Racism in Day to Day Occurrences

Throughout today’s society, racism is predominant in various culture.

On 9/6 we viewed a Ted Talk on culture. This Ted Talk stood out to me because the speaker, who is from Nigeria, discussed how she had a house boy growing up and throughout her life, the speaker was told on multiple occasions, that their house boy was poor. The speaker grew up believing that her house boy was uncultured and him and his family were incapable of basic life function. The speaker then visited where her house boy lives and was surprised to see that her house boys brother weaved a basket by hand. She was surprised to see this because she assumed her whole life that her house boys worth was based solely off of money and that poor people were incapable of most things. Later on in the talk the speaker shares an experience of when the roles were reversed. The speaker talks about when she attended college and had an American roommate. Her american roommate told the speaker she was shocked that her English was so good but was surprised when the speaker responded by saying English is the first language in Nigeria. Her roommate also asked if she could teach her some tribal music but the speaker made a tasteful joke that the tribal music was a Maria Carey album.

For one out of class assignment we had to read the introduction of Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington. One part of this novel that stood out to me and relates to culture was the discussion of African American personal and family stories of abuse rarely surfaced and were discussed  in medical literature and popular literature. Washington states, “The experimental suffering  of black Americans has taken many forms: fear, profound deception, psychological trauma, pain, injection with deadly agents, disfigurement, crippling, chronic illness, undignified display, intractable pain, stolen fertility and death” (Pg. 9). Although the suffering of black Americans is tragic in many forms, it goes undiscovered throughout history due to the lack of documentation of medical practitioners. The information was “downplayed” and seen as therapy.

Epigenetics and Eating Disorders

Hello everyone!

I suppose I will be the first to post in our class (English 101), as I haven’t seen posts from anyone else in our class (though correct me if I’m wrong!*UPDATE: I see someone posted at the exact same time as I did!) Blogging is definitely new to me, so bear with me as I attempt to do this somewhat correctly and actually catch your guys’ interest! What I really wanted to talk about here regards Dan Hurley’s articleGrandma’s Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes, that we read about behavioral epigenetics. Now because I know that it is very likely that not all of you read this, I will try to give a brief preface of what it was about. I apologize if it’s not very scientific language, but I’ll do my best! Continue reading “Epigenetics and Eating Disorders”

The Power of Methyl Groups

By Sunita Singh

A methyl group is one of the simplest molecules of organic chemistry. In my organic chemistry class sophomore year, this is one of the few concepts I could firmly grasp. As I went on to my Genetics and Heredity classes, I was especially interested on the profound effect methyl groups can have on gene expression. When I saw epigenetics was the topic of Grandma’s Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes, I was excited to revisit the subject. Continue reading “The Power of Methyl Groups”