Tense Mess

I thought that the short story in the Citizen by Claudia Rankine about Serena Williams was a story to discuss with a whole classroom, and we did. There was little to it then but as we look back on it now there is so much to reflect off of it. It was good to talk about that story in class and for homework because different opinions about a topic like this are important to hear especially for a high school senior. I wanted to blog about this story because it really implies the unnecessary and harsh profile that society puts on African Americans and how the media and others have forced people to think negatively about their race. I also wanted to talk about the anger and aggressiveness Serena used towards the lines woman and whether not it was necessary for her to react towards her that way. I could understand why Serena was upset about her decision because it was during a worldwide tournament and it was important to her but I do believe that she could have taken it a bit easy.

The reaction of the lines woman represents the tension between society (her) and African Americans (Serena). Because of past experiences society are afraid to interact with African Americans in tense situations like what happened during the tournament. Others bring themselves to a decision that is unthoughtful and pushes their profile further and further back into the books. This relates with the problem that happened little under ten years ago because when she was yelled at by Serena she told the officials that what she said was a lot worst than what had actually happened. The main point is to not be scared and accept people for their race. Do not believe what the media tells you and embrace your own opinion. Yet if it was up to me I still find it ridiculous that we have had problems like this before and said  we´ve learned from them but haven´t actually acted on them. If we have acted on them then we wouldn't have the same problems today.