"I tried hard to preserve my self-respect; but I was struggling alone in the powerful grasp of the demon Slavery; and the monster proved too strong for me. I felt as if I was forsaken by God and man; as if all my efforts must be frustrated; and I became reckless in my despair." - Linda Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861
I just finished reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs for history class and I really liked it. That was one of my favorite passages in my book because it was the start of her personification of slavery in the form of a demon. I think a lot of people don't understand the extent of slavery's terrors, and yet there were African American people in my class who chose to read Cliff's Notes rather than the book! I thought that was absolutely despicable not only because they're not 12 anymore but because it's about their heritage! I can't believe the shift in values in our society: from family and ancestry to sex and drugs. I'm not generalizing from this one situation, but it seems to happen a lot. Another good book is Beloved by Toni Morrison, which is disturbing and emotional.
You may notice that I changed the layout. I changed it mainly because I thought the big text size made my posts look bigger than they were and constrained my space. Once school starts again, my posts will be much shorter. For now though, I have lots of time to look up stuff and watch football games!
The Sugar Bowl was a great game! I had fun watching it even thought I was impartial, but I was of course rooting for Auburn since they got jipped out of the Orange Bowl. I wanted VT to score though, and that second touchdown was unbelievable. Plus, Auburn pulled this great kickoff return technique where like 10 guys went to where the ball fell and then ran in different directions to confuse the defense.
Couple of news items; first off, Meet the Fockers was number 1 last weekend despite being more rotten than most of the top 10 movies. Any one see it yet? Second, 2004 has been declared the year of the blog, and I must say that having one now I understand why! It's a great way to put all the stuff I can't put in my AIM profile and keep a track of articles I like but don't have any other way to bookmark and keep. Once school starts, it'll probably be more computer oriented than right now.
Lastly, I'm going to start doing memes, which is...
an idea transmitted from person to person like a virus...How do they work? Basically a blogger will propose an idea like "Hey, let's post the first sentence of our favorite book!" and it will catch on like crazy with people linking to each other's submissions obsessively until the game dies down.
So today, I'm going to list 10 Things I Look Forward to Doing in 2005:
1) Moving into a new apartment!
2) Batman Begins, baby!
3) Blogging!
4) Reading the Aeneid in Latin
5) Acing CS 315 (pray for me!)
6) Getting a car
7) Getting Metal Gear Solid 3 or Half-Life 2
8) FINALLY taking GUI 201
9) New seasons of my fave shows (24, Chappelle's Show, Family Guy)
10) NSC Poker Tournament :)
Don't forget the Orange Bowl tonight on ABC at 7PM CST! USC v. that rotten OU!
4 comments:
" I thought that was absolutely despicable not only because they're not 12 anymore but because it's about their heritage!"
That comment is rather distasteful and could easily be construed as racist. Why is it "despicable" for blacks to skip out on reading Harriet Jacobs when no one decries whites for not celebrating their ethnic heritage? Is it equally despicable for an Irish-American to read the Cliff's Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses or an English-American to read the Cliff's Notes for Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre? Is it okay that Latinos might not want to read Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad? Why do you feel that blacks must know every detail about their heritage while you are quiet about other races?
Isn't the history of slavery simply a part of American heritage? Sure, it greatly affected blacks; but they already know that. They know how terrible slavery and racism are. Don't you think whites would be the ones who don't fully understand what it is like to be discriminated against? Why don't you find it despicable that they might not read the book? I mean, it is part of their heritage as well. Slavery consisted of two groups. Not just one.
White people aren't excluded either. This is just one incident I pointed out because it happened recently, I've seen much more in high school. I just feel perturbed by society in general and this apathy towards education. I think it is equally despicable in all those cases and especially when it's in a college class that you're taking by choice. Granted it's a state requirement, but it's only to benefit you and no one else and you had a choice to get that degree and take those required courses. What's the point if you don't try to learn anything? It wasn't even a class with a heavy workload!
I read every book in my English class regardless of how much I liked them because it gave me a broader knowledge about literature and writing styles and history in some cases. I think everyone should read books like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl so that they can see what happens when racism gets out of hand. Some people don't consider themselves racist that are racist. There were white people in my class who didn't read the book as well and I thought that was just as bad, especially since we had 2 weeks and it was like 225 pgs. I had to read Beloved myself in high school and that's another great book about slavery that no one but me read. I just hate it when people shirk a great book.
I wasn't targetting that one kid because he was african american, he was just the first who I discovered that hadn't read it. The other people I realized the day of the test, and I didn't want to blog about it again. I'm used to classes at UT where I had classes people actually cared about, this is a community college class I took to save time.
"Some people don't consider themselves racist that are racist."
I totally agree. If you are interested in the topic of racism, or more specifically the persistence of racism in modern society, I would suggest reading Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva.
I'll put it on my list of books to read, thanks! I've seen the good and bad in many races and yet I unfortunately meet a growing number of elderly people in my own race who are racist! It's a sad problem, and I'd like to be able to fight it. Especially when it comes to parents forbidding perfectly valid relationships.
Maybe one of these days I'll blog about this growing society of hate, but nowadays the hate has shifted more to homosexuals. My own history teacher right now is opposed to same-sex marraige! When Louisiana passed that law banning homosexuals from teaching, my Latin teacher revealed his sexual orientation to us and showed his outrage. It was interesting because I couldn't really tell myself that he was gay without really reading into some of what he said, and his class was my favorite class last semester. Of course it didn't change anything, and I think everyone in the class still loved him. It's people like these who are being offended and isolated, and it seems to be becoming more of a problem than racism is. Fortunately I don't dwell on these things much or my blog would be pretty depressing =P
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