This is the link to my final project .
Self Analysis: Looking for Normatives Narratives
Part 1
In our lives there are hidden everyday, they are embedded in the way we live, my chosen story was number three socioeconomic status. This is about a persons wealth or what they have, or what class they fall into, I am feel like a sterotypical white person, my family is no rich, but we also don’t go without things we need. In my story I was in downtown Toronto where you can really see the differences in class just walking down the street, it shows the true stereotype on the poor homeless and the rich people walking by and ignoring them. This is a quote from my story “This city made me realize how different and far apart the classes really are, I saw the high class and the very low class, and I realized I am somewhere in the middle, and very lucky to be where I am.” I also was a stereotypical person who didn’t stop to help I just kept walking scared of the homeless people living under the bridge.
This is a quote for a classmates story ” I may never have enough money to shop at fancy stores, but in no way do I feel bad for myself. I am already very lucky and grateful that I had enough money to travel across the word with my class and friends.” This is a very typical, they have way more than most, the ability to travel overseas but they still feel out of place they just want a little bit more. They feel that they should have more and the not having it makes them realize their place, not to high and not the low.
This last story is form another classmate “I would consider myself a middle class citizen, and I never realized how lucky I am to be living in the middle class until I saw how excited people got over things I and most other middle and upper class people take for granted.” She was on a trip to Costa Rica to deliver supples to an orphanage, to help these people get everyday items that we ahem here in Canada.
In all of these stories we are all privileged enough to be able to travel, we are all middle class people with in society. We lucky and the stereotypical “white” kids, we have more than we need and we are lucky to be where we are in the economic later.
“I lived part time and did not understand why living in different area of Regina meant I was seen different to my friends.” This is a quote taken from another student in the class, they lived a life then I did. They had to go through things like this that I did not experience, I understand bullying but I never received because of my family’s class or where I lived. Seeing the different status between kids is something we will all do, we look for differences between people. She defies the normative narrative by not having a lot, for changing the way the class defines us, she was said about living in the “hood” and not understanding.
The differences in who has money and who does not is something that people see, and we may jump to judgements on those people. They other student’s parents in this classmates stories thought becasue of where her dad lived that they would be unsafe at a birthday party.
Reading Response 2: Race and Whiteness
“White” is a word that makes people uncomfortable, mostly white people, as a white person I can understand that word making people uncomfortable, and in the past year it no longer makes me uncomfortable. The quote itself portraits the idea that if you are “white” you are a racist, which is not fair to people, I am kind person and I try not to harm someone or make them feel bad, but maybe I am not a racist but I am part of a system that was built on racism. I believe and the idea of “white” needs to be separated from racism.
Out of habit most white people feel the need to defend their whiteness, it is nothing that we did it is what our ancestors did and we can’t change it and we shouldn’t justify their horrible actions, white is a colour but it leaves so many people ahead. When we first started discussing white privilege in class I honestly was made me feel uncomfortable to think that maybe I got something in my live because of my colour not because I earned, I felt the need to defend, and I assume other have the same urge. Disrupting this white privilege is a need of our newly developing society, we are in a time of change but everyone has to be open to it and welcome it, and this privilege will be hard for white people to ever let go.
This article helped me understand white fragility, and it does exist in everyday life, I seem to even have these feelings, but it is important for me and others to be able to move past it. The quote is that white fragility is “the inability to cope with conversations about race that don’t protect individual white people’s sense of innocence.” I feel that race makes white people feel guilty when conversations happen and nobody wants to feel guilty, and we try to protect are innocents by neglecting the issues of race. The word white brings up those feeling of guilt and that is why people shy away from the word itself one quote from the article that seems to be the most important is, “The solution to white fragility, she says, is to build up stamina; just as with exercise, that involves doing the painful task over and over again until you get better.”
Sorry in advance I have an edusites blog so your comments might not show up right away, Audrey knows about the issue, sorry for the inconvenience.
Story 4: Gender
Grad day, we look forward to it all year everyone dresses up and goes on stage, it is suppose to be about looking back on all the memories we made but it turns into a who looks best. All the girls are excepted to go out months in advance and buy fancy dresses, some girls send hundreds of dollars on these dress. Personally I am not a dress person, I only wear them about three times a year. It is what is expected of girls, and boys have to dress up in suits but they are not excepted to send money like girls are. There were lots of girls who send loads of money on a dress to wear it for a couple of hours to walk in a circle around a gym. It is supposed to be a beautiful.
As we where all arriving about an hour before the ceremony started so we could hang out on this important. I realized that one girl wasn’t in a dress, she was wearing a suit, everyone else looked like a princess, and she decided to be herself. In that moment I looked back and realized I had never seen her in a dress since she moved here in grade ten. I always new she was more of a tomboy but it surprised me because she not wearing a dress on grad day, the one day that a it is truly excepted of a girl to wear a dress. It made me feel happy for her, to be comfortable in her own skin, and proud of who she is, and the regular steorotypes of a girl didn’t apply to her, but that didnt make her any less of a women.
