Richard Rodriguez, Aria- Quotes

This piece was a touching piece to read.  I was able to feel the emotion behind his writing.  You can feel his sense of disappointment and lack of comfort with initially learning the English language, and understandably so. He felt as though losing his connection with the Spanish language would make him lose a sense of home in his life. School was an uncomfortable environment for him, so going home at the end of the day was a sense of relief to him. There, he felt as though he was free.

“But I couldn’t believe that the English language was mine to use. (In part, I did not want to believe it.) I continued to mumble, I resisted the teacher’s demands. (Did I somehow suspect that once I learned public language my pleasing family life would be changed?) Silent, waiting for the bell to sound, I remained dazed, diffident, afraid.”

^He thought that learning the English language would make him lose his identity. At the end of the piece, he states that, “they do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public identity.” It makes me wonder that at what point is it worth it to lose a private individuality for a public one?

“From the doorway of another room, spying the visitors, I noted that incongruity – the clash of two worlds, the faces and voices of school intruding upon the familiar setting of home.”

^He disliked the fact that the English language was going to ruin his home life – the only place he felt comfortable within his own skin and using his own voice.

“No longer so lose; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness.”

^He felt as though he had a public identity, but was he lacking the feeling of an individual identity. This is important, because in the beginning of the piece, it is all about him losing his private identity to fit in with the rest of the school. It was his main struggle, and the only reason why he was so hesitant on actually applying the English language.

 Comments:

It was sad to hear his story about how he had to give up his identity to learn a new one so that he could fit in and be apart of society.  I'm not going to lie i got choked up when i read this piece because i cant even imagine how it must feel to give up such a big part of your identity and who you are just to be able to basically succeed in life.  

McIntosh, White Privilege- Reflection

This piece was a real eye opener.  The points that McIntosh made about white privilege being invisible are so true.   I never really thought of myself being privileged for being white.  She really made me think about my life and how me being a white individual has given me more opportunities to things.  I can relate to what she is saying.  I have witnessed with my own eyes some of these exact examples from the essay.  For example, I used to work in the bakery section of a high end, gourmet supermarket, if a customer came in that was black and not dressed in a suite and tie, the manager would secretly follow them around the store making sure they didn’t steal anything.  When I noticed this for the first time it upset me.  It upset me because that just because the color of their skin is different doesn’t mea they should be judged.  Also because I noticed that he noticed the manager keeping an eye on him and I was able to see the frustration on his face and the tone of voice he spoke in when ordering his deli items.  In my opinion I would be more concerned with some of the white folks that came into the store than the black ones.  If a white person came in dressed in sweats and a hoodie no one would seem to care but when it’s a black folk everyone gets all nervous and worried.  There was also this one time where my coworker, who is black, and I both got in trouble at my job.  I found out later in the week that she got into a lot more trouble than I did and we both made the same mistake that we got in trouble for.  

Comments/Points to share

My question is why do we focus so much on race and the color of peoples skin? It get's me so frustrated that people judge and react differently towards others based off the color of their skin.  WHy cant we all just live our lives equally? 

Intoduction

Im Daniella, I am from long island, new york. I am currently a sophomore at RIC. I am a double major in health and physical education with a minor in coaching.  From when i was a young girl, my dream was to go to school to become a physical Educator in an elementary school.  I am now currently living my dream, and i wont stop until i accomplish it.  I love working with kids and have been a volunteer camp counselor at LuHi summer camp for the past 3 years. I play lacrosse and have been playing for 12 years but i had to stop due to a spine injury.  Longboarding is my passion. When im not in class ill either be doing homework or if its nice out i will be longboarding.  Ive never blogged before so this is a huge challenge for me!