A Justice Site
Mirror Sites:
CSUDH Habermas UWP
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: April 30, 2001
Latest update: May 8, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org
- Valencia Ross' original thread
- jeanne's suggestion to share thread
- Angel Holliday and Keyana Woolen add their memories
On Monday, April 30, 2001, Valencia Ross wrote:
Hello, Jeanne. I just wanted to start a discussion, because for the last few weeks I have been hearing people discuss Watts, and they always seem to refer to it as some foreign place where only negative things happen. Which is totally untrue, there are a lot of good and intelligent people in the community of Watts. However, they are often overlooked. People don't get a chance to hear about the positive aspects because the media is constantly highlighting the negativity. People need to stop characterizing Watts as "the ghetto." What has happened is they have followed labeling theory. People in the community have gotten so used to all of the negativity that they are blind to all of the good qualities that the city has to offer.Valencia Ross
Criminology
On Monday, April 30, 2001, jeanne responded:
Valencia, this is such a good suggestion that I have put up here with the sample essay exams. Just last night I put up Writing the Urban Jungle, in which McLaughlin says very much what you are saying: that the jungle is many things, amongst which liveliness, exotica, excitement, and a miniature tour of foreign lands, even in the midst of its dangers. McLaughlin sees this in terms of Henry and Milovanovic's interdependence. He sees the good along with the bad. He sees the momentum of the so-called "uban jungle."I'd like for several of you to work on this simultaneously, writing the "urban jungle" of Watts. I promise to keep the file current for you. And I want you to know that McLaughlin describes the "jungle" not as pejorative, but as the mixture of desert and jungle and exotica that T.S. Eliot described in his famous poem, The Waste Land. I'll bring McLaughlin's book this week.
Good idea! Keep thinking like this. love and peace, jeanne
On Sunday, May 6, Angel Holliday and Keyana Woolen wrote:
Hello Jeanne,It's Angel and Keyana again!
Keyana and I read Valencia's comment on Watts. She mentioned wanting to start a discussion. We would love to join in.
I told Keyana about this particular experience I had at work when I told a co-worker that I went to school in Willowbrook.
I was at work on day and a co-worker and I started talking about our high school days. She asked me what school I attended. I told her I am an alumni of King-Drew Medical Magnet High School. She then asked me where it was located because she never heard of it-needless to say I was not suprised. I told her it was located in Willowbrook. She said, "Wow, nice area." She then asked me a series of questions which lead me to tell her it was located between Compton and Watts. Her face dropped. It was like she saw a ghost. "Whoa, alot of bad people live there. They shoot each other and you can't drive your car down there either."
Jeanne, I was speechless for a brief moment. However, I was not totally suprised. I told this victom of "media misinterpetation" that going to school in that area was nothing like she mentioned. I never experienced any of those things while I went to school there. I will not say those types of event were non-exsistant, but I didn't experience those things my entire three years of high school. I met more doctors, lawyers and educators in Compton and Watts than in Santa Monica or West Los Angeles. I think this was because these people were more willing to engage in conversation with a teenager.
I asked this co-worker if she had ever been to Compton or Watts. She told me she never had and didn't plan on going because of mentality of the people that live there. How about that for irony. How could she just pass judgment on cities she had never even visited? Just imagine how many other minds the media has tainted and worpted.
I soon ended the conversation with that particular co-worker, but not a moment before I gave her a hugh chunck of my mind. I told her I didn't appreicate her comment and before she passes judgement on anything be sure to know about it first.
I felt the need to set her straight. I hope now she is a bit more conscious about what she says.
Keyana was not appalled by my co-worker's comment.
jeanne's comment:Was Keyana not appalled because she expected such an attitude? love and peace, jeanne