This I Believe Podcast Draft

Should you and I be able to express our opinion loudly and freely without the fear of discrimination. Can I agree to disagree with you loudly and proudly? Lately I find this to be very difficult. Between the news and social media how do i know that if I express my opinion that I won’t be judge for doing so. In 2015, I was asked to make a speech on how social media effects of freedom of speech. At first I found this question to be very straight forward but as a started to formulate the speech I came to the realization that this was a deeper question than I though. Starting in 2008 when Obama was elected in to the presidency. I found that freedom of speech became questionable right. Throughout Obama’s entire presidency there were many death threats and hate speech being spewed into media. Though I am may not understand or agree with the comments being said should they not be said at all?

I believe that it has come time that we must revisit this conversation. We are once again approaching the same issue. However, this time the discriminating speech is now figuratively supported by the president elect. I don’t want to focus on the president elect but I would like to focus on a connection issue that needs to have light shed on it.

It is too many times that two opposing sides come to no conclusion because they fail to try to understand bet yet fully comprehend the opposing side. I believe that in order to get “make America great again” or shall I say simply “make America great” as American we need to learn how to actually hear the other side and not just listen to the underside. It is vital that we allow people to express themselves whether or not we agree with them. However, we have come to a point in society where we are becoming stuck in our individual ideologies.

Here at Penn State there is a class called Soc 119 that focuses on just this. It provokes us to have these conversations that we need to have while having us actually listen and try to understand the opposing side. For example, during one of our lectures we had a conversation about the presidential election and those who were a minority expressed that they felt as though they could not attend the president elect’s rally this was because they felt they would be harmed or discriminated against. Unfortunately, those who were president elect supporter could not understand nor sympathize with what the opposing side was saying. In fact their response was “If you follow ‘the rules’ and act ‘right’ then you should be fine.” I believe this was their response because they failed to take a step out of their shoes and see the point of view of the other side and this is where I believe us as Americans need to have a change.

I believe that in order to “make America great” we need to learn how to hear and try to understand the point of view of the other side. This is the only way that we can move forward and not have America resend back to the dark place of discrimination and lack of understanding of one another. Thus, let’s “make America great” and try to understand our fellow Americans.

Blog Ideas

Passion Blog

My previous passion blog shed light on the unknown struggles, life, and stereotypes of African American Women. My thought for this semester’s blog is to shed light on what I call “The Other Life.” This topic sparked my interest when I started my collage journey. Not until I started interacting and learning about others did I realize that many people have very little in sight on the lifestyle opposite of theirs. This blog would shed light on the other lifestyles that people may not have been exposed to.

Civic Blog

Idea 1: A civic issue that I find very important is that disadvantages that urban areas have due to location, demographics, and economy. In my blog I would dive deeper into these problems on an emotional, political, economic, and personal level.

Idea 2: Another civic issue that I find important is the mass incarceration rates. Within this blog I would analyze the documentary 13th amendment. In addition, I would speak on the economic advantages of mass incarceration along with the disadvantages it has on the average family.

This I Believe

Idea 1: The topic of my This I Believe podcast would go side by side with my passion blog. In particular, it will go hand and hand with the blog focusing on the education systems in urban areas verses elsewhere. I believe that when people come to college they are indeed at different learning levels and they should not have to not feel like they are not as smart as others simply because they were taught in different education systems.

Idea 2: I believe that everyone should be able to express their opinion loudly and freely without the fear of discrimination. I believe that if everyone had the mindset that supported the idea that you do not have to agree with someone in order to understand and respect their opinion. If people learned to not only express their opinion but to also listen to other then people would be a lot more sympathetic.

Why Do We Want to Fill the Void? What is the Void?

Image result for sharks during sandy

Media has a way of showing the world things that it would have never imagined before. Like a plane flying through buildings and being able to completely demolish them. Or sharks swimming down the roads of New Jersey. These instances draw viewers closer and closer each time they show a different image. I often wonder how come the news can broadcast the same exact story from the same point of view for hours and hours on end. How is this possible?

The reason this all possible is quite interesting and very smart on the newscasters’ behalf. The newscasters play on our empathy almost every time they broadcast a story. Especially when having to do with war. It wouldn’t be too shocking if after the news reported that 10 Americans got killed in a battle that we would later find out that 100 foreigners, included innocent civilians, also got killed that day. However, that would never be broadcasted.

