å Monday, November 6th, 2017

When I first felt that I am an Outsider is when I moved to a school in different region in my country. The first one week in the class, no one talked to me. I could not talk to anybody so I was totally isolated. After moving around three month, I remember finally made some friends. Another experience is when I went to Canada for school. I did not speak any language and there were only white roommates. If i try to go to a party, I couldn’t communicate because of the language. Even after I got more comfortable in English I still felt that I am totally outsider because the culture they have was so different to me. It took some time to get used to the flow of the conversation. Most people were very nice to me, but I could not be as open as people in Canada. This might be because I was born in a country where has a little bit totalitarian atmosphere for 18 years without being critic about it. Of course Japan is a Wonderful country, but the country has very special culture. I had been in Japan until I was eighteen, and I still remember I barely made own choices. I only had to do what everyone does without thinking. The society has pressure to be “normal”. Since I was taught to be normal in school, I was so surprised that everyone in North America has own decisions. That’s why I felt so outsider. However, there were some people who are obviously looking down other race who actually say they don’t like specific race. I was told that directly too. Form the reading, I realize that the difference is actually a stereotypes can be advantage. Stereotype actually made me stronger and taught me how to live in countries where I wasn’t raised in.

A time in my life when I felt an outsider was the first time coming to the United States. I was born in Colombia and the transition from one country to a whole new one made a great difference in culture and the behavior of the people within each country. I was part of the society of this new country but I felt like that was not fit for it at all. One of the issues was language, I had to learn how to communicate and the treatment received from some people was discouraging to keep trying to speak and to be part of their society. However, the self-evaluation I gave myself limit my chances to be fully a human. It can be a very simple experience but it shows a lot on how even when I am a part of a different group of people I still can be a “stranger” due to my own perspective or from the other people. Not knowing the language portrayed also an image about me that people immediately were able to place me under the category of immigrant due to all the knowledge and stereotypes they have gained. But now that I learned the language I am able to defend my position and to communicate with others.  Patricia Hill- Collins’s essay explains how black women have experienced oppression as result of the image the society developed about them. While women are oppressed they were able to develop a standpoint after all and be firm in mentally and physically. Patricia gave an example on how in you don’t have a mind of your own then people are going to take advantage of that and begin to define who you are. Therefore, it was important for women to fight any kind of injustice that approach them and try to bring all people together.