Taking English 1102 with Dr. Perry has been one of the best experiences of all my freshman year. My last English class I took during the previous semester was boring and dry I’m not sure if it was because the professor was more focused on the basics of putting together an MLA style paper than he was focused on creativity. In contrast Dr. Perry’s class is based on creativity in the ways that she allows her students to have “free writes”, always stops to take the opinions of her students on specific topics (and respects their points and views), also project 2 allowed us to think outside of the box and express ourselves.

The books that I read this semester for her class were all excellent reads. They all were written from the perspective of people of color which made them even more comfortable to read. I loved how I could relate to Danez Smith, Jen Cisneros, and Michelle Obama. These books taught me so much more than I was expecting and moreover this class and the topic it is based on taught me about spacial justice which I had no idea was a thing. Who knew an English class could teach you about spacial justice, LGBTQ+ issues and so much more social matters?

I really enjoyed the structure of the class from the grading system, to how the course flowed in the way that Dr. Perry more so talked to you rather than at you during lectures, and all the projects were a delight to do.

I like the idea of blogging for a class I got to see how other people felt about each project we were working on. The only thing that went wrong is towards the end I and a few other students couldn’t post on the big because of technical difficulties.Dr. Perry took the time to relate with her students and understand their minds. She’s very respectful and conscious of many social issues. One thing in particular that comes to mind is on twitter someone reprimanded their professor for using the n-word for and I quote “instructional purposes” in comparison when reading a poem that was 60% just the n-word from Don’t Call Us Dead Dr. Perry skipped over them without even thinking twice. Also though that was an obvious thing to do, I appreciate how she took the time even to go the extra mile and say why she was not going to use that word due to the history of oppression behind it. All in all, she’s a great professor who shows her passion for educating and I enjoyed taking this course.

For my movie review, I watched Bamboozled because I had never watched a Spike Lee movie before and I can honestly say it was the worst first impression of all time.

It was not until I went to research more information on Spike Lee I found out he is known for his over the top controversial productions that usually consist of exaggerated satire based on race relations and colorism the effects of media on modern everyday life, urban crime, poverty, and political issues.

 In my film review, I said, “this particular film makes the viewer question if satire can be taken too far.” I questioned this because the movie had black people doing black face in it, white people saying nigga, and so much racism. I was stressed out while watching this trash and I could not watch another movie because I was halfway through watching it and I wanted it to be done in time for class the next day.

Daymon Wayans performance in this movie was terrible he looked like a sad impression of Mr. Peabody, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s acting had no dimension it was just dry although she was the one person in the movie who made sense half the time. At the end of the movie Sloan (Jada’s character) ends up killing Delacroix (Daymon’s character) because her pro-black brother ends up getting murdered by police for murdering her boyfriend who was a blackface actor. Long story short that scene was supposed to be tragic but it ended up being a mess it was hilarious bad acting the worst I’ve ever seen from Jada seriously go back to the last 10 minutes of the movie don’t even watch the whole thing just the last 10 minutes, and you will wonder what were they thinking with this movie.

There’s no doubt about it to the average student college is hard, it’s stressful, and it puts a toll on the best of us. My Freshman year of college is almost over, and at this point. I feel like I want to give up and I don’t know, make money in a way my parents would never approve of. All jokes aside I often wonder when this hard work will pay off? When will I actually feel like I’m going somewhere in life? I can’t drop out because I’m a first-generation college student and everyone’s eyes are on me plus with me having an island mother and a Nigerian father there’s no way in hell I could ever fix my mouth before them to even at the very least say “gap year.”

Think about Megan Thee Stallion even though she’s one of the most popping female rappers right now she’s still in college and continuously fighting for her degree, that’s inspiring. Did you know Kim Kardashian goes to law school despite being a multimillionaire and being married to Kanye West also another fellow millionaire? Plus get this, Beyoncé wished she went to an HBCU and based a whole historical performance off HBCU culture. If all these powerful inspirational millionaires crave education why can’t an average joe like me do the same?

In all honesty, I would really love to drop everything going on in my life and start my own business. I would love to be a self-made billionaire, but there’s also a side of me who wants to help, heal and treat people like the doctor I should be. I wish I could do both at the same time, but as soon as I get home, I’m so tired that all I could do is sleep and the days that I don’t have class I work a full-time job to support my household.

Is there a thing called the freshman jitters? Because boy am I scared for my future, my mental health, and physical wellbeing. I feel like I’m having a mid-life crisis and I’m only 19.

Dropping out is not an option because I would never forgive myself for making a few assignments that I can’t wrap my head around ruin my future. I also not only want to make my family proud I too want to be proud of myself, I want to be able to say I did something finally, I want people to hear my name and feel inspired.

Thank you for reading my written mental breakdown.

My digital project is about cancel culture and how celebrities respond to the repercussions of being canceled.

Cancel culture is a term that refers to the phenomenon of “canceling” or ending all financial and other forms of support one may have typically for celebrities and political leaders on due to most likely past remarks that may be racist, homophobic, colorist, or sexual assault.

I realized that often when a celebrity or a well known person gets called out on something problematic they said in the past they often say that ever since then they’ve grown so they should be excused, I feel that they should take responsibility for their actions and not just brush it off and say “I was 15 so it doesn’t matter”. Most celebrities do not understand how this is offensive to people because through the problematic remarks were made in the past that does not change the fact that at that point in time it offended, triggered or effected someone.

Ironically grown men and women do not know how to apologize properly so for my digital project I created a website that includes lessons on how to maneuver the stages of being canceled. The lessons include emotional support, how to understand where people are coming from, and how to get back onto the road of restoration.

Becoming by Michelle Obama is one of those books I would give to my future daughter to read while growing up my mom mad me read some her favorite books, and I learned many things from those books such as confidence, self-worth, and how to deal with reality, etc.

Michelle’s book exudes the topics of being a black woman in America, love, confidence, reality, racism, what home is to each of us, grief, and spatial justice, etc. These topics are fundamental for all people of color to understand. Many people of color find themselves accommodating and excusing racism in their communities, such things known as “black cards” that give a pass white people or non-afro Latino people to use the n-word around black people they are friends with. This form of being racially uneducated is dangerous in our society it allows white people to believe that the n-word is just slang for a friend and to forget the negative and oppressed history behind the word.

In many places of the book, Michelle talks about what it means to be a black educated person in America, how you must have thick skin and high confidence in your day to day life. Many young black people doubt themselves and even at times turn to self-hate in accordance to their skin color and how they get treated for being black in a way this book can show young people of color that they are not alone and how to navigate life easily.

This book is also beneficial to non-people of color a majority of the time racism is desensitized in their communities and when being educated on specific racial issues they tend to be ignorant or condescending this book is not one of the first books to be written in this form, a form that allows the reader to see life as it is through the eyes of the writer. The tone of the book isn’t too severe, and it does not outright scream “racism is bad,” but it takes Michelle a true genuine black woman’s feeling and perspectives into account which makes non-people of color bound to think about racism and how it affects people around the world

Upon reading some of the comments on Amazon for this book a few of the top comments were rude, out of order and made little to no sense in my opinion I feel that if someone rushes through this book and does take the time to reflect on each chapter after it is written it may seem dull or dry. I find this book to be very insightful, tasteful and a breath of fresh air, it is in my opinion of the best books I have read.  J+