Oprah Show: Reaction Paper Essay, Research Paper

Oprah Show

In this reaction paper I want to talk about the Oprah talk show that we watched in class. While I was watching the show I felt myself in a state of confusion. The reason for this was in my high school I did not see any of those things. I am not saying that the separation that happen at the school from the show never happens I am just saying I never say it in my school. I have always been the kind of person that will talk to anyone, and seeing that happening in that school was weird to me.

Then I started thinking that maybe Oprah set it up just so she would have a good show. I know that a lot of these talk shows set things up to make their show that much more appealing to watch, that is why I thought that. The whole time I was watching it I thought to myself, if this is real why are these people so dumb? Why do different races sit in different parts of the cafeteria, and not all mixed together? I answered these questions to myself during the movie, the answer I came up with was that I thought it was the way the kids in that show were raised. In my mind even after the class discussion I still believe that it was the way they were raised.

The class discussion we had after we watched the movie, I thought was very interesting. A lot of people had some good things to say, and even when someone said something that the class disagreed with I say their point too. When some of the people in class said that things like that happened at their schools I was shocked because like I said before I don?t see it. Even at the Oakland center I?ll sit with anyone no matter color, gender or anything else different from me. Another thing that crossed my mind was maybe I was different from other people because I don?t care what color they are. Then I quickly changed my mind when other people said that they do the same thing as me, that color, or gender does not matter to them either.

The discussion in class at times got out of control, and it got on my nerves because it was tough for me to be heard. I could not talk until I realized that I just got to talk if I was going to be heard. I know this was tough on you and I am sorry but I had to say what I felt, and in the future I?ll do my best to raise my hand. Even though the class was a little out of control we had a good talk and a lot of good things were said and they all got me thinking. I am not saying that they made me change my mind but that they got me thinking about my feelings and that in its self is a good thing.

Racism 101

This movie was very disturbing to me I can not believe that things like that happened so close to home. I realize that it happened years ago, but for something like that to happen a U of M just shocked me. I noticed that a lot of the colleges where these things were happening are some of the most prestigious colleges in the US. When I think of U of M I think of a college that is full of smart people, but seeing that movie proved to me that you can be smart but very ignorant at the same time. Where ever there are ignorant people there is a chance for something to happen like it did at U of M.

First of all I would like to talk about why the D. J. on that radio show did not just shut off the guy that was telling those racist jokes. I mean the D. J. had every right just to hang up on him. It all starts with the ignorant guy who called up and started to tell those jokes, then is continued by the D. J. when he should have just hung up on him. Many things could have been done to avoid what happened on the campus of U of M. The reason why I was not is because one ignorant person thought it would be funny to tell some racist jokes. Because of this it caused total craziness on a college campus where people go to learn not to fight.

When to group of student got together to protest the racial issues on the campus I agreed with them in all the arguments, and how they went about them except when they tried to stop people from going to class. When to students did go to class they were called names, and where yelled by the protesters. I thought that was very wrong I mean you go to school to learn and if students want to go to class then they should be allowed to without being harassed in the process. That?s the only part of the protest that I disagreed with, other than that they got together and accomplished what they set out to do to get more rights for minority students.

The discussion that we had in class about this movie I wish there could have been more time to talk about it. The movie got over with only a few minutes left in class so we really did not have the chance to talk about the movie too much. I think that we could have really had a good discussion about this movie. There were a lot of good things that needed to be talked about as a class because I would like to know what the class thought about that stuff happening so close to home.

American History X

This movie was a movie I have heard about ever since it had came out. I have wanted to see it but I just never got around to it. This semester I am a teachers assistant for Scott Crabill and he told me I had to see it, so he lent his copy to me. Well we have been talking about it for the last two weeks, in my opinion it was a good but disturbing movie. We both agreed that we thought that if week minded people every saw that movie they may take it the wrong way, and not see the whole movie. The might just see the parts they want to see like the war between the White group and the Black group.

There are many parts of the movie that I would like to talk about. First I would like to talk about why Derek was at the beginning of the movie such a racist. When you see the movie you see the clip of when his dad got killed and he was talking about the man who did it, that is when you think it all comes from until later in the movie. When Danny was writing his paper and he was thinking back to dinner when Derek was younger and his dad said some very racist things and Derek listen to him. I believe that all his anger in the first part of the movie came from that conversation with his dad at dinner that one day.

Another part of the movie that I would like to talk about is Derek?s time in jail where he learned that what he was doing was wrong. When he first got their he had to work the laundry with a Black man. At first he was not happy about being with that man, but as time went by you could see that they were becoming good friends. When Derek and that group in jail had their little fall out I thought for sure that he was a dead man because he had no group to associate with. When it was time for Derek to get out and he ran into the Black man and Derek told him that he knows the only reason he is getting out alive is because of him. Then the guy tried to deny it but couldn?t they shook hand and Derek left but he left a new, better man. Derek tried to turn his family around and get out of that town, but the next day at school Danny got shot.

When Danny got shot and Derek picked him up into his arms and he yelled ?what did I do? that was really powerful because he knew that it all was because of him in one way or another. If we all would ask not ?what did I do? but if we asked ourselves ?what can I do? then maybe thing that happened in this movie would never have a chance of happening.