Let's Talk Culture

Today I wan't to talk about culture. Culture consists of a lot of things, behaviors, beliefs, traditions and values. This is the final week that we are focusing on traditions and culture. We have to pick some images that represent certain things about our culture.

This picture reminds me of how my culture views nature. I had to interview my great grandmother for a documentary we're working on talking about traditions and culture. One thing she did growing up was pick strawberries, string beans, and things of that nature. So for my culture doing simple farm work like that and really making the most of the land is seen in good light. Another picture that was required was something that represented our spiritual beliefs. 

I'm a Jehovah's Witness, and I'm not going to go into too great detail but this picture is a shot of one of our Kingdom Halls; our place of worship. As a Jehovah's Witness I don't do anything that isn't supported in the Bible. Instead of going to a church I go to a Kingdom Hall, it's more of a flattish building, and isn't too extravagant to draw undo attention. 

Since I'm African-American my culture strongly supports equality. After all Blacks used to be slaves because they weren't seen as equal so its natural for me to want to treat others equally. Since those who are part of black culture understand how much of a struggle it was to be seen as equal rather than lesser, and in some cases we're still seen as lesser, it's easy to want to treat everyone the same. 

The Jackson 5 are huge in black culture. They made great music and if you look around now a lot of groups try to copy their success. Plus, since blacks have had such a hard time making a name for themselves, anytime one of "us" make it, its great to see. Seeing 5 young, respectful, black men, make good, wholesome music that everyone can relate to was great to see. The Jackson 5, along with Berry Gordy, Aretha Franklin, and the Supremes are all artists who had an impact on black culture, and are success stories that come from that same culture. 

The reason I said that when a black person makes it in a sense its a big deal, is because things like this sign held us back from being able to do many things. Segregation was a huge roadblock in black culture, along with Jim Crow Laws that helped support racism. Racism was hard for black people because they were put in positions to where if they took the persecution they lose, and if they fought back they would be seen as the oppressor. 

Washington DC has significance to my culture because of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington; where he gave his legendary I have a dream speech. This is probably one of the most powerful speeches in all of world history, and a had a huge impact. It would be great if MLK could see his dream being fulfilled to a certain extent. 

The teabaggers March on Washington | The Reid Report Blog

HowStuffWorks "Volunteer Military Officers"

Kingdom Hall - Jehovah witnesses Wallpaper (30642411) - Fanpop fanclubs 

New Government Online Cancer Risk Tool 'FOR WHITES ONLY'

New Jackson 5 Rarities Dredged Up In “Come And Get It: The Rare Pearls”

Upcoming Unboxed Worship – “All things being equal…” (20 May) | UNBOXED WORSHIP

Strawberry and tangy feta cheese on Meslun greens with balsamic reduction | Seasoned Fork 

42

Today as a class we went to see the movie of  the year so far in my opinion, "42". We didn't just watch the movie though, we have to blog about it and answer some questions, so here we go. The first question requires to analyze two opposite cultures in the movie, from a regional perspective. The two examples I'm going to use are California and New York. California wasn't in the Civil War hence they didn't have an issue with colored people, California a very accepting culture. Whereas areas such as Brooklyn still had Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were laws that justified blacks being treated as second class citizens. Such as not being allowed to be served at restaurants or using certain bathrooms. Places like California that never had an issue with blacks never had such laws meaning they didn't have a hard time getting rid of them; where Brooklyn did have trouble with it.

The second thing I have to blog about is talking about two examples in the movie of characters that had a struggle with changing their culture towards Jackie Robinson. One character was Eddie Stanky, he was second baseman on the team and just like everyone else on the Dodgers didn't want to play with Jackie Robinson. However, when the Dodgers were playing the Phillies and the manager was yelling insults to Jackie Robinson and Eddie finally heard enough of it and stood up for him. It took Eddie a while and no other teammates said anything, but he did.

Another example would be Pee Wee Reese. One of the Dodger games was in Cincinnati which was almost like a home game for Reese. He got a hate letter about him playing with Jackie. But then he finally overcame the racial wall and put his arm around Jackie on the field and took in all the boos from the crowd, and finally an applause came.

