heart in guitar

White Culture, Black Culture, Multiculture

I just finished reading a book by the author Helms called A Race is a Nice Thing to Have. It's about how white people need to learn to own their race and be proud of it without being racist. It makes this a realizable goal through the steps it offers:

1) making a decision to abandon racism

2) observing the ways in which racism is maintained in your environments

3) learning the difference between expression of racism and expression of white culture

4) discover what is positive about being white

I am working on number four, discovering what is positive about being white. What does it mean to be white? It means that I check off the Caucasian square on all forms. I guess I'll have to work on the answer to this question. Any ideas?

dealing with time

It is so difficult all the time to deal with the day's hours.  They just drag on and on and it's always a matter of what has to be done and what doesn't have to be done.  So long as I'm running on another's watch I always feel like it's just another thing that I'm required to do.  I stop enjoying it somewhere along the way but I'm not upset about this.  It isn't a sad thing to acknowledge how little I enjoy showing up to places when other people request it or being prompt in responding to an e-mail.  Rather it's just the way it is right now and I'm okay with that.  So how is it right now, you ask?  Right now I am trying to get myself motivated to study for a class that I'm already thinking I'm going to do poorly in.  That isn't the best way to start out studying for a quiz now is it?  The better way is to start by thinking that I can do this and this can be done.  That's the way that will get me some place.

Can people change implicit stereotypes?

I think that within the context of a supportive and caring relationship implicit stereotypes can most definitely be changed.  I think it is a lot of hard work and that it takes time.  Time eases all potential pains, including ridiculous stereotypes.  In addition to requiring time, willingness to change is also needed to change implicit stereotypes.  The person needs to have a willingness to let themselves change and be changed.  A certain dedication to improving overall well being is needed in the individual's personality and morals, such that they are doing checks on what they learn each day, making note of when things change.  Thus they would consider a change in implicit stereotypes significant enough to notice that it has occurred over the course of let's say four years.

Backing up a bit to define exactly what is an implicit stereotype.  Implicit stereotypes include oversimplified images, conceptions or opinions of people that operate on an unconscious level.  There are so many of these that we actually think at times that we don't have any all.  In fact, we are just using them all the time to evaluate ourselves and other persons around us.

An example of a context in which implicit stereotypes can change is the therapeutic clinician-client relationship.  If the clinician sparks certain stereotypes for the client then the direct and clear relationship they are about to form can potentially alter the client's thinking of this type of person.  Other persons who can have that sort of impact on implicit stereotypes are close friends as well as teachers.

I'm Romantic

It has taken me a number of years to establish myself as a romantic.  I smile on impulse when I hear romantic stories, not just any smile but the type that extends through the whole face to the ears.  That's the type of smile that I have as my goal these days, especially since I'm finding it hard to smile at all.  So I set my stakes high.

If there's one thing that will cheer me up it's a real love story.  The story needs characters that I'm drawn toward with a level of obsessiveness.   The effect of these stories on my affective position is an increase in childlike joy, including laughter.  There are some distinctions that I need to make in how it is that I love these stories.  I don't like the stories where the love spans all through childhood and lasts into adulthood and then on through to old age.  Wait, I take that back, I do like those.

I don't like the stories of one partner hurting the other in some unfair move in the game of love and they still end up together despite it all.  Actually, I like those too.  I especially like the stories where the love moves one or both of the partners into doing sort of silly things.  For example one partner all of a sudden decides they need time alone right when they should be confessing their love.  Really though I don't know what I'm talking about there, either.

What romance means to me is a willingness to imagine what it is that you desire and to go for it.  Finding a partner who is willing to go there with you is the best thing, someone who is open-minded enough to strive for real romantic love, the passionate, silly, dedicated kind.  This can only happen within the context of a close relationship, though.  It doesn't work when both people aren't all for it.  I've experienced that before and it's just no good.  Intimacy is so important.  The bounds of intimacy are endless.  I can see it lasting far into old age.

Judgment and Decision Making: I need contacts, wait, maybe I don't

I have been learning about how people aren't always the best judges of behavior because they are imperfect thinkers.  It has been drilled into my head that what we think we know we, in fact, do not.  I'm beginning to get frustrated with it because it is resulting in a questioning of everything that I think.  I need contacts, or wait, maybe I don't need them.  Maybe I just think I need them.  I can't wait until this Judgment and Decision Making class is over.