FCKH8!!

I came across this video on Facebook a while back and thought that is was definitely an important one to share. Not solely in regards to the campaign against prop 8 that it’s supporting, but more so just to see some empowering images of LGBTQ people. Given the incredibly high number of gay related suicides of this past year, I think that it crucial to have a video upon which LGBTQ members are taking a stand instead of being portrayed solely as victims. 

Suicidal Thoughts...

Sexuality has become a rather daunting aspect of life for LGBTQ youth. Many young people struggling with gaining social acceptance have contemplated, if not attempted, suicide. LGBTQ students are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. "Gay and lesbian youth represent 30% of all completed teen suicide: extrapolation shows this means a successful suicide attempt by a gay teen every 5 hours and 48 minute." On top of that 30% of all gay and bisexual males have attempted suicide. The fact that one's sexuality has been driving so many people to suicide, it says a lot about the society that we live in. If 2010 has taught us anything its that society needs to be a lot more sensitive and accepting of gay youth. Prior to the media coverage of the LGBTQ suicides, the statistics were probably just numbers that we tried to conceptualized mentally, but there's no need for that now because we have actually been seeing this happen of the past year. Its about time the people, specially faculty, administration, and students within schools, become more inclusive in order to eliminate suicides that are occurring because of people's sexual orientation.

Being Gay at School

Schools are becoming increasingly more dangerous and difficult spaces for young gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. Within one day, the average teen will here homophobic slurs about 26 times a day. Such events are not conducive to producing an accepting society. Students can’t find support within their peers or the administration because the administration, in most school systems, is just as clue and ignorant as the kids that attend their institutions. 78% of school administrators say they know of no lesbian, gay, or bisexual students in their schools, yet 94% of them claim they feel their schools are safe places for these young people. A survey conducted showed that 77% of prospective teachers would not encourage a class discussion on homosexuality and that 85% of them were opposed integrating gay/lesbian themes into their existing curriculum. Its sad  to think that students can’t even look to their teachers for support while at school. The school systems need to step up there game drastically in make students from all backgrounds feel welcomed.

Family Support

It's amazing how far family support can take a person. Within the LGBTQ community, teens who reported that they received parental support in their households ended up being overall happier people. Many teens who come out to their parent end up not only receiving no emotional support, they are often subject to physical abuse for doing so. In fact, 19% of gay men and 25% of lesbians report suffering physical violence at the hands of family members as a result of their sexual orientation. If more parents were able to accept their kids, that would positively impact the self-esteem of many LGBT teens, which would subsequently, lead to better self expression which could potentially lead to more understanding. More parents should try and embrace their children regardless sexuality similar to what Platas forced himself to do for his son. 

Homophobia vs Ignorance

Can all ignorant people be classified as homophobic? Today I discussed whether there was a difference between homophobia and ignorance. My friend stated that all people who aren't knowledgeable about LGBTQ issues and that lack the ability to know how to respond to LGBTQ people are homophobic, but I believe that not all people who are ignorant are necessarily. My friend stated there is a spectrum of homophobia: one side being innocently ignorant and the other side being woefully homophobic. I disagreed, and thought that ignorance could be completely disassociated with homophobia. Homophobia is defined as the aversion of gay people for no reason while ignorance is simply the state of not knowing. We eventually concluded that ignorance and homophobia could be opposite ends of a spectrum, just not the spectrum of homophobia. Instead of there being a homophobia spectrum, we concluded that spectrum would be one of awareness. The spectrum would go something liked this  (in order from least to worst levels): oblivious, ignorant, prejudice, homophobic. What do you think? Is ignorance the first notch of the spectrum of homophobia? Or is ignorance and homophobia disassociated from one another, but the same spectrum of level of awareness?

Women and Educational Attainment

Studies show that if college admissions were based solely on credentials, women would outnumber men 2 to 1. Recent trends illustrate that there has be increase in the amount of women applicants and a decline in the amount of men pursuing education. Many things can be attributed to the recent trends such as the number of men who opt to go to the military instead of college. Whatever the case may be, the increase in the amount of women attaining education is at an all time high. The feminist movement is currently more prevalent than it has ever been which could, in part be link to high number of women receiving college education. This article covers more in depth trend regarding the increasing number of women going to college.

