Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Zinn Ch. 2

I believe the main thesis that Zinn was trying to get across in chapter two, Drawing the Color Line, dealt with the idea that the racial hatred towards blacks stems from historical facts and not something that is natural. This chapter seemed to resemble similar ideas of the previous reading. There was a strong emphasis on the idea that whites enslaved and tortured blacks on the basis of their need for cheep labor for agriculture purposes. It was stated that Indians could not be enslaved since they were on their own territory and had resources available around them to fight back. Africans on the other hand, were taken from their homes and lifestyles and brought to a new land that was completely unfamiliar to them. There was also an elaborate description of how blacks slaves were treated and punished for trying to escape. The chapters also brought to my attention that slavery existed in Africa as well, which came as a surprise to me. This idea brought about some questions. It made me wonder if the black slaves in Africa were treated more like indentured servants? Would they get to keep their lifestyles and beliefs, as well as stay close to their families? It seemed that throughout the reading, blacks seemed to be more peaceful and laidback than other societies. Was it this idea that made it easier for them to be abducted as slaves or were they just not expecting it? I enjoyed this chapter. It was short and too the point. I could tell the reading was slightly biased. I feel that Zinn was siding with black slaves, and showing that all whites back in that time were bad. I tired to not let that affect the way I understood the whole chapter.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Johnson Chapter 3

The reading this time was chapter 2 Capitalism, Class and the Matrix of Domination from the book Power, Privilege and Difference by Allan G Johnson. It started out by first defining the term capitalism. According to Johnson, the point of capitalism is to “turn money into more money”. From there, it talked about the growing financial gap between the wealthy class and the poor and its relationship with capitalism. The capitalists want more produced while paying a small amount to the workers, which means that the capitalists receive more money and the workers get less. Finally the author then talked about capitalism and its effects it has on different races, as well as gender. It said that plantation farmers, the capitalists, were looking only for a cheaper way to farm their crops. The cheapest way was to use free labor, which was in the form of slaves. By using white laborers, the farmers would have to pay them resulting in less money in their pockets. Gender was brought up also. White males were known to have more social dominance over white women, but white women were to have more than black males. However, social privilege is not that easy to figure out, but is comprised of a lot of factors making up a matrix of dominance. Johnson told of a system that would give points or take away point from a person that would show his/her position in relation to privilege. Unfortunately, he stated that it is not that easy and that other factors need to be put in to truly show a person’s individual relationship to the amount of privilege he/she may experience. The overall message that the author was trying to get across is the fact that race and privilege are correlated, which originally stemmed from the white wealthy people and their want to get more money. Some questions that came to my mind upon reading this chapter dealt with the issue of race and discrimination that takes place today. There have been laws that help to prohibit racial discrimination, but what are they exactly? I know that one of those laws helps minorities to pay for college, but is it wrong that I think that it is unfair? Does that make me a racist? I come from a poor white class family and am receiving federal financial aid to pay for college, but it does not cover a lot of it. My roommate who is black, on the other hand, comes from a family who had more money than mine, but has received a full paid-ride to BG just because of her race. Is it right to like feel like I am being discriminated against? Overall, I liked the chapter. It was short and to the point. It kept my attention and was very interesting. It told of a relationship between capitalism and racism that is often overlooked.

Monday, January 21, 2008

A Different Mirror - Chapter 3

Chapter 3, The “Giddy Multitude”: The Hidden Origins of Slavery, in the book A Different Mirror focused on the social as well as racial issues that occurred during the early colonial foundations of Virginia. The author Ronald Takaki started out by explaining that America started out with a large number of the colonists came over as indentured servant, which were people who were to work for someone else for a certain amount of time to pay off their travel expenses. Most indentured servants were the outcasts of society and were going to America to get a fresh start. However, once they got over to America, they found out that they were still being discriminated against by the wealthy white people already over there. Their dreams of land and wealth were not coming true, which lead to them taking arms. During this time, Africans were being shipped over like indentured servants, but were not given the same rights as white ones. Unfortunately, laws were made that made blacks slaves. The elite white citizens were scared of the lower-class white people because they were allowed to legally hold arms. So as a result, they brought over less white indentured servants and brought over more black slaves, since they could control them. Toward the end of the chapter, Thomas Jefferson and his opinion on the issue of slavery was mentioned. He was found to have wanted to abolish slavery, but he also owned a large number of them. His idea to end slavery was to ship all the slave children/infants to St. Domingo and let the current black slaves die naturally. Also, there were two differences he saw between white and black people. The first being color of skin and the second was the level of intelligence. Jefferson did not believe or refused to believe that blacks had/could have an equal level of intelligence as white citizens. Upon reading this, it made me wonder how such a man could have helped found this country. Also, how could he consider himself a Christian if he wanted to take away slave children from their mothers? He said he wanted to end slavery, but he did not show that view through his actions. It was interesting to read that another underlying start to slavery besides profit was the fact that the wealthy white people wanted less poor white people around because they were scared of them. That confirms that throughout history, the wealthy mainly look out for their own well-being and social status. I felt that Jefferson in the reading was all talk. It seemed that the only reason he said that he wanted to abolish slavery was to appear to be a “good and Christian man”. However if he truly supported that idea, he would have started out by at least freeing his own slaves.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Movie Race I

