Departure

Outer Journey:

At the start of this trip we set out at 6:45 to leave for the train station from the school. Upon leaving we found that the trip would be an hour and twenty minutes long. On our way down we were passed by a car from Tennessee 12 times. They started acting like they were upset with us, but we couldn’t think of anything we did. When we finally arrived at the train station we checked in our bags. When our bags were being checked they asked us about if we had medicine, perishable foods, or any dead fish. Once our bags were checked we went and sat down next to some Amish people. We started carrying on about what we were going to do on the trip and they must have not liked something we were saying because they got up and moved away from us. We then started talking about different things we could do on the train we decided it would be a good idea to have cards to play on the train ride. We asked everyone if they had cards, but no one did. I ended up running to the store with forty-five minutes before our train was supposed to depart. I first went to a circle K and had no luck. I then went to a marathon and had no luck there either. Lastly, I went to a Walgreens, but they had closed five minutes before I had arrived. At this point I have less than twenty minutes before my train leaves so I rush back to the car and start my way back. I finally arrived back and found that the train was delayed for ten more minutes. When we finally started boarding the train we found that we were not seated together. Once we had got settled in I decided to have a drink so I walked to the front of the train. While walking on the train it was very wobbly, just like walking on a boat. I fell many times, but by the time I got to the food cart I had established how to walk a without falling on the train. I got a drink of whiskey and coke, and sat down with some people from the class. We were talking for about an hour, and in this time we saw an Amish guy walk by us with a flask. After seeing this we all laughed and I stated that he had been sitting there away from his wife for about twenty minutes, and it made more sense once we saw the flask. When I finally made my way back to my seat I still wasn’t very tired so I listened to music until I fell asleep. I didn’t sleep very good on the train, and I was awake around 6:45. Everyone else was sleeping, and so I decided to go down and get cleaned up a little bit. While I was walking I found a bullet, and this was a little bit alarming. I ate breakfast on the train with the train food, but ate lunch with the food I brought.

Inner Journey:

 After watching the video, I realized what a deep root racism has in New Orleans. New Orleans has always been a city with great talent and lots of art. This diversity is a beautiful melting pot, and I would love to have experienced it before racism became a part of the culture. Racism can ruin anything. As history has shown when racism is not present, but diversity is great some beautiful things happen. For example, when the blacks, Spanish, French, and many other cultures got together and started to make music together they formed some great music. They actually made a new form of music called jazz. This is incredible to me and makes me think what else in history has never come to be, because of racism. Racism is so unnecessary, and really doesn’t have any place in society. If we can learn from history, we know that racism has ruined many lives and continues to have lasting impacts into society. For example, with this black lives matter movement. Many people from this movement feel that the police target black people. Although most police officers do not, there is definitely a stigma that is engrained into our country that a young black man is more likely to be breaking the law than a white young male. This racism has caused a separation of races that has lasted for generations. I have been treated poorly by people of other race simply because they think I am racist against them, but in reality I have no prejudice toward black people and try to show love to everyone. When thinking about the impact racism has had on the culture of not only New Orleans, but the entire United States it really makes me sick. There is so much potential to be a great country simply by diversity, and we have showed this from forming Jazz music, to writing great movies, and even how we make our laws to be more fair for every person regardless of background. I can’t help but feel like if we didn’t have such a long ingrained racism and prejudice that our country truly would be the greatest and most creative country in the world. We would be capable of producing products the world has never seen before. While visiting New Orleans I really hope that I develop a better understanding of how this culture has been affected by the separation of the black and the white people. I feel if I can understand this better I can better push toward a goal of removing hidden prejudice that I may have. My grandfather was very racist and he would always use hateful speech toward blacks. I never really understood this because, to me, they were just like me. They walked, talked, and even played the same games as I did. Overall, I feel that racism is not a problem that is going away in the near future, but if we can better understand it then we can better combat it.