Africa, AIDS, and the Future

We all know that Africa is one of the most poverty-stricken continents in the world; what most people don’t know is how to change it.  Africa has the potential to be so much more than it is today. It retains a large population and, contrary to widespread beliefs, land useable for cultivation. Given the current AIDS epidemic facing Africa, economic progress has been put on the back burner in order to attempt to confront AIDS. AIDS in Africa has become very widespread, detrimental problem. Programs geared towards assisting the condition of AIDS in Africa seem to fail, fade away, or remain ineffective. One program that seems to display a little more promise is the UNAIDS program. The UNAIDS program is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV epidemic. The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an expanded response to HIV and AIDS that includes preventing transmission of HIV, providing care and support to those already living with the virus, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV and alleviating the impact of the epidemic. The potential scenarios mapped out for Africa can help one better understand Africa current options and how the rest of the world influences them. I believe that Africa will come out of its overarching state of disparity and defeat the AIDS epidemic that has been serving as such a widespread problem. 

Affirmative Inaction

Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, sex or national origin"^[1] into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group at the expense of a majority group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination. It has been argued that enacting such a policy would decrease the quality of the a worker or student admitted on the basis of affirmative action. This claim is simply not as widely applicable as some may like to believe due to the credentials necessary for minorities to qualify for the positions of interest. Many people are under the impression that unqualified people are being given jobs and spots in schools based solely on race, religion, or sex. People upon which affirmative action may assist still need to have the appropriate credentials.

While I believe that affirmative action is necessary in modern american society to level the economic playing field, I do believe that just as it was phased into the system it needs to be phased out. Institutionalized racism plays a major role in the reason why affirmative action is important today, but for complete equality, affirmative action must be ended. I don't believe in many of the arguments against affirmative action. Many who are opposed to affirmative action believe that it produces reverse discrimination, but if thats what it takes to deconstruct institutionalized slavery than so be it. I believe that many points made against affirmative action are simply invalid and blind to the the fact that racism has been institutionalized today. While this deconstruction may not happen this decade or the next, the fact that we are moving closer to this goal of complete deconstruction is sufficient. This is definitely one of the benefits of affirmative action, but as aforementioned it must eventually be halted so that people are all compared based on credentials and not on race, gender, or other socially dividing factors. 

First Draft of Final Paper (Derrick)

Copy and paste the link to get to my paper.

The "N" Word. Yea I Said It. The NAACP

As the racial social climate of America transitions into an new Era, it is imperative that the initiatives of the NAACP do so as well, or else this lack of advancement will render the NAACP obsolete.
The NAACP has been a progressive group that has fought for the equality of African American citizens throughout history. While its goals in regards to the advancement of the African American were crucial during the period of its erection, since then they have become rather dated and irrelevant to current situation of the African American. 

A primary focus of the NAACP has been to abolish the “n” word from the common vocabulary. While this is a noble task to accomplish, it lacks the possibility to advance the state of the African American both socially and socioeconomically. I think that it should definitely be an issue that we attack over a long period of time, but equaling the socioeconomic and political play field holds just as much if not more in contemporary America.

More energy should go into advancing the school systems of African American ghettos. Statistics show that few African Americans graduate high school, and even fewer matriculate to college. Deconstructing the system of institutionalized racism that has been established would benefit the black community significantly more than the abolishment of the “n” word. While the “n” word holds historical derogatory significance, as an African American it’s more important to me that my community becomes more politically and socioeconomically included, as opposed to creating this perceived equality gained by completely abolishing the “n” word.

Please do not misinterpret my desire for more significant social change as a discrediting factor in the fight to abolish the “n” word. Look at this website and hopefully it will make you think twice when using the word only amongst your private circle of friends.

Swimming and Institutionalized Racism...

