Is it racist?

In an article from the Democrat and Chronicle the writer has the reader ask themselves if certain situations are racist. It made me think a lot about what racism really is and what i consider to be a racist action. While I was thinking about all of  these questions, i began to realize that everybody's definition of racism is different. What is racist to one person or group of people may be perfectly normal and okay to another person or group of people. No matter what until we communicate and find a universal definition for racism we will all never be able to agree on whether or not a situation can be considered racist.

The most interesting question in this article to me was is it racist for a person of any color to us the "N' word? As we go through our everyday life we often here African-Americans calling each other the 'N" word and laughing about it like its no big deal. On the other hand if a white kid had said it to one of the African american kids that white kid is automatically racist in every African american kids eyes. I'm not saying that its not racist if a white kid says it but it should be considered racist if anybody says it regardless of skin color. The word was used to put down slaves and make them feel inferior to the white man back during slavery. Nobody should use the word because it is racist and derogatory and it makes everybody look bad.

  Another question that i found interesting was is it racist for a white cop to pull over a black family because they happen to be driving through a white neighborhood? This question is hard to answer because it really depends on the cop. If the cop is a racist white man then this action is racist but in my opinion it could be a lot of other things. The cop may have thought the car look suspicious because he had never seen it before and he was just trying to protect the neighborhood he patrols. There is no reason to think that the cop is racist because he pulls over a black family. If he feels like there is something suspicious going on he has the right to stop and check it out and protect the people he serves.

A third question that caught my attention was is it racist for a white man to forbid African-American nurses from holding his newborn baby? This is very obviously extremely racist. A white man is forbidding a nurse to hold his baby just because the color of his skin. Every single nurse has to go through the same training and schooling in order to become a nurse. There is no reason other than racism for a white man to forbid a black nurse from holding his new born child.

A fourth question  that i thought want really a racist thing to do was is it racist for  a high school homecoming parade to feature a float with a tepee and an “Indian maid” with a feather in her hair to celebrate the school’s athletic teams that are known as the Braves? If the school has an Indian for a mascot and a team logo they are celebrating the heritage of the Indians that were here before us. I think that doing this shows more pride in having the native Americans here and honors them. It does not show racism or hatred towards them. A perfect example of this is the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves in the MLB they are not racist for naming their teams after the indians who were here before them.

The last question that i read that i thought a lot about was is it racist for a particular group of people to be economically and socially isolated in one part of our community? In most communities that are around here we are separated by the color of our skin. Mostly each race lives in a certain area with the rest of that same race. I thought a lot about this and at first i thought it was racist because we should all be integrated and have equal opportunity to live where we want. Then I realized it really isn't that racist that we are all separated because we still share many things. If something bad happens in the community as a whole, everybody comes together no matter the color of their skin. Also in many situations there are programs to integrate the schools and all the kids grow up as friends with each other. I realized that we are not really separated in the community, the only thing that separates us is where we decide to live.

The Holocaust

TIMELINE:
January 1933- Adolf Hitler gets appointed to Chancellor of Germany
April 1933- Boycott of Jewish owned businesses in Germany
September 1935- Nuremberg Race Laws
March 1936- German troops march unopposed into Rhineland
August 1936- Summer Olympics in Germany
March 1938- Germany incorporates Austria into the Union
September 1938- Munich Agreement
August 1939- Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Agreement
September 1939- Germany invades Poland starting WWII
April 1940- Germany invades Denmark and Norway
July 1940- Battle of Britain begins
April/June 1941- Germany invades Yugoslavia, Greece and Soviet Union
December 1941- Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and Nazi Germany declares war on the US
Throughout 1942- Germany begins mass deportation of Jews to various Concentration camps
April 1943- Warsaw ghetto uprising begins
October 1943- Rescue of Jews in Denmark
June 1944- D-Day, The allies invade Normandy France
December 1944- Battle of the Bulge
January 1945- Death march of nearly 60,000 prisoners from Auschwitz and 50,000 from Stutthof
April 1945- Hitler commits suicide
May 1945- Germany surrenders to western allies and Soviets
HOLOCAUST TERMS:
Antisemitism- Discrimination against or hostility towards Jews
Concentration Camp- A guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of members of ethnic minorities established by the Nazi party in WWII
Deportation- The lawful expulsion of an undesired alien or other person from a place.
Genocide- The deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial,political, or cultural group.
Ghetto- A section of the city where all Jews were forced to live at the start of Hitlers rein.
Holocaust-The systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during WWII
Kristallnacht- a Nazi pogrom throughout Germany and Austria on the night of November 9–10, 1938, during which Jews were killed and their property destroyed


