Begin the three-four paragraph response with an introduction which brings in Wise and then responds to same question as reflected in your life.
What trigger (3-4) moments predisposed Tim Wise to interrogate his life? Cite the text. Now connect his investigation to one of your own. If this treasure hunt is a new one for you, use Wise's self-reflective journey as a model. It form can be a short story or an essay response to the question about travel, choice and destinations. You can even write a poem.
The assignment
Find three (3) instances in you life which when reflected upon predisposed you to think, act, be a certain way today. What choices have you made (possibly brave or courageous choices Wise would say) to be where you are right now?
To exercise critical thinking means to take measured steps until one's eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Critical thinkers reflect and tread lightly just in case he or she needs to back track and find those bent leaves and footprints still visible he or she passed along the way.
Living consciously or being awake as opposed to sleep walking through life means one takes nothing for granted, yet keeps notes, makes plans and then tears up the paper just in case. One doesn't want to make a trail, the fun or lesson is in the journey--what one finds along the way not in the destination.
This response should be about 250 words. If you write a response that doesn't fit in one post, break it up into two or more. 250 is a benchmark, you can always write more.
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Tim Wise,
ReplyDelete1.I've broken plenty of laws in my life and among most important reasons why I was not caught or punished is because of the color of my skin. pg36
2.on the way to the M.L.K. day event when Wise realizes the differences between a black person and a white person asking for directions while lost.pg50
3.while walking through the projects of Louisiana wise finds that no matter where he is from the whitest suburbs to the most rundown projects he feels no fear from sticking out like a soar thumb. pg51
1.A few times in my past I found myself talking to the men in blue while stupidly having questionable materials on my person or being with friends who do. When I go back and reflect on these past experiences I find the same reasons for why I have not been caught as Wise: because of the color of my skin. These events could have changed my life's outcome so far very dramatically.
3. One thing that did change my life dramatically was when I moved to California specifically to Alameda. While living in my old neighborhoods I felt the same sense of confidence as Wise explains, while walking through the projects of my home town. I get a similar feeling while walking through Oakland and comparing this feeling to being in Alameda is somewhat different but they both are still confidence that I am in no danger. 2.I had never thought about the privileges which Wise discovers in the second event that I stated, but going back and thinking about it reminds me of several times where being white caused someone to trust me. one example is when my brother had left with the key to my bike lock. I had no phone to call him so I had to knock on the closest door to ask to use their phone. I figured it would take several houses to find someone willing but this was not the case. The first house I tried let me inside, allowed me to use their phone, and offered me something to drink. Thinking back to this event I now realize that because of the color of my skin I was trusted and someone of color may not have been so lucky.
Tim Wise has many defining moments these are just 3 of many
ReplyDelete1. It was there that I saw a black comedian doing a bit about making some white guy "his nigger" and getting him to do whatever he, the black comic, wanted:to jump when he said jump, to come running when he was told to come running. To 'step'n' fetchit,' so to speak.(p. 26)
2. I learned to read at a very early age, when I was only two years old. Born on October 4, 1968, I read my first book, without help, on May 5 1971. That's the good news. The bad news is that the book was Meet Andrew Jackson, an eighty-seven page tribute to the nation's seventh president, intended to make children proud, one supposes, of the nation in which they live. (p. 67)
3. I couldn't have been more than two years old when it happened, "it" being the first time I ever saw a black person.(p.101)
My defining moments
1. When I was younger I lived in East Oakland and in school all I saw were people of color. I had never seen a white child where I lived. After our duplex in Oakland got robbed the third time and our neighbor was killed in front of my house my mother decided that there was no possible way we could continue living there. So in 7th grade my mom moved us to Alameda and I started school a few days after and never in my life till then i had seen so many if any white children. I realized what Tim Wise did, that colored people are stuck in impoverished cities.
