A Response To Mr. Slade's Arduous Task

Mr. Slade, in response to your assignment:

America has done a lot of things to minorities.  It’s frightened them, it’s enslaved them, and it’s tortured and killed them.  But never has America been really scared of them.  It has taken a close to home minority to instill fear in many Americans.  The influx of Mexican illegal immigrants has scared the pants off of the American public.  And though this issue has taken a back seat to the economic crisis, they are still prevalent.

Surprisingly, this does not seem to be an article about America’s racist ways or its economic interests as much as it is about the positives and negatives of these aliens.  America is most freaked out about “loosing its identity”, but after 300+ years of immigrants, wars, and depression, we haven’t really budged except for becoming more open and tolerant.  The tolerance is limited, however, because in the 1900’s we decided to cap our immigration quota at a much lower point than before.  America is trying to protect the population density and integrity of itself.  People are afraid that Spanish might be as prevalent as English and we will all blend in to one big melting pot.  Now what is the problem with that?  It is the “great American melting pot”, right?

All there is to say is that “America” still considers itself to be white, when in reality pretty soon white will just be the largest of very many minorities.  So, white America should be accepting of their new friends because one- they were here first, and second- we’ve been inviting them in for the past 300 years, why stop now?  Over reacting? You bet you are.

 

A Tribe Called Webquest

So I just read Richard Wright's Native Son. What probably effected me the most (more than the murders and the action) were the reactions to those things. I would think that in this day and age, no minority would have that sort of reaction to white people. Plainly stated in the novel, "to Bigger and his kind, white people were not really people; they were a sort of great natural force" (Wright, 109). With that, I thought of how America has progressed in the field of tolerance and racism - how the "natural wall"(102).   But what really changed racism from the extreme paranoia of the old days to the playful banter of now? I decided to research it a little in the only way a high school senior knows how – Wikipedia. To my surprise, there was a specific article on African American racism in the United States… but there was a problem. It skips straight from the Civil Rights out of 1964 to the Election of 2008. There is a whole lot missing.
And so I found my idea for an assignment. I want you, the read, to go peruse my links and videos below in search of the cement that binds the then and now of the American view of African Americans on Wikipedia. Make a new chapter (or two or three, depending on how you want to organize it), that helps to piece together the puzzle of this newfound tolerance.  

Associated Content has a huge amount of articles dealing with past and present racism from several different points of view.  This one is cool.  This one has to do with Black Literature. And this one is my favorite of the three.

While those article are more about current issues, this article I found on EBSCO about segregation is a retrospective on the hardships against African Americans in the middle of the 20th century.  I have a few more links on my Delicious if you want to check it out.

One of my favorite animated shows right now is the Boondocks created by Aaron McGruder.  It is the story of two young kids and their grandfather that move from the ghetto to the whitest suburbs imaginable.  They get in to all sort of shenanigans.  While most of their episodes deal with African American issues and most are relevant to this topic, Return of the King is the most relevant.  It's about what would have happened if Martin Luther King didn't die and it discusses the progress of African American culture.

Also, I'm going to toss in a couple of blogs to help you on your quest.  The first was done by my classmate and the second is a blog about a documentary.  

It is still amazing to me that Bigger could live the way he did.  How "he passed his days trying to defeat or gratify powerful impulses in a world he feared" (44) is unimaginable to me.  And for the cause of this mass divide to be race is even more amazing.  I know America has changed in the past few decades, but how those changes made such a drastic change on the human ideals is remarkable to me.  Bigger thought little of himself - that he "... [was] black. [He only] works and [doesn't] bother [anyone]" (170).  Times have changed.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Gang

Thug Life is not as glamourous as Tupac would make you think.

Reading Native Son, I have been thinking a lot about gang violence. What really fascinates me is how someone can transform their sadness and emptiness into such a violent hate. Maybe that is why this article from National Public Radio caught my eye. Despite the fact that the interview is not of the race specified by my assignment, I believe that at the core of the story is something human that any race, sex, or religion can relate to. 

