In class today we discussed Life in the Iron Mills, The Lynching of Jube Benson and Sport of the Gods. For those who aren't familiar with either story, Life in the Iron Mills is a story about the sad lives of American industrial factory workers. It was written by Rebecca Harding-Davis in 1861. I think it was an interesting read even though I'm more of a science fiction fan myself. The sad lives of the workers definitely reminded of slavery. I'd thought the only difference between factory life and slavery was that slavery was unpaid. But after speaking with the Professor he bought up an interesting fact that made me change my mind about them being similar lifestyles to both just being different forms of slavery.
The Lynching of Jube Benson was about a slave who was falsely accused of raping and murdering a girl his master was in love with. The saddest part of the story was that the slave wasn't proven innocent until after he'd already been lynched. It was a perfect example of racism, because the actual murderer was in fact a white man who'd painted his face black with dirt so that a black man would be blamed for the horrible act he'd committed. The other story Sport of the Gods is about a family torn apart by the father, Berry Hamilton is arrested and sent to prison for a theft he didn't commit. The similarity is that both black men in the stories end up paying for a crime that a white man had committed, which sucks. One difference I found was that while Jube Benson was killed, Berry Hamilton was just put in prison for five years until his innocence was proven by a reporter named Mr. Skaggs.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Class Two
Class Two
So we viewed the video "The Trail of Tears in class and it was incredibly sad and depressing. It was named after an event in which the Government forced Native Americans off their own land to march towards Oklahoma and if they didn't leave fast enough, they were shot dead during the long path. It seems at that time period the Cherokee Indians attempted to assimilate, so that they could share the land with the new settlers, prevent any bloodshed and stay in their homes. When the first Gold Rush occurred laws were passed Georgia Government decided to pass laws prohibiting Native Americans from mining for gold, ON THEIR OWN LANDS. Eventually the Georgia government slowly passed more and more laws that dissrespected Native American rights and possessions. Eventually they removed any sympathizers and missionary intellectuals believed to allying the Cherokee people and finally the President(funded by wealthy southern land owners) passed the Indian Removal Act(1803) which was an apparent attempt to remove The Cherokee people from their homes so the land could be divided and distributed among white settlers. Every time I research History or take a History based course I'm always disappointed NOT IN THE CLASS ITSELF but in the ignorance and barbarism that our ancestors have shown toward each other. They were trying to create a society based on every man's equality and yet Slavery happened, the mass genocide of the Taino Indians happened, Nazi-Run Germany happened, the Salem Witch Trials happened, and the list could go on for miles and miles. Why then did they even bother to strive for "Every man's equality" if in the end the human race would do nothing but persecute anyone was different from the social construct of what was deemed 'normal' in that region. I just don't get it and am disgusted that the people in power at the time would use such fair ideals as a veil to preform such atrocities that would linger in the world's memory.
So we viewed the video "The Trail of Tears in class and it was incredibly sad and depressing. It was named after an event in which the Government forced Native Americans off their own land to march towards Oklahoma and if they didn't leave fast enough, they were shot dead during the long path. It seems at that time period the Cherokee Indians attempted to assimilate, so that they could share the land with the new settlers, prevent any bloodshed and stay in their homes. When the first Gold Rush occurred laws were passed Georgia Government decided to pass laws prohibiting Native Americans from mining for gold, ON THEIR OWN LANDS. Eventually the Georgia government slowly passed more and more laws that dissrespected Native American rights and possessions. Eventually they removed any sympathizers and missionary intellectuals believed to allying the Cherokee people and finally the President(funded by wealthy southern land owners) passed the Indian Removal Act(1803) which was an apparent attempt to remove The Cherokee people from their homes so the land could be divided and distributed among white settlers. Every time I research History or take a History based course I'm always disappointed NOT IN THE CLASS ITSELF but in the ignorance and barbarism that our ancestors have shown toward each other. They were trying to create a society based on every man's equality and yet Slavery happened, the mass genocide of the Taino Indians happened, Nazi-Run Germany happened, the Salem Witch Trials happened, and the list could go on for miles and miles. Why then did they even bother to strive for "Every man's equality" if in the end the human race would do nothing but persecute anyone was different from the social construct of what was deemed 'normal' in that region. I just don't get it and am disgusted that the people in power at the time would use such fair ideals as a veil to preform such atrocities that would linger in the world's memory.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Class One
Class One
The first class was like any other first day of class, we went over the course syllabus and the professor's expectations and goals for our class. This is always interesting because it allows me a sneak peak at the work load for the semester along with the readings (most of which I complete in advance to allow longer amounts of time for reflection and interpretation). Upon enrolling in this class the only two reasons it appealed to me was
1. It fufilled my Urban Studies Requirement without my having to take any pre-requisites AND
2. The title seemed pretty cool
It made me think about a particular incident that took place about a week ago. I was walking my dogs by an area where I knew a robbery had taken place over some money and a cell phone. As I walked by this particular spot I saw blood-splatter on the ground. I quickly dismissed it. As the day wore on I didn't necessarily think about the actions that lead up to that blood splattered concrete, I just thought of the spatter itself. What shape it most resembled, the vivid color and so on. Finally towards the end of the night I realized that my quick dismissal of the incident was my desensitization of violence, cultivated through years and years of seeing it so closely that eventually I just became accustomed to such occurances. And other revelations dawned on me as well. A person should never just brush off an act of violance. Like love, violence is an act full of depth and in some case emotions. In the case of the blood-spatter, in my opinion the emotions were greed and envy. Some of the ideas we discussed in class revolved around violence as a result of greed, power, and money (an example would of course be slavery). In this class I look forward to analizing why violence is so saturated in our culture, history and art. Why do we continue to murder each other in the name of religion, money, or freedom?? Since the pages of our world's history seem to be based on positive ideals, but written in human blood and sweat I imagine we'll have ALOT to cover.
~Loriana
The first class was like any other first day of class, we went over the course syllabus and the professor's expectations and goals for our class. This is always interesting because it allows me a sneak peak at the work load for the semester along with the readings (most of which I complete in advance to allow longer amounts of time for reflection and interpretation). Upon enrolling in this class the only two reasons it appealed to me was
1. It fufilled my Urban Studies Requirement without my having to take any pre-requisites AND
2. The title seemed pretty cool
It made me think about a particular incident that took place about a week ago. I was walking my dogs by an area where I knew a robbery had taken place over some money and a cell phone. As I walked by this particular spot I saw blood-splatter on the ground. I quickly dismissed it. As the day wore on I didn't necessarily think about the actions that lead up to that blood splattered concrete, I just thought of the spatter itself. What shape it most resembled, the vivid color and so on. Finally towards the end of the night I realized that my quick dismissal of the incident was my desensitization of violence, cultivated through years and years of seeing it so closely that eventually I just became accustomed to such occurances. And other revelations dawned on me as well. A person should never just brush off an act of violance. Like love, violence is an act full of depth and in some case emotions. In the case of the blood-spatter, in my opinion the emotions were greed and envy. Some of the ideas we discussed in class revolved around violence as a result of greed, power, and money (an example would of course be slavery). In this class I look forward to analizing why violence is so saturated in our culture, history and art. Why do we continue to murder each other in the name of religion, money, or freedom?? Since the pages of our world's history seem to be based on positive ideals, but written in human blood and sweat I imagine we'll have ALOT to cover.
~Loriana
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)