The End of English 110…

Fall Semester 2018, completed. This semester went by a lot faster than I would’ve ever thought it would. However even though it went by pretty fast, I enjoyed it a lot. Beginning as a college freshman was very overwhelming however after a while, I got used to it. From seeing a new type of community to having to handle a new type of workload with responsibilities,it all went surprisingly smoothly. The community at Queens College is amazing. Whenever I had breaks in my schedule, I’d either go to the library to get some work done or go to the pool hall and play pool with some friends or by myself. The workload was something completely new to me. I have handled a lot of work before in high school, however in college it is much different. Now it is all on you and you basically tell yourself when you have to get stuff done and remember all of the assignments. I am basically an independent person now in college and it’s a great experience to finally have.

In our English 110 class, we have viewed a lot of pieces of works that have shaped my views on a lot of different scenarios. They all had to do with something regarding culture and it was very fascinating how it can be viewed by so many different ways. One work that I have referred back to in a lot of my homework assignments have been the essay “Words” by Sara Yamasaki. Her piece was very influential and had a lot of meaning behind it. It showed us how everything we do shapes our lives and shape the people who we will be. “Words” showed us how everyone should be open to new ideas instead of letting ignorance take over, which is something that I try to live by. With you, Professor Wu, as our instructor, you were able to explain to me the importance of these topics and issues and shed light on it. That is something that is very important because the more people who understand this, the better the world will be, even if we’re only impacting one person at a time.

College is an amazing place now, even though the workload and responsibilities may be scary sometimes. However even with everything being new, your class had an effect that made everything seem okay for the hour and fifty minutes in your class. It was just a little under twenty people becoming a family and making school interesting and fun. It was a very memorable experience, thanks to you Professor Wu. We have all learned so much from your class, and I know that we will take what we have learned and spread it to others making everyone a little more aware of other people and how they should treat them. You have done an amazing job at teaching our class and I appreciate everything you have done for myself along with our class. Also, be sure to let us know if you ever teach an English 130 class! 🙂

The Heartbeat of Racism is Denial

Dear Ibram X. Kendi,

You believe that “the heartbeat of racism is denial”. After reading this article, I find this argument very interesting and I would have to say that I agree with you. I believe that a big reason as to why racism still exists is because people deny that they are racists and don’t understand that they are racist. People that are raised to be racists don’t understand that what they are doing is wrong; they believe it is normal. That this type of behavior isn’t frowned upon, but instead reinforced due to their upbringings and their guardians. If people deny that they are racists, they can continue to do as they please without feeling any type of guilt in their behaviors. When groups of people come together, knowing what they’re doing may not be right, however deny the fact that they know what they are doing is wrongful, then this type of behavior can strive. Denial of racism is a big problem that should be addressed however simply addressing it may not change anything.

Sincerely,

Ravindra Narine

Personal Attacks

I have never felt personally attacked by a police officer before. I have never gotten into any type of altercation with one before so I don’t have any experience being prejudiced by one. However personally attacked by anyone, yes. People would assume because I am brown that I am Muslim, and since I am Muslim they can make terrorist jokes about me. I don’t understand why people feel the need to do so however it’s the way life is. Thankfully, no personal attack has ever been severe that has led to anything traumatic. Everything has been very light for the most part, so I am grateful for that fact since I know many people go through worse everyday of their lives.

Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Martin Luther King had a lot to say in his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” essay. I found some of his viewpoints rather interesting. One thing I enjoyed was his four basic steps to a nonviolent campaign. These steps included: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. These are essential steps because the first thing you need to do is evaluate whether or not there have been any injustices in order to orchestrate a nonviolent protest. If there aren’t any injustices, then you’d be wasting your time protesting for something that isn’t real. Negotiation is also great because once you understand what injustices are occurring, you want to solve that as soon as possible. Negotiating with whoever can help solve the problem is probably the next best step to do after analyzing the problem. Self-purification helps afterwards because you have to know that you aren’t causing any injustices yourself other wise you’d be contradicting what you believe in. Direct action is always the last step because once you identify the problem and figure out how to solve it, you’re last course of action is to take immediate action. This will ensure that you relieve the problem, whatever it may be, and finally show that your protests actually accomplished something.

Another thing that I found pretty interesting is that he wants the means he uses to be as pure as the ends he seeks. This is interesting because I believe he had the right mindset. He believed that they had to use a moral way of protest, being nonviolent protest, in order to have the moral outcome that they wanted. He would not have gotten anywhere if he used immoral means to get the moral ends he sought for. If he had violent protests instead of nonviolent ones, the police simply would’ve reacted as they always would’ve which would be with violence. It would turn into another case of where they were being oppressed but it looked like the police officers were doing their job. However with nonviolence, the police officers cannot just use violence against these people because it gives the city and their government a bad reputation. Then the people protesting would gain even more of a front and slowly achieve their ends they sought. The use of moral means for moral ends is a great ideology that he believed in.

The 6th Day

Every type of text that we have read or watched has a theme. After watching The 6th Day, I gathered that the theme of this movie is that you should always be wary of what is going on. In this movie, one thing that Adam was wary about was the matter of cloning. In his heart, he always knew that it was something that shouldn’t be done. He understood the effects that cloning could cause. For example when his daughter’s dog died, his wife persisted that she should clone him however he didn’t want to. By cloning him, his daughter would be missing out on a life lesson which is that after time, the life cycle of someone or something is that they live and then die. With a cloned dog, she would have never known about this cycle and would have completely missed out on an eye-opening experience. In “Words” by Sara Yamasaki, something that she should have been wary about is that not everyone understands each other. When she brought rice balls, a type of food that they weren’t used to, for lunch, the children took the approach of making fun of her rather than understand why she did that. That is a part of her culture however to the children, it is simply a joke to them. If Sara were wary of this type of behavior by other people, she may have not been as upset about the situation because she’d be knowledgeable of this behavior.

