Listen to Our Voices!
i believe we need to voice our stories, so that other people would be able to hear them and make them think about what is really going on the world around us here.
may 27, 2008
i made a post about the video that chris crocker posted about being gay.
the video that i wanna share with you all is titled:
when people say, “that’s so gay.”
please no hate comments!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdgpgRgwM8c&feature=related
soemthing that has always pissed me off,
and not because i am a gay person, its because i am a smart person,
because it doesnt make sense when people say it,
when people say, “that’s so gay.”
it sends off a red flag in my mind, and it really makes me feel bad for this generation.
honestly, when i see a five year old say, “thats so gay,” i want to kill, i will say it, to kill the person who taught them to say that.
it’s not only subconciously spreading homophobia,
but its pretty hypocritial when people say, “no, i like gay people,” but they still say it,
because when you say it, you say it as if, you speak about something negatively,
you’re sending a negative connotation, like, “that’s so gay.”
you’re speaking about something you don’t like, right?
ok then think about the word you are using in place of “thats so awful,” “thats so ugly,” “thats so whatever.”
you get the message. ok?
not only that, but it just doesnt make sense. gay isnt an adjective. i just feel so bad for this generation.
and the last person that said around me ended up in a mental institution, because i called the mental institution on them and said, “this person looked at a CD today, and this hallucinated and saw a gay person.”
i mean, when people are looking at a grapefruit, it could be any inaminite object, and they say, “that is so gay,” theres a problem, people. there’s a problem when you look at a grapefruit, and say that’s so gay.
because, you know what? you straight people have had your fun for way to long, i think its time for everyone to stand up and say, “thats so straight,” and not about the good things, about the negative things, because you know what? i am not afraid to say this. its the straight people, that are this country’s problem.
look at the president, that’s all i got to say.
this country is so straight that it makes me sick. maybe if this country was a little bit more gay, then we would be so screwed up right now. so everyone when you see something negative, say “that’s so straight.” ok?
may 25, 2008
i found this article on another persons blog.
you tell me. is this fair?
“It seems that last night, my step brother, Creepy took some stranger home from the bars. Once they got to this kids house, the very dim witted Creepy was convinced by said stranger, to get out of the car where some other jack ass proceeded to pound his face in….with a shovel! Creepy never saw it coming but he’s a really tough kid and he immediately started to defend himself against a slew of other guys who just happened to be at this place quite conveniently where the stranger wanted to be dropped off.
Meanwhile, in the back seat, my other step brother, Creepy’s twin Brow was waking up to the tussle. He jumped in to defend his brother.
…and this is where I stop the recount of what happened to let you all in on a dirty little secret. I live in Indiana in a piece of shit town in the Midwest of the United States where it’s illegal to be Hispanic. Oh, no, wait, I got that wrong, I mean, where alot of the white folks around here would like to see it made illegal to be Hispanic…oh, and Black too, yeah that would be good for them.
It just so happens that there are certain groups of people in this here city that don’t take a liking to people of pigment and they are not afraid to make it known. Hell why would they be afraid. The police in these here parts has made it pretty damn clear that they believe there should be a racial war and they’ve made it clear whose side they are on.
I sound crazy, paranoid even…I know…but I’m not.
Back to the recounting of last night’s events…
Once the police arrive guess who gets carted off to jail? Is it the collection of crazy white kids with shovels? Nope, it’s the two Brown kids who got their asses kicked for being stupid enough to take a complete stranger home for the night.
The police officer says to Creepy something to the effect of “you Mexicans should have stayed where you come from.” Of course, to these uneducated morons think every Hispanic is a Mexican. How would you like it if we mistook you for a Canadian…you all look alike to me. Now that is offensive and I’m sorry. Because I don’t feel that way.
I hate racism. I hate that it’s so prevalent here and that it makes me feel so small and impotent. Why are people so stupid? What the hell is that cops problem? And a shovel? Really? Do you hate Brown people that much that you had to go and hit one of us with a shovel for no reason at all?
