Honor?

"On today's game we have The Jacksonville Blacks Vs. The San Francisco Chinamen".This would be very offensive to many chinese and black people, especially if they had a logo that had them stereotypically drawn. Imagine how Natives feel. It must suck to turn on a game and be subjected to seeing a team play thats called the "Redskins" as a native american. If it offends a group and would offend another group then why is it still around? Washington could be called the "senators" and cleveland could be called the "Coasters" or the "Rockers". Redskin is an epithet. Change it. Now. Indians too. Warriors too. Seminoles too. 

People are too sensitive nowadays. The names do not have the intention of malice. It's just a sports team name. No goal of harm, it's just honoring their heritage through the name.We might as well change every name that could offend people. The giants could offend little people. The angels could offend atheists. The blue devils? That could offend satanists!! If we start with this team name, where does it end? Besides, it doesn't even offend natives! All of these social justice warriors should relax. You are driving to a "Redskins name change protest" in your jeep cherokee. Please relax, it's just a name. Complaining about a name won't help natives and help their treatment. Perhaps real initiative should be taken, I'm sure natives would prefer to have clean water and have their holy land not pillaged anymore. You don't care though. You don't want to actually do anything to help natives, you just want to complain about a team name from a sport that is the least of native's worries. 

Sure this argument may be outdated and not as prominent as it was in 2013 but it's bound to come up again. As the MLB season approaches rapidly, there will arguably be more protests against the team name of the Cleveland Indians as well as the Washington Redskins. Either you think all teams that have a Native American mascot should be changed or you think people are too sensitive and it's supposed to "honor" native americans, besides native americans don't even mind. 

For me, I think its a little insensitive, but changing the name doesn't matter. It won't feed natives. It wont help them. Why would changing a team name do anything. But thats just me. What do you think?

Obama Tapped Trump Towers

President Trump had his phones tapped by Barack Obama during the election. So he claims. As I read into the story I was intrigued because: why would obama tap his phones and not do anything with it? But as I delved deeper into the internet and read about what trump had done over that time span, my suspicions were proved correct. I suspected that trump made up a false story to take media attention from something he did concerning something political, and well, it was true. Trump cut 25% of funds to the EPA, removed 3,000 jobs, and essentially ended the project dedicated to cleaning our great lakes. Absolute buffoon. Opinions aside, climate change, global warming, and destruction of our earth is an actual thing. Removing the white house page on climate control won't change the fact that our planet is dying, Donald. There is concrete proof that all of these things are real but some still claim it's not. Unfortunately one of those people is our president.

Why don't we care about the environment? I don't want to sound like an environmentalist because that's played out, but regardless the earth is really all we have. I understand that industrialism will never cease and that we will always be making pollution, but if there was a way to reduce our carbon footprint by funding research or making more regulations it would allow future generations to prosper as well. Instead of shoving 55 billion dollars to an already inflated and immensely funded defense system, if we even used a fraction of the military's budget for the environment, leaps and bounds would be made. I'm going off on a tangent that no one cares about. That's how it is. Our attitude has been the same for the past 100 years regarding the environment. So naturally, if no one cares why should I? Screw the great lakes, screw the environment, everything will be fine. Besides, who doesn't love those warm summer days swimming in the beautiful brown lakes?

Maker's Mark

Class this week was quite heated. There was a loud debate between many members of the classroom about women being "marked" and men being "unmarked". I wasn't involved with the argument because there was no debate to be had. I didn't agree with either side because every single person of every single race. sex and religion is marked. Everyone is identified as something and have something that marks them. I am marked as a 5'10, 16 year old, Albanian from New Jersey. Everyone is labeled in some shape or form. The argument that women are unmarked is very absurd. But the argument that because women are marked that they somehow go through harsher judgment for the choices they make about fashion and other things more than men is also absurd.

If I were to wear the freshest clothing everyday for months and months and then all of a sudden wear bummy clothes, there would be a comment made to me. I would be marked in that sense. It's no different for a woman, there will be a comment made to her as well. Point is, everyone is marked. Gender marking isn't a big deal to me because i think they are equal in regards to those issues.

Race marking on the other hand, is an issue and is a problem. Blacks and muslims are wrongfully marked as dangerous and as a threat to society. Their fashion choices are used to discriminate against them. Muslims who wear hijabs and other traditional clothing are feared. Black men who wear baggy jeans and their hat sideways are labeled as a "thug", but when they wear a suit and have a high paying job they are called "uncle tom's" and ostracized for being successful and dressing "white".

Of course, sexism hasn't been resolved but as the country becomes more united in the fight for women against someone who opposes it, there's real progress. Racism on the other hand is farther away from being resolved in the country as the country is split down the middle. Instead of uniting we have become more and more divided. Ending stereotyping and marking is the first step in a long journey to true equality.