Blog 7

I recently wrote my research paper on personality choice, and the question "why have you chosen to be who you are" is a very interesting one to me, especially because it pertains to my research paper. I wouldn't say that I've chosen to be who I am, because I believe my parents and the environment I grew up in decided who I would be. What I will discuss is who I'm striving to be, and what I'd like to change about myself. Up until now, I've considered myself to be shy and passive. I'd like to express my opinions more without caring about what others think. Of course I don't want to be rude and/or obnoxious, but I'd like to be assertive in terms of knowing what I want and what I believe. Caring about what others think has been a huge issue with me. It often prevents me from speaking from my heart. I'd like to change this, and I'm working on having more self-confidence and being more assertive with others. I need to accept the fact that no matter what, not everyone will like me or be happy with my beliefs. This, I think, might be a concern with everyone, at least to some extent. Maybe I'm wrong. In my head I know it seems irrational to want everyone to like me when I know that this is simply impossible. I just need to work with this realization, and in turn express myself without being afraid.

Reading Response 6

In my opinion, hate speech is geared towards influencing others to blame a certain group or stereotype. Toni Morrison mentions in her speech that oppressive language not only influences violence, it is violence. I really like the way she explained this, because it’s absolutely true. Oppressive language is the same as an oppressive act, just like verbal abuse is equally, if not more painful than physical abuse. Morrison stresses that words have as much power as physical acts and this revelation is one that should be taken into account by everyone. People constantly underestimate how powerful words can be. Words can motivate an entire crowd to commit unthinkable acts. Just last week, somebody did their power point on Hitler and mentioned how much power his words had on the country of Germany. Somehow, Hitler was able to turn everybody against an entire population of people. Hitler used hate speech when influencing massive amounts of German citizens. Hate speech consists of targeting a group or population, usually to blame them for something. It may or may not consist of derogatory comments, but whether or not it does, it is still awful. It always involves pointing out this group or population’s flaws, and why others should turn against them as well.