Senseless violence and pointless hatred. I don’t get it.”
i dont think its fair, the white kid should have gotten arrested.
if this was a white vs white, the kid with the shovel would have gotten arrest.
http://avoidancejunkie.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/wtf
i found this video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cb2JIlM5e4&feature=related
i like this video!
she IS absolutely right and i am trying to tell the world that… because i truly believe that… truly believe that it IS better to be yourself and be who you are than to fake something and pretend that you are something else just to please others…
may 12, 2008
this is my paper on the stereotypes of muslims
i edited my paper so i hope you like it and understand it!
Stereotypes are generalizations, or assumptions, sometimes based on the defense mechanism projection, that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an image about what people in that group are like. The images could be positive or negative. However, the image is often wrong and doesn’t take one person into account. It can lead to prejudice and might even lead to discrimination. There are stereotypes about every culture and every religion in the world, the Indians, the Asians, the English, the French.
Where are most of our stereotypes coming from? If you think about it for a sec, you will realize that almost everyone in the US has a television. and so almost everyone watches it.Theres so much, these days, about how muslims are terrorists and about how muslims are commanded to kill the “infidel”, so I believe we get most of our stereotypes from the media. The media is trying to brainwash people into thinking that there are only categories of people. We don’t have to go ahead and meet them because we think we know what they will be like when we really have no idea what they are like, and, God forbid, it’s a sin to walk up to a person and meet them, right?
Why is stereotyping so easy to promote? I have two reasons. There could be more, though. The media definitely takes advantage of the fact that people are ignorant. They have no prior knowledge of the subject. They won’t know if it’s right or wrong. Some people are like sheep and believe what the media tells them, and don’t think for themselves. So the people in the media say, “Lets give them the knowledge, and they will believe anything we say because they won’t know if it’s right or wrong.” This is obviously way they promote the stereotypes of islam.
And another reasons is fear. The media promotes these stereotypes by repetition, so over and over we see those stereotypes. That’s how people learn these stereotypes. People have lived with these stereotypes for quite sometime now, and they start to get afraid because they start believing those stereotypes, and when people are afraid of something, they tend to keep away from it. My impression is that racist people are afraid that african americans will rob them because they show that a lot in the media. People are afraid to admit that they are gays because they are afraid to be hated on by their family and friends and society, so they hate on them back. People are afraid to admit that they are ocd or schizophernic because of the stigma that the mentally ill have because of the media. They show a lot of mentally ill people as wild and crazy and they need to be institionalized because they are crazy. People are afraid to be identified as muslim because of the stigma that the muslims have.
And these stereotypes promote prejudices, not that the media wants the people to be prejudice against the muslims. “According to the social identity perceptive, self esteem depends on both personal and social identity. Social identity refers to the pride derive from membership in various groups. The theory purposes that self esteem can be undermined by either threat to personal identity or social identity. Threats to both personal and social identity may motivate efforts to restore self esteem, but threats to social identity are more likely to provoke responses that promotes prejudices and discrimination. When social identity is threatened, individuals may react in two ways to bolster it. one common response is to show ingroup favoritism, for example, tapping an ingroup member for a job opening, or rating the performance of an ingroup member higher than that of an outgroup member. A second common reaction is to engage in outgroup derogation, in other words, to “trash” outgroup that are perceived as threatening. Outgroup derogation is more likely when people identify especially strongly with the threatened ingroup. When people degorate an outgroup, they tend to feel superior as a result, and this feeling helps to affirm self worth. These unfortunate reactions are not inevitable, but threats to social identity represent yet another dynamic process that can foster prejudice.
And its much easier for people to use outgroup derogating, because its easier to trash talk people that are not from your “kind” because it’s more accessible. Not many people could do ingroup favoritism because there’s not a lot of opportunities to do it. And people do tend to feel superior and so that helps with their self-esteem because everyone want to feel good and superior to another person.
The most common stereotyped people today is the Muslim people. So people hate on Islam because of all the stereotypes out there, and because it makes them feel superior since they are not “savages,” like all the muslims are. And they are much more “civilized” than the Muslims are. Its much easier to trash talk Islam then to find out the truth and then spread it around.
