Rodriguez "Aria"

(Argument) At the start of "Aria" I thought Rodriguez was going to push the argument that children need to have a positive bilingual education. Rodriguez is the son of immigrant parents from Mexico. Spanish was the only language that he knew and spoke before he entered public school in the United States. This is where Rodriguez's argument comes into play with his story. In my opinion I felt that Rodriguez was trying to argue the fact that, yes he is in the United States and needs to become accustom to the American way but needs to not lose sight of who he is. He did understand "There are codes or rules for participating in power" (Delpit) and needed to develop some sort of identity among his peers. 

One line that stuck out to me was "Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease."(34) This makes me think about the card game we played in class. Sometimes children or even ourselves as adults can be put into uncomfortable situations where we do not understand what is happening. It can be tough and almost even embarrassing to not understand something in the class room. Whether it be a language barrier or the material itself. 

In conclusion I feel that Rodriguez did the right thing. He was able to develop his English skills by practicing with his family even though at times it made things uncomfortable. Rodriguez was able to understand that it is okay to have two different identity's as long as they are for something good.  

Dear White Moms Beckford

Dear White Moms was a different read. I'm not entirely sure on Beckfords  message but I am going to take a try at it. From what I understood from the reading I feel that it was an outreach from a African american mother to a white mother about their children. All over the news in recent months Ferguson, Missouri has been the center of attention for the killing of a young African american 18 year old boy by a white police officer. I think the article is shedding light on how many innocent African american boys are shot and killed by police officers just by racial profiling. This mom is reaching out to white mothers to just make sure they cherish their sons because the chance of them being innocently shot is slim to none. History proves it. African american mothers go through the heart ache of losing their children under terrible circumstances. The racial profiling and violence needs to stop. 

White Privilege By Peggy McIntosh

Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege really gets her readers thinking about woman's studies and a white persons privilege. She examines day to day lifestyles from an african american person to someone who is white. I found it interesting on how she identified some daily effects of a white person. When she mentions #12 "I can swear or dress in second hand clothes or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race." That shows me if someone of African american decent swears a lot or dresses in second hand clothes they might be labeled as someone from poverty or bad morals. In my opinion that just doesn't seem fair to judge someone from the clothes on their back. Then #19 on her list really struck me. "If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race." Every single day that happens across america. It really grinds my gears that people of different race get pulled just on that principle alone. You cannot judge a book by its cover. Another one of McIntosh's effects struck me and made me think. Number 24 "I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me." This makes me think of a famous picture involving racism (in advance I apologize to anyone that finds the graphic nature of this picture tough to look at)  Medical attention should never be denied to anyone of any race. I feel that McIntosh is saying that the word privilege needs to be distributed to all. If privileges are only given to people who are White then we are failing as a nation. White privilege connected to Kozol's Amazing Grace. In my opinion, privilege plays a roll for the people of Mott Haven. Are they underprivileged people by fate? or do they actually have privileges to fight their way out of poverty. We need to analyze and study the word privilege down to its core meaning.

(Connection)

JONATHAN KOZOL AMAZING GRACE

(QUOTES) Amazing grace is an extremely in depth view on how almost fifty thousand people in Mott Haven, South Bronx struggle with poverty, disease and just an all around suffering area.  I feel that Kozol paints a really clear picture right off the bat on just how bad every day life is in Mott Haven. On page three Kozol states that "only seven of the 800 children do not qualify for free lunches. Five of those seven, says the principle, get reduced-price lunches because they are classified as only poor not destitute."  In my view that pretty much states that one hundred percent of the children do have free lunch because their families can't afford to pay for them. The magnitude of that number is just astronomical. Another piece of this story that caught my attention was when Kozol says on page four "Some of these houses are freezing in the winter. In dangerously cold weather, the city sometimes distributes electric blankets and space heaters to its tenants. In emergency conditions, if space heaters can't be used, because substandard wiring is overloaded, the city's practice, according to Newsday, is to pass out sleeping bags." As I stated in the beginning, Kozol really paints a clear picture on just how bad Mott Haven is. People living with just sleeping bags, sounds to me like an a apocalypse. Throughout the course of amazing grace there seems to be one constant and that is religion. Kozol is able to shadow a young boy named Cliffie. Cliffie comes from a poor family that struggles day in and day out. During the time Kozol is following Cliffie around town, they stop at a pizza place to pick up three pieces of pizza. One for Cliffie, one for his mother and one for his father. On page eight  Cliffie explains a story to Kozol about a previous pizza experience " How did you know that he was hungry if he couldn't talk" Kozol asking Cliffie about a homeless man. " He pointed to my pizza. What did you do? I gave him some! Were your parents mad at you? He (Cliffie) looks surprised by this. Why would they be mad? he asks. God told us, Share!" This might be one of the strongest parts of the dialogue between Kozol and Cliffie. I feel by Kozol explaining this story to the reader he is showing us that no matter how bad someone has it in life, they can still be good. Religion can be that barrier that divides the poor from the wealthy. If we really think about it, if someone is poor can we judge their character just based on that? Can we say to ourselves "Oh those people are poor they're just for themselves." I think this is something everyone must think about.
. St.Anns in Mott Haven

HELLO

My name is Anthony Mariorenzi and I am from North Providence Rhode Island. I am 24 years old and a new transfer student. Over the summer I went to Disney World with my girlfriend. I may not look like it but I am a Disney fan. I try to get to Florida at least two times a year. I am taking FNED because it ties into my Tech Ed major and hopefully someday I become a teacher. When I am not in this class I try to take it easy in the outside world. I work here and there at my part time job at Stop&Shop but mostly I try to spend time with my girlfriend, friends and family. It is tough to see them a lot during the semester. Also I am involved in local and state politics. When I was 19 years old I was elected to the North Providence Democratic Town Committee. I get involved in the local races such as Town Council and or School Committee. Hopefully this well help me get more name recognition. Thank you for reading my first post!