Sinful Hypocrites

Is it unethical to question whether or not something is a sin? Is this question a sin itself? Some people from different cultures claim to be religious because of their preachings to God. I question this claim as I have met many who talk about how they undergo their festivals for the remembrance of God.  They talk about how they celebrate, but when I ask them the actual point of the festival like the story behind it, they act oblivious to my question or give an answer to a completely different question. Because of this, I feel that many have forgotten the overall purpose of some festivals. How can someone preach God while he/she is committing a sin by claiming to be religious, yet not knowing the root of the godly celebrations- hypocrites.

                            

Similarly in The Scarlet Letter, Hester commits a moral crime and Puritanism follow a very strict moral code. They claim themselves to be simpletons yet they walk around in fancy clothing. They look at Hester- the adulteress-  in disgust and treat her and her daughter, Pearl as the lower ranking class of society. They look at Pearl as the spawn of the devil and who gets ignored by everyone. Ultimately, Pearl acquires the unofficial label "Outcast." The Puritans are known as religious people so I am confused as they must have been taught from the Bible to treat everyone as equal. By not following what they themselves promote, they become sinful hypocrites as well. This is how we maintain a common ground in our way of thinking between the past and the present- both look for sin in the bigger picture, not paying attention to the tiny aspects for any trace of sin.

Stereotyping to the max.

This week in class, we talked about a book named Black Men and Public Spaces written by Brent Staples. We discussed stereotypes and its profound affect on the victim to whom the stereotype is being directed to. Staples only way to make people less frightened by him was when he listened to Beethoven, he essentially does this to contradict the stereotype that is being labelled to him by the passersby's so that they themselves feel more comfortable standing next to him.While Staples decided to look more approachable, a lot of other people will just act like the stereotype so that they won't look too suspicious and indirectly be asked why they aren't acting "normal." Society has been branding people to the point where individuals want to hide their true identities-the only way requires them to hide inside the stereotype itself. 

 A few months ago, I remember talking to one of my classmates who was an African American girl. She said that the she wasn't a part of the "black crowd" because she does not act like one. Of course, she said this in a light-hearted manner, but nevertheless she said it, which made me wonder why these crowds or 'cliques' are created. An American philosopher named Walter Lippmann answered this question by claiming that the we live in a very complex society and "are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. And although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage with it"  (Lippmann). I do agree with Lippmann's claim, but I feel that we finished reconstructing a "simpler model" a longtime ago and we just stopped there, altogether stopping the whole proliferation of acceptance of these multiple identities, hence how stereotyping started.

                                
In the end, all I can say is that if we absolutely just NEED to stereotype then instead of falsely stereotyping people, why not just listen to stick-man #2 and stereotype about how stereotypes are not always right. 

Read All About It

I had a few ideas for my first ever blog, but they were all garbage. I had a lot of work to do and I was getting nowhere so what do I do? I put my earphones in and block out the world with one of my favorite songs, Read All About it by Emeli Sande. The song was in the middle of "if no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song?" when a light bulb went off in my head. 

This week, in class we discussed the book The Glass castle, written by Jeannette Walls. Walls portrays to her readers her past through her writing; the poverty, the alcoholic father, the sexual harassment, everything. After years of hardship, Jeannette was finally able to build up enough courage and escape to New York where she gets a fresh start; a new life. There, she wrote and published her memoir, finally ready to let the world read all about it. A group of young talented dancers, using a shadow theme, choreographed a play on the song Read All About It. 

 The connection between this song and the memoir is that both the protagonists express their struggles through storytelling and use resilience to lead a happy life. They turned their sad memories into a work of art. Also, they portray that unless you are not human, there is always going to be a point in our lives where we are faced with a difficult choice or sacrifice. What we must do is stand our ground and face it. Just deal with it. In the play, the wife loses her husband in a war and is left alone to raise their child. Though the mother is broken from the inside, she does not let it eat her whole. Instead, she and her daughter "sing away the blues" and stand up to the wind of hardships. In this shadow theatre, the war signaled the end of a life, but also the start of a new one. The mother used her traumatic experience as a life lesson and found a solution to surpass it. Finding strength and comfort from each other, the mother and her daughter used "the light to fight the shadows". 

In one of the TED talks, a man writes how " life will throw you your share of curve balls all the time. But it is your choice and reaction that you can either get hit by it on your face, miss it or lean into it and whack the hell out of it" (Sayeed 9). Do something, but do not give up (I know that sounded cliché, but I do believe that it is accurate), or else it will be like you are giving in to your fears. Life is too short to be wallowing over something, just confront it and get it over with.