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. If one did research about Islam, one will find that out. If one does research about Islam and listens to what the media, like television, says about Islam, they will find two completely different images. One very common image that the media portrays the Muslims as terrorists. We carry bombs and we do all the killings. From these images on televison, people create an image in their heads about the religion of Islam and then project it to all the Muslim people and mainly on the religion of Islam. If one think about it, they will see how unfair it is for a Muslim, actually for anyone, living in Western society may feel about these very unfair stereotypes that the media is projecting on Islam and the Muslim people as a whole.
Now people think that Muslims are terrorist and they think that Muslims are bad people. The holy book is the Qur’an and they follow what the Qur’an says, so the Qur’an must preach violence. They see the women wearing the hijab and “restricting” their freedom to show off their bodies. And they don’t see any women going to drunken parties or going to bars and having boyfriends and having fun and running around in the streets. So people think and assume that the women are oppressed and they should be “freed” from that oppression. They look at images on the television and see how “poor” the Arab world is and think there’s no schools and everyone is running in the streets, and there’s no education and think that the only reason that there’s no education is that they are so “poor.” And so they make the conclusion that no one is learning anything, especially women. They think that Islam doesn’t believe in Jesus, peace on him, since Islam doesn’t believe that he is the son of God or anything.
And to make their stereotypes and prejduices possible, they use the concept of identifying against. One can see that everyone has an identity. Some people form their identity by identitying against. To identify against, first we define the “other” and then we define themselves as “not the other.” The media gives these stereotypes and people now believe that the Muslims ar terrorists and carry bombs and people are not terrorist and people don’t carry bombs. So people who don’t think for themselves think that the Muslims are “savages” and would kill anyone in sight. That makes them not want to convert to such a peaceful religion such as Islam and people don’t want to be identified as Muslim because it’s associated with all these bad images in the media and the overused word of terrorism.
These are some common stereotypes the Islam as a religion has.
All Muslim women are oppressed.
To tell you the truth, Muslim women are not oppressed.
If Muslim women are so oppressed, then why dont they just convert to another religion?
If they are so unhappy with the rules that God put on them, then when why don’t they just convert to Christianity or Judaism? They would be a lot happier, huh?
Yes, Muslims don’t drink at bars and women wear the scarf, but Muslims believe that God put those rules for a reason. Muslims believe that God doesn’t want us to be tempted to do bad stuff. If you take away the temptation, you’re not tempted. And you must be asking yourself, “Why does He put the temptation there in the first place?” He wants to see if people like us will listen to Him.
Muslims are freed from having to make bad decision that will sometimes change their lives, like drinking. When people drink, they very often lose control of themselves and they could do stuff that are uncalled for, and on top of that, alcohol gives you a lot of problems in the future. One does get addicted to alcohol, so one spends a lot of money on alcohol. If one drinks too much, one could pass out, and one could even die from drinking too much alcohol, which would be exactly like suicide and if you killed yourself, you would be going to the most bottom part of hell, which is what the Muslims believe. If one drinks and drives, one could get into an accident. In the long run, alcohol causes so many health problems, one of them being liver damage. One’s liver is one of the most important organ in the body.
We pray five times a day, so that we could think of God all the time. Many Christians only go to church on Sunday and think of God only then. Muslims fast in the month of Ramadan from even before sunrise to sunset; one of the reasons is learn self control and that patience is a virtue. Another reason is to feel what the poor people have and to think of food as a gift instead of a necessity, like people always do. Muslim give alms, so that we don’t think we are the richest people in the world. Being selfish and greedy is common around people.
I believe that God put rules. If you follow them, you will be saved, in this life and in the one after.
True feminists should work to free the Muslim women.
From what? There’s nothing to be freed from. We are not oppressed, so there’s not we need to be freed from. Again, if Muslim women are so oppressed, then why don’t they convert to another religion? They are actually a lot happier than any other religion, because again, the temptation is taken away. They call Islam a backwards, tradition religion, but what is wrong with being traditional?