THE HOLOCAUST AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS:
The Holocaust was an extremely terrible event in which the Nazi Party broke almost every single Commandment set forth by God. The most important of the commandments that the Nazi Party broke are thou shall not kill, thou shall have no other God before me and thou shall  not covet. I believe these are the most important commandments that were broken because if they followed them the Holocaust probably would have never happened.
The first commandment they broke is thou shall have no other Gods before me. The Nazi's did not openly worship another God but in my opinion they treated Hitler as God. They listened to whatever the man had to say and killed millions of people at the snap of his fingers. They listened to Hitler before they would listen to their own conscience and in the end it was all for nothing. Germany lost the war and Hitler killed himself instead of facing the consequences of his actions. He was not a God he was a weak ignorant man and should not have ever been treated as more than that.
Another commandment they broke was thou shall not covet his neighbors goods. The German people only hated the Jews because of Hitlers hatred from his personal experiences and because they were doing well when everyone else was struggling. The Jewish population was smart with there money and lived better than most of the non-Jewish population. Hitler used them as a scapegoat for there problems and blamed them for everyone else being poor. Since the people were jealous of the Jewish population they believed Hitler until all of Germany had an antisemitic view when in reality there was no reason to feel that way. The Jewish population did nothing wrong and the Nazi party just used them as a scapegoat. If the German population would not have coveted the Jews for their money and success there would not have been a Holocaust.
Finally the Nazi's broke the commandment thou shall not kill which i think is the most important one. Only God has the right to give and take life and Hitler tried to take that away from Him. Hitler killed millions of Jews and other minorities for absolutely no reason at all. The genocide of all the Jews was an unnecessary waste of lives and goes against pretty much everything God teaches us. If they would have just followed the commandments the Holocaust would have never happened and the world would be a better place today for it.

The Fifth Commandment

The fifth commandment states that you shall not kill. This is a seemingly simple commandment but there is much more than meets the eye with this commandment.Although you may look at it as just do not commit murder it also includes topics such as racism, capital punishment, and assisted suicide and i feel strongly about all of these things.

One thing that still occurs largely around the world today that is absolutely disgusting is racism. Disliking a group of people based solely on color and stereotypes that are mostly untrue is extremely ridiculous. Racism is the type of thinking that caused things like the Holocaust and the Civil War in the United States. There is absolutely no reason to think badly of a person or that you are better than someone because they are from a different background. I admit that there are people that fit the stereotypes of their race but you still should never judge someone based on their color. I am happy to say that as a country we are moving forward with the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President but i cannot stop there. We all must do our part to end the hate and racism to become a stronger unified and better country. If we end racism we will end a lot of hatred and ultimately become a better place to live.

Another thing that I find extremely wrong is the use of capital punishment in the United States. The ability to give or take someones life does not lie with us as humans, that is for God only. How can we decide if someone should be put to death or not, what gives us that right? We should not be able to "play" God and take the life of a person for the sins he has committed on Earth. What we do on earth determines where we go when our times up on earth and if someone feels the need to kill while on earth we should let God decide his fate not us. Another reason why i disagree with capital punishment is because we never really know exactly what happened at the time of a murder. How do we know that we have the right person convicted of the killing? What if somebody gets put to death and after their execution later evidence shows that the person was really not guilty? There has been cases where people were wrongly convicted and put to death, how do you repay there families. We can never replace someones life no matter what we do and that is why I believe that the death penalty is wrong. Our justice system and someones life should not be taken when there is a possibility of a mistake.

The final topic that I actually think is alright to do is assisted suicide. I think that if people are suffering and have little to no chance of recovering can be helped to die if they say it is okay. Why should we force someone to suffer when they no there time is up and they are at peace with leaving this earth? I do not think it is okay to take someones life against their will but if they give consent they should be able to make the decision to end there life. I know that the church does not believe in assisted suicide because they think people who are suffering has a Jesus like experience and it is good for them but why is it good for anyone to suffer? I hate to watch the older community suffer and be miserable and if they want to say goodbye to there family and end there life it should be there right to do so.

Trayvon Martin 2

Obama speaks out against the murder of Trayvon Martin.

As this week continues and we learn more about the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin more and more people have chimed in about the crime. This killing without an arrest of the man who committed it has got so much attention that even Barack Obama, the President of the United States, has commented on it. This morning Obama spoke out calling this event a tragedy and even brought his own children into it. Obama made the comment that he couldn't help but thinking of his daughters and how that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon.

Picture of the rally in Florida on Thursday

Along with the President speaking out against this terrible crime many people and civil rights activists are rallying for an arrest of the admitted shooter George Zimmerman. Al Sharpton lead a rally in Florida on Thursday saying, "We cannot allow a precedent when a man can just kill one of us...and then walk out with the murder weapon." Many of these people will not rest until they feel justice is served and George Zimmerman is in a courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his back.



