Journal for School

I had to make a response to a story we read for class. Here's the task: Describe how one of the characters is an "outsider" and define what makes him or her an outsider. I hate writing these little journals. It's good because it causes me to think critically about what I'm reading but I feels it's an inconvenience to my time. Here what I wrote:


RAB
Professor Wu
ENG 1302
March 2, 2009
Journal Entry #11

The Impact of A White School Teacher in A Latino School District
Ernesto Quinonez’s excerpt from “Bodega Dreams” brings forth an effect of being an outsider in a Latino community. Quinonez introduces a white school teacher to a predominately Latino school district and the results get physical. The white school teacher verbally stereotypes his students; in his opinion, this is a way of encouragement. He tries to encourage these students to prove him wrong by telling them they will end up in jail [because they are Latino] if they don not do well in school. To one student the white instructor says “You’ll be lucky to even make jail,” (pg 173). His grand insult ultimately leads to the student he made that comment to, attacking him then biting a chunk of flesh out of his neck. The instructor is in a predominately Latino school district and he is white. This is the reason he is an outsider. Some people can be an outsider and no one will think about it. This type of person typically makes an effort to adapt to their surrounds and include aspects of the new culture into their ways of life. This foolish instructor goes into a sleeping bears den with bells on. His foreignness is exemplified by his stubbornness to adapt facets of the culture he works in to his daily life. His students do not seem to be bothered by his race. They are however, extremely offended by the way they are treated. This instructor is creating a divide between this Latino class and how they see outsiders such as white men. Divides such as these can be avoided if the human race takes time to acknowledge and respect one another’s races.