Blog – Who do you sympathize with?
There are two sides to every story. In this case it was between the Jews and African Americans. The incident was when a Jewish man hit and killed a young African American. The African Americans claim that he was drunk at the time of the accident but when the ambulance took him to the hospital he had no alcohol in his breath. The ambulance that came to take the Jewish man to the hospital was a private ambulance for the Jews. The African Americans complained that they needed to attend to the dying kid on the ground rather than taking the Jewish man to the hospital. Their argument was that the Jewish man was up and walking while the young African American was lying still on the ground. The African Americans also beat up the man who killed the young boy so much that he required stitches on his head and skull. Also as a result of this incident a few hours later another Jewish man was walking when a group of African Americans stabbed him just because he was a Jew. After all of this and listening to the movie I have to say that both sides are to blame. I feel sympathy for both but I think that both sides also did things to anger the other side. The African Americans stabbed a Jewish man for the simple fact that he was a Jew and the Jewish man who hit the young kid ran a red light, which is never acceptable. The Jewish also brought their own private ambulance to the scene to help the driver; while they just left the young kid lying there. That is why I don’t feel as though I can side with one or the other.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Malcolm X
What in trigued you? What angered you? How does this compare to the writing of Martin Luther King, Jr?
The entire passage was about Malcolm X’s life while he was in jail. Malcolm talks about how he learned of Elijah Muhammad and his teachings of “the white man is the devil and the brainwashed black man.” This is a reoccurring phrase throughout the autobiography; similar to the reoccurring phrases “I have a dream and let freedom ring” in Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech. However this is the only thing that is similar between the two. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had two very different views on how people should fight the problem. Through his communications with Muhammad, Malcolm learned that history had been “whitened” to subjugate the blacks. This was a problem because for all of the blacks in the prison, this is what they believed. They didn’t know any better. This is not surprising because Malcolm says, “even the black professors have known little more than the most ignorant black man” (Pg. 1869) because history had been so “whitened.” Malcolm believes that the whites are nothing but an enemy to the blacks and wants to use violence against them. This is the complete opposite of what King wanted to do; he wanted to solve the problem peacefully. What was interesting was how he brought religion into the problem. His views on religion were so extreme that he blames his violence on it. The way he wants to solve the problem is through violence and he is willing to do anything to get what he wants.
The entire passage was about Malcolm X’s life while he was in jail. Malcolm talks about how he learned of Elijah Muhammad and his teachings of “the white man is the devil and the brainwashed black man.” This is a reoccurring phrase throughout the autobiography; similar to the reoccurring phrases “I have a dream and let freedom ring” in Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech. However this is the only thing that is similar between the two. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had two very different views on how people should fight the problem. Through his communications with Muhammad, Malcolm learned that history had been “whitened” to subjugate the blacks. This was a problem because for all of the blacks in the prison, this is what they believed. They didn’t know any better. This is not surprising because Malcolm says, “even the black professors have known little more than the most ignorant black man” (Pg. 1869) because history had been so “whitened.” Malcolm believes that the whites are nothing but an enemy to the blacks and wants to use violence against them. This is the complete opposite of what King wanted to do; he wanted to solve the problem peacefully. What was interesting was how he brought religion into the problem. His views on religion were so extreme that he blames his violence on it. The way he wants to solve the problem is through violence and he is willing to do anything to get what he wants.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sonny's Blues
• Blog – What does the brother realize about Sonny as he plays the piano? What does the music allow Sonny to do?
It takes a while for Sonny’s brother to understand Sonny and why he wants to play the piano. The brothers get into a big argument about Sonny skipping school to play jazz. The first time the brother realizes why Sonny played the piano was when Sonny invited him to one of his gigs. The brother learns that by playing the piano Sonny is able to express the truth inside himself and in turn allows the brother to realize that the truth that exists all around him in life. He also learns the necessity of music and its role in the black community. The brother noticed how Sonny was struggling to find the right language to express himself in. Not only until the end of the story does Sonny find this new language when he gets lost in the expression of his music. Sonny used music as a way to escape. Music was the only thing that gave him hope and kept him dreaming for a better life. Music gave Sonny hope for the future. The relationship between drugs and music has been historically intertwined. “Sonny’s Blues” started off with Sonny getting arrested for heroin and why he did drugs. Near the end of the story we Sonny tells his brother that the reason he did drugs was to escape the hardships of life. Sonny used his experience of addiction to create his music. So, had it not been for Sonny’s drug problems earlier on in his life, there would be no “Sonny’s Blues” or his music.
