Drug War facts

There is just as much a drug use stereotype as there is racial stereotype in the United States.  Common stereotypes include the speculation that drug use leads to violent crimes including murder, illegal drugs are deadlier than other substances both legal and not and that the majority of drug users are people of color. The statistics on www.drugwarfacts.org prove otherwise, in fact it states that 40% of convicted murderers and more than half of assault convictions were under the influence of alcohol (a legal substance), the death toll as a result of illegal drug use was 17,000 in 2000 compared to death 32,000 death as a result of prescription drugs used in hospitals, and that 72% of male illegal drug users are in fact white while 32.2% are black and 10% are Hispanic. Despite the numbers disproving the drug use stereotype the site also states that, “In 2001, the chances of going to prison were highest among black males (32.2%) and Hispanic males (17.2%) and lowest among white males (5.9%)” (Imprisonment in the US). This likely the result of the Southern Strategy a political scheme which manipulates the paradigm of society to support anti-colored policies and creates negative social projects in regards to people of color. The effects of the Southern Strategy are so in ebbed in the minds of Americans, especially white Americans, that it continues to strengthen racial stereotypes such as those stated above on the issue of illegal drugs that it allows for politicians to further prosecute people of color on false notions of their culture or ethics. The website offers a lot of though provoking statistics but it would have been interesting to see the numbers for people who believe in the racial stereotypes of drug users.   

Literary LaGaurdia

     I was surprised by the amount of people who showed up at the forum and more surprised at the amount of submissions given to Literary LaGuardia. Honestly I came in with little interest in students writing since I had been to many school events in high school and in my time at St.Johns' and every time I left unimpressed with the students work. From the first non-fiction reading I am not a Booster by Delana Lewis I realized that this event would be different. With each reading I could feel that these students had written their papers, poems, and stories with actual passion and not just because they were given an assignment. I also could relate to many of the stories they were telling especially Joseph Cutolo's Becoming a Girl (which was very well written) since I did feel growing up that i did not fit the ideology of being a girl, Raphael Sabando's Immigrants Entrepreneurs in New York City being that I am second generation in the United States and issues of immigrations are dear to me, and again Delana Lewis' I am not a Booster.

Ying Ma common theme in pg 107 & pg 111

     In Chinese Girl in the Ghetto Ying Ma claims that asain Americans withstood a lot of abuse based on their ethnicity. She discusses the tension between asian students and the black and hispanic students in her daily school life and describes her own experience of being bullied based on her race by a hispanic girl named Maria " she preferred to dish out racial slurs to those who looked Chinese. Against us, her epithets rarely elicited a response" (Ma 111). Not only does she claim that asain americans were abused based on their ethnicity but she also states that they were a target of bullying because they had the tendency to not fight back. Ying becomes tired of being bullied  and decides to fight back ,however, the way in which she retaliates includes exchanging racial slurs with Maria. In doing this Ying participates in the racial discrimination that plagues her community. This particular form of racial discrimination is within different ethnic minorities. Interracial conflict was not exclusive to Yings community, throughout american History there has been a struggle within ethnic groups.
     Omi and Winant discuss the interracial discrimination that occurred in the U.S during the civil right movements of the 1950s and 1960s. When the government created equal opportunity programs different ethnic minorities began to compete for positions in these programs which resulted in racial conflict. Without unity in the different minorities interracial  and plain racial discrimination continued.

Stress and College Life

          Hey welcome to college life (if you aren't a transfer, if you are....welcome back). I'm sure I don't need to tell you that college is stressful. Hey life is stressful in general I'm sure you could use some more (saaaarcasim). One think I can tell you ,however, is that you are not alone. LaGuardia is full of students struggling to get an education. Many of us live on our own and as such have no choice but to work either full time or close to it to simply survive. The first few weeks are going to be the hardest, not because of the work but because you'll have to make some decisions in regards to how you are going to live your academic life. I am a firm believer that individuals need to experience things for them to learn but if you are willing to listen to some advise I have plenty to give.

          First off: Financial Aid. For those of you lucky enough to receive it DON'T WASTE IT (like I did). Just because you can retake a class and it wont show on yer transcript doesn't mean you should. You only get eight semesters of financial Aid. So the more classes you fail and have to take over the more likely YOU WILL PAY FOR SCHOOL LATER ON. If you think college is expensive now... Tuition and everything else we get billed for increases each and every semester. So what am I trying to say? Do your work! You dont need an A a B is pretty good too.

