Prejudice Makes a Fool out of us

What kind of world do we live in when we go around stereotyping those who are different from us, when we make them lesser to us, and when we discriminate them and cast unhappiness upon them and their folks while we call ourselves civilized people? How come it depends on what you look like to determine who you are to other people’s eyes? How is it possible that humanity can be ruled by such fools? Fools that have been blinded and forced to look only at your appearance rather than your soul? How is it that we let the wrong things happen just because we don’t want to get our hands dirty if the fight for right gets a little offhand? The answer is tragically true; we let prejudice blind us with the darkness of unfairness. Just because someone is Muslim doesn’t mean he’s a terrorist; just because someone is Latino doesn’t mean he has something to do with drugs; just because someone is German doesn’t mean he is a Nazi. Humanity has degraded itself once again when a white man called George Zimmerman shot dead a 17-year-old black boy, Martin Treyvon, based on the fact that he looked “suspicious” just because he was black and was walking in the street at night with a hoodie on.

                “A black person in a hoodie isn’t automatically ‘suspicious’”. Occupy Wall Street posted this on its website in regard to Treyvon’s death and many people marched in his name because of the unfairness of this case. Zimmerman’s prejudice led him to believe Treyvon was some kind of thug or anything of that nature, and followed him. A while later, a commotion was heard and then a shot was fired. There were no other people watching the scene, no witnesses there to verify what truly happened; therefore, Zimmerman’s claim that he had shot the boy in self-defense is saving him from going to jail. A life has been lost and there’s no way to take it back, all because of a man’s prejudice. One can see that humanity in fact is very dependent on how it sees people, and how we act with and around them is affected by this.

                “The incident has sparked a heated debate about racism and law enforcement, as well as discussions about a Florida law that eliminates the need for individuals to retreat when attacked”. As individuals—especially in this case—we stand in a very complicated spot in which we have various options. We can be the witness, the one who watches over the commotion; the anti-hero, someone who helps the aggressor; or the hero, one who decides to do something good and help the innocent. Our responsibility as individuals would be to protect the innocent, it doesn’t matter if it’s a close friend or a stranger the one who is being beaten up, we should always do the right thing. Even now after Treyvon is dead, we still hold the responsibility to fight for him, to make justice and protect him from being unfairly judged, yet not just only him. We—the civilized people, those conscious of what’s wrong and right—have the duty to save both, the judged and the ones who judge, from the darkness of discrimination.

                The problem of course is not just Zimmerman, but the whole world. Many people find themselves afraid of what they don’t understand; consequently, leading them to act the way Zimmerman did. He didn’t understand that there was more to Treyvon than just black skin and a hoodie; he was a son, a brother, a boyfriend, someone with a future, a normal human being. Ignorance can be very tricky, for Zimmerman it was a factor of fear; his ignorance was stained with prejudice and he acted blindly out of it. What if he had followed what he was instructed to do? What if he hadn’t judged Treyvon with such fake eyes?

                Unfortunately for the world, humanity’s eyes are blurred with ignorance and its mind is clouded by discrimination. A simple factor, such as a person’s gender, can change the way we see a person to a completely different level. The probabilities of Treyvon’s survival if he had been a girl might’ve been higher. It’s unbelievable that a black man fulfills the category of being suspicious while a black woman might just be another person to the world; it influences the way we behave, the way we think, the way we even see  other people.

Prejudice makes a fool out of us and a fool out of the whole world because it makes us all hypocrites. Zimmerman made a fool of himself for staying ignorant under the shadow of unfair judgment calls, but he has united people to fight against it too. Yet, it makes us wonder why such people are allowed to have a second chance while the innocent pay for the consequences meant for the guilty. Believe it or not, humanity tends to be ignorant, but we can’t let that control our minds because then we’ll turn out to be those blind fools who can’t see beyond the barrier of ignorance and prejudice.

To Kill a Mockingbird

            When I interrogated Atticus about his visit to the Radley place and old Mrs. Radley’s death, he said he didn’t see Boo. I also asked him what caused Mrs. Radley’s death—hoping it had to do anything with Boo—but Atticus said it was a natural cause death.

