AMETH 300 Blog

 Conflict comes in many different forms but it always stems from the same thing. I would say that conflict always arises from a disagreement between two things. It could be a difference in opinion, values, or beliefs between two people or an internal struggle within yourself. If I were to have a conflict, it comes in one of those two forms, either I have a conflict with another individual or I struggle with an internal conflict.  Growing up my family addressed conflict in a calm and rational manner and we had both parties explain their individual opinions and concerns so we could reach a point of understanding. It was never outright stated how to deal with conflict but we always went about it this way when we had sibling fights or arguments with our parents. I personally don't mind conflict and I enjoy being exposed to conflict between others so I can analyze the situation for myself and hopefully learn something. I think there is a difference, however in healthy conflict and ...

 I have biases. Like a lot of biases. And I don't realize them all the time. Most of the time they don't have huge impacts on my life but I feel like they affect the people around me. I ever used to notice the ways that I made snap assumptions about people without even knowing them but after learning more about race and culture I realized that I am just as bit judgmental as I am perceptive. Being the person that I am I try to make judgments to make sense of the world around me and I always thought my judgments were correct. I think muscular guys are stupid, I hate most Frat guys, I think people who watch anime are weird, etc. I have always thought all of these things to be true, and to be honest these ideas have caused me to be needlessly hostile towards people I don't know. I have categorized people before I even knew them and I feel now more than ever that I should stop being so biased towards others for no reason.  But how am I supposed to fight against it? I think there...

I watched the Disney movie Soul last week. It popped up on the main page of Disney+ and I thought it looked fun because I love how Disney is always able to make family-friendly shows that have significant underlying messages to them. I didn't have to do much looking for interesting movies because most of the movies coming out today have diverse casts from many different backgrounds. I don't watch many movies, and when I do usually the cast is very diverse. The only exception is that lots of older movies have predominantly white characters, both animation and live actors. I have never chosen movies based on this criteria but movies I hear about are part of American culture and older movies with a white cast are more commonly part of American culture. I chose to watch this movie because it is about a black man in his thirties who is trying to make it big as a jazz performer. He thinks he knows what he wants in life but throughout the movie he learns what is really important in li...

This last week I got to talk to a professor at Kansas State University, and we had an interesting discussion about both of our experiences when it comes to race and intersectionality. Her name is Professor Keisha Clark. She currently teaches classes pertaining to American Ethnic Studies and I am really glad I got to sit down and talk with her for a little while! She told me about her experience as a black woman living and teaching at K-State. She said that thankfully she has never had to worry about her personal safety while on campus--something many others in similar positions cannot say. While this is true, she has had to face the numerous negative assumptions that people make about her because she is a woman of color. People always approach her like she's at a deficit to them. This could be that they assume she is not as educated as she really is or she doesn't hold a prestigious/respectable job. Race has always affected her life, but she didn't always know it. It really...

 Over the years I have met lots of different types of people. Most of them are white, straight, middle class, and some form of Christian. This isn't entirely the case though as some of the people in my social groups don't fit into these categories. Here are a few examples of diversity I find that are different. My Uncle's family is Catholic.  Some of my friends are conservative and others are liberal.  Some of my friends are less fortunate than me and have to pay their own rent, buy their own cars, and/or pay for their tuition. Some of my friends have a trust fund. I know some mixed race people and some Hispanic people. I have some gay/bisexual friends. I'm not super close with everyone I just referred to above, but I would say that some of my closest friends don't hold some of the same values and preferences I do. For instance, One of my close friends leans really far left politically even though I find myself more in the middle. Another one of my friends is gay an...

 Last week kicked my butt. I was dealing with a lot of school, extracurricular activities and small social events here and there. Covid-19 has changed my life quite a bit but things definitely aren't any slower. Sometimes, it's hard for me to sit down and think for a minute. I'm so distracted all the time and any down time I have I devote to my phone, a Netflix series or a video game. Recently, I started talking to a friend again who I hadn't talked to in almost two years. She's Vietnamese like me and can speak the language really well. We relate in some ways and differ in others but it was fun comparing her experience as a young Vietnamese woman to mine, a young half-Vietnamese man. It got me thinking about some of the identities that affect me most--I am a straight, biracial, middle class, able-bodied Christian male.  In many ways I am privileged. Being a male has its perks and I support other men. My sex affects almost every single aspect of my life from the way ...

 I want to to take some time to talk about the neighborhood I grew up in. I lived in the suburbs in Olathe, Kansas for my whole adolescent life. I went to the local elementary school right smack in the middle of the neighborhood, so I got to know many of the kids from the area. A new middle school was built less than three minutes from my house the year I was going into 6th grade, so I also went to the local middle school as well for all three years. Most families were middle class white families with jobs in the Kansas City area, and I always felt like at least on my street there were not many other kids my age. Most of my neighbors on my street were old people or had kids in high school or college. I don't remember any minority families on my street and very few kids at my school. When I go back home, I see how things have changed a little bit. There are a lot more businesses in the area and the demographic is still largely the same; there are a lot of white people, but on my str...