Journal 02/26/2018

Gun violence, it’s what’s dominating the news topic ever since the Florida shooting. There have been spotlights put on President Trump, Senator Marco Rubio, Republicans who support the NRA, and of course the NRA itself. However, the NRA has come out hard, showing no signs of backing down. Just a few days ago the head of the NRA gave a speech at the National Conservative Conference saying that the fault of the law enforcement is not the fault of the NRA. “It’s the FBI’s fault,” she said. “They failed to follow up on conspicuous reports of this man consecutive five times. It is the job of the law enforcement to do full background checks on gun owners, not the NRA.”

Yet you can see the president and Republican senators stumbling in their response. Marco Rubio has been trying to hide from the spotlight and trying to point out that harsher gun laws wouldn’t prevent tragedies like this to happen (which I call bullshit). Even president Trump has tried to act like he actually cares, by sitting down with the survivors and the families. He stated that school safety would be the priority of his administration (notice how it’s school safety but not gun reform), and proposed that teachers in classrooms should carry guns (what a joke).

What’s ironic, however, is how companies around the country are breaking ties with the organization. These are companies like United or Delta (which is kind of weird to start with if you think about it. I mean why would they have any relation to the NRA. Apparently, they offer discounts to members of the NRA because the organization pays the airline money?)

The survivors are organizing a protest in DC. Just yesterday I was notified of one that’s going to happen in NYC as well. Either way, the debate on gun reform isn’t going anywhere soon.

Journal

Tyler Burrell

Professor Jackson

Writing II

2/14/18

Journal

            I would tell whoever said that first of all to eat my shit, but my ass probably would have got shot. But fuck a Christopher Columbus Day, one because his dumbass wasn’t even trying to go to the Americas in the first place and second how do you celebrate the founding of the “Americas” if people are already there. Many people are now calling it Indigenous People’s Day which I truly believe is a fitting holiday not to celebrate but to reflect on what really took place that long ago. As I look at this distorted picture it reminds me of pictures I have seen of the Klu Klux Klan around a burning cross some with horrific images of African Americans being lynched. It is really odd how this” great” country and I put emphasis on great because to be quite honest when was this country ever great in terms of freedom and equality. Yes, I am, also throwing shots at Donald Dick because he makes me sick. I really want to know who thought of the idea to celebrate Columbus because in my eyes he aint do shit.

Journal_2/12/2018_An Honorable Portrait Gone Bad?

I am unsure of how I could interpret this image of Obama sitting in, what could be, a room full of flowers. Although many would say a picture is worth a thousand words, this picture, in particular, is quite hard to put into words. I suppose I could focus on how President Obama presents himself within his seat. I could also describe my thoughts on the background. (I think the flowers are pretty to look at.) But, perhaps, I should just write whatever first comes to my mind.

President Obama has always struck me as an extremely confident and poised individual. He is also very influential and has brought hope to many young African Americans with a dream. However, to see him portrayed as he was, and placed in a background of flowers, has made me think of this portrait as disrespectful. I feel as though this portrait was presented to make fun of him as I immediately heard everyone begin to laugh upon presentation in class. It also led me to think, if whether or not, any other president was portrayed in this light. I have to admit that I also laughed myself. I hope that laughter was not behind the artist’s intention.

After receiving information about the artist responsible for this picture, I began to give the artist a pass. I gave the popular artist a pass solely because he was African American like myself. However, when I got home from class, I took the pass back since, at the end of the day, I am not a clout chaser.  I had to research the meaning behind this photo. I couldn’t get pass the cartoon like image of, what looks like, an older version of Obama. Or the chair that was too small for a 6’1 tall man. I was trying to understand why the artist feminized this powerful man, former leader of the "free world" who has a wife and two kids.

I learned that the flowers represented Hawaii, Chicago, and Africa. Unfortunately, even after learning this, I still think this picture didn’t do Obama (THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN U.S. PRESIDENT) any justice. Why couldn’t Obama be on a huge thrown? I understand that an artist’s execution and creativity is not something for someone else to control. However, there are certain things in life where the bigger picture must take the forefront and maybe this is where direction is necessary. Although the artist is known for placing men in a background of flowers, I also saw this artist portray other individuals in royal like images. It seems as though the artist was more concerned with presenting himself in a good light rather than ensuring that the most powerful black representative was seen with respect. This individualistic, "look at me" mentality has to stop within our culture.

-RA 2018

Jouranl 2.12.18 - NewBorn Babies

Out of the thousands of baby images that were shown, I only saw three newborns that weren't white. There is even one image up on the board of a woman of color holding up a baby, but the baby is white. This reminds me of my psychology class senior year of high school. My teacher googled "pretty women" and "beautiful women" and almost all of them were the same. They were white, and most were blonde. There wasn't a single woman of color in the results. This shows how bias and racist society still is. Even though people try to cover it up, in simple things like these images you can see how it standouts. Why only white babies? They're innocent and adorable babies, but it is the ones creating these images and putting them up that are the problem. This also reminds me of a psychology experiment called the Doll Test. In that experiment they took a sample of little children and put two types of dolls in front of them. The dolls were exactly the same except one was white and the other was black. The children were asked a series of questions such as "which doll is bad or good" and "which of the two dolls is uglier". The black doll was always associated with being bad and ugly. Even by kids that were of the same skin complexion. Out of the whole experiment, only one girl remained neutral and didn't show signs of racism. This experiment was even used as evidence in the case of Brown vs. Board of Ed.
- Susan 

Free Write 02/08

I think it’s impossible to know what we may be. We can make presumptions, and based on our current selves, forecast where we might end up in life, what we will do, who we will be, etc. But, still, we will never know for sure. This statement I agree with. However, I think people tend to struggle more with who they are at present, especially people our age for whom opinions, ideas and thoughts are always changing –  few of us actually know who we are. One of my best friends just came out as bisexual and said that he struggled with it for a long time, not wanting to admit it and, above all, not wanting to believe it himself. Once he came out, he was happier for a while but then started to question (and is still questioning) whether he is, in fact, just gay. Sexuality aside, I think we all have these influxes of ideas and changing options about ourselves. This is just one example, but I have seen it over and over again. At this age, people’s political views change constantly, their tastes change, their likes and dislikes change, and so on.

I think I know myself pretty well, but I still find it hard to make definitive statements about some things. I also hate uncertainty, so — and it seems ridiculous — very often when I think I’ve come up with a definitive statement about myself, I write it down. On my phone, I have a note titled “favorite snacks”, one titled “things I love”, one title “things I hate”, one titled “favorite places”, “favorite movies”, “favorite songs”, “things I’ll never do”, “things I’ve always wanted to do”, and dozens more. All of these I am constantly adding to and changing. One day I may add or remove more infrequently, but I doubt I’ll ever stop completely.

-DL