I looked on YouTube to see it someone had posted a clip of it so that you could hear the foolishness for yourself, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful. I will attempt to describe it to you.

Two women are talking and waiting in line; from their tone (loud and “ghetto”) and correct usage of Black English I infer that they are suppose to be African-American. Another woman (also supposedly African-American for the reasons stated above) comes and “cuts line”. The woman that has been cut in front of speaks to her friend and has a conversation that sounds something like this:

Friend 1: “Oh girl, did you see dat?”

Friend 2: “Oh no she didn’t! Did she just cut line in front of me?!”

Friend 1: “Uhuh.”

Friend 2: “Watch this!”

After this conference between the friends the girl that has been cut in front of taps the cutter on the shoulder. She immediately turns around with an attitude, and the conversation between them goes something like this:

Friend 2: “Excuse me, did you just cut line in front of me?”

Cutter: “Gurrl, you betta be glad I had my orange juice and bacon, egg, and cheese Mcgriddle cause if not, it would be on!”

and then of course comes that delightful McDonald’s jingle. Bah, dah, da, da, da…I’m lovin’ it!

I don’t think so! Who are they marketing to? I hope their intention was not to market to me or any of the women I know that would fall inside my “target age/ethnic group” (black females, 25-34). It amazes me that almost any attempt to market to a specific ethnic groups has been boiled down to using stereotypes and charactachures.

There will be mountains that I will have to climb
And there will be battles that I will have to fight
But victory or defeat, it’s up to me to decide
But how can I expect to win If I never try.

I just can’t give up now
I’ve come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
and I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me

Never said there wouldn’t be trials
Never said I would’t fall
Never said that everything would go the way I want it to go
But when my back is against the wall
And i feel all hope is gone,
I’ll just lift my head up to the sky
And say help me to be strong

I just can’t give up now
I’ve come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
and I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me

[Hook:]
No you didn’t bring me out here to leave me lonely
Even when I can’t see clearly
I know that you are with me(so I can’t)

I just can’t give up now
I’ve come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
and I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me

Racism (2): Discrimination against a person or group of people based on their “race”. There are two types of racism; individual racism and institutional racism.

People of color: A term of solidarity referring to African Americans, Native Americas, Latinos, Asians, and Pacific Islanders.

References:

Nieto, S. (2004) Affirming Diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=racism

Over the past several months, I have heard, on more than one occasions, people make comments that indicate that racism is taking a nose dive. These comments, thus far, have been given in situations in which the election of Obama as the democratic presidential nominee and most recently, president, were the topics of discussion. Interestingly, during the times that I’ve head these types of comments they have not been from people of color. An informal poll of people of color revealed a significant disparity in this belief. This perplexing phenomenon has given rise to my curiosity, and as such I am conducting a small social poll via email, blog, and telephone. From this poll I hope to shed light on and give rise to conversations that examine the possible social effects the election of President Obama may have in our country.

The question to be asked is: Do you believe racism is on its way out? Why or Why not? Confidentiality will be given to all participants. Data will be collected and reviewed. The data will then be disbursed via email and this blog based on yes and no answers and race. Again, confidentiality of individuals will be maintained.

With that said, I invite you to participate in this poll. You can leave a comment and request that it remain private or you can send your comment via email.  Stay tuned for upcoming data.

A couple of weeks ago (during role reversal) I had a reoccurring dream about the students and the parents of the students in my mentor teacher’s classroom. In the dream I am in my mentor teacher’s classroom and the sutdents’ parents are coming in for parent-teacher conferences angry that their children are not learning this year. They bring the children up to me and say, “Look in his head! There is nothing in there! What are they learning this year?” They take the child and tilt his head to the side and invite me to look into his ear to see the space where the brain should be. I bend down and look to see that there is nothing inside. I mean it is completely empty, and there is an immense black space where the brain should be!

I begin to apologize profusely, and attempt to explain to the parents that I am pouring the knowledge, literally pouring the knowledge into their heads daily, but it is unfortunately, coming out of the other side (through ther ear). The parents then give me a pitcher of knowledge and angrily instruct me to fill up their child’s head. I begin to pour, all the while apologizing profusely, only to get the same result, the knowledge leaks through the child’s ear onto the parent’s shoe. The parent gets angrier, and then, thankfully, I wake up.

Needless to say this caused tremendous anxiety during role reversal. I have ended that particular placement and have moved on to my ESOL placement. Ironically the dreams have ceased, but the memory, while humors, is still a little unnerving. So Pangea, my charge to you is to ANALYZE THIS!!

            Day 150 on the island of Pangaea. The Natives grow restless as we have surely entered the point of no return. Ritual sacrifices have increased and with them the acute awareness that things will only get worse before they get better.

  I have heard reports that people have begun to regularly sacrifice leisure in the vain hope that they will one day be able to rejoin the family and friends they left behind.  Time and energy have become precious and scarce commodities and the Natives scheme and plan attempting to gain even an ounce of these unattainable treasures.

We are here because we wanted to be; willing prisoners of the greater good.  We keep in our minds the goals we set for ourselves in the beginning and look to the heavens for the strength to preserve.

 I heard tell that they were sending a rescue ship for us around the holidays. Many hope that they will be able to see family and friends again during this time. We hope, although we know that the vacation will be shorted lived and we have to return to our island to gather the knowledge required for our mission. We pray, that we will be strong enough to endure and supportive enough to encourage one another to preserve. We remember, we are here because we wanted to be; the elected few that were deemed equipped and ready for the challenges of the program; change agents they called us as we embarked on the journey, and change agents we will emerge if all goes according to plan.

By the end of the census it was obvious the we were discussing more than just names. We were no longer voting on the names as much as we were agreeing or disagreeing with the concepts that Pangaea and and Urbtopia represented. The titles on the board had taken on lives of their own and were very clearly representative of ideals, values, beliefs,and missions. These concepts are usually viewed on a very individual basis. It is important that as we continue to build a community that we remember that a community is made up of individuals, and that individuals do not always agree. Disagreeing with the census is not necessarily act of community mutiny. Let’s continue to respect each others as indivudual as we continue to build a community.