Often in my life I feel I have trouble finding the intangible line between confidence and arrogance. It's like trying to make a peanut butter sandwich: if you spread the peanut butter too thin, you have something not worth having, but if you spread it too thick, you know you will regret it. I value a lot of different things in life, and in my attempts at mastering them I have usually been successful. This success has produced a definite level of confidence in my own abilities, but too often I have suddenly felt the arrogance sticking to the roof of my mouth. This wouldn't be so bad but often times it makes it hard to smile.
When I was in junior high we had a very competitive block in basketball. One day we all decided that we would have a two-on-two tournament the next Friday to decide who was truly the best and to crush some over-inflated egos -- not mine, I was sure. People began to talk trash on Monday; all week long you could hear the taunts and the heckling. We dared each other to try this or that, threatened each other with monster stuffs and amazing dunks in the faces of our opponents.
Finally Friday came. The tournament lasted for about three hours, peppered with constant complaints, arguments, and threatened fist fights. To my own disbelief, we lost -- by one point! For the rest of the night I rationalized our loss by creating stories of how they must have cheated, accented by remarks about the character blemishes of their mothers. I just kept saying that we were still the best and it didn't matter that we had lost. By the end of the night no one was speaking to me, not even my partner in the competition. I finally snuck off and went home. All the way, I could feel myself choking on ...
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...core group of about four of us in a sixty person class who were the know-it-all fact gurus. We knew the date of Plessy vs. Ferguson and who founded the UNIA. But when my teacher asked "How does the black dilemma of assimilation vs. accommodation tie in with the Native American experience in the U. S.?" the responding pool narrowed to me. I was able to synergize all of these different historical atoms into one congruent molecule.
The following week, a girl from my class let me borrow two dollars. She said, "You know, I am only doing this because you are one sharp brother!" I felt then that I must be getting better at being confident without being arrogant. The two dollar coke was extremely satisfying; it felt like a victory toast for the man I am learning to become -- one who is confident in his abilities but not arrogant with his character.
As a result, my thinking and perception was shaped and influenced by many of the negative stereotypes of African Americans that has been perpetuated in our society at large (this is where education can be a great liberator of falsehoods and misconceptions). I have come to appreciate Professor Marie’s Intercultural Communication course, for the class has broaden my critical thinking skills and stretched my thinking and understanding. Finally, how do I think this information will be of use to me? True understanding and teamwork will not begin to occur until individuals begin to speak up about address and embrace the controversial topics of race and culture. Setting aside the problem of racism and covering it up by saying that everyone is the same, does not eliminate the issue. Trying to patch up issues around the world dealing with culture and racism only provides a quick, short lasting solution, for when the temporary patch falls away, the problems will have grown twice as big. All it does is temporarily set aside what we know is still there.
To make it even harder to focus, we could hear the music of another guard’s performance throughout warmup. I encouraged my team to stay focus on how we want to perform. As we prepared to perform, several girls began crying and hugging as if we were already done. I talked to each girl I passed and told them that it was time to focus and to show this crowd how good we are. That performance was the perfect ending to the season; it was everything we had worked for. However, we weren’t done yet; we still had to fold our floor, put away our flags, and get ready for the awards ceremony. On our way to put away our equipment, one of my girls started crying and apologizing for a mistake she had made, afraid that she compromised the show. I told her immediately that whatever score we made, we earned it as a team. I comforted her with my own struggles of perfectionism and feelings of inadequacy, but those feelings don’t necessarily reflect our
"Histories, like ancient ruins, are the fictions of empires. While everything forgotten hands in dark dreams of the past, ever threatening to return...”, a quote from the movie Velvet Goldmine, expresses the thoughts that many supporters of integration may have felt because no one truly knew the effects that one major verdict could create. The Brown v. Board of Education decision was a very important watershed during the Civil Rights Movement. However, like most progressive decisions, it did not create an effective solution because no time limit was ever given. James Baldwin realized that this major oversight would lead to a “broken promise.”
The characteristics of the grizzly bear as a top predator also make it highly vulnerable to threats. Although it is an omnivore, because it relies heavily on salmon to make it through the winter, it is vulnerable to anything that impacts on salmon runs. It needs wide-ranging habitat and is slow to reproduce. As such, grizzly bears are considered not just a key species but also an ‘umbrella species’ because the protection of their habitats will result in an ‘umbrella of protection’ for a wide range of other species. The protected areas that have been set aside in the Great Bear Rainforest are not enough to sustain healthy populations of grizzly bear so it requires additional habitat set aside from logging. Trophy hunting of grizzly bears also continues to place their population at
History plays a tremendous role in the present-day. Awareness of one’s history aids in understanding the significance of its effects. The Brown v. Board of Education case is a landmark in the history of the United States society and the judiciary system. It drastically affected education systems, the civil rights movement, and is known as one of the first cases to acknowledge social science results. This Brown v. Board of Education case took place over sixty years ago, and its affects continues to influence many aspects of today’s society, and more specifically today’s education systems. Despite its numerous accolades, it is still argued that Brown v. Board of Education failed to successfully accomplish its goal of desegregating
In this unit we have been examining and analyzing the essential question,“ What is race and does it matter?” from a historical viewpoint and current issues. I believe that the most crucial event that involved race is the African American experience in America. However, an issue where race has been less imperative is the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Hawaii and the Massie Affair was probably the most remarkable event that was discussed in class around race. I never knew that Hawaii has had such a sad history with America. Lastly, a racial issue which occurred in the past and is still relevant today is the Japanese Internment Camps.