Did you find the library session useful? Why or why not?

After hearing everything that Professor Xu had to say during the library session, I found the library session very useful. Professor Xu told us multiple ways to find information on our Queens college website. Once you log in, there are so many different ways to find a vast amount of information that it’s pretty overwhelming. Knowing that, she also taught us ways on how to specify our searches so that we aren’t overwhelmed with the hundreds of thousands of results that we would get if we didn’t specify. Using key term and changing the type of source you are looking for, such as a book or journal, goes a long way in determining which type of information would be best for us. Everything she told us will benefit me greatly and I am very appreciative of this library session.

Which of our previous readings from this unit are you interested in writing in?

“In Time” is probably the best reading/work that I am most interested in writing in. Relating to Karl Marx’s manifesto, “In Time” is a great work to make the comparison to. This film shows the different characteristics of a capitalistic society while Marx’s manifesto describes why communism is an ideal theory and why capitalism should cease to exist. Both of these works have opposing arguments which would allow for a great discussion to be written about. Both of these model two different societies and the perspectives rival each other in a way that a great debate can occur. The facts of one having too much versus everyone have the same is a great argument proposed by both works and this would be the perfect work to write about.

Wal-Mart: High Cost of Low Prices compared to Nickel and Dimed

After watching the documentary “Wal-Mart: High Cost of Low Prices”, it illustrated how this closely relates to the book Nickel and Dimed. There are multiple scenarios in this film that give a clear representation of what was going on in the book. In the book, it talked about how the people in this lower class were struggling to survive, whether if they had a job or not. The book showed that you are able to have a job and still not be able to have enough money for food or shelter or the basic necessities to survive. In the documentary, it depicted how the workers in Wal-Mart were barely making enough money or not enough money to survive. Their health insurance plans were also too costly to keep up with so instead of going to the doctors when they’re sick, they would have to try to stick it out because they wouldn’t be able to survive financially if they chose to go.

These two works also show the similarities of being ‘Nickel and Dimed’. In the book, it talked about how the workers in fast food restaurants were not allowed to take breaks and that they always have something to do. This allows for the business to capitalize on every second that they are paying their workers. In the documentary, it also mentions the fact that Wal-Mart was cheating their workers of hours that they worked. They would go into the logs and change the hours from if they worked 43 hours that week to 40 hours. They did this so that they wouldn’t have to pay these workers overtime and save every cent that they could. Both of these works are very closely related and it’s a very sad thing to see.

In Time – what commentary does the film make about social structure?

The film “In Time” makes a commentary about social structures in a way that you can interpret it very easily. This film references time to money and the more time you have, the more wealth you have. However, if you don’t have enough time, then you wouldn’t be able to survive. This theme shows a clear relation to our everyday lives in the way that if you have a lot of money, then you’re wealthy and if you don’t, then you’ll have a great amount of struggles trying to survive and make ends meet. In the film, it shows multiple times throughout the movie that in the ghetto, everyone has little to no time and they are constantly trying to make ends meet. They are always in a rush because they need to obtain more time and if they don’t, they and their families will eventually die. This directly relates to neighborhoods that are in poverty in the U.S. because everyone is also living day by day. Everyone is trying to make ends meet and are willing to do whatever they can to obtain money. Another scene also shows the difference between people in the upper class and lower class. The upper class has all the time they need plus more so they are allowed to have leisure and enjoy themselves. When Salas entered the wealthy neighborhood, he noticed how everyone walks around because they have time. No one is in a rush and everything is much slower and relaxed. However, back in his home neighborhood in the ghetto, everyone does everything in a rush. The way they walk, eat, and talk is all fast paced. This is because they don’t have the time to be wasting since they are always on the clock trying to survive to the next day. This directly relates to our social structure because the wealthy and the poor shows this wealth gap as well. The wealthy are able to do everything they want and purchase ridiculous items that the poor could only dream of. Instead of being able to purchase these luxuries, the poor have to focus on making ends meet for that day and surviving to the next day. They’re put into this cycle that they cannot break and this is a significant problem in today’s society.

Compare and Contrast Ehrenriech’s essay to a previous reading in the unit

Ehrenriech’s essay has a lot of qualities that relate to previous readings in the unit, one being “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. In Tan’s reading, she talks about the struggles her mom had, specifically with her “broken” English.  Ehrenriech similarly talks about her own struggles while conducting her experiment. Ehrenreieh mentions how not having enough money is a major part of her struggle. She says, “The big problem
with this place, though, is the rent, which at $675 a month is well beyond my reach.” The amount of money she was making compared to how much rent the property was being asked for was not affordable. Instead, she had to look for another house that was considerably cheaper. Tan’s mother struggled with her speaking in a way that affected her daily life. She states, “…the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.” This shows the many problems her mother faced. Since her English wasn’t as properly spoken as other people, she was shamed and looked down upon. People automatically assumed she was less than them and refused to treat her the same as anyone else.

On the other hand, these two readings have different qualities as well. In Ehrenriech’s essay, even though she was facing these problems, such as not having enough money, she also had the option to quit this experiment at anytime. In this case, she would not have to put up with those situations any longer. The fact that she had another life waiting for her and was able to get away from this problem gave her some sort of comfort making it somewhat less real. However, Tan’s mother did not have this luxury. The problems she was facing were real and were every day encounters. This wasn’t something she could just avoid and retreat to another place to get away. She had this problem with her English that could not be avoided. Being this way, the treatment she received was that much harder on her because she couldn’t do anything about it to get away.