Hey guys! First of all, I have to say that I regret not being able to make it to class this past Monday. Although it may have gotten tense in the classroom, it seems like we had an impactful discussion, be it positive or negative. Wish I could have been a part of it!
Moving on, I was glad to receive those articles on affirmative action this week, even if they were a little upsetting. I know it's a super controversial issue, but it's definitely one on which I have an opinion. Personally, I am saddened to hear that Texas might be eliminating the policy. I do not think the practice is discriminatory. Rather, I think it is an effective method of combating self-perpetuating and historically rooted inequalities. There are obviously great inequalities in our education system, mostly drawn across monetary or class lines. I've noticed through my own observations that children of wealthy families have a definite leg up when it comes to college admission. A student from a wealthy family will able to afford new books, tutors, and SAT prep classes. These things do give you an advantage on standardized tests. It has also been demonstrated that children growing up in an academic type environment (a house with books, magazines, educated parents) will likely do better in school. Therefore, a child of less economic advantage but equal intelligence will very likely end up performing worse on a standardized test than their wealthier equal. This does not mean that they don't have equal potential and are equally deserving of academic opportunities. And sure, that isn't explicitly tied to race, but who are most of these aforementioned wealthy families? There is a racial imbalance that accompanies this wealth divide.
I do understand how affirmative action, simply by bringing race into the admissions process at all, can be seen as discriminatory and even offensive. I remember my initial reaction to it as a child being along those lines. I didn't understand why minorities should need that kind of program, that it might be almost insulting since there should be no inequalities as it was. But knowing more about the way affirmative action works and the way our education system works, I think I have a much more reasonable perspective now. The practice doesn't reject people based on being white, and it doesn't make it easier for minorities to qualify for admission, it simply states that in deciding between two equally eligible applicants that the spot should go to the person of minority race. Honestly, it's a small favor when looking at everything that's been denied to minorities over the years.
And doesn't diversity make our schools a better place? It stated in that article point blank that eliminating this policy would decrease racial diversity in future admittance. Is that really more just?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Love for New Orleans
So this past weekend I was lucky enough to catch a ride with some friends to one of my favorite cities, New Orleans Louisiana! I spent a few months living there in 2010 and having been dying to go back ever since. I know there are a lot of mixed opinions on the city. i hear people say some horrible things, as well as some very positive things. My take is that it's a beautiful city that is rich with culture, history, and joy, but that at the same time it is a place of duality. Besides the clear disparity of wealth (much of the city is in extreme poverty while a few live in luxury) as well as racial and class-based segregation, there is also the dichotomy of good and evil running throughout. One man's party is another man's disease. Tourism brings the city income, but pushes out it's native residents and authentic culture. It's a city that has a lot to offer the world, but so often offers little to it's residents.
(Photo from 2010 New Orleans trip, Bywater neighborhood)
I was definitely interested in seeing how the city had changed in the past two years. When I was there in 2010, five entire years after Katrina hit, the city was still in a state of shocking disrepair. The land there is divided up into many small neighborhoods with dramatically different aesthetics and demographics. Two years ago I saw only one house in the Garden District (a cute, wealthy part of the city attractive to tourists) that was still being repaired from the storm. The rest of the neighborhood was pristine. However, this cleanliness was an illusion. Many parts of the rest of the city were still full of abandoned houses, empty lots, caving in roofs, and boarded up windows. What progress had been made in the two years since I'd last visited?
(Photo from 2010, Garden District)
The answer is some...in some places. My travel buddies and I stayed in a friends house on Tchoupitoulas street on the South West edge of the garden district in a little apartment by the docks. While we weren't in the nicest part of that area I still knew that my friends, who had never visited New Orleans, were getting a very limited perspective of the city. On the last day, as we were driving out of town, my friend Renee (who stayed with me in NOLA two years ago) and I convinced our buds to take a driving tour of the city to get a better idea of it's reality.
We drove up Canal street and into mid-city. We continued up, looped around city park, and then took St. Claude east and into Bywater and subsequent neighborhoods. We didn't go into the lower 9th, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city and one damaged most by the storm, but did drive just a few blocks below it. I was shocked and saddened by the state of the area. I don't know what I had expected, where would the money come from to repair these homes and businesses? The fact is that two years later, seven whole years after the storm, I would guess at least a quarter of store fronts along St.Claude are not repaired and unoccupied. So many houses are still abandoned and falling apart. But people live here. There are kids and families and people everywhere. It made me wonder what they must feel like. I would be so angry. These neighborhoods are in no condition for people to be living there. And in America! Where we supposedly have so much money and such a high quality of living. Families are living next to rotting, abandoned houses that are turning into squats for traveling homeless. I can only assume the residents living in this neighborhood likely grew up there. I's heart breaking to imaging growing up in a place and then living having to live amongst it's ruins.
