Have I reviewed something of yours before? And how have you heard of me? And no, I don't mind reviewing! :)

About the quote on the top, it would look better in actual poem form. I'm not a fan of the slashes. I just like poetry too much to put it in paragraphs. ;) (Hold shift while pressing enter or backspace to single-space up or down.)

Your writing sounds somewhat stringy. You have some wonderful, very pretty and eloquent phrasing. But one after another, they blur together and lose their quality. And that makes it hard on the reader to stay interested and understand each of your thoughts. There needs to be more variety of sentences. Long and short.

Well, it's certainly a bold topic. Racial themes are hard to write about without discriminating one side or 'offending' someone. Although I admit I have a hard time reading things like this, because discrimination can be against /all/ races, not just from one, to another. Two way street. And a lot of it comes from ignorance of not knowing what to call someone. I mean, I don't like being referred to as one of the "Whites". White is the color of the screen you're looking at. Not me.

“...The N-Word” has developed over time from a derogatory term to one of camaraderie, depending to whom it is said, from whom, and under what circumstance..." Very honest there. Because in the real world, I wouldn't /dree-a-m/ of saying it EVER. I'd end up on the local news 'Racist Adolescence Gets Gang Beaten'. O.o

"The solution is this, generate a curriculum that allows white teachers to know what authority to claim and how to assert said authority. This curriculum is supposed to help teachers realize their expectations for the students, their emotions in certain situations, such as, the use of the “n-word”, and help them understand how to intercede and hope to be most effective in that intersession. The teachers of the world need to maintain power and their fear of this word takes that power away and gives it to the students."

Have you actually ever met someone who was interviewed in these "polls"? I doubt it. My mom's a teacher (and she's Caucasian) and she would flip over dead before she let someone say something so horrible in jest or /whatever/. But I do like the reference to other magazines; it's important in essays to read other opinions; but being objective, your essay is a little one-sided. And you should probably cite that article to be safe.

But overall, I guess it's good for people to be willing to write about things like this. And hey, you sure found a good way to get long reviews! EVERYBODY always thinks their entitled to their own opinion, and they usually think they're right, anyway. So I'm sure you'll get a few rants. Besides the things I mentioned at the beginning, I really think you should work on making this more universally directed to all ethnicities. When people get offended, they WILL NOT read this and then you just missed your chance to share your thoughts because you weren't this or that. The reader shouldn't be able to tell that you're black or African American or whatever. It should be perfectly unbiased. Like many people would read this and say that you didn't mention anything like, "Well, who sold the slaves in the first place? The Africans." And I'm only saying all this because I hate to see people lose readers by simple neglect to look at /all/ perspectives. I'm sure there are MANY racist involvements associated with the word that go to AND from plenty of different ethnic backgrounds. Show some variety of opinions. No one in any ethnicity should feel persecuted for their ancestors' decisions, right?

I hope you don't hate the long review! I'm just trying to show exactly what A LOT of people might be thinking when they read this. And I don't believe in racism. Skin color is based on the amount of melanin, carotenoids, and hemoglobin in the skin that's a genetic trait. Scientifically speaking, there's only ONE race and that's the human race.

Whew, I started talking again. Anyway, GOOD LUCK with your writing! xD

-Katie

hey, well you said if I could I should get around to reading this story, and guess what? I did. It was really good. It was a very controversial piece that you wrote and I congratulate you for that. It was well written and thoroughly address the situation. I really enjoyed seeing your view on it. Great piece!