Although I’ve been to the King’s center several times, I’m always amazed!  Just to look at the pictures of African-Americans involoved in the Civil Rights Movement makes me proud to be African-American.  We watched a film on the children of the Civil Rights Movement, and the idea/question came up about whether or not you as a parent would allow your child to protest and march.  It was explained that parent’s had their children protest to protect their parents from going to jail which in turn would result in them not being able to work and pay bills.  The logic behind it makes perfect sense to me.  This issue was so important and crucial in the lives of African-American’s that they sacrificed the lives of their children; and I’m sure that these parents were just as crazy about their children’s safety as we are today If you can just imagine how bad something has to be for you to sacrifice the life of your offspring to make change happen.  It’s easy for us to say now in 2008 that we wouldn’t dare put our children at risk because we are not living the nightmare, we only see it on TV.   Honestly, I really can’t answer the question.

Aha!!!!  I shared with my classmates that I had an “Aha” moment when I realized that I have stereotyped families and individuals living in poverty.  But sadly, one of my stereotypes about poor people was not written on the board with all of the others that often come to mind. However, I know that I am not the only person who feels this way; unfortunately when I think of “poor people”, I think of African-Americans.  Now, (in just a week and a half of culture class) I question where my underlying assumptions (that I’ve never really thought about before) come from.  Why have I stereotyped individuals living in poverty as African-Americans.  So, now that I am aware or conscious about my assumptions I can begin transforming the way I see and think about things.  Now, I realize that a lot of the assumptions that I have (which I’ve never brought to the surface before) are so negative towards people of my own race.  I feel like I’ve almost been brainwashed!  

I enjoyed the conversations and activities today.  I realized that there are a lot of things I wanted to say, but felt a little uncomfortable saying them in class, partly due to my White counterparts.  In the stereotype discussion, I began to think about the stereotypes that we listed and Mr. Dr. Williams question about whether I believed some of them or not.  The answer is yes.  I can witness to several of the stereotypes that describe African-American’s and I can’t honestly say that I call every single one of them negative. But true indeed, there were more negative stereotypes for AA’s than for Whites.   For instance, the stereotype that all Black people are late.  I fit this “stereotype” because true indeed most of the time I’m late.  As a professional, however I know that in certain situation I need to be early and that is something that can definitely be done.  However, in most of my situations I am late.  Now, people can say that that’s negative and that I’m giving in to this particular stereotype, but thinking about it, I’m not late because I am Black, I’m late because I’m Courtney and I am a procrastinator.  The fact that I woke up this morning Black, is not because of my skin color it’s because as a woman who is a chronic procrastinator I woke up too late which in turn made me run late.  Interpret this as you will, this is my opinion!!

As far as the privilege conversation, I appreciate that the idea of privilege not being just a racial issue, but also an issue with socio-economic status, gender, sexuality, religion and so on.  I was privileged growing up in my opinion; I was well rounded with exposure to different things, I went to an excellent private school, my parents supported my in every possible manner, in addition to the financial advantages I had compared to other African-American’s around me.  I was even at more of an advantaged compared to some of my White school mates.  However, I knew that some of them had to bigger and better things than I had.  I don’t neccessarily think that I should have to give up my privileges, or even lessen them just to show that I recognize that others around me aren’t privileged.  I can understand however that since race is so powerful in our society, the fact that White privilege is more profound and talked about makes sense to me.  I can say that one privilege that White people do have is that they are White.  Even White people who are lower in social class than me are privileged because they are White.  So, I’ll probably come back with some thoughts later, but that’s what’s going on in my head now.

Not really sure what to expect, however I’m excited to get away and bond with my classmates that I will have for the next 2 years.  I’ll try to take whatever I can from the experience to help me on this journey. 

Im a little nervous about the coffee house!

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