Archives for July 2010

Its weird, when I say I am half Irish people just laugh at me. For some the fact that I could have Irish blood in me strikes them as odd. They will never believe me until they see my grandfather or look at my family heritage. I can’t believe that in this day of age where we have come so far and have made so many advancements in life, that we still see people in color. For example, once when I was in the first grade my teacher made us play this activity called tell us something we don’t know about you. I was really excited to tell everyone that I was half Irish, so I jolted towards the front of the classroom so that I could be the first one to tell everyone something they did not know about me. When I was up in front of the class I immediately said that I was half Irish. Once I uttered those words out my month, my teacher said you must be mistaken you can’t be half Irish your skin is dark not light.

After school that day I told my mom and that teacher got fired later that day. For a teacher say that to a child, is just ridiculous. I don’t get how anyone could look like a certain race. To this day, it bothers that people don’t believe I have Irish blood in me just because I am not what they view as an Irish person. In this day of age, stereotypes like that should not be tolerated. I don’t know how as humans we have made plethora amount of changes, but still act so dumb and blindly towards race and color. I can’t change the world, but I can at least say this. I am an Afro-Euro-American male, and I am proud of it.

Five Asian American elderly women have been violently abused and robbed in the Lower East Side for the past few months. Their age ranges from 50 to 71 years old. The issue of hate crimes has been an ongoing issue in this diverse melting pot of culture in the United States. Some minorities even the white majority has been attacked due to their race, color, gender, and or their sexual orientation.

Some residents in the Lower East Side were shocked. Some had no idea that the Lower East side contained this sort of hate crimes violence. Some were never exposed to the violent hate crimes that occurred to the five Asian Americans that were attacked in Baruch Houses.

The Asian American community has been silent till a month ago when one of the Asian American elderly came forth sparking other confronts. This showed how one voice and one push would uncover hidden cases of civil rights violation.

Community activist and City Councilwoman Margret Chin has been urging the community to speak up more. With more cases and vivid descriptions, the Asian American community would break the silent stereotype that was imposed on them. Some Asians dislike getting themselves into police affairs and would do little when faced with attacks and threats. We will not be silent anymore! We will not fight with fists but with words and education.

Some hate crimes happen because of peer pressure, lack of materials and services, economic barrier, but most importantly, the lack of strong leadership to attack the issue of hate crimes correctly. It is easy to say “don’t do this” “don’t do that” “it’s not right” or “leave them, they are a bad influence,” but it is hard for leaders to resolve the issue without understanding their reasons. The questions, why people do certain things, and why do people join certain groups and demand certain things are all questions that gets a strong leader to think about what they have to offer to those individuals to substitute what other “bad” sources offer-support system, protection, materials, etc.

If you’re not from NY, you probably believe that its a mecca for almost everything fun. You probably talk about how you can see a great show and watch a good baseball game. Or you probably like that you can see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building all in one day. Well in this city of late shows and broadway plays, the only way you can really enjoy NYC is if you are visiting NYC.
See if you already live in New York City, you can’t have as much fun as you would have visiting New York City. Why, you ask? Well, its simply because to a resident of the city everything has been seen before. Its like when a lion is in the jungle, he is not as excited to be there as a tourist would be. Reason being is because, to the lion everything is normal and not new. Other though, a tourist would be excited since its a new environment he or she is experiencing.
Now don’t get me wrong, NYC is a lovely place to visit and enjoy as vacation. Other than that though, NYC is really not all its cracked up to be. You can’t move here and expect to have as much fun living here as you would if you were visiting here. Its just not the same. So if you plan to move here just remember that NYC is the place to visit but not the place to be.

This halloween costume is very confusing to me. http://bit.ly/bCumYD

On Tuesday, the long debate between the ideas of extending the unemployment benefits has finally been resolved. The Senate has finally decided to give extensions to unemployment benefits to Americans who have been out of work for about six months or more.
On a 60 to 40 vote, the Senate agreed to finally end the debate on the $34 billion plan to give out added compensation to those who have used up all of their standard 26 weeks worth of aid.
About 2 million Americans were faced with the fact that their benefits were gone over the past 2 months while they waited for this debate to end.
I feel happy at the fact that a lot more Americans will receive the aid that they need from now on. With the new benefits on its way, a lot of people will now be able to relax a little bit. Because of the current economic state we are in, this little extra benefit to the unemployed will help them greatly, especially those that had already used all of their usual standard 26 weeks worth of aid.
Although a lot of unemployed people will now receive the extra aid that they need to get through their daily life, I feel that this debate should’ve been decided a lot sooner. All of the time that was used to settle this idea could’ve been used to provide more aid to the unemployed. Although there is a lot to consider since this is a $34 billion plan, this issue should’ve been dealt with more efficiently so that people could receive aid sooner.