In a case of an attack often times the same type of falsification occurs. For instance, the Paris is only about 3 days old and the story has changes between there being only one shoot to multiple shooter; also the debate on whether ISIS was involved or not is also in question. So why is that the news has so many versions of the same story… There can only be one true story.

Some people say that the news is just one complete conspiracy act and they often falsify stories in order to keep the people in line. However, that is not actually the case in most situations. In fact, in most situation the reason that most stories come out to be wrong is that the news channels often compete against each other and try to produce the first broadcast so that they could be the one to present the “breaking news”. With this race going on most of the time the first few stories that we see aren’t true simply because the actual story wasn’t looked into due to time constrains that being first includes.

So what happens when it is now 3 weeks later and we still see that false information is being broadcasted? Most of the time this is due to the new channels want for more views. They gain these views by providing the most compelling stories. The news channels know that people are attacked to the news reports that will show them the nitty gritty deals. In knowing this news channels may add a shark or two in the video of a floored road. Or add a few more explosions when showing a bombing. Therefore, news is often geared to feed our void of wanting to be entertained with a hint of knowing the really story.

Rhetorical Analysis

The Modern Day Civil Rights Movement

Often times you will hear someone saying that history repeats itself. In this case there couldn’t be better quote to describe the Black Lives Matter movement better. Many will agree that the Black Lives Matter movement is the modern day version of the Civil Rights movement however this is not entirely true. Back in the mid to late 1900s there was a movement lead by the black community that lasted about 15 years called the Civil Rights movement. The majority of the Civil Rights movement was to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans.

During the Civil Rights Movement, one of the most prominent symbols were the white only signs. Due to the white superiority of the day most of the laws had no place for an African American. In the eyes of the law and most non- colored people, African Americans were not considered humans. They were considered property and with this thought being in the minds of others, African Americans moved towards changing the laws in order to eradicate this ideology. Some people say that in the aspect of eradicating the ideology the Civil Rights movement failed and that is why the Black Lives Matter movement is active today. Once the laws were change black people started to get comfortable and the ideology behind the laws never changed. Therefore, one should remember the Black Lives Matter movement and the Civil Rights movement can be heavily compared but there are differences that still need to be highlighted.

The Black Lives Matters movement started in 2012, by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, after the murder of Trayvon Martin and is still in effects. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year old black male that was murdered by a white male by the name of George Zimmerman. During the case of Trayvon Martin vs. George Zimmerman the media depicted this story with a racial discrimination and police brutality focus. Many black people felt that the case was handle in an unjust manner. Starting with the way George Zimmerman was treated. During the trial Zimmerman was protected to the utmost degree while Treyvon Martin’s family had minimal regard. This angered many blacks to see because they felt that if the races were swapped and the shooter was black and the victim was white then there would not have been such protection over the shooter. In addition, to the protection that George Zimmerman received he was also let off as not guilt. This was a huge disappointment to the black people as a whole.  Therefore, just like in the mid-1900s blacks felt that they were not being treated equal due to the color of their skin however take notice that most of the issue was in how the situation was handle socially. The laws were in place however the ideology is the precise reason why there was a huge contraction between what should have happened and what actually happened.

Thus the reason why one could say that another civil rights movement has begun because the Civil Right Movement failed to fix the social reasoning or ideology behind discrimination. Time after time black people are discriminated against and every so often they get feed up with the mistreatment and stand up for themselves. Again let’s look at the whites only signs. These signs were created under the Jim Crow laws. These laws were put in place in order to “please both parties”. Blacks wanted equality while whites wanted segregation. In trying to please both parties the “separate but equal” movement started. This is when the white signs started to pop up. No longer did the blacks have to hold their bathroom matters, wait to quiche their thirst, or stand. They were now able to do all of those thing, but there was a catch. Due to the still prevalent ideology that blacks were of the lesser race these designated areas were of lesser quality. Often time the very signs signified inequality. There would be time that there would be just a white only sign and no black only sign. This could be looked at as blacks did not even qualify to be acknowledge; they were not merely worth that. If there was a sign at the designated area then it was most likely damaged or deface in some way, shape, or form. These signs were the very symbol of how little the whites care about the blacks well beings. For instance, the bathrooms for the colored people were often times dirty and/or broken is someway. The water fountains were simple less appealing with the stained mouth pieces. It would not have been unlikely to have to walk unbearable distances to find the black color facility or to sit in the direct sun or even stand due to where the black only signs were places. It was as though the whites only sign was a “VIP only” sign.

