Peoples History

The author of Columbus the Indians, and Human Progress made the thesis on how the Indians and others forgings were nice and had open arms to Columbus's crew when they arrived to new land. This is unusual because if you were to meet people of different ethnicity and had absolutely no clue who they were, most people would not be friendly but be unwelcoming.His/her argument was that people such as Indians and Arawak's were unbelievable because they were so nice and had great hospitality. Columbus and his crew set out for new land not knowing what to expect. They couldn't be positive that there was undiscovered land and they couldn't be positive that the world was flat. They had no hard evidence of either. So as they were sailing for months they finally saw birds flying which made them realize that land must be close. They were right and when they sailed into what is now Cuba the Arawak's were waiting. The Arawak's saw the ships and swam out to them greeting the new people into their land and lives.The two questions which engage in the authors argument are first, why are people from then and people now so different in terms of accepting foreigners or people they do not know into their lives? If people were to come to America from Mars say, Americans would not accept them as a matter of fact people would run from them and look at them as the "other". This mindset that they are not as good as us and we know nothing about them therefore why should we let these people into our lives. The second question is, when did people in the world stop being so nice? As time goes on more people get selfish and rude. These people were offering the voyagers with food water and shelter. Now people would never offer them money, food, or shelter because their to worked up on themselves. We need to reverse the trend and be more polite and welcoming to people. And I feel is the crime rates would ever drop you would see more people being more friendly.I thought the reading was very good and informative. I never knew that the first people to meet Columbus and his crew were so nice and welcoming to them. I learned alot about how people you don't know should be treated. I honestly can say that reading this piece gave me an open mind to allow a foreign exchange student to live with me in the future. This piece also made me realize that its not hard to be nice to people and saying hi when you see someone may have a positive effect on their life. I believe that kindness spreads the more kind you are to people the more people will be kind to you.

The Tempest

The main idea in this writing is to show the ways in which Pilgrims and other Europeans cam to America and basically took over the Indians which were already living here. Also the way in which Pilgrims looked down at Indians as if they were different, stupid, and lazy. Before anyone found America, the Indians had been living here for a long time. So they had a way of life that was different than any other nationality. They didn't have any technologies or other innovations such as guns and ammo or brick houses. The ways they went about getting their food was a little different than the Pilgrims. So when the Pilgrims came and lived the life style of an Indian they were not experienced enough to survive.Alot of Europeans immigrated to America to start a new life. There was one problem when they came though. The pilgrims were used to getting food from going and buying it or hunting with guns. Where the Indians used bow and arrows, chizzled rocks, and various ways of farming for their source of food. Farming especially corn was the main source of their food. When the Pilgrims saw the way that Indians didn't do much to grow the corn, they started to call them lazy. As the Pilgrims called them lazy almost all of the immigrants that came to America in the "great immigration" died due to starvation or froze to death. So the authors argument is that the Pilgrims instead of making fun of the Indians way of life and tried to get rid of them. they should have been learning how survive in this different world.My first discussion question is, why are people so stuck on their way of living and why can't they adopt to new ways of life easier? I know growing up in a five member family if I were to travel to Spain and live with a ten person family it would be extremely hard for me to cope with their way of life. I think our school systems at a young age need to teach us more about way of life in foreign countries. At some point in your life you will have to cope with something new and how you handle that situation is how much character you have. The second question is, if the Pilgrims saw their own people dying and saw the Indians now dying why were they so stuck up that they couldn't learn their way of life to survive. The human nature tells us that we are the best and everyone else "the other" who have different ways of living are below us and therefore we should not lower ourselves to that level. This is untrue and I think that we as humans need to fight off that perception and think about whether or not we can learn things from different people. Now that I am in college I have realized that you can gain information from different races and different ages. That's one of the skills I have gained through my college experience so far, and if we can all learn to think in that mind set we will have a better place to live.I felt that reading was good and informative. I remember learning this information in school but I forgot how hard it was for Pilgrims to pick up a new way of life. I also defiantly have a different way of looking at it now as opposed to when i read it in fifth grade.

