journal # 5 Waking up and looking like someone of a different race.....

If I woke up and looked like someone of a different race I would be lost. Lost in the fact of identifying all I knew about me and all that I was created to be. I believe we are all created for a unique reason and a God given purpose. I am discovering and continue to discover each day all that God has made me. Each path of my life has been a learning experience and as you gain more life experience it's like getting another piece of the puzzle. Slowly this pieces your picture together, your picture of life, your life being a work in progress. " The Picture" displays, your "masterpiece", as putting all the "pieces" together invokes now one master PEACE.

From what I have recently learned I am privileged because I have white skin. This fact is according to the human meaning of race, which they have defined for a social construction, invented and given meaning to for categorizing us. This categorization however, keeps us in oppression as it segregates and oppresses all races that are not white especially the black race. Eventually this oppression is felt in a sense by everyone. If I woke up and I was of a different race, I would feel there was a purpose for this too.

I have learned the sadness of the social injustice that race has created. This has caused us to deteriorate as a country. Categorizing and separating people because of their skin color does not construct anything but sadness and oppression and weakens us as a people and as a nation.

I would feel the effects of oppression in a much different way if I was black compared to being white. I would constantly be judged from my outside looks and I would have a whole new set of challenges and problems in my life to deal with. Everyday, individually I would feel the struggle and pains and hardships of being stereotyped. I would have acts and attitudes of prejudice against me on a individual, institutional and cultural/structural level. Daily I would face the challenges of being constantly reminded that I was black. Cops may stop me more, or I may be followed around by security in a retail store. Perhaps I wouldn't be able to live in the neighborhood I wanted or get the job I wanted, and I might grow up in poverty and my education would be affected. This would all make me feel like the underdog with all the inequalities that existed in my new world, with indifference's and injustices and people looking at me differently and judging me according to my skin color. I also might live in a neighborhood where crack cocaine has impoverished the community. and crime and violence exists and is the norm. I would also attend an inner city school where 55% of the population graduates, causing income and health disparities with the white communities where 70% of the population graduates. As a minority group I would constantly find myself working harder, fighting harder, being more aggressive to holding myself at a higher standard and doing more to be considered equal and having respect for myself.

I believe that order of the human race necessitates and orderly designer (God) and that we all need to connect to the God within us and treat each other as we'd like to be treated, as human. It would seem somewhat that a social construction was to get rid of God, creating dominance in evolution of a certain species, instead of evolution of the the human race. Our ultimate principal of evolution should be Love as in Love your neighbor as yourself, and that we are all from the "Human Race" and created Equal!

Journal #4 Structure of Home Community

I live in a Upper class Jewish neighborhood. It is an area consisting of five towns and it is called the five towns. It is located on the south shore of Long Island, near the ocean. I have lived in one of the five towns for a number of years and then moved out of state for a few years and now I am back living in another town in the five towns.

I have seen many changes over the years because of the population growth of the Orthodox Jewish people who live here and are beginning to control this area as their population of people grow. Throughout the five towns there are different blocks segregated with different levels of the Jewish people.

There are different levels of the Jewish religion that live here and some Jewish people who live in the five towns are not religious at all. The Orthodox are the strictest and the highest level of religion, then there are the Conservative Jews and the Reformed Jews. The Orthodox which are the most religious of the Jews in this neighborhood look down on other Jews who are not orthodox and don't consider them Jewish.

The Reformed Jewish people are the least religious in this neighborhood they belong to Temple but are not strict religious and go to Temple only on High Holy days. Then there are the Conservative Jews they are more religious then the reformed Jews and attend Temple on a regular basis. They also attend all Holiday services and their children usually go to after school Hebrew classes and are bar mitzvah ed. There are also the Jewish people who live here who do not practice there religion or attend Temple.

There is a huge problem with the school systems in the five towns because the Orthodox Jews only send their children to private schools or Yeshivas. This greatly affects the public school education system for all the other Jewish people. Through the years it has grown worse because there are not enough kids to support public education which unfortunately has caused some of the public schools to close down.

As the Orthodox population started growing in the five towns it has helped the economy and the businesses, stores and shops thrive. Eventually stores and businesses were greatly impacted by the Orthodox customers and eventually had to adhere to their religious beliefs and close their businesses on Saturdays or the Orthodox People would not support these stores and businesses.

