Month: October 2018

tur•moil (noun)

Turmoil means a state or condition of extreme confusion, agitation, or commotion according to Merriam-Webester Dictionary. In the text “If Black Men Want To Heal Racism’s Wounds, We Can’t Pretend To Be Strong All The Time” by Mychal Denzel Smith, on page 99 it states, “ Generations of black boys and men are walking around with turmoil swelling inside of them, ready to explode any minute.” Knowing the definition of the word, it helps me better understand that the author is saying that black boys are filled with confusion and are agitated inside of them that is ready to explode and come out for others to see at any moment. Which means they walk around with emotions and thoughts that nobody has heard of and will be heard and seen once they let them out from bottling them up for so long.

The word stoicism is a noun that means indifference to pleasure or pain. I stumbled upon this word during my reading on October 10th, 2018. The reading the word is found in is, “If Black Men Want To Heal Racism Wounds, We Can’t Pretend To Be Strong All The Time” by Michael Denzel Smith. On page 99 of the text it states, “While black women are expected to be strong enough to shoulder the emotional needs of the entire community, men inherit a sense of masculinity that teaches stoicism as a virtue”. I was not sure what the word meant when I stumbled upon it on the first paragraph of that page. I thought originally the word dealt with suppressing their emotions, men having to hide their emotions because following that sentence with the word in it discussed how men and boys walk around with rage inside built up. I assumed the word was dealing with built up emotion. I see now that the word means indifference to pleasure or pain because black boys and men lack a distinction from their masculinity causing them to behave a certain way towards pleasure or pain. Boys have internalized the pain they feel and are indifferent to it around them, sometimes not knowing the difference. I understand the word better after looking up the definition on Merriam-Webster because it explains more why boys are gravitated towards stoicism as a virtue in regards to their masculinity.

When reading “The Boys are not all right” during class. I came across the word “Commensurate” on the 17th line of the article. The Merriam-webster dictionary defines “Commensurate” as an adjective; corresponding in size, extent, amount, or degree or equal in measure or extent. This word was found in the sentence “No commensurate movement has emerged to help them navigate toward a full expression of their gender.” Based on this context, I can include that it means that society has failed to recognize that men not expressing their masculinity is a problem and it should be talked about and helped.

Ephermal: lasting for a very short time (adjective)

This is the meaning of the word Ephermal according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. I heard this word being used in the class discussion about masculinity on October 9th, 2018. The sentence was “Drugs are only an ephermal solution to people’s problems”. Drugs only make the person feel better for a short time from what I’ve researched. The good feeling only lasts a short while, then negative things start happeing to the body with no good feelings. I understood what the meaning of the word meant after I have seen it in this context.https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj196-MrPrdAhWEFjQIHShyCSUQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourquote.in%2Faadarsh-katyara-dy4q%2Fquotes%2Flooks-ephemeral-character-eternal-bcwt1%2F&psig=AOvVaw1e1oX0XEhA6O-8xEOxOwFg&ust=1539208289296981

Emulate (verb): to strive to equal or excel.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online)

Mychal Denzel Smith wrote, “…and we have raised families and created culture that is emulated (and stolen) the world over.” What he means by this is that, for a long time Black people have strived to reach equal within the world. Before this half of a sentence, Smith mentions the struggles Black people went through. These struggles they went through motivates them to create a culture that approaches the nearest equality (from what I understood).

Diana Galvez

When I was reading the article if Black man want to heal racism’s wounds, we can’t pretend to be strong all the time by Mychal Denzel Smith , I came across a familiar world people would always talk about so I really wanted to see how the professionals would address this word. According to Webster’s Dictionary the word means “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies”, this is really upsetting to know that people have to go through this yet I think some don’t know what depression truly means until they experience it, that’s depressing.

According to Merriam-Webster, the word abundance is a nouns that mean a large amount of something. This word was found in the article “boys are not all right” paragraph 3, where it said  “The brokenness of the country’s boys stands in contrast to its girls, who still face an abundance of obstacles but go into the world increasingly well equipped to take them on.”

Impugn (verb): Dispute the truth, validity, or honesty of (a statement or motive); call into question.

Source: oxforddictionaries.com

In the essay Michael Ian Black mentions “I got dozens of messages impugning my manhood; the mildest of them called me a “soy boy””. Here he means that people began to question his manliness. So they mock him by calling him “soy boy”. I understand he is trying to convey the doubt he received from the people who mock his masculinity.

Diana Galvez

According to the Merriam Webster the meaning of disparity is to “markedly distinct in quality or character” . It is an adjective. It can be found on paragraph 13 on the first page. In “A Mater’s Degree in… Masculinity”, by Jessica Bennett she says “he pointed to the Good Man list on the left side of the board, then to the Real Man list he’d added to the right. Look at the disparity. I think American men are confused about what it means to be a real man”. The word disparity is used to show the different elements that is used to show how man are unsure of what it means to be a man. Knowing the word helped me understand more in depth about the reading.

While we was reading the boys are not all right in class on Tuesday. I find a new word “vulnerable” I didn’t know what “vulnerable” mean but when I look it up on dictionary.com it give me a definition of “capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon”. I find this word in paragraph 6 “Too many boys are trapped in the same suffocating, outdated model of masculinity, where manhood is measured in strength, where there is no way to be vulnerable without being emasculated, where manliness is about having power over others”. Now I understand what the word mean. They use the word vulnerable in the article to explain that boys are really hurt.