Trayvon Martin Case Shows the Need to Stand up for our Black Sons

     Most do not only want the Justice for the young 17 year old Trayvon Martin to only be the arrest of his shooter, George Zimmerman. They believe justice for him is also giving young black children, focusing more on young men, to not be labeled as troubled or a threat to the community. They want young black men to be able to travel openly without worries of others being afraid of them. Parents of young black men want to teach them starting at birth all the way to adulthood about situations such as different backgrounds, integrity, honesty, justice, respect and the true meaning of community. Parents also believe that what ever there child turns out to be they will play an important part as well.

     They believe we should take a stand because this not only happening in Florida. It’s happening everywhere. They believe it is based in different systems created in this world based for African American children.  Some systems based of things like health, education, discipline, welfare and the Juvenile Justice systems.

     Therefore, they believe that we stop this by doing things. Like reaching out to the community, helping schools, vote, and volunteer and most importantly teaching our children.

     Well I do agree with the fact that there isn’t just one type of justice there for Trayvon. This situation made people realize how bad the labeling of a normal African American child was. It made me realize how important proving others wrong about how us African Americans may act or be.

For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage

     The percentage for women under 30 having kids and no marriage has been rising slowly over the past 50 years. This issue only used to happen to the poor but now has become a new trend. However, most White women in their 20s, who have minor college education, have come to make up most of that population. Since 2/3 of the U.S. babies are born to a mother under 30 who is not married, they have come to believe this will make a big impact towards many generations to come. People who graduate college still believe in marriage before having a baby. They also think that this issue is going to change the way families grow and having believing marriage is only for people with a good education background.      With the changes of
 More children being born outside of marriage studies show that they are most likely deal with poverty, doing badly in school, and having emotional and behavior problems. They believe that more children are being born outside of marriage because of things such as the birth control pill, having fewer jobs for men making them "unmarriageable", the sex revolution, which gave women more rights having them become more independent and condoms. The percentage of single mothers has been rising as well and women fell they do not need a man around to provide for them. Such things like welfare have women believe that as well.
       With different races having different percentages of birth with marriage. Other things came along as well such as education, having said that well educated women get married before having a baby. They also came to find that couples who live together that aren't married come to have babies as well, but there relationships never seem to turn out good before the child turns 10. Nevertheless, not being married can stop you from spending time with your child as Ms.Mercado stated.
     Well right now, I am still unsure about getting married. But I do want children. My mom always says to me "don't have children if you’re not married". My mom and my dad are married and I do believe it made a big impact on my behavior, my life, and my education status as well. But I feel I can be very successful and independent without a husband around, then I again I feel having a happy family is better for the well-being of my child and me. So I’m going to just experience and research more as I get older and see how thing turn out then.
      

Hula 'the language of the heart'

    

When Ms.Connie Majka went on a trip to Hawaii, she felt it was a life changing experience. During her visit, it was her very first time ever to actually see a hula dancer. When she saw how beautiful and graceful the woman was doing the dance, she feels in love with hula and wanted to do it herself. She began to study hula, started to teach it to others and then eventually opened a studio. This was the only hula school alive, and 25 women strong kept it held together. The woman also known as "the hula sisterhood" is excited to be apart of the flower show here in Philly, which is Hawaiian theme this year. One woman from the group, Robin Fischer, tells how peaceful, soothing, and welcoming doing the Hula is. The different songs used for hula dancing each give off its own beauty and stories. Ms. Majka also made a song for hula that she actually song and danced off named "Honey Flower”. While doing the dance the students dress appropriately adding the pa'u skirts and no shoes. With accessories of flowers, necklaces, bracelets etc. they tell a story through the hula dancing. In Hawaii’s history, they always communicated through hula. Majka feels hula actually touched her heart deep down inside.

     From reading this article and having my background information on the dance hula. I already knew and believed it was a dance that brought healing, un-negativity, peace, and beauty. I would also like to try the dance my self. It seems very helpful to clear the mind and soul. I really like this article and would like to know more on the dance of hula.

Facebook is using YOU !

Facebook is now selling pieces of stock. But the only thing that Facebook has to provide for the stocks and its money are its users information. The successful website gets its money from different ads that appear from information on someone’s profile. With Facebook making $3.2 billion off of advertising and Google making 10 times that number the use of what somebody sent in a email to things people searched for, many things from the Internet has prevented people to get child custody and to also has say so in situations dealing with the law. There are also companies that are used only to look up information about what people do online. Using other people’s information from online can give off stereotypes. That is NOT against the law and just searching something simple as "Stalking" for a paper for school is used as something to do with my own safety.