2. Even though people may avoid living in East Oakland at all cost I'm glad i had lived there. Living there showed me that not everything is perfect, it showed me that some people live in fear and it's sometimes unavoidable. The experiences I had in that city has always been my motivation for helping people, because there's always someone who has it worst off. There is always someone waiting for life to give them a break. I think that's why i want to become a social worker to better peoples' lives.
3. Growing up I never really experienced racism that I had noticed. I never felt like an out caste. Then I had this experience while I was in my Ethnic Studies class at Humboldt State University, the teacher was talking about how the Chinese whom occupied Humboldt were kicked out after they built the roads and some were slaughtered and discriminated against. Then the teacher went on about how there is still discrimination towards Chinese in Arcata today. At that moment I felt everyone's eyes on me and it was truly uncomfortable for me. I was the only Asain in that class and I wasn't even Chinese. I was pretty angry, I didn't want their pity.
Tim Wise has explained many different events in his life that were predisposed. He is white and grew up with black people. But still had white privilege because of the color of his skin. He has had encounters of being the center of attention as well, because he is white.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little girl my dad would take me to a store (Old Navy, Target, Sanrio etc.) almost everyday after school. I used to enjoy myself looking around the stores at the clothes that hung from hangers or the shirts that were neatly folded. Today, I have a strong interest in fashion and believe it partially because of my trips to different stores.
When I was a baby my mom used to take my legs and move them in a running motion. I got a kick out of that and later began running track.
I live in the hood and see corner stores everyday. I have visited other hoods and have noticed the samething; there is a corner store on every corner.
Everyone's personality and inclinations today are shaped by their different life experiences. For Tim Wise, the author of the novel "White Like Me", being born in the tumultuous year of 1968, living in the south, and going to school with black kids predisposed him to be self-reflective of his many privileges as--though poor--a white man.
ReplyDelete1. "I experienced the King assassination in a real if indirect way, as I suppose is always the case when one is in utero at the moment of a national catastrophe"(12).
Tim Wise was born in the tumultuous yearof 1968, at the height of the civil rights movement.
2. "Nashville was a city where, eleven years prior to my birth, opponents of desegregation had placed a bomb in the basement of one of the city's soon-to-be integrated schools"(12).
(Wise grew up in the South)
3. "I treasured my time with my black friends, in part because already by third grade, and for several years after, it seems as though teachers were doing their best to separate us, to channel us in different directions"(24).
(Tim Wise befriended black kids in school)
1. Like Wise, there were a few experiences in my life that led me to become the type of person I am today. To start off, I grew up in California's Bay area, one of the most diverse and liberal areas of the country. Going to school with kids from a wide range of backgrounds made me predisposed to being culturally and ethnically conscious and respectful.
2.Also, at the age of 1 my mom, for financial reasons, left my brother and me under the care of my grandma in China. When I returned at the age of 5 to start kindergarden, I couldn't speak a word of English and felt extremely out of place because a few notable classmates made a show to ostracize me for being different and for crying a lot. From this experience, i learned first hand how hurtful and unreasonable it is to intentionally ignore or make someone feel out of place because they are in any way different. Today, I make an extra effort to make those that are sitting alone feel part of the group as best as possible.
3. Growing up in a low income family made me more appreciative of the few luxuries I come across. From a young age, being responsible for helping my parents manage the bills (they have very limited english), I was aware of what everything costed, so conserving energy and being less wasteful by turning off the lights when room is not used and taking naval showers become habits for me.
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ReplyDeleteIn his book, Time Wise presented his readers with his personal anecdotes and views that collectively resulted in his having the moral values he has now.
ReplyDelete1. “I am where I am today, doing what I am doing today, in large part because I was born white” (Wise 16).
2. “…other racist acts seem to be happening every few months, like white students wearing blackface, or throwing “ghetto parties,”… But to hear a lot of white folks tell it, there’s nothing racist about these things either” (74).
