Lucy’s Blog

1st Semester Reflection

I’d have to say that 1st semester in Wasserman’s class went quite well. I personally got some good stuff out of the class and I’m sure that that will continue into the second half of the year as well. I liked some of the novel discussions we had about A Lesson Before Dying and appreciated  the moderation in assigned writing and essays.

I think that blogging is a great idea, but I feel like giving specific “Blogging Groups” didn’t really work out so well during the racism and satire unit. If you’re paired with people who don’t blog on a regular basis, it’s kind of difficult to get your portion of the work done. I remember my teachers in seventh grade had us read a book and gave every person one response buddy to write back and forth with. It was a lot easier to share ideas between two people than trying to communicate between a larger group. It’s just an idea, but I think it could really enhance our blogging experience.

Fast Food Reviews

I’m not really sure, but I was looking at the Onion website and I think the A.V.Club is part of it or something, right? They do reviews for recently released new items, films, tv shows etc. I checked out the food reviews on one of the sections and I found it fairly awesome. These writers take McDonald’s salads and the Burger King Menu to a whole new level. I’m not really sure if it’s satire, but it seemed so ridiculous that anyone would take that much time to write about a fast food meal, that it was totally worth reading. In the first review, about the “McDonald’s Asian Salad’ I thought it was really awesome how the reviewer mentioned a “recent suing due to a serving of cold vinegar landing in someone’s lap”. I’m assuming that it was referring to that case were a woman sued McDonald’s for the “Xtra Hot” labeled coffee that she spilt on her lap while driving. These reviews really emphasized how seriously and ridiculously people take themselves and they proved that sometimes all it takes is a little common sense.

Mistaken For Racism

I was interested by the ideas that the second blogger on this same page about how other kinds of prejudice can be mistaken for racism. It seems that whenever someone who belongs to a racial minority is targeted by another person they’d like to think that they’re dissing on their ethnicity. It’s easier to assume that people are generalizing about your background than that they disapprove about a specific element of your personality. Of course its inappropriate to treat people diffrently based on their sexual orientation, physical appearance etc but a lot of these prejudices are usually just assumed to be racist.

As an example, my dad’s friend owns an autobody and about a year ago he was looking to employee a mechanic. He had a bunch of guys come in for interviews and skill evalutations and one of the applicants was an African American man who, the owner claimed, was extraorinarily nice, but didn’t have the right amount of skill. When the owner didn’t call him back for the position, he took it as the owner being racist against him and contacted the NAACP to try and get back at the employer. Much to his surprise, when he returned to the autobody with his legal entourage, it gave my dad’s friend pleasure to introduce him to the skilled, African Ameican mechanic that he had hired to work in his shop. After hearing this, I just thought it goes to show how some people will jump to the most ridiculous conclusions in the event that things just aren’t going their way.

Interratial Relationships

I just typed “racism” into Google and was surprised to find another blog server where the most recent topic of conversation was the persistent racism that still exists in the U.S. There was one woman on this blog who brought up the topic of interacial relationships and how people are treated differently based on who they’re in a relationship with. Although its so true I think the reality of people judging you based on who you go with is completely ridiculous. In this day and age, nobody should have to take ignorant people’s criticism on a regular basis and for those people who don’t approve of interrational relationships, there is a need for a serious realtiy check because there is more to the world than the color of your skin! 

Post Slave Narratives

I think there are a lot of atrocities that one can guess slaves were held victims to in their life, but reading these narratives really solidified many of the horrid treatments that slaves had to endure in historical America. I focused primarily on the writings of Louis Hughes.  He was sold into slavery as a young child and his life story up until his acquired freedom in 1865 is really powerful. There seems to be that awful standard with which people today study history, like every slave’s life can be conformed to fit a specific path. It’s assumed that all slaves were born into it, suffered abuse and then overcame their enslavement. However, these narratives unearth so much more.

 I guess I’d have to say that I’m most disgusted with the slave bidding system and the routine physical examinations that slaves had to deal with from the white men. The wealthy plantation owners would question the slaves about their skills to no end and refused to buy slaves who had any signs of mistreatment. The whites’ ideals were completely unjust because there was no way that a slave could stop the abuse inflicted upon themselves, so if they bore several scars and handicaps it was because of their previously abusive owners.

I was also completely disturbed by the section of the book that was titled “Whipping as a Business”. I knew that owners and overseers unjustly beat their slaves but I didn’t know that they also paid people to whip their slaves for them!!! People made a living out of beating other human beings! I honestly don’t even think that I can begin to try and understand that kind of behavior.