It takes a while for Sonny’s brother to understand Sonny and why he wants to play the piano. The brothers get into a big argument about Sonny skipping school to play jazz. The first time the brother realizes why Sonny played the piano was when Sonny invited him to one of his gigs. The brother learns that by playing the piano Sonny is able to express the truth inside himself and in turn allows the brother to realize that the truth that exists all around him in life. He also learns the necessity of music and its role in the black community. The brother noticed how Sonny was struggling to find the right language to express himself in. Not only until the end of the story does Sonny find this new language when he gets lost in the expression of his music. Sonny used music as a way to escape. Music was the only thing that gave him hope and kept him dreaming for a better life. Music gave Sonny hope for the future. The relationship between drugs and music has been historically intertwined. “Sonny’s Blues” started off with Sonny getting arrested for heroin and why he did drugs. Near the end of the story we Sonny tells his brother that the reason he did drugs was to escape the hardships of life. Sonny used his experience of addiction to create his music. So, had it not been for Sonny’s drug problems earlier on in his life, there would be no “Sonny’s Blues” or his music.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Ethics
• Blog – What are the ‘ethics’ of your life? How do the people you interact with on a daily basis contribute to your understanding of how you should behave? Think of your parents/teachers/adults, but also of your friends and peers.
Ethics can be confusing. There are so many different ‘groups’ that you may interact with on a daily basis that you may have several different personalities. Ethics is how you act around a certain group of people. However, being ethical does not mean just doing what the group accepts. But, in reality, most groups choose standards that are in fact ethical, but people’s standards of behavior can differ from those standards. This shows how most people are often influenced by others because what is considered ethical to one group may be considered unethical to another. For instance, you may act nice and polite around your parents but may act in a different way with your friends. This is because you act depending on how you want the people around you to see you as. So, not only do you decide what is the best for you to act, but also the people around you. I know that for me I act different around my parents then I do my friends. My parents taught me in general, what is right and what is wrong. So those standards include the obligation to refrain from stealing, fraud, murder, ect. So in other words they expect me to be polite and use manners around other people as well as respect them. Now with my friends it is different. Not that I don’t still act polite, but just do so in a lesser tone. With friends, as we all know, you can be more relaxed around. For the most part friends don’t harp on you to do things like your parents do. However, there are some things that my friends do that I don’t do, for example, a lot of my friends wait to do work until the last minute, while I do it when it is assigned. Not that doing this is wrong; it just isn’t the smartest or best way to act. While I act different around my friends then I do with my parents I don’t think that my “ethics” necessarily change all that much.
Ethics can be confusing. There are so many different ‘groups’ that you may interact with on a daily basis that you may have several different personalities. Ethics is how you act around a certain group of people. However, being ethical does not mean just doing what the group accepts. But, in reality, most groups choose standards that are in fact ethical, but people’s standards of behavior can differ from those standards. This shows how most people are often influenced by others because what is considered ethical to one group may be considered unethical to another. For instance, you may act nice and polite around your parents but may act in a different way with your friends. This is because you act depending on how you want the people around you to see you as. So, not only do you decide what is the best for you to act, but also the people around you. I know that for me I act different around my parents then I do my friends. My parents taught me in general, what is right and what is wrong. So those standards include the obligation to refrain from stealing, fraud, murder, ect. So in other words they expect me to be polite and use manners around other people as well as respect them. Now with my friends it is different. Not that I don’t still act polite, but just do so in a lesser tone. With friends, as we all know, you can be more relaxed around. For the most part friends don’t harp on you to do things like your parents do. However, there are some things that my friends do that I don’t do, for example, a lot of my friends wait to do work until the last minute, while I do it when it is assigned. Not that doing this is wrong; it just isn’t the smartest or best way to act. While I act different around my friends then I do with my parents I don’t think that my “ethics” necessarily change all that much.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Claude McKay and Langston Hughes
• Blog – Compare Hughes’ poetry to Claude McKay. What is similar? What is different?
