Ariana M, Brandi G, Kwynn R

 I stood in my backyard cooking my food and a whirl of wind swirled around me; I turned and saw a tiny speck flying towards me. It landed in my hand; until it started growing I had been holding it. It began to grow bigger and bigger. I dropped it out of my hand in the grass and it continued to grow it grew the size of my car. It slowly opened up and out came two green figures. “What are you?” I asked. “We are Martians we come from light-years away”, said the Martian. “Well, what have you come for?” I asked. “We have come to learn about America and its way of life here” the Martian said. “Sure” I said taking my food off the grill. The two Martians following me into the house. Have a seat I said pointing to the couch. “What are your names?” I asked. “I am Unk” said the first Martian. “And I am Chak” the other Martian said. “Well Chak, Unk let me tell you about America”. A long time ago from the earliest of time Women ruled the world, they were allowed to do everything; votes, equal pay, receive an education, they were equal amongst men. America is the land of the free and home of the brave. So they say. Back when slavery occurred, whites fought and fought for the freedom of the African Americans who were enslaved. They beat them and whipped them to try and prove their love to them. They were determined to have equality. Today, America is accepting to whatever a person has to offer; same sex- marriage (in every state), being obese is the new look. Gangbangers are paid to kill each other because the planet is overcrowded, so the police really don’t act on their activities. They’re afraid for their lives. America is beautiful, clean, safe, fun, and welcoming. That’s what a government official might tell you, but not me my Martian friends I won’t lie to you, but I must inform you everything I have just told you is a lie. America is harsh, judgmental, and unsafe, it’s the complete opposite of what I have told you; women aren’t paid the same as men, in the beginning they couldn’t even vote let alone voice their opinions. Majorities of their cities are polluted. Before you go I must give you ( the Libido for the ugly, Body Image, and The hunger Games) read these, these will help, but my friend Kwynn can tell you more so visit her she’s right next door. “Ok, Goodbye” they said heading to kwynn’s 

I woke up to a startling sound

A sound so profound

3 little green martians from out of town

Landed in MY backyard.

“They look like clowns! “  I shrieked.

Over my mouth, my hand, I keeped

Until all 3,  green and bleek

Walked towards my door looking mystique

Knock.Knock.Knock

I reached for my glock

In my drawer, in the kitchen

Knock. Knock. Knock.

But it was missin

Then I saw slime that glistened

As it oozed under the door, kissin

The “Welcome Home” mat

“Difficult was that” said one martian as it slurped into green form

“Agree do I” said the second

The 3^rd smiled with its Jordan 6 on it’s head.

“Name Zurlock, this is Zurlod, and this is Trey.”

“Nice to meet you” keeping my hand at bay, looking at the greeniest goo

Zurlock gave me dap, and that was…awkward.

There was 3 martians in my house.

Not even a mouse, could say that was untrue

“Tell me something, umm, is the land of the red white and blue?”

Zurlok asked.

“Land of dreams, Themes, and smiley things?” Zurlod asked

“Home of the brave and where White Castles is craved?”

Trey asked while his stomach rumbled.

My tounge was jumbled, I almost fumbled

This martians came to my house to want to know about America!

This caused a huge amount of hysteria

In my mind

However, on the outside, I looked fine

I went to the den, and then

Grabbed 3 movies

“Higher Learning”, “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “ Driving Miss Daisy”

I came back, feeling hazy and replied

“ Welcome to America. The land of red, white and blue. Where racism is true, and people are judged on the outside rather than their insides.

Because in America, appearance is a priority, education is a minority and ignorance is the majority.

There is no pride, it has died with JFK MLK and Michael J

All we have now to lean on with HOPE is Obama

He is what we call nowadays “dope”

I apologize sincerely for the misconceptions you believed

About dreams

And money that grows on trees

But we are actually in a depression

Financially and emotionally

That is why we are number one for obesity and diabetes

Anyways, here is the catch

America is founded on racism and will never be united

Or a “ United States of America”

I have 3 movies for  you “ Higher Learning”, “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “ Antwonne Fisher”

These movies portray average American citizens

And their experience through racism.”

“Believe not this I can’t. “ said Zurlock.

