Saturday, December 1, 2012

"Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression" - Ayvazian, Combatting Intentional Bigotry and Inadvertently Racist Acts"- Blanchard

Quotes
Ayvazian- "Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression"
So to start off I noticed that the author is or must be Armenian because of his "ian" name ending, so this is something to relate too.  As I was reading I came across  three quotes.

  1. An ally is a member of a dominant group in our society who works to dismantle any form of oppression from which she or he receives the benefit. 
    • So its saying in order to be an ally you have to be apart of a "dominant group" to make a difference in something. So its basically saying to support someones ideas and be apart of the group promoting/supporting the fact?
  2.  In the second quote I chose its mentioned that "it is difficult for young people to grow up and become something they have never heard of.  It is hard for a girl to grow up and become a commercial airline pilot if it has never occurred to her that women can and do fly jet planes.  Similarly, it is hard for young people to grow up and fight racism if they have never met anyone it describe who does".  
    • WOW that was a powerful quote. It is really true that if you don't grow up around something specific for instance like mentioned being a pilot, one may not know the choices out in the real world.  Also that if you learn something you grow up and know your expectations more that way because your goal may be to succeed in something that you have been taught.  
  3. Lastly, "the best we can hope for is to strive each day to be our strongest and clearest selves, transforming the world one individual at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time.  May we summon the wisdom to be devoted allies today.  May we walk the walk, living as though equality, justice and freedom for all have already arrived".
    • I chose this quote because it describes everything clearly.  That everything is willing to change if there is power and knowledge involved, everything or anyone can be strengthened by learning. Everyday holds something different occurring in society whether its rights or equality there are many ways to sort things out and learn how to overcome any obstacles.
So after reading the article I thought that Ayvazian had a lot to say about everything.  I learned what an ally is by reading this article which was a big help for class and I learned to question myself to see if I am an ally.  All of my questions were answered whether it was clarifying something or just struggling to have background information.  But overall this article was a good read. 
http://www.uakron.edu/groups/lgbtu/allies.php

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