Calebs english blog

 As it might sounds crazy to some people, my stereotypical perception of a food came from collard greens. I know in most African American cultures collard greens are an essential, but when I was younger I always viewed them in an odd way. The stereotype came from the fact that I was a young child, and most young child’s across America start out with a weird relationship with any type of vegetables. It was until 2017, when my family hosted a birthday party for my grandmother. I always avoided collard greens when choosing the meals on my plate, but this specific day I decided to choose them. After making my plate, I went to the table with my cousins and sat down. I would usually target the Mac and cheese or cornbread first, but I decided to go for the collard greens first. I bit into a fork-full of greens, and immediately that’s where my mind was reprogrammed. After that day, I started eating more collard greens every time we went to a family reunion.

A must have dish in my culture is macaroni and cheese, or any type of pasta. Macaroni and cheese is a dish where macaroni pasta is baked with cheese sauce, typically cheddar and served as a dish. It’s significant because most of my family reunions we always bake mac and cheese. Most families in the African American culture mostly bake Mac and cheese also. Whether it’s thanksgiving, Christmas, family reunion, birthday, etc, my family must always have a pan of Mac and cheese or some sort of pasta

 Every time I’m having dinner with my family there was one thing that was always a red flag. We could not use our phones when having family dinner. In my family it’s seen as a necessity to talk to the people around you as you’re eating. No one ever got in trouble for this it’s just my family doesn’t find this the most ideal way to have dinner. 

 I think the fairness and opportunity has just changed a little bit over the years. Back then in Troy’s time, opportunity was heavily altered by a person’s race and status. We can see the same in some areas of today, but a little more different. Today, there will be some discrimination out there, but the people today have more opportunity to get jobs and maintain those jobs. Even thought the world revolved around racial suppression at this time, if I was in Troy’s feet, I would keep fighting. I wouldn’t let the fact that people who view me a certain way that’s different from the person I am stop me from getting a job and taking care of me and my family. With the strength and perseverance God has bless me with, I would keep on moving with the most confidence, knowing that no matter what people think of me, I’m going to do my job and do it properly. 

 The character that stood out the most for me in fences is Jim bono(the same person I did a project on). Bono is someone who just enjoys being around people, creating bonds with them, loving them, and just being a great friend. I like the way he lives his life and understand how his ways of life works. My project represents this by just the character bono is. Listing 10 items that would be on his trash can, really allowed me to fully learn more thongs about the character as I go through the plays.

 No, you do not necessarily have to forget what a person did to forgive them. My whole entire life, every time I forgive someone for what they did, I left it as that but I did not forget it. For example, one time in 2nd grade, one of my friends threw a pencil at my eye causing an injury to it. In that moment I was hurt and could not forgot what they have done, but because of my job as a follower of Christ, I forgave them and contained to love them

 The character that appeared differently for me in the movie is bono. When reading the book, I expected bono to be someone with more brown skin, wears a hat, and is the most calm and sincere in the movie. When watching Denzel Washington’s film, bono was more the person who enjoyed being around Troy and his family. Reading the book, I did know that bono like to make jokes, but I just thought he was someone who would crack those jokes randomly.

 I do believe one lie/betrayal can change the way you view someone. Even if you love someone so much to the point you have the most trust in them, one lie can give you a new perspective on that person. One lie or betrayal can show you a side you never seen of them or actions they may have hid. Even if they betray you, I openly believe trust can be rebuild. If the person shows you and acts everyday on changing their ways, that’s how you can build the trust back in them if you lost it. A situation where trust can not be rebuild is if that person won’t change. If that person is not self aware of what they are doing and they keep running back, I don’t blame you if your trust for them drops. Yes have strong faith in that person, but at some point ask yourself, how much times are they going to keep doing this and are they going to change?

 No I do not believe support your child emotionally should be separate from their responsibility. Along with providing for your child with clothes, food and shelter, your second role should also be their personal therapist and their #1 fan in their life. When things are not going as planned in the child’s life, it doesn’t matter if you have to explain in a tough or more sympathetic way, you should always be there for them and explain to them how life goes on. When they feel like they can’t push through, no matter your tone, you should be the one to encourage them. Now I don’t believe in a friendship with your kids because you’re not your kids friends, but at the end of the day you should be their first love before anything.

 There’s multiple things I’ve wanted to do but did something I didn’t want to or something that would benefit me, but this one time was a very important choose for me. One day I felt like turning on my console and playing video games. But as I lay there in my bed I also thought to myself that I haven’t read my Bible in a minute. So that day and multiple days, I was faced with playing virtual games or building and strengthening my faith and also my relationship with God. As a teenager this was a hard decision for me at the time, but in my mind I knew how much peace I would feel with just spending time with God for a hour. So I decided to pick up my Bible and I read for an hour. Before and after I was done reading, I said a prayer that made my mind so clear and help me find peace. I not only felt glad, I felt like that very decision was the best decision I’ve made with my time.