She dressed like a man according to some people that day, but why do we have put gender to it, why can’t she just dress like herself. She thought it was more important for her to be comfortable that day than it was to look like what was expected of her. She will forever be one of the bravest women I know.
Story 3: Socioeconomic Status
It was the summer time about two years ago, I was in Toronto with my family, we where staying in downtown for a couple days. It was our second day and I had been to Toronto many times before to visit. I had visited most of the attractions in the in the city, and it is one of my favourite places to visit. We where staying in this really fancy hotel, and it made my feel out of place it was too fancy for me, I was not in a high enough class to be there.
It was such a beautiful and instead of driving through the city we decided to walk the couple of blocks to the restaurant we where going to eat at and the harbour front market. Our walk took about 15 minutes, along the way we had to cross under a bridge, and under there where loads of homeless people living with nothing. This was the first time a had really seen a homeless person and were they stayed. I had only really seen hitchhikers in my small town, I had been to many big cities before but I had never seen them like this, we normally stay in the tourist parts of the city. It opened my eyes to how bad things really can for some people and the thing they go through.
In that moment walking under the bridge I realize how lucky I truly am for what I have I was on a vacation and this people had nothing. I had never had to go to bed hungry or missed on things on basic things becasue my family had no money. My heart broke for this people who had nothing in their life.
This city made me realize how different and far apart the classes really are, I saw the high class and the very low class, and I realized I am somewhere in the middle, and very lucky to be where I am.
Story 2: Skin Colour
The first time I remember noticing the of skin was when the first ever black family moved in to town. They were four brothers that came to our school, and even though I didn’t know them that well and none of them were in my grade, it was still my first time noticing how different skin colour really can be. They were the talk of the town, most likely because everyone notice them when they walked down the street.
I wondered how life would be different for them with in this small white town, there dad was the head of police in our town, and I could not imagine feeling so different with a small town. I remember my grandparents always talking about them running everywhere because they lived close to each other and they were always going by, but they never brought up any other children that would walk by and there were lots that would walk by.
In that moment I realized how in are small “white” town these boys had a microscope on their actions in the town, and because of their skin tone they were always noticed in the town. When they would go to stores people would notice them first when you walked in because they stood out in our small town. The moment I realized the difference in between skin colour and how it really does separated from each other.
Story 1: A Canadian Memory
It was Christmas Eve and we were at my grandparents cabin, were we where every year, I loved that place more than anything in the world, it was my second home. My favourite part wasn’t the meal or the presents it was the time we spent together on the hill with your toboggans, speeding down the hill, trying to find a way to go faster. It was alway the ten of us out there my aunt and uncle and their 3 children, my parents and my two siblings, and we always made the most amazing memories. We always got new tobogans and were adding to the collection, we had so many we had to chose which one we walked over to the big hill.
It was always just us on the hill, no one was ever around on Christmas Eve, it always felt like we where in the middle of no where and it felt nice to be isolated. Grandma and Grandpa would only come out for a little, it was always cold and to long for them outside. Aunt Claudia would never come out, she would always say that “it was to cold out for her warm Mexican blood,” she could never be outside for long then 15 minutes, which still makes me laugh. Her kids never stayed out that long either they would barely make the hour out outside and once they went in so did their dad, so there was only the ten of us left out there.
We would always go out around 7:00 pm, because it had to be completely dark, then we dress in many layers because being cold was always not an option, we would never want to go inside. We would spend hours on the hill, walking up and sliding down more times then I can count, we would go down in pairs, or we would race, or see who could the farthest at the bottom. Sometimes we would take a break and just play in the snow, having snowball fights, and it was always kids versus parents, we would hid on the other side of the hill/road in the bushes. Then we would go back to sliding because we where starting to get cold and the long walk up the hill would let you warm up. These moments made me feel truly Canadian, being on that hill in the cold making memories that would last a lifetime, and it is a Canadian way to spend time with your family.
After hours on the hill we would all be tried enough that it was time to go in for the night this would be around 11 that night, and grandma would have the hot chocolate made and in the snowman jug that sat on the counter keep it warm, we always added marshmallows, it may have been more marshmallow than hot chocolate. We would all sit around the table drink hot chocolate with anticipation for tomorrow, for Christmas until it was time to head home for the night and go to bed. We would pack things up the gifts and the leftovers to go home we where all tried t that time and dad would drive us home and by the time we made the drive home we would all be sleeping, and dad would carrying in my little brother. Those memories on that hill with my family we always be held dearly in my heart, they are a piece of me and the will forever be important to me. In these moments and memories I feel truly Canadian spending time like that on a hill in the middle of nowhere, it may be stereotypical, but it truly makes me feel like a Canadian.