My first impression of It's Bigger than Hip Hop was, "This is written like a 200 page long essay!" To be honest, the writing style did not appeal to me and didn't interest me. However, I do agree that the concepts written in the book are essential to the society we live in today, and everything in the book was eye opening. Something I really liked about the book is how the things in our every day lives were emphasized to the point where we can really see what it is. It seems that we are so used to these things that we never really think about it.
One of the things that really surprised me was how similar the minds of Blacks are no matter where they are. In chapter _ Asante talks about how schooling is for black students and interviewed multiple black students from different cities and countries. In the interviews, the students talk about their experience in History class, many of them having the expressing the same opinion. It's surprising how lessons in history is revolved around the Europeans, not only in the U.S. but also in Africa and South America. I think this shows that blacks are minority in many countries and are put down because of how the society teaches everyone. Not only is it taught to black minorities but also minorities of all races. In school history is focused on nothing but America and Europe. Even as essential as the other countries may be to the history of the world, they are hardly ever expanded on. I feel like because of how this society has created such an ugly picture of African Americans, even blacks don't want to claim their race.
A great example of this was Asante's encounter of a girl named Lisa. Although Lisa's skin tone seemed to be clearly black, she claimed to not be African American, saying her ancestors were from Europe. Even nowadays, many blacks like to bleach their skin to make it lighter. Not just blacks, but for everyone. It seems as though lighter skin is what is considered beauty.
All in all it seems like it's the world we live in that discriminates against minorities!
Sixteen years isn't very long compared to many people. In fact, your sweet sixteen isn't even near the highlight of your life, is what most people have told me. But just because being sixteen isn't much, doesn't mean it isn't anything at all!
When I was 5 i was Daddy's little girl. Unfortunately, when I was concieved, my parents were hoping for a little boy -_- My brother was 5 when he decided he wanted a little brother. He'd go to the store with my mom and pick out toys for his "future little brother". My brother was kinda lonely actually, having 5 sisters at the time and one brother who was 10 years older than him. My mom and dad had always wanted more boys too, so they decided they should try for another boy. Then of course I robbed my brother of a little brother and my parents of another son by being a girl :D
Being the youngest and distant in age from my siblings, I never really knew them actually. I wasn't even born yet when my oldest sister got married. My oldest brother went away to college when I was 4 so I don't remember living with him at all. My memory of living with my sisters is kind of foggy because they also went away to college or got married when I was still really young. I've actually only really lived with my second older brother until about 3 years ago when he went off to college also. But even from afar, my siblings always looked out for me.
Even now, my siblings look out for me a lot. I know I can always go to them for help when I need it. They also open my eyes a lot to things i never noticed or thought about before. I think one of the best things about being the youngest is having a lot of people tell you their mistakes and how you can avoid them. But I don't just watch my siblings. I also watched the people around me who are my age. I never wanted to grow up. I wanted to savor my childhood. Watching middle schoolers and even elementary students start dating and wearing strange clothes trying to grow into teenagers too fast made me want to stay away from that. And I'm really glad i did! I think starting in middle school I started to grow a determination to be successful and happy in life; to have a career I love and be educated. That's why i'm in this room right now, in the second week of summer vacation, at PEOPLE Program.
I always really wanted to do something fun like writing books or producing films. Then I realized, I really don't have the passion to be able to go through the process to get there. About last year I decided i still want to write books that get turned into movies and be famous and have something in the entertainment industry, but I'll put that to the side. Instead, through the AVID program, I've been trying to discover my skills and things that I might like. As of now, I've decided on Engineering. One of the reasons I chose this career is because I want to understand how the things in our world are made and I want to be the one to make them. Also, I love math and I love learning math. The job secuity of engineers also attract me a lot. I know the schooling will be hard and the field is competitive, but i think there are more pros in the engineering field than cons.
In AVID we took a field trip to MSOE (Milwaukee School Of Engineering) and I really liked it, but it's a private school and really expensive. My mom and dad told me it's a bad idea. But I'm still going to apply for it when I'm a senior! I hear UW-Madison's engineering program is in top 15 of the country too, so going here won't be too bad. I'll have my tuition covered too! I just really wish I could get away from home and have the real college experience though...
And there is the basic outline of the 16 years I've lived!