What Matters free essay sample

Money, sex, cars, and clothes; these are things that are glorified in the world today and as what matter in life. You won’t hear a fifth grade teacher telling her students that these are the things that matter in life, but television, music, and movies do a great job at it. The American Dream is about becoming wealthy so you can have whatever you want. What is the definition of wealthy though? The only true wealthy persons in the world are the ones with morals. Without them, we are heartless fiends after material possessions. The United States of America prides itself on our compassion and willingness to help countries in duress. Aiding third world countries millions of miles away is a prime example of morality. Our conscious would not let us live with our fortunes while there are nations with their population suffering from malnutrition. We become so guilt ridden whenever seeing a picture of a person in that situation that we have to do something about it. We will write a custom essay sample on What Matters or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Without our morals, many of people would be dead due to its absence and the absence of our aid. If you think that the gap between the wealthy in the U.S. is big, just imagine what it would be like if there were no such things as welfare and medicare. Slavery would still be happening since there would be nobody how would stand up and say that it is wrong. I wouldn’t even be writing this paper if it weren’t for morals, which is why it is what really matters. What Matters free essay sample There was a time I hated him, when we were both very young. He was awkward to look at, all spindly legs and gangly arms. I had never before met someone so haughty, so incredibly rude, and just generally obnoxious. He produced a lot of saliva whenever he spoke, which in turn made him sound like the victim of a perpetual cold. The most exasperating thing about him, by far, was his inability to sit still. He would meander about the classroom, slinking from desk to desk, always making a scene out of avoiding contact with the floor. To know him then was a terrible misfortune. However, that period was brief, and is often forgotten about. Past affairs are exactly that: past affairs. Now is what matters, and to know him now is the greatest joy. He is still quite awkward to look atnow even more soas his limbs are twice as lanky and his gait three times as fluid. We will write a custom essay sample on What Matters or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page His face is uncannily boyish and doesn’t quite coincide with his antique attire. But I have never known someone with such a beautiful soul as his. He is the type of person that is not quite sure if he can be loved, yet still manages to give out more than anyone could reasonably afford. Happiness comes and goes for him in tidal waves. There are days when he erupts with blissfulness; there are days when he is catatonic. Most days he appears to be caught in between the two, lost somewhere within himself. These are the days when he always responds with an â€Å"I’m fine† and a meager grin, although his eyes betray his words, incapable of concealing the truth. The truth is that he is constantly on the brink of destruction. Never before have I encountered a person so tortured. His mind harbors demons he refuses to let anyone see, though the effect that they have on him is exceedingly clear. They haunt him, cloud his heart with doubt, fool him into believing he is worthless. The negativity follows him everywhere, pervading the surrounding air like thick black smoke, choking all who dare tread near him. I believe that there is a part of him that is tired of running, a part that wants to succumb, just to know what it is like not to live in fear. I also believe that there is a part of him that wants, more than anything, to be savedthough he rarely feels that he is worth saving. It is hard, at times, to determine which side will prevail. I will never tell him, but he has a way about him that is utterly captivating. He often studies me, head cocked slightly to one side, one eye squinted, and right when I feel as if I might melt under his scrutiny, he grins and murmurs something like â€Å"We should see each other tomorrow. We’ll drink coffee and smoke cigars and listen to old albums.† Then, when we meet the next day, we do anything but that. I live for waking up on gray mornings entwined in his arms, his breathing in time with my heartbeat; lazy afternoons in his living room, lying on the floor as he clumsily strums his guitar and half-sings something he wrote; nights that drag on and on as we drain bottles of wine and dance to his father’s old records. His presence awakens every cell in my body. He inspires me to be better, not just for him, but for the world. I strive to make him as proud of me as I am of him. He does not say goodbye. A glaring fault of his, I am driven mad by the lack of courtesy. Conversations on the phone are left open ended. Departures in person consist of a nod and a swift turn of the heel, at most. Whether this is his choice, or simply something he isnt capable of doing, I will never know. â€Å"It’s pointless,† he says to me whenever I try to argue. â€Å"Why make things harder for yourself? Think of how much happier everyone would be if they only ever said hello.† It frustrates me to no end when he says this. I am left sputtering, even as he rolls his eyes and leaves the room. â€Å"But you don’t understand,† I call after him. â€Å"Goodbyes are everything.† My words have yet to resonate with him, though. Even when he left to study abroad for a year, he refused to speak to anyone for two weeks prior to his voyage. I bring this up to him often; I tryin vainto articulate just how much it hurts when he does things like that. He replies with a you-know-how-I-am kind of look and an apologetic shrug. When he decided to leave again, this time for much longer than a year, he did so quietly and abruptly, as was his way. I remember waking up alone that gray morning, leaping out of bed, running through the house, screaming his name. Finding his body crumpled in the bathroom, finding his spirit no where. Wanting to peel off everythingfrom his shirt to the very nailpolish I was wearingand evaporate into the dawn. Never before had I felt so hollow. I remember tearing through his belongings, through my belongings, desperately seeking a note, a picture, a sign. Collapsing beside him, demanding a reason. His silence was deafening. I should have been used to it by then; he had always been that way. It was a glaring fault of mine to expect anything else. However, our past faults are just that: past faults. I had the great fortune of knowing him, of loving himand that is what matters. To love him was the greatest joy.

