What literature has taught me about the effects of racism

Racism has affected so many people in this world. Just because you’re black, asian, Muslim or anything for that matter, you don’t deserve any form of racism. For example, in Indian Horse, Saul was taken to a dirty residential school where kids were tormented by nuns and priest and he went solely because he is Indian. At these so called schools he started off by getting scrubbed hard by the nuns because they wanted to get the ‘dirt’ off even though the nuns knew that it was his skin colour. He was beaten if he made a mistake in class and out of class. He was sexually, physically, and mentally abused by the nuns and priest just because he is Indian. He tried to forget all that by playing hockey but he couldn’t escape it. The crowd and other teams called him names. He soon had enough of it and he quit playing. Racism can effect someone’s favourite thing to do just because of the hatred. Racism can effect anything and it has to stop.

1-800-273-8255 by Logic

Meaning:

To show that if your going through bullying, then don’t give up, get help! Don’t take your life because of stupid comments, and when you take your life, it doesn’t just hurt you, it hurts everyone that loves you.

Theme Statement:

When one is suffering from bullying, it’s better to say or do something than not doing or saying something.

https://g.co/kgs/nvMpqg

Never Leave Something as Small as a Balloon Out Overnight!

“Woo-woo-woo,” I jumped out of my bed frightened and paranoid of what’s going to happen next, why is the alarm going off? I thought to myself, so I went to find my parents.
“What’s going on?” I asked quietly because I was frightened someone would hear.
“We don’t know sweetie,” my mom explained with a frightened voice. “Where are your sisters?” She asked.
I told her that my little sister, Kiara, was still sleeping but I didn’t know how she was because the alarm was as loud as the TV being blasted. I also said that my older sister, Tarissa, was running over here like Usain bolt, but all I could think about was why the alarm went off? I was frightened and I really wanted to wake up my little sister so she could come be safe with us in this room. But my mom explained that it would be better if she stayed asleep because if we woke her up she would probably get really scared and start crying. I agreed with my mom but I still wanted her to be safe from whoever or whatever is downstairs.
“I’m going downstairs,” my dad said.
“No dad, don’t go!” my sister and I cried.
“I have to go see what’s happening,” my dad explained. “Stay here with your mom, I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, get back really fast though,” I said.
All I knew was with that fire in my dad’s eyes and that heavy wooden bat, there would be nothing standing in his way of keeping us safe. I knew that he would return soon but I was still terrified of that he might get injured or killed, but then I heard a loud *bang*. I ran outside the door and looked downstairs and I saw my dad standing at the bottom with the bat dropped on the floor. I was glad that he was safe. He told us to come downstairs because it was safe, but I walked down slowly holding onto my mom’s hand and in the other was my stuffed elephant Rella. She was a gift from birth. With every step I took I heard a *kreek* coming from the stairs. Although I knew it was the stairs, I was still on edge of anything that could happen.
We got into the living room where it was very dim and all I could here was the heavy breathing coming from my family. I knew I had to be brave because fear is just a figment of my imagination and my thoughts can’t predict my actions. My mom checked the phone because when the alarm goes off for more than one minute, it usually says what happened. It said that a window in the dining room was broken but my dad went to double check all the windows in there and they were fine. We all looked around looking for something unusual but there was nothing until my mom found a popped balloon next to the heat vent. She asked who was supposed to clean up the popped balloons. I was supposed but I swear I did. We saw that everything was fine and but we were still wondering why the alarm went off, but we just believed that the balloon set it off. So we went upstairs to check out upstairs and everything was fine. Nobody was in here? My mom said that the alarm is pretty sensitive, that even a balloon could set it off so we just believed it was that. So I went and slept with my dad and my mom slept with my sister, just to be safe.
In the morning, everything was fine: nothing was missing, nothing was broken, so we just went with the balloon. This was a lesson learned. Never leave balloons un popped over night if you have an alarm. Or else you’ll be scared!

I did well on organization and conventions

I could improve on word choice and transitions.

 

 

 

How Does One Help a Child Cope in Times of Hardship?

In the poem, “What Do you Remember of the Evacuation,” by Joy Kogawa, a little six year old girl was told that she was going on a vacation but the truth was her and and her family needed to evacuate. Because the Canadiens wanted to get rid of the Asians because they kind of felt the same way that the Nazis did about the Jews, communists, etc. But she soon found out that this was true and she felt different about this ‘vacation.’ She is six years old in this poem and her parents would say anything to keep her happy and out of trouble.

One way one can help a child is by giving them comfort in times of hardship, “I remember my mother wrapping a blanket around me.”(line 5, 6) By giving a child something for comfort is one of the best ways to calm one down or to help cope in times of hardship. I feel this is a great way because it would give them something to hold on to. I also feel that if a little girl has something to comfort her it would help her more than if you just give her a little stuffed animal.