Who would of thought that swimming would be linked to slavery? I'm sure that we have all heard the racist jokes that talk about black people and their lack of the ability to swim. Today I was discussing the origin of some racist jokes and their significance in the real world. Needless to say, the joke about black people not being able to swim came up. Being black myself and having had an abundance of black friends who could swim, during this discussion I argued that there was no correlation between race and one’s ability to swim. To my surprise, after doing some research, these acquisitions were proven to not only be jokes but they were also shown to have statistical social truth.

Studies show that a far higher percentage of black, as opposed to white, children lack the ability to swim. After doing more research it was evident that this was not a biological problem like many of these jokes, and people, imply; rather it was due to institutionalized racism. Many blacks are currently still living in the ghettos that their slave ancestors fled to for a chance at freedom. The poverty of their ancestors from being a slave has been passed down for generations. Today, school systems in ghettos are not set up in a way that is geared towards getting blacks through high school, into college, and immersed into the workforce.

Many people in ghettos simply cannot afford to swim. While it is quite a pity to think about, most neighborhoods that have access to pools and beaches are affluent. Lessons cost money as well, and when one is trying to make ends meet its rather difficult to try and squeeze some swimming lessons into the budget.

The lack of the ability to swim is not biological, but it definitely correlates with socioeconomics. Just another way that racism has been institutionalized.

Here is an article that is about six black kids drowning because of their inability to swim. It also speaks a little more in depth about the percentage of blacks and latinos that cant swim:


http://abcnews.go.com/WN/teens-drown-wading-louisianas-red-river/story?id=11312631

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

Believe me, gay marriage is really wrong. You’d even love to join the group:

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all;women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms, just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

*A little recontextualisation: the reasons are valid not only in America.

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Above is an except I came across on sin-stuff.com written by username: Right. This illustrates the flaws in the reasoning against same sex marriage simply by stating the logic being used when determining that same sex marriage is wrong. Though clearly there was a hint of sarcasm, these claims definitely lack validity in the real world and are definitely not new to the debate of legalizing gay marriage.

Gaga Speaks Out

While I am not the biggest fan of Lady Gaga’s music, no one can deny that more celebrities in Hollywood should follow her lead in regards to the stance she takes with the current issues surrounding the LGBTQ community. The included video includes Lady Gaga better articulating her thoughts and opinions of DADT.  

This the 21st Century, right?

Many of problems relating to gay marriage manifest itself through the definitional meaning of the word marriage. Marriage has been defined as the union of a man and a woman. In order to move forward it is necessary to reevaluate what constitutes a “marriage.” If the problem is in the language of the definition then we need to address that issue. The American Constitution was flawed from the very beginning hence the establishment of Amendments. If there is such an abundant of issues surrounding the definitional meaning, why not just alter the constitution to address all marriages as civil union instead. This is to apply to all unions, of any kind, despite sex.

While it is believed that gay marriage may not be pragmatic, who cares? Basing the decision of legalizing gay marriage on pragmatism seems a little silly. This makes it look like the government is denying a whole group of people the right to marry because its too much work to work it into how today’s society operates. It seems to me that something as simple as marrying who you want would be a standard accessible to all, regardless of sexual orientation. The juvenile behavior of denying people the right to marry because it goes against the norm needs to be halted. 

You Don't Have To Ask, But I Have the Right To Tell

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to see president Barack Obama at his vote-democrat rally at the University of Southern California. Many of the political figures at the rally made sure to point out the faults of the republican party and the relatively recent revival of the tea party movement. Along with the celebrity appearance of both Jamie Foxx and Kal Penn, who is officially working for Obama, there were many performances by the students of USC, actual music bands, and children choirs.

As aforementioned republicans were directly confronted with the comments stated by their democratic counterparts. Obama stated that he plans on combating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has become accepted in the military today. This statement solidifies that fact that Obama has been and continues to be an advocate for the LGBT community. Though this is the type of progression that needs to be encouraged, it is clear that attacking LGBT issues with the current allotment of problems that Obama has to deal with is not exactly probable.

While it is true that Obama may intend to eventually combat these issues, are his current efforts nothing more than empty actions and promises?