Anchors Aweigh

To my friends:

Im sorry if I don't speak to you all in the next couple of weeks. For those who don't know, I've joined the Navy and will be reporting for basic training soon. This isn't a dream of mine, or exactly what I planned to do with my life, but I still want to make the best of this experience and be successful.

I will be focused on becoming a sailor and achieving my goals from this point forward, so this will be my last post for a while.

stay tuned...
Corey

Celebrity Crushes

The other day I saw a segment on a news program that discussed how average people have celebrity "crushes". There was a psychologist and a therapist, of some kind, debating whether it's healthy for someone in a relationship to admire celebrities.

I didn't care what they had to say, (healthy, or not)! The whole time I was thinking about my celebrity crushes. Yup, I like one or two girls I'll never have...

*Keisha Castle Hughes, Natalie Portman, Parminder Nagra, Rosario Dawson

Indian

Over the last couple of days I've been hearing the word "Indian" used a lot:

*The Cleveland Indians are just a baseball team, but the name and logo had to come from somewhere...

*Adam Beach plays a Native American Marine in Flags of our Fathers and his character takes constant abuse, nicknamed "Chief". It became annoying after hearing it so much , but it is indicative of the time and was acceptable for that reason.

(plus more...)

The examples I gave above are clearly relating to Native Americans. So, what's the problem? It's offensive. As an African American currently observing many different race controversies, I feel like I should have enough to worry about. But I think it's ironic that not only are African Americans threatened with racial problems, but many other (__________) Americans are being taunted about their ethnicity as well.

Just as I my skin color is not "BLACK", I don't like being called it, (although I don't really mind). So when Native Americans are called "Indian", I'm sure that they're annoyed because they're not from India.

And recently I've heard people talk about how oversensitive Americans are becoming. But I feel that if people are being taunted by ignorance and discrimination constantly, then it's not oversensitivity. It's more like cultural awareness.

Because of this I've been trying not to refer to African Americans as "blacks"; although it is easier to say and has been embedded into our society as an acceptable term. From those two examples alone I realized that words are more powerful and influential than we think. So be careful not to offend someone, no matter if it seems not to bother them.