The focus of the movie Race I that was shown during class was how different races were not genetically different. The show started out by introducing several students of various racial backgrounds who were testing their DNA to check for similarities and differences. From there several topics were discussed such as athletics, intelligence, and musical ability. The history of segregation was also talked about. During that time, interracial marriages were thought bad since a superior race should not “mix” their genes with that of a inferior race. Regarding athletics, black people were thought to be better than whites in sports like track and basketball. Back then, people assumed that it was in a black person’s genes as to the reason that they were good at sports and commonly beat white people. Now however, scientist have come to the conclusion that race is not based on biology, but more on the environment. At the end of the show, the kids who were testing their DNA found that their DNA was often more similar to someone of a completely different race. Watching this made me think about all of the racial stereotypes that I subconsciously regard as true. One that came to my mind was the generalization that a majority of Asians are skinny. Scientists have proven that a person’s metabolism is partially heredity, so how can that factor not be biologically passed on by race or is it from passed just parents to child? Another question that came to me was about when they mentioned that all people originated from Africa. I just didn’t understand how people eventually produced things like blond hair since dark colors are dominating traits. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and thought that is was very informative. I believe that every person should be educated on such topics. There are many people that are racist and I would like to think that if this scientific information was made known to the general public, the number of racists would decrease. But that is an issue that cannot be solved by such information but I hope that it would help.

Monday, January 14, 2008

A Different Mirror - Chapter 2

In chapter 2 The “Tempest” in the Wilderness: The Racialization of Savagery of the book A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki, the start of the origins of cultural and race problems were talked about. The main message Takaki was trying to the audience to understood dealt with the how the term “savage” did not originally mean a person with a different colored complextion but by a person’s actions only. However, with more history came the eventual change of the word “savage”, which it is now commonly associated with racial ties and skin color issues. Takaki starts out this chapter by focusing on the English and their efforts to take over the “savage” people also known as the Irish in the 1600s. The Irish were known as savages by the English simply by their daily actions and level of intelligence. The chapter then followed with a large amount of detail about how the Indians of America were compared by the new English settlers to their well known rivals the Irish. The term savage actually originated from the Irish and not the Native Americans. Throughout the chapter the author kept comparing the actual history of the time to the play by William Shakespeare called the Tempest. The main idea of the play was told as the main idea of the chapter progressed. Not knowing the play before reading this made it somewhat hard to understand completely. I feel that the chapter seemed one-sided. It did not say anything positive at all about the English, which made me wonder what negative things were put upon them, if any, by the Irish originally. Were the English just trying to make everything like their culture and blind-sided by what their religion told them? Or was there a power issue that they had? Overall, I understood and agreed with the message that the author was trying to say, but I did not find the reading griping or something that could hold my attention very well. I believe that the author over-used quotes of people back in 1600s. At times, it almost felt that I was reading a book made back during that time. However, I did like the main idea of the chapter. What I mostly liked about it was the history of the English and the Irish, which is something that I had never heard about before.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Zinn Ch. 1

Howard Zinn’s main idea in the chapter entitled Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress in his book A People’s History of the United States focused on the Indians’ point-of-view of Columbus finding the Caribbean islands. However, he wanted to make sure that he was not trying to show remorse for the Indians, but he focused more on the idea of showing the other side of the story than what is normally taught to children. He tries to see how sometimes human pain and suffering may be essential for human progress/development to take place. He elaborated on the effects that Columbus had on the Arawak Indians, which included slavery, murder, torture, etc, and their eventual distinction. Through what Zinn said about Columbus, it may seem to the reader that Columbus’ sole motive was money and wealth, and that he would kill and enslave innocent people in order to get him what he wanted. Toward the end of the chapter, Zinn did mention the idea that such actions toward certain populations throughout history may have been necessary for people to get to where they are today. Also, he stated that the population being victimized might not be the only ones hurt. The group doing such negative actions may inevitably be the ones more hurt. So by saying this information it made me wonder such questions like what would the world be like if Columbus had not enslaved and killed the Arawak Indians? Was this necessary for the current human civilization to be as cultured and material-based as it currently is? Is the government unable to admit what was done to the original inhabitants of America? Overall, I have heard such information regarding Christopher Columbus and the start of America with the torture and killing of the Native Americans. Such information is not talked about nor taught to children. I believe that this story should be taught to children growing up. I feel sometimes that America has trouble admitting when it did something wrong to certain cultural groups. The Thanksgiving story for example is based on the idea that the Native Americans and Pilgrims were friends and could get along. But unfortunately this was not the case. Zinn what trying to get across the idea that history can be skewed by looking at only side population’s side of the happening. To be accurate with a historic event both sides of the story need to be examined.