Practice makes perfect

After reading the article, “If I were a poor black kid”, I have mostly agreed with the author. He was very specific throughout the article and give different situations, and how he would approach each situation. I don’t think that race is greater than hard work, and I think that if someone works very hard, they will get out of any situation they are in and succeed. I feel like that there are many kids that have the opportunity to get ahead but for one reason or another, they choose not to. The kids have the resources to work hard, but not everyone has the resources to succeed. Although the article made it sound very easy for everything to fall in to place in order to succeed, I don’t think that everything will just fall into place. But I think that hard work goes a long way, and if someone keeps working at something then they will succeed at it.

Guest Speaker

Recently in Issues, we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about wrongful convictions. Terrel Swift was a member of the "Englewood Four", a group of men who were wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a Chicago woman in 1994 after confessing to it as juveniles. Terell talked a little about how it all happened and life after prison. The most moving activity we did was the one when we first walked in. Everyone just signed the piece of paper without even wondering what they were signing. Although it wasn't severe, it did get its message across. The only reason that everyone signed it I think is because we were told to sign it as we came in and everyone was more concerned with sitting down than reading what the paper said. It is crazy to think that there are so many people who actually get tricked by cops to sign a confession for something they didn't do. I look as Terrel as a role model because he is going out even after he had to serve time, and trying to put an end to wronful convictions.

White Like Me

After reading the chapter "Privilege", I agree with what Wise was saying. Wise opens up talking about how Whites say the past is not their fault and the racism cannot be undone, But are also quick to take credit for the good things that happened in the past. He talks about stories about when he was in school, and how being white was a privilege to him, and how it helped him succeed. He points out that 9 out of every 10 teachers are white, which makes teachers teach from a white lens. He did a convincing job showing this by giving a story from when he was in college. When he was in college, he missed a whole exam, and walked into one a few hours late. He ended up being able to make up the exam he missed and was able to walk in late(which was against the rules) to the other. He even realized that he was very fortunate for  both of them and even though it might not have to do with his skin color, he felt like being white helped. He felt that "Black or white students in that situation would not only bear the pressure of having dropped the ball; they would further carry the burden of wondering whther they had dropped it, in the eye of authority figures, on behalf of their entire group"(23). So Wise found 2 seperate priveleges off of that scenerio, and I agree with him on both. Many people may not agree with his next statement, but "race shapes lives".

Hidden Bias

After taking the hidden bias test, I was pretty interested by the results. The results showed that I prefer Whites more than Blacks. I was shocked by the results and think that although there may be some bias involved, I don't think that the test can really depict them. The test just broke things or people up into four groups. I don't feel like they can find a bias by asking you to put the people into a specified group. I could guess that there would be a bias though because I have grown up my whole life in a community that is mostly white and along the way there have been a few different races that have stepped in to my life. I wouldn't say that I'm leaning completely towards whites because I have friends that are different races and view them the exact same way as anyone else.  Even when I was younger I grew up with a neighbor and good friend that was black. So I feel like this test might find some bias, but I don't think that the results that were shown were right. Also at the end it had a survey that asked questions like "what religion are you?" or "how religious are you?" And by those answers I think they can alter the final result and place you into a different category. Do I think the test was completely right? No but I do think it was a good test but had flaws.