Video Screening

This video was a very interesting and informative video. It was on the way in which people of different races are actually not that different from people in other races. The point of this video is to show people that, theur DNA might not match who they think. This is a thought that even though we have different types of skin color and other differences were actually similar at the same time. It also laid to rest a few myths about certain races that are nto true. Such as the reason why black people are such fast runners and good athletes is because they have bigger mucules than white people. They do not have bigger or even more muscles than white people do. It's just for some reason they seem to be faster runners and better athletes.They back up their argument through the school experiment. Kids tested their DNA and the resluts were astonishing. A white male thought that he would be most similar to another white male of American decent. Well, when they did the test and looked for better matches he actually matched the DNA of three males from three different decent. So this proves that just your skin color or your nationality is a certain counrty does not mean that you will have matching DNA with a different person with those characteristics. Jesse Owns was a great runner and stole of the show at the 1936 Olympics. It was ibn Germany and Hitler was watching most of the events. He was outraged when he saw a black male beating out all of the white athletes. From this point on African Americans were thought to have better stucture of their bodies which allowed for faster running and higher jumping. Well researchers have disected a black males body and that thought is totally unture. Jesse Ownes was just a freak of nature that was before his time. If he raced now I believe that he would not have been looked that sam wasy in which he was. He would have beeter competeion and he would not blow everyone out the gates like he did.There are two questions that I qould liked dicussed the first is even though we now know blacks do not have an advatange in their body structures why is it that blacks tend to be better athletes? You can not deny that their are a lot more professional athletes that are black as opposed to who are white. Is it luck of the draw or heritage becuase I love sports but have always wondered my I am wathcing so many blacks players and not as many white players plaing. My second questions is, if there are some many DNA similarities from blacks and whites why are there still the raced ralated problems in the United States? Why is it when i go to play basketball at the rec center the blacks are playing together and the whites are playing on seperate courts by themselves? I think that there will always be reace related problems in the United States i just can get why we have to hold blacks on a lower standard of living. they act the same as whites talk and think the sam so why are they thought of as lower standrad.Like I said before I liked the video and gained knowldge on the races that I did not have before. I will admit that I still thought that blacks had bigger and more muscules than whites. Now that I know thats not true I still pose the question why I cant be as good as an athlete as blacks seem to be. I guess I lost the gene lottery you could say.

Johnson Chapter 3

The main thesis that they author is going at here is the thought that race and gender class have all become what they are based on captialism. Capitalism is the flaw in the system where raceism comes from. The thought that the way certain people are precived in this counrty is based on the fact that they lower class workers. Like it or not lower class workers are mostly black and most of the white businessmen are the captialist (the people who own the business and pay all of the lower class workers nothing for their work so they can make more money.) I agree with Johnson's thought that everything is based on money and without money in America you will be a nothing.

He supports his argument by saying that the top ten percent of wealthy people in America owns more than two-thirds of all the wealth, including 90 percent of all cash, and 90 percent of all business assets. And for the other 90 percent of Americans, basically screw you and you can not do anything to change the situation. He says that if you do not have alot of money than you will never have money and and if you in the hole with you money you will never get out. The system is ste up so that even if your a hard working lower class worker with two jobs and alot of experience, it will not matter you will never get promoted into a better job. This is the part of racism where I do not agree with Johnson. I do believe that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer butif you maximize your potenial and do everything you can as a lower class worker than one day you will succeed and make money. Most people who are lower class workers, instead of having the drive to get out of their bad situation, they sit around and have pitty on themselves and their situation.

I had alot of dicussion questions go through my head while reading this piece my first was, why is it precived in America that when people talk about lowewr class workers its to be assumed that their talking about blacks? I think that black people get the perception that they are supposed to be the lower class workers because of they way they handle themselves and they way they go about business. Dont get me wrong I know some knowledgeable black people that will do well in life, but at the same time I know more black people that I dont know how their futures will turn out. Blacks get percived by the way they walk, dress, talk, and believe it or not the music that they listen to. Rap music adds the the negative perception whites have on them. You can nto blame whites for thinking this way because most of rap music is about is killing people and selling drugs. My second question I had was, why homosexuals percived differently is class. I think it is because the thought that homosexuals are "the other" the thought that it is not normal to like the same sex. We should not think of homosexuals in a differnt way I think that, that is the way they are born and they can not do anything to change it.