Thank God for the United and not the Confederate, States of America!!!

To be quite honest I found this movie to be offensive in the way it was made to be comical but at the same time I guess it is presented in such a way to show the absurdity of the whole idea of what would happen if the confederate states won the Civil War. Although I found this movie to be very offensive, I must admit that it was interesting to see the dynamics of the slave and slave trade industry and how the southern states would go on to conquer other parts of the world and begin slavery there. The last part of the movie where the text read something about how one would be surprised to know that there are remnant slavery items in our society today like the toothpaste, the cigar case the Aunt Gemima pancake syrup and Uncle Ben's Rice really opened my eyes to things I never realized. Seeing this movie inspired me to do some research on items that are still in use today that were used in the those time to put down southern black folk. Watching this movie made me appreciate how far we have come as an Nation and how grateful I should be that I am a free black women who is capable of doing anything she puts her mind to. I could not imagine being a slave, being beaten, witnessing a lynching, and things of those sorts. I think that everyone in my generation should watch this move to get a better understanding of why we should be happy to be part of these United States. Finally, during our discussion of the movie, someone said that people are so quick to place the blame on the "white man" but it was the Africans who started the whole slave trade by selling indentured Africans to Europeans. That is very true but the simple fact that the Africans started this does not make slavery okay nor does it excuse the American and European slaveholders of their brutal actions against slaves. To wrongs don't make a right.

Triathalon

First of all, I just wanted to put it out there : To think that a marathon is a great feat!!!! I seriously take that one back. To top it all off, when Erin said she had completed nine of them and is preparing for two more, I was kinda off awestruck. Participationg in nine triatholons (even if placing last in each and every one of them) as a women, is still a great feat in my eyes. Wait, did i just say that? As a women? placing last? Well, that's sexist of me ( and to think that I am a female myself) but what can I say, it's true. I really like the perspective Erin took during her lecture; looking at women participating in trialthons and how they have been potrayed was very interesting. It seems as though its never a simple, black-or-white ordeal when it comes women. Erin stated that female althelism is a split between the athletic and sexual body. A woman althlete must be conscious of how she potrays herself as a woman and as an althlete, with no doubt that these two tasks clash often. The Iron Man, the most harsh of the trialthons, stuck with me. I thought it was hilarious how the female version of the Iron Man was adverstised. The female version, read Iron Girl not Iron Woman ( in pink, haha!!) and there were pretty, soft images of flowers and a duck. The Iron Man logo has no flowers, ducks and the letters are bold and big, conveying a message of strength and presevervance, how nice. Watching those clips and seeing how these participatants looked like they were natural disaster or war victims being carried away from the scene was terryfing for me. The pain that they have to go through is astronomical and I can't even bare the pain of a pinch.