Open Mic Poetry Night

AWESOME! I loved it and first want to comment on how hilarious the main speaker was, he kept me laughing. But on a more serious note, I really did enjoy this. They talked about some serious issues about identity and finding the who in who you are or want to become or be seen. It was really moving because since I am a Caucasian woman it was interesting to understand what others my age go through just because of the race they are. It ties into bell hooks chapters because she talked heavily about diversity and race and uses her own stories to portray how it was for her growing up in a prejudice neighborhood. These students are many years past hers and were in school after they desegregated the schools and still it almost seemed like some of there stories were like bell hooks. It is interesting because though we want to believe that racism is coming closer to an end, the truth is that it really is not. There is just as much racism and segregation now as there was before. I personally think that there is still a lot of segregation but instead of it being implemented through the government it is now implemented in the idea of feeling safe and accepted. Chicago is a major example of segregation because theres pilsen where its mostly hispanic, theres china town, an area where all the polish people reside, and parts that are heavily african american among other races who reside in other parts of the city. Segregation now a days is implemented through the people by means of where they choose to live. People most often will choose a neighborhood where their race is highly representative so though no one is telling them that it where they have to live they are segregating themselves by means of fitting in and trying to feel accepted among others. Though I feel this issue is not leaving us anytime soon I think there are ways we can work at it to make the situation better by becoming more accepting of others and differences we have. By promoting these differences and teaching students to accept others how they are earlier in life we can start to try to prevent early racisms or prejudices that people have.