Being Brown and Proud

Jaira Ontiveros

Mrs. Guerard

Period 3 - XP

January 17, 2013

Being Brown and Proud

            White people judge me because I am brown, I am Mexican, and I dress like a “gangster” according to them. Every day I walk the streets, I do not like to ride the bus just because people look at you like a criminal or something; even they move to other sits in the front to be as far away as they can from you. When white people see a Mexican girl wearing black pants, black converse and a black hoodie walking down the streets of a white neighborhood is like the devil is coming. If they are walking on the same sidewalk I am walking on, they move to the other side of the street. If they are in a car immediately they locked the doors and everything, and I am like “I am not going to steal your car or shoot at you, I am just walking.” Even if they are inside their house they lock everything, you can hear when they closed the doors, lock the windows, and close the blinds. I just watch sideways and see a small space on the windows between the blinds, of course they are looking at me to see if I passed through their house or if I am standing outside waiting to do something. They made me laugh, I actually got use to this kind of situations, what I do is keep on walking with my head up to the sky, looking straight. Being Mexican is not a shame, being brown is a gift.

Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling Is Not Racist

• It's wrong, inappropriate, shouldn't be done." Said ex-senator John AshcroftCheney: "It's the sense of anger and frustration and rage that would go with knowing that the only reason you were stopped ... was because of the color of your skin....

• "Largest number of Americans angry about racial profiling are law-abiding black people who feel that they are stopped and questioned because the police regard all black people with undue suspicion. They feel that they are the victims of a negative stereotype.

• Categories "age" and "race" are both rather fuzzy (define "young") and are both useful predictors of criminality.

Arizona's ImmigrationLaw Is Not Racist

• To be racist, the law would have to specifically target one particular race of people. 
• No one can bear the intellectual responsibility of that argument because that's not what the intent of the Arizona legislature was and that's quite clear.It is an immigration bill, not a brown people bill or a Mexican bill.
  
• All Arizona is guilty of here is trying to deal with problems within its border, and trying to do so in a country in which the federal government has totally abandoned its responsibility to deal effectively with the subject of illegal immigration.

In a divided city, manyblacks see echoes of white superiority

• “No matter how famous/rich u r, ur still a 2nd class citizen if ur Black in Cape Town,'' Lindiwe Suttle. 

• Cape Town is an indelible symbol of the beauty and promise of post-apartheid South Africa. Beyond its gorgeous scenery and great wines, its very logo -- an outline of majestic Table Mountain superimposed over a rainbow -- emphasizes its historic mix of races and cultures, and its most famous resident, Desmond Tutu, is revered as a symbol of tolerance, inclusiveness and forgiveness.many black South.

• For many Africans, this city represents something very different: the last bastion of white rule.

Conclusion

Do not judge a book by its cover. Racial profiling is racist, is illegal, is inappropriate, is wrong and it should not be done. When you judge a person based on their appearance, look or on the outfit they have on, you are kind of stereotyping that person; you are not giving her or him the opportunity to express or explain their style. Just by looking the outside of a person does not mean that you already know how they are; you do not know what their life is, or what reasons they have to dress or look like that. Although, people should not be judging others based on their race, that is not fair, because we do not choose if we want to be Mexicans, Asians, Jews or African-Americans; we are born this way, and we cannot change who we are. Racial profiling is the action that most violates a person’s civil right, and ironically members of the government, and  police officers, are the ones that violate those rights, I thought their job was  make sure that everyone has the same rights, liberties and options; but no, they judge a person just based on their color, their outfit, their image. This is not okay and it is not fair, because everyone should have the same rights and the same liberties. People should learn to be more tolerant especially in this country, because this is a multiracial country where you can find every type of people.

Freedom Writers is a Movement

The Freedom Writers Diary

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Another main conflict of this book “The Freedom Writers Diary” is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at. But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing. Don’t ever judge someone without knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them. The Freedom Writers formed a family that knows no color lines and only sees what lies deep within the heart. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

This is one of the fragments from the book Freedom Writers Diary that really got my attention. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." This was what the boy that wrote about his brother’s murder trial wrote on another diary entry. After the attorney sentence fifteen years to life in prison to his brother he get back to what he used to do (you know what I mean, illegal stuff). Mrs. Gruwell gave to her students the assignment to do a self-evaluation, he gave himself and F, and he automatically failed himself. Then Mrs. Gruwell asked him “What’s this? Do you know what this means?” then she added “FUCK YOU! That’s what this is! It’s a fuck you, and a fuck me, and fuck everyone who’s ever cared about you!” This was a pep talk that he never thought he would have with his teacher. Also this "pep talk", teacher to student,  in somehow inspires me to not give up on things,  to fix what it has to be fix and to learn from my own mistakes, as the phrase says "A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." I'm going to find my mistakes, learn from them and correct them. These words, the way they use writing to express their thoughts, their feelings, their stories to the world around them makes me get excited and reflect on their stories to change communities like their, where everything was gang violence, even one of the Freedom Writers wrote that every night were guns shooting at the hood that he get used to it, it became his lullaby. 

Freedom, being able to make choices. Performing an action of your own choosing without limitations. “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."(Malcolm x) The Freedom Writers Diary is an inspirational, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. The Freedom Writers is a movement. 

