Warning, long entry! Requires a "what else is she saying »".

Yesterday, my mother and I were running errands. On the way to the post office on Eisenhower Dr., we saw a plane coming in to land around 4:30 PM. However, it wasn't just any plane. It was one of the planes used as Air Force One. My mother got goosebumps just looking at it.

Well, History was fun today! NOT! Class was all okay today. Before class, two other female students around me discussed that the actions of SuperLiberal and Irania were uncalled for yesterday. It seemed the only thing that might have been annoying today was SuperLiberal asking if the Chicago White Stockings were the Chicago White Sox, which isn't too bad, if you think about it. As we made a fleeting mention of baseball being the leisure activity of the time and it being segregated, I remarked the book didn't remark on Ty Cobb. The book mentioned segregation and I'm thinking with a character such as Ty Cobb being baseball, maybe segregation was safer for those that played in the Negro Leagues. I have heard nothing positive about Ty Cobb's personality and I do not really look at him at a great guy. This guy in the back, which I'm not sure what to call without sounding offensive or racist, remarks about the book leaving out Jackie Robinson. Well, considering we're talking about the turn of the century era, Ty Cobb is more in the moment than Jackie Robinson. I would have been lucky if that was the worst of class.

We started talking about Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois a few minutes later. The professor explained the difference in that Washington supported vocational skills where DuBois supported liberal arts. The guy in the back, which I will now refer to as Noir Fierté, speaks up discussing that he couldn't understand and didn't like Washington's support of vocational skills over liberal arts. SuperLiberal replies that we had to look at the time period from Washington's perspective. At the time, Washington felt that skills were better for the blacks of the time so they could become prosperous. Noir Fierté would not back off and continued. The professor tried to explain that Noir Fierté was trying to say that vocational education was not education. Noir Fierté said he would rather work $8.00 with a degree than earn $75,000 without one. He kept it up trashing Washington. Others in the class were defending Washington. Irania got into the discussion, too, and believe it or not, sided with SuperLiberal in defending Washington! The discussion turned into a heated debate after the professor was trying to placate Noir Fierté. The oldest woman in the class, now known as Grandma, started speaking about black kids in high school showing no respect in class. She started the all the black mothers in the saying the provide of their kids. It turned into a really heated debate that the poor professor had no control of. I wanted to walk out of class and I think the two girls around me wanted to do it too. The professor tried to calm the class down and they still kept speaking. I screamed at the top of my lungs to hold it. Thankfully, class time was over. I think a lot of my classmates were not happy about what had transpired in the class.

When I spoke to my History/Ethics classmate before Ethics, she said she wanted to walk out of class when Noir Fierté and the SuperLiberal/Iranian duo were getting into it. I agreed. She also said she worried about Noir Fierté being a history student. She felt he had a lot of luggage to drop if he was going to get a degree.

The sad fact about history, is there was a bunch of racism and evilness in the past as there is now. However, we should work on improving relations between one another and not allow skin color to affect how we perceive others. Yet, some people or both races are still stuck in that world. That's a real shame.

Ok, Ethic class, we did review for tomorrow's quiz. The male nursing student behind me said he was lost in the class, too. I know I'm so lost. The book we've been reading this week is too convoluted in its discussion of icons like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Wendell Phillips. I need to study tonight for the quiz. She says the quizzes are essays but that short answer will be fine. I'm the type of person that likes to put in as much information as I can but I don't feel like I'm grasping it all.

That's enough for school. The game between the Atlanta Braves and the Detroit Tigers will be coming on soon. Good! I need a break!

[♪ Listening to: "No One Is to Blame" – Howard Jones on Mix 107.7 (Dayton, OH)]

Posted by Shawn at June 10, 2004 12:11 PM in Schooling.