Muslim women are forced to cover their heads.
Wearing the hijab is in the Qur’an, but Muslims are not forced to do it. Our dads don’t have a gun at our heads saying that if we don’t do it, he will shoot. Not all the Muslim wear the hijab. The hijab takes commitment. One can not wear it one day and take it off the next.
The hijab is a beautiful thing. One who wears it doesn’t have to worry about how their hair looks in the morning. But one who wear it should cover everything except their hand and face, unless their face is beautiful, then they also have to cover it. If you are beautiful, it’s better to hide it than show it off. When women are all out there showing everything, they are usually called sluts and whores and hoes. One who wears it gets a lot more respect than one who flaunts their stuff. Wearing the hijab doesn’t distract the men from their work. Men actually get their work done instead of paying attention or thinking about the women next to him. Men treat women who wear the hijab like a person, instead of being distracted by her beauty. Wearing the hijab is also an attitude and a behavior rather than only just a fashion statement.
The concept here is temptation, too. Men are tempted to pursue a woman by her beauty. Men are usually looking for a short term relationship after they pursue the woman. So if that is taken away, then they are not tempted to persue the women in front of them.
Muslim women are generally not allowed to be educated.
That’s the silliest stereotype there is. It’s very hard for a Muslim to fathom how did that become a stereotype. Why would God not want Muslims women to be educated? Education for Muslim women is no sin. Women have the same rights to be educated as men do. Muslim women do too. Men go to college and even pursue their own careers. Muslim women do too. Edcuation in the Arab world is a actually a duty. It’s a duty to educate men and women alike! Is that really hard to believe? In fact, my mom came all the way to the United States just for our education. Besides without education, where would Muslim women be?
If you took a survey to give to all Muslims in the world and ask them this question, you will find that about 98% don’t support it. Muslims DON’T support terrorism. I don’t support terrorism. Heck! I didn’t even know the word existed before September 11, 2001. I didn’t even know what the word hijack mean. Muslim actually hate the word terrorism. It’s so overused. Thats is just the propaganda that is on the televsion trying to brainwash you folks to thinking that, to give the United States justification to go into Iraq. The United States is not at war with the religion, even though some people think it is. It is at war with one country, Iraq. They have something that the United States wants, which is a small three letter word, but it makes a big difference, oil. So the United States gets jealous because it doesn’t have any and makes up all these stories about the Muslim people. And people use to defense mechanism of projection. The government “hates” the Muslim people and so the United States “hates” the Muslim people. So in return, they think the Muslim people “hate” them, when it is completely the opposite.
Islam preaches voilence and muslim are commanded by God to “kill all the infidels.”
If Islam did preach violence, then why are Muslims on the news right now? Why werent Muslims on the news before September 11, 2001? If it did preach violence, we would have been on the news since television news started. And beside the literal translation ofthe word Islam is “peace and submission to God.” It preaches voilence and yet its the fastest growing religion in the world? Come on, people, think! I didnt even know what was an infidel until like very recently. Five to eight million muslims live here in the united states today. So if islam really taught violence, then ask yourself, “WHERE IS THE VIOLENCE?” So all that kill all the infidel stuff is nonsense, because if it was true, then HOW WOULD THE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS LIVE GENERATION AFTER GENERATION FOR 1400 YEARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST? AND THEY STILL LIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST! THINK ABOUT IT! THINK ABOUT IT! THINK ABOUT!
Islam and Christianity have no common beliefs.
Islam and Christianity both belief that there’s a God. They both know Jesus, peace on him, but Islam dont believe that he’s the son of God. If he was the son of God, that means God was married and He had kids. Thats the literal translation of the son of God. They both believe in Adam, peace on him, and Eve and Noah, peace on him, and the flood. They both believe in Moses, peace on him, and the ten commandent. They both believe in the end of the world and Judgment Day. They both believe in Abraham, peace on him, and his son Issac and that he almost sacrificed his son because God told him to. Islam even had a day where we celebrate that day, which is the big Eid. So they have so many common beliefs.