After reading this article I am concerned about what I write online. I am concerned because certain things I do online shows what type of person I might be. I also believe the things I write or do over the Internet can be brought up in my future, and I don't want something dumb and stupid that I put on Facebook or Twitter from when I was 15 being held against me when I am all grown up.  I also believe Lori Andrews main point for writing the article was to inform readers about how what we do on the Internet is infected to our privacy and us.

The Upcoming of Fat Tuesday

Our country is getting hyped up for the upcoming of Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is the ending of celebrations for Mardi gras in towns such as New Orleans. Fat Tuesday is religiously brought up from catholic and French believers. But since Fat Tuesday calls on for the biggest party ever it brings out every type of person, from different backgrounds, to different beliefs to come together and enjoy all the fun. February 21,2012 is the day Fat Tuesday will come this year. With the partying and fun starting way before the day is even thought of the carnival and parade season come along as well. But this is brought up from Mardi gras where these crazy fun parties began, and become a never-ending celebration. During Mardi gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday many green gold and purple beads are thrown, and pounds of foods are eaten. With New Orleans at the top for hosting the best Mardi gras, it is celebrated all over the world.

Well I would like to join the fun and celebrate Mardi gras and Fat Tuesday too. It sounds like a lot of fun and I believe I would enjoy the festivities a lot. I also would like to learn more on the history of the Mardi gras and its celebration. I also was glad to learn that there were seasons for Carnival and Parades, and that was very surprising to learn. I wonder if they celebrate Mardi gras in Philly. I would like to know some info on that as well. Hurray for Mardi gras!

 Fat Tuesday

Im A Criminal and so are YOU !

Michelle Alexander claims she is criminal. When she tells people that they are surprised, they say it because she does not look like one. Therefore, they ask her questions of how she is a criminal and she tells them they are criminals as well. They do not believe they are criminals and they believe the criminals live in the ghettos and worse parts of the city. Then she tells them that breaking the law considers them as criminals and they have not been caught yet. So when she uses the statement that “we are all criminals”, she believes it would have people think about the horrible consequences of freedom of those criminals who actually are caught. Most people look down upon African Americans because of the crimes they committed. Criminals who are caught loose privileges such as the right to vote, or access to education. This punishment is harsh towards somebody who a committed little crime like drugs, which will forever live on in the rest of their lives. If Obama looked at himself as a criminal maybe, he would realize the consequences given to them are too much. Therefore, Ms.Alexander believes the criminals are she and she is the criminals.

This article did make me think. I thought about all the things I did that were considered against the law. I realize, YEAH I am a criminal. However, before reading this article, I didn't really think that what I did could label me as a criminal. Now I think different. I also did look at the things that I believe criminals did and labeled them as Ms. Alexander said we do. I also never knew that criminals had such harsh punishments. It just made me want to do something about it.

Photoshopped or Not? A Tool to Tell

By the use of Adobe's Photoshop software they can turn pictures of celebrities and models into a whole new them. The software lets you change many things on a picture such as removing pimples, shedding weight, and brighten up your skin. People believe this is a problem and that it may cause "UNREALISTIC" goals of how your body should look. Therefore, Dr.Farid and Eric Kee are trying to invent a tool to show off how much fashion and beauty photos have been tainted from a scale of 1 to 5. They got interested in this category because they wanted to research the images from advertisements and fashion magazines. They believe that these images lead up to situations such as eating disorders, anxiety about body image mostly in young women. Dr.Farid and Eric Kee is mainly trying to determine how much the face and the body of the person in the photo was changed and peoples outlooks or opinions on them. So they used before and after photos and made different people rate how much different it looks on the scale from one to five. They believe this would help stop the changes in pictures.

Well I do believe that having pictures of super skinny models and overly perfect images of women cause eating disorders and low self esteem. Because having women on T.V, magazines , and even the internet, where most people spend there day at, may cause people to think that that is the way they’re suppose to look since the girls that look like that are on T.V. and are pretty and get a lot of attention. Having these images, I think makes girls yearn for the attention they have which may cause low self-esteem because it makes them they are not enough or attracted enough. In addition, I do think the images should be labeled to inform people who are reading that the person in the picture really does not look that way.