42 is a great movie and I would recommend it to anyone, because its very inspirational and meaningful.

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/stats/alltime/rosters/brooklyn_dodgers/1947/byPOSN_ABRV.html

Passing on Values

Today I wanted to talk about passing on values. Since we mostly get values from our family there are nonverbal and verbal things said/seen that pass on values to us. For me personally I know one way my family passes on values non verbally would be by example. If my mom or grandparents want me to understand a certain value, say hard work for example, then they'll work hard and show me how it's done; naturally I follow that example. Another way would probably be leaving bread crumbs so to speak. If I need to learn the value of responsibility and I know its my job to put up the dishes, one thing that will happen is the dishes won't be put up until I do it. Hence I have no choice but to put this value into practice, and really see how crucial it is on a small scale. The men and women in my family don't necessarily give me different value messages. If anything the men might just give me different value messages regarding how to be a man, but other than that there isn't a huge difference.

If I have children, one family message I want to pass on to them would be courage. I wouldn't want them to be afraid to try new things, meet new people, or stand up for their values.  Another would be loyalty. Why? Loyalty is important in anything, mainly because life is a team game and you will need other people to help you in your life. If you are a back stabber no one will want to help, or even be nice to you. There are so many values I would pass onto my children I could have multiple blog posts on it. Based on that statement I think its obvious that I won't hesitate to talk about any value with them. The reason why is because my mom has always been open to talk to me about anything, that's why me and her have a good relationship. Why wouldn't I want that for my children, the ability to talk with their father about anything? I couldn't hold any value from them, in fact I won't.

Following Values

Today I'm going to talk about following your values. Sometimes its hard to stand up for your values when your friend's don't agree with your position. It's not easy to do but when you do it feels good. It feels good that you're able to withstand peer pressure to do what you feel is right. It feels good to please your parents. When adolescents' don't honor their values the parents usually aren't thrilled. First comes the disappointment that you didn't have strong enough to will power to stand up for your values, then comes a lecture about peer pressure and how no matter what you should do what's right.

What influences people to behave in a way that is in line with their values is a value, integrity. If you have enough of it you will hold your values no matter what. Another influence could be family and friends that share your same values. The same goes for influences that can make it harder for you to keep your values. Friends or family that don't support them. It can make it hard when a friend or family member doesn't agree with the things you live by, especially family.

My values will stay the same as I get older unless something incredibly drastic happens that makes me feel otherwise. One reason why is because the values you have now I've always lived by, so it's natural for me. Another reason is I don't see a huge problem with any of my values and I understand why I follow them. Those are the reasons people follow or don't follow their values and why I will keep mine even as I get older.

First blog

Hi, you may read some of my other blogs that I've done for school, maybe not. Regardless I go to the Clariden School of Southlake where we do project based learning, which means the majority of what we learn comes from our project. Right now we are working on our Fix It project. In this project we are going to learn about values, traditions, and cultures. Then after we learn about those things in different schools, and countries, we are going to find our own values, traditions, and culture we want to instill on our school. Part of this project I need to blog on a regular basis.

Today I’m writing about values. My teacher posed some questions to the class. One was “where do you think we get our values?” I think we get our values from multiple places. We first come into contact with values through our families. Based on what our family has values usually impacts what we have as ours. Or if we see certain family members show that they have specific qualities and values we copy them, good or bad. For example, I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, and a religious value that I’ve been taught is to be obedient to my faith no matter what.

Sometimes we can also get values on beliefs that come with our culture. At the moment though I cannot think of any values I have because of my culture. We also get values from our country, and living in America one value that is very important is freedom. America goes by the land of the free because our forefathers have fought for that right; whereas in other countries that isn’t necessarily a big value. There are many countries that are under dictatorship right now. Some would include, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, and Vietnam, but those are just some and there’s many more. Freedom is a big thing in America but not everywhere and that is one luxury of living in this country.

Well that concludes my post for today. We covered a lot, and there really are a lot of different places we get our values. What about you? What are your values? Where do you get them? Just some questions that we should all think about time to time.