Dietrich College News
January 2012
2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Awards
Poetry: High School
Second Place (Tie)
Blasian
Taylor Johnson,
9th grade, Pittsburgh CAPA
When I was in
4 th grade, I
liked to be alone.
Hugging my knees
tight, pretending.
The boys,
wrestling on the brick,
the girls, in their corners
giggling and blushing
behind tight hands.
Me, the observer.
Legs dangling from the
stone.
I noticed that, all
the black girls
were huddled together.
Then I look to the other side
of the playground.
All the white girls were
also together, playing with
sidewalk chalk.
This was the first time
I became aware of
the difference between
little black
girls &
little white
girls.
They taught us in school,
that Martin Luther King
saved us. That he
stopped
segregation. As much as I want to believe
that, I couldn’t.
In art class, later that
day,
we were learning our
warm
and
cool colors.
A new girl came in our class,
the principal by her side,
and her head held high.
Her skin was brown like
a toasted almond.
They put her right
next to me.
She had no supplies,
she just listened that period.
As the bell was ringing,
I was putting my things into my Bratz
backpack,
she came over to me and asked,
“Are you Chinese or something?
I thought Chinese people didn’t go here.”
My little heart pounded
in my chest.
I shook my head so
hard at her.
Every bone in me
wanted to not be Chinese.
I felt myself on the verge of
tears, washing out of my
Chinese eyes.
I tried opening them bigger,
as big as they could go
just to prove to her.
I would not be Chinese.
I was always told I had
lighter skin than most people.
I asked my friend,
if I looked Chinese, and she told me
“You aren’t Chinese? I thought you
were Blasian!”
What is Blasian?
Was that a real race?
I didn’t want to be Blasian.
I wanted to be black,
like all the other
little black
girls.
View the complete list of the 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Award winners.
Stay connected with CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences on Twitter and Facebook.
Other
sources of Carnegie Mellon news include the university news
service website and the Carnegie
Mellon Today magazine.
Contact
Shilo Rea, Director of Public Relations at shilo@cmu.edu
or (412) 268-6094.
About the Quick Links
|
|
|
Follow the Dietrich College on Twitter and Facebook.
Sign up to receive Dietrich College News, the college's monthly e-newsletter. |
| |
Marcel Just Earns Highest Faculty Distinction
Marcel Just, the D. O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and director of CMU's brain-imaging facility and the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, has received the elite distinction of University Professor, the highest academic accolade a faculty member can achieve at Carnegie Mellon. Read more. |
| |
Dietrich College News: April 2013
Stories this month include Information System's Spring Carnival Booth Contest, an Enlgish alumna writing for a new NBC show, a psychology alumna named "One of 2013's 10 Women to Watch in Tech" by Inc. Magazine and much more. Read Dietrich College News. |
| |
Jay D. Aronson To Study How Social Media and Big Data Affect Protection of Human Rights
To investigate how social media and big data analytics are changing human rights fact-finding, and to better understand the ways that these technologies can advance human rights protection in the future, the MacArthur Foundation recently awarded an 18-month, $175,000 grant to CMU's Center for Human Rights Science, directed by Jay D. Aronson. Read more. |
| |
Researchers Identify Biological Marker That Predicts Susceptibility to the Common Cold
Psychology's Sheldon Cohen has identified a biological marker in the immune system that - beginning at about age 22 - predicts our ability to fight off the common cold.
Read more. Watch a video. |
| |
Lori Holt Wins Prestigious National Academy of Sciences Award
Psychology Professor Lori Holt has been named a 2013 winner of the NAS Troland Research Award for “studies advancing our understanding of the sensory and cognitive processes that are fundamental to the perception of speech.”
Read more. |
| |
Video: The Humanities at Carnegie Mellon University
The Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to have distinguished faculty and talented students who are leading the humanities into the 21st century. In this short video, Dietrich College faculty, staff and alumni talk about the college’s excellence in the humanities.
Watch the video. |
| |
CMU Startup Neon Branches Out To Silicon Valley
Neon, the startup out of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition that uses neuroscience to improve online video clicks, will now have a footprint on both U.S. coasts.
Read more.. |
| |
PBS NOVA Features Marcel Just's Research
Psychology Professor Marcel Just's thought identification - or mind reading - research was recently featured on PBS NOVA's scienceNOW. Find out what happened when host David Pogue went into the brain scanner.
Read more. |
| |
Obituary: Erwin R. Steinberg
Erwin R. Steinberg, the longtime English and rhetoric professor who helped found the field of technical writing and held numerous administrative roles in which he worked to improve education, died Oct. 2 at age 91. Read more. |
| |
Autistic Adults Have Unreliable Neural Responses
A new study led by CMU neuroscientists offers a new opportunity to understand the connection between primary brain functions and behavioral patterns in autism. Read more. Watch a video. |
| |
Brian Junker Appointed Associate Dean of the Dietrich College
Statistics Professor Brian Junker will chair the Dietrich College Council and take a leadership role in administrating college curriculum, programs and policies. Read more.. |
| |
Senior Awarded Prestigious Pickering Fellowship
Global Studies senior Ema D. Woodward has been awarded a prestigious Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship. Woodward is the first Carnegie Mellon student to receive this fellowship.
Read more. |
| |
Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Loneliness in Older Adults
A new study led by Psychology's J. David Creswell offers the first evidence that mindfulness meditation reduces loneliness - and inflammation levels - in older adults. Read more. Watch a video. |
| |
Kiron Skinner Named University Adviser on National Security Policy
In this role, Skinner, a renowned expert in international relations, U.S. foreign policy and political strategy, will build on the growing and diverse network that Carnegie Mellon has with the national security community in Washington, D.C. — both inside and outside of government.
Read more. |
| |
George Loewenstein Documents Pitfalls of Personal Loans
A new study is the first to systematically investigate the terms and consequences of loans between peers, such as friends, siblings and coworkers, and shows how self-serving bias behavior affects future relationships.
Read more. |
| |
Marcel Just Receives Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award
Just — a leading neuroscientist who focuses on how language comprehension and problem-solving emerges from brain processes — has been selected to receive the Society for Text and Discourse's most prestigious award.
Read more. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
