My President is Black

This past election was one of the most important elections ever. This could have affected our entire way of living in less than four years. On one had we have barrack Obama that wants to bring back the middle class and enforce high taxes on the wealthy and big businesses in the U.S. On the other hand we have Mitt Romney. Mitt wants to cut taxes for everyone doing so he would add on top of the deficit, but somehow his math adds up. Obama was obviously the better choice his model for the U.S is very similar to President Clinton’s one of the few presidents that created and left the oval office with a surplus. Obama has a clear plan laid out in the open while Mitt Romney's 5 point plan is vague and doesn’t add up on a monetary scale. Obama is ridiculed is based on his ethnicity but people fail to realize that his is literally our most intelligent president we've ever had. I'd personally trust a president that graduated with a 4.0 than one that puts a 10 year war on a credit card.

Is it wrong to be gay??????

I am absolutely tired of people saying that gay couples can’t get married. What gives them the right to tell someone they can’t be together? First and foremost someone’s love life is private it's none of anyone’s business. The government should have no say in marriage whether it gay or straight, the last time the government was involved interracial marriage was banned. It's like they're trying to taboo being gay, almost like they are intentionally trying to take away their happiness. The thing that really grinds my gears about this topic is when people bring religion into the conversation. God put us on this earth to make our own decisions and to learn from then. God also doesn’t make mistakes so if someone is born gay God intended for them to be gay. So in a way if you’re saying being gay is wrong you are practically saying god is wrong.

9 Years and a Trade

In the world of sports mainly basketball there has been a lot of talk about who is the best player ever. Every time I hear this argument three names keep reoccurring, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant. Michael Jordan was the pinnacle talent of the NBA when he played and possibly ever. Michael Jordan is the most decorated player to ever play the game and maintains a strong presence in the NBA today. But in recent arguments in which ones I completely agree with, the only reason Michael Jordan was able to be so dominant was the level of competition. In his days there were no “big 3’s” he had to face every night. But today teams are stacking up players that have high calibers of unique talent which can’t be taught or duplicated. No disrespect to the great MJ but I believe that Kobe Bryant is the best ever. Kobe is just as decorated as Michael Jordan and in shorter time. Only thing Kobe doesn’t have more of is MVP’s and that’s due to the increase of talent in the NBA. Some people would make a claim LeBron is the best player ever but that’s false. Everyone gives him a brake for what happened in Cleveland but there is no excuse. He had the talent he needed to capture his first NBA championship but he choked and didn’t get the job done and since then everyone has expected him to be nonexistent in the fourth quarter. He also had to organize his own team in the offseason; some of the NBA’s top talents and it was the same result he was nowhere to be found in the fourth quarter. But if it was Kobe or MJ they would have shown up and taken over like they’ve done countless times in the past. But after nine years and an orchestrated trade he finally captured his first ring. It has been said by MJ himself that Kobe is the only one that can be compared to him. This tells me that even MJ could think Kobe could be better than him.

Is The "N" word Ok?????????

Almost every day now I hear the word “nigga” said by every race that is in America today. I hear it so often now it’s almost a term of endearment. Some people try to defend themselves by saying I said it with an “a” not an “er” but all I could do is laugh. I tell them just because you change the suffix of the word that doesn’t mean that people won’t have the same reaction to it. It seems like my generation doesn’t care about what happened to people with color in the past. It’s one of two things they don’t care or they just forgave and forgot. Even some of the older generations say the word like its natural. I just don’t understand why African Americans get mad when Caucasians use the word. We use the word in everyday life and very frequently so we have no right to get mad and try to fight someone over it. Me personally being an African American in America could careless who uses the word. I say this because words can’t hurt me I would only take action if the situation becomes physical. And finally I don’t like the fact that people take credit for things that happened to some people. My parents weren’t called niggers by anyone but their friends the only people that has the right to get mad are the people that fought for equal rights and subjected to true racism with no consequence for those who did it. So everyone else needs to shut up take responsibility for making the “N” ok to say for everyone.

The Web that Captures the Lion

As we all sat down for the final activity for the Tela retreat I was thinking to myself that I was glad it was almost over. It was hot and we were outside and I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. But when Jeff brought out the yarn and told us what it was for, I got nervous out of nowhere. I kept thinking to myself what am I going to say, is everyone going to agree with me I didn’t know. I remembered in the previous activities that people mad mention that they came from single parent homes like me. With this information I felt that we in some way were connected. Yes we come from different parts of San Diego and we all have different up bringing’s but our stories and goals are one in the same. I looked back on the activities we did and I’m glad I came; I got to learn a lot about my fellow scholars and I also learned a lot about myself. I made a start in conquering my fear of public speaking and it’s all due to the activities we did all day. Now I feel comfortable approaching my classmates and my teachers and I also learned that it takes an incredibly strong person to ask someone for help to achieve your overall goal. When the yarn was thrown to me I knew exactly what I was going to say. I realized that the yarn created a web and it represents that we are all connected as one community.

Universal Ent.

 

One of the biggest thing that popped out at me in this article was the first assumption where it states, “entertainment is meant to divert us away from all our routines and everyday problems”, and to me that sums up entertainment as a whole. Entertainment to me is colorless; there is no color barrier for any range of entertainment like music, movies, and television. I think just because you have a majority of a race listen to one genera of music doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on it. Entertainment is universal and I believe that people are blinded by both the media and the hatred of ignorant people. Some of my best friends aren’t black and we love the same types of music, television, and movies; yes we do have disagreements on things but we have made those decisions based on watching or listening to the entertainment first. Everyone has the choice to read what they want, listen to what they want, and watch what they want, But everyone in the entertainment deserves the chances to be heard and not ruled out based on their ethnicity.  

Thug or Activist: The Two Faces of Tupac

When I mindlessly listen to the “murderous” lyrics of Tupac I hear a man that blatantly disrespect women and law enforcement. But when I take the time to truly listen to his lyrics I hear a man whom wants better for our race and wants to be remembered as a rapping activist. With Tupac’s style of rap it makes me wonder if he is all about violence or sending a positive message to the communities that listen to his songs. To me his lyrics are paradoxical and contradicting, for example, in Tupac’s song “Ambitionz AZ a Ridah” he states,” Was born rough and rugged, addressin the mad public my attitude was, "Fuck it,", “Not bitches over money Stay on your grind nigga”. This tells me he’s embracing part of his negative life style and promoting it.

 

 

 

 

 But in Tupac’s defense mass media can and has affected how the general public views him as a person. But in other songs such as “Changes” and “Keep Your Head Up” he is practically putting women on a pedestal. In the song “Keep Your Head Up” he states, “I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women.’’, and in the song “changes” he gives us a direct challenge by saying, “It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other.” these quote shows that he’s a good person and wants the best for our race. When it comes to Tupac he personifies through his music that a human is complex. Tupac made it okay for men and women to have many faces to their own identity and that's why Tupac was one of the greatest rappers of all time