“Smh” said Trey

I responded with a “ Hey, ya know…it be like that sometimes…take these movies and go to my friend Brandi’s house

She will show  you another view of America!”

I gave the three clowns without any frown the address of Brandi’s house

And off they went, without making dents, with their UFO

And out of my back yard.

This morning I woke up to find a spaceship in my backyard. I couldn't believe it. I never thought that Aliens existed but there they were right in my backyard. When I asked why they had come here, they said that my friend kwynn sent them to me.

"She said you could give us better insight to what America is like," they replied.

"Well I guess I can help you out, I don't know what Kwyn told you but I'm going to give you the truth of America," I said.

"Well there have been movies that predict how the world will end," I said.

The first movie prediction was 2012. It was supposed to predict exactly when the world will end. America will be the first part of the world to go.

The second movie prediction was Armageddon. It’s showed all types of natural disasters and violence that is actually happening in reality.

"And that's not even the best part," I said.

The last movie prediction that came out about the ending of the world was The Day the Earth Stood Still. At the end of the movie, the Earth stops. It's frozen over with a large sheet of ice and Earth is just silently rotating in the atmosphere.

"Well I think we've learned all we need to know, thanks for the insight," they said.

"Wait you're leaving so soon," I cried.

"Oh, yes we don't want to go down with you Americans, goodbye," They said.

And like that they were gone.

Kyna Nicholas, Lia Miller, Tierra Tucker

FOX News-
ATTENTION! Just in, there has been what seems like an upstream o extraterrestrial activity happening on earth. It seems that these Aliens have landed in America. These Aliens, described with green translucent skin, tentacles, and glowing eyes, claim to have come to earth in order to learn more about American culture. Fox News has uncovered stories from 3 people who claim to have talked to the aliens.

KYNA: (A middle aged woman from Chicago, Illlinois)

I was in the kitchen making me a plate ofbuttered noodles when all of a sudden my house shook. I look out the window and see what appears to be a gigantic piece of metal implanted in my lawn. I drop my noodles without even realizing it, that was on my grandmothers plate, which also went shattering to the floor.  I quickly ran outside.

 Before I knew it I was saying

                “What the hell are you doing?!”

                The creature that sat in front of me was green with bright eyes and tentacles.

“You know what…I’m calling the police” I quickly run back in the house and grab the telephone and come back out. “Do you hear me? I’M CALLING THE POLICE! AND I’M GONNA SUE YOU…AND I’M GONNA GET MY MONEY FOR THIS. FOR YOU…FOR YOU DESTROYING MY YARD!!!”

                “For what… pshhhhhhhhhhhhhh Gosh. Needy Greedy.”

                “Your in America…” I start to dial the phone. “What do you expect.  Everyone over here is greedy.  That’s our middle name! “

TIERRA: (An old woman, in her 90s, from Atlanta, Georgia)

“Do you wanna know what I’sa thinks of America ?” I said.

“Yes, that would be correct.” Mumbles the alien.

“Well from my 93 years of living in this here country, I’sa had seen it all… But mostly what I’sa have seen is the strife of my people and the struggles we had in this’a here country. I witnessed first hand what our people done been through. Because I’sa was right there pickin’ cotton,  I’sa was right there getting whipped, I’sa was right there getting’ mistreated by them red necks, and I’sa had to prove myself to them and fight for my rights and what I’sa believe in! “

*rubbing their chin* “wow, very interesting, but may we ask what this idea of strife is? “

America has a mass history of African-American strife. Throughout our history of America we have witnessed many tribulations within our African American heritage which has shaped our culture today. Two prime examples I would like to depict throughout my overview of America from part and more recent are “Roots” and the “Great Debaters” movies.  These two artistic pieces represent my concept of America because both pieces do a swell job at illustrating the African-American strife, African-American struggle, and a common theme of how they overcame and paved the way for not only African-Americans but all minorities in America. And created a tremendous change overall.

“That sounds very intriguing as well. May you further explain how these concepts represent America as a whole ?” states Alien A1.

“Yes’m , I would be’sa very honored to share with you my rationale.” I state.