Although some stores have escaped closing down there business, almost all the stores in this town have closed there business on Saturdays conforming to the Orthodox religious beliefs. This influx and growth of the Orthodox people taking over one of the towns business centers has caused a bit of a rift and division with the community who likes to do their shopping on Saturday. This is the main town with all the stores shops businesses and it's where everyone shops however the non Jewish people have started to feel outnumbered and uncomfortable in shopping here. On Saturdays what used to be a busy shopping day for many is now like a ghost town. A few years ago Saturday was the day everyone was out shopping now there are only a few stores open and the many other stores have closed there business altogether.

The housing is also affected in this community. The Orthodox people buy blocks of houses to be near one another and also to be near their temple. If a non Orthodox person lives on this block they will try to buy your house the block and offer you a huge sum of money, that you can't pass up. Because of gaining the control and owning blocks of houses no one else will live on these blocks and in these neighborhoods. Also on Saturdays they take over the streets as they walk to and from Temple. They don't drive on this day and people who are driving have a problem with the Orthodox walking and taking over the space of the streets so it's hard to drive for others in the community.

There are a variety of different stores that cater to everyone and there are lots of kosher establishments that cater to the Orthodox community, bagel stores, grocery stores, restaurants, pizzerias, bakeries that all serve Kosher food for the Orthodox Religion. Kosher means that it is blessed by a Rabbi or receives certain blessings and is cooked in a certain way.

The establishments that I have seen everyone intermingle, is the library and the bowling alley and of course certain shops and eating establishments that cater also to the needs of the Orthodox.

journal 3...thoughts and feelings on today's lesson of oppression:

Today's lesson on Oppression helped define a lot of places in my life. I found it to be a real eye opener into helping me understand my own experiences in the world of oppression. I also found it quite inspiring to be able to start identifying my place in life through understanding and defining oppression.

Besides giving me insight to my own place and struggles with oppression it also gave me insight to understanding that there is a much bigger picture and window of oppression that affect so many people in so many different ways. Our individual problems with oppression also go to an even bigger level of problems on a institutional, structural and cultural basis. I felt the lesson did start to help me define my place and make sense of my struggles with oppression. It also gave me insight to understanding the bigger problems we all face with oppression as it shed light on my own experiences. It also made me aware of the many different problems that so many people have in all target groups. I now realize there is a bigger picture of many problems in our country and our world caused by oppression.

I believe that to help the problem of oppression and bring equality to us all, starts with us individually identifying the problem within our own lives. This will make it easier to open up and also identify other types of oppression that affect so many people in so many different ways. There is a huge need to stop the spread of inequality and I believe the stereotypes and judgements that we grow up with lead to oppression which continues to drag us down as a nation in distress. Hopefully through understanding oppression in my own life I can help shed light on the subject and make others more aware of the problems that continue to oppress us as a person.

Dissecting oppression in my own life will better help me to understand some forms of oppression and will be a start to understanding oppression in a bigger world view. My goal is to learn more about it in the places that I have not experienced it and have a better understanding to the bigger picture. Perhaps then I can work in helping to minimize so many hardships that affects people in their daily lives. By doing this will help give people equality and social justice.

I grew up in the working class/working poor, in a rural community. I was not aware of other racial cultures other then the working class farmers in this small dairy farming community I grew up in. My views of so many things were limited. Also my father was not very educated and I don't' believe he graduated from high school. He also grew up in a city, which he hated and never supported I'm not sure why. I do know that once he was walking home from school and attacked by a young group of black men, which planted more prejudice in him. I felt his prejudice growing up in his fear based behavior and environment of ignorance, prejudice, and insecurities. He was also very controlling and physically abusive which made for a very unstable environment. His behavior and position always caused me to fear him, and be very insecure about myself. His prejudice behavior didn't make it my prejudice but eventually down my road of life I realized I was very insecure, shy, reserved and lost. . My life was limited in views and not having the opportunity to identify with other ethnic backgrounds. After moving out of my families home and eventually going to college my life changed and provided many new experiences and challenges. I eventually did have the opportunity to meet people of different races and ethnicity's and develop friendships with other races and ethnic groups. I eventually moved to NY and had a job which allowed me to travel to lots of places in the world, giving me many opportunities and experience of meeting people from all over the world.

