Diversity & Inclusion Part II

Introduction

Well, this week in class we discussed diversity and inclusion a bit more. This time focusing one a particular person's impact on immigration. This person being Jose Antonio Vargas. He was the focus of the two documentaries that were available for us to watch. The first one we watched was called "Documented" which followed Jose's life and told us about his experiences as an undocumented American. The second was optional, and it was called "White People." This followed Jose as he went around the country discussing the heavy topic of immigration, diversity, and inclusion.

Documented 

Jose Antonio Vargas is an undocumented American that was brought to the United States by his grandparents when he was 12 years old. The documentary gives us an insight to his life, and how he grew up being undocumented. He didn't even know he wasn't a legal citizen until he tried to get his driver's license when he turned 16. Overall, I thought the film was pretty good. It allowed me to see a side of immigration that I don't think about often enough. Although the film doesn't come right out and say it, the message is pretty clear. Something needs to be done about immigration and the way citizenship is handled in our country. It is nearly impossible for people to gain citizenship in this country by any simple means. Plus, there are waiting lists hundreds of thousands people long. The film had a fair amount of success in addressing its point. It has allowed Vargas to travel around the country to spread this message and educate people on how the immigration process actually works. It didn't change my mind about anything, it just gave me more details. But, I am glad that the film exists and that Vargas is able to travel to tell more people who may think differently.

I also watched the film White People that Vargas hosted. In this documentary, he went around the country and asked young people for their perspectives on white privilege and what it meant to them. Most of the white students that talked about it were visibly uncomfortable. No one knew how to address it. The most common example used by high school and college students was in terms of scholarships. They either thought that white students were more likely to get scholarships or they thought they were being discriminated against when a student of a minority got a scholarship over them. As it turns out, white students are actually 40% more likely to get chosen for scholarships over minority groups.

The Dunking Booth Incident

This is off topic, I know, but I just have to tell everyone how I managed to injure myself this week. So, on Tuesday, there was this dunking booth set up at the rotunda by some fraternity to raise money. I had walked by earlier that day and basically decided I wasn't going to embarrass myself by trying. Then I had to pass it later that day on the way to my class. This time one of my friends was helping run it, and he told me I should come try it. So, I walk over and ask if I can just pay to hit the button. They agree, and I pay my money and prepare myself for the good laugh of dunking the guy in the chair. Let me interrupt this story for a quick background on dunking booths. Okay, so you know how most of them literally just have a button you push? Like a normal button that just pushes down and comes back up? Yeah this wasn't that. This was more of a lever that swung back when you hit it. Thing is, no one told me that. So I walk up prepared to hit this button pretty hard. When I hit the button, it swings back and causes me to continue falling forward with it. As I stumble, the stupid button manages to slice my poor pinky finger. Yeah, that's it. There's no happy ending to that story other than the fact that I the money I paid to get injured went towards a children's hospital so there's that.