In fall of 2008 I wrote a reaction essay to the movie "The Color of Fear" and it was an interesting movie about a group of guys from different races in a group therapy that lasted for a weekend in San Francisco. It is highly recommended even if it is a little bit old, but the same still applies to today's problems. Enjoy the essay and leave your feedback, of course will be a little difficult to follow the examples, but the material is understandable I think.
Fearing Colors
In "The Color of Fear", we saw how a group of men talked about racism. It was a very interesting experience watching each of them expressing their emotions in such a deep level. I was especially surprised by how Victor, the African American man, and David, the white guy were able to argue face to face about their views in regards to racism.
I know it is a hard topic of anyone to get into and deal with. Because, no one likes getting put on the spot light or being called a racist in front of a group of people. Last semester I took the class of race relations and culture, it was a very interesting class and we also like in the movie were put in the middle of a group of students to talk about our racism. It was a life changing experience since we got to demystify our prejudices and stereotypes we had towards some groups of people. Just like in the movie we went through the state of transference and transferred our frustrations into the group that we saw it fit using them as scapegoat. Just like Victor, argued that the white men used them to escape their problems and blame into them.
Victor and David both represented the white and black culture that there is in this country. Each has its differences that sometimes as David said the white people are not able to see or want to see. I found it interesting how David did not identify with any particular culture or race. This diffusion of reality helped David to not worry about racist or just to ignore it and move on with his life, but Victor brought it up into the light for him to see. I can relate to David in some terms, because in Mexico we have pretty much the same experiences as David has I think. We do not have to worry about where people come from or what is their culture like, we just assume everyone is almost in the same boat and look more into social classes than differences in races. Of course, there is still racist towards black people but in Mexico they hardly make any deal about it. These attitudes we carry on when we come to the United States and discriminate against those people.
Functionalist might argue that racism helps keep control over people, but it does more harm than good. In the movie many of the men expressed their concerns about racism and its consequences some said that it made them feel invisible and others felt too much anger because they were not the ideal American that everyone thinks one should be. This does not only an obstacle for people of color but, a shield for white people to keep on top. I think this is slowly changing but there still needs to be much more work to be done in terms of racism in our society. It is not functional having people harvesting anger and resentment towards others.
"The Color of Fear" I think should be shown to all people so they can begin to discuss racism in our society. This would teach people about the consequences of racism and begin the healing process. This might be a hard task to do but it can be done if we are willing to. Only then we will truly be a country with the same opportunities for everyone and have a fair chance at completing our goals and dreams.
Humanities Essay. A little bit advanced religion type of essay, please check the links for reference if you get stuck! Wrote it for one of my humanities classes, feedback is welcomed.
Karma Yoga
Arjuna in chapter 3 asks some questions about why he should keep fighting and Krishna explains to him why it is necessary to keep fighting. He explains that at the beginning he created two paths; Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga. Jnana yoga, Krishna, explains is the path of spiritual wisdom and karma yoga is the path of selfless service. Krishna urges to Arjuna that he needs to follow the path of selfless action (Karma Yoga) because that’s his yoga since he is a warrior.
Krishna also explains to Arjuna is that at the beginning there was also created mankind and obligation for selfless service. “‘Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find fulfillment of your desires’: this is the promise of the Creator.” (3:10). Selfless service (Karma Yoga) is the path for the “supreme good.” (3:11)
Krishna does not advice Arjuna to follow Jnana Yoga since it is the spiritual path and he is a man of action. Krishna talks about Jnana Yoga as the path for spiritual action, “But they excel who control their senses through the mind, using them for selfless service.”(3:7) this means that there are some people that can follow the path of Jnana Yoga if they are willing to act selflessly and not just for their own good. I think Arjuna would not be able to follow this path since he always wants to act and I think it would be difficult for him to sit still and meditate.
Krishna warns Arjuna about Jnana Yoga as a path of inaction. “Those who abstain from action while allowing the mind to dwell on sensual pleasure cannot be call sincere spiritual aspirants.” (3:6) Krishna points out that while the spiritual path seem to be the easier path to follow it is only for a select few that can actually follow it correctly or at least with the right intentions.
He critics how some people just follow the spiritual path because it is masked as a path of inaction, when in reality it requires just as much selflessly action as Karma Yoga. Jnana yoga requires action to abstain from falling into the path of inaction. Meaning that even if we are in a state of meditation other paths such as laziness and thinking perhaps in doing selfish can easily come as a better option and therefore falling into inaction.
Krishna recommends the path of Karma Yoga to Arjuna. “Fulfill all your duties; action is better than inaction. Even to maintain your body, Arjuna, you are obligated to act.” (3:8) Krishna calls Arjuna to act and not be inactive. He focuses on this more because it is the path that Arjuna needs to follow to achieve the “supreme good.” I think that it can also apply to humanity as a whole, that all of us need to act in other to achieve good or just to get more rewards out of life.
Krishna pushes Arjuna to act in something that goes against his will as fighting those that he loves so much, but Krishna encourages him to act before it is too late. I think this can also be used as an example of how sometimes we need to go against people that have been our teachers and friends to achieve greater good.