Muslim people are forced to make the non muslims convert and they treat the non muslims bad if they don’t convert.
We are not forced to make non muslims convert. We are not telling them to convert and we don’t have guns to their heads if the don’t convert. Treatment of people who refuse to convert to islam is the same as all the other people. Muslim don’t treat people who wont convert like dogs and then the people who are converting or are already Muslim like angels, same with the people who divert away from islam. If they want to divert, it’s going to be their problem in the future, not ours. We treat all people alike. If they dont want to convert, bravo! Its their choice, not ours.
So in conclusion, all these stereotypes are wrong and if one want to know the truth, one has to do his own research because not all what the media says is true. The media is giving wrong information to the people and it’s not fair that the media is doing that. However, it doesn’t take a rocker scientist to figure out that Islam preaches violence or know that Muslim women are not getting educated are false because there are a lot of Muslim women at my college. People need to start thinking for themselves and stop letting the media dicate to them what to think and how to react to it.
march 20, 2008
i wrote a facebook post:
You have to be perfect…
You have to have the perfect hair, the perfect teeth, the perfect weight, the perfect size…
Otherwise you won’t get the perfect guy to fall for you…
Oh is that right? And what if there’s no such thing as perfect …
Then how does that work?
Perfection only in heaven that everything is perfect and we are not in heaven
Even though people know that, they still stive for it
You have to look a certain way to look beautiful….
Girls put on make up… and they want to lose weight…
Girls in movies have big breats… and big breats are beautiful…
Or so guys say… right?
Its not only in girls too though….
Guys have to have a six pack…
Or so girls say… right?
And what is this all for?
to be “hot”… could someone please give me the definition of “hot”?
We all are flawed, that’s a part of life… and there’s nothing we could do about it…
We have to learn to accept our flaws and learn to love ourselves, even though we are flawed…
It gets so pathetic when people get so blind….
People only judge on the outside….
I would rather be known for my wisdom or kindness or even intelligence…
Looks after a while fade… and what will guys do after that?
When guys look at me, they just turn their heads….
They don’t take the time to get to know me better…
You know the old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
If you look again and take one better look at me… you will see the real me…
The real me is wise
The real me is kind
The real me is smart
People don’t see that … because the concepts are abstract…
Everyone is different… and everyone is not you….
I am actually happy that we are not all the same… life would have been so boring….
We shouldn’t try to change that… that we are flawed…
Because if we are not flawed, then we wouldn’t have any flaws to work on…
People try to generalize other people… you can’t put people in categories…
So next time you see someone who you think is “ugly,” please look past that and remember that every person is different and a world with same-ness would be a very boring world.
by Josh Chicarelli
WARNING: The following blog contains racial slurs but they’re not used in a racist manner. So don’t take them out of context. They’re used to educate and give some insight into my background for those that don’t know.
You know, it never occurred to me until last night when I was watching comedienne Lisa Lampanelli on Comedy Central. I’ve never touched upon this topic before and some of the stuff I say about myself in here will be the first time that most of yous ever heard it. If you’re familiar with the comedy of Lisa Lampanelli or Carlos Mencia, you’d know that they do a lot of race related material. For instance, Lisa takes every stereotype about every race, sex, and creed and pokes fun at it. Carlos takes these same stereotypes and does the same thing but he puts it in perspective usually. I remember him saying once on his No Strings Attached special that “If you got a joke about a particular group of people, then you have no right to tell that joke unless you can tell that joke to the people that it pokes fun of.” He said this when he was telling a story about how the handicapped called him out on not doing handicap jokes in front of them because he didn’t wanna offend them but he learned first hand that it’s ok to do those jokes for the audiences that it pokes fun of because they have a sense of humor too.
Now with that said, no there will be no race related jokes from me here. I don’t really know if I could ever have the courage that Lisa or Carlos has. Something you all probably don’t know is that I, myself, have been a victim of racism. I can laugh at race related jokes and stuff like many other people when they’re not meant to be mean. Just laughing at the stereotypes that stupid people have pigeonholed on people. But when you attempt a joke that’s cold-hearted and absolutely racist, then there’s where I draw the line.
