Why Do They Have A Free Country?

Hooks expresses when growing up she consider her family as poor because of how large her family was and how they had enough money to make ends meet. Although, her family was among the working class, when she went off to college she began to she herself as poor. Hooks states that she had scholarships and loans to attend Stanford University, but her parents were concerned with how she was going to pay for getting there, the things she needed for classes, and for emergencies. She says she spent her breaks, when she couldn’t go home, with the black women who cleaned the dormitories. Hooks states that they were more likely to understand where she was coming form than other individual who attend Stanford. She claims they supported and affirmed her efforts to be educated.

In Bell Hooks’, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks introduces the reader to the state of poverty of many individuals that have to suffer because they are unable to live a normal life due to them being extremely poor and uneducated. She stresses about comparing the higher class people to the poor and how different their lives are in terms of survival rates and healthiness. The higher class people tend to be way healthier and survive longer due to them having many ways of treating their problems, while the poor have absolutely no way of paying their medical bills due to their low income. She makes many valid points referring back and forth to different stereotypes of people (mainly black people) and how each of those

In society today there are still forms of segregation prevalent to the eye. Whether it’s in workplaces, schools, etc. it is still seen today. Of course, sometimes no one means to self- segregate himself or herself, sometimes it may even be subconscious. It is not intended to be mean spirited or subjective to anyone, it simply just happens. Even though people may not realize it within themselves, people still hold on to racist beliefs.

bell hooks appeals to the reader's logic by truthfully stating how society divides the academic and working class. She points out that when circumstances change, one's values usually change as well. She says that young black people are encouraged by the dominant culture to believe that assimilation is the only possible way to survive, to succeed. As hook argues, "Effort to assimilate the values and beliefs of privileged white people, presented through media like television, undermine and destroy potential structures of opposition" (89). hooks also points out that at Stanford there were class differences, but it was an issue not to be dealt with. Everyone

There are different levels of discrimination and often times, most people do not realize they are prejudiced. “While most people want to be fair, we can’t help but have preconceived notions”. This quote just shows how some people are raised to either dehumanize or respect a person more because of their race or background. Just like any other learned behavior, prejudice is integrated into the lives of many and plays a huge role in society. Stereotypes and personal experiences strongly contribute to the unintentional actions a person gives off towards a certain type of person or group.

Education has always been an important foundation upon which my family encouraged the most. Not just the education pertaining to structured schooling, but the fundamentals in life that require you to interact in society and be a part of something bigger than yourself. They demonstrated how to commit to values such as responsibility, motivation, and consistency; and, how to be open-minded and passionate about the things you believe in. These things all required a sacrifice in various ways. They always stress how “sometimes you need to give up something to get ahead, or how sometimes sacrificing the familiar and what you expect from yourself to get the results that you are seeking in the long run.”

As we grow, we are raised with many values. Parents, work with one another to

Wheather it is intentional or not, people discriminates against each other. This is a thing that humans do sometimes they don’t know why they do it but they just do it. I believe that discrimination starts with the mind and only comes up when we are thinking about bad thought or want to bellower the other person. For example you discriminate when you think of someone differently just they are poorer than you, smarter than you, overweight, too short, looks gay, or even have differently political beliefs. It doesn’t make it right for you to think this way or to treat someone like this, this is completely and I won’t stand for it. The fight against discrimination has been going on for a long time and the battle continues. Discrimination can be look upon as positive or negative, depending on who a person receives favors or opportunities, or is denied them. Today, though, discrimination is rarely positive, because nowadays everybody has something negative to say about someone. Affirmative Action or Positive discrimination is the policy of favoring a person of a lower group who suffer from discrimination within a culture. Affirmative Action was originally to get rid of discrimination but, people of companies have found a way around that, because of this I will define who I

In the article “ Learning in the Shadow of race in Class” author bell hooks relies on both pathos, her own personal story, and ethos, her educational background in order to show why her desires were often made to seem worthless and stupid. “I learned that the more clearly I named my desires, the more unlikely those desires would ever be fulfilled”.(hooks 139) Here hooks uses pathos to explain to her audience how when growing up, the things she always wanted most never came to past because she or her parents could never afford those desires. This also shows the social class she was brought up in, and how because she was considered lower-middle class such desires seemed impossible. Hooks was to young at the time to really understand social class and why

America is the land of the free; it’s ironic that America also by far has more incarcerated citizens than any other country in the world. America is at war. We have been fighting drug abuse for almost a century. In 1972 president Nixon declared a war on drugs. Unfortunately, we are not winning this war. Drug users are still filling up our jails and prisons, now more than ever. The drug war causes violent crime and criminal activity due to prohibition, not the drugs themselves. Children in all of this are left neglected or without parents. The only beneficiaries of this war are organized crime members and drug dealers. The United States has focused its efforts on the criminalization of drug use. The government has spent billions of dollars in efforts to rid the supply of drugs. Even with all this money and effort of law enforcement it has not decreased the demand or supply of illegal drugs. Not only being highly costly, drug law enforcement has been counterproductive. Current drug laws need to be reviewed and changed. The United States needs to shift spending from law enforcement and penalization to education, treatment, and prevention. The war on drugs has caused many problems in the United States, family problems, financial problems and has increased crime, after forty years in this war it’s time for a change.

Furthermore, everyone has personal discriminations against others because they may not fit into a particular mold or what people think they should be, however, this is based on people’s assumptions about others and this can hurt people. For example, people that bully others have no regard for others and picking on people makes them feel good because they are insecure about themselves. However, they have no idea how much that can affect a person and mass shootings that have occurred in schools is

Imagine being made fun of just because they were refugees, because you had to escape their old life, because they had to leave in order to escape a life where they were imprisoned inside their own home because of a raging war. Or maybe they were be made fun of because they had a different skin tone, or because they were the only girl in your class. These are all examples of social iniquities, times when someone may be the target of bigotry because of reasons they usually cannot control. These inequalities happen all around the world, and can happen in extreme or low amounts of it. And although social inequality has become a problem throughout the world, the topic still remains a threat to a better life.

Unfortunately due to our past history, discrimination had been among us from since decades. Discrimination and prejudice would probably be among us until the end of the world. Prejudice and discrimination is an action that treats people unfairly because of their membership in a particular social group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs to rather on that individual. It is an unfair treatment to a person, racial group, and minority. It is an action based on prejudice.

People have stereotyped against each other from the very early civilization until the present day. They discriminate against looks, race, beliefs, actions and may even do it because a group of people they associate with are doing it. The reasons why people discriminate against each other are infinite; insecurity, misinformation, upbringing and lack of empathy are just a few reasons. Doris Lessing advises, “People…may agree that the hardest thing in the world is to stand out against one’s group, a group of one’s peers” (2). The KKK are a group of white supremacists who

Life can be many things, it can be a box of chocolates or it can be a big trial and error, over time some of our values change, become eroded, or become forgotten. Our actions can say more than our talking and our beliefs guide us in life. Over the years, my values have greatly influenced my character and helped me reach my point in life right now. Unfortunately, not every one is lucky, they forget their values and become overwhelmed.