Both Langston Hughes and Claude McKay write their poems for the same reasons. They write them because they want people to see African Americans as ‘normal’ people. One example is in “To My White Friends”, which says that African Americans are just as able of cruelty towards the whites as the whites are to the blacks. However, McKay makes his reason more clear in his story, “Home To Harlem.” This is the story of Jerco and Rosalind and the reasons African Americans are in certain situations. Most people, according to McKay think that African Americans are in situations because of what they are attracted to but then goes on to tell what the real reasons are, those include: love and kindness. While Langston Hughes talks about the same reasons he does so using different situations. McKay tended to use very unpleasant situations while Hughes incorporates education into his examples. In McKay’s “Home To Harlem” Jerco shows how he loves Rosalind because when she is sick he wants to help her. Most people would think that they are friends, but would not even think that Jerco loves Rosalind. McKay’s point in writing this story was not only to make African Americans seem like people, but also to fight against the idea that all blacks go into activities on purpose, without caring about others. So this story shows that African Americans are real people, with real feelings, that bad things are happening to. W.E.B. DuBois hated this story because it did not show great intellectual characters, so he saw it as a waste of McKay’s talent. In Hughes’s poems he shows how things that are important to blacks can also be things that are important to whites. This is especially shown in his poem, Theme for English B. In this poem the only black kid in the class tells us “I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races.” (Pg. 1310) This is a clear example of why people should see African Americans as ‘normal’ people. Unlike his view on McKay’s “Home To Harlem”, W.E.B. DuBois probably would like the work of Hughes because of its focus on education. I say that DuBois would have probably liked the work of Hughes because after we read “The Souls of Black Folk”, I understood what his on African Americans was. He wanted African Americans to go up North and learn to read and write rather than stay in the South to work in the fields. So this tells me that because Hughes included education in his examples, DuBois would have enjoyed his work.
Both Langston Hughes and Claude McKay write their poems for the same reasons. They write them because they want people to see African Americans as ‘normal’ people. One example is in “To My White Friends”, which says that African Americans are just as able of cruelty towards the whites as the whites are to the blacks. However, McKay makes his reason more clear in his story, “Home To Harlem.” This is the story of Jerco and Rosalind and the reasons African Americans are in certain situations. Most people, according to McKay think that African Americans are in situations because of what they are attracted to but then goes on to tell what the real reasons are, those include: love and kindness. While Langston Hughes talks about the same reasons he does so using different situations. McKay tended to use very unpleasant situations while Hughes incorporates education into his examples. In McKay’s “Home To Harlem” Jerco shows how he loves Rosalind because when she is sick he wants to help her. Most people would think that they are friends, but would not even think that Jerco loves Rosalind. McKay’s point in writing this story was not only to make African Americans seem like people, but also to fight against the idea that all blacks go into activities on purpose, without caring about others. So this story shows that African Americans are real people, with real feelings, that bad things are happening to. W.E.B. DuBois hated this story because it did not show great intellectual characters, so he saw it as a waste of McKay’s talent. In Hughes’s poems he shows how things that are important to blacks can also be things that are important to whites. This is especially shown in his poem, Theme for English B. In this poem the only black kid in the class tells us “I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races.” (Pg. 1310) This is a clear example of why people should see African Americans as ‘normal’ people. Unlike his view on McKay’s “Home To Harlem”, W.E.B. DuBois probably would like the work of Hughes because of its focus on education. I say that DuBois would have probably liked the work of Hughes because after we read “The Souls of Black Folk”, I understood what his on African Americans was. He wanted African Americans to go up North and learn to read and write rather than stay in the South to work in the fields. So this tells me that because Hughes included education in his examples, DuBois would have enjoyed his work.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Booker T. Washington
• Blog – How is Washington providing an answer to the ‘go North’ or ‘stay South’ debate we looked at in Frederick Douglass’s Life and Times?
Booker T. Washington in his “Atlanta Exposition Address” began with a call to the blacks, which comprised nearly one-third of the South’s population. He told them that they needed to join the world of work. Within his speech, Washington provides an answer to “stay South”. He told the blacks that the best chance they had to join the world of work was in the South, most particularly in commerce and industry. “It is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance.” (Pg. 595) This relates to Frederick Douglass’s Life and Times because Douglass tells the African Americans migrating to the North that they should not only to stay in the South but also that the Northern cities can’t take a large influx of people and that they can demand better jobs/higher pay if they support the Southern economy. Then Washington goes on to address his white audience. He told them that instead of waiting for immigrants and put them to work, they should hire some of the eight million blacks. Washington tries to entice the whites with telling them of how loyal and hardworking the blacks are. Along with trying to get blacks into the world of work he also tried to downplay the quest for civil equality by telling his white audience, “ In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” (Pg. 596) Washington said this so as not to seem desperate, in hope that in not doing so the whites would be more willing to take a chance and hire some of the blacks.
