Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Additional Post - Speaking Out



I think most people have seen Jonah Mowry's youtube video called "Whats going on?" This video is Johnny Robinson's response to his video. It's like a support message to Jonah that there are other people in the world who has been and are going through the same situation. It's to show that he is not alone and there are people who will be there to support him. In Jonah's video, he starts out that he had been bullied and had thought about suicide, but by the end of the video, he promises that he is stronger than that and that he matters. It was moving to see how strong he is. It really had moved me after I watched the video.




Connections:

Those two men are examples of many in the world that bullying and unfair treatment still exists. People who do not experience bullying will tend to do nothing about supporting awareness because they just feel like it's not their problem. Who knows that in the future, one can have family or friends who experience bullying or unfair treatment. That is why it is essentially everybody's problem. Because it does not happen to themselves, they automatically think it's none of their business. The same idea can be applied to being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. This is also what Lisa Delpit talked about in her article. She said that white educators believed that it's not their problem that black students don't understand their teachers. Instead they blame their parents. The problem does involve the white educators. They should be teaching students the rules and codes of power because students may not have learned it at home. It is possible that the students' parents have not been taught the rules and codes of power either.

I feel that our society is very limited from the start. We have created what we call normal as something to live by: SCWAAMP: Straightness, christianity, whiteness, able-bodiedness, americanness and property ownership. It was created by someone who is no smarter than another. What we call normal becomes a tradition. It becomes something like Johnathan Kozol talks about. The cycle where people who lived in the area with the incinerator that was put by the institution, became a like a tradition that becomes difficult to get out of. Normal in our society becomes valued and things that are not normal become unaccepted. People who say that being gay is wrong really does not know what they are talking about. It is only wrong because it does not fit into the society that someone created. Everyone has their own idea of what is right. Everyone is different. Our society should be not be limited and more accepting of differences. People need to start thinking about themselves in others shoes. We need to think about what it feels and what it is like to be in someone place and how you would like to be treated while in their place. We need to think about how wrong it would feel if you were treated unfairly.

This brings me to what Linda Christensen said about how our media creates secret education. Children as they grow up follow literacy and cartoons. Literacy and cartoons portray our society. Which is what we call as what's normal. It teaches children exactly what our society wants us to be. Men who marry women. The beautiful and handsome succeed while ugly people are mean and miserable with miserable jobs. It sets the stereotypes in our society. If we are only limited to how things should be according to our society through the media, it causes the problems we face everyday. It's like what Shor believes: questioning authority. We need to question the status quo. Why is gay marriage not right? Because the bible says so and because we've been doing straight marriages for a long time. That's not very reasonable if you ask me.

People like Jonah Mowry and Johnny Robinson does exactly what Shor wants us to do. They believe in who they are. They believe in what they do. They know why they do. What they are doing is right. For someone else to say that they are wrong is absurd. They are as "right" as what our society says what's "right" They question the status quo by being who they are.

2 comments:

  1. i watched the Jonahs youtube video last night on Elyssas blog, and was so blown away by it. John is giving Jonah such great support, we need more people like him in the world! :)

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  2. I actually hadn't seen these.. amazing. Thanks for posting. :) Great analysis too.

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