Valedictorian Facing Deportation Cool to Rubio's DREAM Act Redo

I recently came across an article on Yahoo! News that talked about the story and situation surrounding Daniela Pelaez, an 18-year-old valedictorian who is planning to become a molecular biologist after attending Dartmouth University on a full academic scholarship.  The issue in this situation lies in the fact that Pelaez is undocumented, ergo she is technically in the United States illegally and is now facing possible deportation.  Pelaez came to America at age four with her family in 1999, and has not left since.  Her and her sister stayed in the country after her parents were forced to return to their native Colombia.  Personally, I feel that Daniela Pelaez should be permitted to stay in the country to continue to pursue a degree from a well-renowned University to major in a field that will no doubt end up benefitting society.  An argument can be made that she is an illegal resident of our country, but in this case she was not brought here by choice, yet she has excelled academically and extra circularly over the past thirteen years here.  Pelaez should be able to stay and even pursue a permanent citizenship in the US, because truthfully what is the harm in giving such a talented individual an opportunity like this?

Article on Mexican Immigration

When one thinks of immigration here in the United States, it seems like the stereotype is to think of Mexicans migrating into the US.  After reading this article on Mexican immigration, that stereotype needs to be done away with.  The article talks about how for the last four decades, Mexican migration into the United States has been constantly surging, but has now come to almost a stop recently as migration of illegal immigrants back into Mexico as opposed to into the United States.  The total of illegal immigrants from Mexico that are living here in the United States has dropped nearly one million in the past 5 years.  I think that this is all very promising for Mexico and Mexicans alike.  With less native Mexicans seeking to migrate from their native country, it’s not a stretch to assume that the country of Mexico itself, as well as the population, could get stronger.  This would be beneficial to millions of people, and it would also help to get rid of a negative and misguided stereotype regarding Mexican immigration.

Article on Zimmerman bail

With all the talk and the public outcry over the February 26^th shooting death of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, I was interested in following how the public and authorities handled the case with George Zimmerman, who was the shooter in the incident.  I recently came across an article that talked about the fact that Zimmerman was released from jail on $150,000 bail.  This has many people upset, because a majority of the public viewed the shooting as racially motivated, and therefore an even worse crime than other shootings.  The defense wanted Zimmerman’s bail to be denied or to be posted at one million dollars.  Although I am definitely not comfortable commenting on the incident too much, from what I know I think that Zimmerman should have been allowed the bail at the $150,000 it was set at.  Our country prides itself on our ideals, and one of those is the fact that every man is innocent until proven guilty, and at this point he is still an innocent man who is being accused of an incident with the concept of “race” behind it.

Whither the Female Sports Fan

In my English class, we read an article entitled “Whither the Female Sports Fan?” from the Carolina Reader textbook.  It takes a look at how women’s sports have struggled to compete with their male counterparts.  It was very shocking yet realistic how the author details the fact that even when making history, women’s sports teams such as the Connecticut Huskies ladies basketball team when they broke the UCLA men’s basketball team’s record win-streak.  I couldn’t believe that an accomplishment such as that was not given any serious media attention, at least not like a men’s team would have received.  In order for there to be complete gender equality, equality in sports is a necessity.  Men and women alike should be more open to attending and giving the due attention to women’s sports, whether they happen to be young women or professional female athletes.  It is not an absurd step to take, and I fully believe that it is a necessary step to take for equality to be fully realized.

Official Statement on "Race"

“Official Statement on “Race”” is an article prepared and released by the American Anthropological Association (AAA).  This article was a very good addition to a previous reading, “Mixed Blood”, which more or less outlined the fact that race is a common misconception among most people.  In the AAA’s article, they clearly and without a doubt set things straight, especially by stating, “the concept of ‘race’ has no validity as a biological category in the human species.”  This would seem to put the issue to rest once and for all, and the AAA did a great job of elaborating on this delicate topic.  The AAA talks about where this misconception originated, when the white Europeans felt the need to categorize “superior” peoples as opposed to “inferior” peoples, and that is where we the human race began confusing biological differences with the idea of alleged “racial” differences.  In order to move forward and get past the “racial” issues that have plagued our species for centuries, we need to first and foremost realize and accept that “race” does not exist in the context in which we use it at all. 

White Privilege

“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, an article written by Peggy McIntosh, takes a look at the usually overlooked elephant in the room, so to speak: white privilege.  When one looks at their daily lives, assuming they are white, it should be evident in most cases that they take their “privileges” for granted.  These include subtle things such as not being racially profiled by companies or the authorities, to a majority of products in every store imaginable being tailored to the white population.  This goes back centuries to the Europeans, with their empires and later on colonies, which established the idea of “white dominance” worldwide.  Unfortunately, this idea has subtly persisted even to our modern day and age, where being white goes a long way.  As a white myself, I can definitely say that I am one who overlooks this day-to-day advantage that I have available to me without even recognizing it.