Some lyrics are explicit and not for kids under 18 like some of blood on the dance floor and jeffree star whose lyrics, talk about sex and violence, and some hip-hop stars refer to women in very obscene ways and some people just pass it up as usual. Is it because of their ethnic background and the way they were raised? I think part of it might be true just because it was the way they were treated as children is the main reason they act like that like lil Wayne who talks about all of these incriminating things as well as Eminem who talks about killing his wife and how he hates his mother because of the way he grew up is the reason why they act that way. Sometimes these albums end up in smaller children’s hands and then some parents wonder where these children get that kind of language and why they are acting out against their parents and they ignore their parents and get into fights and getting beat up for no reason just because they said the wrong thing to the wrong person or insulted someone who was very angry and about to snap.

On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered outside her home in Queens, New York. It took the killer thirty minutes to kill Genovese. During those thirty minutes, nobody answered her cries for help or called the police. Surprisingly, thirty-eight people witnessed the murder.
Sociologists John Darley and Bibb Latane looked into the Kitty Genovese incident. They found that Kitty Genovese was a victim of the bystander effect.
According to Darley and Latane, the bystander effect is a socio-psychological phenomenon that states that the victim’s chances of receiving help is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders. In other words, if the number of bystanders in an emergency situation increases, the victim’s chances of receiving help decreases. Two factors that make up the bystander effect are the diffusion of responsibilities and pluralistic ignorance.
When faced in emergency situations, each bystander perceives a fraction of the responsibility. According to David Newman in Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, if there was only one bystander in an emergency situation, that one bystander would feel 100% responsible for taking action. Newman also goes on to note that if there were ten bystanders, each bystander would feel as though they had a tenth of the responsibility. Those ten bystanders carry less weight than the weight that the single bystander carries. This minimizes the obligation to take action. This concept is known as diffusion of responsibilities. Because there were thirty-eight bystanders in the Kitty Genovese incident, each bystander felt less responsible and less obligated to help out Genovese.
When a teacher asks her class to write notes, a student who did not pay attention would look at his classmates to figure out what to do. Similarly, bystanders often look at other bystanders to figure out what to do. If one person doesn’t take action, another person would believe that nothing is wrong and wouldn’t take action as well. A larger group of people further reinforces the ignorance. This is known as pluralistic ignorance. The thirty-eight bystanders in the Kitty Genovese incident did nothing, since everyone else didn’t do anything. They thought that everyone else didn’t do anything because nothing was wrong.
There is a way to offset the bystander effect. A victim must break pluralistic ignorance and stop the diffusion of responsibility. To do so, a victim must ask a single bystander for help, rather than a whole group of bystanders. By calling on a single bystander for help, the victim “shines the spotlight” on the bystander. This gives the bystander more responsibility, making him take action. When one bystander helps out the victim, the other bystanders will see that there is something wrong and start to help out the victim too. This offsets the bystander effect and creates safety in an emergency situation.
Kitty Genovese didn’t receive help because of bystander effect. If there were fewer bystanders, Genovese would have had a greater chance of surviving.

Have your family member ever bugged you of what college you want to attend?  My family sure have, especially at a stage when you would be entering the senior year soon.  I always wonder why parents would ask so much question about college, when I am not even at college yet.  Even if I am at the stage of college my parents would pressure to tell me what school to go to and what not to go to.
 I believe my college and career I want to be is my choice and not my parents, but especially in my culture, people would assume what you will be and what college you would attend.  I have an older sister that attends Stony Brook University and my parents wouldn’t let me go to that school because it is too far away.  They want me to stay in the city and be an accounting.  I know parents only wants the best of their children’s, but aren’t they just overreacting a bit?  I know every family want their children to attend the best college in the world, but no one is perfect.  Perfection is not a world; it doesn’t exist in the world of education because no one is perfect.
College is a place that you will stay in a place for four years of your life and you cannot let parents control your life forever.  I am not saying that you shouldn’t listen to your parents, but after high school  it is your own life and how you will control it, since it is your future.  Since I am going to enter my senior year next year, my parents are putting too much stress on me and what college I need to go to.  Whatever my decision would be, it will be from my heart, since it will be my future and my life.