Critical Journal for Class of 6/23/15

            Today in class many subjects were the focus of our class discussion, such as the Charleston class shootings, what “trapdoors” are present in the academic system, and two different perspectives, given by two students, of the advantages whites have in society due to their economic advantages. 

            When I heard the two people debate their own perspectives on what advantages white people have in this country, I couldn’t help but choose to not take either side.  I am a white thirty year old female that grew up in a middle class family and neighborhood, and I have had the exact opposite experience that the two students that argued together seemed to know of this type of people.  I grew up going to private religious schools for a good portion of my life until I was diagnosed with clinical depression and was hospitalized in the adolescent ward of a psychiatric hospital.  After that, due to the fact that my grades went downhill, I went to a public school where at least half, if not more, of the students were of Hispanic and black race.  I went to community college for a while, and because I was not apt to work, I stayed in a halfway home for eight years.  This is why when I was witness to the two students debating over whether white people have the most advantage in our society, I feel that I should have jumped into the conversation and given them my point of view to consider. 

The trap door and misfortune of mental illness can make anyone a victim in our society, white, black, Hispanic, etc., and this is why I feel like I should have said something to the students about seeing the “big picture,” where any type of misfortune can happen to anyone, so that we should all try to work together as a community, a city, a nation, and a world, to achieve the best possible relations among all races and types of people.