Reflection Week 7

This week in class we learned about othering. This is a concept that I am familiar with and I see all the time. I did not know what it was I called at first I just considered it extreme discrimination or prejudice. The video that we watched in class was interesting, I learned about Matthew Shepard and the hate crime that caused his unlikely death. His incident stirred up the whole University of Wyoming which is in Laramie, Wyoming. The whole city was touched by what took place in to one of their own. Also I learned about what happened with James Byrd. Both cases were extremely cruel in my eyes I know that these cases occur all the time but these just happened to get media time. I feel that this is just unfortunate, hate crimes are inhumane. I didn't come to class on Thursday which I understand is unacceptable but I just didn't want to watch the video anymore on this subject it touched me in a way that I don't think it touched other students. All the cases that I'm aware of anyways. I can relate with Matthew Shepard with being different and being alienated from other because of it also I most definitely can relate with James Byrd, by simply being black. I have experienced racism to some degree, till this day I can feel all the eyes in a room that levitate towards me. Going to Arizona where I'm one of maybe three black kids in a classroom amongst Mexicans to Williston and I'm the only "black guy" in the room. It's just a different experience that most may never experience. Also, I can relate to the Columbine incident because every year on that day my school would shut down and multiple officers would come to my schools campus. I just felt uncomfortable in the classroom to be honest. I understand that this is what the class is about but it was just tough to hear from the families of these victims, these kids. Most of these cases were based on kids and that's tough. I don't understand most people in this world, I don't understand how they could harm a child or anyone for that matter.