International Day

On November 19th, I attended International Day at the Engineering building on Campus. Jenna and I arrived right on time before the actual festivities were beginning so we started talking to some of the people that were running the celebration as well as artists sitting at the tables showing off their creations. The first lady I spoke to was creating cards for all of the different ethnic cultures around campus. She said how she wanted to make something that would appeal to everyone. If we wanted a card that said hello in Ghana she was willing to do it. The next booth was an African American artist by the name of Julian K. Van Dyke. He painted murals and portraits that displayed African American culture. After admiring all the different paintings he had done he talked to us about his inspiration that mainly derived from bible readings he had read and learned about.
After speaking with Julian I immediately I spotted a women across the room wearing a non-traditional type of garment. Jenna and I asked her what type of dress she was wearing and she said her dress was from an African culture and it was called a "bu bu". She said typically one would wear this at a wedding, such as the mother of the bride or a bridesmaid. It turns out this women, Maggie Blair-Ramsey was in charge of the celebration and was so excited we had come to see everything going on. She said International Day was designed to take into account all the different cultures of people that come from all over and end up here, at Michigan State. We were handed an agenda that showed us what was going on throughout the event such as bongo players and dancers. We saw many people walking around in their nations traditional garment and it was a real eye opener. It was nice to see how proud people are of their heritage even if their outfits are not the standard here in America. International Day was a success and I had a great time walking around and talking with people.

Hate Kills - Sylvia Guerrero Seminar

This past Friday I attended a seminar where Sylvia Guerrero spoke about her daughter Gwen's brutal murder in 2002. The lifetime movie, "a girl like me" re-tells the tragic story about Gwen Guerrero's death. Born a boy, Eddie, never felt right in his body, as his mother says. Around high school, with the support of his family, he decided to stop deceiving himself and started dressing like a girl and taking hormones. He named himself Gwen and was overall much happier as a female than a male. When Gwen was 17 she went out to a party and was harassed. 4 boys at the party demanded to know if she was a girl or a boy. They took it upon themselves to undress her and witnessed "she" was indeed a "he". After beating her up, the boys tied her up, strangled her and continued to abuse her. After she was dead, the beatings continued and they dragged her outside where she was buried under dirt and boulders. Police reports and witnesses state the boys went to McDonald's for breakfast after the brutal slaying.
The seminar started off with a short clip of pictures of Gwen and news reports of what happened to her. I never thought I would get so emotional after watching the news reports but simply seeing how people could be so horrible to a transgendered individual was a real eye opener. As soon as Sylvia started talking about her daughter I immediately teared up. She spoke not only about her daughter but about the lives saved by people listening to her story. She encouraged everyone to be brave and live their lives how they want to live, like her daughter wanted too. The one thing that struck me the most about listening to Sylvia speak was how she said she forgave the men that took away her daughter. The fact that she was willing to visit 2 of the 4 men who killed her daughter took so much courage and strength and I truly applaud her for that. The seminar ultimately left me with the powerful saying, "hate kills". Its frightening and sad that we live in a world with so much hatred but if people recognize everyone is human like Sylvia is trying to preach, lives will ultimately be saved and hopefully feelings could be changed.

GLBT Seminar

After watching the Video at the GLBT safe school seminar I was shocked about the information shown and told. When the video talked about all the prejudices and hardships families have gone through dealing with being gay or lesbian it was a huge eye opener. Hearing stories about people committing suicide for fear of coming out was saddening. One of the families mentioned that their daughter was so scared to come out and would rather take her own life than live a life she resented. The statistic in the movie about how gays were 3 to 7 times more likely to commit suicide is scary. It seems so hypocritical and maddening to me that people argue the bible states that homosexuality is a sin and therefore people find the need to write death threats and hate mail to people who are gay. But do these same people not believe everyone should be treated equal and that god loves us all? In today's world, homosexuality seems to be much more openly accepted and mainstreamed. The fact that Gene Robinson, in 2003 became the first openly gay bishop shows how far society has come. Or so it seemed. Hearing the death threats against him was terrifying. It seems the world has progressed so much and realizing just how many people are still so prejudice is discouraging.