The Roots of Colorism, or Skin Tone Discrimination

The Roots of Colorism, or Skin Tone Discrimination How does  colorism  play out in America? An old children’s rhyme captures the definition of colorism and its inner workings: â€Å"If you’re black, stay back;If you’re brown, stick around;If you’re yellow, you’re mellow;If you’re white, you’re all right.† Colorism refers to discrimination based on skin color. Colorism disadvantages dark-skinned people  while privileging those with lighter skin. Research has linked colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms, and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people. Colorism has existed for centuries, in and out of black America. Its a persistent form of discrimination that should be fought with the same urgency as racism. Origins In the United States, colorism has roots in slavery, because slave owners typically gave preferential treatment to slaves with fairer complexions. While dark-skinned slaves toiled outdoors in the fields, their light-skinned counterparts usually worked indoors at far less  grueling domestic tasks.   Slave owners were partial to light-skinned slaves because they often were family members. Slave owners frequently forced slave women into sexual intercourse, and light-skinned offspring were the telltale signs of these sexual assaults. While slave owners didnt officially recognize their mixed-race children, they gave them privileges that dark-skinned slaves didnt enjoy. Accordingly, light skin came to be viewed as an asset in the slave community. Outside the United States, colorism may be more related to class than to white supremacy. Although  European colonialism has undoubtedly left its mark worldwide, colorism is said to predate contact with Europeans in Asian countries. There, the idea that white skin is superior to dark skin may derive from ruling classes typically having lighter complexions than peasant classes. While peasants became tanned as they labored outdoors, the privileged had lighter complexions because they didn’t. Thus, dark skin became associated with  lower classes and light skin with the elite. Today, the premium on light skin in Asia is likely tangled up with this history, along with cultural influences of the Western world. Enduring Legacy Colorism didn’t disappear after slavery ended in the U.S.  In black America, those with light skin received employment opportunities off-limits to darker-skinned blacks. This is why upper-class families in black society were largely light-skinned. Soon, light skin and privilege were linked in the black community. Upper-crust blacks routinely administered the brown paper bag test to determine if fellow blacks were light enough to include in social circles. â€Å"The paper bag would be held against your skin. And if you were darker than the paper bag, you weren’t admitted,† explained Marita Golden, author of Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex. Colorism didn’t just involve blacks discriminating against other blacks. Job advertisements from the mid-20th century reveal that African-Americans with light skin clearly believed their coloring would make them better job candidates. Writer Brent Staples discovered this while searching newspaper archives  near the Pennsylvania town where he grew up.  In the 1940s, he noticed, black job seekers often identified themselves as light-skinned: â€Å"Cooks, chauffeurs, and waitresses sometimes listed light colored as the primary qualification- ahead of experience, references, and the other important data. They did it to improve their chances and to reassure white employers who†¦found dark skin unpleasant or believed that their customers would.† Why Colorism Matters Colorism yields real-world advantages for individuals with light skin. For example, light-skinned Latinos make $5,000 more on average than dark-skinned Latinos, according to Shankar Vedantam, author of The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives.  A  Villanova University study of more than 12,000 African-American women imprisoned in North Carolina found that lighter-skinned black women received shorter sentences than their darker-skinned counterparts. Research by Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt found that darker-skinned black defendants were twice as likely as lighter-skinned black defendants to get the death penalty for crimes involving white victims. Colorism also plays out in the romantic realm. Because fair skin is associated with beauty and status, light-skinned black women are more likely to be married than darker-skinned black women. â€Å"We find that the light-skin shade as measured by survey interviewers is associated with about a 15 percent greater probability of marriage for young black women,† said researchers who conducted a study called â€Å"Shedding ‘Light’ on Marriage.† Light skin is so coveted that whitening creams continue to be best-sellers in the U.S., Asia, and other nations. Mexican-American women in Arizona, California, and Texas have reportedly suffered mercury poisoning after using whitening creams to bleach their skin. In India, popular skin-bleaching lines target both women and men with dark skin. That skin-bleaching cosmetics persist after decades signals the enduring legacy of colorism. Sources Golden, Marita. Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex. Anchor, 2005.Staples, Brent. As Racism Wanes, Colorism Persists. The New York Times.Vedantam, Shankar. Shades of Prejudice. The New York Times.

