Media Week 2

 Hey everyone, I wanted to write a little bit about my media intake this week and how I've been working on focusing on the good and overall have less intake of media. 

    To tell you guys straight up, I have definitely gone down from hours of social media but instead of cutting back useless scrolling, I feel like I cut back on my learning media. If you read my post for last week I have been working on reading a lot of material about minorities in the U.S. specifically relating to the Black Lives Matter movement right now. I wanted to expound on the research experience I had with Professor Bean. The research project in itself, was coding tens of thousands of journals and their actual representation of the U.S. specifically for the minorities. I was baffled at the results finding that probably less than 5% of some children journals (360-ish articles) that I covered, focused on minorities and their statistics in different psychological and sociological settings and experiments. It just goes to show that what is coming to light right now about racism (and has been repeated over and over again) may just be the beginning for us to understand more. 

Last week a few of you asked what I had found out while reading White Fragility and Just Mercy, and wow I do not know where to start. So I will give you a few highlights that I hope will motivate you to read it.

The author of Just Mercy was invited to BYU a few years back to talk about his book and his experiences. If you have seen the movie there is one experience shown there that has a beautiful ending and shows what needs there are still going on. The details of the movie are just intensified in the book, the produceers of the movie did not have to work very hard to make their film portray the drastic injustice that is going on in the U.S. The book does not only cover the story of Walter but countless others, it talks about the alarming rates of young youth of color being criminalized and sent to prison or even death row for just minor offenses. It talks about different points of history that were positive or negative for people of color. It talks about how this is still happening today and in some ways has become worse. Go read it I swear you'll love the stories and be filled with a desire to help those in need.

Second book was White Fragility, I was blown out of the waters by the knowledge DiAngelo threw every which way. She puts things into a perspective that I could really understand and have empathy for. This book and Just Mercy show us exactly how we got from point A - of ignoring racism and what was going on to point B - now when people are triggered when they hear the word racism or white privilege. It really puts into perspective how we, as white people are in a place of extreme power, but we tend to brush it under the rug. It was so eyeopening and if you think I am just a fool for believing what I read, go ahead and get your own opinion I'm here to listen. 

Go read them :) you won't regret it.