I don't know what the answer to this problem is, but I do know that what is occurring in some New Orleans neighborhoods, still occurring after seven years, is unacceptable in a first world country. I heard this weekend that the city plans of spending some of the money made off of the multi-million dollar sale of the Superdome to Mercedez Benz (it is now officially called the Mercedez Benz Superdome!) to extend the streetcar line and make improvements to attract more tourists. Now, I don't know the full plan of how they will spend the money and what their plan is for urban development in the next few years, but I can't imagine how they could justify not repairing and renovating New Orleans residential neighborhoods. All of them. Here's hoping!
(Photo from 2010 New Orleans trip, Bywater neighborhood)
I was definitely interested in seeing how the city had changed in the past two years. When I was there in 2010, five entire years after Katrina hit, the city was still in a state of shocking disrepair. The land there is divided up into many small neighborhoods with dramatically different aesthetics and demographics. Two years ago I saw only one house in the Garden District (a cute, wealthy part of the city attractive to tourists) that was still being repaired from the storm. The rest of the neighborhood was pristine. However, this cleanliness was an illusion. Many parts of the rest of the city were still full of abandoned houses, empty lots, caving in roofs, and boarded up windows. What progress had been made in the two years since I'd last visited?
(Photo from 2010, Garden District)
The answer is some...in some places. My travel buddies and I stayed in a friends house on Tchoupitoulas street on the South West edge of the garden district in a little apartment by the docks. While we weren't in the nicest part of that area I still knew that my friends, who had never visited New Orleans, were getting a very limited perspective of the city. On the last day, as we were driving out of town, my friend Renee (who stayed with me in NOLA two years ago) and I convinced our buds to take a driving tour of the city to get a better idea of it's reality.
We drove up Canal street and into mid-city. We continued up, looped around city park, and then took St. Claude east and into Bywater and subsequent neighborhoods. We didn't go into the lower 9th, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city and one damaged most by the storm, but did drive just a few blocks below it. I was shocked and saddened by the state of the area. I don't know what I had expected, where would the money come from to repair these homes and businesses? The fact is that two years later, seven whole years after the storm, I would guess at least a quarter of store fronts along St.Claude are not repaired and unoccupied. So many houses are still abandoned and falling apart. But people live here. There are kids and families and people everywhere. It made me wonder what they must feel like. I would be so angry. These neighborhoods are in no condition for people to be living there. And in America! Where we supposedly have so much money and such a high quality of living. Families are living next to rotting, abandoned houses that are turning into squats for traveling homeless. I can only assume the residents living in this neighborhood likely grew up there. I's heart breaking to imaging growing up in a place and then living having to live amongst it's ruins.
I don't know what the answer to this problem is, but I do know that what is occurring in some New Orleans neighborhoods, still occurring after seven years, is unacceptable in a first world country. I heard this weekend that the city plans of spending some of the money made off of the multi-million dollar sale of the Superdome to Mercedez Benz (it is now officially called the Mercedez Benz Superdome!) to extend the streetcar line and make improvements to attract more tourists. Now, I don't know the full plan of how they will spend the money and what their plan is for urban development in the next few years, but I can't imagine how they could justify not repairing and renovating New Orleans residential neighborhoods. All of them. Here's hoping!
Zinnsanity
Like most of us in this class, I'm really enjoying the People's History. I tried to read it last year and got distracted maybe a quarter through. It can be pretty dense, but so worth it! I kind of think that every American should read this book. It's information you likely wont come across elsewhere that can shed a whole new light on how we view America, education, history and ourselves.
If you're enjoying the book and want to know more about the author, I recommend checking out this documentary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416825/
Gives a little more insight on exactly how much this man accomplished in his life. Also, I believe there's a lot of wisdom about social justice and taking action for change.
If you're enjoying the book and want to know more about the author, I recommend checking out this documentary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416825/
Gives a little more insight on exactly how much this man accomplished in his life. Also, I believe there's a lot of wisdom about social justice and taking action for change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)