Funny of the day: So Kathryn and Cory - they are basically the ultimate distraction for me during fourth block. I can't help it, I adore them, particularly when they're in a fair mood. At the end of class the funniest thing happened. Behind Kathryn there is a cut-out of people, you know, that kind of thing where you fold the paper and it creates a chain of whatever you cut it into, and it so happened to be out of black construction paper. So she rips down one and says something out of the movie "Roots." "'What's your name?' 'Kunta Kinte.'" It's the whole part where the slave master is attempting to whip him into accepting the name, "Toby Reynolds." I probably should have been offended, but I was more or less shocked into a fit of laughter. She appologized profusely, but I was laughing too hard to actually consider her appology. After seeing the parody that Dave Chappelle did off of that movie, I can't really take that movie as seriously anymore. LeVar Burton's face on the cover amuses me as well, especially considering the fact he was on Reading Rainbow once upon a time.
I should probably be more in touch with my culture. It is Black History month, don't you forget it. Trouble is though, our culture has been more or less beaten, stolen, raped, and everything else out of us. It takes us a lot more effort to trace ourselves back down to our deepest roots. It's harder for us to say oh I'm this that and the other thing. Essentially, our olive trees have been ripped out of the ground, hacked down, and distributed in books of history, coated with lies and untold secrets. While we are somewhat starting to plant new seeds, it takes very long for a tree to grow, especially after over one hundred years of damage to the soil. The olive tree is a reference to the book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a book we're reading in my College Social Science Seminar AKA AP History class. I'm enjoying it so far. It's interesting to see how our world has changed and is continuing to change. This kind of history I like. It focuses on history on a global scale and not just on the US. US History is boring to me. There's so much about it that isn't true or fully put out there, because after all, we are the biggest "winners" out there. Bleh. Back to the roots thing, I'm interested in every other culture but my own for this reason most of all - it seems everyone else is in touch with their culture. Sure, ok, I'm African American, go study Africa, right? That just doesn't do it for me. I want to be able to be as precise as everyone else. But really, at the end of the day, I don't care really. It's because we must classify ourselves this way that many wars have been waged. We're all human beings in the end, so let's not hold it against each other that you're yellow, black, white, peach, or brown, 'kay? It's like the polar bear and the grizzly bear - practically the same animal, just from a different part of the world.
Intellectual rants are fun, assuming that's what all that was. But I best be off now. Good night.
