&& at times I thought I had it hard..

After listening to Dr. Aguilar speak to the class I felt blessed to have the life I have. Hearing him talk about his lifestyle and how it was hard to manage being a full time student and have a full time job, made me realize that I'm lucky to not be in that situation. He mentioned that him being a first time generation student made him feel as though he wasn't fully accepted back at home because no one could relate to what he was going through. Yet at the same time he felt that he couldn't relate to the lifestyle of being in college because everybody he knew had a general idea of what to expect, but with him he didn't know what was going on. So he was like in the middle of both worlds, you could say. The reason i say that "i thought i had it hard" is because I feel like that at times but i have my family's support and even though I am a first generation college student in my immediate family, I do have a cousin that graduated from UT and her husband as well. They've been giving me advice since i first started and without their help I wouldn't have known what to do. So I'm blessed to have had the lifestyle I had and not to have grown up the way he did and to have the family and friend support. I found what Dr. Aguilar said to be very enjoyable and I can honestly say that I took in everything he said and hope to apply it in the future.

“We know what we are, but not what we may be" -William Shakespeare

       In Wednesdays class the topic of discussion was can whites or other dominant groups be oppressed? That question alone lead to a very heated conversation so much to the point to where I was hesitant to speak up because I didn't know if what I wanted to say would be okay in the moment or even taken the right way. I say that because most people think that in order to be oppressed you have to be a member of a minority group. Seeing as though I'm Mexican American (which automatically makes me a minority) made me wonder, so would other dominant groups include, Mexican Americans to Mexicans? Meaning that WE (Mexican Americans) are the dominant group to the Mexicans (who are from Mexico). If that's the case then yes I do feel as though the dominant group could be oppressed.     
       At first I didn't have a full understanding on what the term "oppress" meant. "Oppress, to cause (someone) to feel distressed, anxious, or uncomfortable." With that, to me being a Mexican American who was born in the United States along with my parents and grandparents I know people who would consider me being born here to "have more opportunities" than themselves. For example, my boyfriend's parents were born in Mexico and came to America after his older sister was born to do what any other parent would do, make a better life for their kids. They felt that coming to America would set up a wonderful and very opportunistic life for her and future kids, and it turned out that it very well did. Sometimes when me and him talk the subject of his parents coming over to America comes up. Seeing as though my parents were BORN here in America some might think that it gives them an advantage because they grew up speaking English, their school systems were more developed than in Mexico, they were given the opportunity to go to college and do something with their lives, and basically they were more well off from the start. There are many people out there that think that since we (Mexican Americans) were born in America they already have a full advantage to try and make something of themselves. Whereas, Mexicans (those who came from Mexico) are struggling to do the same thing as Mexican Americans.
       So yes, the dominant group can be oppressed. Just because I'm a Mexican American born in America doesn't change the fact that my family and many more families out there struggle just as hard. We're already labeled as minorities, so being the dominant group to Mexicans does make me feel oppressed at times because here we are the dominant group to them but yet at the same time struggling with the same things as them and puts me in a difficult and uncomfortable position.
      That's just how I feel on the subject. I may not have addressed the question right or might have just mumbled over my words or whatever, but If I didn't then hopefully you have a well enough understanding on what I was trying to say.

"justice as fairness"

Blogging is supposed to be about being yourself and telling how you feel about anything that is going on in your life at the moment, so that's how I'm going to start this first post in this class. By seeing how many articles I had to read, I had a tough time trying to sit down and get a well enough understanding on what was going on. After reading for awhile, I had a different perspective. Most of what i got was that we have this concept on social justice to help every single person to try and have the same opportunities like everyone else and basically have the same basic bill of rights in this country. when in reality it is not really the truth. It's very obvious that our society is far from fulfilling our duty of serving every individual. With that being said it is not that hard to see that many people are being treated very unfairly due to their background and current situations.With the limited resource that we are faced with in this country it causes a roadblock in our career paths to try and better our many communities and certain individuals that really need help. There are certain groups and organizations that suffer the most because they are the ones that need more help than others but yet there are other groups that receive that needed help before them. So you could say that there will be always someone in need at the end of the day.

ahhha! I knew one day I would join the blogging world!

So this is the first time I've ever tried blogging. I have no idea what I'm doing and how this works. I keep asking myself, is this how you're supposed to do it? I guess ill find out..