Will DiBella's WRIT-150 Blog

 After World War II, the federal government determined that the best way to improve the country was to invest heavily in the highway system. Early in urban development African Americans were put into small corners of cities, the least desirable areas that no white person wanted to live in. These neighborhoods were targeted as urban blight and removed as the government subsidized slum clearance and urban renewal. This article explains how the “separate but equal” decision made in Plessy v. Ferguson led to the government allowing and even encouraging redlining and segregating African Americans due to the subsidies provided to build highways as urban renewal. City leaders targeted African American communities to be destroyed to build these highways which contributed to the development of the suburbs and how since white taxpayers left city centers the city couldn’t provide for the African Americans left who didn’t have the money to take care of themselves. Ultimately cities should tear...

New Orleans’ Claiborne Avenue was once a wide street with a collection of diverse citizens that provided an important color to New Orleans’ downtown. Creoles, Haitian refugees, white Creoles, and Caribbean and European immigrants all called Claiborne home. It wasn’t particularly wealthy but it was an important part of New Orleans’ diversity. It was an example of good urbanism with oak trees planted along the ground, growing to provide shade in the hot, swampy summers of the South. It also included green spaces and a waterfront for its residents, had mixed commercial and residential buildings, and people walked all along it, not needing cars to get anywhere. However, America’s car dependency soon destroyed this vibrant community. An expressway was built right through Claiborne and poverty, blight, and crime now run rampant. It was hit especially hard by Katrina in 2006. The best way to right the wrongs done to Claiborne is something that should happen all across the country: the removal...

There are plenty of ways for Baljeet to be changed. I think the main one is his focus on grades, which doesn't do much within the plot of the show except for a couple episodes. Outside of that, it's mostly used for jokes at Baljeet's expense. When the character was first introduced, he was the nerd that was bullied by Buford, getting wedgies and swirlies for comedic effect. However, as the show progressed, this relationship generally changed to a more true friendship without the bullying. If we remove Baljeet’s obsession with his grades, which was done in later seasons of the show, we can begin Baljeet’s story as an intelligent person with friends, not as the stereotypical “smart” Asian immigrant. This in addition to removing the bully/nerd relationship between Baljeet and Buford will make Baljeet’s character a much better character and no longer representative of the smart Asian stereotype.  Buford giving Baljeet a wedgie.

I'll be writing about the character Baljeet from the TV show Phineas and Ferb . Baljeet is an Indian immigrant living in Danville with the titular characters who go on wacky adventures every day of summer vacation by building crazy gadgets. Baljeet is very focused on grades, as he has received straight As and has only gotten one A- as the worst grade of his life. He's even described a failed math test as "the scariest thing known to man". And to top it all off, in The Baljeatles , where Baljeet is stressing about getting a good grade in Summer Rocks, he ends up singing a song called "Somebody Give Me a Grade", all about asking for an A for the camp.   "Somebody Give Me a Grade"   Baljeet represents the "Smart Asian" stereotype, with his character so focused on grades. This stereotype implies that all Asians, specifically Asian-Americans, are good at academics such as math and science. This stereotype is harmful because it places undue exp...

 Hello! This is Will DiBella, testing out Blogger. Everything looks good so far! Practicing embedding images because I like to use them.