NBSU... finally written down
This is the rough draft of a paper I wrote for Carlos. It's really a rough draft, not my best work, so don't go hating or anything.
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Watching the movie “The Spook Behind The Door” I felt so uneducated. I noticed that there is so much I don’t know about the world around me.
For a week or so up until we left for the NBSU conference, I was very apprehensive. I didn’t know what to expect there, and I was nervous because I knew I would be learning things that would expose my innocence.
An excerpt from my journal : “I’m gonna learn a lot about myself, and I am a bit scared because I feel that it will expose my weakness inside me. But in order to improve, you have to go through with learning. I remember learning about the freedom riders in the 1960‘s, and in a way I feel like I am riding on those busses now. I am going somewhere to improve myself, trying to get out the word of inequality.”
A man said “change your thoughts and you change your words”.
As I was sitting watching a speaker after lunch on Saturday, I wrote this in my journal : “I noticed a lot of girls saying they are single mothers. This gets me wondering why they don‘t have a male in their lives. What got these girls to the point of raising a child by themselves?” I wrote a bit more on this topic, but this was the core idea.
I got to know a drug dealer because he was interacting with some people in BSU. I wasn’t comfortable with this, and I avoided him at all costs because I didn’t want to associate myself with him. He sold weed to a couple people, and that was appalling to me, because I have never been around people who did or were involved in drugs.
“Are you going to be part of the problem of part of the solution?”
Whites are three times more likely to have a college degree than just a high school diploma. Blacks are more likely not to have a high school diploma than a college degree.
I was taking a look at the schedule on Saturday, and saw the listing of personal and professional forums. This made me think, because what I saw was ironic. Why weren’t the sessions more educational like at Ebony Weekend? It’s ok to learn about things like NBA regulations, hip hop music and black women, but what about more pertinent issues? I really wanted a forum to talk about how we can improve the black image, how we can make the ‘hood a better place to live. Those are some real discussion topics, and I think it would help people wake up.
A good idea that was brought up in the personal and professional forums was to have a group constitution. I know that we already have that up on our board, however I think it would be great to have an individuals constitution. It would include an explanation of fines, and personal responsibilities (such as how to act at meetings - no excessive swearing - and requirements of signing up for events). Kind of like a code of conduct.
Does BSU have a mission statement? If not we should do this, and make time to set our goals for the year as well as for the organization in general.
Also, I think it would be a great idea to connect with the Greeks on campus. I know that BSU already has several good relationships with other organizations, however by working with the Greeks, we could get ____________________.
Lewis University talked about a Freshman Leadership Program. This would be neat to implement at Platteville. However, I am not sure that we have enough freshman or new students to make this program effective.
Should we dedicate one meeting a month to wearing dress/formal clothes? This would help us realize that meetings aren’t just for socializing, but they are for taking care of business as well.
A neat program to offer the campus would be hip hop or stepping dance lessons. I think a lot of people would come because they would want to learn how to put on the moves.
UW-Oshkosh had a very effective idea for a program. It is called “open rooms, closed minds”, and it brings together racial stereotypes. Several rooms are set aside for this project, and each room has a specific stereotype. The room is decorated with the cultural environment. For example, a Latino room would be covered in barbed wire (immigration), with people in uniforms standing on the other side with guns and flashlights ready to ‘capture’ them. This would have a huge impact on the University community. I think we should really consider doing this as a project in the future. It would be a great way to educate people about diversity.
I saw and learned so much throughout the weekend at NBSU that on Saturday night I just ended up breaking down in tears because I didn’t know what else to do. I had so many questions about what was going on at NBSU and how the world functions. It was at this point that I feel I began to make a change in my life. As I explained, I felt like my skin was sunburned for the first 20 years of my life, and only now the peeling process and the healing of skin has begun. To change myself first, I will be changing what I expect when I first meet people. I have had too high of expectations when getting to know people. I tend to think of everyone as the image of a ‘good person’ - not drinking in excess, not smoking weed, not backstabbing people, etc. I found that this is an unrealistic expectation because if I assume that people are good from the start, then I am setting too high of goal. I don’t even know the person and I assume they are Gods gift from heaven. Once I get to know a person for who they are, then I can make judgments about them and what they do. Secondly, I want to change how I think of myself. Sometimes I just pretend not to know something to appear dumb. I think being smart is a total turn on, but I can't bring myself to admit I am smart. I have to live up to my nickname. Sometimes I just think that people will be intimidated by smartness.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Watching the movie “The Spook Behind The Door” I felt so uneducated. I noticed that there is so much I don’t know about the world around me.
