How to improve the chaos

Recap/Summary

Reading 18: My Secret life as a Black Man by Anthony Walton
-Essay about the troubles of living up to the expectations that other see you as due to race. How sometimes the preemptive notions people hold when they see you may work in your favor and how other times they do not.

Reading 20: Go North, young Man by Richard Rodriguez
-Immigration, particularly illegal immigration and the hardships faced by immigrants looking to fit into America who come here only to make a better life for themselves.

Reading 49: Grassroots Activism: Mothers of East Los Angeles by Mary Pardo
-A group of mothers from east Los Angeles, despite their low racial status, work together to bring about change in their community demonstrating democratic participation at its finest.

Reading 50: House Bound: Women’s Agency in White Separatist Movements by Jennifer Fluri and Lorraine Dowler
-Talks about how the internet has become a safe haven as well as a site of resistance for white separatists, also about how women’s place is in the home, to reproduce and he the motherhood of the nation.

There are several lessons that can be learned from the reading, lessons that pertain to the way our class tries to solve problems presented. First of all, looking at the present way we go about solving problems involves several people talking loudly until they reach a decision while others mumble obscenities under their breath about one thing or another they don’t like, remain silent knowing that no one will hear their smaller voice, or try to cut into the conversation and imagine someone hears them as they add to the roar of discussion. Conclusions that are reached do not make everyone happy, and often conflict by one or two people stirs up need for a new solution. The readings indicate other situations whose problems mirror our own and perhaps their solutions can help our class. In reading 18, we can see that people look at us and see something that they already perceive from our ethnicity or some other early signs. For example, we perceived that Dr. Johnson would teach our class and by that notion of logic, he would make decisions such as creating a syllabus, grading exams and helping the class to make decisions and maintain order. After going a few classes and being faced with votes/discussions we soon learned that this was a false perception and that we would have to start making the decisions and get involved. We can now save time in discussions by starting right off doing things our way. Reading 20 shows how it’s hard for people outside of the native land to fit in and become a part of the nation. In our class there are several people who have distinct opinions, are loud, and get their obviously correct opinions out there. Those of us that are, say, science majors and out of our element in the class find it hard to fit into this new way of thinking. We don’t really fit and it’s rather hard to voice our opinions. The article doesn’t really provide solutions, rather noting that illegal immigrants sneaking into the country are disliked. Reading 49 though talks about how underrepresented groups such as though who don’t speak out normally in class are able to join together for a common cause, having our voice heard in class. I’m not really sure how to relate the last reading, perhaps something about how we could meet online through common ideas and actually figure out a project that we would all like to work towards achieving. Overall from the readings I’m proposing that to help resolve the discussion/voting problems we need to realize we are on our own, listen to everyone’s voice and encourage those who often don’t speak to do so, make a choice that satisfies the highest number of people, and possibly work outside of class to discuss options to bring up.

Thinking outside of the box for our project calls to me to think outside of the classroom, perhaps set up a chat room in which people can leave comments or discuss the project on our own time. But it is hard to force people to become involved with something they are not interested in, for it is true there are several people in class who don’t care to make the effort. We have a lot of other work, and proper incentive is needed to cause people to visit the site. It’s practically another project in itself, but it’s something to think about.