Language

Language has always been important to me. I think it has to do with the fact that it's something I've always struggled with. I've taken Spanish classes since my freshman year in high school and I still can't speak it. I envy those who can. My sister has spent the past several years traveling to Spanish speaking places and can know speak it well. She has even dreamt in Spanish before. I hate it that there are races who have been dined an education in languages besides English. I wish language came more easily to me; aside from my wish to speak a second language, I would love for my native English language to come more easily for me. I have grown up knowing the influence language has on the way people think and I find that fascinating. Everyone could lean so much about the world if they understood it from more than one language. Discouraging the use of multiple languages makes no sense to me. I find the most impressive people to be those who speak multiple languages. Plus other languages are so cool to listen to. There's something about not understanding a language that allows me to pay close attention to the way it flows and the way a person's mouth moves when she is speaking. I think it would be great to hear people speak many languages all over the U.S., but that isn't the reality because many people don't know how to speak anything besides English. For me, I don't like to compare this country to other's, because those other countries have a different history than America does. America is supposed to be a country full of people from all over the world. While no one can prevent time from passing and things from changing, we should encourage everyone to live a speak the same. That's not the way Americans, white Americans, like to think of their country (as uniform), but that's the way it has become. I guess the language problem is just another example of the way white Americans have contradicted themselves.

The same thing can be said for the No Child Left Behind Act. Bush said that the act is what it says, no child will be left behind. But what about all those kids who aren't good test takers? There are many reasons why a child wouldn't do well on a standardized test. Learning disabilities is the reason why I don't do well on tests. But if a child comes from background where learning to skill of test taking isn't on the top of the list, they aren't going to do well on a test either. I'm not trying to say that tests are all bad, but the standardized tests have proven to not predict as many things as they were designed to predict. It also discriminates against people who have a lot more than their race to hold them back in the system that has been created. In Class in America: Myths and Realities, there is a lot of discussion about the assumptions out in the world about the opportunities people have in this country. Well, the No Child Left Behind Act is assuming that test taking is a nature skill all humans prosess when in reality it is a skill that is taught and one that takes years to prefect.

I have felt as though I have been accused of being a resist before and it pains me to think that there are people who think that. I try to be aware of what I say and I differently couldn’t tell you what I said that would make people think that, but they have in the past. There are two things that bother me the most about this. One, I know what it feels like to be judged for something that is a part of me because I have both a mental and physical disability. I know what it feels like to have to prove myself, so I can relate to victims of racism in that sense. I remember that first time I was an obvious victim of discrimination because it happened my first year at college. I was told the comment “people who don’t do well don’t work hard; people who aren’t as accomplished as myself haven’t worked as hard.” To drive this in further I’ve hard, from the same person “I’m doing better than [a friend at home] because I’m finishing college in three years, not five.”
The other reason why being accused of a racist act is so hurtful is because I know the statistics, I grew up knowing that mid-aged white men are the most common serial killers. If fact, I’ve realize that I get worried when a middle-aged white man is walking toward me or behind me much more than I get worried about anyone else. I that it’s the recourses that some people don’t have available to them that gets in the way of their ability to achieve certain things in the same amount of time as someone who was privileged enough to have better resources. And I have always wanted to use my privilege to help those that don’t.
There are just a handful of people out in the world who look for discrimination and I know they don’t represent the general population, but I fear those people. I think I fear them because I’m afraid others will listen to just those few.

I don’t remember when I first faced race, but I do remember when the University of Michigan fought affirmative action. I had always thought it was a necessary thing, but I quickly learned that not everyone agreed with me. The reason that I found most interesting was that affirmative action disadvantaged white students because of their race. I had never thought of it that way and I still think affirmative action is necessary, but isn’t that exactly the effect affirmative action has? It disadvantages white students by giving colored students a leg up because of what a piece of paper says they look like. This thought makes me react by saying “Well, how does it fell?” Maybe it’s good thing that some people who have never had to face the issue of race in a negative way have an experience with it. But does it really help anything if those white students who feel discriminated against don’t understand why? There are some people who know the history behind affirmative action, but they don’t know why or don’t believe that it is necessary any more. Can you put them in the same group as those who think racism is in the past and doesn’t have anything to do with us today?