          College is a full time job. So if you already have a job now you have a second job. No one is going to hold your hand, you don't read, you don't study, you don't write your papers you fail that's it. So that job you have now is the job you will have for the rest of your life. Try getting a decent apartment with that nice little o' paycheck. The life you live now, the struggling to pay your bills, will be your future, your eternity if you don't take the time to be a student. And if you live with good old mom and dad...you are wasting their hard earned money. They break their backs for it don't be a brat. 

         But it's just advice. Hopefully you aren't one of those people that have to fail to learn. With some determination you'll get where you want to be, Good luck.

(P.s If all goes well I'll have a nice little condo in Manhattan which I will use to make up for the time I wasn't able to be a kid and have cocktail parities with cute dresses and shoes with all my graphic designer friends....So what I'm vain... xD)

Chinese Girl in the Ghetto vs. Illegal Immigrants

          Today I will write about the author of Chinese Girl in The Ghetto, Ying Ma. While I was reading the book I found that while I could relate to her experience in the inner cities and her families struggle I did not find her story to be inspirational. The way I perceived her tone to be was something like "I came here, I did this, I'm so much more hard working than any  of the people around me." I think because of this attitude she cannot feel empathy for the people who come to this country and have struggle like her if not more. It's almost as if she believes that if you don't break your back to make it then you dont deserve to be in America. She is the prime example of a minority internalizing racial projects and replicating it.

          Looking through her facebook page I noticed that she is the host for a page named "We Came Legally". Personally I cannot say that I am fond of Ms.Ma but I cannot say that I do not agree with the implied message of her page. However, I do not want to condemn the thousands of immigrants who have come to American illegally  in search of a better life. As a human being they have the right to search for better opportunities for themselves and for their children. I truly believe that because they were so desperate and chose to come to the United States illegally they are not granting themselves more opportunities but instead limiting themselves. Many of them might not have realized that back home. Our politics are wrong is trying to stop illegal immigration, not morally but strategically. It's just not the way to go around it. Perhaps they should make it easier to get working visas or green cards so that immigrants don't have to turn to coming here illegally. Hey I don't know, I'm not a politician but I am a concerned citizen making suggestions.

          As for Ying Ma she is a part of the machine and its people like her that make it so hard for immigrants and children of immigrants to be seen as human beings and not leeches. (That's speaking of her in a nice way C; )

The Symbolic Landscape of the British Hill Station in India

Kenny, Judith T. "Climate, Race, and Imperial Authority: The Symbolic Landscape of the British Hill Station in India." Jstor.com. Taylor & Francis, Ltd., n.d. Web. <jstor.org/stable/2564433>.

This article has a lot to do with race in india.

"Ultilitarian beliefs encouraged education of Indians so that they may be raised to British Standards and values. Yet, as Bhabha describes, the educated Indian subject became the ultimate figure of mockery. The "mimic" colonial subject suggested that to be Anglicized was emphatically not to be English."

I will use this in my paper by arguing that another way English psychologically colonized the Indian was making them believe that if they became more like an Englishman that they could become an Englishman but in reality they were emphasizing how an Indian could never be an Englishman.

Pgs 104-105 "Reforming the Racial state"

                In this blog I will discuss the concept of "Reforming the Racial State" as seen in pages 104-105 of Racial Formation. Omi and Winant explain that during the 1950's and 1960's people of color came together and actively took steps to bettering the racial state. "Direct Action" such as the civil disobedience sit in and marches eventually lead to the creation of "equal opportunity" programs which required that state institutions meet a Quota of colored employees. However this created conflicts over resources provided by the programs and different ethnic group were now in competition with each other.We can relate this to Untouchable in the sense that Bakha and the other untouchables are in constant completion for the resources higher caste members may offer. This causes a further divide within the untouchables and without unity the untouchables cannot demand a reforming of the Caste System instead they are letting it take a stronger hold. MLK and Ghandi both believed that reform was possible through unity however when individuals are caught up in a "me, me, me" attitude everything falls apart as seen by the outcome of "equal opportunity" programs,
 few make use of the program while the majority are locked into a state of poverty.