Mitiana Williams' ENG 216.02 Blog :D

                After watching the This Is Who You Are video, I was moved to tears. This video truly summed up who we are as individuals. I believe that we all are energy, we all have families, and we all have lived with so many moving parts to them. I feel really passionate about a topic like this because I believe that we are all special. I never understood how someone could look at another's skin and say that they are a bad person. I understand with context clues, i.e. weapons, odd features, or energy.                 I believe that we judge someone's appearance out of safety for ourselves, but I believe that we are more than our instincts. I think that we have instincts, that is just in our nature, but I know that we all are more than savage beast that has evolved into having opposable thumbs in a species that happened to create technology and energy. But, we are all the same as well. We a...

                  Hi All,                This week we will be talking about how people in our jail system are majority simply grown-up traumatized children. When I first went into the Compassion Trauma Circle video, I was scared to also be doing the activity just by answering the questions. I immediately understood that this was like the privileged activity that lots of schools offer. One thing that stuck out to me in the video was that one inmate said that he is a traumatized child who was raised by a traumatized child.                 This reminded me of myself. I have since moved out of that environment and got out on my own, but definitely understand what that feels like or similarly.  Seeing this video opened my eyes to that incarcerated men and women are simply traumatized children who became violent or lashed out with cons...

              Hi All,                This week we will be exploring the connection between homosexuality and evolution with a James O'Keefe.  He talks about how homosexuality is about survival, not sex. I really had a hard time understanding what James O'Keefe was getting at in his speech at first. He says that people in the sexual minority tend to be brighter and shows this infographic. He also goes into how this would be beneficial from an evolutionary viewpoint. I think that the traits one has from being homosexual, as O'Keefe stated, may lead to an increase in compatibility with others: Being more caring, compassionate, or understanding. This would lead to more homosexuals having a partner to continue their lineage.                 I think it is ironic because as stated, homosexuality is the top "mating trait," and none of my personal friends th...

                Hi, All!               Today, we are going to be discussing the topic of human relationships and kindness toward others. After watching Paul Bloom's video where he uses evolution to explain kindness through a transactional lens. When thinking of transactional kindness, I think of birds and hippopotamus. Hippopotamus often allow some birds to eat the food in their eat to 'clean' their teeth instead of eating the bird in trade for a clean mouth.                I think that humans can learn a lot from these natural relationships. We don't express kindness as much these days. I think also in a video of his, he mentions that if you were from a different part of a country would also affect how one reacts to an event. I have recognized these differences in people many times throughout my life. While living in San Diego, we had a community in our neig...

               Hi All,                  Today, we are going to be talking about why some want hardship. Dr. Bloom speaks on this quite thoroughly in an interview with the American Psychological Association. One thing that stuck out to me from the video was he brought up how some feel pain as pleasure. This is explored through pornography as BDSM and masochism.                Of course, when he spoke of this I thought "I don't experience this, I don't choose to suffer in that way." Later, he speaks on how this shows up in a casual setting: Eating spicy foods, riding on adrenaline-pumping rides, or things one wouldn't usually do, but do. I sat back in my chair for a moment to ponder this new information.                Something I feel conflicted about with this is, I don't eat spicy food because it is spic...

               Hi, All!                After watching Paul Bloom's TED talk about prejudice, I found myself confused really. I have never thought of prejudice as a good thing in my life. I assumed that prejudice was something that only horrible people did and intentionally did to belittle others. Bloom argues that prejudice is not the birth of ignorance and is natural. I agree with his argument that prejudice or bias can be beneficial in cases of dangerous people. I believe that people can initially think of someone as something, this is what one was taught, but I believe that your second thought should be after some inspection of the situation. Seeing a black man and thinking that he may be doing a number of stereotypical bad things, but if you take a second to reassess the situation peacefully, you could realize that this may not be the case.              ...