While reading Hilton Al‘s response to Beyonce “Lemonade”, some things I learned was how Beyonce had advocated for women(feminism) rights, such as saying “Beyonce tells some dude to fuck off” to show that she doesn’t need a male to help her in her career. Another example, Beyonce mentioned about a “black female body as a message of self empowerment”, advocating the women to embrace their femininity, and not be self conscious of your body. The confusing parts in the response,” she is telling someone to fuck off,though this time he…. is Jay Z”. I did some research and it mentioned as rumors that spread and caused Beyonce to make two songs against Jay Z and the supposedly infidelity,however, “Ring The Alarm” was not about Rihanna and Jay Z claimed byBeyonce’s editor. Another part that was confusing in the article, ” Beyonce…sister…was caught on camera beating Jay Z’s ass in a hotel elevator”. I was confused what had caused the sister to be aggressive and make it sound like its the male(Jay Z) wrong doings without a reason. But in the end, Beyonce as an individual has been treated indifferently by society and I guess is sick of it? This article is a little biased, when arguing for Beyonce’s perspective. Some parts of the article that I would like to include in my own writing, is to have information that has affected the individual, changing who they are later down in the future.
Author: Brandon Ma
Response to group’s essays
While reading my group’s essay, most of us share a common theme. The expectations that we are pressured by our peers and families. If very stress inducing that if we fail, the feeling will never go away. Some ways the education is system is failing, probably because the subjects that is offered in high school does not peek a students interest and may not even try to continue school. Throughout our entire lives, the classes we take so far is just mainly focus on the “tests” like common core, regents, and the SATs. School isn’t to encourage a person to find motivation is learning and is just focused on following the norms that everyone does to get a degree/successful. Before heading to college, when Joshua went onto high school. they system that should be incorporated in our high schools. During my high school life, students were constantly re-arranging because many people who didn’t pass the regents were put into specific classes. They also had another teacher to assist them in their education. This would really mess up people who had IEP and wasn’t in those classes that should have a second teacher to support them. So my classes was never shorten in my senior year, and my time during high school(freshmen to senior year). Some other ways is the teachers having a passion to teach, while it may seem that teachers just out there to fail a student by making it more complicated than it already is. Some ways is being more open to the students who are respectful towards them and wants to be in that class.
Final Essay Unit 1
Brandon Ma
2/7/2019Â
Dr. Hall
English Composition 2
 Ethnicity overwhelming grip
Have you been intimidated by someone in your life before,if it may be your family members or even your classmates? Coming from a Asian background, it was really difficult for me to be happy with myself, being identified as a Chinese American. I grew in a community that always compare their grades with each other, it put a lot of stress on myself on wanting to prove myself. For a stereotypical Asian family, they are expected to excel in academics and is known for their dedication to learning. A quote from Mother’s Tongue, “Well, these are broad sociological questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys — in fact, just last week — that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English”(Tan). Being Asian, I was expected to excel in majority of the subjects in school, especially math. However, I wasn’t able to reach that academic standard that is perceived by others such as my family,peers and teachers. I struggled with all subjects- even math, I was even given a letter notifying me that I was in probation and I needed to change. I was never a book worm, nor did I had passion in learning as it dissipated throughout the school years. Being yelled by my family, especially my father, for doing terrible in school had changed me in many ways. One effect that it had on me was my perspective in school, I lost interest in trying in school for the main part. I even was sent to these programs that are suppose to provide extra assistance to English and math called “Kumon” that was located next to my elementary school. I would always remember being put under a lot of stress to the point I had many mental breakdowns. It was hell to the point that I was told this, “you are unable to leave until you get a 100% on this quiz”. I was there from 4 pm to 6 pm, constantly re-doing this quiz, it was just me and a few others after their closing hours still doing these last parts. I became so frustrated that my paper was covered in tears. Of course I went against my parents for taking me to this program because I wasn’t able to learn anything but constantly failing and not rising through “Kumon” levels. Going to programs like these never helped me in ever learning in a way that I can appreciate affecting my interests in even trying to learn. Struggling through elementary school and middle school, high school is when everything changed. Going into a new environment, with a lot of diverse backgrounds was very intimidating at first. But as time moved along, I adapted and appreciated the people who I met, where I don’t compare myself to others too much. I had a very diverse group of friends that consist of 1 Ukrainian, 1 Ghanaian, 1 Hispanic, 1 Ecuadorian, and me- Chinese. I learn the traditions that they follow, and broke some ethnic barriers within me. Though going into high school, my friends had assumed that I was smart only because I was Asian and the only Asian in my grade, instead of actually getting to know me. They even use “your Asian, this math is easy for you”, while there are some social norms that can never be broken, not everyone is the same. In my high school, students were encouraged to learn at their own pace because everyone has different needs. Though some negatives were  classes had to slow down, thus some units in the year had been removed by the teacher. The