Voice Overload

Everywhere we go, we find racism of all sorts. Some people think that what they’re doing is not classified as racism, but racism is basically an umbrella term that describes many behaviors and thoughts against a certain race. Here are some types of racism that exist today.  One type of racism is Individual Racism, which is what we classify as the definition of racism. It is when a person’s behavior and thoughts are based on stereotypes against a race. An example is when a white person personally thinks that he is much more superior than a person of color. Even though we try to prevent such racist thoughts, it can be hard because these thoughts are often unconscious. Society has expressed colored people with negative images for many years, so our minds automatically jump to racist conclusions without us realizing it.  Another type of racism is Interpersonal Racism, which is racism between two individuals, aka when a white person projects their racist behavior towards...

All throughout time, people loved getting invites to the biggest party of the year. Everyone would look good and have such a great time. However, parties being thrown now are much different than in the past, from who was invited to what went down in each party. Back in the 1900's, parties were a big thing. Throwing extravagant parties or being invited to one made someone popular and well liked. They were accepted as one of the rich in society and were well respected. These parties were also a way for everyone to show off their wealth. Families got to dress up in their nicest outfits and make everyone jealous. Affairs were also very common during these parties. Men would either find younger women to hook up with or women would find richer men to spend time with. These would either ruin marriages or some couples just never even let it bother them. For example, in the Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy "threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into ...

If you were to go to a regional competition, you're going to see groups everywhere. You're gonna see groups everywhere. There would be a group of kids from Jefferson High School, a group from Gilbert Academy, another from Brooklyn High School, and many more. Social groups surround us everywhere we go, even if it's not obvious. A very common type of separation in society is social classes. The main classes of America are the Upper, Upper-Middle, Middle, Working, and Lower classes. Your place in society is not directly said to you, but it's more of a feeling instead. You just know where you belong based on your income, wealth, power, culture, heritage, etc. Unlike other separations, like the caste system, your class isn't always based on your past. Whether you have "old money" or "new money", you're still part of the upper class. The main setback of each class is how much comfort you can afford. An upper class family can maybe live in a mans...

Until my last breath, or my very first flight, I never got to experience real love. There might've been some love around me, but I was either too late to realize it or the love wasn't real. It's true that I didn't love Hagar at first, but if I realized how much I needed her in my life, I could've led a satisfied life and maybe even prevented her death. I loved her, and she truly loved me. I knew she would be there for me no matter what, unlike my family. My father tortured me, my mother insulted me, and my sisters hated me, but Hagar only gave me happiness and true joy, but I was an idiot to not realize that. She loved me as an individual. I wish I could've spent more time with her before she passed away. She's the only one that taught me what true love was, unlike Guitar. Guitar said he killed white people out of love, but what kind of love is that? He said that he would kill in order to make the white people pay for what they did to our people, bu...

Many people confuse revenge and justice as similar or the same thing. They think that taking revenge on someone basically serves as justice. Is this true? In the book Song of Solomon, Guitar justifies the murders committed by him by calling himself "reasonable" and stating that this makes him "better than they are," or the bad and unnatural Whites. But Milkman disagrees with this because it isn't right, and he's not wrong. What is justice? Justice is the quality of being fair and reasonable. It seeks to prevent injustice by using written laws and not moral issues. This is why courts and judges exist. Justice is also never personal because it doesn't have the affected person deciding the punishment for the person at fault. Justice also has a purpose. It's to give fair treatment for everyone in regard to their personal rights according to the laws. But what's revenge? It's the action of harming someone for a wrong suffered at thei...

In the book Song of Solomon  by Toni Morrison, many significant events and symbols are already mentioned in the first few chapters. Each and every detail Morrison adds in the book has a deeper value and meaning to it. One example is during the birth of Pilate Dead. While describing Pilate's birth in Chapter One, Morrison describes Pilot's mother as an "indifferent cave of flesh." In these four words Morrison foreshadows many things. Morrison includes "indifferent" to foreshadow the fact that Pilate is going to be lonely for most of her life. She won't have a mother to take care of her during her childhood, a husband to take care of their daughter or granddaughter, and her only brother will push her far away from ever associating with his family, which doesn't happen when Milkman and Hagar have a brief relationship. The use of the word "cave" shows that Pilate is entering the world from a scary place. Another significance of this wo...

The graphic novel Maus  is written Art Spiegelman, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who narrates his father's history as comics. In the first volume, Art calls his father, Vladek, a murderer because he burned Art's deceased mother's diaries from the war.  I think these series of panels are significant to the story because Art was inspired to write this book because of his father's stories and point of view, but never his mother's, Anja. The only way to know her story and what she went through was through her words, her diaries. But Art couldn't come to terms with it when he found out that his father had burned the diaries because he became depressed after suicide. Art realized that he had lost the only connection he had left with Anja. By burning the books, not only did Anja die again, but her voice was also silenced by Vladek. Art could no longer include his mother's story, so both his book revolved around his father's. Throughout the book, the inter...