When I woke up the next day, I was left in total anarchy; I thought the world was endin’. Through my window I could see the bizarre white powder that was covering everything in sight. I later apprehended—thanks to Atticus—that it was snowing, so Jem and I decided to go play outside. We conspired in making a snowman but we since didn’t have enough snow Jem decided to make a dirt-man and cover it up in snow. Time elapsed as we made our snowman, and bit by bit it started looking more and more like Mr. Avery; Jem included a large piece of wood to portrait the image of old Mr. Avery that other night.

            Later that day Atticus came home, he was very impressed with Jem’s work; in fact, he was sort of lionizing him. But as Atticus examined the snow man meticulously, he realized who it looked like and told Jem we were better off not making caricatures of the neighbors. Of course Jem had a dissension with him, and pointed out it wasn´t a caricature of Mr. Avery, for it looked exactly like him. Still, Jem ran to Miss Maudie’s house and retrieved her large sunhat and put it on the snowman. As soon as she found out, I thought it was going to be imminent that Jem would have to give her back the hat but Atticus went over and engaged in conversation with her and the snowman topic was set aside.

            Early in the morning I was awakened by Atticus, only to watch a calamitous scene: Miss Maudie´s house was on fire! Jem and I ran over to the Radley gate as we watched Atticus assimilate into the crowd of men who were taking out the furniture out of the house. Mr. Avery got stuck when he tried to jump out the window, and I was afraid he would swelter in the uncontrollable flames. Luckily he was able to get out safely, and Miss Maudie will be staying with Miss Crawford so at least no one was harmed.

Regards from June

Dear Lilly,

            How are you? It’s been very long since we last saw each other, or even wrote to each other. I hope every thing´s fine. How’s your writing coming along? The last two chapters you sent to me made me want to interrogate you about what will happen next.

            Anyway, Neil is fine, as happy as he could ever be, and so am I. Every day I wake up next to him—something I never get tired of—and feel happier than the day before, I just can’t get over how much I love him. He sends his regards to you.

            But back to your story, I need to tell you that I’ve been completely absorbed into your story. At first, when the conflict was starting to be introduced, I was left in total anarchy; I even thought it was getting bizarre. But then I started piecing the information together and apprehended the gravity of the calamitous situation. So as I read even more meticulously—not that I wasn’t doing that before—my questions became answered. I actually showed the text to Neil but we have a dissension on which of the characters is the one causing all the conspiracy going on in the story. Either way, I hope that whoever is doing it is arraigned. I can’t wait for the evil criminal to be put in shackles.

            I find it very funny actually, as soon as I showed Neil your story, he was assimilated into your small admirer´s club; now it’s August, Neil and me. It won’t be long before we all start lionizing you! In the meantime, don’t you worry about time elapsing slowly, soon you’ll return to this sweltering town and we’ll enjoy your company. It is imminent that your book will be a success, so do not worry about that either. We miss you honey.

                                                           Love, June.

Art, Rockwell's Subtle Way to Show Outrage

            The painting titled The Problem we all Live With is a thrilling piece of artwork painted by Norman Rockwell in 1964. The painting depicts a scene that occurred in New Orleans, on November 14, 1960, when a young colored girl called Ruby Bridges was entering an integrated white school, and so in this scene, Bridges was being rejected and harassed by white people.

            When paying close attention to the painting, one can notice that the men who walk with Ruby Bridges are Federal Government guards who were in charge of protecting her from any physical harm that the crowd might cause her. One can also see tomato splashes on the wall and on the floor, which I think Rockwell painted this to show the contempt of the crowd, yet what I think shows more contempt are the “Nigger” and “KKK” scratched on the call. What impresses me the most on this painting is how harsh racism could be even towards a six-year-old.

            Rockwell’s intention in the painting was very clear for me after analyzing the scene. The focus of this painting is Ruby Bridges, that’s why the guard’s are cropped out, and that’s why there’s no angry mob seen anywhere. There are some scratches on the wall, and signs of tomato being thrown to show the rejection there is for Ruby. One can notice that even though she is being rejected and insulted, she still has a confident posture, and that shows how brave she is, which is part of what Rockwell saw. In my opinion, I think that Rockwell’s intention - being a favorite artist of that time - was to surprise everyone. To show people what he saw, to express how he felt, the painting was his way to show some sort of empathy towards Ruby, and at the same time, it was a subtle outrage towards the people who disrespected Ruby. Nonetheless even though this painting is very thrilling and gives a feeling of sadness and depression, I think it’s rather beautiful because it expresses Rockwell’s feelings and thoughts so well, that people could realize how wrong and cruel this situation really was.

travel Journal: #6

No VIP no Fun

I spent New Year’s Eve at my country house with my family, and like any other year, we launched fireworks. I went to sleep like at six o’clock after the New Year started. I slept the rest of January first!