sense of community that I shared with my peers in high school was more appreciative because I wasn’t worried about my GPA if it was terrible or good because of the acceptance they give. The workload had decreased between middle school and high school. Even though I was told from middle school, “high school is very difficult and you will be doing lots of work”. The teachers made it more stressful that it really was because I hardly get homework in high school. From my perspective, I always thought the teachers want more students to appreciate life and not constantly going home and doing homework all night long for the deadline due the next day. So I had a lot of free time to hang out with my friends and wasn’t bound to my school. In conclusion, there is more to life that just packing your brain with information that will show you’re intelligent to the social norms. From what I experienced, to be smart is the amount of information one can hold. So people who usually sleeps in class like my two my friends, still passes their classes with A-‘s or B+’s. I appreciate the friends that I had made in my high school year because they were the ones who helped me mentally, and not think too much about school.Â
Thursday’s rough draft (2/7/2019)
Have you been intimidated by someone in your life before? Coming from an Asian background, it has been really difficult for me to be happy for who I identify as a Chinese American. For a stereotypical Asian family, they are expected to rise above the social standpoint in academics and is known for their dedication to education. A quote from Mother’s Tongue, “Well, these are broad sociological questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys — in fact, just last week — that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English”(Tan). Coming across that I have given up on education made me realize that there is much more to appreciate in life. For being Asian, specifically an Chinese American, I was expected to highly excel in majority of subjects in school, specifically math. However, I wasn’t able to reach that academic success that is perceived by others if its my family or by peers and teachers. During my middle school years, I struggled with all subjects- even math, that I was given a letter telling me I was in probation. Throughout my middle school life, I struggled a lot in academics that I was even in probation in my 8th grade. I was never a book worm in school, nor did I had passion in learning as it dissipated as I climb the grades. Being yelled by my family, especially my father, for doing terrible in school had changed my in many ways. I even was sent to these programs that are suppose to provide extra assistance to English and math called “Kumon” that was located next to my elementary school. I would always remember being put under a lot of stress to the point I had many mental breakdowns. It was hell to the point that I was told this, “you are unable to leave until you get a 100% on this quiz”. I was there from 4 pm to 6 pm, constantly re-doing this quiz, It was just me and a few others after their closing hours still doing these last parts. I became so frustrated and upset that my paper was covered in tears. Of course I went against my parents for taking me to this program because I wasn’t able to learn anything but constantly failing and not rising through “Kumon” levels. Struggling through elementary school and middle school, high school is where I changed mentally and physically. The high school that I went to was located on 49st, and 9th ave. in Hell’s Kitchen. Going into a new environment, with a lot of diverse backgrounds was very intimidating at friends. But as time went along, I adapted and appreciated the people who I met where I don’t compare myself to other Asians in my class. I had a very diverse group of friends that consist of 1 white, 1 black, 1 dominican, 1 mexican, and me the asian. Many things that happened in my education, was around the time that I arrived in high school, that everything has shifted. Students were encouraged to learn at their own pace because not everyone can learn at the same pace. Though some negatives were classes had to slow down, thus some units in the year has been removed by the teacher. The sense of community that I shared with my peers in high school was more appreciate because I wasn’t worried about my GPA if it was terrible or good. The workload has been decreased from middle school to high school. From my perspective, I always thought the teachers want more students to appreciate life and not constantly going home and doing homework all night long for the deadline due the next day. So I had a lot of free time to hang out with my friends and wasn’t bound to my school. In conclusion, there is more to life that just packing your brain with information that will show you’re intelligent to the social norms. From what I experience that to be smart, is the amount of information one can hold. So people who usually sleeps in class-two my friend’s, still passes his classes with A- or B+.
Response to Gilyard’s “Voice of the self”
While reading “Voices of the self” by Keith Gilyard, his background is easy to understand because I have been to the areas such as “a rehabilitation center over on 14th street”. So it was easy to imagine myself there in his setting-imagery. Gilyard also includes demographics that shows the diversity is expanding and also credited his resources, “Whitaker (1989) reports that because of low pay, undesirable work conditions, and overall frustration with school systems”. However, I would not like to write a research paper in the conclusion. While there are some things that can easily relate to things that happened around me, was how this story was very similar to the people that I had encountered. Such as students doing drugs in school and not even attending, and they still graduate like the rest of the students. However its nice that Keith was given the opportunity to graduate high school, even though he has been sent to jail. Another thing that I liked about this story and that I would prefer in my writings is the use of first person perspective. I do not like how this story has people talking to another individual, as reading from a 3rd person perspective, and would prefer his usual first person- his life. In my opinion, I though the story was okay.
