Comments on my PI essay?

So I'm pretty sure we were supposed to make a post so people could review our PI essays?...If so, that's what this is for hahaha.

Health Insurance Isn't Sexist?

A follow-up to our brief contraception discussion in class.

Source: someecards.com

Trayvon Martin's Murder: Where are the activists now?

I mean, it was only two weeks ago when almost every white person I knew was tweeting about stopping a brutal African warlord from killing more innocent children. And they even took thirty minutes out of their busy schedules to watch a movie about dude. They bought t-shirts. Some bracelets. Even tweeted at Rihanna to take a stance. But, a 17 year old American kid is followed and then ultimately killed by a neighborhood vigilante who happens to be carrying a semi-automatic weapon and my white friends are quiet. Eerily quiet. Not even a trending topic for the young man.


—- Michael Skolnik.

Kony 2012: Research Your Cause

As I'm sure everyone knows, last week the Invisible Children Project put out a video then went viral within a matter of hours. Millions of individuls watched the half-hour documentary to "raise awareness" about Joseph Kony and children soldiers in Uganda. Many were moved enough to donate to the cause and were very vocal in their support. Unfortunately, it can be easy to be swept up in media frenzies: how much of this actually benefits the so-called cause?

I want to focus on the Kony 2012 campaign as well as Invisible Children as a whole, but from a more critical perspective. To be sure, social justice is a worthy cause and I am glad that more people are beginning to look into what life is like in other parts of the world. However, I am frankly disgusted by IC's portrayal of Africans as essentially helpless children in desperate need of a more civilized white Western culture to save them from themselves.

Think of this: is Kony 2012 really impacting Uganda...or is it really just impacting America? Specifically, wealthy white youth looking to feel good about themselves? The media frenzy, and its response, has been completely Westernized. Where are the African voices who are actually there? Kony 2012 is nothing more than a tactic for America to increase their military presence and control over Africa: the video makes it clear that military action is the clear way to solve the Kony conflict. What I (after a lot of research on my own, and many share my opinion) think is that the conflicts in places like Uganda are so incredibly complex, that Kony 2012 and its ramifications are dangerous oversimplifications. That is what I want to focus on for our project for the next half of the semester.

If you are interested in researching this issues further - which I highly suggest you do before supporting any cause - there is so much information out there from perspectives besides that of Invisible Children's. Many of these sources are from people who either live or have worked extensively in Uganda and have experienced daily life there. I highly suggest the following:

Dangerous Ignorance: The Hysteria of Kony 2012
Kony 2012: My response to the Invisible Children Campaign
Kony 2012 and Invisible Children are Funded by Antigay Creationist Groups
The Daily What: More on Kony 2012
We Are Not Invisible: 5 African Women Respond to the Kony 2012 Campaign

Finally, I think this quote (taken from the video in my second link) puts a lot of things about this situation in perspective that we as Westerners need to keep in mind when choosing to support a cause:

“How you tell the stories of Africans is much more important that what the story is; because if you are showing me as voiceless, as hopeless [then] you have no space telling my story. You shouldn’t be telling my story if you don’t believe that I also have the power to change what is going on.” -Rosebell Kagumire

Meeting with bell hooks

As a distinguished speaker and well-known public figure, bell hooks is often invited to speak at colleges and universities across the country, and that's where I am today. I know it will be interesting to attend because as a black
feminist concerned with issues of racism, classism and gender, she is not quite
in line with most of the thinking that occurs here at Sacred Heart University. As I walk into the Edgerton Theater, I notice immediately that the audience is overwhelming female – what a
surprise. It is evident, however, that
bell hooks’ name has drawn a more diverse crowd than usual for our campus, as I see quite a few more people of color in attendance. Walking down the aisle to find a seat, I recognize a few professors, mostly from the women’s studies program. But for the most part I do not recognize most of the faces I pass, and I hear a lot of excited chatter about where they have come from to hear this legendary woman.

It is easy to see that she is used to being in front of a
crowd. As she steps up to the microphone, she carries herself with a clear sense of confidence that shows how comfortable she is with her place in the spotlight. Not one for suits or other
overly-professional outfits, she is wearing slacks and a bright sweater, with a few flashy bracelets. Even at sixty years old, hooks is eager to share her message of awareness and her passion for what she does is evident as she begins speaking. It is no surprise that she has made it her mission to educate others; she speaks of a love of learning that she has had
ever since she was young. Hooks, like many others, had dreamed of being a teacher and writer; however, her experience is different from many in that she lived through the integration of public
schools in the 1960s, something that profoundly affected her view of herself as well as her awareness of race in society. Soon, the audience is obviously captivated by her strong voice that
commands attention with its passion.

For hooks, education is not something that is confined to the classroom. Her speech emphasizes the importance of learning wherever someone is, recognizing that each different
circumstance has a lesson to be learned. When she concludes, I feel somewhat more hopeful than when I came, realizing as I applaud that although she talked about a lot of heavy issues,
she was able to frame it in a way that convinced the audience that they had the power to contribute to correcting these issues. This is what makes her such a captivating speaker – her ability to convince her audience that they are capable of being able to address the
problems that they see, instead of leaving them cynical or discouraged.

Feminism and Queer Theory Ruined My Life

This is so true. Once you start looking, you see problems everywhere.

Opinions: are you really entitled to yours?

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant." -Harlan Ellison

What do you think? How much to do you comment on things you haven't really looked into for yourself?