White Mainstream

I think values will stop being White when we finally do away with the social construct of race. Why does anything need to be White, Black, Asian, Latino? We are all people with similarities and differences with one another. When we learn that no one is superior to anyone then values will stop being based on race, class, or wealth.

Knowledge in Future

I hope to learn whatever has been lacking in my education thus far and from what I've been reading in our book there is quite a lot... I think the knowledge that I will gain will make me a more well-rounded and better educated person and better suited for the many interactions I will be having with people of all histories everywhere...

Starting the Blog (Chapters 1&2)

Reading chapters 1 and 2 in our African American Studies book introduced me to a lot of important historical figures that I had not heard of before or had heard of their name but not their significance in history. I would like to learn more about historical Black figures in American history. Three things that surprised me when I was reading were that Black was a major term of pride in the 60s (pg 3) that there were so very many historical figures who did such great things that I had never even heard of (pg 11-21) and that my education has in fact been skewed toward a Eurocentric view.... These were all very surprising to me that I had been led to think that basically the opposite was true... Three questions I had from these chapters are If Black is still preffered or if African American is more commonly used now I was wondering also why since we are aware that education is presented in a Eurocentric view why it isn't changed.... If we know there is a problem then why aren't we changing it?

Introductions...

My name is Margaret Oltman and I'm majoring in Anthropology and Sociology and I was born and raised in Pleasant Plains my whole life. I am a sophmore new to UIS this semester from Parkland Community College in Champaign and so far I am a member of Soccer Club but would like to become a member of other groups and/or clubs. So as far as membership I haven't had much time to get involved in much on campus or in the community in the couple weeks I've been here for but am lookin forward to some involvement in both. My future goals are to graduate with my bachelor's and then go on to get my masters in anthropology and from there go out into the world and study the many different cultures of people everywhere.