Words Matter #4

Undocumented Migrants, Free Now to Visit Mexico, Face Iffy Future

NY Times

Nov 5th, 2016

 

"The plan was to return a couple of years later, but instead they remained, undocumented, in New York City. The boxes and bags stayed where they had left them, their contents mostly forgotten: a family’s beacon of hope."

 

"I don’t know if I’m an American in disguise or a Mexican trying to be American,” Mr. Torres said midway through the visit. “We’re coming home in a sense, but it doesn’t feel like home anymore.”

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This article captures the untold side of the stories of just a few Mexican immigrants. I really like how in the first quote the writer captures the families "beacon of hope" as he also describes how the boxes that once held their most important impressions are still left unopened, as if they never got around to unpacking them, it creates a eminent image in my mind. The quote from Mr. Torres is also very powerful, and exemplifies the way that many Mexicans living in America feel. The article discusses about how Mexicans feel in a sort of limbo, of conforming to standards of Americans but not leaving behind their Mexican culture. It is a powerful article and really shed light on a topic that often stays in the dark.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/world/americas/mexico-immigrants.html?_r=0

Words Matter #3

"Behind 2016's Turmoil, a Crisis of White Identity"
New York Times
November 1st, 2016

"Whiteness, in this context, is more than just skin color. You could define it as membership in the “ethno-national majority,” but that’s a mouthful. What it really means is the privilege of not being defined as “other.”"

 

"Whiteness means being part of the group whose appearance, traditions, religion and even food are the default norm. It’s being a person who, by unspoken rules, was long entitled as part of “us” instead of “them.”"

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think that the message behind these two quotes is extremely powerful. These quotes, and the article that they come from, shine a light onto the fact that we have grouped so many different cultures under one blanket of "white" just based on skin color, and have excluded people who don't fit that category into "other". This is such a derogatory term, and I believe that the article really speaks about white privilege and how dangerous and destructive that is towards racial equality.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/world/americas/brexit-donald-trump-whites.html?src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article

Words Matter #2

Resettling China’s ‘Ecological Migrants’
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/25/world/asia/china-climate-change-resettlement.html?ref=world
NY Times
October 25, 2016

"The “lake” part of Miaomiao Lake Village turned out to be nothing but a tiny oasis more than a mile from the cookie-cutter rows of small concrete-block houses."

"Instead, these people who once herded sheep and goats over expansive hills now feel like penned-in animals, listless and uncertain of their future."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really love the way the author is able to capture the way that many people of the Miaomiao Lake Village were deceived, by explaining the "lake" as a tiny oasis surrounded by "cookie-cutter rows of small concrete-block houses." This lucid description of the environment in witch these people live, paints a picture that almost everyone can imagine. The author is making something ordinary such as an over populated town, something extraordinary by using vivid descriptions. the second quote is similar to the first in that it exemplifies the way the citizens were deceived, and their roles of living free and herding animals switched resulting in them being herded into an unwanted way of living.  

Words Matter #1

Words Matter #1

"‘This Is the Only Shelter We Have’: Storm-Battered Haitians Huddle in Caves"
NY Times
October 17th 2016

"When the rain comes at night in these distant mountains, the people flee what homes they have left. They race down hills threaded with stones and ragged palm branches, the earth the color of rust."

"For four days and nights, they huddled in its womb before emerging, frightened the hurricane might return. They slept on a floor of stacked boulders near the cave’s mouth, lighting small fires for warmth and light."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really love these two excerpts from an article about the damaging effects of Hurricane Matthew. The author really chose to make the ordinary extraordinary by describing simple events such as rain and wind in immense detail that really engulfs the reader into the story as if he/ she were actually there. I particularly like the phrase about the survivors huddling in the caves womb, because it really brings to life how that cave is a save place of refuge, to escape such tragic events.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/world/americas/haiti-hurricane-matthew-caves.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

What is Journalism?

Journalism, more specifically citizen journalism is the ability of citizens to broadcast what is occurring around them. Citizen journalists are able to share current events as they happen to a larger platform of people awaiting what they have to give them. In a world of 21st century technology along with citizen journalism people are able to obtain news as it is happening. The difference between journalists and citizen journalists, are that those that have the title of journalist compile information from many different sources to create a solid refined review of what they believe has happened, while citizen journalists more or less broadcast the raw events to let the general masses of people understand the basis of what happened and form their opinion.