Krishna urges Arjuna to fulfill his duties. Krishna talks about how fulfilling one’s duties, “What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world.”(3:21) This means if Arjuna does the right thing many people will follow his example, but more to the point he tells us that if we do great things others will follow our footsteps and make the world a better place. I agree with this idea, because whatever we do connects to the idea of Karma that every action has a reaction.
Arjuna is faced with the challenge of acting now to be an outstanding person. Krishna from verse 3:21-24 he talks about how if he stopped working the universe would fall into chaos. He points out that he always continues to act no matter what and that’s what everyone expect of him.
“The ignorant work for their own profit, Arjuna; the wise work for the welfare of the world, without thought for themselves.” (3:25) Here, Krishna, tells Arjuna to let go of his fears and act for the welfare of humanity. It think this is a very strong message that he calls Arjuna and us to perform, because we can hardly do something without thinking about ourselves first then the rest of the world.
Arjuna struggles to come to his reality that he must fight against those he love and cares for the greater good. I think many of us have gone through this and recognize how hard it is to think of others besides ourselves. This remains me of global warming and how for so long people have refused to do anything about it, they just either ignore it or just pretend it does not exist. Just because it does not affect them it does not mean it is not happening. I think that’s the idea that Krishna is trying to say that the universe is bigger than just ourselves and that we need to act not just based on our selfish desires or for our own profit.
Arjuna asks Krishna what drives people to selfish actions and Krishna answers that selfish desires and anger drive it. He says that they arise from the guna of rajas. Krishna points out that this fills people with evil and put in danger their lives. He gives various examples what it is and one example that I think is important is that of the mirror with the dust on it. I think it is an image of how unclear one might look into the mirror or in this case our lives. The mirror becomes burry when we act selfishly and do not take into consideration others.
Krishna tells Arjuna that the Creator thrives in selfless service. I think here he is referring to the benefit that we might get and not what the creator gets. Because the creator is already the “supreme good” and it does not need any of our selfless service, but is for us to do selfless service and become “supreme good.” Krishna says that he is the creator of everything and that Arjuna must follow the path of Karma Yoga to fulfill his duty in this world. He says that every action is connected to the creator and therefore if we do selfish actions we will suffer the consequences, but if we do selfless actions we might gain the goal that we desire.
Krishna concludes the chapter by saying that all our senses are higher than our bodies and that our mind higher than our senses and above it is Atman. He urges Arjuna and us to act and fight our selfish desires. With selfless action we will rich the “supreme good.”
First Day of Work (1st Draft)
“Happy!!! I am happy!” he yells in front of the mirror and keeps combing his hair. With a big smile he checks his clothes one more time. He adjusts his tie a bit, and turns off the lights. This is his first day at his new work place, and he is surprised to have gotten his dream job after that many years. He walks faster than usual and gets on the bus.
He tries to remember if he closed the door right and if the stove was off. Even after he checked like three times after he left the house. This morning the bus noises are louder than usual, the opening and closing of the doors seem as if they were talking to him. Each bus stop is getting him closer to the first day of his dream job. All last week he practiced going on the same bus route and just stand just a few buildings from his workplace and look at the building where he was going to be working. Every morning he would do the same routine, but this morning was for real.
His heart beats faster as the bus just has a few more stops to get to where he needs to get off. His sweaty hands and stomach begin to hurt. He checks his watch for the fiftieth time and takes a deep breath closing his eyes. There is still time. He thinks, and the bus stop to pick up a couple of people in wheelchairs, the bus kneels down and the sun comes through the windows a little stronger making the air heavy and harder to breathe. He puts his head against the bus window and it feels cold, he can see his reflection on the glass. A long shaved face with big brown eyes and a somewhat small nose. He remembers how kids would make fun of his nose during all his schooldays. Once, he tried to operate it to make it bigger or something but he was too young for such surgery, then he gave up.
He sits straight in the seat and checks his pale reflection on the glass one last time to see if his tie is in the right place. He gets off the bus. The cold morning air greets him as his heart beats faster and faster and his stomach feels like it is turning upside down. He walks to the front door and checks his watch once again, he has five minutes to spare, so he pauses for a moment and waits for some else to come and open the door. The glass door permits him to peek a little as to what is going inside, no one seems to be around and the front reception desk is still empty. Cars and buses pass by and his heart almost stops every time the bus makes a stop next to him. He waits for someone to come, but the wait seems to be eternal. He reads the golden letters on the glass door:
Inks Inc.
126 Wallpaper Avenue
A group of people finally begin to approach the door and getting in fast as fast moving trains. After that another group of people follow, he tries to get in but just as he is about to go to the front door another group of people zoom by and get in before him. He waits for them to get in, and then again tries this time he runs to the door and feels the cold steel handle when he opens the door. He feels the warm AC air coming from inside. He steps in and his lungs take in the artificial air. He waits for the elevator, the fourth floor, he says to himself and the elevator doors close. The elevator numbers light up as it is going up and it stops on the third floor. Another guy keeps staring at the numbers on the top of the elevator door and pushes the button to call the elevator for the tenth time in three minutes. He gives up and uses the stairs.
