on more often). I do recall the woman from Bucks County who said she was carjacked by two black men and she and her kid(s) ended up being found in Disneyworld in Florida. And all that man power and time was wasted on looking for two black men that didn't exist. I know I fall into the category of judging people without knowing the whole story. I work in an ER and assume all the gunshot victims we get are gangbangers. A majority of them are, but we did get one guy that was black and worked in a respectable job, but I just assumed he was another gangbanger (I know I shouldnt prejudge but its hard). There are always people that will act the "stereotypical" way that a particular group has been branded.

So this whole concept of race is absolutely ridiculous to me. I could never quite grasp this idea of race amongst us humans. To be categorized into a race by skin colour is crazy. Where would I fit in with my light brown skin that in the summer gets really dark? Would I be 'black", "white" or some other category? Linneaus was great for his categorizing animals and plants using a binomial naming system, but to try and categorize humans into race is simply silly. How is one superior to the other just because of the shade of their skin? I have to reference Star Trek here (sorry it happens to be on my tv at the moment), as I sit and watch this episode, I see all the different species of aliens: Klingons, Human, Betazed, Andorian, Ferengi, Vulcan, Romulan and of course the illustrious Borg. If you look at these different species, who do you think are the "white" representation? I have to say the Borg. They simply assimilate others into their concept of perfection. Half-organism, half-cybernetics. The Klingons could be interpreted as the blacks. Tall, powerful, most of those represented have a darker skin tone and all are violent warriors. If we broke down the tv show, I am sure we could find out what aliens represent what human category.

All the different photos of the different humans was very striking. The darker skinned people of the Pacific Islands look to me like they are black. Walking down the street I would make the assumption that there were black. I have to say, the image of the darker skinned people with the light hair I tried to look up on the internet but couldn't find other images. I have to say I would love to know what their genetic makeup was and if light coloured hair was dominant or a recessive gene among their people or even how the gene for light hair colour was entered into their gene pool. (I may have discovered a research project for myself).

I had somewhat of an idea about whitening creams and bleaches. Thanks to Michael Jackson and his suffering of vitiligo. Although I completely forgot about the Sammy Sosa controversy of his skin tone changing from dark to significant lighter. It is odd to me that people would want to lighten their skin to this imagined image that white is beautiful. This concept of white being beautiful has infiltrated the whole world. From the Americans across the globe to the Middle East to the Asian continent. Who on Earth decided that this was the best thing for anyone? And why is that lighter skinned people tan to get darker, even though they may harbour negative ideas towards people of naturally darker skin colour? I have to say it makes me laugh. It's as if they are saying "yeah, white is what I am, but I want to be tanner because it's beautiful, but I don't like people with naturally darker skin colours." The irony of it all.