Dion's Blog

Growing up in school I learned from other kids that "gay" was an insult.  It was not something you would want to be called.  I picked up the habit of calling things that were subpar, lackluster, or unwanted "gay".  I think it still slips out sometimes depending on who my company is but nowadays I am more cautious about saying the word mainly to not offend someone.  But not in the offend someone "hurt someone's feelings" kind of way but more like the not offend someone or "you could lose your job or be excommunicated" kind of way.  It's funny because I don't think I have ever actually hurt someone's feelings by uttering that word but I have had people get mad over how other people might feel about that word. Still, I see how perpetuating gay as something bad is not a good thing.  Because it does increase the likelihood of others to bully those who are gay.  I do see what the article is saying about people with influence ...

Is this an acceptable depiction of a teenage girl or does it promote something unhealthy? Linda Christensen builds off of the idea that children's stories and cartoons provide a "secret education" that shapes the perceptions children have about themselves and others.  She argues for an analysis of these shows to peel back what the "secret education" the shows give to children really is.  She emphasizes looking at what categories of humans are involved, what categories have what roles and what characteristics, how the different categories are portrayed, and what message might a child take away from the portrayals.  She also further argues for people to take action and bring attention to these subtle messages to the those who have more control, i.e the parents of the children who watch these shows, the writers, directors, and producers who have say in the content, the stations who show these shows ect. My problem with promoting this idea of looking for ineq...

For some reason when I printed out the Translanguaging article I got an article where every other word had something wrong with it to the point it was unreadable.  I assumed maybe this was on purpose perhaps to show monolingual people what it is like navigating a language that you are still learning.  So I forced myself to read the whole jumbled article hoping that it would have a cohesive sentence.  It really gave me a headache.  After reading other student's posts about the same article I realized none of them ran into the same problem as I did.  I went back and just viewed the article online and then read the normal version.  But, I was so burnt out from reading the jumbled version I did not really follow what was going on. Luckily, I read Jolie R's blog post about this article and with her summary and another rereading through the article I have to say I do not find anything wrong inherently with this concept so far.  I liked Jolie's examp...

I remember when this debate was in the news a while back and I guess this topic still comes up now and then.  This article argues that it is counterproductive to respond to "black lives matter" with "all lives matter" because doing so overlooks the point of bringing up why "black lives matter" is being uttered.  The reason being because of the instances of black lives being treated as less worthy of attention, concern and empathy than other lives. The problem with the analogy that the article presents is the reality in America is not "Everyone else is getting their fair share and only I am not" it is: there are multiple people not getting a diner and instead of saying everyone should get a dinner you respond with I should get a dinner.  Yes I agree there are still racist and biases that overlook the value of people because of their skin but there are also homeless people and junkies that die and do not receive attention, concern, or empathy....

The South Bronx or so says the image search engine. This piece is a narrative piece that sheds light upon the life and thoughts of those who live in South Bronx in New York with a focus on the children who live there.  One quote in particular tells us what this author sets out to find out with his interactions and what he intends to show us with his article:   "What is it like for children to grow up here? What do they think the world has done to them?  Do they believe that they are being shunned or hidden by society?  If so, do they think that they deserve this?  What is it that enables some of them to pray?  When they pray, what do they say to God?"  Looking back at this quote brings me back to when the author was walking around South Bronx with young seven year old resident Cliffie.  From what can be gathered by Jonathans interactions with the boy it seems he has been desensitized by the morbid aspects of the neighborhood and his circu...

One place young me is from: Fallscity Oregon.  A very beautiful but poor and small town. The main thing the author conveys in this article is that the American ideal of anyone, anywhere, having a shot at ascending past their starting point is a myth and the reality is that most people who are born poor and working class will stay poor and working class.  The author highlights this point with references to economic mobility and class gap studies comparing America to other European based majority countries and also by reflecting on, his late friend, Rick Goff's life. For the most part I agree with the author's emphasis on the difficulties of overcoming a bad starting hand in terms of economic class.  I do not think I agree that the difficulties are so much directly a result of "the kind of socially rigid hierarchies that our ancestors fled, the kind of society in which your outcome is largely determined by your beginning" as the author says.  I guess I should te...