Curly hair, tall, and brown eyes described almost everything that he was right then. There was no exceptional skills to point out he had or anything exciting on his life to talk about. There was nothing to leave behind after it was time for him to leave this Earth. No one was going to miss him, not even a soul to remember him. He always lived on the sidelines of stuff and there was no reason in thinking that people would remember him for being on the side all the time.
The time finally came and he took the knife from the drawer; he remembers when he got this knife as a gift to his mother on an awkward last minute Christmas gift. He remembers how she embraced him and told him thanks. The cold knife rests against his pale wrist and he feels the teeth of the knife just touching him and he feels has if his heart was on his throat as it beats faster and faster. He takes a last look outside his balcony window and watches as cars speed below him and people waiting at the bus stop some listening to music and some others are talking on the phone.
He sighs.
He feels like when he was about to swim on the deep pool for the first time. His body shaking and blood rushing up and down like electricity runs through a wire. That time he had all the support from his Physical Education teaching motivating him to jump into the pool and he did and swan all the way to the other end of the pool. It was one of the proudest moments on his life and he had finally accomplished something that seemed impossible. He is sure that this time around will be the same. He takes a deep breath and presses the knife’s teeth deep into his wrist.
Blood runs down his wrist and then drips into the white floor below. He feels no pain; it was like that time he cut himself playing with his friends when he was just 7 years old. He fell against a piece of glass bottle that was on dry garden and it went so deep that blood just kept rushing out and when he went to get his mother she almost passed out on the way to the hospital. He remembers as he watched the doctors rushing in and out trying to stop the blood and he just looking at them with eyes that made every nurse that was holding his hand cry. He did not know why this was happening and he just wanted to see how the doctors were curing him. His mother passed out on the hall and the doctors had to help her. He did not understand why his mother was not with him in that moment. He screamed for her minute after minute and she did not come. Just as now, his mother is not going to come. He laughs and laughs as he feels his body screaming in pain and getting weaker by the minute.
He closes his eyes and tears roll down his eyes. He almost killed his mother the day he was born. For the last 15 years he has been reminded by her that he is killing her slow and that someday she will be gone not to bother him anymore. He lets out a weak sigh. And he says to himself “well I will be going first then mother, I do not want to continue killing you slowly… what son would want to do that?”
His body falls to side right into the pool of blood besides him. Bubbles of air form on the little pool as he lets out his last breaths. His heart stops. His curly brown hair now is dark red and is half opened right eye is flooded with blood.
When his mother arrives from the store he finds him there on the floor and runs towards him. Tries to revive him but it is too late and she lets out a scream of pain as if thousand swords were piercing her heart and passes out with him on her arms.
Swords crash amid air and break the silence of the night. Yells come from the top balcony, as guards with their swords on hand rush down to assist their master is in trouble. The cold breeze moves her hair as she points the sword against the "masters" neck and the moonlight reflects from her almost white hair. She looks to where the guards are coming and quickly moves her sharp sword...
The sharp in one clear cut, cuts off the neck of the "master" and it falls to the ground. Before the guards arrive she disappears into the night. Guards look for her but she is nowhere to be found. The sun announces its arrival by painting the surrounding mountains bright orange, devouring the darkness slowly. She reappears at the top of the mountain, and walks towards the edge with her bloody sword...
She drops to her knees and looks up towards the sky with her face still covered in blood. She sighs. Finally the revenge that her father wanted for so long was done, and the "master" was finally dead. Tears roll down her cheeks and she smiles and breaks into a hysterical laugh. The morning birds begin to sing, and at the distance the canons of the loyal army can be heard from the distance...
She knows they are coming for her and she just stays still for a bit, and then opens her arms towards the sky and closing her eyes images of her playing with her father replay on her mind over and over again. The hunting of the wild rabbits, the fishing on the open ocean and yes she can't forget the time her father forged her first sword. A small one with her initials on it. B.V., she remembers playing for hours with it.
One day the loyal army came to her small town and took every men that could bear a sword, and they took her father. Her father ordered her to hide on their secret house on top of the mountains, and she obeyed, years passed and she continued on living on her own. They got desperate because she heard no news of her father. When she asked the loyal army, they told her to f. off and as she continued her search...
On her search for answers she discovered that her father had been killed by the "master" because he did not want to do the corrupt missions he ordered. Many people told her how the "master" just played with him by killing him slowly by dragging him with his horse, then kicking him until he did not responded anymore and to finish it off, the "master" left him to bleed an underground cell hanging from his writs.
From that day forward she decided to train to be strong enough to take on the "master" and when she did, she studied day and night how the guards rotated around the palace and when the opportunity opened she attacked and killed the "master" with such delight that it had to be one of her most happy moments on her life. The marching footsteps of the loyal army are coming closer and she can already hear the dogs.
The dogs bark and run towards where she is kneel down. She smiles and the loyal guards call their dogs. One of the guards tell her to drop her sword but she just holds on to it tighter and arrows fly across the blue sky sinking deep into her back. She laughs and laughs and blood make a small lake around her. The wind stays still as she slowly hits the ground. The crows fly off at the distance, and the sky turns grey.