One of the biggest movements with the whites only signs was seen on the public busses. During the time period blacks were expected to sit in their designated spot which was in the back of the bus. This was one of the most symbolic forms of discrimination and racism. Being pushed to the back of the bus symbolized suppression. Though black people had the “right” to be on same bus as white people. They could not wait for the busses in the same areas as white people nor could they sit where they wanted to when they got on the bus. If they were to sit in the front of the bus they were to go to the back of the bus if a white person was to board the bus. There were even signs on the bus very vividly position that designate the colored station. What made it worse and different than today is that this bus set up was law not just social order. In addition to just the simple fact that there was physical discrimination the bus showed that no matter what due to darkness of your skin you are supposed to adhere to the white superior race.

Due to such magnitude of discrimination, black people started a movement via protest and advertisement. The reasoning behind such methods was in order to target the intended audience. During the civil rights movement black people did not have their own talk shows like they do now or radio shows. The breaking news of their communities was not a part of the broadcasted news. Because of this very reason black people had to protest to get the attention of the media which was the quickest way their voices could be heard by the government. Despite the fact that the media of the time often depicted the protest as violent acts they were often times non-violent. Most of the times the protestors were hurting families of someone who had lost a loved one or had being treated poorly due to the white superiority present and simply wanted their voice to be heard. That is where I believe things went a little wrong.

During the Civil Rights movement, the main focus was to get the laws that were in place change. For example, many of the protest were for the change and abolishment of the Jim Crow laws. Though it is believed that this should have been the first step to change it is also believed that the Civil Rights Movement in a way failed because it never fixed the root of the problem which was the poor ideology. At the time the laws that were in place stemmed from the ideology that blacks were an inferior race. It is believed that once the laws got eradicated the real issue was never approached. The “white only” signs may have been taken down however their connotations were never removed. Look at the busses today. Despite how hard people like Rosa Parks fought to eradicate the arranged seating of blacks, blacks are still often seen in the back of the bus. What is that? One would not say this is due to racial discrimination however that it is still socially ingrained in society. This could be the very reason why we have movements like the Black Lives Matter Movement popping up. There was unresolved business to be taken care of. The Civil Rights Movement is now over and the laws are changed however blacks are still found on the “blacks only” side. To this very day the ideology that the Civil Rights Movement failed to fix is still being worked on.

My Special Civic Artifacts

Snapchat

The ultimate snapchat! It is one of the largest social medias today. Almost everybody between the ages 13 and 21 has a snapchat. I really enjoy this form of social media because it isn’t over welling by having to much going on in its format. Due to the fact that Snapchat’s news feed renews every 24 hours its stays very current which is my most favorable characteristic of the app.

Questions:

Do you have a snapchat and if so what is your favorite feature? How often are you on snapchat? How would you describe the difference between Snapchat on the Apple system versus the Android system?

Challenges:

Though Snapchat is a great tool it does pose challenges such as it is a source of distraction. Often snapchat users gravitate to snapchat when they need to do work and tend not to complete their work.

Google

By far Google is the biggest search engine. For me Google is an all purpose tool. Via Google I have access to my email, endless information for my personal and academic needs, and I have the ability to virtually be anywhere in the world at aytime and that’s just a few of the reasons that I value Google.

Questions:

How do you use Google? How does Google compare to other search engines? How has Google’s ability effected society?

Challenges:

Google can be one of the best recourses for any student however it could also be one of the deadliest things at ones fingers tips. Google causes dependency on technology when it comes down to research ability. It could also hinder learning abilities because one could find any answer on Google which provokes someone to just look up an answer instead of reading and searching for an answer.

Religion

Religion…Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. As a Christian we are taught that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he is the reason that our sins are forgiven. Personally, I have chosen this religion because I am attracted to how it preaches realistic acceptance, goodness, and unconditional support and love.

Questions:

Which religion do you identify with and why? Is there any factor of your religion that you disagree with? Does your religion have different sectors, if so which do you identify closest to? Why do you think religion was created? What are you thoughts about religion as a whole and its validity?

Challenges:

When talking about religion you have to be careful not to step on anyone’s toes. Religion, just like politics, is a very intricate topic. Many religions are very strict while some are very easy going. This cause people to question religion in general. If religion is true then shouldn’t it just be one religion? What about the two different religions that says one could do one thing but the other says one can’t? Which religion is more superior? Which has the most valid? It is often that people have formed religions in order to justify there actions. With this the challenge presented is weather or not religion is truly valid.