bell hooks

In the first passage, bell hooks talks about how her parents were not
excited or happy when she was accepted to Stanford. To them basically any
all black college close to home was sufficient enough. Even though they
didn’t necessarily agree with her decision to go to Stanford, they still
reluctantly supported her. At the time bell hooks didn’t understand that
her parents were afraid they were going to lose her. She says, “I want to
speak about these contradictions because sorting through them, seeking
resolution and reconciliation has been important to me both as it affects
my development as a writer, my effort to be fully self-realized, and my
longing to remain close to family and community that provide the
groundwork for much of my thinking writing, and being.”(153). Here she is
saying that her family has laid the foundation for her morals and values.
Her way of thinking and the respect that was instilled in her by her
parents have shaped how she critiques others and the world around her.
Everything about
her past and childhood has made her the kind of person she is now. Her
parents just didn’t want her to lose that when she went off to a
predominately upper class college. They didn’t want her to be ashamed of
where she came from after seeing all the privileges these other kids have;
most importantly, they didn’t want her to get caught up in a materialist
society and become someone else. Having a good education doesn’t
necessarily make you superior to someone else. This passage made me think
back to when I was applying to colleges. My parents wanted me to go to a
good school but they didn’t see why I didn’t want to go to OU; OU is a
good school and it’s close to home. Did I really need to go somewhere else
to get a higher education? Once I had narrowed down my search and decided
I wanted to go to SMU, my parents, like bell hook’s, were very reluctant
to send me here. They too didn’t want me to forget where I came from and
turn into some snobby rich kid who thinks they are above everyone else. I
wasn’t too
worried about losing my values because I also went to a private high
school where the same SMU stereotype applied. Most people I met outside of
school seemed shocked that I went to that high school because I seemed
down more down to earth and not stuck up. Like bell hooks, I’m sure I
will change, learn, and grow these next four years, but I don’t think I’ll
forget where I came from.
Typically, SMU is a predominately upper class society. People here are more concerned with your economic class; your class defines who you are. People often ask questions like what does your dad do for a living, showing their interest in your financial stability. However, there are a good number of people that come from lower economic classes. Even though they may not have the materialistic lifestyles, they shold try not to get caught up and become envious of what they don’t have. Having money may qualify one to be in an upper economic class, but it doesn't give a person class. People of all different kinds of lifestyles can be classy or not. Money gives you a different kind of lifestyle but rich people can still be grateful and posses some of the same values as the poor have and vice versa.

The Parent Trap

Should parents consume less alcohol in front of their kids? It has been proven that the kids of parents who drink around them are more likely to start drinking at an earlier age. Also, the more the parents drink, the more the kids usually will. I personally don’t believe its bad for parents to drink in front of their kids, as long as no personality change is visible. Parents need to set a good example and model good behavior in order to develop a sensible attitude toward drinking for the child. If parents are not able to model good behavior, then they are more than likely not able to properly care for their children. What would happen if there was an emergency, but the parent was to drunk to properly respond? I also think that when parents come home drunk it induces a positive attitude toward that type of behavior. The child views it as well my parents do it so it must be ok.
I baby sit for this family where the mom often comes home a little drunk. It’s not usually too bad, but I can definitely tell a personality change; she gets really loud and really scatterbrained. However, one night she comes home belligerently drunk and goes straight to her bedroom. The little girl I was babysitting usually takes her nighttime showers in her mom’s room. When we went into her bathroom there was throw up all over the floor, obviously the mom had missed the toilet. Then we hear the mom being completely goofy and then crying hysterically on the bed. Two minutes later she was passed out on top of all the covers in her cocktail dress. Her daughter then started cracking up; she thought this was absolutely hilarious. To her, her mom was just so silly. To make things worse, my 10-year-old step sister was also at the house, and she viewed this type of behavior as funny and normal too; her mom has come home countless times reeking of wine and just passed out on her bed. This is what all adults do, right? I think this type of behavior is absolutely pathetic and irresponsible. I definitely didn’t want my little step sister to think this was ok or for her to think that people are funny when they get drunk. I think parents should set a better example for their kids in order to postpone drinking as long as possible. What do you all think?

Dirty DTown

Recently, one of my friends told me about a website known as Dirty D-Town. On this website anyone can send in pics, and the people controlling the site post the pics online with rude comments underneath. Sites like these make you more conscious of what you pics you choose to put online. This site even steals your pics off of facebook and uses them on their page. My question is, is there anyway to stop a site like this? While some people have embarrassing pics that they don’t want everyone to see, others just have normal pics on this site. These normal pics may not be of the most physically attractive people, and the site takes advantage of that by making fun of the way people look. I think it’s horrible of this site to make fun of people just taking an innocent picture with their friends. One picture online is of a group of girls (the one on the left is skinny and the one on the right is a little larger) and the caption reads “evolution of obesity”. How would you feel if you saw this pic of yourself online? It wasn’t like they were doing anything embarrassing; People just can’t control how they look. Another scary thing about this website is that anyone can send a pic of you without your knowledge. Especially now days, camera phones are everywhere. Anyone could just snap a shot, send it in, and you would never know. Is this an invasion of privacy? One more thing I will ask is what kind of person do you have to be to make this website? At first it might seem like a funny idea; Let’s post pics of people doing stupid things online! But I think in the long run it just ends up hurting people. If you don’t have any other productive way of using your time other than trying to make fun of people, you need to reevaluate your life.