Blindness

To be honest a movie like Blindness does not appeal to me which is why I have not seen it. It is not because the NFB is protesting it but that just gives me more reason not to see it. Depicting characters that have a physical disability in any way is hard to watch and not be offended however it is just a movie. It is hard for me to take a stand on the issue because I am not blind and do not know anyone that is. I completely understand how in any situation discrimination of a physical characteristic is upsetting and the fact that the characters in the movie are being portrayed as "incompetent, filthy, vicious, and depraved" (Mauro) make people even more disgusted by the whole premise. It is too coincidental that the one civilized person in the movie is not blind and she ends up saving the day. Miramax says how the film is "a courageous parable about the triumph of the human spirit when civilization breaks down," but the fact that being blind has everything to do with it is completely inappropriate. In her article, Terri Mauro uses the example about being blond and everyone becoming "vapid idiots". No one would ever make a movie about this because the whole idea is ridiculous, much to the whole idea that being blind is an epidemic. The NFB has every right to protest this movie and I applaud their courageous effort to try and get people to understand where there coming from.

My Kindergarten Class

After reading Al Capone Does My Shirts I thought alot about the different attitudes the kids on Alcatraz held towards Natalie. I am sure for many of the characters, especially the younger ones, they have never experienced being integrated with a child who has special needs. Linton mentions in her article how back then (around the 30's) it was very common for children to be sent away to institutions or homes where they are not seen as an obstacle for their family. On that note, I am a Kindergarten teacher at a hebrew school in East Lansing. One of the girls in my class, Rosie, has cerebral palsy. She is in a wheelchair so the kids immediatly realized she was different. Her mom informed me she would have a helper with her the entire time but that Rosie was very verbal and could comprehend alot of information. After our first class I knew Rosie could understand everything I was teaching and she loved to give me kisses. She was such a happy girl and was excited to be in her own class, without her mom there. The other kids were very skeptical to play with her or even help her because they looked at her as someone too different than themselves. We just finished our 6th week in hebrew school and by now all the kids understand Rosie is very similar to themselves. They all include her to play with them and even like to roll her wheelchair when we move to another room. Being kindergarteners I am so happy they already are experiencing being in a class with a child who has special needs. They are unaware at how much knowledge they are gaining and how lucky they are to have someone they can learn something new from in their class.

Feelings About Blogging

In Te 448, the atmosphere is extremely relaxed. I feel as a class we are able to discuss our feelings and thoughts on the books and course readings we are reading. Sometimes however, people may feel intimidated to say what they feel in fear of going against someone else. Having to write in a blog for class is beneficial for both reasons. We are able to express our feelings throughouly without fear and we can dissect specific parts of the readings we want to spend more time talking about.
Last class during our discussion of Habibi I am sure I felt differently than most people in the class. Being Jewish, I felt the book held very negative stereotypes towards Jews and the Israeli people. No one in class seemed to hold an opinion other than that or at least no other opinions were expressed. I would never hold anything agaisnt anyone not seeing this book as a negative stereotype towards Jews. I wonder if feelings were changed after seeing the controversy portrayed in the West Bloomfield School District or just our general talk in class. I like being able to go onto our classroom's blog and see everyone's blog in hopes they discussed some of their thoughts towards the book.
Once you feel passionate about a topic its hard to stop talking about it. Blogging allows one to continue to express their feelings to the fullest without the need to stop.

Insider/Outsider Debate

"We can only draw with authenticity upon emotions we've known and tasted", Dorris states in the article "Native Americans in Children's Literature". This quote represents how important it is to be an insider when writing a book based on sterotypes or a particular ethnicity, religion and race. As a reader I feel an author that is considered an insider of that particular group has the life experience to truly capture what is trying to be said. These insiders would be "less likely to portray Natives as heroic or mystical individuals" (Reese, 159). However, the most important issue is being accurate about everything written. So whose to say an outsider does not know just as much as in insider? Being raised in a Jewish household I have plenty of knowledge about the religion. My friend Danny however, was raised Catholic and has chosen to study Judiasm for the past three years studying hebrew and the Torah. I am the insider, He is the outsider yet I would feel more comfortable about him writing a book based on the religion than me. I feel its important to be an insder because the writing is more authentic but accuracy is what I would look for. Both an Insider or Outsider can get the job done!