Dutiful Daughters

In the Spanish culture, it is almost assumed that the youngest daughter will eventually take care of her parents when they do in fact, get old. Many people also assume, that this is somewhat of a punishment because it does seem like they are giving the rest of their life to their parents. I'm not really sure why this is deemed this way because your parents did in fact care for you for 20+ years, so the least you can do is help them out. I know in my culture it is usually the youngest sons duty to take care and rest assure that his parents feel and do well. No one wants their parents to be stuck inside a funeral home, literally awaiting death. Personally, I feel like it is only right that one of the kids take care of the parents. It doesn't necessarily have to be the youngest male or female, but someone who will take responsibility for his/her parents. Also, that doesn't mean that only one child has to be the caretaker of their parents. All of the kids can do their part and help one another out and split the responsibility between them. Taking care of your parents shouldn't become a hassle or a kind of chore, but it should be viewed as a sign of respect because your parents do trust you. So as far as perception goes, I'm really not sure why people see being a care taker is a burden to anyone. Your parents took care of you for the longest time, least you could do is make them feel at ease. 

Its Not an Oxymoron

Many people seem to have this perception of Islamic culture that its very demanding on the women and it doesn't allow woman to grow and become great people. But as seen in this article, many women in the middle east have strive throughout history. All of the women, Ms. Darraj did mention were very strong and aspiring women. People are sometimes ignorant to certain cultures and/or traditions. As stated in the excerpt, when a middle eastern man does ask the brides father for permission it has a negative connotation to it. I'm not really sure why people think this way because no two cultures or people are the same, so why do people feel the need to question something they aren't accustomed too? People only like to see things done their way which is considered the 'right way' to them, so when a person does something a bit different it seems odd or weird to them. As we do learn by the end of the passage, there is a such thing as an Arab feminist and women and men are supposed to be equal in almost all facets of life.

Class and Politics of Writing

The struggle to write and present your ideas on a piece of paper, to a random individual is alone hard enough to do. But to publish a book, to a book publishing company that likes the 'message' or 'theme' of your own masterwork is another task to overcome. On top of that, being a female having to go this large publishing cite, trying to convince the publisher to publish your work. Even when you know that your book is more than capable of making them huge profits because of the beauty of the work. On top of that, being a women in the 70s-80s trying to sell your ideas is an obstacle in itself. All of this takes a certain kind of perseverance and even mental endurance to outlast all of these politics in the writing industry. Given the time period, given the fact that women didn't really have an opportunity to show that they can be just as and even better writers than men. The struggle was definitely real, now add up all the odds stacked against female writers in the 80s and add one more restriction to writers. Being a black female in the 80s trying to become a writer, and having these white business men in a publish industry to publish your works. Now, that in itself deserves a round of applause just for trying. But being able to succeed and defeat the system, and make all the publishers that said your work wasn't good enough deserves a standing ovation. Bell Hooks I would want to personally applaud your efforts because I could only imagine the struggle you went through.

ColorWay

Colorism. Colorism is essentially demeaning a persons integrity based on the sole fact that they have certain features that you do not agree with. Essentially what I'm really trying to say, is that colorism is a form of discrimination based on skin color. We, as a human race are currently in the year 2014, quickly approaching the year 2015. If you had to guess how long would it take for one individual to disregard a persons skin color and to truly accept the person they really are. At one point or another we have all witnessed,heard about, and were even apart of a situation that involved a persons skin tone. Its really sad to think about how many people who don't know the true meaning of life. What I mean by that is, people feel like they need to demean a certain color or even race to feel superior or even better than that group. My case and point being, two men who felt the need to discriminate and even disregard their fellow employees. Donald Sterling being the first and more recently the Atlanta Hawks General Manager Danny Ferry. These men felt the need to talk about 'black people' in a very inappropriate manner and they lost any respect people did have for them. Colorism. Colorism is still in a full effect to this very day, and it doesn't seem like it'll die down one bit.