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder. For a person to have sickle cell anemia they must have received two copies of the gene, one from each parent. A person with the sickle cell trait only received one sickle cell gene and a normal hemoglobin gene. People who have the sickle cell trait do not develop sickle cell anemia however they can pass the deformed gene on to their children. People with just the trait do not face the complications caused by the disorder.
Grizzly bears live in a variety of environments .All of which includes dense forests, subalpine meadows, open plains and arctic tundra . In the past though, they could be found from Alaska to Mexico, and from California to Ohio. Though Nowadays there are efforts trying to make it so grizzly bears can make a comeback and the wild, and all of their efforts are proving to be working, there are 4 times as many grizzlies in the wild as there were in 1975, at
The child can obtain either the sickle cell trait or have a sickle cell disease. The sickle cell trait carries the abnormal gene of the person but they have normal hemoglobin without any symptoms. The patient can start developing symptoms related to the disease if they undergo any stress, infection, exhaustion, or hypoxia with mild anemia. Sickle cell disease occurs when normal hemoglobin has been replaced with sick...
The problem is that sickle cell anemia affects about 72,000 Americans in the United States. Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease in which the body is unable to produce normal hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein. Abnormal hemoglobin can morph cells that can become lodged in narrow blood vessels, blocking oxygen from reaching organs and tissues. The effects of sickle cell anemia are bouts of extreme pain, infectious, fever, jaundice, stroke, slow growth, organ, and failure.
This is exemplified in Rich’s article regarding the lack of Latino representation in books which led students to thinking their “values as not belonging in school” (Rich, 3). Tokenism is not a solution, and depicting Latinos of their stereotype is merely another form of transferring ahistorical facts. Without education, history will be neglected and Chicano would not be re-signified, but continue to enforce boundaries and leave the double aims unresolved. With the absence of Chicano representation, history would remain ahistorical in the hands of Anglo-Americans who have generated “deficit thinking discourses in efforts to blame Mexican Americans for the social and economic problems” (Menchaca, 15). This refers to Du Bois’ blaming the victim in which underrepresented groups were blamed for their status due to their beliefs and were denied of their contribution in the nation’s infrastructure. There is the issue of choosing one culture over the other, because one will either be criticized by their peers for assimilating, or remain excluded from opportunities. The basis of American Negro history is strife, similar to the Chicanos being struggle. Both require the community to acknowledge this adversity, and to reflect and understand why the system functions that way and what needs to be done to enact changes and transform the community’s way of
Throughout my life, my competitiveness has been a part of my traits as an athlete. I started playing sports at a young age and winning was the only option. The opponents I face on my school’s basketball team are more competitive than my
Sickle Cell Anemia is caused by a genetic mutation in the hemoglobin inside of red blood cells. The mutation occurs in the hemoglobin gene on the 11chromosome. The mutation causes the red blood cell to get deformed in to a rod shape similar to a farmers Sickle, hence the name. Sickling of the red blood cells is when the cell polymerizes into rigid rods that alter the shape allowing them to get trapped in small blood vessels. (Laberge, p3) The sickle cell disease can help reduce the chance of the malaria in the patient, by the sickle cell dyeing faster than malaria can take effect. Sickle Cell Anemia is an autosomal recessive disease. The chance that a new born baby will have the disease is dependent on the parents and whether or not they have the trait or disease. If both parents have the disease or trait the child has a 25% chance to have Sickle Cell Anemia. The child also has a 25% chance to not have the disease or trait at all. There is also a 50% chance that the child just has the trait, which causes no health problems, but allows the disease to get passed on to the next generation.
Sickle cell anemia affects millions of people around the world, with about 70,000 Americans inheriting the disease, and many others carrying the sickle cell trait (Genetics). This disease mostly affects people that have African and Mediterranean roots, mostly because this disease provides protection for people from malaria which kills 3,000 African children daily (Malaria). Malaria is a deadly infectious disease that is transmitted by to humans when mosquitoes sting them (Learn). Sickle cell anemia is the most common blood disorder that is a result of a mutation in the genes causing a mutated form of hemoglobin, the protein that helps red blood cells transport oxygen to the body from the lungs. The mutated form of hemoglobin, hemoglobin S, causes the red blood cells to alter their shape into a fragile crescent or sickle shape, which is the main cause for any negative effects a person with sickle cell anemia might have.
Analyzing polar bears’ life history will help lay a foundation for understanding why they are currently threatened. Currently there are about 22,000-31,000 polar bears found in 19 subpopulations across the globe (Wiig O et al., 2015). Polar bears have a “circumpolar distribution”: they generally live around the Arctic region around the North Pole, relying heavily on the Arctic ice for hunting, mating, resting, and creating dens (Gunderson, 2009). Their geographic range is determined by the level of ice in coastal areas which differs from summer to winter time. For example, during the winter, polar bears are more often seen at the southern edge of the ice pack versus during the winter they tend to stay on islands and coastal regions that retain ice on land. This heavy dependence on the level of sea ice makes them highly susceptible to global