Blog #5

Zachery Ali-Yallah

3/25/19

Dr. Perry

English composition 1102

Blog 4

The book becoming has been very interesting so far.  This book has a lot of ups and downs and you get a different perspective of the former first lady life. Some times when you think of a celebrity or a very well-known person you think of how great their life must be but in this book Michelle Obama talked about a lot of the struggles she had to endure to get the point she is at right now. From my point of view Michelle Obama life was harder than I thought which is why I have immensely enjoyed reading this book. This book would be great for anybody who takes for granted how hard life can be for a person at higher power. Michelle Obama goes into deep detail about her time growing up in Chicago Illinois. She tells stories about how difficult her life was at times. She overcame a lot in her life that nobody would probably know about if you didn’t read this book. The experience she has been through has shaped her into the person she is today.

Zachery Ali-Yallah

3/6/19

Dr. Perry

English composition 2

Blog 3

Coleman Hughes (May 14, 2018) The Racism Treadmill is a comprehensive look at racism in America from a generational perspective. How far America has come in addressing racism depends on, like Hughes says, your age, color, and even culture. For any African American who is over 60 years old and living in the deep south, America has come a long way and has made strides in racial equality. Compared to the fire hoses, lunch counter protests, whites/colored only bathrooms and waiting areas, church bombings and lynching, yes America has come a long way. For a college student who is just 19 years old like me, my point of reference of racism is the shooting of Travon Martin, and the massacre of Bible study parishners in Charleston, SC.  To me, racism still prevails based on the little I have known and seen.  Racism goes deeper than just skin color although majority of people see it as Black and White as in skin color. There will continue to be disparities in every fabric of society from college admissions to cabinet positions in the White House. It is a process that took nearly 400 years to develop, starting from the landing of the first slave in America and would probably take another 400 years, if at all, to fix itself. Progress is being made but some will see the progress as slow. It will seem like as much progress that is made, more needs to be done.

Blog 3- Racism on a Treadmill

Blog 4- Thoughts of Becoming So Far

What do I think of Becoming? Michelle’s story in becoming is well put together in telling her life and also thing she had to go through to get where she is today. I think that this book should be read by everybody but I think it should be mostly read by women and most women of color. The story shes telling can be related to most black women if not all. I think she is a true testament of what a Strong successful black woman is.

You should take this story and grow from it and learn from it. It could help u in life and also teach u sum thing that u may need help figuring out. Michelle is iconic and her story can be unmatched arguably but being the first black women of the united stated is what really put the cherry on top of more cherries. She broke the barriers for black women and on what they can truley do in life other than playing the played out role of a women.

Michelle is a women that needs a statue. She needs a statue because the things she did and the things she gunna do in the future. People are was gunna talk about her she made history so i expect her to be in every new history book in the future and i expect he to be on a test, quiz or an exam because she made history and will be remembered forever.

The book Becoming so far is very Inspirational so far. I love the way she puts in detail everything that she can promptly remember from being a small child to turning into an adult. I love the way she tells the story about her parents and how she talks about how they invested in her and her brother to be the best and wanted nothing but the best for them. That inspires me to make sure my child gets the same love and affection from me and his father as Michelle and Craig di from theirs. Her and her family came up poor in a way and not with much, but they never seemed to let that bother them as long as the Michelle and Craig had everything they needed.

What really shook my heart in the book so far was the talk about her father and his disease. It mostly shook me was the fact that I could strongly relate to her in this part, given that my brother has the same disease. Just hearing thee process her dad went through with the disease and the strength she carried through it gives me strength to have for my brother. Reading through these chapters so far, I can see that Michelle Obama is a strong, intellectual, smart, and inspirational woman. She shows that through any challenged thrown at her she can maneuver out of it with no problem.

In Hughes essay he talks about discrimination in the beginning. African Americans are mostly discriminated daily because of our past and the facts that set the new standards in place, mostly white American still find a way to single us out. We are sometimes singled out by hate crimes, police brutality, and even racial slurs and remarks. But even though we are discriminated does not mean we have to necessarily do the same. Discrimination between the white and black communities are done statistically with the amount of income we may make which is more or less of the other ethnic group. Hughes states that we discriminate each other in many ways including income but when it comes to other ethnic group from the same areas almost its not looked at. Discrimination exists all over the world in European countries, Russian countries, etc. Hughes main point is that if one is discriminated it is not our place or the others place to commit the same actions.

Hughes also talks about the black culture and how we differ from other ethnic groups. Hughes discusses how for one our culture in sports is highly segregated. He gives some statistics about baseball and basketball. Whites make up most of the baseball population and black make up a small portion. While in basketball black make up about three fourths of the population and whites a small 18 percent. It has been said that baseball should be left for whites and that leaves blacks to any other sport than that. Culture between blacks and whites and extremely racism to this day. Hughes adds both of these ideas together to create the racism treadmill. As long as we continue to segregate cultural differences and cause all these disparities between racial groups than progress from the 20^th century and merely on pause. Hughes essay really pulled out points of racism that I personally skipped. Yes, racism exists in our society to this day whether it is public or behind doors. But its on both sides of the fence. We cannot complain of racism towards ourselves and use our reason for it as a defense mechanism. Racism on both parts is morally wrong. We have great historians from our past who shaped this world for ALL Americans of ANY color not just one in particular. We shame them by committing the same acts of the ones in the past. We are different in ethnic groups but it is no reason we should beat each other up for it.