Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Two Places at Once
Almost a week before my arrival to Brooklyn, New York, I received some disturbing information that interrupted my excitement of returning.Something major had occurred, and no I did not receive this information through a phone call, a letter, or a picture, but by online news websites and something we all do known as "Video Streaming." In just a 15 minute drive from my house on "Brooklyn-Queens" day, "Brighton Beach" was a victim of a fatal shooting. To my knowledge this event has never happened before, so it came as a surprise to hear about this. One teenager was killed, and others were wounded.
At first I was reading of the horrific details in the "Daily News" (A well known newspaper) online. Envisioning the details encouraged my resignation, so for personal relief, I turned to another social "Media" outlet: "Twitter." After a short hiatus, my timeline had fully loaded, and once again there it was ... the "Brighton Beach Shooting." After reading a few comments, rationalizing tweets, and concluding a feeling of sadness, someone posted a link to view the aftermath of this event. A young media examiner in the making, I felt it was necessary to explore this link.
After 2-3 viewing, I was struck with grief. Not because I knew any of the victims, but because something like this could happened. During my time alone, something hit me. If I was this age twenty year ago, would I have been able to see this? Word of mouth is one thing, but in a way I was at two places at once. There is no longer a middle man, everything I want, I could see. If someone wanted to see me, they could do it in a click of a button. Social media has changed the world that we once knew, creating what I like to call a "Fast Food Generation," delivering the world's needs in less than 5 minutes. Things like this started to play on the imagination, so I digressed.When you really think about how media has affected our everyday life's, it is kind of scary, creating a "Co-dependency" in many people's life's.
Link Attached below "Viewer's discretion"http://soweak.com/video/brighton-beach-brooklyn-ny-shooting
At first I was reading of the horrific details in the "Daily News" (A well known newspaper) online. Envisioning the details encouraged my resignation, so for personal relief, I turned to another social "Media" outlet: "Twitter." After a short hiatus, my timeline had fully loaded, and once again there it was ... the "Brighton Beach Shooting." After reading a few comments, rationalizing tweets, and concluding a feeling of sadness, someone posted a link to view the aftermath of this event. A young media examiner in the making, I felt it was necessary to explore this link.
After 2-3 viewing, I was struck with grief. Not because I knew any of the victims, but because something like this could happened. During my time alone, something hit me. If I was this age twenty year ago, would I have been able to see this? Word of mouth is one thing, but in a way I was at two places at once. There is no longer a middle man, everything I want, I could see. If someone wanted to see me, they could do it in a click of a button. Social media has changed the world that we once knew, creating what I like to call a "Fast Food Generation," delivering the world's needs in less than 5 minutes. Things like this started to play on the imagination, so I digressed.When you really think about how media has affected our everyday life's, it is kind of scary, creating a "Co-dependency" in many people's life's.
Link Attached below "Viewer's discretion"http://soweak.com/video/brighton-beach-brooklyn-ny-shooting
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Dark Girls
I will never forget that day. 3rd grade in the lunch room there was a girl named Monique. Light skin, green eyes, brown hair, tall and slim. All the boys liked her. It was her first day here at Brooklyn New York P.S 194 elementary school, and they just could not get enough of her. Oh wait, but then there was me. The dark skin, short girl with "High-Water" jeans on. My Godmother always called this thing on my head "Nappy" so eventually I did too. Just last week, my pony-tail extension fell out right before the fire drill, and boy was I the laughing stock of the class.
My brother once told me "It was a sin to be dark skin, and I had to be punished for all of my future wrong doings early in life." Coming from the only light skin sibling out of seven kids I actually believed that. When Monique walked into class, his words began to play back in my head.
Many years later I had to asked myself, "What was the root of my self-hatred?" Did I created this feeling?" I am sure the women of the documentary "Dark Girls" once asked themselves this same question. I remember when I felt ugly and ashamed, literally three-fifths of a person. No one man should have all that power to make another person feel less than, that is not their place. Not understanding the beauty and promise behind my tone, made me seek ways to eliminate my existence.
"Dark Girls" is a universial situation whether people notice it or not. Having a fair-skinned aunt who once told me " She prayed that my cousins would come out dark" made me realize this. People will always have something to say about you, which is a distraction on what is really true. To see the tears in the lady eyes on Dark Girl made me think of my Aunt. Something is really a powerful thing if it could harbor hatre within one's self. It is amazing how media helps to shed light on everyday situations.
My brother once told me "It was a sin to be dark skin, and I had to be punished for all of my future wrong doings early in life." Coming from the only light skin sibling out of seven kids I actually believed that. When Monique walked into class, his words began to play back in my head.
Many years later I had to asked myself, "What was the root of my self-hatred?" Did I created this feeling?" I am sure the women of the documentary "Dark Girls" once asked themselves this same question. I remember when I felt ugly and ashamed, literally three-fifths of a person. No one man should have all that power to make another person feel less than, that is not their place. Not understanding the beauty and promise behind my tone, made me seek ways to eliminate my existence.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
This Thing Called Life
This Morning at 4:33am, the SKY EXPRESS BUS leaving from North Carolina heading to New York City crashed and left four people dead. You may ask how is that relavant to me? Exactly one week ago, that would of been me...
I had the opportunity of my life to interview for one of Diddy's companies, "Blue Flame Agency." Rushing to NYC for a day, I took that same exact bus. Last week we were stranded in Trenton, NJ for three hours because a rock fell off of a truck, cracking the whole front windsheild of the bus.I was scared for my life then.
Life is not easy, but it is something you must ride all the way through. Just two days ago, my friend was killed. All of these things will sometimes make you think, what am I here to do? I truly do not know. One thing I do know, for all of the hardships of life, I am going to go hard. We all have to leave someday, we might as well make it a trip to remember.
This is not meant to leave anyone dishearten about the future, I just wanted to see how you may view life. Wait, how do you view it?http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/31/2916121/sky-express-involved-in-4-crashes.html
I had the opportunity of my life to interview for one of Diddy's companies, "Blue Flame Agency." Rushing to NYC for a day, I took that same exact bus. Last week we were stranded in Trenton, NJ for three hours because a rock fell off of a truck, cracking the whole front windsheild of the bus.I was scared for my life then.
Life is not easy, but it is something you must ride all the way through. Just two days ago, my friend was killed. All of these things will sometimes make you think, what am I here to do? I truly do not know. One thing I do know, for all of the hardships of life, I am going to go hard. We all have to leave someday, we might as well make it a trip to remember.
This is not meant to leave anyone dishearten about the future, I just wanted to see how you may view life. Wait, how do you view it?http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/31/2916121/sky-express-involved-in-4-crashes.html
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