NPR interviewed Susan Cruz, a former member of MS-13, a Salvadorian gang the began in the early 80’s. My attention was grasped in wanting to know the origin of this woman’s “gang-ship”. She begins by describing a very vivid memory of her United States life, one that any person that is different can relate to. In a game of Four-Square, Susan, at the age of eight and being a girl who has no idea of the rules, and barely a grasp on English, was stunned on the playground. Being surrounded by those different than her, she was stunned and unable to do anything. Wanting the ball back, a blond-haired blue-eyed girl walked up to her and punched her in the nose. Susan punched back and got a day’s suspension for it. The Salvadorian kids banded together as a survival method. Here’s the part that got me. “After being victimized people get tired and they start taking stands”. Her life taught her “switching roles from predator to pray has a lot to do with feeling like you have no other recourse”. So, I thought of a cornered animal, a last stand, the 300 Spartans- anything that where the victim has no where left to run, so they must fight.

Not many Americans would find America to be a “hostile environment”, but Susan most definitely did. She reminds me of Bigger, the protagonist of Native Son by Richard Wright. They both feel caged by the stereotypes that America give them – while Susan is portrayed as incompetent , African Americans are portrayed as undomesticated beasts. Both are poor, both are ashamed, and both turn to their fellow discriminated for help. Unfortunately, their feeling of belonging leads to crime.

No matter who you are or where you come from, anyone who feels alone will seek others who feel the same. Whether it is a language barrier or stress from family life, a person can only take too much before turning to an outlet for their anger. Susan’s schoolyard fight reminds me of Bigger’s constant fighting with his mother. It is because of their creation of a barrier that our protagonists feel suffocated and that they try to find a way out. Not only does gang violence not help relieve their stress, but it also adds another factor of remorse and paranoia to their lives. Is a feeling of belonging really worth the extra stress? Sounds like extreme desperation to me.

Cruz, Susan. "Former Gang Member Details Life Inside MS-13." Interview with National Public Radio.
Talk of the Nation. National Public Radio. NPR. 22 Apr. 2008. 18 Mar. 2009
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The Todd Comes Out of The Closet. Hilarity Ensues.

Scrub’s character “The Todd” is one of the most enigmatic, yet straightforward characters in all of television. His constant stream of innuendos (which he once played off as “in-you-end-o”) and brainless macho attitude makes him seem like the perfect candidate for a straight, yet sex-crazed, dude. Despite his super manliness and his constant hitting on nurses, his heterosexuality comes into question in the pivotal episode “My Lunch”. Carla and Elliot discover that he has never actually slept with any of the people he claims to have slept with. This leads to their wondering about what he was compensating for- his homosexuality.

After easily “outing” him, he becomes their “new gay best friend” and he starts to hang out with Elliot as she does embarrassing things with him (well, they would only really be embarrassing if The Todd was straight…). While Carla and Elliot expect him to turn his overcompensating sexual attitude off, he simply redirects it to men, hitting on every guy he sees. When Carla and Elliot confront him about this, he simply motorboats them both and says “Chicks dig gay guys”. He then strolls down the hall, saying that he would tap every guy or girl, no matter the situation. When asked “What are you?”, he simply responds: I’m The Todd!

The Todd is all about sex, you can tell that from any episode. While The Todd is treated differently as a homosexual, these differences are social, not legal. He utilizes closet anxiety to get close girls only to profit through his own perversions. While some may say he was a victim of Heterosexual Privilege #12 (The Right to Public Affection), I would argue that he was not, being that he was shouting pick-up lines to co-workers and commenting on their ‘packages’. The show satirizes homosexuality and The Todd by combining the two. While The Todd does appear to be homosexual, he does so in an obviously manly and upfront manor, such as asking Turk out of nowhere if he wants to have sex.

This subplot was used as a comedy device in the show, because the main plot, about Dr. Cox taking the death of his patient very badly, was one of the saddest in the show’s history.

The Asymptote of Equality

When Americans think of gaining rights, a great liberation, and equality, we think of Abraham Lincoln and the freeing of the slaves. Many believe that gender issues have taken a back seat to race issue, due to the lack of voice behind it. While I agree that it is amazing that this equality has formed to a point where we have an African American President, it shows that we only truly focus on one issue at a time. Jump- a self proclaimed blog for active women- laments on the women’s equality and how “progress now appears to have slowed or stalled”. The blogger Danaé opens with a brief history of women in the workplace, the post “Poof! Sexism in Corporate America- Gone…” it eventually gives the message that just because one women becomes a CEO does not mean that sexism is dead and gone. I agree wholeheartedly with this idea- just because there is almost equality does not mean that there is true and unbiased fairness throughout the country.

