"Woke up late today and I still feel the sting of the pain
But I brushed my teeth anyway
I got dressed through the mess and put a smile on my face
I got a little bit stronger"
- "A Little Bit Stronger" by Sara Evans
Racism and Sexism - What Next? I've been watching a lot of tv lately (you know me, I love my tv). And I've started to notice incidents of racism and sexism that in some cases are blatantly obvious and in other cases, I'm just now starting to notice. Take Dr. Pepper Ten for instance. I love my Dr. Pepper and I do drink diet rather than regular (because I want to avoid the additional sugar), but I'm not necessarily excited about the taste of diet drinks any more than the next person. It's one thing to market your drink to men only (there are plenty of products marketed to women only...though some of them make more sense than others). But to blatantly use stereotypes that are simply not true to advertise your drink to men is insulting, IMHO. I like action movies (they are my favorite type). I watch football and baseball (and not because of the way the players look in their uniforms). And I'm sure I do and say other things that are not "lady-like". Does this mean I wouldn't like Dr. Pepper 10? And what about Direct TV's commercials to advertise their NFL services? Why is Deion only talking to men except the one lady who is the stereotypical blonde southern bell? And as for the racism - I'll admit, it's a strong word, but I'm thinking in particular of the shows "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette." Have either of these shows had a lead character of color? What, they haven't been able to find a beautiful or handsome, successful and worthy person of color to star on the show? I don't actually watch either one, but now I'm wondering if they've even had suitors of color on the show? I'm guessing that they've had a few - but what chance did any of them really have?
Plagiarism: Today I had to check all of my students' essays for plagiarism after I found that one of my students had plagiarized. Officially I could almost call a few more of them out, but I only had one that was of the egregious type (blatantly copying and pasting from online resources). The others didn't offer proper citation though I can tell they paraphrased (or they hired a great person to write their essay, which would be awful considering the low stakes of this class). I guess I'm just disappointed in the effort (or lack thereof) that most of them put forth. I don't remember not wanting to do my best no matter what I was doing. Even now when I'm tired and beaten down, I still get upset if my knitting doesn't look as good as I think it should - I want to do my best at it. What do you say to these students who just don't care?
Missing my Trombone: One of my high school friends posted that she was missing playing the piccolo and it made me think about my trombone. It's been years since I played and I sold my trombone many years ago, but now I'm starting to think about it more and more. Could I have been a better player if I had tried a little harder? How would my life have been different if I had played through high school and into college? I know it is too late to think about "what ifs" but I'm really starting to look at episodes in my life and wonder what I could have done differently and whether it would have made things easier or harder for me now. What a waste of time...
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