These rallies are not just being held in Florida but nationwide as outrage continues about the murder with no arrest. An online petition started so that Zimmerman would get arrested has been signed by more than 1.3 million people. There has also been a rally in Los Angeles, New York, and there is one scheduled for Detroit on Monday. Along with these rallies there are probably many more around the country that have been had or will follow to fight for Trayvon. He was an innocent boy in the wrong place at the wrong time and dies too young. So everyone should put on their hoodies and stand up for the boy who cannot stand up for himself.

The picture above is of a man who attended the rally for Trayvon Martin in LA. To find out more information about this rally and see more pictures please visit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/trayvon-martin-rally-los-angeles_n_1374435.html
Trayvon and his family need all the support they can get so do not ignore this huge issue, sign the petition online or just spread the word so Trayvons voice can be heard.

Trayvon Martin

On February 26, in Sanford, Florida a young African American man was shot and killed by 28 year old neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, called the police and reported Trayvon for suspicious behavior, this just another of the 46 other calls he has made to report suspicious behavior in the last 13 months.Zimmerman called the cops about this so called suspicious behavior and continued to follow Trayvon even after the dispatch officer told him not too. All Trayvon was "armed" with was a bag of skittles and a drink from a local convenience store and he was casually walking back to his fathers fiances house. What is suspicious about that and why did Zimmerman follow and shoot him?

 Another big question being asked is why didn't the police arrest Zimmerman on the spot and question him and why is Zimmerman still on the loose? Well one answer to this question is the Stand Your Ground law in Florida. This law gives a man the right to use deadly force, even before an unarmed man, provided they have reason to believe they have to defend themselves. This law seems reasonable but where is the line drawn for reason to defend oneself. How can Zimmerman justify feeling threatened when he is a 28 year old and 250  pound man with a gun going up against a 17 year old 140 pound boy who only has a drink and a pack of skittles. There is no justification there, there was no reason to follow or shoot this boy and Zimmerman should be arrested. Another reason for this lackadaisical police effort is the officer that was in charge of the crime scene. In a previous case this same officer failed to arrest a lieutenants son who was videotaped beating up a black homeless man. So you have to wonder all around from Zimmerman to the police was this a race issue? Was he followed and murdered and the man who did it will get away with is all because Trayvon is black?
Hopefully Trayvon Martins murder will not go without a conviction of the clearly guilty man who did it.

The R-Word

In the world today many people use the word retarded to describe someone who is not as smart or to describe something that happened that they do not like. Most people say it freely and accept without thinking who it may hurt or what it does to society. Well let me tell you that the R-word is not acceptable and it hurts many people who are not gifted academically and it especially hurts those who are actually born with special needs such as cerebral palsy.

When you say this word and others words like it, the special needs community hurts and wonders if it will ever be accepted, so think before you act stop saying the R-Word it hurts people more than you know.

To learn more about this topic and to help stop it please visit:

http://kidzorg.blogspot.com/2011/05/not-acceptable-r-word-psa.html

or

http://www.r-word.org/

My Teacher wont let me Swear on the Internet

One big problem on the internet and for young teens everywhere is the use of swear words, actually it is really a problem for all people. What makes a person old enough or gives them the right to say these terrible words. Parents do not want there kids swearing and they get mad if there kids do say a bad word and wonder where they learned these words. These parents need to look in the mirror and stop swearing themselves because the first place these kids heard these words was most likely in their own home. No age makes someone old enough to swear and we should have enough self control and respect for people to never swear at them at all.
So should people be allowed to swear on the internet, does it make them cool or sophisticated? The answer is no especially when you are doing it for an assignment for school. I know that sometimes you get so mad or upset that you feel to only way to express yourself is to say nasty words but we should really use alternative words and clean up the language for the benefit of everyone.

Rob Dyrdek

One big name in the world that has made a step to try to make kids use more appropriate language is Rob Dyrdek. Rob was first a professional skate boarder and since then he has made a lot of shows for MTV including Rob and Big, The Fantasy Factory and his newest show Ridiculousness. During his show the Fantasy Factory Rob made a show  to help kids find other word to say instead of swear words. Rob even went as far to make a whole clothing line about alternative curse words as shown below.
If Rob Dyrdek, who as a teenager and in his movie Street Dreams used to curse a lot can make a change and try to help our youth so can the rest of us. Stop swearing today and use alternative curse words if you must but if we cut down on bad words as a whole we can make the future better for our future generations.

One of the shirts used in Robs alternative
 curse word clothing line.