Conflict in the Freedom Writers

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war.

I think that the main conflict of this movie is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at... But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing... Don’t ever judge someone with out knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them.

      The conflict of the movie freedom writers is to create change to many students that is having trouble in there life also it is for people to think positive and not negative. what this means is the teacher MS.G became the teacher and found out what was each student struggle and changed them and made each student unite and relate to each other. this action called freedom writer helped gain and start off a new society furthermore, the students who perceived school as they don't need it realized they did need it and it is important. this movie also changed the racism act and made African Americans and white people relate and connect with each other. what this whole paragraph demonstrates is there was a lot of changing occurring. RACISM & GANG VIOLENCE.

Like they said: “ Don’t judge a book by its cover”

Senior Project Update #3

  

My research paper will be on how to become a ranch owner, the steps that a person takes in order to become a ranch owner (rancher/farmer). Some of the ideas that I have are working at a ranch to get experience, live what a rancher lives, and do what ranchers do; how to manage a ranch, what it takes to build a ranch. The ranch where I am going to work is either at a ranch in Michoacán, Mexico or at a ranch here in California. I am looking forward to work the lands of my beautiful Mexico but if its impossible for me to travel during the next five months I might do my hours here at California or Texas. The resources I hope to use would be a ranch, obviously, the ranch owner to give like an idea of what is like to be a rancher, effort and time.

First I want to say that everything in my senior project has changed, or at least for the part of completing the 20 hours of service. So, last week while my family and I were celebrating Thanksgiving someone called our house and on the TV screen appeared a private number, I was like “who the hell calls on private number during Thanksgiving, “at the time the phone was ringing we were in the middle of eating pozole, because we; Mexicans, or at least not us eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, we eat everything but turkey, well the point is that the phone rang and we were eating and for Mexicans when we are eating is like our holy time, we cannot get up of the table until everybody is done eating, so we let the phone ring and ring, until it stops ringing. Twenty minutes later the phone rings again, lucky for the person who was calling we were finish with dinner but not with desert, but we made an exception. It was someone from México saying that we have to go to México, right now (Family Emergency). I don’t know if that call changed my project for good or for bad, but what I certainly know is that I am living to México next week.

Fortunately, I think 80%-90% I’m done with my research paper. I told my sister if she could help me correcting my research paper or if she knew someone that could read my paper and correct it. Lucky for me she has a teacher or counselor that helped me with my research paper and I am done with it. I just need to turn it in on time and wait for what the people that checks all the research papers will say about my paper. I hope all the hours that I spent writing it is worth at the time they check my paper. For my senior project, the actual project, like I said on my last senior project update I am planning to do a model to scale of what includes a basic ranch. What I’m doing right now is drawing some sketches of how my scale model will look like, where the things that I recently bought are going to be located; technically the sketches are like the planes so to say. And now that I know that I’m going to México, my brother told me that the best base for building a scale model is like a board made of a pretty hard material called plywood. Plywood is a very good material not just for building furniture but also for doing models to scale, like in this case is my ranch model to scale. I already told my brother if he can obtain plywood for my project and some little things that my model-to-scale will have. Well, I think that's all for now.

Sentence Fixes

Mrs. Guerdard here is the Sentence Fixes document that I had to do for my conference on Thursday November 29.

"Diarios De Las Calles" - Su Historia, Sus Palabras, Su Futuro

 “Diariosde las Calles”- The Freedom Writers Diary with Erin Gruwell. I read the first pages and I was like “Damnnn!!” There are no words in my vocabulary that can describe my thoughts so far about this book, it’s a pretty amazing book that can change someone’s way to think, someone’s perspective of life, and even someone’s life. You have to pay really close attention to the words these teenagers used on their writings, the way they write on their diaries is like if they are narrating you their story, the way they live, and specially the war they face day by day and that they hope one day that war will end.

 The book is about how a 23-years-old English teacher uses the techniques of reading and writing to change 150 teens and the world around them. Ms. Gruwell was a student teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.  Long Beach was dubbed the “gangsta-rap capital” by MTV due to its depiction if guns and graffiti. Ms. Gruwell was given the group of the “un-teachable” students as the others teachers refer to them. This group was form of Latinos, Asians, Blacks and one white boy. They lived in the projects, the so called “hood”

The book takes place in Long Beach City "gangsta-rap capital" or L B C as the rappers refer to it, at Woodrow Wilson High School located in a safe neighborhood. Its location and reputation make it desirable. So much that a lot of students that live in the hood take two or three buses to get to school. Students come from every area of Long Beach; rich kids from the shore sit next to poor kids from the projects. There's every race, religion and culture within the confines of the quad. But since the Rodney King riots, racial tension has spilled over into the school. Over 120 murders in Long Beach in the months following the Rodney King riots. Gang violence and racial tension reach an all time high. The cultural influences of the Freedom Writers Diary are that in Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are separate by sections; "Beverly Hills" or "Disneyland" where all of the rich white kids hang out, there's "China Town" where the Asians hang, the Hispanic sections is referred to as either "Tijuana Town" or "Run to the Border", then there's the Black section known as "Da Gueto".  We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Those were the words a Mexican girl said. 

       "I always thought that "odd" was a three-letter word; but today I found out it has seven, and they spell G-r-u-w-e-l-l." (Freedom Writers)