Is there an afterlife and what would be required for an afterlife Essay

Is there an afterlife and what would be required for an afterlife - Essay Example Death has been considered the only certain thing in life. There is even consensus to the effect that a number of changes take place during the transition from life to death, which therefore follows that changes making up life are distinct from those making up survival. In distinguishing these two varying changes, we can give a number of personal identity criteria through time to explain death (Baillie, 1993). First, we can use a criterion that has been popularized by Hume, Plato and a multiplicity of world religions. According to this criterion, human beings are either immaterial souls or even pure egos (Hume, 1739). This can be construed to mean that human beings possess the physical bodies only on a contingent basis and therefore not a necessity as far as living (in this life and the afterlife) is concerned. This being the case therefore, it is proper to argue that human being continues to live even after death. If anything their bodies are contingent and not necessarily a must-hav e in their living and especially their afterlife (Ayer, 2006). The second criterion has to do with the claim that a human being has two distinct components namely a body and a mind. This criterion, the so-called Cartesian Dualism, named so in honor of Rene Descartes, claim that the two components namely, the material body and the immaterial mind are distinct and therefore can exist separately. In fact it goes on to claim that the immaterial mind can exist separately from the material body particularly when the material body dies. This idea has however failed to convince many people because of a number of obvious faults in the reasoning behind it. For instance, is it logical for an immaterial mind to effect any change in a material body? This is the main problem that this idea has been unable to address, a problem that has since assumed the name â€Å"the problem of interactionism† (Levine, 1989). The reasons that Hume advance in arguing that death is survivable are convincing in whichever one looks at them. For instance, I am convinced that there must be another component that leaves the body to rot, otherwise what happened when a human being is resurrected by a supernatural being. Does he/she resurrect with another body or the same body which at the time must have long decomposed. This clearly demonstrates just how probable a human being might possess a separate invisible component that is left behind after his/her fresh dies and subsequently decomposes (Jerome, 1966). In opposing the idea of an afterlife, Hume argues that every creature’s ability is always proportionate to the task ahead of it. This is best demonstrated in a Hare’s or an Antelope’s ability to out-run a fox or a Lion respectively. It is also the reason why a Hare have not been equipped with the ability to appreciate Operas, which would be superfluous to its life. Given that a match between abilities and tasks has been found to cut across all creatures, it is reason able to assume that we are also matched to the tasks before us (Hume & Sayre-McCord 2006). Looked in the context of our ‘design flaws’ as far as having the ability to anticipate an afterlife is concerned, one can only conclude that there is no afterlife. Look at the way we are normally less concerned with doing good for a reward in our afterlife. Look a