Overall, these narratives were truly eye opening and their personal aspect added even more seriousness to the situation. Hughes included a litte foreward in his piece that answered the public’s question of why it was important to revisit this period in history.  He explained that it wasn’t in fear that another 200 year period of abusive behavior would take over the country, but it was to help future generations to interpret the lessons learned by their ancestors. Hughes said;

The enlightenment of each generation depends upon the thoughtful study of the history of those that have gone before…

Although in my mind Americans should have had more awareness of the nature of the crime they were committing, abolishing slavery in America was an enormous hurtle that they had to work together to overcome. Ultimately, this period in history was a test to everyone’s strength and willingness to unite as a country once again.

“Racism Lingers in U.S.”

So I was like, okay let’s check out cnn.com and finish English homework before cramming for the Math quiz and I get to the site and the top story of the day is titled Racism Lingers in U.S. Coincidence much? Strange…..

But anyway, this article mainly touches on the topic of the ever-present black vs. white racism that is still too large of a part of American society today.  According to a couple of surveys the writers had organized, it was shocking to discover that only 18% of white citizens, on average, thought racism was a consistent problem today where as 49% of African Americans were much more aware of its large influence in society. In a way, this makes sense because there were far more black citizens who had been direct victims of racial prejudice than white Americans. It seems pretty ridiculous that there should be that barrier at all in our society today, but a lot of people, whether they participate in racist actions or not, are ignorant to the “subtleties” of modern day racism. According to the article–>

21st-century racism is different from that of the past. Contemporary racism is not conscious, and it is not accompanied by dislike, so it gets expressed in indirect, subtle ways.

I definitely feel like there exist many different forms of racism in America today. Fortunately, I haven’t experienced too many forms of it around here, but maybe that’s unfortunate. Maybe if more people in upper class, privleged societies saw the terrible tolls that prejudice can take on a racist society, there would be more initiative to stop it altogether.

Pre-Slave Narratives

I don’t think that anybody living in America, especially around here, would ever be able to comprehend the serious devestation that was the life of a slave. I know I can’t and reading standard textbooks that give dates and facts and other impersonal information is going to do nothing to change that. I know that slaves were physically and mentally abused into submision and that they were sold off to the highest bidder like a piece of furniture. Actually, to say that a slave had a life would be a lie because their first, second, and even third obligation was to their master. They hardly ever had the chance to think of the little family they might have had nearby or even themselves. I’m curious to discover how these slave narratives can open my knowlege and understanding of a slave’s existence and hopefully reading them will give me a lot more perspective on the benefits I have as a person.

Satire Has More Meaning

I think the difference between films like Scary Movie and Borat is that although both could be described with the adjective “ridiculous”, one carries a much stronger underlying meaning. I haven’t even seen Borat, but it seems to have taken over our popular culture by exposing some embarassing truths about certain American ways of life. I don’t usually enjoy crude, poking humour so the “Scary Movies” just don’t do anything for me. The only purpose they serve is to rip the seriousness out of other meaningful productions. They’re not really satire because all they’re doing is trying to make a serious message into a joke. Satire is in many ways a joke, but it also tends to make people feel uncomfortable in a way that makes them change their negative ways.

Jim Crow Laws

The Jim Crow Laws segregated every aspect of American society however, I feel like the segregation of public schools draws the most influence in this area of discussion.  It’s one thing, and not a good thing, but it’s one thing to make African Americans used different bathrooms and water fountains, but its so unjust to limit the privlege of learning.  In one of these articles we were assigned, a black student references the poor conditions that the books and materials his class was forced to use was in.  He made me realize that its not the physical aspects of a classroom that make the difference, its the quality and personality of the teacher.  Willia Wallace, student at the time said about his teachers;

They had the knowledge of things that were happening at the time. So they passed it on to us.

It would be nearly impossible to expain the ‘black and white rules’ of society to a classroom full of youth.  It seemed very valuable for this class to have a teacher that was able to communicate with their students and try to bring reason to their current situation under the Jim Crow Laws.  In many ways, I feel like Grant has that kind of relationship with his students.  He knows their personal backgrounds, he understands their learing methods, and he’s doing the best he can to educate them under the current racial limits of society.

Shakespeare and Leo Deo

So I decided to watch the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, because it seemed slightly more interesting than anther adaption filmed at some point before I was born(not that I dont love old movies…Hitchcock all the way). I’d seen bits and pieces of this movie on TV before but had the language not given it away, I would never had thought that it had anything to do with Shakespeare. In fact the language is the only part of this movie that seems even a bit Elizabeathen, but then you have famous actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes delivering them so the entire movie balances out to a pretty original performance.

I guess seeing actors I knew in the film made it more interesting and the setting was also pretty different. Although I was confused from time to time with the half desert half modern suburb setting thing that happened during those random and chaotic car chase scenes, it definitely put a spin on the typical interpretations of Shakespeare’s work.