… “Well it all began in “Roots” when Kunta Kinte was abducted from his African village, sold into slavery, and taken to America. He made several escape attempts until he was finally caught and maimed. He married Bell, his plantation's cook, and they has a daughter, Kizzy, who was eventually sold away from them. Kizzy had a son by her new master, and the boy grew up to become Chicken George, a legendary cock fighter who leads his family into freedom. Throughout the series, the family observed notable events in U.S. history, such as the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, slave uprisings, and emancipation.

And another here example I has’a for yall here today is found in the film “The Help”, where African-American strife was strongly depicted especially in the scene where the African-American maid was not allowed to use the caucasion home owners restroom. It caused a huge descrepency in the film where the maid was fired and it showed how mis-treated and the inequality the African-Americans were.

The last example I’sa had is “The Great Debaters.” The film depicts the Wiley Debate team beating Harvard College in the 1930s. They did not debate Harvard, however. The debate depicted in the film instead mirrored the match up between Wiley and the University of Southern California, who at the time were the reigning debating champions. Wiley College did indeed win this matchup. According to my close friend Robert Eisele: "In that era, there was much at stake when a black college debated any white school, particularly one with the stature of Harvard. They used Harvard to demonstrate the heights they achieved. The film omits another reality: even though they beat the reigning champions, the Great Debaters were not allowed to call themselves victors because they were not truly considered to belong to the debate society; blacks were not admitted until after World War II.

            So throughout all of these movies they shared a common theme of  African-American strife and sufferage. But in the end it shows how African Americans over came their trials and tribulations and made a difference, change, and overall improvement to the African American culture as a whole. 

LIA: (A hip teenager from Los Angeles, California)

Yes, the aliens came to me last week, they told me that they wanted to know about modern American culture from a modern American teenager. I told them that in my opinion, you can learn a lot about American culture from watching television. 

“Explain” said the tentacled Aliens aliens.

 “Well, for example, in this age the closest thing we have to royalty in America is…”

“Wait”, they said “Is it Barrack Obama and his family? Isn’t the president considered your American monarchy?”

 “No, not exactly” I said. “See, if you watch American TV, you’ll find that our royalty is more like the Kardashian family. The Kardashian’s are probably one of the richest families in America right now, and there show is a hit.”

 The aliens rummaged through the images in my brain like a photo album until they found a scene from “Keeping up With the Kardashians” that I watched last week.

 "Wow" Said the aliens, "Is it really possible to make currency by doing absolutely nothing in America?"

 "Yup", i said, "We call that the entertainment industry."

"Show us more" they said, "How do commoners function in America?"

"You mean ordinary people?"

“Yes that would be the correct term" the mind reading aliens exclaimed.

  "Ok, check this out" I said as I remembered a scene from The Simpsons. I pictured a scene where Homer is strangling Bart, which made me laugh.

 "Wait" they said, are all American fathers abusive and dumb?"

 "No" I chuckled, "Only the bad ones".

 "This show appears very entertaining" they said “We can see that even though they are a dysfunctional family, they still love each other."

 "Precisely" I replied.

The aliens sighed, "Enough with this. May we see an example of the American plight?"

 "Ok, let’s see" I remembered watching an episode of the Oprah show where this woman was given a brand new house because she was homeless with 4 children.

 "Who is this Oprah?" the aliens asked.

 "She’s like the most powerful woman on earth."

 "Oh, so she can do magic?"

 "Yea, it’s called using the magic of money. Here in America money equals power."

 The aliens gave a confused glare "So when you American suffer, Oprah will come to give you things?"

 "Well, not exactly" I said, “She only gives some people things but there is a lot of poor people in America like the one in this episode, because of the economy."

"Your American culture seems very superficial, where is the substance?" the aliens asked irritated

 "Well" I said, "It’s not that superficial, that’s just what’s on TV.

 A lot of us are just focused on the superficial main stream pop culture that we see on TV, but that doesn’t make all Americans superficial. I know America is much more than that, we just loose site of who we really are sometimes, which are free, proud people."

 "Oh," said the aliens, "Now we understand". 

Then they loaded back onto there huge mother-ship that looked like a metal meteorite and vanished like a beam of light fading into the darkness.

Kendale Johnson

Last night the strangest thing happened. Two Martians landed in my back yard and asked me to describe America to them.

