That's all folks

Wow! This has been an absolutely amazing class, but it is somewhat bittersweet because we should not need a class to debunk stereotypes, but I learned so much vital information from my listening post and classmates that I could never find in a textbook.

I have always enjoyed a good conversation and this class not only fulfill my need to converse but it expanded the topics of conversation. I can comfortably speak to Katie our local atheists about religion, or crack on the token gringos in the class, but more importantly I'm able to take a joke. I laugh at the watermelon-fried chicken jokes because to be angry would be to give them some sort of validity and power over me. I look at them for what they are, a grain of truth stretched to apply to an entire group of people, but by no means can it come close to encompassing the entire group.

And knowing how African-American stereotypes fall short of accurately categorizing blacks, lets me further know that stereotypes have no place in a rational and functional member of our society. So as I continue my journalism career I will learn about a community from the perspective of its members and not from the outside looking in as a casual observer. More than anything this class has helped me embrace our difference, to accept people for who they are, a mixture of perfectly imperfect people.