Reading Response

Brent Staples, a young African American journalist, explains the hardships of his everyday life in respect to his complexion and heritage in “Just Walk on By.” He tells of the treatment that he witnesses on a daily basis, some of which include awkward looks and the hurried movements of people trying to counter his path. Staples also renders the story of a drastic event in which his fellow journalist was mistakenly deemed a suspected murderer due to his appearance.
This article caught my attention due to the nature of the addressed topic; racial profiling and stereotyping. I can relate to Staples experiences. I, myself am an African American, but unlike Staples I am a female. Though there are some factors that are attributed solely to African American males, many of the stereotypes are linked to blacks as a whole. I cannot count the various incidents that I have faced being a young Afrcan American woman. Unlike Staples I will not, and find it totally ridiculous to go to great lengths to make myself appear harmless to those who are fearful of my presence or come up with various statics as to why it is acceptable that people unlike me treat me with disrespect.
Reading this article actually upset me in many ways, the first being the fact that it brought to mind the complete ignorance of people in the world today in association with stereotyping the other injustices. I find it really disheartening that mistreatment remains very prevalent within our society but I remain hopeful that it will lessen with time and that minorities can be treated with the same respect in the unconscious manner that represents humility.

Reading Response

Will Wright tackles critics of video games with his unique take on the gaming world and its advantages within his article “Dream Machines.” Wright’s main incentive is to portray video games within a new, positive light and show how their role within society is actually beneficial for our youth in aspects of creativity.
Wright argues that video games not only offer children, and all other age groups who partake in the pastime, fun but also provide them with new ways of thinking and approaching various ideas. Wright avidly justifies gaming with his theory that playing a new game is a “rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis.” He explains that when a person, young or older begins playing a video game he or she rarely takes a look at the manual thus they each partake in the trail and error process. Wright states that this process allows people to carry out creative thinking by making them figure the game out themselves opposed to reading the manual thus taking them through the paths of creative thinking.
I found this reading to be very convincing and informative. I, myself am a huge critic of video gaming and its effects on adolescents and young adults alike due to the graphic nature of many of the games. However, I accept the games due to the fact that many of us are able to separate reality and fantasy and those of us that aren’t equipped with this ability; children, can be taught.
From reading this article I was able to agree with Wright’s assertion that video games are a form of tapping into your creativity and using your skills to develop ways to beat the system. I’m not positive I agree that the creativity steaming from video gaming alone will spark the creativity essential for the upcoming generations productive ideas, but I do agree that playing video games does, in some ways entice the creative side of those involved, especially will the game is actually worthwhile.