That said, “We believe the only true way to understand a civilization or society is to ask those at the bottom.”

"I’m not at the bottom–I’m middle class" as all Americans love to say–but then I realized what they really meant.

“ Being a person of color, due to the melanin in my skin, American is a gray area to me. I am never sure how my day will go because I am not viewed or treated as a full citizen. 

In the Constitution, my people were written in as fraction of a whole person–three-fifths to be exact. Being a minority, freedom is only an idea.”

Emmett Till Murder

Never Go Back South

Or To Neighborhoods "You Don't Belong In"

Murders Will Get Off On Bail

Never Go Anyway. It's Not Safe

(The cops were acquitted of all charges.)

 America Is A Contradiction

Don't Believe In The Horatio Alger Myth

Brittany McMullen

They landed in my yard last night. I was scared out of mind. “Greetings earthling” they said but I didn’t reply because I was too scared. “You look like you’ve seen a….” they began to look in a dictionary. “A ghost” one of the green things said. I was a little startled at first until I realized they were harmless.

“We would like to know about your planet” they said and I simply told them “I honestly don’t know much about the world or the planet I live on, but I know a lot about my country at least from my point of view. I can tell you about that.”

“Great! That would be just fine.” The little green things exclaimed.

“Well if you really want to know, I live in the United states of America. Apparently it was founded on July 4, 1776 by a man named Christopher Columbus. That’s what they taught me in school but I have my own beliefs. Here in America we have this documentation called the Declaration of Independence. In this document it states that “All men are created equal.”

(This is a bunch of bologna if you ask me)

To a certain extent is this statement true. I will say that all men are created the same way but they are definitely not treated equally.

For example, there’s this thing called slavery. It started a long time ago where whites owned property along with African Americans, but they made the African Americans work for them. They were deprived of an education, food; clothing and some were even separated from their families to do manual labor. These human beings were sold like they were property and even beaten. Sometimes, to death, and for no reason at all. Eventually, our government passed laws to abolish slavery.  Sounds like a good idea right?  Well in many ways African Americans were looked at as inferior (meaning less than or lower in rank) to whites; and to this day they still are. However, in the past, they couldn’t get certain jobs because of the color of their skin. They couldn’t eat in certain places or get the same type of education as a white person.

 

Remember, “All men are created equal.” Does it seem that way?

"Im not sure" replied one of the martians. Well not to me. Racism is a huge factor that has and probably will always determine a person’s place in society. Racism has led to blacks being mistreated all over the world. For instance, this african american boy named Emmett Till was murdered after he was accused of “flirting with a white woman in 1955. Things like this make me say that the country in which I live in is hypocrisy. I didnt know that flirting was a crime. Too bad he wasnt even doing so.

Unfortunately, my green friends, America Isnt what most people think it is. People are treated unfairly all accross the world but i can only speak on what I've witnessed. Overall, America is a huge hipocrisy in which all men arent treated equally.

Andy Folan

Freakonomics and realise how there is a statistical reason for almost every phenomenon that occurs.

Outsiders and we see how when Americans are left to themselves they create factions that can cause wars

The lights in the house fluctuate as a loud sound is heard around my house. I run outside to see what has happened. I see two beings standing at my gate. “Hey, can I help you two?” I say quickly.
“Oh hey, not to scare you but we are from Mars.

In 1984 the government is to scared to let the people live their lives with free thoughts and actions.

It is not what is on the outside, its what is on the inside...SIKE! by Sean

I was watching the news when all of a sudden...BOOM! I heard somewhat of a giant thud in my backyard. I was home alone. So i took action. I ran and grabbed my dad's shotgun. I ran outside. I run out and see...





 

I pull the trigger. But the bullet floats in mid air. "WE come in peace." said their leader. "Well then WTF are you doing in  my backyard." I reply. "All we request is that you tell us about this world."they reply innocently. I was so scared I pissed my pants. "So basically a summary of this planet. I can do that. OK, there are these people we like to call stereotypes. Stereotypes are a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group. So, some examples are black people LOVE watermelon

White girls have no body features.

I beg to differ.

Mexicans only play soccer.

And all rappers are bad influences because they smoke and use explicit language.

Yea, sure.