Loubens Janvier

September 16, 2014

ID: 109896559

Creative Expression

Surprising Similarities
Beginning a paper is usually the hardest part, I suppose, for most writers. It is the first few
sentences that not only define the rest of the work but more intuitively lay out a clear path and
structure for what is to come. As you can see from my introductory sentence, I have absolutely
no idea of what is to come, I am simply coasting along, writing about not knowing what to write.
Its a simple tactic I usually use in such cases like this one where I have absolutely nothing in
common with an author and his message. An author and a message I have been assigned to relate
to as if relations can be invented. How am I, an 18 year old black male supposed to find anything
in common with a Cuban cheerleader running around in the jungle patting furry specimens? I
started wondering, imagining how much easier this assignment would be if I were of the same
sex as the author. We would both be girls in a mans world as I intend to major in Computer
Science. We would both face suspicion in our qualifications for this particular field and both be
primarily judged by how well we fit a tank top. It is one of those situations where I wish my
qualifications were questioned and I, judged by looks so I could rant about victimization, sexism,
and how shes my hero. This would make for heck of paper, easily swallowed by super liberal
college professors and easier for me to say the least. Butspeed bump, I am not of the female
kind. I was overly confident that this assignment would be a dead end. So overly confident that I
did not even bother to read and usefully process what was so apparent between the lines. It

appeared to me, while drowning in despair, that African American males are not that common in
my computer science lecture class and even less frequent in the greater technology sphere.
Further similarities we share, we are either immigrants or children of immigrants, and both defy
expectations by our small native communities and society at large. And the most important of all,
from my eyes, we both do not see ourselves as part of a group but as individuals. We are not
bound by social conventions nor do we give them any value or regard. We do not claim
protection and wrongdoings under the flag of racism and sexism but seek ultimacy anonymously,
devoid of adjectives of color and gender.
What at first glance seem utter incompatibility became the blatant opposite upon a minutes
consideration of the nature of Pink Boots and a Machete. It now amazes me in a delightful and
relieving fashion how a Cuban cheerleader running around in the jungle can be quite close in
circumstance to a Haitian immigrant studying Computer Science at the opposite end of the
gender table. Very relieving indeed.