For a week or so up until we left for the NBSU conference, I was very apprehensive. I didn’t know what to expect there, and I was nervous because I knew I would be learning things that would expose my innocence.
An excerpt from my journal : “I’m gonna learn a lot about myself, and I am a bit scared because I feel that it will expose my weakness inside me. But in order to improve, you have to go through with learning. I remember learning about the freedom riders in the 1960‘s, and in a way I feel like I am riding on those busses now. I am going somewhere to improve myself, trying to get out the word of inequality.”
A man said “change your thoughts and you change your words”.
As I was sitting watching a speaker after lunch on Saturday, I wrote this in my journal : “I noticed a lot of girls saying they are single mothers. This gets me wondering why they don‘t have a male in their lives. What got these girls to the point of raising a child by themselves?” I wrote a bit more on this topic, but this was the core idea.
I got to know a drug dealer because he was interacting with some people in BSU. I wasn’t comfortable with this, and I avoided him at all costs because I didn’t want to associate myself with him. He sold weed to a couple people, and that was appalling to me, because I have never been around people who did or were involved in drugs.
“Are you going to be part of the problem of part of the solution?”
Whites are three times more likely to have a college degree than just a high school diploma. Blacks are more likely not to have a high school diploma than a college degree.
I was taking a look at the schedule on Saturday, and saw the listing of personal and professional forums. This made me think, because what I saw was ironic. Why weren’t the sessions more educational like at Ebony Weekend? It’s ok to learn about things like NBA regulations, hip hop music and black women, but what about more pertinent issues? I really wanted a forum to talk about how we can improve the black image, how we can make the ‘hood a better place to live. Those are some real discussion topics, and I think it would help people wake up.
A good idea that was brought up in the personal and professional forums was to have a group constitution. I know that we already have that up on our board, however I think it would be great to have an individuals constitution. It would include an explanation of fines, and personal responsibilities (such as how to act at meetings - no excessive swearing - and requirements of signing up for events). Kind of like a code of conduct.
Does BSU have a mission statement? If not we should do this, and make time to set our goals for the year as well as for the organization in general.
Also, I think it would be a great idea to connect with the Greeks on campus. I know that BSU already has several good relationships with other organizations, however by working with the Greeks, we could get ____________________.
Lewis University talked about a Freshman Leadership Program. This would be neat to implement at Platteville. However, I am not sure that we have enough freshman or new students to make this program effective.
Should we dedicate one meeting a month to wearing dress/formal clothes? This would help us realize that meetings aren’t just for socializing, but they are for taking care of business as well.
A neat program to offer the campus would be hip hop or stepping dance lessons. I think a lot of people would come because they would want to learn how to put on the moves.
UW-Oshkosh had a very effective idea for a program. It is called “open rooms, closed minds”, and it brings together racial stereotypes. Several rooms are set aside for this project, and each room has a specific stereotype. The room is decorated with the cultural environment. For example, a Latino room would be covered in barbed wire (immigration), with people in uniforms standing on the other side with guns and flashlights ready to ‘capture’ them. This would have a huge impact on the University community. I think we should really consider doing this as a project in the future. It would be a great way to educate people about diversity.
I saw and learned so much throughout the weekend at NBSU that on Saturday night I just ended up breaking down in tears because I didn’t know what else to do. I had so many questions about what was going on at NBSU and how the world functions. It was at this point that I feel I began to make a change in my life. As I explained, I felt like my skin was sunburned for the first 20 years of my life, and only now the peeling process and the healing of skin has begun. To change myself first, I will be changing what I expect when I first meet people. I have had too high of expectations when getting to know people. I tend to think of everyone as the image of a ‘good person’ - not drinking in excess, not smoking weed, not backstabbing people, etc. I found that this is an unrealistic expectation because if I assume that people are good from the start, then I am setting too high of goal. I don’t even know the person and I assume they are Gods gift from heaven. Once I get to know a person for who they are, then I can make judgments about them and what they do. Secondly, I want to change how I think of myself. Sometimes I just pretend not to know something to appear dumb. I think being smart is a total turn on, but I can't bring myself to admit I am smart. I have to live up to my nickname. Sometimes I just think that people will be intimidated by smartness.