 My belief is adult children should be able to handle on their own but ask parents for money for the smallest help. In my experiences, I’ve seen countless of times of people who stand strong on their own, but may ask their parents for the smallest help. One of my cousins who is wealthy and have their own family, one day just asked my uncle for a small amount of money to help buy something for their newborn child. Even though my uncle knows my cousin is wealthy, he still sent just the amount of money my cousin needed for their newborn child. In the end, it’s ok to ask your parents for money unless it’s some big thing or you’re going to run away and unwisely spend it.

The fence I built was to keep sin out my life. At a young age I was taught to avoid sin and live for Christ and his kingdom everyday, but also understand that as humans we’re going to sin everyday and the only way we can be saved is through the Love of Jesus Christ. Even though we sin, I built a fence in my life to avoid sin and not yearn for sinning. So far in my life, the fence has helped me live the way I am supposed to. Even though I sin, I may not live in sin and yearn to do it willingly.

 No parents do not have to like their children. The parents role is to be the ultimate provider and to love and show them how to love while also to survive in the world. Just liking someone is enjoying their presence and being comfortable around us. Parents are not suppose to like us but, love us by protecting us, teaching us, and providing for us until it’s our time to leave the nest. In conclusion, I agree with Troy, as parents you should not like your children, but love them and support them up until their time to go into the world.

 The masks presentations taught me the coolest features of people. When spectating the mask presentations, I got to learn so much about people that I didn’t know about them. Some people carried cool traditions, some had the same beliefs as me, and some had unique qualities found deep in themselves. I live life by never judging someone I don’t know, but after seeing the masks presentations, I’ll still strongly love life by this because of the features of people you don’t know.

 The time I felt i truly belonged is where I started going to church more. My mom has always wanted me to interact more and learn more from Gods word and people around to support me. My 6th grade year my mom got me into a. Children’s church group, and for the first time I never realized how much other followers of Christ are similar to you. The people around me didn’t judge me for everything, but taught me what honors God and what doesn’t and Loved me at the same time. Till this day I thank my mom for getting me into that group.

 The fear I’ve overcame the most is the fear of caring about what others think of me. During my grade school years, whether I was new or have been at the school, I was always embarrassed to do stuff because I thought, “what would people think of me?” Stuff that I enjoyed, loved I always held myself back because I thought I was going to be judged for it. It was not until I got a therapist that I learned that I shouldn’t let the thought of people having an opinion on me stop me from doing the things I love. This fear kind of carried into my 6th grade years, but after a while I fully removed it from my thought process.

 A perspective that changed my view on a person is the time I stopped listening to single stories about southern whites. My whole life since 2012, I’ve always seen on the news on southern Caucasian Americans being racist, and preforming terrorists acts against African Americans. It was not until 2015 that I learned not all Caucasian Americans are the same. One day, at my middle school in Alabama, I came across someone trying to trick me into doing something. I was new so at the time I didn’t understand what they were asking me to do, so I was going to probably do it out of curiosity. If it wasn’t for the fact that my one of the administrators stopped me and held the boys who tried to get me to trick myself, I would’ve had a public embarrassment story in my memory. I thank that administrator till this day, that he pulled them away from me and took me somewhere more safe with better people.

 So far my experience with mutual-cultural lit has been good. Just being in class and having discussions, taking notes and retaining that information, and competing the assignments has been going the best for me. Challenges in front of that has only been my thought process. The only thing I have let got in front of me is thinking too much on some assignments. I mostly just need to improve my thinking by not thinking so much on whatever I am doing. I feel like if I just master my mindset in this class, I’ll have no barriers in between.

 There multiply things in my culture that travels with me. For example no matter where I go, I’m defending going to vibe to some music. Whether it’s rap, neo soul, soul, rnb, etc, I will forever have music around me. Another thing is no matter where I go, I’m always going to use some type of slang, whether I have to explain it to the other person or they understand me, I’ll forever use slang. Lastly, my faith in my taste in food will follow everywhere I go. Because of my strong faith in Christ and my strive to follow him, I will praise him whether I’m in America or another country. And then secondly, my taste in food will go wherever I go. I usually like entrées with a source of some meat, rice and vegetables. Most countries have dishes like this so if I go out of America, I’ll think I’ll be used to other countries foods.

 I enjoyed class-discussions the most in class today, August 25, 2026 in 6th period. We went over the myth of a Latin woman and how stereotypes affect people of different groups. As we read throughout the first paragraph of the story, we broke it down and analyzed it. I was able to conduct what stereotypes that people who are Latino/a has to face. With the class discussions, it gave a boost to my understanding of the story and to how I’m suppose to complete the assignment.