Social Awareness Writing Project

A Reading Response:

I recently read the book The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and one huge social issue that occurs is Racism. Arnold is a poor Indian boy living on an Indian Reservation, he originally goes to school on the Rez but decides to go to Reardan, a mostly white school where he is not as socially accepted because of race, on top of that he is seen as a traitor to the people on the Rez.Throughout the text, the narrator (Arnold) describes things that occur in his life which is very much segregated. Overall, Arnold must learn to deal with racism and not allow it to keep him from getting off the Rez and soaring and the author is trying to show us  that  racism should not hold you back.

      
       One example of racism is his "friends" call him a traitor because he wants to go to Reardan. They say that he thinks he is white now. Not only is that ignorant but it is also selfish. His "friends" should know that he is very smart and he is not challenged at the Rez school. It is unfair of them to hold him back because he wants to go to a good school no matter what race the school is made up of. However, he doesn't allow it to hold him back and goes to Reardan.

      Another example of racism is that he meets a girls that he likes named Penelope and she doesn't judge him but her father does because Arnold is an Indian. The father immediately discriminates against Arnold and threatens him if his daughter gives birth to "brown babies". Penelope's father is not only rude but is extremely prejudice and seems almost disgusted at the idea of his daughter actually liking Arnold back. However, Arnold doesn't really accept this and tries being kind to Penelope  to win her heart despite her father's prejudice words. Not to mention, the teachers at Arnold's new school are prejudice as well. They disagree with what Arnold says but when a white kid says it, it is correct. Meanwhile, Arnold  continues to participate in class and doesn't hold back just because of some teachers who want to discourage him because of his race.

      Personally, I believe that this kind and any kind of discrimination is unfair and unjust. I feel as though Arnold goes through much of this throughout the book while dealing with many more teenage issues. I think it shows real strength for Arnold to deal with racism all around him and yet he still maintains himself and goes on at a school where he is entirely unappreciated. And now, he must also face the people on the Rez who are also racist and on top of that they are ignorant because they are unwilling to accept the whites the same way that the whites are unable to accept Arnold because of his race.


Source(s):
- Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
New York: Little, Brown, 2007. Print.

Explanation Of Poster: * Poster could not be posted

The awareness poster on the previous page is trying to show the social issue of racism. It is showing that the color of your skin shouldn’t be seen as a way to determine who you are or what you are like. It’s basically proving that we may have different skin but we are all the same on the inside and we all have the same blood running through our veins. It is also saying it isn’t fair to discriminate against any race and that doing so is very ignorant and narrow minded. When I was creating this sign I trying to keep in mind all of those things and how I would portray those things. I thought alot about things that would make people stop and think about what the pictures were trying to tell you. This was to help show the overall message of the poster.

A Dramatic Monologue:

I was only waiting. Waiting for a friend to meet me at the Nostrand Avenue Station. I didn’t harm anybody, I just sat there on the steps minding my own business. But I felt uncomfortable, not because I’d just sat down on a piece of chewed up gum, I felt...  watched. I felt a pair of eyes on me; burning my forehead, glaring, sending vibes of pure disgust. I looked up to see a cop standing by the gates of the station watching me. I felt nervous and vulnerable, like I’d done something wrong and then the man approached me. He said he was so sick of seeing “my people” lingering around this station jumping the turnstile and causing trouble. He said that he knew I was up to no good and told me to go before  I did anything stupid. So I walked away, I knew he could put me in jail for punching him so hard that he would’ve eaten his words and I didn’t want to get arrested. Not for an ignorant bag of shit like him. He wasn’t worth the trouble. He wasn’t worth seeing my ma and paps cry, or watching my family fall apart . So I walked away, away from all of those troubles, away from that memory, I walked away from the Nostrand Avenue Station and never turned back; not once.

Explanation of Monologue:
In this monologue an African American teenage male deals with racism face to face. Basically, the boy is waiting for his friend to meet him in the subway when he is approached by a cop who is patrolling the subway.  This cop makes a stereo - typical / racist remark to the boy and is the racist in the dilemma. I wanted to write this monologue to show an example of dealing with racism face to face and in reality. Racism goes on all of the time but not everybody can truly know about how degrading racism is until they experience it. I think this monologue is a good example of how to deal with racism. I say this because if put in this situation you don’t want to do anything that you will later regret. When writing the monologue I thought about something that could possibly happen in everyday life because racism could be an everyday thing for some.