Booker T. Washington in his “Atlanta Exposition Address” began with a call to the blacks, which comprised nearly one-third of the South’s population. He told them that they needed to join the world of work. Within his speech, Washington provides an answer to “stay South”. He told the blacks that the best chance they had to join the world of work was in the South, most particularly in commerce and industry. “It is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance.” (Pg. 595) This relates to Frederick Douglass’s Life and Times because Douglass tells the African Americans migrating to the North that they should not only to stay in the South but also that the Northern cities can’t take a large influx of people and that they can demand better jobs/higher pay if they support the Southern economy. Then Washington goes on to address his white audience. He told them that instead of waiting for immigrants and put them to work, they should hire some of the eight million blacks. Washington tries to entice the whites with telling them of how loyal and hardworking the blacks are. Along with trying to get blacks into the world of work he also tried to downplay the quest for civil equality by telling his white audience, “ In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” (Pg. 596) Washington said this so as not to seem desperate, in hope that in not doing so the whites would be more willing to take a chance and hire some of the blacks.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Venture Smith and Equiano
• Blog – Compare Equiano to Venture Smith. Both are Africans brought over to America to be slaves. Do they share the same views? How do they differ?
Both Equiano and Venture Smith came from similar backgrounds. Equiano was born in the village of Essaka, which is now modern day Nigeria. Venture Smith was born in Dukandarra, which is believed to be somewhere in modern day Togo, Ghana, or Benin. Both talk about their lives before they were kidnapped, but Equiano goes into detail about his village describing the rituals and the housing. I think that Equiano is very attached to his village’s traditions and manners because he spends such a great deal discussing them. Equiano even said that, “the manners and customs of my country…have been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression in my mind.” (Pg. 200) Both were kidnapped as young kids and had to endure the horrendous journey from western Africa to the Americas in the crowded area under the deck. In Equiano’s story he spent a great deal describing the conditions and just how they were treated, compared to Venture’s story which gives a couple of sentences concerning the journey. Equiano said that he had never seen a white man before he was kidnapped and while on the ship he couldn’t understand anyone. Equiano experience as a slave was very different then Venture’s because unlike Venture who went directly to North America, Equiano was in different parts of Africa before he went to North America and Barbados. Equiano spent most of his time in England, which is, were he started to become interested in others traditions. This shows up at the end of his writing. He was told that he would not go to Heaven unless he was baptized. Equiano also learned the English language, which he was once completely oblivious to. On the other hand, Venture Smith didn’t care about others traditions, he learned about money. Venture gained his freedom and then went about buying other people’s freedom, but only to have them work for him. This is when he felt like his masters did when he was a slave, powerful and rich. However, both Equiano and Venture have one thing in common, and that is that they both learned to write throughout their enslavement. Both Equiano and Venture started living the same, in western Africa, then forced into slavery, but both dealt with their situations differently and ended up in different situations.
Both Equiano and Venture Smith came from similar backgrounds. Equiano was born in the village of Essaka, which is now modern day Nigeria. Venture Smith was born in Dukandarra, which is believed to be somewhere in modern day Togo, Ghana, or Benin. Both talk about their lives before they were kidnapped, but Equiano goes into detail about his village describing the rituals and the housing. I think that Equiano is very attached to his village’s traditions and manners because he spends such a great deal discussing them. Equiano even said that, “the manners and customs of my country…have been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression in my mind.” (Pg. 200) Both were kidnapped as young kids and had to endure the horrendous journey from western Africa to the Americas in the crowded area under the deck. In Equiano’s story he spent a great deal describing the conditions and just how they were treated, compared to Venture’s story which gives a couple of sentences concerning the journey. Equiano said that he had never seen a white man before he was kidnapped and while on the ship he couldn’t understand anyone. Equiano experience as a slave was very different then Venture’s because unlike Venture who went directly to North America, Equiano was in different parts of Africa before he went to North America and Barbados. Equiano spent most of his time in England, which is, were he started to become interested in others traditions. This shows up at the end of his writing. He was told that he would not go to Heaven unless he was baptized. Equiano also learned the English language, which he was once completely oblivious to. On the other hand, Venture Smith didn’t care about others traditions, he learned about money. Venture gained his freedom and then went about buying other people’s freedom, but only to have them work for him. This is when he felt like his masters did when he was a slave, powerful and rich. However, both Equiano and Venture have one thing in common, and that is that they both learned to write throughout their enslavement. Both Equiano and Venture started living the same, in western Africa, then forced into slavery, but both dealt with their situations differently and ended up in different situations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)