G Panoso Lopez’s Online Journal

Dear Mr.Baca

My name is Gabriel and I live London my English teacher introoduced us about your poetry and some of your childhood when my English teacher said you lived in a orphanage I knew that you were not like those other poets who write poems to satisfy the reader and make money but that you were one of those poets who experienced unique thing and wanted to express his feelings and thoughts about it through his poems,I do not want to sound rude but is it true that you were left in the orphanage by your grandmother?And why did you run away from the orphanage?Also were you ever contacted with your parent?

At twenty one years old you where convicted on drug charges you were condemned to prison for five years where you learned how to read so why were you encourage to learn these in prison?also did you come across poetry in prison?And if so who introduced it to you?

As you had been in prison was it hard for you to become a poet?Because most of people who came out of prison would come out with out being able to work any where I have also realized that all your poems are related to your childhood or your time in prison but which of these two things do you really think that effected your life the most?And why did it effect more than the other one?Who helped you to lean how to read and write?

I really like your poems but my favorite one is “Who understands me but me” this because in this poem you can make the reader engage as I got engaged by this poem just like other people did my favorite sentence was  when it says ‘And found so many parts of myself,who taught me water is not everything’this was my favorite sentence because you are trying to be as positive as possible and telling you that you can not always get what you want but have to continue with what you already have but I am more interested in which  was your favorite sentence?And why?but which one would be the one that describes you the most?But I do not understand the part where it says ” I was laughing at me with them,we laughed like children and made pacts to always be loyal,who understands me when I say this is beautiful?” I do not understand that bit because who do you refer to “they” the police guard?

In my opinion I personally respect and love all your work because you express all your feelings which makes you a unique poet because it is hard to express your feelings and share them with the world like you did.You also inspire a lot of young people who will eventually look up to you as a role model and I would not ask why as you deserve it because after all you have been through a lot and you have helped a lot of people with your poem.

In the book The absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which in the author is Sherman Alexie,Junior is the protagonist as he is  presented as an outsider in many different ways,such as when he went to Reardan school (a white school) in this occasion he’s presented as an outsider as he is the only Native American (Indian) in the school and he’s also poor.But in Wellpinit he is an outsider as people think of him as a kid that wants to be white or consider as a white kid.But Junior left because he wanted a better education to have a brighter future because in Wellpinit he was not learning a lot and he had very low chances to go university and he wants to be a comic author as he is a good writer this can be shown as he is inspired by his best friend Rowdy who loves his books.

Junior is also considered as an outsider when he say people in the reservation used to call him a “globe head” this means he has a big round head and people make fun of him for his physical problem this show he is an outsider but this is not his only problem another example is that he had ten more teeth than a normal person so a white dentist because he couldn’t really chew anything had to take them out.Another physical problem that makes him an outsider is that he has water in his brain which is not normal at all but no one really knows about this and describes himself as a weirdo because of this.In Junior’s first day in school when he says that the white people in the school looked at him like some kind of UFO or a bigfoot this shows white people looked at him like a mythical creature this is because he is the only Indian person in the whole school this makes him an outsider.

The last sentence makes you clap because the way he talks about Mohammed Ali it is very inspirational and you feel like clapping because it’s a way to show respect.

The book Roll of Thunder Hear my cry was written by Mildred D Taylor in 1976,the book has shown discrimination when white people are racist to black people by killing them or burning them.The book is about Stacey,Cassie Christopher-John and Little Man, they are four sibling they live with Mama and Big Ma but sometimes papa and uncle Hammer come home for a few days,all of them together make the Logan family.

From the start of the book Mildred D Taylor showed discrimination to black people when white people gave the black people the old books that they didn’t need or want they even put the condition of the book which said very poor,and when it was very poor they gave it to black people.Little man was very upset and angry.This is shown when little man stamped on the books Miss.Crocker whipped Little Man.

Cassie saw the book and when she readed that when the books were too old or not anymore needed they gave it to black children before Miss.Crocker whipped him again Cassie said”See Miz Crocker ,see what says.They give us these ole books when didn’t want’em no more”this shows discrimination because it  white people don’t care about black people education because of their skin colour.

Also black children and white children went to different schools the white children school is called Jefferson Davis County School and had a mini bus that takes them home and have brand new desks and new books, while black children didn’t have a mini bus or new desks not either new books they only had old books old desks they went to Great Faith Elementary School but don’t have their own bus this shows racism because white people don’t want white children to mix up with black people.

Also in the book it says that the school driver for the white school bus splashed them to distract the white children,because they were bored and Little man was very angry with this thing of the bus splashing them and white people kept doing it everyday.Until one day they were so annoyed about it,that had revenge on the white school bus,by digging a hole and making the bus get stuck so white children had to walk home for a week until the bus was fixed.

The second point I want to talk about is when Mr.Barnett let’s white people push in front of Cassie,Stacey and TJ and Cassie gets angry with Mr.Barnett and tells him why did he let the other white people push in front and Mr.Barnett whispered “just wait a little bit more”.

Cassie got mad because she was trying to be as kind as she could be to Mr.Barnett and Mr.Barnett answered annoyed she kept telling Mr.Barnett until Mr.Barnett said “who’s little nigga is this!”,Cassie got mad because she got verbally abused by Mr.Barnett.

And when she came out of Mr.Barnett store she was mad afterwards Lilian Jeans pushes Cassie and Cassie gets mad at her,Cassie gets even more mad.And so Lilian Jeans told Cassie to say sorry and Cassie refuses to say sorry to Lilian Jeans but big Ma makes Cassie say sorry to Lilian Jeans because they might get in trouble and she starts crying because she knows it wasn’t her fault and thinks it is not fair to apologise to Lilian Jeans but has to says sorry. And then Mr.Simms tells her to go down the street to the road and she has it.

Mildred D Taylor shows us discrimination again in racism to black people when TJ and Stacey don’t get serve in the Wallace Store because they are black and they are white and just ignore them cause of their skin colour. Discrimination is shown as well when the Berries get burned by white people and kill them, and every night a group of white people go out and kill any black person even if it is a child they go every night.

All of this shows discrimination against black people which is racist to them and I think they should show respect like Jeremy does and not insult them or be rude with them only because of the way they are after all it is not their fault because they were born like that and they can not change that. And should be treated like the white people are treated so there is peace and can move on with out any more problems in the way.