                I just came back from the movies today, we went to watch Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, and it was awesome. Yet the seats we had were even better! We had those sofa-like chairs that recline, and have a little table so you can eat whatever you want. I’m never going to normal movie theater ever again, from now on, I’ll always go to VIP, otherwise, it isn’t fun. I also went shopping today, and found this record store that was selling Muse CDs autographed by the band! Lucky me!

                Anyway, Pipe’s birthday is tomorrow unfortunately for him, he has to drive for about three hours to get his driver’s license, and unfortunately for me because I have to be nice to him tomorrow. I’ll manage to do my part; I just hope there are no car crash accidents on the news tomorrow.

Travel Journal: #5

Getting ready to zip line

Zip lining over the river

Road Trip to Rio Claro

Rio Claro was awesome! Even though we only stayed for two days we had so much fun; we went zip lining, water rafting, hiking, and river tubing, but my favorite was water rafting because it was three boats at the same time so we splashed, raced, and knocked each other off the boats.

                The water rafting lasts about two hours, but there’s a place where we stop and swim for about 30 minutes. The place is this huge cave created by the erosion the river made with the passing of years, and it’s where the river is its deepest. Rio Claro, which is the name of the river, goes through a marble canyon, so the sight of the cave is mesmerizing because of its shape and color. At the cave, there’s a tree that lies over the river so you can climb on it and jump into the river, but there’s also a rope so you can swing and jump. Also, there’s a waterfall emerging from the top of the cave and falls on the river so the boats can pass underneath it and the passengers can feel the ice cold water.

                The trip itself was very nice, but going and leaving Rio Claro was a total nightmare! To get there you have to go by car, and the car we were traveling in is a few 76 years old, so every time you went over 50 k/h the car started tumbling from side to side like an earthquake! And as if it wasn’t enough, it was midnight and there where huge trucks on both sides of the road! We almost crashed about five times! Anyway, I had an awesome time regardless of the near-death experience in the car, after all, what’s a road trip without an almost car accident?

Travel journal: #4

Morning view from my country house (those are clouds) you can imagine how high it is.

Who Knew Parrots Could Fight?

                Christmas is over, but the party still goes on for a while here in my family since my uncle Fernando comes tomorrow for New Year’s. Yesterday I came back from my country house in La Ceja; I did a lot of mountain biking and other stuff. I’ll probably go down to Rio Claro the 29^th so I can zip line and go white river rafting but we’ll see, there’s still a lot of things to do.

                While I was at my country house, something tragically hilarious happened. You see, we have a lot of crazy animals including a very rude parrot. Now, when I say rude, I mean she knows all the possible insults that can be named in both, English and Spanish! I’m serious, I have never heard so many insults come out from anyone’s mouth, not even the people from Jersey Shore swear as much as Lorenza, the parrot, does!

Anyway, so while I was calmly riding my bike around with my friend Mateo, who is also my butler’s son, we heard a violent scream followed by a series of insults and cursing. We looked everywhere but we couldn’t see where it was coming from so we just kept riding. Later that day, while we were heading back Mateo came across a gruesome thing lying on the ground. Turns out it was Lorenza! Or, what was left of her at least. It was really sad because we had no idea of what happened to her but later that day when we were checking the video we recorded on Mateo’s helmet we saw what happened! We obviously had no idea the helm-cam had recorded it but it sure helped a lot with the grief. In the video, Lorenza was attacked by an eagle and she fought against it! It was awesome! Lorenza was actually landing some claws on the eagle while cursing and screaming! It was an awesome fight, and Lorenza did not die in vain because the eagle ended up dead too. They both killed each other so it was not a total loss, who knew parrots could fight?

I’m finally staying at my grandma’s place and we’re going to see a movie tonight and I do feel bad about Lorenza’s death, but what’s done is done, so we all have to move on with it.