Newspapers / Fayetteville State University Student … / April 27, 2011, edition 1 / Page 2
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2 The Voice, For students, By Students | April 27, 2011 1 www.fsuvoice.com 1 send news tips to the editor; agarcial ©broncos.uncfsu.edu Class matters How diverse is your social circle? What makes us different? What makes two people “click” and others don’t? Is it just about our personalities? Does race, age, gen der or class play a part? If it does what part does it play? Think about it. How diverse is your fnend pool really? Are you really so racially and socially diverse in your relationships and fnendships that it doesn’t matter? Or do we stick to what feels comfort able. Is it possible that we seek out what we find familiar and stick with that? It’s more than possible. You may find today that you have a mixture of male and female fnendships whereas in a different time that would not (lave been socially acceptable. But if you take a closer look you’ll also find that you may tend to stick to friends closer to your age, race and/or class. What is the deciding factor? Today it’s socially ac ceptable for men and women to be friends. But somewhere within our own cultures we still have that divide. There is a class war. Even if having friends of the same race is ac ceptable or having friends.of different ages and gender is acceptable we still draw the line when it comes to class. Society plays a big role in how we choose whom we interact with. We tend to be friends with those of or own social status. We either went to school with them, they live in our town or our neighbourhood. It’s comfortable. It’s familiar. Anyone outside of that may be too alien, their ways not our ways. It’s in our heads, in our comfort levels. We don’t want to change or adapt to different ways or ideas. We say we do, but we really don’t. If we grew up in a culture that didn’t accept males and females to interact you wouldn’t be comfortable. If you grew up in a culture that said you couldn’t have friends of different races or ages then you wouldn’t be comfortable or you might take for granted that it was possible. Society told you (maybe not literally) that it was not ok and to stay on your side of the fence. While we’vejnanaged to break down some walls, we’ve yet to scale or even pull down that wall between the classes. Who are we kidding? How comfortable would the aver age white middle class person be hanging out with someone of a lower class even possibly of ethnic decent. And who are we kidding how comfortable would the average black, urban male feel hanging out at a garden partjj with a few upper middle class ladies. It’s not about wrong or right or better or worse. It’s about comfort levels. It’s about understanding and adapting. It’s not about tolerance (that’s such a negative word) it’s about accepting, learn ing from each other and realizing that there are many ways to live in the world. It’s about realizing that there is more than one way to live in the world and to do things. But lets also be realistic. Our experiences in life as we’re social ized in our childhood play a major roll in our personalities, what we can and cannot do. It’s not just about opportuni ties offered but about how it makes us feel that there is such a huge gap in how we live in this country. Class matters. It matters only as far as the different experi ences in our lives shape our way of thinking, seeing the world and even in how we move through the world. It affects our relationships and our understanding of people we see everyday. It affects how we view the world, interact and react to the world. We have choices. We can change how we react to those around us. We can try to put ourselves into a mindset of understanding and acceptance. We can find it in ourselves to expand our minds and find comfort in our differences. We judge what we don’t understand. JDo those that have judge those that don’t or do those that don’t judge those that have because they feel deprived of what the op portunities afforded upper classes? There is an emotional and mental wall as well as an economic one? For whatever reason earlier this week I decided to hop on a bus. On the way back home an elderly African-American woman asked me about my piercings. She wanted to know if it was part of my culture. That was the beginning of an interesting 45-minute conversation. She wasn’t judging'me. She wasn’t judg ing my race, ethnicity, or class. She was curi ous. She was curious about me, about why I was riding the bus, about who I was and why I looked how I liked. She had questioned and wanted to have a conversation. We even had a conversation about how people have forgot ten how to sit and speak to each other face to face. She tells me that in her generation people used to speak to each other face to face, there was no texting, no emailing, and no internet. Her biggest question was about religion and why all the confusion. Why the differ-* ent denominations, and interpretations. She wanted to know if war had caused all this and if there was ever a time in the history of the world that we were of one mind, one people, with one language and culture. The only thing that I could say to that was simple. I didn’t know. I don’t think any of us re ally know except that as humans we always find a way to disagree. By meeting her I had the most interesting, stimu lating conversation. At the end of the day my question was why did she single me out? Her response was simply that she could tell by how I was dressed, how I acted and spoke that I didn’t belong there. But instead of os tracizing me, judging me or ignoring me she chose to ask questions, try to understand and cormect. I found that refreshing. I was in my element. If I can have a conversation with someone that I can see them in my social circle regard less of age, gender, race or class. I really do have friends from different backgrounds, ages, gender, race and class. I am in my ele ment when my mind is stimulated, regardless of class.. ALICIA BAYAT FINDING MY VOICE Society plays a big roie in how we choose whom we interact with, We tend to be friends with those we see ev eryday We either went to school with them, they iive in our town or our neighbourhood. The price ofpoverty By Alicia Bayat Voice Editor-in-Chief “Cut programs and services for low-and moderate-income families, seniors, and stu dents to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.” Those are the words that stand out in an ar ticle in the Progressive Pulse titled Ryan Budget Proposal Would Harm Low-income Families & State Budget in North Carolina. These words spread across news papers, newswires and the internet will affect many people throughout the U.S. as jobs become scarce, and the economy struggles to recuper ate. Last week the House passed a bill that fun damentally cuts social needs programs for the poor. This will affect food stamps, Medicaid and cut Medicare programs. This will unilat erally affect the most vulnerable in society, children and the elderly. With a country already in dire straights, a near government shut down and states crip pled by severe budget cuts this bill may only serve to further exacerbate North Carolina budget issues. Individuals and families that fall under these programs aheady struggle socially and economically to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Government programs are created to help temporarily balance out the needs of the most economically vulner able in society. In a time of economic crisis it is the time that citizens most need their government’s help to stay on their feet and ride out the cri sis and this is the time in which it becomes important reinforce these initiatives and to help create jobs and programs that will en able families to survive. The U.S. government readily poured funds into programs to help middle class families keep their homes. It further infused funds into into corporate and bank bail outs. The majority of the work force, from the individuals that stock your grocery shelves to those that prepare your food everyday will be affected by this new bill. It will make life difficult for those who are already struggling to survive. This bill will exploit those in the direst need but yet fiinds tax cuts. What does that mean? North Carolina jobs are being cut state wide. How will families survive without help, without jobs and without opportunities? CONTACT US: NEWS, STORY TIPS: 910-672-2210, agarcial @broncos.uncfsu.edu Come by and see us: 241 Jones Student Center Editor in Chief Alicia Bayat, agarcia1@broncos.uncfsu.edu News Editor Charnell Harris, charri129@broncos.uncfsu.edu Design Editor Stacey Robinson, srobins9@uncfsu.edu Adviser Professor Kevin M. Diiley; kdilley@uncfsu.edu JOIN US ONLINE: I Twitter: http;//twitter. 1 com/fsuvoice BFacebook: Fayetteville State University’s Tlie Voice Newspaper News alerts: www. fsuvoice.com MEET THE STAFF staff Writers Nicolette Beatty, Krystal McDaniel, Briana Murrell, Nike Pascal, Camellia Sansberry, Tatiana'Mosley, Shirley Townsend, John Caldwell, Naadiya Hopkins, Anna Lee, Rasheena Scott Staff Illustrator: Jovian Turnbull Staff Photographers: Tony Nelson, Nathaniel Stevenson, Charles Taylor, Paul Smith
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April 27, 2011, edition 1
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