Race

After exploring both the website and reading a new articles from each, I have learned a lot about what it means to different people to be black. One article that really stuck out in my memory was called Study: Black man and white felon-same chances for hire. This explored the business market today. This just shows how racial discrimination is still a concern in American today. If a black man with a clean record is as likely to be hired as a white criminal than there is a problem. I'm always hearing from my teachers and parents how important it is to stay out of trouble because no one will give you a job if you have a criminal record. I can't image the hopelessness black men feel when looking for a job, when they have no done anything to harm their chances, besides having darker skin. While exploring the websites, I saw an article about John Mayer. I was interested in what it was about, hoping it would be something positive the singer/song writer did. It was not, it was about how he made racist comments during an interview about black women. This really disappoints me because he is a public figure and a lot of people in America look up to him. He is setting a bad example by running his mouth about race.

Sexual Harassment

In class we have been talking about sexual harassment. We did two mock trials, one criminal rape case, and one civil sexual harassment case. After participating and watching these two trials, I have come to the conclusion that sexual harassment is very subjective. There are something’s that people will call sexual harassment when others might think it is harmless jokes. This line between appropriate and inappropriate can be very thin. For example we talked about the incident at Oak Park River Forest high school, where a group of boys made a list of the most F-able girls and description of their body parts. To these boys it was a harmless joke, but to the girls affected it was hurtful and disrespectful. The girls pressed charges on the boys. I personally think that ruining these boys lives for a list is a little over dramatic. Although this is a clear case of sexual harassment, every teenage boy has made this list (maybe not a physical list but in their heads) and girls have to realize that. I do think they should be punished for their rude and exposing list. My views have certainly changed on this subject, the more cases I heard, the more I could understand the victim in these cases feel uncomfortable. In the case that I was assigned to a girlfriend accused her boyfriend of rape. When I first read the case I thought she was just insane and a jealous girlfriend, because if its your boyfriend its not rape. After really reading the case and understanding her side, I realized that if she didn't want to have sex with him and he forced her to have sex, then its rape. It very hard to determine if something is harassment when its one word against another.