I've been reading over all the blogs of my classmates and was caught by an idea that Sequota posted. The theme of her composition was on the idea of respect, a concept that escapes easy definition. It's one of those questions your humanities professor will let your class tread on until you find you'll need a semester of work to gain an inkling. If I try to deconstruct the word myself, I can see Re—which usually signifies repetition, and spect—which seems to come from the word spectate, or 'to look.' The online etymological dictionary says pretty much the same thing, that respect derives from "re- 'back' + specere 'look at." It continues with some history, The verb is 1542, from the noun. Meaning 'treat with deferential regard or esteem." I think my own interpretation can make just as much sense, because if we take the time to look at someone more than once, we will hopefully avoid being the opposite of 'respectful,' that ugly beast "prejudice." Prejudice means to judge previous the event of encountering something, or, to not even "look at" in the first place.

Sequota seems to have been on the ups and downs of respect. She even confides in us that "sometimes I have discriminated," even though "[she has] been discriminated against" herself. Recently Sequota was involved in a confrontation with a "higher authority figure in the educational department." It seems that the conflict arose over the lack of respect given to Native Americans during a film, after the professor blamed a tribe for a scene discontinuity. It seems the filming had to be relocated to a non sacred-burial-ground site. In language that sounds more reminiscent of my junior high P.E. coach, the professor made light of Sequota's response, twice asking her "why [she] was making a big deal out of it."

I don't think many of us would defend this professor, and I think I could easily find myself in a throng of offended citizens banging on their door, pitchfork in hand. So Sequota, I understand that you may wish to do the better thing, in your words, "But then I realized that I needed to be the one to make differences," but please, for our sake—at least give us the name and address of this buffoon.


Also, go check out these prejudice tests on MSN. It seems that I am prejudice against fat people, but not against political candidates, even if one of the candidates is George W. Bush. Amazing!