What I Chose For This Outsider Assignment

Another example was the first time stepping on Haskell’s campus. My youngest had went off to college himself. I was well received by professors, staff and the students. An occasional snicker here and there because of my age. I assumed that I would get a few of those. But, was so excited that I was here and part of it all. Over lunch in Curtis one afternoon I listened to students talking about the prejudice they had experienced at Haskell because of their native color. They were being told they were not part of the In-group. How could that be? I was really surprised until I had experienced it myself. I had a teacher that would use all of my work as examples but then would not give me any credit. Not that I required attention, but, felt I should had some recognition. Our little group would meet for lunch a few times a week and on this particular day my little world opened up to the In-Group Out-Group world. After lunch was over my friend, who shall remain nameless as everyone will know who he is, were walking to our next class when out of frustration I had mentioned my teacher’s attitude towards me. Being a true friend and not thinking before he spoke he said “Well, if you didn’t look so white maybe she would act differently towards you”. So, there I was, in the Out-group when I thought I was in the

In spring 2014, I volunteered to run the Each One Teach One program. As the editor, I had to lead discussions and facilitate exchange of essays. Although every participant in the program was African American, I had recently immigrated to the United States and had a strong accent. Initially, a majority of the group were not committed to the program and I tried to connect to get them to engage fully, but my background seemed to set me apart from the other students. One of the first things I learned was that it was okay to be different from the others and appropriating their culture made it harder to get across to them. Connecting with them worked best when I was patient and willing to listen. With time, I realized that although we had different

As an economically disadvantaged, minority student who ventured out of a small, closed-minded town, I have developed a passion to serve the underserved. Throughout my life, I have been associated with and witnessed the consequences of being a minority. For example, with 1% of my high school identifying

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

Acceptance and security. These are the two things that every human being wants. How they gain those two things varies from person to person.But most of us are privileged enough to not worry about these two very important necessities.However there are people in the world who are not so lucky. Those are the people who are failed to be understood by the rest of the world. However a lot of us are asleep to those people and their problems.Sometimes it takes a piece of art or literature to wake us up to those problems and a piece of literature that can do that is the novel written by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders.In her novel Hinton, writes about two socioeconomic classes, the greasers and the Socs, who live their lives on the two ends of social status, near-poverty and full on rich, respectively.The cloak of money shields both sides to understand the others problems and the society is unable to take off the cloak as well. The novel is also a good eye-opener to how social,emotional,and economic forces can shape a person’s life and how if one can truly understand a person for what they are the world might just be a better place.

The National FFA Organization has given me so many opportunities and I didn’t want silly stereotype hinder every student to take advantage of it. I shared my story with students about how I am a member of color and how the FFA changed my life. I told them that it doesn’t matter if you are White, Black, Latino, or Pock-o-dotted. It doesn’t matter if you were raise on a farm in North Carolina or in an apartment in the middle of New York City. It doesn’t matter what your background is; the same opportunities are held within the jacket for

Representatives from all different tribes were present and they danced and sang together in harmony. The traditional dress wear of the each tribe was beautiful and they introduced the tribes that were present. I loved the sense of togetherness the participants had. Also, the experience broke a stereotype for me. I was under the impression that all Native Americans were tan and had black hair. I guess I related it to the movie Pocahontas and some western movies I’ve seen. This certainly was not the case. It goes to show you really can’t judge someone with how they look or guess their culture with how they look. This changed my way of thinking. I do anticipate to learn more about the Native American culture and learn not to assume culture based on appearance. I generally do not mean to, but I belive that everyone has unconscious thoughts and assumptions when they see someone different than themselves. With the more knowledge I gain as a counselor and though my classes I want to tackle my unconscious thoughts and assumptions. Through this class I have definitely become more aware of what I have been told in relation to people different than

There was a time when I would shy away from an in-depth conversation about race and race relations in social situations. I would participate in class, when studying race and health disparities, however when stepped out of the classroom and converse amongst my peers, I became more reserved. There’s something about asking those hard questions and discussing disparities as a result of oppressions and transgressions which made me uncomfortable to talk about race outside of the structured, politically-correct world of academia. Often emotions overshadowed a constructive and empathetic discourse and as a result I would be reserved or sometimes avoided those conversations. However, it is a conversation that I need to be a part of.

minority usually excluded from social events. I looked out of place as usual, but the bond he

The cultural event that I chose to attend was the Awareness Through Performance: Privilege Unplugged, an event that took place on February 22nd at the Cartwright center. The focus of this event was to raise awareness in a predominately white campus and community, about the impact that white privilege has on minorities in American society today. The ATP Troupe acted out a series of scenarios that depicted different topics such as racism, identity, privilege, and cultural differences in a way that made the conversation continue even after the conclusion of the event. The performance put together by the Troupe outlined a variety of real life experiences of minorities in America and briefly touched on the history and current culture of these racial groups.

Outsiders Project Reflection For my Outsiders project, I chose two quotes and created a piece of art that I felt fully represented them. My main theme for this project is family and how Johnny would have run away if the gang wasn’t there for him. I chose this theme because I thought it had a huge impact on the book and especially the characters relationships with each other. I also thought it was the number one theme out of the book.

The event I attended was the film screening for the movie "Gook" at the Askew Student Life Center. This film narrates the life of two Korean American brothers who have a unique friendship with an 11-year old African American named Kamila. To begin with, the title of the movie is an offensive slang that is used to describe people who are from Philippine, Korean, or Vietnamese descent. As the title appeared, and the word was explained right underneath it, it made me realize that this word holds the same offensive meaning as the N word does to African Americans. Besides that, several of the others topics that we have discussed in class came in mind, allowing me to understand that this film was created as an attempt to demonstrate the struggle and overt

In the summer of 2016 I volunteered for a camp by the name of Camp Harmony. A Non-profit Organization that drives at least three hundred elementary school students from public schools around Los Angeles to a camp spot in Malibu. Out of the 150 councilors volunteering at the camp, I was the only African American male counselor. For the kids to see a counselor be a race other than caucasian I felt that I gave them that new perspective that they were no different then us. I remember when I first went on the bus with the other councilors to pick up the kids the counselors talked about the difficulties when helping campers come out of their comfort zones. A period that would last a full day at the most, but when I met Tobe for the first time it

I have had the opportunity to interact with a diversity of people during my time as a member of the Earle Hall Leadership Council. The residents at Earle come from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds, and I have developed a greater appreciation for other walks of life through my interactions during hall events. For example, I was discussing my desire to learn Spanish with a Hispanic resident and she shared with me that her parents usually avoid visiting the doctor’s office when they are sick because the language and culture barrier makes them feel uncomfortable. I also shared a conversation with a Muslim resident who felt condemned while attending a Christian counseling session. Being involved in my residential community has allowed

Racism and privilege are two topics which often at times are controversial to discuss. My thoughts of this course will help give me awareness of self and culture. This course will educate me on cultural identity on a Marco level. I'm intrigued to know, what are my classmates’ perspectives on white privilege? I'm looking forward to working collectively as a class to formulate ideas that can assist in our development as social workers. I'm aware that I may unintentionally disrespect a classmate in regard to a particular topic. I'm nervous to hear my classmates’ response, on certain discussions we will have throughout the semester. However, this year the challenge I will encounter is knowing when I’ve done enough in my ability to help a person