3. Wise saw two African-American pilots and questioned their capability for a moment (Wise ).
1. I’m not quite sure if saying “I am where I am today, doing what I am doing today, in large part because I was born Filipino and Arabian” would have the same effect as Wise’s quote. I’m assuming it’s because Wise lived in a different time then. In relation to Wise’s argument that being privilege comes with being white, which then concludes that I am not privilege because I am far from being white. I don’t know if I would have gotten in a different school if I was white, because in fact, I didn’t apply to very many. I also don’t know if I’d be running faster times if I was white.
2. I have a friend whose mom wore a traditional African dress and painted her face black for a Halloween party. My friend was completely pressed on how bad of an idea it was to paint her face black. His mom decided not to wear the black paint but she truly did not see the issue behind it when she first painter her face and showed it to him. She sincerely thought it was a good idea without any malice. I’m not quite sure if its mere innocence, ignorance, or denial. Nonetheless, I’ve always thought she was a nice woman with no ill feelings and I’m sure she meant no harm.
3. The summer after my graduation from high school, I immediately started training with the CSU East Bay cross-country team because I was one of the recruits that lived in the bay area. One of the returning runners who was quite fond of my race and became comfortable enough, somehow never failed to throw in a few jokes about my ethnicity every now and then. Whenever the team flew for competition, she always felt the need to jokingly mention the possibility of my “terrorist side” coming out. At one instance in the middle of the season, she acknowledged my performance in which she didn’t think was quite possible just by looking at me at first glance.
Tim Wise,
ReplyDelete1. White privilege was so ingrained in my school experience that hardly a single thing about my education was untainted by it…(p.19)
2.People of color can’t really avoid white spaces, and if they do it’s probably because they live in the poorest areas and are the most destitute persons of color around. (p.51)
3. I remember first time I openly questioned the color of Jesus in front of White Christians. As you can probably imagine, an incident like that can be hard to forget, if for no other reason than the response such a thing brings forth. (p.54)
1. I’m an international student, which means that I’m a foreigner in the U.S. I think that native speakers like black and white people are privileged, and the most important standard to distinguish whether someone is privileged or not is language. If you cannot speak English fluently, you cannot access to the culture of native speakers. In this U.S, all educational system are fit into American style, which means that international students can’t survive if they are not involved in the American culture. So, I’m studying English to overcome the privilege of native speakers.
2. I grew up in Seoul, South Korea. There were a lot of factories around my house. In these factories, a lot of different racial people were hired to work. The interesting thing was that all workers from Africa and the Middle East of Asia were living outside of the downtown, and Koreans were living in the downtown. Koreans have never forced them staying away from the downtown. I think that Korean’s subconscious(like prejudice against other human race) made the workers living in different place from where Koreans lived.
3. I visited Louvre museum in France in 2005. It wasn’t hard for me to find pictures depicting Jesus Christ as a white person. As you know, Jesus was not a white person. The surprising thing at that time was that all objectives of admiration were depicted as white people. I think that these pictures represent white supremacy.
After growing up in and living in America as a kid, and seeing all the thigns that happen around me. It is easy to say that it is not what I expect from the land of the free. As a kid that likes to watch T.V and seeing as these conflicts that on the news about people being racist towards another. As I watched it I never thought it was real because I had friends that treated me the way they wanted to be treated. As life went on I began to see the other side of the curtain of how things really played out. It seems as if America has tow faces, one if where everybody gets along, and next is when people start to hate each other other the color of their skin. During the past couple years I been in situations where I think I could have gotten out of if I was a white person. Never have I broken rules, and gotten away with it, sometimes their are things I didn't even do and I was blamed for it, even though I try to plead my case it was to no avail. At times it feels as if I am talking to a brick wall, and the anger inside me just burning and as everyday goes by I tink back, and the memories of those days just tells me to do something about it. I'm not going to lie about whether I have treated people like garbage before, because I have and I only did it because they treated me the same way. As I see some of my friends from back int hedays they use to ask me if I remember what happened at this certain point in time, I would think to myself no one needs reminding for those things it sticks with you. As I am writing this blog I continue to wonder if this world is ever going to change the way it is.
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