I pretty much agree with Danaé Her view that the pressure for women’s rights isn’t pressured anymore because they are almost there is perfectly viable. However, I do not believe she realizes the stretches that we have made in the few years that feminism became a prominent feature. Yes, everyone should be paid equally, and yes, everyone should be viewed the same. However, I think that we are pretty much as close to equality as we can get. My main problem with the article is the nonsensical statistics that they give. Many statistics are not a “big deal” and can be completely coincidental. She doesn’t talk about how it is in many cases easier to get a job or to get in to college as a woman, because it is a ‘minority’. Not to sound like ‘count your blessings’, but seriously. We are pretty close right now. Each has its pros and cons. Of course men make more money, because we have more jobs. Why do we have more jobs? Because we were in the positions first and because culturally men have always held leadership positions (this is not to say that men are more capable leaders, merely, that they are more accepted).

I want everyone to be equal. And right here and now, we are closer than we have ever been. But when will the feminism stop, when every little stat is exactly the same as men’s? I think it is terrible that women make less money then men, but at the same time I think it comes from several sources. First, the jobs each gender tends to fill. A teacher makes less than many jobs, and most teachers are female. Second, the difference between middle America and the Coasts. Most of the wage change is in the middle of the country. Finally, I think that the stereotype that has been past down since ancient times as hunters and gatherers is what determines the core of what people conceive when we consider things. Unfortunately, many men see women as weak or incapable. This flawed notion drives many who are intolerant to or underpaying women. We have made huge strides in the field of tolerance and fairness in the US and around the world. And though I think that it is wrong, we also shouldn’t nitpick every small dissimilarity. There will always be differences culturally, sexually, scientifically. We just have to learn to accept them. And if the differences get even smaller, than great, I would love for them too. And they will continue to, maybe just a little less now that we are so close. We are approaching, as a society, the asymptote of equality. You can get really really close, but you can never reach it.

Procrastinator

An example of Alec's procrastination: searching for funny pictures on the internet.

Alec's newest and most profound work explores his vast experience in the field of procrastination.  His poem gives insight to the mind of a procrastinator.  This poem was the brainchild of his teacher, Mr. Saxon's, assignment- the reading of Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl": a poem that can only be described as a run-on that makes this sentence, it being extremely long and obnoxious, seem like a simple subject and predicate.  Living inside the stereotype of a procrastinator, Alec knows what he has got himself into and the perpetual cycle of putting something off.  It is a name that comes with a cost: he is constantly nagged to do work and even more constantly doesn't do work.  If one wanted to be a member of the Procrastinator clan, all you would need to do is read Alec's magnificent poem (a.k.a. nothing). 

Here is Alec's groundbreaking poem "Procrastinator":

Don’t you have that English homework to do?; so… yeah…. okay… just sit there; stare for a while; good, great; ummm… surf the web for a little; just a few minutes; okay, like an hour; maybe a little longer; great; shouldn’t you be doing something else?; no; oh, okay; so what are you doing now?; nothing; oh, okay; could you--; in a bit; just--; one second; fine; doodle for a bit now; look! Someone texted me; you should text him back; ANOTHER MESSAGE?; ANOTHER PERSON; look who’s popular; what is that she says?; check my Facebook?; it would be rude to not obey her wishes; that’s a cool video; woah, they have other videos; and those videos are related to those videos; should watch all of them; that reminds me of a movie; YOU SHOULD WATCH THAT MOVIE; IT’S SUCH A GOOD MOVIE; was I right?; how good is this movie; you look tired, you should get some sleep; good night; good morning; didn’t you have that thing to do?; CRAP, YOU DID; you should do that… right after I watch “Little Bear”.

Breathtaking, is it not?  It gives Alec whole new depth that was previously unknown to his many adoring fans.  While Alec has seemingly come to terms with his stereotype he can still kick the habit.