Create Yourself (:

        In class we viewed a picture and it was a birds eye view of a red headed teenage boy. The boy was leaning forward on butcher paper with his legs crossing while holding a green pen in his left hand. He was drawing in his right heel by using cross hatching. The boy seems very concentrated in what he is doing. There are cracked letters on the bottom right corner and it says "Life is about creating yourself." This picture is very powerful because it seems that he is drawing himself in the way he wants to be seen by others. The words represent what he is doing because he is creating the person he wants to be in life. Creating yourself is sometimes difficult for people because it's always easier to follow others rather than standing out. He is drawing himself the way he wants to represent himself in the future and the characteristics he craves. When you create yourself, you're making an image of how you want to be seen by the rest of the world. You are being a unique individual rather than just fitting into the crowd. You attract others more when you are yourself because they see certain characteristics that others don't carry.

Doll Face

         You shouldn't have to change your appearance just to fit in. What happened to being original? What happened to standing out from the rest? In class we watched a short clip called doll face. It showed some type of mechanical girl coming out of a steel box and a TV in front of her. The TV showed the girl putting makeup on and the TV screen kept moving further and further away as the mechanical doll kept imitating it. This is showing how people are trying to be something they aren't by following what the media is saying or doing. The media can shape our identity because so many people want to be flawless like the people they see on TV. Pretending to be something you're not can harm you because people don't get to witness the real you. Everyone should be proud of their differences because it shapes who you really are, and makes them unique from the rest. When the TV gets to the point where the mechanical girl can't reach, she starts forcing herself to reach it until she finally breaks down. This is symbolizing that the desires people crave will eventually break you down because it's not who you really are. When you start to change yourself little by little, you get to the point where you are so used to it and you keeping wanting more and it's never enough. At the end of the video she is on the floor shattered into pieces and the TV slowly stops and starts facing the audience. The ending was very powerful because it's stating that we as an audience are in the same position as that girl was, and we also are in danger if becoming someone we aren't.

I am nobody's nigger .

   We watched a rap video in class called "I am nobody's nigger." by Dean Atta This video features young rappers expressing their emotions towards the word "nigger" and how it is being used. They are frustrated at how people are mis treating the word now adays. People use the tearm "nigger" as slang when others take it offensively. Dean Atta expresses how the word "nigger" isn't a word you can just throw around like it's nothing because it does cause harm to others. Back in the day the word "nigger" was used as basically calling African Americans useless; it was used as a racist saying. Before African Americans got lynched, they would get tortured and taunted by the word "nigger". I think he is trying to say that they fought so long and hard for that word to be removed and yet people still use it like it's the word to say. Now teenagers and even adults use the word "nigger" and think nothing of it. Many people that "nigga" and "nigger" have two different meanings. They argue that "nigaa"is just used as slang, calling someone "homie" or "fool" but "nigger" is offensive. I see it as they are both the same word just because you change the wording doesn't make it okay to say! Dean Atta points out how African American rappers use the word "nigger" in their raps as if it was just another word; he thinks it's wrong because they are going against their own race because back then African Americans would suffer from the usage of that word. Using the word "nigger"is obviously not appropriate because it's affecting many people out there and causing problems.