Imagine being 4-5 years old in kindergarten. Your only friend is a little black girl named Latoya and your so-called father starts calling you a nigger lover and saying shit about, “Do you want people to see you with a nigger? Do you want to be called a nigger lover by the church and everyone else?” Imagine having to go through that at 4 and 5 years old. …..It doesn’t end there. I’ve been dealing with racism my entire life and being a mix of Native American and Italian doesn’t help shit much. My skin is a little bit darker than everyone else’s. When we had those culture days in elementary school, imagine having a teacher, of all people, think you’re making a racist statement when you wear a Native American headdress to class to show off your culture and she doesn’t realize that you are Native American. As for me, I took offense to her doing that because I started feeling discriminated against.
…It still doesn’t end there. Fast forward to a few years ago. I was at my uncle’s house and he made pasta but I had food here that I wanted to eat and I hate pasta. My cousin Andrew asked me why I hated it and before I could get anything out my so-called uncle said this and I quote, “It’s that fuckin’ Indian in him!” I don’t know about you guys that’s reading this, but when he said that to me, I seriously wanted to punch him in the fuckin’ mouth for that. That shit pissed me the fuck off like you wouldn’t believe! Right after that, I just got up, left and walked home from Millersville by Pleasant Valley to Colfax. ….Not done yet people! Many of you know about my love of Asian cinema, food and culture. Well those that know me also know that my eyes don’t open as wide as everyone else’s either and that’s not because I’m Asian cause I’m not. It’s just I don’t have wide eyes. Well by my own father, yet again, I’ve been called chink-eyed, chinky, rice man, and pigeonholed with every Asian stereotype and slur you can imagine.
Because of all of that, I’ve grown to actually downright, not dislike or loathe my dad’s side of the family, but I’ve more or less grown to just hate them with a passion. That’s the Italian side of the family and thankfully I take more after my mom’s side which is the Native American side. They’re more tolerant of everyone and everything probably due to what the Europeans did when they first came here all those years ago and slaughtered our ancestors. Like a couple of years ago, I had a black girlfriend and that side knew about it but I had to keep it a secret from his side of the family to avert more racism.
And you know, there’s something I learned from the few black friends I have. They hate being called African-Americans and I asked them about that once and they told me that it was because they find that political correctness nonsense to be insulting to them. They just wanna be treated like everyone else. They want people to talk to them normally and not try to sound like they’re smarter than them or anyone else because they viewed the political correct terms as more racist than calling them black. I thought that was interesting, but you know, they were right. They are fucking right! If I was black, I’d probably be thinking the same thing.
There’s one thing though, I can’t apply that same way of thinking to being Native American because we actually do prefer to be called Native Americans rather than Indian. It mostly has to do with the fact that Indians are people from India, not people from this country originally. I can make fun of the Native American stereotypes because those don’t bother me that much and they are kinda funny. Like when someone pisses me off and they’re like, “Uh oh, don’t scalp me!” I seriously laugh at that because we don’t scalp people and when they’ve said it to me. Another stereotype I find hilarious, about Italians, is that we all smell like fish and garlic. Where that one comes from, I have no clue, cause I hate seafood and garlic, let alone all Italian food except pizza and I’m half Italian! So it’s funny to me when someone makes that joke. They aren’t saying them in a harsh, “I fucking mean it!”, kind of manner. They were joking, so yeah, I can take the joke, but blatant, flat out racism…. You better hope I don’t find you.
So hopefully you all learned something valuable about me today and learned something about racism too. That’s the reason why I wrote this blog is to educate a little bit and tell people about my experiences in doing so. So hopefully I made a difference to someone or some people out there with this insightful outlook. Take care everyone!”
This is from my friend’s blog.
When I asked him about it, he said this is all true.
“yeah, so when I say I know what it’s like to be discriminated against, I mean I really know how those people feel cause I went through it.”
Sweetangel16175 says: 
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