In New York I attached myself to a family(older married couple) who became my surrogate or second family. They were Jewish and lived in a upper class Jewish community. The husband was a hard worker, they were good people and financially and socially successful. I lived with this couple who were like second parents to me(there 3 children were all moved out married with their own families). I ended up living with them for the next 13 years. Now living in this safe home and comfortable neighborhood I still always felt a little empty and lost and in the middle of both families not really having an attachment and stability to either one.

I have felt privilege in being white and being accepted by my second family who has helped me out incredibly over the years by learning and growing in their environment . I feel a very privileged in not being disabled and being healthy and going to the gym and being fit and all the privileges of mobility.

I have been overwhelmed with oppression over the years in lots of different areas in my life. Oppression affects me to this day and it is a challenge at times to deal with. My goal is to get educated and understand myself better hence to better help others in this very tough place in life. It is important to understand stereotypes that oppress and I believe in understanding my own life experience better this can open up doors to understanding so much more. I know that people are affected in all different ways and that my experience is just a piece of how oppression can affect your life. My goal is to help achieve a better understanding and to help everyone open their eyes to oppression and the affects it has on every ones life.

Together we can help to minimize oppression. Perhaps in helping people to understand how important each of us is affected by oppression and how each of us is important to each others life, can we then shed some light on the subject. It is important to work together as a nation to understand how together we could minimize the stress and sadness of oppression and to solution the problem.

Finally in helping and guiding others it will reward us with a sense of power in loving and caring and giving thus helping the world have a more peaceful existence. It is essential as a nation for us all to have equal rights and to feel a sense of empowerment to our own purpose in life. It is important to have a feeling of accomplishing something purposeful in our daily life. Thus it is important that we guide everyone to an understanding of a good direction for their lives and step by step feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment to our daily life and it's purpose..

journal 2 "what are your most common thoughts and feelings when you encounter someone different from yourself?

The most common thoughts and feelings when I encounter someone different from myself is;

In general I am reserved when meeting someone new, sometimes I am intimidated, yet other times I feel open to being friendly. In the past I have had great experiences by opening up and being nice and encountering someone new. When I first meet someone new I want to learn more about them. What is there name? Where are they from? Where do they live now? What are they doing? Down the road I would ask them more questions? What are their interests and what do they do for work? Eventually I wonder what do they think of me, and do they like me? When being friendly to others my personality is positive and open. This gives them opportunity to see the friend in me. Recently I was at a club for a friends birthday party and a young Chinese man from Australia was there. I had left the table to go to the bathroom and ran into him and I invited him to our table. I found out he was travelling alone around the world and staying in NYC renting an apartment for a month and doing tours throughout the NYC area(when i met him he only had two weeks left). He joined my friends and I for a short while and in the process we exchanged phone numbers. After that day we started text messaging each other. We eventually exchanged email addresses and he would keep me posted on his day to day adventures by writing his experiences on his tours. He also went to Niagara Falls. One day he called me and asked what I was doing on Sunday night and said he had two tickets for the Knicks and would I like to go. Of course I said "YES"! It would be a first time experience for both of us to go to a Knicks Basketball game at Madison Square Garden. They happened to be really good tickets we sat right behind Spike Lee and took lots of pictures during the game. As it was a festive environment it made for an easy and fun evening together. Our time together was cheering and clapping and yelling and smiling and getting food. As we hardly did know one another the entertainment of basketball filled in lots of gaps of insecurities. Right after the game I took the train home to Long Island and so we departed there, but I felt honored and blessed by the experience which I will forever remember. What I learned from meeting my new friend and pen pal is to not be afraid to be outgoing and respect and care for others. I feel God rewarded me with this very random and fun experience for opening up and being nice to others. This experiece has opened up my window of diversity and world view of having experienced a Knicks basketball game with a new friend from another country, Australia and another culture Chinese!

After continuing on and travelling through Europe Matthew Chan is now back in Australia but I still keep in touch with him!
I feel everyone is different from yourself but if you take a little time to become someones friend you never know how beautiful another person could bless your life.