Another way to is by giving them things to distract them from what’s really going on, “I remember Miss Foster and Miss Tucker… Who gave me a puzzle on the train.”(line 20, 24) By giving them something to distract them is the best way to help a child cope in times of hardship. Because if their minds aren’t thinking about what’s really going on, they would be having a good time. If they’re having a good time then that’s the greatest thing for a child because they’re happy and all children need is happiness. One can help a child cope in times hardship by giving them something(a puzzle) to take their mind off what’s really going on.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1699427/thumbs/o-BABY-HUG-570.jpg?1

I did awesome on connecting my answer to my inquiry question.

I need to improve on clarity of writing and style!

Milestones’s dishes have exquisite taste and there’s a lot of heart going into their meals.

Milestones Bar and Grill is a restaurant that makes people want to come back every night with their crazy enthusiasm and their great service. The atmosphere of this restaurant is exquisite, because when people enter through the front doors they see the dim lighting and the calm hostesses. They only hear the sizzling of the patties cooking on the grill and the families and couples making conversation as they chow down on there exquisite meal. You think it’s a peaceful place, while it is, the waiters and waitresses are always so kind and they ask you how your finding your meal. Tasty or could we add something? And everyone around, so calm, makes it an enjoyable meal to eat. The walls are so beautiful with there interesting designs and their descriptive paintings. But there meals are the best part about this restaurant. Beginning with a starter with a variety of choices including their coconut calamari and there buttery popcorn shrimp which is actually filled with popcorn. Then you move on to the mains where you can get juicy steak or moist hamburgers that leave grease all over your fingers, it makes you want to lick them. Or even saucy pastas which taste like an explosion of flavour in you mouth. The salty fries on the side make the meal because they taste amazing with every bite, and to top it all off, a nice cold beverage from a wide variety of sodas and juices. But for the adult’s their newly brewed beer and wine to leave you wanting more. While all of this sounds delicious, the price of it is actually reasonable because it’s made with real meat or freshly caught squid for the calamari. A moist hamburger is around $15.00 and you get a side and a drink. At McDonalds you’d get that for $10.00 but that place is fattening. The saucy pastas are around the same with $17.00 but you get a huge portion. The succulent steaks are around $22.00 but the steaks are massive: 10oz of pure meat. This place is great because of the atmosphere but even greater because of the food!

 

First They Came For…

Adapted from the poem by Martin Niemoller “Firts They Came for the Jews” in response to the poem “Danger of silence.”

First they came for the Negros

and I did not speak out

because I was not a Negro

Then they came for the Muslims

and I did not speak out

because I was not a homosexual

Then they came for the transgenders

and I did not speak out

because I was not a transgender

Now when will they come for me

because I was too busy or too apathetic

to defend my sisters and brothers?

How does one resist/fight injustice?

You can resist/fight injustice by standing up and fighting to say what is fair. Back in the past, a women would never be able to do something but they changed that by standing up for themselves. Because just like men they are human and humans are the same even if you are male or female. It doesn’t matter, if a person is human they have rights and they deserve to have rights. This also applies with whites, blacks, gays, Jews, or transgenders or whatever you call yourself. So the best thing to do is to stand up for yourself and be who you are and you can’t care what other people say. After the women’s and blacks stood up for themselves they got rights. So no matter what, stand up for what you believe in and not what everyone else believes in.

A good book about this is les larmes noires, it’s in French but there’s probably a English version. Les larmes noires is a book about how back in the 1800’s the Americans would sail over seas and kidnap negros to bring them back home to auction them off. But these negros somehow in the end escaped after being auctioned off.

Why do you think there is injustice in this world?

What affects does injustice have?

What it means to be human…

Humans want to communicate

Humans have/need a dream

Humans have a desire to help others

Humans seek happiness

Humans need friends/ Humans need companions

Humans wants to learn/ seek knowledge

Humans need to express there emotions

Humans can be ignorent and should be more aware

Humans fight for what they believe in

Humans have conflict/war

Humans prevail despite conflict

Humans may abuse power

Humans evolve

Humans want to be remembered because most like recognition

Humans disagree

Humans may be discriminatory/racist

Humans like to make our lives easier and better

Humans like to help and fight against perceived injustice

Humans are curious and seek knowledge

In the book If I Grow Up By Todd Strasser. I learned that some people don’t live a good life with a proper home and barely enough money to own a TV because of the choices that either they made or their parents made. In this book two gangs that live in a place called the projects, are against each other and they despise each other. They also sometimes kill one another. Both gangs sell drugs and have guns but they didn’t know there supplier was the same person. The main character DeShawn liked and dated the sister of the other gangs leader. Basically the book is talking about how people from the projects live and it’s pretty brutal.